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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 938 - November 6, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE Behind, the pack is chasing hard, and Fujifilm (Peyron/Le Mignon) trails by just 0.4 miles. Back up in third place earlier this morning was Sergio Tacchini (Fauconnier/Proffit). The new generation multihulls are dominating the leading group, however the proven trimaran Kingfisher-Foncia (Gautier/MacArthur) has been match-racing fiercely with Sergio Tacchini, and by mid-morning had pulled ahead. The gap between the leader and 14th placed Pindar Systems (Richards/Von Koskull) is around 97 miles. In the monohull fleet, the trio of Sill Plein Fruit (Jourdain/Le Cleach), Casto-Darty-But (Moloney/Turner) and Voila.fr (Gallay/De Pavant) have been within 2 miles of each other after round Ushant and keeping up similar speeds at around 15 - 16 knots, the top spot changing between them every two hours. Ecover (Golding /Hutchinson) is furthest to the West of the fleet but reaching speeds on a par with the leaders, if not fractionally better. The battle between old and new boats wages at the top of the Open 50 fleet as well, with One Dream, One Mission (Bennett/Larsen) gaining a 9 mile advantage over the new 50 footer Saving (Le Youdec/Bacave). The high pressure system dominates the Atlantic at 50 degrees parallel, prolonged by a dorsal which stretches over the Channel. The fleet will benefit from a North Easterly breeze under this ridge, but it should descend towards the Bay of Biscay at the same pace. The multi's will stay ahead, but those boats at the tail end will see a wind shift to the Northwest. The wind strength should reach 15 - 20 knots for the leaders, and we'll start to see the trimaran fleet separating in longitude as they begin to gybe in the Northeasterly breeze. -- Mary Ambler
Top five positions, 1500 GMT November 11 (after the report above was filed,
Fujifilm took the lead from Belgacom)
Monohulls: Complete information on the event site (in both French and English): http://www.jacques-vabre.com
WINTER TOY STORAGE
VOLVO OCEAN RACE In the last few days the McDonalds' assets have grown from one Volvo Ocean 60, to two. Next Sunday, they will square up against each other on the Cape Town start line (for leg two) as rival skippers, a first in the 30-year history of the former Whitbread race. Neal has been thrust into the limelight as he takes over as co-skipper of ASSA ABLOY from the highly rated Dutchman Roy Heiner. Lisa continues to lead the Nautor Challenge women's team on Amer Sports Too. This will be Neal's third circuit of the globe but his first as skipper with any sailing campaign.Ê He was a valued and respected crewmember for the 1997-1998 Silk Cut Whitbread campaign and on Grant Dalton's maxi catamaran, Club Med, winner of The Race at the beginning of this year. Neal's task is now to pull together a talented, experienced and driven team that started the event as favourites but came into Cape Town a lacklustre fifth. His new position as skipper is for the rest of the Volvo Ocean Race but, given the circumstances, will be confirmed in Sydney following leg two. Mrs McDonald also has a challenging task as she attempts to lift her all - female crew from bottom of the rankings against seven other more experienced crews over a leg that will benefit the hardened veterans. But Lisa's team have already proved they are fast learners. For better or for worse, Mr and Mrs McDonald will certainly have plenty to reminisce over with any children for years to come. -- http://www.volvooceanrace.org
ORACLE'S LOSS - VOR'S GAIN? Taking a non-America's Cup job could be an option for Cayard. McDonald knows his own promotion is only for the second leg in the Volvo Race and after that, and the fourth-leg Southern Ocean stage, there will be a high premium on the boat-to-boat tactical sailing which is Cayard's forte.
In speaking to Cayard, Assa Abloy's team managers will be aware that he is a
director of boatbuilders Nautor Swan, whose affiliate, Nautor Challenges,
have fielded the entries of Grant Dalton's Amer Sports One and Lisa
McDonald's Amer Sports Too.
SYDNEY TO HOBART RACE The 57th Sydney Hobart Yacht Race has attracted a strong fleet of ocean racing yachts from around the world and most Australian states, with more than 80 boats nominated by Friday evening's deadline for applications to enter the 2001 blue water classic. The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia welcomed the strong response by yacht owners for the race despite rising costs. The CYCA has received nominations from yachts representing Sweden, New Zealand, Poland and the USA as well as the eight Volvo Ocean 60s representing Australia, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Italy and the Bahamas. This is one of the biggest international contingents in the history of the 630 nautical mile race down the Australian East Coast and across Bass Strait to the island State of Tasmania. The CYCA has confirmed that it sought some underwriting support from the NSW Government to ensure that the race could go ahead. "We are a non-profit sporting Club charged with running one of the World's most significant yachting challenges, " CYCA Vice Commodore Martin James said today. "It is for us an expensive event to run, particularly with increasing safety costs and a difficult insurance market", he said. "The race has for some years relied on sponsorship revenue. We must commit substantial resources now to run a safe race, but our efforts to secure a sponsor have not yet reached a satisfactory conclusion. "Whilst we expect our efforts to be successful, it would be irresponsible for the Club and its officers to proceed, without some assurance as to its overall financial position," he added. Referring to the Club's request for fallback underwriting support, Vice Commodore James said: "In circumstances where the Government was prepared to risk many times that amount to secure the Volvo Ocean Race coming to New South Wales, we are most surprised that the Premier and the Treasurer cannot see the benefit to New South Wales of this annual classic which began in 1945. The CYCA confirmed that the Tasmanian Government had offered some support, and that the Club will be speaking further with that Government to see what more may be able to be done to defray race costs. -- Peter Campbell
COLD WEATHER SAILING
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (dmccreary@boats.com - Guest Editor sitting in
while Tom's at the Bitter End YC for the Pro-Am) * From Peter O. Allen, Sr.: I find the jury in the protest concerning Illbruck's modified S-Drive to be accommodative, at best. When is a modified one-design still a one-design? When the jury says it is, I guess. It really is easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission. If the folks who prepared Illbruck really believed they had done no wrong, they would have notified the measurer. They didn't. But maybe it's hard for a jury in a commercially-sponsored race to ding the winner too hard. Gotta run. I need to sign-up for a refresher in Ethics 101. There seems to be a wide gap that I missed the first time through.
* From Tim Broughton: The Albacore fleet of Toronto has been using a "short"
protest hearing for several years now. With 50+ boats on the start line of
a short course every Friday night, we needed a fast way to handle protests.
The way it works, more or less: Drawbacks: The committees make mistakes, so that is why there is an appeal process. Some protests may be won or lost because the presenter is less articulate and confident. Benefits: The limited duration of the protest makes it much easier to find sailors willing to sit on the committees. The people involved in the protest must be concise in presenting their a rguments. Everyone involved can make it to the pub before closing time. Results: Most protests are a result of one of the parties being confused about a rule or its application, so they are easily decided within the time limit. Despite being an easier process, there has not been an increase in the number of protests being filed. The decisions of the committees are accepted - as far as I am aware, only two protests have been appealed. This system will not satisfy the needs of a World Championship regatta, but for most racing, it's sufficient. * From George Bailey: I realize that it is partly in jest to say that open protest hearings might be the "best Entertainment Value in the Clubhouse." The problem is that for a few racers, at least, these matters can be extremely serious. And unlike the real courts this is a process, expecially at the local level, where the people hearing the protest are in no ways "experts." Enabling everyone to second-guess each detail of the hearing in virtue of "being there" will have its educational value. But I wonder about the overall impact on morale, the acceptance of the finding, feelings towards friends who spoke against one in response to comments from the other side, failure to put one's case strongly "why didn't you tell them that ... " etc., the possibilities are endless. I think it is in part because this is not being done by "professionals" that is is better done in private.
SWEDISH MATCH TOUR LEADERS TOP ISAF RANKINGS Peter Holmberg used his win at the recent Colorcraft Gold Cup to move up the ISAF rankings two positions to his present number two spot. Prada Challenge's Gavin Brady also saw his world ranking rise, moving up three spots to number 17. Brady was a tough luck loser at the recent Colorcraft Gold Cup, posting his fourth runner-up finish on the Swedish Match Tour. -- Shawn McBride
Top ten, latest ISAF Match Race Rankings:
Complete rankings at http://www.sailing.org/matchrace/mrranking.asp
THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION |
