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SCUTTLEBUTT 1896 - August 5, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.GETTING THE SHOW ON THE ROAD The mass logistical exercise of moving the 32nd America's Cup family to Malmö for racing at the end of the month is now underway in Valencia. From the beginning of the week teams have been bringing ACC boats, masts, shipping containers and tenders to the dock. On Thursday morning loading of the M/V Schippersgracht commenced with all the boats the Race Committee and race organisers need to run the racing in Malmö being lifted by crane from the water, and placed delicately on the lower deck. Loading will continue over the next several days. In all, there are nearly 200 pieces to be placed on the ship, including 86 RIBs, 70 shipping containers, 13 ACC boats (11 team boats, plus 2 hospitality and display boats), and over 20 masts. This totals nearly 2 000 tonnes of material, taking up 30 000 cubic metres - the equivalent of 12 Olympic size swimming pools. Depending upon how fast the loading goes, the ship is scheduled to depart on Monday morning for the 2 300 nautical mile trip to Malmö. It's not just the ship that has to get to Malmö though. The extended America's Cup family includes well over 1 000 people between the teams, families, support crew and the event organisers. The advance party has already been in Sweden for several weeks, while the rest of us will be joining over the coming days. The first day of racing is the 25th of August. -- Official America's Cup website, http://tinyurl.com/a7asb BACK IN ACTION (Grant Wharington discusses how he brought his Skandia maxi back from the brink since her near-loss in the Rolex Sydney-Hobart in a new interview story on the Daily Sail subscription website. Here is a very brief excerpt.) The unscheduled rebuild of Skandia-Wild Thing gave Wharington, designer Don Jones and their team a chance to make several modifications they had planned. The boat has now been taken out of the old Rolex Sydney-Hobart mode where her maximum allowed IRC rating was 1.61 (this has been canned for subsequent Hobart races in any case). Now the keel cant angle has been increased from +/-15° to +/-40°. Because they have increased the cant angle they have managed to take 3 tonnes out of the bulb and as a result the displacement of the boat is 25 as opposed to 28 tonnes. With the increase in cant angle, so the mechanics of the canting system have had to be modified and now the lever arm (the top of the keel foil) inside the hull has been shortened from 1.5 to 0.6m to prevent the hydraulic rams from having to have an enormous throw. Rams. A sore topic for Wharington as it was the rams that caused their problems in the Hobart race. "The rods buckled and snapped in half. They were built under-spec. They were supposed to be 75 diameter and they were actually 50. And we never picked it up, but they [the builders of the rams] were contracted to manufacture a certain thing and they didn't. That argument continues..." he muses. Skandia's main competition in the Rolex Fastnet Race will be Charles Brown and Bill Buckley's Maximus, another maxi in the 100ft LOA area but a year younger than Skandia. -- The Daily Sail, www.thedailysail.com PRETTY AMAZING For Urban Miyares and the crew of the San Diego-based B'Quest, just sailing in the Transpacific Yacht Race was akin to scaling Mount Everest. The 40-foot sloop representing the Challenged American Foundation was manned by crewmen who, Miyares likes to say, "were all less than 100 percent able-bodied." But that doesn't mean incapable. B'Quest led its division early in the 43rd biennial race from Los Angeles to Hawaii and finished fourth both boat-for-boat and on corrected time in its class. "By all accounts this looked like an impossibility," Miyares said after B'Quest reached the finish of the 2,225-mile race last week. "Just getting to the starting line was our success." Getting to the starting line was even harder than expected for a determined crew making its second Transpac start. B'Quest started short one crewman. And Miyares, a San Diegan, was ailing through much of the voyage. Jerry Reinhold, a paraplegic, was forced to withdraw from the five-member crew the day before the start because of an infected elbow. Because it was too late to replace Reinhold, the B'Quest crew decided to sail on. Then Jim Halvorsen, who is missing a leg, fell out of his bunk and cracked a rib. Two days into the crossing, Miyares became so violently seasick that he tore his esophagus. "My role on the boat was to not become a medical emergency," said Miyares, who was unable to eat or swallow water for almost five days. A Vietnam veteran, co-founder of Challenged America and the driving force behind B'Quest's two Transpacs, Miyares is a blind, hearing-impaired, diabetic stroke survivor who has had a kidney transplant. But the problem this time came out of nowhere. That left Kevin Wixom, who has one leg, and Scott Meide, who has one arm, along with Halvorsen and fully abled skipper Josh Ross to sail the boat. Wixom and Meide worked the foredeck for the first time. "We didn't plan to sail the race with two foredeck persons who were amputees," said Miyares. "But they did an amazing job." -- Bill Center, San Diego Union Tribune, full story: http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20050802-9999-1s2boating.html "SCUBA DIVER LOST!" Divers around the world rely on SeaMarshall locator beacons as the ultimate surface recovery gear. Good to 100 meters without an external housing, SeaMarshall dive beacons are interchangeable with your crew's on-deck man-overboard beacons, too. For details on this essential safety gear for divers, and sailors: Chip Barber, mailto:admin@chbarber.com; http://www.chbarber.com ON THE TUBE Television New Zealand (TVNZ) has obtained the New Zealand television rights for the next America's Cup for its country. TVNZ has been involved in every America's Cup since the 1986/1987 contest in Fremantle, Australia, and acted as host broadcaster for the last two Matches in Auckland. This agreements mean there are now 14 rights-holding broadcasters or networks for the 32nd America's Cup, covering most of Europe and North America along with New Zealand and Africa. As was previously announced OLN will televise America's Cup programming in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean basin, Available in more than 64-million homes in the United States, OLN will show magazine programmes, along with weekly highlight programming of the Louis Vuitton Acts. OLN will continue to carry highlight programming through each of the Louis Vuitton Acts and the round robins of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection series in 2007. The network will begin showing live coverage of the races with the Semi Finals and Finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup, and concluding with the 32nd America's Cup Match itself in June 2007. The next races of the 32nd America's Cup will come from the Malmö-Skåne Louis Vuitton Acts beginning on the 25th of August. -- www.americascup.com TINA RULES THE OPTIS Tina Lutz from the Chiemsee Y.C. in Bavaria, Germany has won the 2005 IODA World champion sailed on Silvaplana Lake in Switzerland. 14-year old Tina is only the third girl to win the championship in its 43 year history and the first since Lisa Westerhof (NED) who won gold in 1996. Last year in the very different conditions of Salinas, Ecuador she was 12th over-all and first girl. Silver medallist Matthew Scott of Trinidad has an astonishing history. With no family background in sailing he went on a basic training course in September 2003 and qualified from a home fleet of less than 20 sailors for the 2004 Worlds. There, to the astonishment of all, he took 7th place. This year he has proved that that was no fluke. Reigning championship Wei Ni of China suffered two DSQs and could finish no better than 21st. but his compatriot Jianan Wu showed the growing strength of Chinese sailing to take bronze. Second girl was Daniela Zimmermann (PER) in 8th place over-all and girls' bronze went to Karin Alkstedt (SWE). Final Results: 1. Tina Lutz, Germany, 30 2. Matthew Scott, Trinidad, 44 3. Jianan Wu, China, 60 4. Philipp Autenrieth, Germany, 61 5. Nicklas Dackhammar, Sweden, 61 6. Jorge Martinez Doreste, Spain, 81 7. Julian Autenrieth, Germany, 84 8. Daniela Zimmermann, Peru, 86 9. Jacob Bozic, Slovenia, 91 10. Sean Bouchard, Bermuda, 96 The Scuttlebutt website has posted a photo gallery from world class photographer Carlo Borlenghi, who captured the event in black and white. Very stunning: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/optiworlds/ Event website: http://www.optimist.ch/ PIECE O' CAKE Stephanie Roble (East Troy, WI) is the newest name to be engraved on the Leiter Trophy, emblematic of the U.S. Junior Women's Singlehanded Championship. And it wasn't even close. With good starts, great upwind speed and amazing downwind performance, Roble had the championship in hand with a race to spare -- but sailed the last race anyway. With the pressure removed, she sailed her worst race of the 10-race series to finish fifth -- which was discarded along with a third to leave the young Midwestern lady with a 2-1-1-1-1-2-1-1 series in the 60-boat fleet racing at the California YC in Marina del Rey. Morgan Wilson from Maryland took the silver medal, 14 points back, but keeping only single digit finishes. She was six points ahead of Bronze Medallist Sarah Lihan from Florida. Rounding out the top five were Ann Haeger (Wisconsin) and Allie Blecher from the host club. -- http://www.calyachtclub.com/cms/RaceResults/Series149.htm Photo gallery at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/leiter NEWS BRIEFS * Lexus-Quantum, skippered by Russell Coutts, was the first Transpac to 52 cross the finish line after the 93,8 mile offshore race in the 24th Copa del Rey-Aguabrava. The victory was double for the team, as the points are added to the result at the first finish line at the halfway point in the race, where Lexus also finished in first place. Copa del Rey-Agua Brava TP52 standings: 1. Lexus Quantum Racing (38); 2. Caixa Galicia (37); 3. Cristabella (34); 4. MoviStar (31); 5. Atalanti XV (30); 6. Bambakou (22); 7. Orlanda-Olympus (21); 8. Bribón (14); 9. Siemens (15); 10. Aifos (9); 11. Balearia (8). -- http://www.medcup.org/ * 2004 Lido 14 Class Champion Stu Robertson, with Paul Anctil as crew, won the 2005 Lido 14 Class Championships in a field of 38 boats. The regatta was held on Howard Prairie Lake near Ashland, Oregon, site of the 1999 Championships. Second place went to Greg Rodgers/ Curt Rodgers with Eric Bohman/ Tiffany Bohman taking third. The Lido 14 Class, established in 1958, remains one of the most popular one design dinghys for family oriented racing - the majority of teams at this event were composed of some combination of family members. -- http://www.lido14.org/ * 76 teams representing 22 nations are set to contest the ISAF Grade C1 Ringhals Star European Championship in Varberg, Sweden. Not unexpectedly Swedish entries are dominating in numbers closely followed by Germany and with few exceptions the entry list shows competitors from all of Europe as well as developing sailing nations such as India and Columbia. The first out of six races of the Championship series will be sailed on Monday 8 August with the series planned to be completed on Friday 12 August. -- http://www.vss.org.se/em/index.htm BIGGER THAN YOUR CLUB'S BULLETIN BOARD The Scuttlebutt Sailing Club might not have a swanky bar, but it does have a huge Bulletin Board where ads can be posted free of charge. Lots of KVH parts, an apartment in Valencia for rent, different stuff that people want, plus all sorts of sailing-type jobs are among the current listings. Learn more about Scuttlebutt Classified Ads at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/classifieds 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 George H. Robinson: Has anyone noticed that there are eight countries represented in the top ten at the Opti Worlds? What a class! * From Chris Upton: Joe Cochran wants new and marginal skippers to win something so they stay in the game. The majority of skippers that I have met are motivated and successful people within their peer group. This include high school teachers in an old J30 to billionaires. They all get the same thing out of sailing: the continuing satisfaction of challenge and success. What attracts people to racing is not the pretty boats, its the camaraderie, the endless learning curve (a good thing) and competition. Golf or Club handicaps are pointless. Why devalue the sport to attract new people. Do you water down your red wine so that white wine guests will start drinking red? Sell what we have to sell. Competition, camaraderie and knowledge are worth learning. Satisfaction is not an expensive silver plated tin tray. It comes from besting worthy opponents. The people who will continue to sail appreciate that. Get new sailors involved by participation. Encourage top performers to invite new owners/members/etc on lower key races. * From Jeremy Walker (Re reaching, and comments about specialist A-sails for those reaching legs putting the older boats at a disadvantage): Many of us have happy (but busy) memories of doing bow on IOR boats during the prevailing Olympic triangle races "back in the day". We were kept as busy as a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest changing through the specific reaching inventory of high-clew reacher, various size jib-tops, tallboys, dazy staysails and the blast reacher for when it was hooting. Not to mention different size starcut spinnakers and variants. It was all about getting the last possible 1/10th of a knot out of the bus before terminal velocity meant the bow and stern waves climbing aboard and simultaneously drowning bowman and helm. I bet there are mountains of these old sails still in usable condition cluttering garages & sail lofts; they make good cruising gear too. And reaching was a great way of passing boats that couldn't control the situation and went off to lie down for a bit. I think the real reason reaching legs are out of the America's Cup is probably that they load up the rig beyond scary levels, as we saw a few times in John Sweeney's AC races in SF Bay. Reach-to-reach gybes in 25 knots had everyone looking up at the masthead wondering why it was still in the boat. * From Hugh Welbourn: The knock on effect from the move to windward leeward racing of course is that many of the current rash of one-designs have been designed and built with low stability levels, so naturally they don't like reaching 'cos they fall over....IMS designs and their lack of basic grunt further exacerbated the situation. You may go out and have a great race on the w/l courses, but how often do you come back saying that was a great sail? Would the Whitbread/Volvo boats be out there is they just went straight up or downhill for 23000 miles? * From John Vincze: While I cannot take credit for the idea the result was fantastic. I race International 14s and our constitution states we must reach in major championships. With no limits on the asymmetrical spinnakers we use, it is the class's why to strike the balance between size and shape, by making you sail more than just leeward legs. For the World Championships held in the Berkeley Circle on San Francisco Bay our PRO, Eric Arens had a brilliant solution to getting the angles just right. Not too tight on one leg and too broad on the next, but a great test on both legs. Eric ran the leeward run first. The sailors will find the ideal angles and lay lines for the days conditions on the run. He had the mark boat wait in the approximate area of the gybe mark location. Being in position and being able to see exact location where boats were gybing, they laid the gybe mark for the next leg just beyond that position. Perfect every time! The reaches on a 14 are plenty exciting and usually lots of places can change, so it is not a parade * From Fred Roswold: I love the reaches, and my boat won't plane in any circumstances. There is little in sailing that we do which is more exciting then a hard reach with the pole on the headstay, the biggest kite up in 20+ knots of breeze, and everyone on the boat is totally wired. There are still opportunities for overtaking, particularly on the reach to reach jibe, and when you are on the edge of control and catching up to a competitor at the bottom mark with a 6 knot speed differential because they did an early takedown...now that is exciting! Put the reaches back in. * From Don Becker: It's been about long enough for reaches to come back into popularity - time for a change, we've been doing this long enough, runs aren't fun, etc. For my part, I would have Chris Ericksen pick the course for me any day. * From Bob Pickett: Reaches? They are the best part of the race if set right, A to B on the wire of a Hobie, it does not get better than that! You can hear the joy on the beach two miles away. * From Tyler Carder: Speaking of Transpac trivia, Skip Allan, and his brother Scott, should be remembered for their stirring success racing to Hawaii in their Dad's Cal 40; they won in ... what year was that? I don't recall how old they were at the time, but they had to be, if not the youngest, certainly amongst the youngest skippers/winners in the history of the race. * From Roger Strube (re Canting Keels): Given enough cycles, anything will break. Fortunately most of the big high tech sleds are almost as stable upside down as any cruising multihull (I am a multihull sailor. The advantages are the same, floating with all your food and water until rescued. I would think the designers/builders of canting keels could advise the owners regarding the longivity (miles, hours, etc.) of this critical part as the manifacturers of autos do about things like timing belt life. Resins harden and become weakened with time, and fibers fail. I would think a 3/50 program would be appropriate (new keel fin every 3 years or 50 thousand miles) would be appropriate. 2X around the world seems like a good distance for longevity for the designers to shoot for. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION You know middle age has arrived when it takes two tries to get up from the couch. |
