SCUTTLEBUTT No. 742 - February 1, 2001

Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome.

VENDEE GLOBE - By Philippe Jeantot
The battle for the crown continues between the two leaders of the Vendˇe Globe, Michel Desjoyeaux (PRB) and Ellen MacArthur (Kingfisher), both probably unaware that, because of their incredibly close match after 84 days circumnavigating the planet, the Vendˇe Globe has come under the microscope of thousands more people worldwide.

Michel Desjoyeaux (PRB) has squeezed out a few more precious miles over Ellen in the same 15 knot North Easterly breeze, showing that even his fractionally superior speed of 0.8 knots can make a difference over 12 hours. Who will have the last word? Desjoyeaux indeed told the Race HQ that he had one final weapon in the shape of a head sail specially tailored for this upwind stretch. PRB's skipper has kept this sail in his hold all the way round wisely waiting for the moment to hoist and hopefully accelerate away from any potential rival.

Ellen did a while back admit to having lost certain sails, notably the use of her gennaker, which she hoped to repair at the time. However, since this incident we have heard no news on the state of this sail, the young British skipper probably not wanting to divulge such information to her rivals. The current difference in their boat speeds is perhaps showing these first indications of the condition and effectiveness of their respective sail inventory.

STANDINGS- January 31 @ 0700hrs (UT): 1 PRB Michel Desjoyeaux, 2748 miles from finish, 2. Kingfisher, Ellen MacArthur, 77 miles behind leader, 3. Active Wear, Marc Thiercelin, 336 mbl, 4. Sill Matines & La Potag¸re. Roland Jourdain, 362 mbl, 5. Union Bancaire Privˇe, Dominique Wavre, 878 mbl, 6. Sodebo Savourons la Vie, Thomas Coville, 993 mbl. - http://www.vendeeglobe.com

THE RACE
Thirty-one days ago the adventure known as The Race began. Today, Day 31, sees leader Club Med blazing toward Cook Strait at speeds of 23 knots. In between, The Race has provided daily drama and action to captivate followers around the world.

A month ago, 23,000-plus miles laid before the competitors. Today, at 1900 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), just under 12,000 miles to the finish remained for Club Med. Its average speed, near 19 knots, is faster than the 17 knots estimated on paper for a 60-day circumnavigation.

A month ago, questions were abundant as to the reliability of these boats in the open ocean. Although there have been some instances of damage, most notably aboard Team Adventure, race director Denis Horeau reported few instances of concern.

"The breakage situation is satisfactory after one month into the race and more than 12,000 sea miles, even more so when you consider that some of the boats were launched just a month before the start," he said.

A month ago, many believed these boats were speedsters, but no one quite knew how much they could be pushed. Since the start, the three new Gilles Ollier-designed 110-foot sisterships, running 1-2-3 in the race, have all logged 600-mile days, with Team Adventure the pole sitter after logging 617.44 miles on Jan. 17. - Sean McNeill, for Quokka Sports.

Positions at 1900 GMT: 1. Club Med, 11,995.3 miles to the finish, 2. Innovation Explorer, +762.8 miles, 3. Team Adventure, +4,245.2 miles, 4. Warta-Polpharma, +4,827.8 miles, 5. Team Legato, +6,180.2 miles.

* Two weeks ago Grant Dalton stated that he wanted Club Med to have a 1000-mile lead as he went through the Cook Straits. A lead of this much represents about two days sailing, something that would allow Club Med to use up the mandatory 48 hours in case a pit stop for repairs was required and still restart in front. With less than two days to go to the most significant milestone so far in The Race, Club Med doesn't need to make a pit stop and maintains a lead of more than 30 hours over Lo•ck Peyron's Innovation Explorer.

Grant Dalton made these comments earlier today: "The amazing thing with these boats compared to Whitbread monohulls is the ability to travel at the same speed as the weather systems. If we hadn't needed to turn left to sail up to the Cook Straits we could have stayed with this depression all the way to Cape Horn. As it is we will probably get out the other side of the Straits and hook into the system that Innovation Explorer is sailing with now, 700 miles behind us. This will allow us to keep one system ahead of them, if all goes well..." - www.catamaran.clubmed.com

* From Skip Novak (Innovation Explorer) "Now we know what Grant [Dalton, Club Med skipper] was making all the fuss about! After our first 24 hours in what I would call a real Southern Ocean seaway, the score is: One broken daggerboard, starboard side casquette shattered (luckily me and the missus sleep to port) and the other bomb bay door for the life-raft locker broke in two and fell off, despite a rope lashing.

"Not bad going during our first 600 [nautical] mile day (605 to be precise, and I wish we hadn't been so reluctant to shake out those reefs this morning as we would easily have had The Race record), which included breaking the clipper-ship record from The Cape [Point] to Cape Leeuwin, at seven days, 14 hours 10 minutes.

"One thing we can say is that the boat is getting lighter with every piece of gear that falls off it. And its not that we pushed too hard, either. We had wind speeds up to 45 knots, but mainly between 35 and 40 with a fair, old confused sea running up our port quarter.

"Last night we reduced to a staysail and three reefs and we were well in control, pushing continually on 30 knots. The fact is, in these conditions, no matter what sail configuration you have up, you are going to smash into waves with the main and aft beams. No getting around it." NOW Sports website, http://www.now.com/feature.now?cid=997704&fid=1243493

* Pounding to windward in the Roaring Forties - that has been the fate of the American catamaran Team Adventure for the past two days as her frustrated sailors have slammed and banged their way upwind on their voyage around the World.

"Beating (sailing to windward) across the Indian Ocean! That's what's up, and it's not much fun!" skipper Cam Lewis reported yesterday from the 110-foot catamaran, now well east of the Cape of Good Hope. After heading northeast, we have tacked onto port and now we are sailing southeast in the right direction. But we are still on the wind. We have a full main and staysail up but it still feels kind of like a bad movie. We can't change the show, and our sisters, Club Med and Innovation Explorer keep legging out." - http://www.TeamAdventure.org

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AMERICA'S CUP
New Zealand - Four members of the so-called family of five America's Cup sponsors are back on board for Team New Zealand's defence of the trophy in 2003. Lion Nathan, Lotto, Telecom and Toyota are likely to announce their commitment within the next week. However, as foreshadowed last year, Television New Zealand's involvement with the family of five is now at an end.

TVNZ - which provided extensive coverage of the 1999 cup defence but contributed no cash - is relinquishing its place enabling Team New Zealand to replace it with a much-needed cash sponsor. Reliable estimates put the revised cost of Team New Zealand's 2003 campaign at between $80 million and 85 million (NZ dollars).

Two or three major companies are understood to be vying for the vacant spot. TVNZ will continue to provide local coverage of the America's Cup, while the ESPN network will broadcast the event internationally. Sources told The Independent the rights-based ESPN deal will bring in more money than the other sponsorship deals. - Jon Stephenson, Independent Business Weekly (NZ)

LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net)
(Letters selected to be printed may be edited for clarity, space (250 words max) or to exclude unfounded speculation or personal attacks. This is not a bulletin board or a chat room - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. We don't publish anonymous letters, but will withhold your e-mail address on request.)

* From: Alan L Johnson <flyercanvas@juno.com> Other hints to make the sticky Dacron hold better: Use a plastic squeegee like those used to apply vinyl graphics or spread resin to press the patch onto the repaired area. This will squeegee out small air bubbles and get a tighter bond. Another tool to try is a 1-inch wide wallpaper roller. Push hard to force more of the adhesive onto the base fabric. For spinnaker rips that are often long and jagged, use small pieces of masking tape at 4 to 6 inch intervals to align the two sides of the rip. They can be repositioned easily to correct alignment errors then use sticky Dacron on both sides for the repair.

* From: Philip Gage We are close to the stage when the introduction of the 2001 rule book will have to be postponed until 2002. This is because event organisers do not have access to the new rules and cannot yet start writing their sailing instructions. It is all very well publishing the rules of part 2 early, but these are not referenced in sailing instructions, it is the other parts and the appendixes that need to be out first.

Many events, such as the Warsash Spring Series start in March and carry through until the end of April. Their sailing instructions need to be completed shortly to meet the printing deadlines.

It seems that ISAF have lost the plot this year in publishing the new rulebook. Four years ago, with much more radical changes they did so much better. For 90% of sailors the most important thing that ISAF do is to publish the rules. By this delay ISAF has negated the very reason for its existence. Given the regulations that only allow drafting amendments in the final year there seems to be a lacking of either determination or competence that failed to have the full rules on the ISAF website by the new year.

* From: " Bill Elmer" <svanomaly@hotmail.com> I have a SC 50 in Seattle and in our usually dank winters I keep a dehumidifier running about 1/2 time. It does a GREAT job keeping the interior of the boat dry, mold away, electronics and engine dry, cushions unsmelly etc. In the warmer months it will actually dry out the bilges. But now I wonder, by having in effect a "humidity" or moisture gradient from the wet outside to the dry inside, am I potentially forcing more moisture into the hull? On the other hand, let's assume there is a maximum water uptake in a wet sailed hull (that is, a boat just doesn't keep taking on water because if it did it would eventually sink), it seems there might actually be a benefit to drying the interior and thereby lightening the boat. That all said, if the moisture gradient issue is moderate, I'd still probably opt to use the dehumidifier because my wife and crew appreciate sailing a dry, warm boat.

* From: Russell Burke - Implicit in Mr. Taylor's assumption that a 1% difference in straight line speed translates into a 36 sec advantage to the dry sailed boat over 5 nm is that neither boat makes boathandling or tactical errors - one duffed tack and all bets are off.

For most club and regional racing (which is probably where most competitive sailing occurs) weight difference appears trivial until absorption begins to exceed about 2% of the weight of the boat - crew weight variance can be greater (to touch on another recent Scuttlebutt thread). One often sees boats at regattas carrying extra gear (stereo, beer, etc) that weighs more than 2% absorbed water. A "wet" boat normally configured to weigh class min might be better off carrying weight in the hull than a "dry" boat carrying optional equipment to make min boat weight.

Finally, there are two J/24 fleets in the Chicago area - one entirely wet-sailed and the other entirely dry-sailed. When these fleets meet in competition, there is no apparent correlation between performance and whether a boat is sailed wet or dry. Boat-handling, sail trim, and tactics are certainly bigger determinants of success than whether I use VC Epoxy (dry-sail) and the guy up the street uses VC17 (wet-sail).

CURMUDGEON'S QUESTIONS: How many of the top ten boats at the 2000 J/24 US National, North American or World Championship regattas were wet-sailed? And of the 70+ boats at last year's Etchells' Worlds in San Diego, how many had anti-fouling bottom paint? And how many of the 37 Farr 40s at the recently concluded Key West Race Week are regularly wet sailed? I have no way of knowing for sure, but I'd guess the answer to all of those questions is . NONE. Hmmm!

IT'S NOW OFFICIAL
January 31, 2001 - A British challenge for the 31st America's Cup was officially announced today. GBR Challenge Company Ltd (GBR Challenge), the first British challenge since 1987, has been set up by computer internetworking I.T. entrepreneur and pioneer, Peter Harrison, following the sale of his company Chernikeeff Networks, to Dimension Data Holdings Plc for a total of £300 million in July 1999 and August last year.

Harrison has taken on the management of GBR Challenge and has personally subscribed all of the initial share capital and loan finance to date, amounting to £6.4 million. No British design or sailing team has had any experience of building a yacht under the current IACC class rule, which was first developed in 1992. Harrison having run his own high technology businesses for 24 years realized that a number of key strategic actions were required to ensure that a British entry could quickly gain some "catch up know how" on IACC designs. Key actions taken by Harrison include:

* Harrison has purchased two 2000 generation, plus one 1995 International America's Cup Class (IACC) yachts which competed in the last America's Cup challenge rounds in New Zealand in January 2000. These yachts were bought from the former Nippon Challenge Syndicate together with six 40ft containers comprising the necessary support equipment and are currently being shipped from Japan to the United Kingdom.

* GBR Challenge has also signed up the two former Nippon Challenge senior design engineers, Taro Takahashi and Akihiro Kanai who have both been fully involved with the Nippon Challenge America's Cup campaigns in 1992, 1995 and 2000. Together with Jo Richards, a bronze medallist in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and Derek Clark who was involved in formulating the IACC rule in 1992, they will form the Technical Design Group.

* To shorten the learning curve Harrison has recruited New Zealander David Barnes as General Manager. Barnes, three times 470 World Champion, has been involved in all the previous five America's Cup campaigns.

* To develop the new generation sailing talent, Harrison has appointed Ian Walker, double silver medallist at the 1996 Atlanta and Sydney 2000 games, as Sailing Team Manager and authorized him to recruit the best of British sailors. Members signed up to date include: Andy Beadsworth, Ian Budgen, Mark Covell, Simon Fry, Andy Green, Neal Macdonald, Chris Mason, Guy Reid, Julian Salter, Mark Sheffield, James Stagg, Adrian Stead, Richard Sydenham, Jonathon Taylor and Jim Turner. In addition, Iain Percy is considering an offer to become a part-time team member, to enable him to concentrate on his future Olympic campaign.

* Harrison has acquired the lease of the Base Eight compound in the Viaduct Basin in Auckland, initially secured by Chris Gordon of Sunsail. The compound will serve as the GBR Challenge base in New Zealand to which the two 2000 former Nippon Challenge boats will be shipped after competing in the America's Cup 150th Jubilee regatta to be held in Cowes in August. This will enable the GBR Challenge Sailing Team to continue their two boat training programme in the Haruki Gulf waters, gaining valuable experience in the competition location prior to the arrival of the new GBR Challenge IACC 2002 yacht in early summer 2002.

* To aid and test the technical design groups research and design concepts for the new IACC yacht, Harrison has commissioned a testing programme to be carried out by the Wolfson Marine Unit in Southampton and The Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) in Gosport. GBR Challenge will be constructing a number of quarter size models (18 foot long) and submitting them to the DERA testing tanks for evaluation. Sessions have been reserved throughout 2001 and 2002.

Harrison stated the opportunities for other investors and sponsors to come on board: "I have set up a syndicate that will be on the start line for the Louis Vuitton Challenger series for the 31st America's Cup. I estimate that the total campaign costs will be in excess of £17 million (approx $25 million) for a one boat campaign. - Mark Bullingham, www.gbrchallenge.com

RIGHT NOW
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