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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 617 - August 2, 2000GUEST EDITORIAL - Jim TeetersIMS is as much a measurement rule as IOR ever was. It just uses many more hull measurements and a much more sophisticated, and scientifically defensible, set of formulas to translate measurements into ratings. Freezing the VPP is an interesting concept. I have heard knowledgeable people attribute the demise of IOR to the fact that it was frozen. The ORC currently freezes the rule, with rare exceptions, for 12 months. Is a longer term better? Perhaps, it depends on where you're coming from. If you are in the "beat the rule" camp, it does take a bit of faith to build a boat and not know exactly what your rating will be 12 months later. If you are an owner who wants the rule to "treat my existing boat fairly", then you are likely to want changes as often as necessary to level the playing field. Maybe the two camps should have different VPPs. But that makes it hard to have mixed fleet racing. Dee Smith is right. Rule changes do lead to design changes. But so do pre-existing biases in the rule. The rush to lower stability 2 years ago was not because of a rule change, but because the design community picked up on a long-standing error and optimized to it. A number of boats spent money on keel changes. However, if the rule had been in the middle of a 5 year freeze cycle, there would have been many more boats spending far more money, or more sailors walking away from IMS in disgust. And don't think there aren't more potential optimizations skulking in the code. As one ITC member as put it: it doesn't take much tilt in the table to get all the marbles rolling into one corner. The ratio of dollars spent per rating benefit gained can reach absurd heights. Let's face it. Part of our core constituency will spend money either way looking for an edge. Respond to rule changes or exploit existing loopholes. It's a time-honored approach to racing. There are other owners less ready to cycle into new boats. The dilemma for a measurement rule is to find the right balance of allowing innovation and optimization on one hand and boat longevity on the other. Ultimately, it is the job of handicap rules to tailor their systems to the needs of their constituents. If we can't build and maintain a fleet then we are out of "business". Now its my turn: 1) I think IMS is far and away the most equitable measurement rule yet devised for handicapping a diverse fleet of boats. It does provide good racing. In fact, some relatively old boats did quite well at the recent Rolex IMS championships. 2) Aside from a few Daddy Warbucks, the biggest financial contributors to IMS, if you include lost income, are the people who donate their time to it. If 5% of the money spent on trying to beat the rule were contributed to improving it, there would be far less money spent on yearly modifications. 3) Last, most of the recent Scuttlebutt commentary on IMS is from professionals and insiders. How about the owners, our clientele, weigh in with their opinions? Its your quarters going into the jukebox, you call the tune! - Jim Teeters KENWOOD CUP Once again the Kenwood Cup has come up against unusual weather. Usually known for reliable trade winds the deep waters off Honolulu were flat calm today with barely a breath of wind. Race 1 of the 10-race series for the Hawaii International Offshore Series was scheduled to start at 1100 this morning (Tuesday) but up went the red and white Postponement flag while Race Director Ken Morrison and his team searched for a consistent breeze. Almost 2 hours later at 1250 Class A finally got underway but it was to be a slow and frustrating business. Winds ranged from just three to eight knots and shifted with irritating frequency. Race 2, the scheduled windward/leeward race, had to be abandoned as it became clear that Race 1 was going to be a long and drawn out affair. Everybody here has a theory about the weather conditions and a prediction about when normal service will be resumed. The most scientific says that we are experiencing the remnants of Tropical Storm Daniel, effectively blocking off the Trade Winds, and the weather center advises that "a situation like that would normally last for 24-36 hours". First overall today went to Neil Whiston's Beneteau 40.7 Fruit Machine followed 3 minutes later by brother Simon in the matching yacht Smile, both sailing for the Australian team. With team mate Yendys 12th over the line it was enough to put Australia ahead after the first day in the team event for the Kenwood Cup. However, the fluky, shifting conditions were to come back to haunt the Race Committee at the end of the days once the fleet was ashore. Requests for redress were lodged against the Race Committee over the position of the windward mark by Puff from the J105 racing in Class E, Esmeralda, Bumble Bee 5, Air New Zealand High 5 in Class A and G'Net in Glass B. The Jury will sit later tonight and so the results remain HIGHLY PROVISIONAL. Racing continues tomorrow with a triangle race and windward/leeward race. - SusanMcKeag KENWOOD CUP 2000 PROVISIONAL RESULTS SUMMARY (Race 1): Class A: 1 Sea Hawk (Farr 47, Naohiko Sera, NZL), 2 Big Apple III (Farr 45, Hideo Matsuda, NZL), 3 Yendys (Farr 49, Geoffrey Ross, AUS), Class B: 1 G'Net (Farr ILC 40, Shizue Kanbe, JPN), 2 Karasu (Judel/Vrolijk, Yasuo Nanamori, JPN), 3 Cha-Ching (Sydney 41, Scooter Simmons, USA), Class C: 1 Zamboni (Farr 40 OD, Doug Taylor, USA), 2 Orion (Farr 40 OD, Philippe Kahn, USA), 3 Samba Pa Ti (Farr 40 OD, John Kilroy Jr., USA), Class D: 1 Fruit Machine (Beneteau 40.7, Neil Whiston, AUS), 2 Smile (Beneteau 40.7, Simon Whiston, AUS), 3 Matador (Aerodyne 38, Jason Khoury, USA), Class E: 1 Charade (J105, Thomas Coates, USA), 2 Jose Cuervo (J105, Sam Hock, USA), 3 Irrational Again (J105, Jaren Leet, USA), Kenwood Cup Teams after Race 1: 1 Australia 44 points, 2 USA White 33, 3 New Zealand 32, 4 Japan 27, 5 USA Red 25, 6 USA Blue 9 Kenwood Cup website: http://www.kenwoodcup.com HIGH PERFORMANCE High performance sailors deserve high performance gear. Now, you can wear the same bitchin' sailing gear the curmudgeon and other serious sailors are wearing. Check out the latest from Camet International. The optional rubber padding in the Camet sailing shorts have made a world of difference for the curmudgeon's bony butt. He took both his tan Camets and his blue ones to the Hawaii - they're the only shorts he's wearing at the Kenwood Cup. http://www.camet.com BROKEN BOAT Club Med Race HQ / Tuesday August 1st 2000 - Monday evening (17.00 GMT) the maxi-catamaran Club Med, on delivery to Europe lost the crash-box (protective false bows for absorbing eventual forward shocks) from her port bow. When the boat had found wind again and was sailing between 25 and 30 knots, the windward hull crash-box came broke loose from the port hull. The skipper Grant Dalton decided to put about and head for Newport again for repairs. The boat was sailing at 115 from the wind in a fairly rough but not dangerous sea. The waves were coming from abeam and tending to hit the port hull while the boat was sailing under reduced sail (staysail and one reefs in the mainsail). The boat was passing well through the waves when suddenly, for no identifiable reason and without hearing the shock, the windward hull crash-box exploded in two goes. The crew immediately handed all sail to relieve the hull and check that the watertight bulkheads were playing their role. Not being able to continue her route in such conditions, the boat has turned round and is heading for Newport. Joined this morning by telephone the Gilles Ollier Design Team personnel could not explain the incident yet. Architect Yann Penfornis: "The photos that we have been able to see suggest an impact. The crash-box of the bow is torn diagonally, tearing the carbon around it. The piece of missing bow is very short because it is sectioned over a length of 1.50 metres on the top of the hull and 3 metres on the bottom. Our team will be in New York from Thursday to assess the damage and to search for further explanations." Bruno Peyron who should have been part of the crew on this crossing: "I think Grant has taken the right decision on heading back for Newport in order to take all the time necessary for assessing the incident with the design team. Club Med is a veritable prototype of a new generation of boats for The Race, so all precautions must be taken to serenely to analyse each improvement. For the rest, I don1t think the problem is serious. Remember that this is what happened to Jet Services V in 1990 during her Atlantic record. The boat continued to sail like that for several days and beat the record despite that." Currently Club Med is less than 500 nautical miles from Newport and is progressing under power at a reduced speed. She should reach Newport within three or four days. - http://www.therace.clubmed.com/press/news.phtml BROKEN BOAT INSIGHT (The New Zealand Herald's yachting correspondent, Suzanne McFadden, was able to get an exclusive interview with Club Med skipper Grant Dalton. Here's an excerpt from the story she filed.) Grant Dalton watched incredulously when a bow on his monster catamaran snapped off and floated past the boat as it crashed through the Atlantic. Last night, the New Zealand skipper and his crew were safe but disheartened as the 33.5m Club Med limped back towards the east coast of the United States with one bow missing. Dalton said the boat had been on course to break its own world speed record, zooming along at 26 knots in rough seas, when the port-side nose dug into a steep wave. About one metre of the bow tore off, but the boat did not take on water - it was built with water-tight compartments in case of disaster. Dalton said he was dumbfounded when the cat, only two months old, suffered the damage about 600 miles into the Atlantic Ocean off New York. "It was a real 'oh boy'," he said. "We heard a smashing noise as the piece broke off, but we didn't know what it was until the bow rocketed past us. It was a surprise - I'd only been watching the beams and mast. Now the boat looks like a P-class with a pram nose." The two bows on Club Med are sacrificial - built to break off if they hit anything, saving the rest of the boat from serious damage. "It's like the crumple zone of a car. Trouble was, it was too sacrificial - it wasn't stuck on well enough," he said. "We'll never really know if we hit anything or not - it's gone now." The boat also appears to have suffered some minor structural damage, the out-hull twisting as the bow broke. The fleet of ultra-fast, super-fragile multihulls, built for the non-stop circumnavigation The Race, have suffered nothing but trouble from launch day. Five months ago, British sailor Pete Goss lost the entire left bow off his catamaran, Team Philips, on the tow-out into the Irish Sea. Billionaire Steve Fossett's PlayStation had to turn back to port on its first transatlantic record attempt when the boat started breaking, and Polish cat Polpharma-Warta lost its rig crossing the Atlantic. Dalton said the mishaps were a necessary evil, to uncover the weaknesses of the boats before The Race starts from Barcelona on New Year's Eve. "You've got to keep breaking them until eventually they are perfect," he said. "In a few years' time, they'll be bulletproof, but we don't have a few years to get it right." The boat is now motoring back to Newport, a frustratingly slow trip, which will take three days in the big seas. It will go into a boatyard in the United States, with repairs expected to take at least a month. Said an optimistic Dalton: "We'll come out mid-September and break the transatlantic record." - Suzanne McFadden, NZ Herald Full story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sports/ LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net) Letters selected to be printed are edited for clarity, space (250 words max) and to exclude unfounded speculation or personal attacks. This is not a chat room - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. -- From Dean Brenner - Anyone who doubts the athletic requirements of Olympic Class Keelboat racing should try match racing a Soling in 20 to 25 knots... if you are still not convinced, maybe try some heavy-air tight reaching. There is not a single class currently in the Olympics that does not present its own unique athletic requirements. Olympic Class sailing SHOULD be athletic in nature, but it should also be tactical and it should present a wide array of disciplines... just like the vaunted track and field events that Mr. Friedman invokes. Last time I checked, Michael Johnson didn't look too much like Sergei Bubka. There is room for the sprinter, the pole vaulter, the shot putter, etc. -- From Mac Slater (Re; Mr Friedman's comments about keelboats) - He should try hiking out on a Soling in a fresh breeze. The Worlds in Milwaukee attracted many of the best sailors on the planet. The best US boat was Melges's in 4th and then about 15 boats from across the pond before the next American placed. If that's not athletic, I don't Know what is. Keep the Soling. -- From John Celick - Cory E. Friedman you are hereby invited to participate as crew on a Star boat for a two day "non-athletic" sporting event in a keelboat. After droop hiking for a couple of days I suggest crow for dinner. -- From Giovanni Iannucci, ORC Council (Italy). - I have been following with great interest the ongoing discussions about IMS and, while I agree with some of the criticism to the system and its management, in particular with Dee Smith (freezing the VPP for a period of time as recommended by the Italian Sailing Federation three years ago) and with Dobbs Davis (unfortunate scheduling of the Newport event). What strikes me as improper is the widespread custom of comparing IMS, the full measurement - sophisticated scoring version, with simplified or performance systems such as IRC, PHRF or Portsmouth, totally ignoring the ORC Club version of IMS. For the benefit of those who know little or nothing about it, the ORC Club has been developed to place IMS technology at the disposal of those sailors who don't like the "mysteries", "intricacies" of full IMS. Its main features are self-measurement, easy scoring options, compatibility with full IMS and an attractive, user friendly certificate. It is also rather inexpensive. The ORC levy is just about $18 and, even considering a possible National Rating Office charge, should, in any case, cost the owner much less than an IRC certificate. Although recently established, more than 2500 certificates were issued in '99 and over 3000 are expected this year. Further, while other simplified rating systems are applied only locally and IRC is in use in UK, Ireland, France and a few more countries, the ORC Club is popular in more than 20 countries all over the world. ORC web site: http://www.orc.org -- From Mark Gaudio - All this hoopla regarding IMS. I'm told that on the East Coast (US) the fleet is doing great, also in certain parts of Europe. Some want more restrictions, some want less. Whats the point? Stop all this madness and go to one design: nothing else matters! AMERICA'S CUP JUBILEE There has been enormous interest in the America's Cup Jubilee throughout the world and many America's Cup Challengers will reunite their crews for the occasion. Velsheda , Endeavour and Shamrock intend to race at the Jubilee. Up to forty 12 meters are expected - making the America's Cup Jubilee and this 12 meter World Championship the largest ever gathering of 12 meter yachts. Expected regatta participants come from UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway, and Germany, Spain. The Flag Officers of The New York Yacht Club expect around 100 yachts to make the Atlantic crossing. They have their own organising committee and a United Yacht Transport semi-submersible dock freighter will be chartered to bring a fleet of 12 meters and others to the U.K. A second freighter will bring yachts from the Mediterranean. Louis Vuitton has announced their commitment to the America's Cup by supporting the 150th Jubilee. They will run the press operation, host the Jubilee Ball and provide valuable assistance to the organisation. It is a fitting association for a company which began making its famous bags in 1854 who will celebrate their 150th anniversary after the next America's Cup in Auckland. - David Redfern Event dates: 8th to 25th August 2001 OLYMPICS LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND - On 28 July 2000, the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne nominated 14 candidates, from a candidature of 48 proposals, for membership to the IOC from the ranks of International Federations (IFs) and National Olympic Committees (NOCs), in accordance with the reforms voted by the 110th Session in December 1999. The IOC Session, the assembly of all its members, will vote to elect these candidates as IOC members during the 111th Session in Sydney, September 11-13, 2000. The IOC members also will vote to elect on September 30, 2000, eight active athletes who will have been themselves elected as members of the Athletes' Commission by the athletes participating in the Sydney Olympic Games. The candidates for IOC include Paul Henderson, Canada, President, ISAF. Of the 35 International Federations, candidates from only 5 are nominated. The International Sailing Federation is delighted to be one of those sports and that Paul will continue to support sailing at the highest echelons. The Executive Board and the Nomination Commission expressed their disappointment at the lack of nominations by IFs and NOCs of women for candidates to the IOC. The Executive Board reaffirmed its commitment to the promotion of women at the highest level of sport's competition. The Executive Board has designated Ms. Anita DeFrantz, Vice President of the IOC, to look into the matter and report to the Executive Board at the earliest possible time. Full story: http://www.olympic.org/ioc/e/news/pressreleases/press_308_e.html
THANKS DAVE
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