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SCUTTLEBUTT 1920 - September 9, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.TOURIST ATTRACTION Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - The Monsoon Cup officially joined the Swedish Match Tour at a lavish signing ceremony attended by the Prime Minister of Malaysia and some 500 guests. The inaugural event, scheduled Nov. 29 - Dec. 4, will be the 50th event of the Swedish Match Tour. Kuala Terengganu, in the state of Terengganu on Malaysia's East Coast, plays host to the regatta, which promises lots of rain and heaps of wind during the monsoon season. But Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi doesn't think it should be avoided. "People regard the monsoon season as a natural disaster because fishermen cannot go out to sea and tourists usually avoid the state during the monsoon months," said Prime Minister Abdullah. "We cannot fight the monsoon but we can make the most of it by bringing the best yachts to the state to race and attract tourists." The prime minister was the brainchild behind the event, which was hatched during a bad day of fishing off the Terengganu coast. Lamenting his luck to Terengganu Chief Minister Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, the prime minister felt a regatta would help stimulate the economy of Terengganu. The regatta is being hosted by the Terengganu Bay Heritage Club. The club is part of a three-year, multi-million dollar development project on the island of Pulau Duyong. The development is in its first phase and building includes a 30-berth marina, a boardwalk and 60 chalets. When it's completed the marina will have 180 berths and a 50-ton Travelift, and there'll be a five-star resort. It will be the only facility of its kind in the South China Sea. Australian Peter Gilmour, the reigning two-time Tour champion, is helping organize the event. He's been instrumental in providing technical assistance to the organizers and sees the event as a new model for communities that wish to raise their profile locally or internationally. -- Sean McNeill, www.SwedishMatchTour.com TIME IS RUNNING OUT (The Volvo Ocean Race will be a six boat affair unless a sponsor steps in to back the Australian team. The Daily Sail subscription website spoke to Grant Wharington about his Volvo 70. Here are a few brief excerpts.) While many might find running a Volvo Ocean Race campaign quite enough of a challenge, one cannot fail but be impressed by the stamina of Australian property developer/professional sailor Grant Wharington. Over the last months Wharington has not only been dealing with the creation of a brand new Volvo Open 70 as part of his Premier Challenge team, but has simultaneously carried out a huge repair - more of a complete rebuild - to his 98ft Skandia maxi following her near destruction in the last Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race. Of concern at present is - will the Australian VO70 make it to the start line of the Volvo Ocean Race as Wharington and his team still need to hook a title sponsor. "This will go down to the wire for sure as we are still the market for a naming rights sponsor," says Premier Challenge's Bindy Lockhart. "Time is ticking but we are still hopeful that one of our proposals will be successful." Wharington's (Don Jones' designed) 70 is what might be described as 'large', with a beam which he says is somewhere near the maximum allowed under the rule. The hull shape itself is also different, not as angular as the Juan K or Farr designs with a very narrow entry and more flair at the stern. This powerful hull shape should make the boat a weapon in the Southern Ocean. "If you have got unlimited sail area available to you, which basically you have, you want a big boat," maintains Wharington. -- www.thedailysail.com ON THE ROAD AGAIN Just three weeks after it first docked in Malmö carrying its precious cargo of America's Cup yachts, the M/V Schippersgracht slipped its lines and pulled away from the Swedish coastline, departing just before midnight on Wednesday. The Schippersgracht will power back into the Mediterranean and across to Sicily, due to arrive in one week. Packed on board the Schippersgracht are 14 America's Cup boats and all their attendant accessories, along with over 85 RIBs and support boats for the teams and the race organisers. But one of the boats likely to sail in Trapani isn't on board - Victory Challenge's SWE 63, named Örn. After a disappointing result in the Malmö-Skåne Louis Vuitton Acts, the Swedish team has decided it would be better off transporting Örn to Sicily for the races in Trapani. That we're now choosing Örn for Trapani is because we're not happy with Orm's speed on the water during the races in Malmö," said Magnus Holmberg, the skipper of Victory Challenge. The Swedish team will arrange the transportation of Örn to Trapani itself. The teams should receive their boats in time for a few days' training on the Mediterranean, giving them time to acclimatize to the new conditions before racing begins. Since the America's Cup road show accounts for almost 2,000 people - including sailing teams, ACM staff and sponsor representatives - hotels and rented accommodation in the small town of Trapani could never cope with the influx. So the solution comes instead in the form of two large ferry boats, which the America's Cup family will call home. -- http://www.americascup.com/en/ MELGES 24 & MUMM 30 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS Competition will be tough as two top one-design classes hold their European champs later this month. Both these exciting classes are powered exclusively by Southern Spars One Design rigs. Southern Spars' One Design business is dedicated to supplying high performance cost effective carbon fibre spars to one-design classes and production yachts - from dinghies up to 65 feet performance cruisers. Southern Spars One Design manufacture in New Zealand and Cape Town, where production capability has recently expanded with the roof going onto new factory space providing 63,000 square feet solely dedicated to production rigs. Contact: mailto:onedesign@southernspars.com or visit http://www.southernspars.com JUD SMITH RETAINS LEAD IN ETCHELLS WORLDS Richmond YC -- In Race 5 of the Etchells World Championships on Thursday, front runners Jud Smith and Samuel Kahn both sailed their discard race. But there is one big difference -- Smith is discarding a sixth place finish while Kahn is throwing out a 17. The race was won by Craig Healy, who led the 72-boat fleet all the way around the course, followed by Iain Murray, Dennis Conner, Tito Gonzales, Russ Silvestri and the aforementioned Jud Smith. Third place Tito Gonzales is throwing out an 11th -- keeping all single digit finishes. Standings after five races with one discard: 1. Jud Smith, H Frazer, A Wills (USA) 13 pts 2. Samuel Kahn, B Lee, Jeff Madrigali, A Finglas (USA) 16 pts 3. Tito Gonzales, B Mauk, J Linton, D Gonzales (USA) 20 pts 4. Iain Murray, George Szabo, A Palfrey (AUS) 23 pts 5. Stuart Childerley, S Russell, R Marino (GBR) 28 pts 6. William Palmer III, T Corkett, Jr., W Bennet (USA) 29 pts 7. Vincent Brun, Ben Mitchell, B Terhaar (USA) 31 pts 8. Hank Lammens, M Lammens, D Sabin (CAN) 33 pts 9. Brian Thomas, M Brink, H Schreiner (USA) 35 pts 10. Craig Healy, Dave Gruver, K Stohnke (USA) 38 pts Event website: http://www.sfetchells.org/worlds/index.php GETTING BETTER WITH AGE Currently in service with Italy's '+39 Challenge', ITA59 is a yacht that has only managed to show her true potential nearly 6 years after her debut racing. Occasionally, an America's Cup Class yacht can be truly branded as a radical. Bizarre hardware configurations with real flair are often attempted in an effort to give your boat that edge that can't be beaten. The original Philippe Briand/Peter Van Oosenen SUI 59, or 'Be Happy' raced the first ever Swiss Challenge for the 30th America's Cup in Auckland. Her twin keel arrangement was completely different from any other competitor in that event, but has been tried in several other past instances with mixed results. The twin keel principle, sees two moving keel blades underneath the yacht, with the ballast bulb of lead suspended either between the foils or individually on each. In this situation, due to the rules the rudder of the yacht is eliminated, however, the yacht can be steered with the moving keels. While in principle this works well, and makes a fast yacht in a straight line, it does not work so well match racing. These configurations make the yacht hard to rapidly maneuver, and very technical to sail, which seems to have lead to their downfall thus far. Be Happy' spent a long time on Auckland's container docks before being rescued by Ernesto Berterelli and Russell Coutts in 2000. On her return to Switzerland, she was completely remodeled, back to a conventional keel and rudder configuration at the hand of Vrolijk and Coutts. With a little controversy, the reborn SUI 59 immediately took a similar look to NZL 60, and proved to be the Version 1 fore runner for SUI 64 and SUI 75. Each one of these yachts sported the signature 'high' Vrolijk bow, which first took shape on ESP 47 back in 2000. She trialed many days against SUI 64 while SUI 75 was refined, and was retired once both new boats were fully operational. She then stood as a full display yacht in Alinghi's Auckland compound until their departure in 2003. Once the yacht had been retired, she became obsolete in the light of her new sisters. She was then shipped to Valencia, and filled with Sand as a display in the 'Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias' for a short time. It was after this that +39 made a last minute purchase of the yacht for their 2004 race debut in Valencia. -- Sail Europe website, full story: http://www.saileurope.com/da/13438 NEWS BRIEFS * Here is your chance to recognize excellent service to our sport! Nominate your favorite club, fleet, regatta or one-design spark plug for a US Sailing One-Design Award. Did your club run an outstanding multi-class regatta this year? Is there an exceptional person at your club who was responsible for making your fleet grow? US Sailing wants to hear about it. One superbly written nomination per nominee is all that is needed. For more information and to make your nomination: http://www.ussailing.org/odcc/awards/index.htm * Brad Butterworth, afterguard, Alinghi, on how much the 'legacy' factor contributes to the success of his team: "I think it's all a reflection of 2003. The people that we have are much the same. We have new people who have helped us. When Russell (Coutts) was putting the team together for this team, he hired some great people, so we have a pretty good legacy now that he's gone. We have a lot of experience in our group now and we're not making that many mistakes and that's the game. You have to eliminate mistakes." -- Yachting World, http://tinyurl.com/9thcn * Porto Cervo, Sardinia, ITA -- The five crews competing in the Racing Division in the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, the only ones that were meant to be sailing on Thursday, were greeted this morning by a dense curtain of low clouds, more rain and shifting winds. This fleet was meant to re-sail Race One from Monday, while all the other divisions would be taking a breather from the intense racing. However, due to the complete lack of wind, at 11.30 am the Race Committee wisely decided to call off racing and postponed the re-sail of Race One to a later day. -- www.yccs.it * For those who like getting into the nuts and bolts, the Sailing Instructions for Acts 8 & 9 of the Louis Vuitton Series are now available online through the AC 32 Challenger Commission's blogsite. -- http://www.challengercommission.com/ * As part of its efforts to 'fight against doping in sport,' the World Anti-Doping Agency has redesigned its website to provide instant and user-friendly access to key information, including the World Anti-Doping Code, the Prohibited List, operational materials for anti-doping organizations, educational materials for athletes, and the latest news about WADA activities and programs. -- http://www.wada-ama.org/en/ * The 2005 Finn Gold Cup and Junior Finn Gold Cup will open in Moscow on Saturday with 100 sailors from 33 countries. The racing will take place on Pestovskoe Lake, about 30 km north of the centre of Moscow -- the same venue where the 49er Class held their recent World Championship. The organizers have supplied the Finns for all competitors, who were free to bring their own rigs in a laid-on container from the European Championship in Kalmar, Sweden. Defending champion Ben Ainslie (GBR) will try for a record-breaking 4th championship in a row. A WINNING COMBINATION! Ockam offers integrated instrument solutions with proven race-winning performance for all boat types. The powerful Tryad processor supplies a smarter, faster & lighter platform that includes built-in RS-232, GPS & NMEA ports and a polar module. All of your data streams unimpeded throughout the system's simple "daisy chain" network eliminating the need to purchase a separate processor. Add the Teeter-Todter 3D compass and get the most stable, accurate numbers available. And take advantage of the versatile Matryx display's 18 user defined pages including graphical stripcharts of any function. Cross to the front of the fleet, contact Ockam. mailto:lat@ockam.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is neither a chat room nor a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. And please save your bashing, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere.) * From John Rousmaniere: Concerning old yacht clubs, the story is sometimes confused by poor record-keeping, fallible memories, and typographical errors. Then there is the problem of varying definitions of the term "yacht club." Several yacht clubs originated as rowing clubs, and at least one early New England "yacht club" was a boat available for charter. The source I rely on is Harry Anderson's "Centennial History of the United States Sailing Association," published in 1997. The list of clubs there mostly parallels the one at www.burgees.com/OldUSClubs.html. The oldest U.S. yacht club in continuous existence (an important qualifier) is the Detroit Boat Club. Founded as a rowing club in 1839, it saw the light and became a sailing club in 1842. Then came the New York Yacht Club (1844), and, says Harry, two wonderful and I'm sure only temporarily out of commission Gulf Coast clubs -- the Southern Yacht Club (1849) and Mobile Yacht Club (1850). That's the U.S. record. As for the Western Hemisphere, the oldest club is the Canadian Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, the direct successor of the Halifax Yacht Club (1837). The fourth oldest in our hemisphere is the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, founded three months after the New York Yacht Club, on November 1, 1844, with the following mission: "That the forming of such a Club will be conducive to recreation and harmonious feelings, as well as improvement in Boat-building and sailing." Even those who disagree about the chronology can agree about that happy purpose. * From Henry (Harry) H. Anderson, Jr.: A source for the longevity of yacht clubs is "The Centennial History of The United States Sailing Association" for which the late Rob MacArthur and myself were the authors in 1997 and which is available at the US Sailing Office. In Appendix A are listed chronologically yacht clubs in North America pre-1898 and in B alphabetically pre-1898. While the Detroit Boat Club 1842 preceded New York YC it was not continuous - same for Boston YC 1834. Oldest in No. American is Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron started as Halifax YC in 1837. Yes, Southern YC no. 2; Mobile we list as 1850 along with Neptune YC, Highlands, NJ. * From Douglass Sisk: I don't want to get into that argument about the NYYC (a fine organization) being the oldest club or not. What I take issue with is your comment that "'buttheads don't row". Although watercraft powered by sail are by far my favorite form of transportation, since I've moved away from salt water and am but minutes from a charming, but not sailboat friendly lake, I have discovered the pleasures of an early morning session with the oars. Not quite so "yachty", to be sure, but fun nonetheless. * From William J. McNaughton: Buttheads don't "row"-- we "scull" and apparently with such skill and regularity that the Rules have to be updated. On that basis perhaps we are just the successors to the first clubs and continuing the real tradition: " Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." * From Rand Milton: It is distressing to read that those who competed in Tracy Edwards' Oryx Quest will not get paid any prize money. I wonder what happened to the money? Was this event a scam? In the future, competitors should consider insisting that the organizers place prize money in escrow or in an irrevocable letter of trust. * From Herb McCormick: I've been quite surprised by the response to my Empty Cup bit that was excerpted here in 'Butt. A couple of quick responses: To Laurie Fullerton, who lamented the fact that I was making statements about events I haven't witnessed. I certainly agree reporters should be on hand to report things. That was an opinion piece, and after chasing the bloody Cup around the world the last two decades, I believe I have the right to an opinion. I fully intend to be on hand once the real event starts. Re: the Acts. Hey, I love to watch a pro football exhibition game. Once. Maybe twice. Then it's time to get on with the season. To my friend Bruno, what exactly does it mean when Alinghi wins an Act? Are they the Double Defender? The Triple Defender? Good grief, get on with it already. Finally, re: the money. I actually have no problem whatsoever with the sailors, designers, builders, spar makers, organizers, etc., making top dollar for their services. I want to be paid well and I don't begrudge those who share that sentiment. Here's why the Cup money has become stupid. When two rich, spoiled jerks have so much more dough than everyone else that they can pay the best sailors in the world not to play, not to compete -- and when the so-called rules support such insanity -- the whole thing has become a bad joke. In what other sport anywhere in the world would that be tolerated? I'm with my pal, Angus: Bring on the Volvo, where every moment and every dollar counts. * From Chris Bouzaid (edited to our 250-word limit): I've read with interest the praise and criticism of the America's Cup as it is today. It is clear that the America's Cup is alive and "very" well. Full of controversy, as it always has been! The America's Cup needs the Ernesto's, Larry's, Bill's and Patrico's as team owners and leaders. Other major sport team have "billionaire" owners and leaders and the America's Cup needs them also. Having said that, the America's Cup doesn't need is the sidelining of some of the best sailors available.. The entire event becomes far less interesting when some of the best sailors in the world, at the peak of their careers, are forced to sit on the sidelines because their team owners have this ability. It's hard for me, to comprehend that Russell Coutts, Paul Cayard, Gavin Brady, John Kostecki and the list goes on will have to sit this one out. Every other major team sport has the ability and in some cases the obligation to trade players and there are limits on team members. In no other major sport would the team owners just keep the team member on his team to keep him from playing for another team. I really take my hat off to Grant Dalton and Team New Zealand for releasing Tom Snackenberg so he can contribute to the next event. I believe The America's Cup should be administered by a completely independent group of sailing people to stop this foolishness. Similar to the commissioner of baseball or F1. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION A positive attitude may not solve all your problems but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. |
