|
SCUTTLEBUTT No. 863 - July 24 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
ISAF ASKS IOC TO CHANGE SCHEDULE FOR 2008 OLYMPICS In contention with four other cities, Beijing was been elected the Host City for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in 2008 by the IOC members. The vote follows in line with the recommendation of the IOC Evaluation Commission that "a Beijing Games would leave a unique legacy to China and to sports. The Commission is confident that Beijing could organise an excellent Games". On hearing the announcement, ISAF President, Paul Henderson, shared his thoughts on the 2008 Olympics in Beijing: "ISAF is looking forward to the 2008 Games in Beijing with the Sailing Competition in Qingdoa. It will provide a unique experience for all athletes held in an exciting city on the Pacific Ocean. However, ISAF will ask the IOC to consider moving the dates of the Games from the now scheduled end of July proposal to the end of September. Both Tokyo in 1964 and Seoul in 1988 held the Games in September to avoid the Monsoon/Typhoon season coupled with the intense heat and rain they bring. It is sincerely hoped that the new IOC Executive Board will address this serious problem immediately. We are all looking forward with great anticipation to opening up a new world to our beloved sport of sailing and exposing our sailors to the intriguing culture of China." Official 2008 Beijing Olympic website - www.beijing-olympic.org.cn/eindex.shtm From the ISAF Newsletter Making Waves: www.sailing.org/makingwaves/makingwaves79/
FILA BREAKS FORESTAY In a satellite phone call Scarabelli told race officials that they were able to save the mast from coming down and that they were making good progress under reduced sail. He went on to say that if their progress allowed they would try and finish the leg, meaning continue on to Baltimore rather than Boston. The Fila crew have had their fair share of problems since the start of Leg 3. Earlier in the race Scarabelli announced that they had ripped their mainsail forcing them to sail with three reefs no matter the amount of wind. By losing their forestay they are effectively out of contention for the leg, but by no means out of the EDS Atlantic Challenge. At 19:50 GMT, on a distance to finish (DTF) reading, the positions were as follows:
1st Sill Plein Fruit (Gael Le Cleac'h - FR) DTF - 1541 miles Complete position information including updated latitude and longitude can be found at www.edsatlanticchallenge.com
EXTRA AIRX!
BACARDI BAYVIEW-MACKINAC RACE
LASER RADIAL OPEN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP When asked what his ambitions were Bullot replied "I would really like to win the ISAF Youth World Championship next year and then definitely have a go at an Olympic campaign. I loved this week and would certainly recommend it to others. I am looking forward to the Laser Radial Youth Championship next week." No one has ever won both Radial titles. Bullot could be the first being the only sailor out of 235 from 37 countries this week to finish in the top 7 places in every race in a wide variety of wind strengths and direction. In the women's fleet Katarzyna Szotynski from Poland had to keep Larissa Nevierov from Italy behind her in both races to hold on to the title she won last year in Turkey.Ê Sarah Lane Wright from Bermuda had a golden day of two first places to put her in the bronze medal position ahead of Great Britain's Jane Singleton. "I finally got it together"she said with a big smile on her face! After a number of general recalls the silver and bronze fleets could only complete one race before the time limit for the completion of the championship.
Results: Male:
Female:
WHAT AN AWESOME IDEA
35th GOVERNOR'S CUP REGATTA First place went to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, second to the Royal Yachting Association (GBR), third to the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron (AUS). This prestigious event is a yacht club challenge and features team competition in a match-racing format with on the water umpiring. The event was sailed in Santana 20's, twenty-foot spinnaker equipped keel sloops with a crew of three. The Governor's Cup serves as a national qualification event with the top two U.S. teams advancing to the Worlds in New Zealand next February. In addition, this year's top U.S. team will receive an invitation to the Prince of Wales Bowl, the U.S. Match Racing Championship, which is scheduled to be held October 2-6, 2001 in Fort Worth, Texas. Complete results, photos and information at www.balboayachtclub.com/racing/govcup.html
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON It's been fun sitting in, and thanks for all the notes, news and unprintable jokes! -- David McCreary (Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is not a chat room or a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) Guest editor's notes: The following letters should certainly provoke a flurry of letters for Tom. I apologize to the author of the first, I neglected to save his name. * From (I forget): To encourage the widespread use of lifejackets during racing, how about adding a provision to PHRF that would give a 3 second/mile credit to to a yacht for the crew wearing lifejackets for the entire race. For racing under IMS, the credit would be adjusted using a secret formula based on the mid-girth measurement of all crew members on the rail. This means crew would have to strike a tricky balance between making weight at the beginning of the regatta and the mid-girth measurement. And we'd soon see lifejacket designs that would be optimized for the rating. The net effect would be to make everyone take up one-design racing. * From Stephen Wells: (Edited to our 250 word maximum, still leaving plenty of "discussion points"): The article on the Optimist Worlds suggests that class produces the next generation of Olympic and world class sailors, is there any evidence that such a statement is true? It seems to me that many of the skills necessary and size necessary for success in Optimists are unique to the boat and not transferable to other classes. But I'll bet a lot of top college sailors come out of Optis as the college boats are all very underpowered and require very light crews. My experience with juniors is that while some Opti sailors transfer the skills many sailors who do well in Optis do poorly in other classes and many sailors who do poorly in Optis do well in other classes. The Opti is a great boat for training but a very poor boat for major competition. Here is a boat whose design criteria was to be cheap and built out of a single sheet of plywood, that under the best of circumstances can't go to windward, and now costs more than $4,000 in racing trim due to lack of class rules. At age 61 I see some of the junior boats still sailing that I detested as a junior (Blue Jays) and many others like the Laser, which was designed as a recreational boat Êto replace the Sunfish, still in use. It's fine for sailing to be an ancient and honorable sport but do junior one design sailors need to do it in ancient and obsolete designs? * From David D. Brayshaw: During the Transpac, you posted a note informing readers of our daily routing analysis, applying our "Force 4" routing software, which attracted quite a large following. For those interested in the EDS Atlantic Challenge, we are doing a similar daily analysis (see new page at http://www.goflow.com/edsrace.htm). BTW, I have an article out discussing routing software in the latest (August) edition of Seahorse Magazine.
TEAM ADVENTURE WAITS FOR WEATHER "Conditions appeared favorable for a Monday evening departure but the situation in the North Atlantic deteriorated and we're now waiting for a more suitable forecast,"said Team Adventure's navigator, Larry Rosenfeld of Marblehead, MA. Team Adventure is berthed at the Chelsea Piers complex on Manhattan's West Site as her international crew waits for a favorable weather window. "We're playing a waiting game,"Rosenfeld said. "We rely on complex meteorological forecast models to show us a series of days in the North Atlantic where the winds and waves favor a high speed run. We may have to wait days, or even weeks.Ó The existing mark of 6 days, 13 hours, 3 min, and 32 sec was set by French skipper Serge Madec sailing the 75-foot catamaran Jet Services V, in June 1990. Madec and his crew averaged 18.42 knots (34.5 kph) for the crossing. Two years ago, sailing Bourgnon's 60-foot trimaran Foncia Immoblier, Lewis and Bourgnon narrowly missed breaking the record when they ran out of wind only 46 miles from the finish. Theirs was the closest of nine attempts in the last 11 years.
UPCOMING EVENT
THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION |
