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SCUTTLEBUTT 1901 - August 12, 2005
Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions,
features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.
THE WAITING GAME
Another day on tenterhooks was the fate of the fastest boat round the 608
miles of the Rolex Fastnet Race yesterday as the New Zealand crew of the
100ft Maximus waited to see if victory would be snatched away by one of the
smallest of the 283 starters.
The 31ft Aye!, an Elan 31 designed by Rob Humphreys and campaigned by Derek
Copeman, an architect from West Sussex, was benefiting from a brisk
westerly wind to drive her the 250 miles from the Fastnet Rock off
south-west Ireland to the finish in Plymouth Sound. The light winds which
had plagued all the top boats meant that, even though a big handicap
penalty had raised Maximus' elapsed time from 2 days 20 hours to just over
five days on corrected time, her main rivals had all been hit by bad luck
at some time.
Paying for what was more bad judgment than bad luck, Jean-Pierre Dick, of
France, who came through to win the 13-strong Open 60 class in Virbac,
accepted a one-place penalty because he was given assistance soon after the
start from Cowes in Sunday. He was towed off the shingle beach at Hurst
Narrows. That gave the win to Bernard Stamm, of Switzerland, with another
Frenchman, Roland Jourdain, third in Sill and Mike Golding fourth in
Ecover. The long-time Open 60 leader, Mike Sanderson, with Emma Richards in
Pindar, had been knocked down to fifth by going north but said: "If we had
to make the decision again it would be the same." -- Stuart Alexander, The
Independent, full story:
http://sport.independent.co.uk/general/article305285.ece
TRAINING PROGRAMME
The 2005 Rolex Fastnet Race proved a good testing ground for the crew of
the Volvo Open 70 'movistar', who were pleased to race against other boats
for the first time. Dutch skipper Bouwe Bekking, who has already completed
four circumnavigations of the globe, said, "It is always different in
delivery mode. You might slack off a little and even though you think you
might have done the right thing, racing mode is always better, which is why
this trip has been so good for us."
Bekking sees the Rolex Fastnet Race as a key event in their training
programme for the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race that commences in November from
Spain. "It is the first time that we have raced the boat and it was great
to have the opportunity to race against other boats. Although some were
much bigger than us, many had similar speeds in the light winds and it was
good to test a variety of sails that we would not have normally used in
these conditions. We are very happy with the progress we have made and we
have achieved what we wanted to achieve. We feel that we have a little
advantage over the other Volvo Open 70's and that is important to us." --
http://www.volvooceanrace.org/
SWEDISH MATCH TOUR
In grey, chilly conditions more like April than August, Day 1 of the Danish
Open, Stage 2 of the 2005-'06 Swedish Match Tour, belonged to Jesper Bank,
the Danish double Olympic gold medalist. With nine of the 22 scheduled
flights completed in the Round Robin, Bank and his crew from the United
Internet Team Germany America's Cup team won all five of their races from
the first group of three pairs. No one was so dominant in the second group
which managed four flights in the afternoon. Dean Barker (NZL), Emirates
Team New Zealand, Thierry Peponnet (FRA), K-Challenge, and Lars Nordbjaerg
(DEN) all managed three wins.
All day long the wind huffed and puffed from as little 5 knots to as much
as 15, bringing pronounced flicks in direction "Helicopter shifts," was
Gavin Brady's (NZL), BMW Oracle Racing, description of a breeze that come
down on the water before fanning out.
Bank, who's in his second Cup syndicate, says he doesn't have a settled
crew yet, not that you would have believed it from the smooth way he rolled
through the day. We are not even close to having a crew yet," he said.
Having been the last Cup team to post a challenge, Bank and the German
syndicate have been pushing hard to assemble all the elements, even a
sailing team. "It's a long process to test a lot of people for the crew,"
said Bank. -- Sean McNeill, www.swedishmatchtour.com
Danish Open Standings (After 9 of 22 scheduled flights)
1. Jesper Bank (DEN) United Internet Team Germany, 5-0
2. Jochen Schuemann (GER) Alinghi, 4-1
3. Dean Barker (NZL) Emirates Team New Zealand, 3-1
= Thierry Peponnet (FRA) K-Challenge, 3-1
= Lars Nordbjaerg (DEN) Team Nordbjaerg, 3-1
6. Henrik Jensen (DEN) Team Jensen, 2-2
7. Gavin Brady (NZL) BMW Oracle Racing, 2-3
8. Philippe Presti (FRA) Luna Rossa Challenge, 2-3
9. Jesper Radich (DEN) Desafio Espanol, 1-3
10. Chris Law (GBR) Team Shosholoza, 1-4
11. Pierre Mas (FRA) China Team, 1-4
12. Flavio Favini (ITA) Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia, 0-4
A CAUSE FOR SAILING
Sperry Top-Sider steps aboard for its third year as a lead sponsor of the
Ally Foundation's Flip Flop Regatta. The regatta was created to honor the
memory of Alexandra Nicole Zapp, an avid sailor whose life was tragically
taken by a convicted sex offender. The Foundation advocates for changes in
culture, attitude, and legal policy in order to prevent violent sex crimes.
Ally's love of sailing and the water is celebrated during the weekend of
August 12-13 at the Courageous Sailing Center in Boston. For more
information, please visit http://www.flipflopregatta.com
PLAYING CATCH-UP
(The Daily Sail subscription website caught up with Neal McDonald - skipper
of the VO70 Ericsson. Here are a couple of brief excerpts from their story.)
Examining the photos of the Volvo Open 70s so far launched there seems to
be some significant differences between the hull shapes even between the
Farr Yacht Design VO70s. Telefonica Movistar clearly has a slight chine in
her aft quarters whereas this does not appear to be the case with either
Ericsson or the the Brazilian boat. However the chine even on Telefonica is
not nearly as extreme as that of the first ABN Amro (see her here) which is
almost slab-sided. The daggerboards on ABN Amro also appear to be
substantially longer, skipper Mike Sanderson and designer Juan Kouyoumdjian
presumably learning the lesson from the Open 60 class where daggerboards on
canting keel boats can seemingly never be too big.
When we spoke to McDonald Ericsson had been out sailing but hadn't ventured
out of the confines of the Solent. "The boat is smooth, powerful. Farr's
VPPs are very precise so that you can get a good feel when you look at
them. It is hard to believe but you are going to be full cant in 7 knots,
but you are. So you spend a lot of time thinking if you have everything
fully canted in 7 knots, what are you going to do in 27?"
McDonald believes it is entirely possible for example that boats may be
sailing the in-port race in Rio in three knots of breeze using sails speced
to go up to 30 knots. "To have the luxury of specialist inshore sails is
pretty expensive in terms of sail buttons." -- The Daily Sail,
www.thedailysail.com
NEWS BRIEFS
* Oslo, Norway -- USA sailors swept the top three places in the 25-boat
Knarr Class IKC Regatta -- an international regatta in borrowed boats held
every year, alternating between the USA, Denmark and Norway. Jon Perkins,
Tom Purdy, Melissa Purdy, Jeff Moseley won the top spot followed by Chris
Perkins in second place and Knud Wibroe in third.
http://www.knarr-sf.com/index.htm
* In one of the Naples Sabot Junior Championship's more dominating
performances in over 58 years, Chris Barnard from Newport Harbor YC sailor
won the 129-boat event by finishing first in four of six races on the bay
fronting the host Alamitos Bay YC. Barnard, whose best previous finish was
a pair of fourths, had 30 rivals in the top-rated Gold class where he has
qualified since age 11, and he outdistanced the next one---NHYC teammate
Wade Hatton---by 15 points. His string of finishes: 1-3-1-(12)-1-1. --
www.abyc.org
* The top two teams at the 21-boat US 470 Nationals in Santa Cruz were
Japanese - Seki Kazuto/ Yanagawa Shouichi and Tetsuya Matsunaga/ Taro Veho.
The US team of Michael Anderson-Mitterling / David Hughes finished third --
one point ahead of Swedens' Olympic Bronze Medalists and defending Women's
World Champions -- Therese Torgensson / Vendula Zachrisson. Erin Maxwell /
Alice Manard were the top US women's team finishing fifth behind Stuart
McNay / Graham Biehl (USA). -- http://tinyurl.com/b7xxx
* Split, Croatia -- After eight races with one discard, American Paige
Railey now enjoys a 14 point lead over Sarah Steyaert (FRA) in the Women's
Division of the Laser Radial European Championship. The USA's Anna
Tunnicliffe is in eighth place of this 42-boat championship which ends on
Friday. -- http://www.euroradial2005.com/
* Barrington, Rhode Island, USA -- The Laser 4.7 Worlds fleet is now split
into gold and silver groups -- but Thursday was not a good day. Races were
started in six knots of breeze, but the wind faded quickly and all races
were abandoned. The final four races are scheduled for the next two days.
The top four boats are all within a single point of each other: Adam Sims,
GBR; Joaquin Blanco Albalat, ESP; Philip Alexander Wender, BRA; Marco
Teixidor PUR. 15th place Stephanie Roble, USA, is the top female.
http://www.barringtonyc.com/2005laser4.7worlds.htm
* After eight races in the 86-boat Schenker 49er European Championships in
Vallensbćk, Denmark, Italy's Pietro Sibello/ Gianfranco Sibello holds a two
point lead over two teams from Great Britain -- Stevie Morrison/ Ben Rhodes
and Chris Draper/ Simon Hiscocks. The USA's Morgan Larson/ Pete Spaulding
are just five points off the pace in seventh place. http://tinyurl.com/8ybka
* Cartagena City, Murcia, Spain -- Brazil's Olympic Gold Medallist Robert
Scheidt is still the heat in the Laser class -- leading the European
Championships after eight races with a seven point lead over both Mate
Arapov (CRO) and Paul Goodison (GBR). The USA's Andrew Campbell is
currently in 37th place in the 65-boat fleet. -- http://tinyurl.com/bno6z
* Ben Ainslie has now won five consecutive races in the Finn European
Championship in Kalmar, to take a huge lead. After discarding a 35th
position, New Zealand's Dan Slater moved into second place with 19 points
-- two points ahead of Michael Maier (CRO). The USA's Zach Railey the
second place junior in 19th place in the 73-boat fleet. After 7 hours on
the water, the Finn sailors will enjoy a single race Friday.
www.eurofinn2005.org
* Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell (GBR) have won the ISAF Grade C1 Ringhals
Star European Championship with a race to spare in Varberg, Sweden. With
the final race scheduled for Friday, The battle for second place is tight
with World Champions Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau (FRA) who moved
within two points of defending European champions Frederik Loof and Anders
Ekstrom. Mark Mendelblatt/ Mark Strube (USA) are top North Americans in
sixth place in the 67-boat fleet. --
http://www.vss.org.se/em/res/seriesstanding.html
* Following a request for redress the International Jury declared that race
5 of the Tornado European Championships in Västervik, Sweden. abandoned and
has to be re-sailed. There was in race 5 a period of 15 minutes
(13:55-14:10) with an average wind speed of less than 3 knots (calculated
2.62 knots). The Sis read, "A race shall be abandoned if the wind reduces
to less than 3 knots for a period of 15 minutes or more before the first
boat that sails the course finishes." Australians Darren Bundock/ Aaron
Worrall lead Fernando Echavarr/ Antón Paz (ESP) by a single point. --
http://www.multihullsweden.com/results.htm
EIGHT BELLS
John Merrifield is dead at 65 of a brain tumor, gone in exactly five
months. John was a sailor and boatbuilder his whole life, one hard working
son-of-a-bitch. He built 12 Meters such as: Courageous, Enterprise,
Independence, Freedom, Clipper, Defender, Liberty, Spirit of America, and
Heart of America, also Namis, Tatoosh, Leonara, Intuition, Pinta,
Temptation, Zero, Yeoman, Artemis, Charisma, Siren Song, Bullfrog, Love
Machine, Williwaw, Bright Finish, Aries, Obsession, Black Magic, Acadia,
Tantara, Tabasco, Viola, Wind Star II and Congere. He was the first to
build carbon fiber rudders, the first to make carbon America's Cup booms
and poles, the first to build a high temperature cure prepreg deck. He
innovated everything from the aerospace field he could, until they have
nothing left to teach. They still don't. He co-founded Merrifield-Roberts,
Inc. in Bristol in 1985 and continued to this day, building Custom Yachts
and Public Sculptures, visit www. Merrifield-Roberts.com to see the stuff
he made. He also loved cars and golden retrievers. I spent 25 years with
him building the most beautiful of things. He was honest as the day is
long, hard working, knew how to meet deadlines and pick up the pieces of a
mistake, correct them and move forward without regret. He lead men by being
out in front. He knew how to finish a project when most don't. He loved his
wife, Lise, who loved him back and did her loving duty to the end. -- Kim
Roberts
IRC: TESTING, TESTING, 1,2,3. . .
While the jury is still out on the IRC rule, it was interesting that first
and second overall in the 100th anniversary Halifax Race went to a
2003-built lightweight grand prix maxi, Titan XII, followed by the
1970-built wooden 12 Meter Valiant! Valiant skipper Gary Gregory credited
much of Valiant's success to a new Doyle UPS that utilizes the IRC headsail
measurement formula to create a special high-girth reaching headsail.
Doyle's new UPS is a great IRC-legal addition to your boat's racing or
cruising inventory. See this breakthrough sail at www.doylesails.com (then
click thru: Cruising/ Spinnakers/ UPS). 1-800-94 DOYLE
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 Grant Williams (re Rolex Fastnet Race position reports): Surely
there was an inexpensive software solution to this? The RORC or Rolex
didn't need to rely on expensive hardware to have produced a running
corrected time order during the race. First, the sailing instructions
should have made position reporting compulsory not 'by request'. Second, if
each report was required at the same time or times per day, the IRC results
program could have churned out a corrected time fleet order. Third, it
wouldn't have been difficult to plot this onto a chart for actual
on-the-water positions either for posting on the event website.
Granted VHF coastal radio coverage is not what it used in the UK, but the
fleet is out of cell phone range for relatively little time and having put
out a fishing boat on the course too, there was no reason not to put a
mini-cell station on that too. What with txt messages on mobile phones, the
carrying of satphones by several yachts and the ability to email by others,
there could have been position reporting from most of the fleet most of the
time at minimal cost. No wonder the public interest in Maximus' arrival in
Plymouth was zilch.
* From Jamie Noyes While I can empathize with John Powers reaction to The
Storm Trysail Clubs recommendations on "rendering assistance", I would
suggest that it's easy to make statements about common sense while sitting
at your desk. When I read about the events at Block Island that triggered
this discussion to begin with, I tried to imagine a scenario that might
cause me or the people I sail with to decide that this basic rule did not
apply. Seeing another boat attempting to pick up a crewmember, is it
possible that I could come to the conclusion that "things were under
control"? Would our crewmembers hands really help the 8 or 10 sets of hands
that are already on the scene? I concluded that I would have probably
stopped and stood by, but that I could also understand the logic apparently
applied by those who did not stop to render assistance at Block Island Race
Week.
STC's recommendations would remind race participants of the basic rule, and
further minimize the possibility of racers considering that they might have
an option in an "assistance" situation. Some might debate the right and
wrong of the decisions that were made at Block, but the decisions were
still made. Why debate or criticize an effort to minimize the possibility
of this happening again?
* From Gary Wood: In Tuesday's 'Butt you published, "Nearly 75 volunteers
will participate in the 2005 Crew-OverBoard Recovery Symposium." Call me
old fashioned, sexist, or whatever, but if someone goes over the side, I
will immediately yell "Man Over Board", throw out the Life Sling, ask
someone to watch the person in the water, do a quick-stop maneuver, etc. I
just hope I don't get confused when I look for the COB (Crew Over Board)
button on the GPS - as I suspect that it will be printed with MOB for years
to come.
* From Vincent Christian (Re "Club Racing Ideas"): Hong Kong's Hebe Haven
Yacht Club does , in fact, hold fun races on a regular basis, such as the
Pursuit Race, where boats are given a time factor (a 'departure' time based
on their HKPN number). Furthermore, the Club's also organized a Series
where boats race to a seafood retaurant: Rules? Skipper helms Race1, crew
helms Race2, and a lady helms Race3. Race4 is an Orienteering event: boats
pick their choice of route, each waypoint enroute has a set value point. A
boat may opt for a longish route with higher points as opposed to a shorter
route with less value points. Finishing first, but holding max points is
the key. Nobody knows until they get there! Certainly a gamble on any route
but loads of fun! Added to this, the Club's Saturday Series
(round-the-cans!) allows for a 'spinnaker' or 'no-spinnaker' option. A 1.5%
"discount" is given to the no-kite boat. Kite decision is based on who's
racing!
December's usually Treasure Hunt race time. Participating boats, equipped
with 'puzzle-clue' question-and-answer sheets, are asked to race from Point
A to B but are required to answer these puzzles enroute and are given
instructions on how to proceed to the next waypoint. Points accumulated
from correct answers to puzzles/clues determine the winner. Prizes usually
come in liquid form and have to be consumed on premises!
* From Brad Cole: Here in Hawaii most of us are trying to resist the
intrusion of Mainland PC regulations like mandatory wearing of life vests.
Yes, drownings happen but most frequently to visitors or fishermen along
the shoreline. It is rare for a waterman or woman to drown here. The ocean
can be mean and most of us learn quickly to respect her power or we stay
ashore. Most of the watermen (and women) here are strong swimmers and know
the currents. We prefer not to paddle, surf, sail, or motor wearing
encumbrances. This doesn't mean that we don't take precautions as we judge
necessary: on a recent delivery in near gale conditions, all my crew wore
harnesses and were hooked onto jacklines when on deck. If visitors feel
more comfortable wearing a PFD, more power to them. Just let us practice
our sports our way, please.
* From Tom Donlan: With all respect to Brad Read, the "Tack or Cross?" hail
from a port-tack boat is not an improvement in race-course manners. It is
of course good manners and good tactics to voluntarily wave a port-tacker
across when you really really want to go left. But the hail attempts to
shift the burden of decision from the port-tacker to the starboard tacker,
even though the starboard tacker has the right of way. It's up to the
port-tacker to decide whether he can cross or not. If he can't be sure of
crossing and really wants to go right, he should duck the starboard tacker.
Thus the appropriate response to "Tack or Cross?" would be "Duck," or
possibly "Duck you," but that may be misheard and open the starboard-tacker
to a charge of bad conduct. The best response therefore is silence, which
tends to upset the port-tacker, puts the onus of decision back on the
port-tacker, and consumes his valuable time, increasing the chance he will
make a bad tack or an abrupt, speed-killing duck.
* From Mike Koster (Regarding Brad Read's Tack or Cross): If Brad says,
"Thanks, buy you a beer later," … don't hold your breath!
CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION
I thought about making a fitness movie for folks my age and call it,
"Pumping Rust."
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