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SCUTTLEBUTT 3129 - Thursday, July 8, 2010Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors,providing a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: Ullman Sails and JK3 Nautical Enterprises. BIG CHANGE FOR US OLYMPIC SELECTION (July 7, 2010) - A significant overhaul of the selection process for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Sailing Team has been made official with the release of the Selection Procedures for the 2012 Olympic Team Trials. Long gone is the single American event, winner-take-all format that had been designed to simulate the pressure and intensity that the sailors would experience at the Olympic Games. In its place are two international events that will be used for the fleet racing, while the Women’s Match Racing event will use an event in Miami, Florida and another in Weymouth, England. US SAILING Olympic Sailing Committee Chairman Dean Brenner explains the evolution of the U.S. selection procedures: * Why is the OSC making this change now? DEAN BRENNER: The Olympic sailing program’s primary mission is to field a team of athletes most capable of achieving success at the Olympic Games, and we believe this new system gives us the greatest chance of achieving that mission in 2012. The world of Olympic class competition has evolved dramatically in the last ten years, and our selection system needed to evolve as well. Success at the Games requires year-round training and year-round competition against the best sailors in the world, and the Olympic sailing program needs to support the athletes who are committed to pursuing full-time campaigns. If you look at all the things we’ve been doing over the past six years, including our national team selection and funding structure, the common denominator has been our focus on international competition. Our decision to change the selection trials to a system of international competition is the just latest example of this new focus of the OSC. And if you look back to our method of selection for 2008 Games, we were experimenting with international selection in the Yngling class, so this was clearly on our minds last quadrennium. We now feel this is the time to make this wholesale change. * What are the merits of this system versus the traditional U.S. trials system? DEAN BRENNER: Most of the top countries use a combination of international events. We were one of the few countries not using some kind of international selection procedures. With the proper fleet quality AND quantity, we still believe a winner-takes-all event in the U.S. is the best method of selection. However, if you lack either quality or quantity, the value of that method drops dramatically. The move away from the traditional domestic trials will disappoint some people who enjoy the opportunity to compete on U.S. soil. While we appreciate some of the other benefits of a domestic trials system, our primary mission is clear. If we can achieve these other benefits while also appropriately pursuing our primary mission, great. If we can’t, we have to focus on the primary mission. Read on: http://tinyurl.com/DB-selection-process Fleet race trial events: Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta, Weymouth/Portland, England, June 5-11, 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championship, Perth, Australia, December 3-18, 2011 Women’s Match Racing trial events (dates to be announced) Miami, Florida in October 2011 Weymouth, England in spring 2012 Details of the selection procedures: http://tinyurl.com/38vn4xn MAKING OR BREAKING A JUNIOR SAILOR By Bill Sandberg, WindCheck magazine Why is it that many junior sailing programs lose as many as half their kids by the third year? There are many reasons, but the bulk of them lie with the two groups who have the greatest influence on young sailors - instructors and parents. Instructor Don’ts 1) Don’t play favorites. It’s easy to spend time with the sailor who wins all the regattas, but it can be far more rewarding to watch a young sailor come out of his or her shell and develop a real love for the sport. 2) Don’t forget that as a role model, the kids will look up to you. If you smoke or show up hung-over, they will think that is cool. 3) Don’t overcoach. At most Opti regattas, the kids do not need to be told the mistakes they just made on the racecourse. They need a water bottle and a hug. 4) Don’t forget that this is not school. It’s meant to be fun. OK, now that I’ve beaten up on the instructors, let’s move to potentially the worst problem - overzealous parents. Parent Don’ts 1) Don’t help your child rig or unrig their boat. This is something they need to learn themselves, and they’re probably embarrassed by your “help.” 2) Don’t berate an instructor, especially in front on the sailors. This immediately undermines their authority and thus their ability to do their job. If you have a problem, seek out the program chair or a member of the committee. It will be far more effective. 3) Don’t go to regattas and scream and cheer when your child or your program’s child rounds a mark in a high position. How do you think this makes the kids at the end of the fleet feel? Like losers. 4) Don’t make the first question you ask your child after a regatta, “How’d you finish?” It should be, “Did you have fun?” There are some exceptions to this. If they are older and committed to (racing), it’s OK to ask how they did. These are committed racers, and winning is fun. However, don’t grill them for information. It will come out. Discuss, don’t preach. I fully realize that the vast majority of instructors and parents are very effective in raising kids to have a lifelong love of the water, but it’s that minority that can ruin a summer for all. As I’ve said ad nauseum, if it isn’t fun, then we are not helping to grow our sport. MUCH MORE: Bill Sandberg has lived his entire life on Long Island Sound, and his sailing resume includes involvement with youth sailing and US SAILING. Bill is not all about the DON’Ts , with the balance of his report providing some of the DOs and the Junior Sailing Association of Long Island Sound Mission Statement: http://tinyurl.com/2upz7oz WTF CROWNED 2010 U.S. MELGES 24 CHAMPION Alan Field’s “WTF” team added yet another win to their 2010 scorecard, this time claiming the 2010 Layline/Oakcliff U.S. Melges 24 National Championships in Newport R.I., June 25-27th. Powered by Ullman Sails, the team proved once again that consistent sailing wins regattas. In light, shifty conditions, the team posted a string of top five finishes and dropped a sixth place to win the regatta. The California-based “WTF” team of Alan Field, Steve Hunt, Erik Shampain, Jeff Reynolds and Sarah Curren also recently won the Gulf Coast Championships in Corpus Christi, TX and the Detroit NOOD. Invest in your performance. http://www.ullmansails.com WORLD MATCH RACING TOUR Marstrand, Sweden (July 7, 2010) - The World Match Racing Tour contenders have now settled into daily winds of 12-15 knots running the length of the fjord and unbroken sunlight. Stena Match Cup Sweden’s race course looks as though God himself modeled it on a match racing amphitheatre and has provided the best conditions yet experienced on this year’s Tour calendar. From each group, the top four after the round robin series go through to the Quarter Finals, with Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team, Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team and Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar having already secured their positions. Also with a confident charge at joining them are Ben Ainslie (GBR) TEAM ORIGIN sitting snugly on 5-2 and a new face to the 2010 Tour, Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team, who has found his feet quickly and sits on 5-1. Going into Day three tomorrow (Thursday) of Stena Match Cup Sweden, the top 5 skippers are all now looking yet again at the overall Tour ladder results and gauging who they need to close the gap on. Mirsky is now looking at the overall picture all of the time, “We need to catch Mathieu up for sure, he’s quite far ahead on the Tour at the moment and he’s sailing well in the other group so in one way we want to race him so we can knock him out and in another way we don’t want to because he’s sailing so well.” -- Full report: http://www.wmrt.com/news/103-match-cup-sweden/11224-smcs2010-7july.html Current round robin standings after second day: Group A Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team 5-2 Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team 5-1 Francesco Bruni (ITA) Azzurra 2-2 Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing 3-4 Jesper Radich (DEN) Rudy Project Sailing Team 2-0 Staffan Lindberg (FIN) Alandia Sailing Team 1-2 Mattias Rahm (SWE) Stena Bulk Sailing Team 0-3 Björn Hansen (SWE) Hansen Global Team 0-4 Group B Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team 6-1 Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar 5-1 Ben Ainslie (GBR) TEAMORIGIN 5-2 Magnus Holmberg (SWE) Sigma Racing Team 1-2 Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing 1-3 Reuben Corbett (NZL) Black Sheep Racing 0-2 Keith Swinton (AUS) Black Swan Racing 0-3 Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team 0-4 Pairings and Results: http://tinyurl.com/SMCS-P-R-2010 Video player: http://www.wmrt.com/multimedia/video-gallery.html BACKGROUND: The Stena Match Cup Sweden is the fifth stage of the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT), the leading professional sailing series featuring 10 World Championship events across the globe, sanctioned by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). FREE MATCH RACING DVD: North U. is set to release a new match racing DVD called Welcome To Match Racing and will give away the first 1,000 copies free of charge. Hosted by three-time U.S. Match Racing Champion Dave Perry, who is the author of Understanding the Racing Rules of Sailing and the coach of the U.S. Sailing Team AlphaGraphics Women’s Match Race Team, this DVD takes viewers through the basics of match racing from start to finish. To get a free copy (in the USA or Canada), sign up here: http://tinyurl.com/26gm2ft ‘PROPER’ OCEAN RACING When 183 sailboats made the start on June 18th for the 635 miles Bermuda Race, the diverse fleet was a far cry more competitive and prepared than its predecessors that sailed the inaugural 1906 race. Long shifts on watch and freeze-dried meals are no longer the domain of the elite grand prix crowd, but are considered options for anyone seeking to succeed. It is therefore refreshing to hear owner Jim Madden, whose J/65 "Brand New Day" ("BND") took a 2nd in IRC and a 3rd under ORR, explain their passage to the Onion Patch: “It was a relatively short 3 day event - finishing on Monday, June 21st at 8:24pm ET. The ride to Bermuda on the J/65 was a very comfortable venture. The air conditioning in each of the cabins, heads, galley and salon kept the interior of the boat at a constant 68 degrees. This made for some strange, but very satisfying, sensations when coming off watch from the hot stickiness of Gulf Stream weather to a chilled interior. Hors D'ouevres were served promptly each evening at 5pm. The cooked dinners of lasagna, pork, and chicken were accompanied by white and red wine.” Maybe ‘proper’ ocean racing is still possible. SAILING SHORTS * Sea Tow Services International Inc., the world’s largest and only international marine assistance organization, reported a 19-percent increase in marine assistance calls during the four-day Fourth of July holiday weekend compared to the same period in 2009. Sea Tow also noted strong Memorial Day statistics for the late May hoiday weekend. -- Full story: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=10126 * The US Sailing Center of Sheboygan (WI) is hosting eight elite teams for this week’s U.S. Women’s Match Racing Championship (USWMRC), a US SAILING National Championship and an ISAF Grade 3 event. Defending champion and US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) member Genny Tulloch returns to compete in her third consecutive USWMRC. She joins a talented roster of teams who will race in Sonars on Lake Michigan for the right to hoist the Allegra Knapp Mertz Trophy. Racing begins this Thursday and runs through Sunday (July 8-11). -- Read on: http://media.ussailing.org/Latest_News/2010_USWMRC_Preview.htm * Cook Composites and Polymers was again found not responsible for cracking of gelcoat on yachts built by Viking Yacht Co. and Post Marine Co. between 1997 and 2004. The opinion, issued last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, affirms a jury verdict issued last July after a five-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. At trial last year, CCP presented evidence that the gelcoat in question met CCP's warranties, that Viking's and Post's experience was unique to them and not shared by any of CCP's other gelcoat customers, and offered expert testimony in support of CCP's product. -- Soundings, full story: http://tinyurl.com/32qtcg4 JK3 NAUTICAL ENTERPRISES AND SABRE YACHTS JK3 is proud to represent the Sabre Motor and Sailing Yacht lines for the majority of the Western United States. Designed with a fit and finish one would expect to find in a fine custom home and offering a similar level of comfort and performance, Sabre Yachts truly stand out. With performance cruising yachts from 36’ to 46’ and motor yachts ranging from 34’ to 52’, there’s a yacht to suit your dreams. Also check out our latest brokerage listing, VISION, a 2005 Sabre Sail 386. Professionally maintained to the highest standard, VISION is a beautiful example of the luxury and performance for which Sabre is renowned. http://www.jk3yachts.com CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Is your event listed on the Scuttlebutt Event Calendar? This free, self-serve tool is the easiest way to communicate to both sailors and sailing media. These are some of the events listed on the calendar for this weekend: Jul 8-10 - Tahoe Melges Race Week - Tahoe City, CA, USA Jul 9-11 - Caribbean Laser Youth Regatta - Cabarete, Dominican Republic Jul 9-11- I.L.Y.A. Melges 17 Championship - Pewaukee, WI, USA Jul 10-11- Great Lakes IRC Championships - Port Huron, MI, USA Jul 10-11- J/22 Canadian Championship - Toronto, Ontario, Canada View all the events at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar LETTERS AND FORUM Please email your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, ‘The Curmudgeon’). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). One letter per subject, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- To submit a Letter: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- To post on the Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Gregory Scott, Kingston, ONT: Thank you for running the Sailing Parent letter in Scuttlebutt 3128. I am concerned we are heading toward a point when a group of kids become adults and the manner in which clubs conduct race night will change significantly. Who wants to sit in a protest room with a "know it all" who wants to argue a technical point instead of admitting a foul. Fouls occur in the absence of eyes other than your own. Getting away with one is no victory to lay claim to. As I have said many times, read the rules while sitting in the Trophy Room of your club and decide if you want to honour the names on those cups or tarnish the value of holding one on awards night. * From John J. Ford While reading Mr. David Shulman's comments (in Scuttlebutt 3127) highlighting his displeasure with the viewing of the America's Cup action, I found myself somewhat surprised. I attended my first AC competition as a passenger on the M/V Martha's Vineyard in Newport when Weatherly defeated Sceptre during the month of September, 1962. I easily found tickets for passage on all the subsequent challenges to the AC in Newport up to and including Liberty's defeat at the hand of Australia II in 1983 on various boats with excellent viewing. I believe Viking Tours provided the boats. In 1987, when Stars and Stripes manhandled Kookaburra in Australia, some of the most exciting racing one could wish for was beamed back to the east coast, live, in the wee hours of the morning. Then in 1992 and 1995, there were plenty of eager head boats to provide viewing, up close and personal, in the waters off San Diego. In 1995, I was a lucky guest on a yacht that was the official timer of the first race. This yacht was the closest to the competitors with the exception of the on water judges. During my attendance at the races, I can't recall meeting any casual observers. Most were seasoned sailors with various abilities who got into sailing before the late 70's. We have since been blessed with extraordinary media coverage live on television and Internet outlets. The media technology has advanced at an astounding pace, and those of us who are interested can easily avail ourselves to these gifts. I for one would love to see the America's Cup competition return to scenic and historic Rhode Island Sound with the immense flotilla, helicopters, American Navy ships and the spectacle that is the America's Cup! * From Jon Rolien, San Francisco Bay sailor: While viewing the photos from the recent Long Beach Race Week, I noticed that not one (I didn't look at every photo) sailor on the premier boats, was wearing a PFD or Life Vest. However, on some of the midsized and smaller or sport boats, the crews were wearing PFD's or lifevests. I know that the water and weather conditions in So Cal are a bit more moderate than S.F. bay, but you can drown in warm water as well as in cold water, especially if you have hit your head or are incapacitated. Just about every regatta on S.F. bay, the crews are required to wear PFD's. I know that they are not the most comfortable things to wear, but believe me if you need one you will be glad you’re wearing one, I know from personal experience. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION The greatest "shot in the arm"..........Encouragement. Special thanks to Ullman Sails and JK3 Nautical Enterprises. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
