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SCUTTLEBUTT 2172 - September 1, 2006Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.COMMENTARY As a former senior marketing executive and involved in the sailing industry since 1983, I believe the problem with the decline in yacht racing and stagnation of the sailing industry in the U.S. is quite simple. We're way behind the times! Forget the high tech advances, the classes and "good solid club racing." We're not marketing to our entire potential market but rather only to a small, declining segment. Think about it - the percentage of white people in the U.S. population is declining rapidly. The percent of people of color, blacks and Hispanics in particular, is rapidly approaching 50% and surpassed 50% in six states. Are we marketing to them? No! As a business strategy, any industry ignoring half its potential market and the most rapidly growing segment is doomed to decline. You see few, if any, black faces at the sailboat shows or in editorial and advertising in sailing magazines. I've heard the arguments like blacks don't want to sail or they'd be doing it. Wrong! They've been excluded, feel excluded and we have ignored them at our peril. There's never been a major target marketing effort by the sailing industry for this potential market. If yacht racing and the sailing are going to grow in the next 20 years we must wake up and make a massive effort to get blacks and other non-white ethnic groups into sailing. They'll love it and respond positively when we invite them into our sport and make them realize the fun of sailing and racing. We can more than double the participants in our sport in the next ten years. Wake up sailing! You can be white and exclusive no more if you wish to grow and survive. I applaud Roy Disney on assuring that the crews in his Transpac project come from socioeconomic diverse backgrounds and would otherwise probably not have had the opportunity to participate in the 'white bread' sport. It will be the diversity of the people that will be the future strength of the sport of sailing. We can do much more than just 'stop the decline.' There are a lot of good people like Roy Disney in sailing and I know they'll rise to the occasion and make it so. -- Chip Croft, Sea-TV SOLVING THE QINGDAO PUZZLE Olympic Champion Ben Ainslie (GBR) blazed a trail of bullets through the Finn fleet at the first Olympic Test Event in Qingdao, China to record an emphatic victory. America's Cup duty had kept the Sydney and Athens gold medallist away from the Finn circuit for nearly a year, and with just five days training coming into the event Ainslie said he had approached the regatta with an open mind. A bullet and a second place on the opening day led one Chinese journalist in the boat park to describe his performance as a 'miracle', and over the course of the next nine days Ainslie had reporters wading through their whole repertoire of adjectives as he posted another eight bullets and one more second place to win by 28 points. 'It's funny - when you spend a lot of time away from the boat, quite often you come back and you learn something a little bit new,' explained Ainslie. 'I think maybe when you're sailing all the time you get into kind of a mindset or a way of sailing and it's very hard to change that, and if you take a bit of time away then you have a more open mind I guess.' Ainslie's dominance was such that he had victory wrapped up before the Medal Race, a feat only equalled in one other fleet. Paige Railey (USA) had a magical start to her senior career in the Laser Radial, but the 19 year old has endured a very difficult couple of months, placing 19 at the light wind Europeans before losing her World title on her home waters after getting three yellow flags. Reigning in her usual aggressive style, Railey took a more conservative approach, taking her time to assess the unfamiliar waters. With the exception of an OCS in race six and the Medal Race, when she was already assured victory, she did not post one double digit score throughout the entire regatta. As the opening series came to a close and Railey explained 'I started to feel more in control of the conditions', she upped her game, posting 3,1,2,2 scores in the last four races to build an insurmountable lead over the chasing pack. The conservative approach Railey took was also a model for success elsewhere. The tricky light winds in Qingdao combined with a strong tidal current made for tactical racing where the fleets remained very close and any mistakes were heavily punished. http://www.sailing.org/ QUOTE / UNQUOTE "The whole regatta has been an exceptional experience. The city of Qingdao has certainly put there best face forward draping a city of eight million with regatta banners, greeting all the sailors with a smile and generally being very helpful and happy to have us. We now realize how important it was for us to be here not just for venue reconnoissance, boat and sail development but to work out the day to day issues that arise in a country where the culture is so different from our own." -- Andy Horton & Brad Nichol, Star, USA, http://www.HortonNichol2008.com "We came to Qingdao to learn and I've surely learned. When the tide strength equals the wind strength and you've got no anchor, you had better be very good at identifying every wisp of wind." -- Anna Tunnicliffe, Laser Radial, USA, http://www.annatunnicliffe.com. ANALYSIS Sail-World has undertaken a quick analysis (at the Qingdao International Regatta) which shows the 33 medals being won by 14 countries - that is down on the 20 countries which partook of the Olympic pie in 2004. Four countries dominate - Britain, France, China and USA - winning three or more medals. For the other countries Qingdao probably came as a shock. However it is not possible to change the venue. And, the British medal machine is on a full and an accelerating charge. It is a common retort to put any British performance in the Olympic arena down to their huge war chest. However that situation doesn't exist in other sports for targeted English Olympic funding. So why in sailing? Maybe the Poms are just working a lot, lot smarter than the rest of us? Until we accept this fact, we can't expect too much change in the menu at the Qingdao Hilton. -- Richard Gladwell, Sail-World Website, http://www.sail-world.com UK-HALSEY POSTS LATEST SAFETY VIDEO How much do you really know about your liferaft and how to use it properly? That's the reason UK-Halsey has just posted their latest streaming video on-line, part of a continuing safety series to make sailing safer. These are brief, easy to view, and free. The liferaft video covers inflation, entry, securing, and more: don't wait for an emergency to discover what you should've known. Other previously/still posted videos demonstrate MOB recoveries, and the site also offers UK-Halsey's animated rules quizzes (21 situations running). So, if you haven't visited UK-Halsey Sailmakers on-line lately, you should: just go to http://www.ukhalsey.com THE GREEN SAILOR Bill Joy is wearing bright-red sneakers and a boyish grin that belies his 52 years. Although dusk has settled over the Netherlands' Royal Huisman shipyard and hunger pangs are surely gripping the locals on his project team, he shows no sign of letting up. The co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the man once dubbed "the Edison of the Internet" is building his dream boat, Ethereal, and the team is into its 13th meeting in the pursuit of perfection. Nautical hardware has become the software guru's passion, and today he has already pondered such exotica as the dog locks on the deck hatches. Now the topic is light switches and motion detectors for the cabins. Don't laugh. Wind will power his 190-foot, $50 million superyacht through the waves, but to produce the electricity that will drive winches and navigation systems, run the A/C, and cool the wine, she needs generators. And that means noise and vibration, which negates the whole point of a sailboat. So Ethereal will also have batteries to enable her to cut the generators and run silent for long periods - a bit like the U-boats of yesteryear and a first for yachts this size. Joy wants to ensure that those pesky lights in the four guest cabins, two salons, and owner's suite (which will contain an office, a sauna, and a Jacuzzi) consume as little electricity as possible. More important, he wants Ethereal to be the most efficient, eco-friendly boat afloat - an ambassador for the "green tech" he and his new venture capitalist partners at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers are championing. Some of the team offer suggestions, while others take notes. One man listens attentively, even though he's not responsible for Ethereal's innards. He is New Zealander Ron Holland, 59, a world-class yachtsman and one of the leading naval architects of his generation, who has designed boats for the likes of Prince Rainier of Monaco and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Holland has already done his bit for the yacht's efficiency by designing a hull and rigging that will allow her to slip through the water at speeds most motorized superyachts could not match - and without consuming a drop of fuel. Joy concedes that he second-guessed Holland's initial hull design. "Ron drew it, and we tried longer and shorter and other things," he recalls. "In the end we came back to what he had done in the beginning - in other words, his intuitive feel for what was going to work turned out to be correct. We did a lot of simulations and tank testing to go in a big circle." -- Excerpt from a story by Christopher Redman on CNNMoney.com, full story: http://tinyurl.com/kdowz SAILING SHORTS * With the harbor wall providing a perfect viewing platform, thousands of locals turned out to watch the races of the Olympic Test Event in Qingdao, China. The organizers sold tickets more than 40,000 tickets. Price: 1RMB (US$1 = approximately 7.95RMB) During Wednesday's Medal Races over 10,000 people visited the viewing platform. * Southern Spars and Marten Spars have merged in an effort achieve cost savings through efficiencies in manufacture, better economies of scale and co-ordinated design. Both existing premises and all staff will be retained. The new entity, called Custom Projects will have a staff of 250 and will be one of the business units which comprise the Southern Spars Group. Paul MacDonald, Managing Director and shareholder of Marten Spars will join the senior management team at Southern Spars and will oversee the Custom Projects business. * In September, Yacht Club Costa Smeralda (YCCS) will close out its 2006 racing season in unparalleled style as it hosts two unique regattas, each boasting record fleets, on the emerald waters off the Italian island of Sardinia. Porto Cervo harbour in the stunning resort area of Costa Smeralda will be bustling with activity as 52 of the world's largest and fastest yachts contest the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup from September 3-9 and 116 high-performance Swans race for the Rolex Swan Cup from September 11-17. Both events will see over a dozen nations represented, including a strong field of U.S. entries. -- http://www.yccs.it * North Sails has partnered with Sailing Weather Services to provide free weather forecasts for the Lands' End Larchmont NOOD Regatta from September 9-10 and the Rolex Swan Cup in Sardinia, Italy from September 11-17. To get daily forecasts for these events via email, log on to North Sails' online weather center to sign up: http://na.northsails.com/ew/ew_main.taf * Forty-six boats are already registered for the 2006 Etchells North American Championship to be hosted at the New Bedford Yacht Club and the Etchells Buzzards Bay Fleet 19, with races scheduled September 20-23. Most impressive is that the early registrants include most of the top finishers in earlier competitions on the 2006 Etchells Circuit. -- http://www.etchellsnewbedford.com/ * Rockland, Maine -- Gorgeous weather and an incredible array of boats and exhibitors helped make the fourth annual Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors Show the best ever. Over 13,000 people came to the three-day show, a 10 percent increase from last year. Attendance has increased every year. Exhibitors were thrilled with the turnout, and reported several boats sold. -- http://www.maineboats.com/ * Saga Insurance is sponsoring Sir Robin Knox-Johnston as he competes in the Velux 5 Oceans round the world yacht race that starts from Bilbao, Spain on October 22. At 67, Sir Robin is the oldest - and the most experienced - competitor in the race. The City of Norfolk, Virginia will be hosting the race in March and April 2007. -- http://www.velux5oceans.com * Correction - Zach Railey finished sixth at the Qingdao Test Event in the Finn Class, not eighth. CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar ACCURATE, RELIABLE & DEPENDABLE PERFORMANCE Words you wish described your sailing instrument system. Ockam is the leader in providing the most accurate real-time data available. The high-speed Tryad processor combined with an available 3-axis rate stabilized compass takes the full motion of the boat into account to deliver a stable wind solution that you can depend on. With performance and weight in mind, all sensors interface close to their location allowing the information to stream unimpeded throughout the system's reliable and robust single cable "daisy chain" network. Thus eliminating heavy multiple cable runs and expensive junction boxes. To learn more, contact Ockam:: mailto:lat@ockam.com LETTERS 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. 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, and personal attacks for elsewhere. For those that prefer a Forum, you can post your thought at the Scuttlebutt website: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi) * From Hugh Elliot: Since Fried Elliott's letter has turned into a thread, I am unable to resist adding my contribution. As a double leg amputee, I will walk like a drunk and fall over repeatedly if my foot alignment (toe up - toe down) is not set properly to the heel/sole heights on my shoes. So I have my feet aligned to the shoes that I wear most frequently. When on the water, waterproof boots are critical (my leg mechanic yells at me and then charges $500 - per foot - for a rebuild when I get salt water in them). The only ones that really work are Gill Dinghy boots since I can pull the neoprene over a foot that cannot be pointed down. The heel/sole heights are not in the slightest bit the same as in my regular dress shoes but I have found that putting layers of sticky-back velcro (I don't get blisters) inside the boots works just fine. I do the same with all of my other shoes. * From George Bailey: Guy Brierre's point about sacrificing lives to win is well taken, but not everyone is equally apt at expressing a reasonable concern. To some racers, it does seem like the risks being taken by some professional crew are just plain crazy. It's up to each individual what risks he or she wants to take. But the general phenomenon that bothers Mr. Pinkel does seem very real to a lot of people. Of course no one consciously sits down and says "we will win at all costs." But as more boats are seen breaking up when sailing on-the-edge in wild conditions (conditions in which the boat could have been going slower), it is not completely unreasonable to question our sport's concern for safety. What constitutes acceptable risk evolves and does so differently in different sub-cultures. In the very risk-adverse middle-class culture of the US, I am surprised we have not been made to install roll bars in our cars and wear helmets when we drive. In the not-so-risk-adverse world of state-of-the-art sailboat racing, it is not unreasonable to ask if the culture of the sport has good too far in the other direction. I vote no, but that does not mean that it is an unreasonable question for someone to raise. * From Simon Perry South Africa (In response to Mr Pinkel's letter that a yacht get a DSQ if a man is lost overboard): Had I joined a crew to do a race like the Volvo Ocean Race, I would have understood the risks before agreeing to do the race. Personally, I would be very disappointed if my crew didn't continue in the race. I would be honoured that my crew continued to compete and to complete the endeavour that I had started, and unfortunately was unable to complete. In my view that would give my passing dignity and respect. At least I would have died doing something I really loved. I believe if you then punish the crew that would be a double blow as they will feel bad enough already and that is punishment enough. * From Lynda Myers: Several years ago I visited the Richmond Yacht Club in New Zealand on Friday "beer can" evening. I discovered that I could merely place myself at the end of the dock and one of the boats headed out would pick me up and take me with. It has been a few years since I was there, but it seems to me the rules were as follows. All outgoing boats must pass the "pick-up" dock and take the next in line. (First come first served) After the racing everyone participated in a no host dinner and drinks at the club. What a win/win idea. Skippers had an extra hand, (or a hand they may have needed), newbie's had a chance to learn about racing. If you went often you had an opportunity to sail several different types of boats and then could make an educated decision about which brand best suited your dreams. The YC had extra guests for dinner and an after race drink at the bar. How did anyone lose? If each YC had one race a week that required the taking of newbie's I suspect the numbers would increase over time as the newbie's would "get hooked" and begin looking for their own boat to race. * From Glenn McCarthy: A boat is a boat is a boat. A race is a race is a race. Why is the sport declining, Huston? Let me put it this way, you go into work on Monday morning and swap stories about what each other did over the weekend. Some at work talk of weddings, golf, wake boarding, family visits, etc. What do we talk about (by the way, these talks are "our" sales pitch to the public)? Well the wind shifted to the right 15-degrees, where we were caught off on the left side and got killed. The next time up, we hooked into a favorable position and ended up second. "Huh?," they say. Let me change it around what we all should be saying on Monday morning. While we nailed a second in the race on Sunday after making a big comeback, when we got back to the club, the juniors had organized a fundraiser where they would wash our cars, our boats, or scrub out the bilges if we wanted. Well, it turned into a Tom Sawyer scene and suddenly everyone chipped in making the fleet spotless. Guess what? The water fights started, hoses, buckets, soap, etc. Some were walking around with soap foam beards and hair-doos. It was hilarious. And to boot, the kids raised $1,200 so they can head on off to a regatta in Florida in December. Which sales pitch to the public will bring more people to our sport? * From Chris Wick: I am constantly noticing the phrase "beating to windward" in the media (Scuttlebutt not excluded). The dictionary defines beating as "Nautical, To sail in the direction from which the wind blows. n," so beating is always "to windward" and "beating to windward" is "sailing to windward to windward." CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. Today's issue of Scuttlebutt provided by UK Halsey and Ockam Instruments. |
