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SCUTTLEBUTT 1351 - June 16, 2003Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is adigest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. THEY'RE OFF The much-anticipated start of the DaimlerChrysler North Atlantic Challenge began on Saturday afternoon (June 14) in Newport, R.I. when 58 boats from the 65-boat fleet set off for Cuxhaven, Germany, and on to Hamburg. Hundreds of spectators took to Newport Harbor and the seawall surrounding historic Fort Adams to witness the one of the largest fleets ever assembled for a transatlantic race. Seven of the quicker boats will start next weekend. All yachts are equipped with InmarSat D+ tracking devices and hourly positions will be broadcast on the event's website. Ten countries are represented in the fleet: Antigua, Belgium, Canada, Grand Cayman, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and United States. After finishing, the yachts will continue onto Hamburg, where the city is hosting a maritime festival to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Hamburgischer Verein Seefahrt, a long-standing sailing club based in Hamburg, Germany. Over 150,000 visitors per day are expected in the historic seaport during the weeklong celebration. www.dcnac.de DAWN RILEY Dawn Riley was presented with the Leadership in Women's Sailing Award this weekend at the 2nd annual Women's Sailing Conference held at the Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead, MA. Sponsored by the Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatU.S.) and the National Women's Sailing Association (NWSA), the award honors a male or female who has gone beyond competitive racing and leveraged their name, skills, or position in the sailing world to reach out and enrich other's lives through sailing. Riley founded and leads the America True Foundation, whose goal is to bring the joy of sailing to youth nationwide. Other accomplishments include being the first woman to head up an America's Cup Syndicate (2000) as well as captain the first all-women's America's Cup team, America3 (1995). She was the first female crew member on any America's Cup team (1992) and she led the first all-women's entry in the Whitbread Round the World Race. Riley was the first two-time winner of the world-class BoatU.S. Santa Maria Cup women's match race regatta; the first sailor to be named President of the Women's Sports Foundation; and also the 1999 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year. - http://www.boatus.com/news/releases.asp REUNION The fourth edition of the Nations Cup - an ISAF Grade 2 match race - is providing an America's Cup reunion of sorts. Team Alinghi is there, headed by Jochen Schuemann; Tommaso Chieffi will lead an Oracle BMW team; the press release indicates that James Pithill - John Kostecki will represent OneWorld (we suspect that should be James Spithill); the Swedish Victory Challenge will be driven by Magnus Holmberg; Andy Beadsworth will steer the GBR Challenge; and the Italian team of Mascalzone Latino with the local talent of Vasco Vascotto with Flavio Favini, the duo which will lead the Italian team in the next America's Cup. The match racing takes place off the coast of Trieste on two identical Open 55' Tuttatrieste, designed by Giovanni Cecarelli who also designed Mascalzone Latino. - http://www.ycadriatico.it/ WINNING MATTERS This month, Sailing World called Kaenon Polarized the first choice in performance sunglasses. Outside magazine named Kaenon Gear of the Year! And Ben Ainslie won the Finn European's wearing the Kore with Copper 28 lenses. We achieve success through superior technology, design and experience. Our SR-91 polarized lens doesn't compromise. It provides the lightweight and impact resistant properties of polycarbonate and the optical acuity of glass. No wonder it's the First Choice. Kaenon Polarized. Evolve Optically. Available at Team One Newport, Boat Locker, APS, Island Sports, Robert Normann New Orleans, The Eye Shoppe Honolulu, Solstice, and West Marine. http://www.kaenon.com HUGE - WITH PLENTIFUL PHOTO OPS In the span of 24 hours the 569 boats in the 65th Bol d'Or race on Lake Geneva saw all possible weather types, from mirror like water, blinding sunshine, tropical temperatures (95 F) and no wind, to pitch black skies with thunderstorms, pounding hail and wind speeds over 40 knots. Around 5 PM thunderstorms pounded the upper part of the lake near Montreux. An hour later reports came in that two of the race favorites had capsized, 10 boats had lost their masts, one boat had sunk and 100 boats had abandoned. Luckily there were no personal casualties. After sailing for more than 14 hours only 250 boats had rounded the buoy at the end of the lake. After a slow start, skipper Ernesto Bertarelli and his team, sailing the high tech catamaran Alinghi took the lead and never looked back. After 9h56m53s Alinghi, for the fourth consecutive time and the fifth time overall, won the 100+ mile trip around the lake. - Gerhard Kistemaker, http://www.boldor.ch/ OFFSHORE RACING There was a 26-hour match race this past weekend between Philippe Kahn's Reichel-Pugh-designed Pegasus 77, and Roy Disney's near sistership, Pyewacket. It was a Transpac warm-up for both boats, that took place as a part of the Encinal YC's 43-boat Costal Cup - a 360 mile run down the California coast from San Francisco to Catalina Island. As expected, there was big breeze during the evening run to Point Conception, gusting to 40 knots at times, and the knotmeters on both turbosleds were regularly flirting near 30 knots. The following excerpt from the log Philippe Kahn posted on-line during the race tells it all, "It was a wild, windy and wet night. Fast and furious. With the full moon, sailing was outstanding but quite extreme. The kind of stuff that great memories are made of." Pegasus crossed the Catalina Island finish line at 12:24:55 PM Sunday, breaking the course record by 6.5 hours. According to Rich Roberts' report on the Yacht Racing website, "Kahn said he had been told by the Encinal YC's race committee that chief rival Pyewacket dropped out sometime Sunday morning while trailing by five hours in dying breeze. Some crew members needed to catch scheduled flights out of Los Angeles, the committee said." Official results were not immediately available. To read Kahn's race log: http://www.pegasus.com/log.htm Rich Roberts' race report: http://www.yachtracing.com/ Event website: http://www.encinal.org/coastalcup2003.html SNIPE FAMILY REUNION IN ANNAPOLIS What do you get when ex-snipe racers descend on Severn Sailing Association in Annapolis, MD for a Snipe reunion night? Over 400 combined years of Snipe history, unbelievable memories, serious sailing and serious fun. Despite nasty weather, forty Snipe family members gathered at SSA on June 3 to catch up on old times. If you missed out on the fun consider attending the US Snipe Masters Championship that will be held September 4-7 on Lake Quassapaug in Connecticut. For details and to become part of the Snipe family, check out http://www.snipeus.org NEWS BRIEFS * Their second place finish in the recent 18-foot skiff regatta in Carnac, France has propelled the US team of Howie Hamlin, Mike Martin and Jonny Mears to the top spot in the 18-foot skiff world rankings ahead of Rob Greenhalgh (GBR) and Tony Hannan (AUS). http://www.uk18footer.org/ * Cagliari, Sardinia - The reigning Tornado World Champions, Australians Darren Bundock and John Forbes, handily won the Open Division of the Tornado European Championships and the Mats Nyberg Trophy. The European championship itself is reserved for Europeans, and that was won by the second place team of Andreas Hagara and Michael Seidl from Austria. The top North American team in the 76-boat fleet was Robbie Daniel and Eric Jacobsen in 14th place with John Lovell and Charlie Olgletree finishing four points further back in 16th. http://www.yachtclub-cagliari.com/tornado/classifiche/14giugno.htm * James Spithill, former helmsman for the OneWorld Challenge, defeated American Ed Baird of Team Musto in the final of the 15th Pedrini Cento Cup Grade 1 Match Race event at Lake Garda, Italy. The young Australian skipper swept past Baird three races to one in the first-to-three- final. Poland's Karol Jablonski, Member of Polish Challenge for the 2007 America's Cup, defeated Swede Bjorn Hansen 2-0 in the petit final to claim third place. - Cup in Europe website http://www.cupineurope.com/MatchRace/03Pedrini-EN.htm THEY TAKE THE SPRAY. YOU GET THE GEAR. Henri-Lloyd's sailing elite, from single-handed circumnavigators to winners of the America's Cup, Volvo Ocean, Race, Key West, S.O.R.C and one-design world championships have tested and continue to evolve our foul weather gear. Their exploits and Henri Lloyd technology are at http://www.henrilloydonline.com GETTING READY Bay of Cadiz (Spain) - The ISAF Olympic World Sailing Championships don't start until the middle of September, but members of the British team have already training on race venue. Star sailors Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell go out daily - sailing some 4 nautical miles from the base in Puerto Sherry to their race area (Charlie) to test equipment. Percy and Mitchell are accompanied at all times by their trainer. The British Yngling crew of Shirley Robertson Sarah Aytons and Sarah Webb are also on the water each day as is Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith sailing in he 49er Class for the GBR team. Apart from the British sailors, crews from Ireland, Greece, France and Spain will shortly commence training on the Bay of Cadiz now that there are only three months to go before the competition starts. - Modesto Sanchez, http://www.cadizworlds2003.com/ SUMMER SAILSTICE More than 800 sailors from all parts of the US, as well as international locations including Israel, Poros in Greece, and the Bitter End Yacht Club in the BVI have signed up to participate in this year's Summer Sailstice celebrations on June 21. "We're well on the way to achieving our goal of more than 1000 sign-ups for 2003 which will double last year's participation," said Michelle Slade, Summer Sailstice co-founder. "We're excited that sailors everywhere are finally grasping the concept which is to simply go sailing and celebrating the longest day of the year wherever you sail." Boats have signed up from over 40 states and participation involves more than a hundred yacht clubs and organizations. Yacht clubs and individuals from Maine to Seattle have organized Summer Sailstice events. The event is organized via the website. Signing up on the site places participants in a draw to win many prizes donated by sailing businesses. The site is designed so people can find crew, a boat to crew on, announce their individual participation or offer to host a gathering or raft up, enabling sailors anywhere to connect with Summer Sailstice celebrations in their area. Visit the 'Locations' page to see who is sailing and what's going on in your area. Summer Sailstice have partnered with Seacology, a global non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of island ecosystems and cultures. Seacology will receive $1 for every sailor registered for Summer Sailstice, supported by donations. Boat owners and skippers are encouraged to have their entire crew sign up to provide the maximum possible donation. www.summersailstice.com / www.seacology.org ETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com) (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.) * From Nelson Stephenson: It came as no surprise that Barry Carroll "engineered" a positive conclusion to the Carroll Marine story. In 1997 I met Barry Carroll when buying my first Mumm 30, USA 59. The technology to build a Mumm 30 was considered revolutionary at the time. I marveled over the "oven" used to "bake" the boat in the Carroll Marine production process. Over the next 6 years I got to know Barry better through ongoing discussions about the Mumm 30. Barry is also a fellow Member of the Mumm 30 World Council and various US Sailing Committees. While Barry is a tough business man with well established likes and dislikes, he always carried himself as an Industry Leader and a Gentleman. His advice and counsel was greatly valued by those of us who were fortunate to work more closely with him. Barry was (and hopefully will continue to be) an asset to our Sport. Yet, the worst part of the final Carroll Marine chapter is the statement made about dismal current economic conditions within the Sailing Industry. Finding a solution for that problem will be much harder to "engineer". * From Bill Tripp: When people reflect back on huge impact Barry and Janice Carroll have had on anyone who has sailed 'big boats' in the last 20 years, I hope that they will understand what a class act these two are, right down to the way they went out. I am so very impressed, but not at all surprised, by the way they are going about closing up- paying suppliers, finding jobs for their people, selling to a company that brings jobs and then walking out whole. I hope people understand what that the h... it means. Not enough people would do that. The affect of post Sept 11- no racing rule - tough economy has caused a specter over the sailing industry, and is perhaps the worst in a generation. That they are folding up the shop hurts all of us who sail. Times change. The industry, and the sport, will miss these two. Barry and Janice are a high watermark for classic examples of hard working people who accomplished a dream. Their boats will be out there. * From Howard Paul: I don't understand what all this hostility is for professional sailors. Every sport I know of has professional athletes. How many of us grab the newspaper and go to the sports section each day to find out who won and who lost the day before. I'm sure we are all looking at the latest Little League score or who won the local high school track meet. Any athlete who becomes a professional spends many years honing their skills as an amateur in the hopes of becoming a professional. If they can make a living doing what they love. What's wrong with that? Do we think it is wrong that people like George Stienbrener are paying over a $100,000,000 a year in salaries. Would you rather watch George and his friends playing baseball then the New York Yankees? With all do respect to Gary Jobson he makes a living on talking and reporting about sailing. Why doesn't he do it for the sheer joy of sharing a sport he loves with other people? I wonder how good of a living he would have if he had to report on local regattas we amateurs sail in? * From Bruce Parsons: Re Bill Stump: Re IRC and VPP's in general. Mr. Stump seems to unaware that Velocity Prediction Programs that underlie IRC and IMS are based on experiments on model yachts. It's the numbers measured in these experiments that are used to get the regression formula used to predict performance. One can cavil about how the experiments were done, scale effects and the reality of the designs tested, but after that there are no assumptions, just experimental results. No assumptions at all. It was not made up - it was measured. And furthermore, the experimental results have never been released, though the regression formula are in the public domain. I know of no way to back out the raw data from that, and come up with an alternative regression. You can study the formulae and find local minimum etc, but that is there for any interested party to do. But in the end, as my father used to say, if the rule isn't tipped a little bit towards the smaller boats, how else are you going to get them to come out and play against the bigger ones. All the same, I know there is no bias whatsoever in the existing rating rules. * From Ken Legler: As a coach I appreciate this thread about coach boats, not coach bashing. Coaching is mostly about education. As a race manager, I expect coach boats to assist with rescue in a storm and towing in a calm. As a Program Director I appreciate the challenge to teach self resourcefulness and self responsibility without compromising safety (or inviting lawsuits). Here's a model for regatta coaching. The event provides one coach for all. Duties include launch area tuning and safety inspection, pre-start tuning for those most obviously in need (main halyard police), assistance with race management when needed and asked, much note taking during the race (possibly including video), post race winners interviews for more notes, post race debriefing for all, and a brief written post race analysis for the message board. Here are some coaching tips for coaches and sailors. If appropriate, feel free to use a few for your program: http://collegesailing.org/NEISA * From John Strassman My good friend Peter Harken and his company are very generous sponsors of our Youth Sailing Championship regatta and I am very grateful for their support however there are several things we should clear up. Before the competitive portion of the Youths there is a two day clinic put on by the US Sailing Olympic Sailing Committee. Brian Doyle brings eight to nine other coaches to the clinic and they each need a powerboat to direct their group of sailors. These same powerboats are going to be used for RC and safety duties during the regatta. They will not be used for private coaching or support boats during the regatta. This is a huge regatta for any yacht club. There will be close to 100 dinghies sailing around in 48 degree water and the organizing committee needs to assemble a small armada of support boats and personnel to run a world-class (and safe) youth event. I do agree with Peter's comments about the thundering herd of coach and camp-follower boats. Large regattas have to put special language in the SI's to make the competitors responsible for the actions of their support team and boats. In our regatta any private support/ coach boat will have to register, ID itself with a designated flag (a sponsorship opportunity!) and make itself available to the RC for any safety related activity regardless of whose boat it assists. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS Originality is the art of concealing your source. |
