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SCUTTLEBUTT 2174 - September 6, 2006Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is distributed each weekday, with America’s Cup coverage provided by UBS (http://www.ubs.com). CHANGING DEMANDS In the old days, say 10 years ago, regattas looked like a flock of migrating geese flying in formation. Due, in part, to the design of the boats that were popular at that time, sailboat races were often a boat parade, a lineup of boats on a course with few passing lanes. Boats in the '70s and '80s and into the '90s were good at reaching across the wind, but often did not sail well upwind or downwind. So race committees set courses for them that were a bit like parade routes, with long reaching legs winding around the bay. The sport of yacht racing is changing rapidly, and today's sailors are demanding more interesting courses. More short courses. More races in a day. More upwind and downwind legs (called "windward leeward" courses or "hot dogs"). They want more fun. Many fleets want less use of fixed buoys as turning marks on their courses. The San Francisco Bay is dotted with these floating fixed buoys permanently anchored to the seabed with strong cables. Some mark the deep-water navigable channels for large ships. Some clang and moan in the fog, an aid to navigation designed before modern electronics and still in use today. These fixed buoys sometimes do double-duty during sailing regattas, when race committees use them as rounding marks of the course. Using them is convenient. Blowing up, anchoring, tending, and moving temporary inflatable buoys in the deep waters of the San Francisco Bay can be a formidable challenge for race committee members, generally volunteers from local yacht clubs. - By Jan Pehrson, Marin Independent Journal Read the complete story, including how Jeff Zarwell, US Sailing National Race Officer, founded RegattaPRO to provide services to yacht clubs and other organizations: http://www.marinij.com/sports/ci_4285081?source=email MORE DRIVERS THAN SAILORS (Here’s a Scuttlebutt exclusive, on what happens when a sailor attends a car racing event) The sport of sailing and car racing is frequently compared, often during those times when we want sailing to gain more television exposure. This past weekend I attended my first car race event, NASCAR's Sony HD 500 at California Speedway. And while I probably should hold my impressions until after I attend another car race event, I won’t since it is doubtful I will sit through another one again. Let’s be clear on one thing: the cars in this race went round and round for 250 laps on an oval track… for four hours. That’s it. Yes, they haul butt the whole time, which means they fly by you at 170 mph. Don’t blink. Some cars are faster than other cars, and I saw the slower cars LET the fasters ones pass them. Very Corinthian. There were times when the faster cars were mixed with the slower cars that were behind a lap. Messy. No doubt there is amazing driving going on, which is hard to pick up in the stands, but would have been great in Hi-Def with my 56” Samsung. As for tactics, they seem to occur in the pits, which explains why the lead car with a lap to go, ran out of gas. Maybe the fact that NASCAR is SO basic is part of its appeal. It’s also loud – really loud – which translates the action. The advanced fans rent (or have bought) headsets that carry the dialogue in the cars, enhancing their connection with the racers. Plus, could there be a better fan base than one where everyone either drives a car, or wants to? I have had my NASCAR moments. I have been late for appointments and weaved in and out of traffic. I have let the car crawl up to 90+ mph once out of the city limits. Car racing beats out sailing on all counts. But there is one part of a NASCAR event where the sport of sailing can match up well: car racing fans like to party. -- Continue reading Craig Leweck’s report at Scuttleblog: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2006/0905 TEAM RACING WORLDS FORMAT ANNOUNCED The event format for the seventh ISAF Team Racing World Championships, to be held at West Kirby Sailing Club on the Wirral, UK, 20-25 August 2007, is now available on the event website. The event will be sailed between 3-boat teams in 2-person Firefly dinghies, each team flight with fully colour-coded hulls and sails for easy identification. West Kirby's marine lake is famous for the annual Wilson Trophy team racing championships and provides the best spectator facilities for viewing the fast action, instant umpiring and hundreds of exciting short races that is the top level of team race sailing. Countries may enter up to 2 teams and all teams must include at least one female competitor. Subject to ISAF Council approval in November, the 2007 Championship will, for the first time, include two Competitions - an Open Competition and an Under-21 (U21) Competition. The age requirement for the U21 Competition will be that all team members must be born in 1987 or later. The planned format is such that: (i) a country can have only one of their teams enter the final phases of each of the Open and U21 Competitions, (ii) a country can have teams in the final phases of both Competitions, (iii) a U21 team can be in the final phases of both Competitions. The introduction of the U21 Competition will be an exciting innovation that is based on feedback from the 2005 Championships held in the USA, and reflects the strength and appeal of this form of sailing among younger sailors. Full details at http://www.wksc.net/ISAFworlds2007 IT’S THAT TIME ALREADY It’s hard to believe, but with Labor Day over, now’s the time to start thinking about next summer. As you begin making plans for the 2007 sailing season, be sure to visit the Ribcraft RIB website to see how it will work for you. Whether you’re looking for a durable and stable platform for coaching or setting marks, an easy to tow boat for traveling to regattas, or just an incredibly seaworthy boat that’s fun to drive, Ribcraft has the perfect boat for your needs. Now taking orders for spring delivery; build your own Ribcraft at http://www.ribcraftusa.com/sailing and see for yourself. ON COURSE FOR BEIJING (Sailing World editor at large Gary Jobson surveys the U.S. Sailing Team in anticipation of the 2008 Olympic Games.) The midpoint between the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and the Beijing Games in 2008 is an appropriate time to assess the U.S. Sailing Team's progress. And as you'd expect, two years out from the Games, competition in all 11 classes is ramping up worldwide as sailors vie for the top spots in their respective class rankings and step up their fundraising effort. To give a sense of how competitive Olympic sailing has become, consider that in Athens 21 countries won at least one of 33 available medals. It's certainly difficult to excel at the Games, especially when many countries are now supporting their athletes with unprecedented funding. In contrast, most American sailors must support themselves, relying on scarce funding sources. It's a daunting task to simultaneously train, compete, and search for money. Reviewing past results of every Olympic class, it's clear that winning a medal often requires more than one attempt. Olympic champions spend decades developing their skills, but in the United States, the Olympic classes—with the exception of the Laser, and to a lesser extent, the Star, have virtually no presence. In addition, the Olympic racing format is rarely used by yacht clubs or other classes. So what are we to do to foster the Olympic experience among more U.S. sailors? - To read the rest of Jobson’s report: http://tinyurl.com/pgz4s TWO SPREADERS OR THREE? (Below is an excerpt from the Valencia Sailing website, providing commentary on what is happening with masts at the grand prix level of TP52 racing) Marnix Lippen, project manager with Hall Spars, has been at most of this season’s Breitling MedCup TP52 regattas. Hall have remained staunch advocates of the two spreader rig, so far, and are presently working on the next generation, generation eight, of the Hall Spars TP52 rig, the first of which will be seen on the new Mutua Madrileña. Free of the limit on the modulus of carbon used in the TP52 rigs, the TP52 rig can be made in a carbon which is the next level up from that allowed by the VOR 70’s and the America’s Cup boats. As Hall’s Ben Hall noted earlier this season: “ This super-high-mod material is more brittle and must be handled with care in the molding process. It is also much more labor-intensive to manufacture a mast in super-high-mod due to the fact it is only available in a lighter-weight unidirectional tape (150 gram vs. 300 gram). This material, used in conjunction with male mandrels and almost 7 bar (90 PSI) of autoclave pressure, yields an incredibly stiff mast tube. “The latest Hall mast is our seventh generation system. Throughout the four years of development, we have used five different sets of mast tooling, some of which have been used only on a proprietary basis. The latest two mast iterations are minimum-width sections. Other than minimum width and optimum mast stiffness, our two most important refinements for 2006 are reduction of weight and further reduction of windage.” - For the complete story: http://valenciasailing.blogspot.com/2006/09/two-or-three-spreaders-for-tp52- masts.html ONE BOAT OR TWO? When looking at the 12 teams participating in the 32nd America's Cup, one of the easiest ways to define their differences is to look at how many new boats a team is building for the current campaign. Each of the top budget teams (think Alinghi, BMW Oracle Racing, Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand) is building the maximum two new boats as allowed by the rules. It is almost a given that any of the larger teams feel two new boats are required to win…they would never have considered doing anything less. In contrast, the smallest-budgeted teams simply can't afford to build two new boats. It's not just the construction and equipment costs of the second boat; for it to be valuable to the team, it has to be sailed hard against the first boat, and that means pretty much doubling the number of sailors on the payroll…not to mention shore crew, base size, tenders, etc. Teams in this position would include China Team and + 39 Challenge. Furthermore, it's not just money that is an issue here - it's having the money in time for the second boat to be a valuable addition. Areva Challenge and Victory Challenge both secured additional sponsorship this year, but both decided their time and efforts would be better focussed on perfecting one new boat, rather than facing the distraction of having two new boats, and not enough time to get them up to speed. It's interesting to note that many of the personnel on Victory Challenge and Areva Challenge, were in somewhat similar circumstances with their teams in the last America's Cup and in that case elected to build the second boat…is this a case of learning from experience? Finally, there is a middle group of teams (some with perhaps higher aspirations than others) who must make a tough call on whether to build the second boat or not. – Official America’s Cup website, full story: http://tinyurl.com/pb2ky DryUV NAMED MASTER DISTRIBUTOR FOR DRYSHIRT WORLDWIDE DryUV proudly brings you the entire PRO-UV protection line, including the loose-fitting Dryshirt and PermawiK, compression fit DryGuards, and athletic base layers. All are available with your company or regatta logo emblazoned on them with fade resistant ink. These garments provide 50+ UPF sun protection and have superior moisture management properties to any product on the market today. None of the other similar sounding products like Nike’s DriFit compare. No matter what the season, we’ve got you covered. Call 562-773-0552 for details on offering these private label products through your company with no set-up fees and small minimums. http://www.dryuv.com/wholesale.htm PHOTO GALLERY UPDATE Here are some of the new photos now on the Scuttlebutt website: * Hamilton Island Race Week - August 19-27, 2006 Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia - Photos by Andrea Francolini http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/06/hirw/ * Melges 24 World Championship - August 26-September 1, 2006 Hyeres, France - Photos by IMCA/Fiona Brown http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/06/m24worlds/ * 29'er US National Championship - September 1-3, 2006 San Pedro, CA - Photos by Glennon Stratton/GTS Photos http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/06/29ernatls/ * We also received photos from Nate Rosenberg showing the masthead chute that he rigged on his Club 420. Said Nate, "I made it from a J/24 spinnaker that I modified and then I also made an extendable bowsprit out of Laser spars to hold it.” Pretty cool: Click here to view. SAILING SHORTS * SailFlow.com, a provider of real-time and forecasted wind information, has added two new weather stations on the Chesapeake Bay off of Annapolis, MD. These stations are located on fixed sites in the middle of the Bay atGreenbury Point and Tolly Point, and are in addition to SailFlow's existing three sites at Sandy Point, Kent Island, and the Annapolis Buoy (The buoy was installed this Spring as a joint experiment with NOAA). * Bay-Waveland Yacht Club bested 19 other teams from the Gulf Yachting Association during the Labor Day Weekend's 86th Sir Thomas Lipton Challenge regatta in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The four-race series was sailed in the 19-foot Flying Scot spinnaker one-design. In 2004, Bay-Waveland won the competition against 23 other GYA clubs. Hurricane Katrina destroyed many yacht clubs along the Gulf Coast just before the annual Lipton Cup, canceling 2005's competition. -- Julie B. Connerley, Pensacola News Journal: http://tinyurl.com/pzcaq * (Tuesday, September 5) A 30-mile almost complete circumnavigation of the Archipelago de La Maddalena, with a light northeasterly breeze of 7-9 knots, was the feature of the second day of the 2006 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup. Super Maxis Alfa Romeo was able to claim the coveted double victory - line honours with a 9 minutes-plus margin over Wild Oats for the handicap win. Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory from Germany finished second on corrected time, followed by another German entry, Claus Peter Offen's Y3K in third and Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI in fourth. - Complete story and results: http://www.regattanews.com/event.asp?id=139 * Ecover, the world’s largest producer of ecological detergents and cleaning products, has announced its continued association with the UK solo ocean racing sailor, Mike Golding. This new partnership will take in the 2008 Vendee Globe, which will be Mike’s third participation in this prestigious solo round the world race. Golding and Ecover have also released full details of a new boat being designed by Owen Clark Design (along with Clay Oliver) for the Vendee Globe 2008. This state-of-the-art Open 60 will be built at Hakes Marine in New Zealand and is due to be launched in July 2007. - http://www.mikegolding.com BOAT SHOWS / SCUTTLEBUTT SALE Want a new boat or sails? Save thousands and buy an “Onne” print instead! 10% off your order at the Onne van der Wal Photography Gallery (at the Newport store, online, or by phone) anytime during and between the Newport and Annapolis Boat Shows. Sept.14-Oct. 9th. Mention SCUTTLEBUTT for your discount. http://www.vanderwal.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or space (letters shall be no longer than 250 words). You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot, don't whine if others disagree, and please save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, you can post your comments on the Scuttlebutt Forums, wherein we may include your submission in the newsletter. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forums: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Ed Cesare: Huzza for the Stamford Yacht Club for starting this year’s Vinyard Race in the face of weather forecasts predicting 50 kts. Rule 4 stands intact. And, three cheers for the crews of Blue Yankee, Snow Lion and particularly Lora Ann for carrying on in the face of every bit of 50 kts and completing what was a 234-mile W/L in just terrible conditions. These three were the only boats of some 54 odd entries that completed the course! Curmudgeon’s Comment: Of the 54 entries, only 26 started. Full report at http://tinyurl.com/ngtmy * From Ralph Taylor: (Re: “Barking Mad sits in pole position going into…” in Issue 2173) Pole position? In a sailboat race? Before any starting sequence? This is taking an auto-racing metaphor and stretching it out of all resemblance to truth. The plain fact is Barking Mad will have to win the “pole position” at each start and not be allowed to automatically start in the front rank at the favored end. Who writes this stuff? * From Christy Schisler: After nearly 40 years of sailing, both recreationally and professionally, I recently sold my 31’ sailboat, mainly because I can’t afford to keep it. Rising moorage, fuel and maintenance costs took pretty much all of my discretionary income. This is a big lifestyle change for me, but it made sense financially. Growing the sport? Sailing will need to be more affordable and accessible to more people, if you want widespread participation. By the way, I sold my boat to a young Mexican family who paid $5000 more than they had originally budgeted, and a year in advance of their original plans. He intends to race her in regattas along mainland Mexico, and start their two children in sailing classes. Sailing is a growing interest south of the border. * From Bill Mosher, Board Member, MCSC: Chip Croft's comments (in Issue 2172) about marketing sailing to a greater variety of ethnic people is right on and is currently being addressed across the country by Community Sailing Centers. The big problem they face in taking our sport more public is the lack of big dollars to create the necessary brick and mortar facilities. The board of directors at the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center as an example has been looking for a "corporate angel" like Roy Disney for over 20 years! We receive much needed and appreciated smaller donations but no big philanthropic gifts to be able to reach thousands of new sailors. This is true of all community centers across the country. If anyone out there has the ability to be a "corporate angel" step up to your local sailing center and give a $ gift and give something back to the sport you love! Let others feel the joy of sailing! * From John Cole: (regarding Chip Craft’s commentary in Issue 2172) Chip is living in the old school. We need to move on and invite everyone to sail and forget about Politically Correct statements like Chip's. It propagates racism. * From John Diggins: (regarding Chris Wick’s letter in Issue 2172) "a beat to windward" is not redundant. I had the privilege of sitting in on a Rules Committee meeting chaired by F. Greg Bemis many moons ago and listened to debates over the use of "a", "an", or "the" in a rule as well as a "Beat to Windward." Beating to windward is explicitly sailing the vessel's best close hauled course as compared to reaching or close reaching. A sailing vessel that can alter course to windward without luffing or slowing is not entitled to the exception covered in RRS 17. * From David Dawes: (regarding Chris Wick’s letter in Issue 2172) To flog a dead horse, why not add these gems to the redundant "beat to windward": - For free, instead of free or for nothing - The TPC, when TPC is an acronym for the Players' Championship - ATM machine CURMUDGEON’S MANTRA To love what you do and feel that it matters--how could anything be more fun? Scuttlebutt presented by Ribcraft, DryUV, and Onne van der Wal gallery. America’s Cup coverage in Scuttlebutt brought to you by UBS. |
