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SCUTTLEBUTT 3648 - Monday, August 6, 2012Scuttlebutt 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: Kaenon Polarized and Vineyard Race. 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES - SAILING EVENTS Weymouth and Portland, U.K. (August 5, 2012; Day 8) - It was the final day at the 2012 Olympic Sailing Regatta for the Finn and Star, with the Medal Race shaking up the standings in both events. In a dramatic Finn Medal Race Ben Ainslie (GBR) sealed the gold medal after finishing ahead of Jonas-Hogh Christensen (DEN) to become the most successful Olympic sailor of all time. The medal is Ainslie's fifth medal in a row and his fourth consecutive gold. He has eclipsed Paul Elvstrom (DEN) whose four gold medals from 1948-1960 had put him ahead of Ainslie before London 2012. In front of a home crowd Ainslie sailed his way to gold finishing in ninth place, one place ahead of Elvstrom's compatriot Hogh-Christensen who had to settle for silver. Both sailors ended on 46 points with Ainslie taking the gold on a higher finishing position in the Medal Race. It was a winner take all scenario Pieter Jan Postma (NED) came close to spoiling the party and taking gold, but he hit the back of Dan Slater (NZL) before the finish and did a penalty turn which saw him slip out of the medals entirely, meaning race winner Jonathan Lobert (FRA) took the bronze. Finn - Top Five 1. Ben Ainslie (GBR) - 46pts 2. Jonas Hogh-Christensen (DEN) - 46pts 3. Jonathan Lobert (FRA) - 49pts 4. Pieter-Jan Postma (NED) - 52pts 5. Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) - 55pts In the Star, Sweden's Fredrik Loof and Max Salminen won the Star Medal Race to upset the favourites and take the gold medal in a thrilling finale. Having trailed overnight leaders Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson (GBR) by 12 points ahead of the Medal Race the Swedes won by four seconds over Hamish Pepper and Jim Turner to overcome the Brits who finished eighth. The Brits had to finish sixth or better to guarantee gold but in a tense final run Norway's Eivind Melleby and Petter Morland Pedersen, America's Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih and Brazil's Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada finished less than two seconds ahead of the Brits squeezing them into eighth and down into silver medal position. The Brazilians subsequently fell into bronze medal position. Star - Top Five 1.Fredrik Loof/ Max Salminen (SWE) - 32pts 2. Iain Percy/ Andrew Simpson (GBR) - 34pts 3. Robert Scheidt/ Bruno Prada (BRA) - 40pts 4. Eivind Melleby/ Petter Morland Pedersen (NOR) - 63pts 5. Hamish Pepper/ Jim Turner (NZL) - 70pts Two qualifying races in the Women's 470, 49er, and Men's and Women's RS:X were also held on Sunday. The dominating performances of the day came from 49er leaders Nathan Outteridge/ Iain Jensen (AUS), who posted two bullets to increase their advantage to 22 points. Additionally, Dorian Van Rijsselberge (NED) won the Men's RS:X event with two races to spare after another exceptional performance today. The Dutchman won Race 9 before pulling out of Race 10 having already sewn up the gold medal. He need only now complete the Medal Race on Tuesday. NORTH AMERICA: The 24-boat Finn event concluded with 2008 silver medalist Zach Railey (USA) in 12th and Gregory Douglas (CAN) in 15th, while the 16-boat Star event saw Mark Mendelblatt/ Brian Fatih (USA) finish 7th and Richard Clarke/ Tyler Bjorn (CAN) in 12th. The medal hopes for the continent in the remaining 8 events is most likely on the shoulders of American Anna Tunnicliffe in the Women's Match Race event. Tunnicliffe and her team of Debbie Capozzi and Molly Vandemoer are the third seed in the Quarter Finals, and will face 2012 World Champion Silja Lehtinen (FIN) on Tuesday. MONDAY: Racing continues for the Men's 470 and 49er, with the Laser and Laser Radial to hold their final Medal Race. A lay day is scheduled for the Women's Match Race, Women's 470, and Men's and Women's RS:X. Southwest to westerly winds of 12 to 17 mph are forecast. ISAF news: http://www.sailing.org/olympics/london2012/news/latest_news.php Canada report: http://tinyurl.com/CYA-080512 USA report: http://tinyurl.com/USA-080512 Results/schedule: http://tinyurl.com/2012-Olympics-Results-Schedule Canada broadcast: http://tinyurl.com/bs5wqoj USA broadcast: http://www.nbcolympics.com/sailing/index.html STICK A FORK IN ME, I'M DONE Britain's Ben Ainslie became the most decorated Olympic Games sailor in history on Sunday when he captured a fourth consecutive gold medal before announcing his intention to quit. The 35-year-old, who also won silver in 1996, overtakes Denmark's Paul Elvstrom, who won four golds from 1948 to 1960 as the sport's most successful sailor. Ainslie also matched the record for most Olympic sailing medals won in total, held by Torben Grael (BRA), who won gold in 1996 and 2004, silver in 1984 and bronze in 1988 and 2000. But despite his dramatic triumph after a tense week of sailing, Ainslie said it was unlikely he will still be in a boat at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. "You can never say never but I don't think I can sail one of these again, it's killing my body so I don't think you will see me in Rio. But it's the best way to bow out at a home Olympics," said the Briton. "After six races I was in a bit of trouble, thankfully I turned things round and got it right when it counted. This was one of the hardest courses I have raced on and I don't want to do anything like that again." Read more: http://tinyurl.com/TheAge-080512 NO TIME TO REST: Ainslie will be switching from his 15-foot singlehanded Finn dinghy to a 45-foot catamaran, with only four days training between the Olympics and his first AC World Series race in San Francisco (Aug. 22-26). "I can't wait to get racing in the America's Cup World Series for the first time and with a new team. Personally, it will be a real challenge to get to grips with the powerful AC45s in a limited time frame but the guys in the team are all great sailors and have the experience to get us on the pace as quickly as possible." -- http://tinyurl.com/BAR-080512 KORE - HARD KORE - SOFT KORE Porn? No. Performance enhancers? Yes! Yanks are using them, along with Brits, Frenchies, Spaniards, Germans, Swiss, Kiwis, Canucks and others. Reading the breeze and making good decisions are paramount when hunting for a precious medal. Distinguished by Kaenon's patented SR-91 polarized lens, the original Kore, the advanced Hard Kore and smaller-fitting Soft Kore are three of the most commonly worn Kaenon styles in play this week to protect against the elements and provide performance enhancing detail for the best in the world. Legal and available off the shelf at your favorite sailing shop. Available in prescription. Kaenon Polarized. Evolve Optically. http://www.kaenon.com TOUGH WEEK FOR EVERYBODY Doug Charko is the meteorologist for the United States sailing team, which is no easy job here on the rainy and sunny, cloudy and clear, windy and still southwest coast of England. The neighboring towns of Portland and Weymouth are the home for the 10 Olympic sailing events, and while the weather here is quite often predictably unpredictable, in the past week, it was utterly confounding. A low-pressure system, Charko said, stalled over the British Isles for an unusually long time, and past computer models were of little help in figuring out when the fickle weather would move along. In one of his forecasts for the sailing team, he said the port could "serve up a dog's breakfast" of swirling wind "with big shifts and deep holes." By that, he meant it was a good idea to expect anything and everything. "Days like these, with the winds so variable, kind of take the pressure off me," he said, letting a smile be his umbrella on an intermittently rainy day. "Instead of aiming with a dart, I'm firing a shotgun." The sailing team has 16 athletes, 9 coaches, 3 physiotherapists, a psychologist, a rules expert and Charko. In the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, he worked for the Brazilians. In 2008, the Canadians. Meteorologists are now a standard part of the world's better sailing teams. "Sailboat racing still comes down to the decisions athletes make when they are on the water," said Dean Brenner, the chairman of U.S. Sailing. "But sailors also need all the input they can get. -- NY Times, read on: http://tinyurl.com/NYT-080512 KIWIS SEEKING TO CONQUER THE BAY Make way for a month of high-speed sailing on San Francisco Bay ... and that's not just the AC45 multihulls racing in the America's Cup World Series. The table has long been set by the 18ft Skiff International Regatta hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club, which will return for its 11th annual week of racing on the edge. They'll start on Monday, Aug. 27, the week after the AC45s race the first event of the final round of their worldwide competition before turning the game over to the awe-inspiring AC72s. All will be sailing the windy venue picturesquely framed by the 75-year-old Golden Gate Bridge on the west, Alcatraz Island on the north and The City on the south. That there is still room for the 18-footers with modest crews of three in the buildup to next year's big show speaks for their level of appeal, which will be enhanced this year by a mass incursion of seven competitors from a small but major nation of America's Cup accomplishment: New Zealand. The Kiwis will challenge the Australians, whose numbers are normally intimidating, not to mention Howie Hamlin from Long Beach (CA) who has won six of the 10 titles. The American will be back to defend the title he won again last year. His crew will be Matt Noble and Matt McKinlay, the latter replacing Paul Allen. Do they hope to steal some thunder from the Aussies, who created the 18ft Skiffs class? Of course. "Yes," says Graham Catley, president of the Auckland Sailing Club, the home of skiff sailing in New Zealand. "The Kiwi boats are on their way with a relatively big contingent determined to be competitive and successful. This is the biggest effort from the fleet since the 70s and 80s, and we expect to do well." -- Read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=14238 PENALIZED After dominating the 46-boat fleet in the 2012 Pacific Cup race from San Francisco to Hawaii, Andy Costello's J125 Double Trouble received a 24 hour penalty for accessing the online tracker in violation of the Sailing Instructions. "We were sorry to see this come about, and we believe that the crew of Double Trouble acted in ignorance of this restriction of the Sailing Instructions, but the rules must be followed," said Bob Gray, Race Officer. The penalty was assessed by a panel of nationally-certified judges based on the number and severity of the accesses. "It's regrettable that this provision of the instructions was overlooked by the team," added Gray. The Sailing Instructions state that... "All vessels are required to carry a Race Tracker. It shall be the responsibility of the Skipper to ensure that the transponder remains as installed or is installed according to supplied directions, and must make every effort to ensure it is functional for the entire race. "Except during an emergency, boats are restricted from receiving any data with respect to the performance or location of competitors other than that acquired by scheduled roll calls and transmissions from race committee. Access to the Race Tracking website by any means, and the information contained therein is not available to competitors for the duration of the race. Use of the website or information contained on the website is considered outside information and use of said information is violates this SI and RRS 41." The penalty, which was posted in the final race results on August 2nd, dropped Double Trouble to 5th in class and 9th overall. Details: http://www.pacificcup.org/news/02aug2012-0 WHY SHOULD YOU ENTER THIS YEAR'S VINEYARD RACE? Take part in an East Coast classic. Three courses; huge awards party; cruising division; multihull division; race tracking; Corinthian challenge; NORT qualifier and much more. Join Bruce Nelson at our skippers' meeting. Start date: August 31. Register today: http://www.stamfordyc.com. Follow us @vineyardrace PROSPECTS FADING Only five teams will likely compete in San Francisco for the America's Cup next year, organizers announced last Thursday, and critics say it's the latest sign that the event's economic impact will be substantially less than projections. Two years ago, the city predicted that hosting the competition would generate $1.4 billion in revenue, 9,000 jobs and 15 sailing teams. "It's going to be a hell of a lot smaller," said Christopher Thornberg, the founding partner of Beacon Economics, the economic forecasting firm that partnered with the city to release a 2010 economic impact report on the races. The low number of entrants doesn't come as a surprise to city officials or organizers; Mayor Ed Lee said in April that he expected only five or six teams after a French sailing team dropped out, citing the difficult economic climate. In March, city officials and race organizers backed off plans for a $111 million waterfront revitalization. Thornberg said fewer teams and discarded construction plans mean that the projected windfall for the city could drop by at least half. "It's not going to have the same overall interest, the money is going to fall, and in turn they are going to spend less on their management," he said. "We were clearly given some very optimistic ideas of what was going to happen." Though they acknowledged that they'd like to see more teams, organizers and city officials stood by their assessment that the race would bring in more than $1 billion. "Every single America's Cup since 1995, they've all exceeded that number, and I see no reason why San Francisco won't be the same," said Stephen Barclay, the chief executive of America's Cup. "There is no difference at all to the size, the scope and scale of what we were contemplating." Read more: http://tinyurl.com/SFC-080512 FAB FIVE: Team Korea was the latest to post the $200,000 entry fee by Thursday's deadline, extended from June 1. The other committed teams are defender Oracle Team USA and challengers Artemis Racing (SWE), Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), and Luna Rossa (ITA). EXPECTATIONS: "You want to under-promise and over-perform. We want to say this is going to be cool and fun and we'll see how it goes," said Tom Ehman, vice commodore of the Golden Gate Yacht Club, who is working to tamp down overblown expectations. Read more: http://tinyurl.com/SFC-080512a SCUTTLEBUTT SAILING CALENDAR Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar SAILING SHORTS * Torbole, Italy (August 4, 2012) - The 2012 Melges 24 World Championship was decided on the finish line of the final race when Carlo Fracassoli and his Gullisara team waited for their nearest rival, Alberto Bolzan's Saetta, to cross the finish line in 21st before they could be certain of victory. Sailing with helm Fracassoli was Chicco Fonda as tactician, Tano Felci on the sheets, Giovanni Ferrari at the halyards and Carlo Zermini on the bow. Norway's Oyvind Jahre and the Storm Capital Sail Racing team finished 12th, claiming victory in the Corinthian Division. The 2013 Melges 24 World Championship are in San Francisco September 30 - October 5. Full report: http://tinyurl.com/M24-080512 * Bastad, Sweden (August 5, 2012) - Defending Farr 30 World Champion Deneen Demourkas and her Groovederci (USA) did not need the final race of the 11-race series to topple the 19-boat fleet to take her second world title. Sailing with Demourkas was Cameron Appleton, Darren Jones, Dana Riley, Andrew Hudson, Kate Mckay, and Phillip Wehrheim. Martin Strandberg (SWE) finished second with James Richardson (USA) in third. Final results: http://farr30.org/world/2012-world-championship/current-results.html * Sixty teams competed in the 2012 Thistle Nationals, hosted by Mission Bay Yacht Club (San Diego, CA) on July 30-August 3. After stumbling out the gate with a seventh, Allan Terhune with crew Katie Terhune and Sam Parisi won four of the next six races to take the title. Skip Dieball, Abby Freeman, Jeff Eiber came in second with Mike Ingham, Sarah Paisley, and Kyle Finefrock third. Rounding out the top five were David Tillson, Eric Heim, and John Fretwell followed by Brent Barbehenn, Dwayne Wade, and Jess Murphy. Results: http://tinyurl.com/Thistle-080512 * Seventy-six sailors competed in the 50th North American Sunfish Championship Regatta, hosted by Lake Bluff Yacht Club August 2-4 on Lake Michigan east of the Waukegan, Illinois. Winning the 9-race series was David Mendelblatt with a ten point margin over Greg Gust, with Tom Whitehurst finishing third. Stewart Draheim, who won the Sunfish Youth North American Championship Regatta earlier in the week, finished 8th. Details: http://www.lakebluffyachtclub.org/na2012 * The Newport International Boat Show, traditionally the first show of the season at which manufacturers launch their new products, has announced its nominees for award recognition. Included in the preliminary list of entries qualified for judging are sixteen sailboats, thirteen powerboats and five new products. The Show's Opening Day is September 13, with the winners to be announced September 14. Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=14237 * Stonington, CT (August 3, 2012) - Nearly 40 kids and teenagers participated in a Junior Safety at Sea Seminar at the New England Sailing and Science Foundation. The seminar, presented by The Storm Trysail Foundation, covered big boat sailing and equipment, heavy weather sailing, man overboard planning and recovery, fire safety, flares, life rafts, and on the water training in 30-45 foot boats. The seminar is a prerequisite for the new Fishers Island Junior Overnight Race on August 10, and for other junior big boat races in the area. -- http://stormtrysailfoundation.org/ FINALLY... A FREE LUNCH! The Scuttlebutt website allows marine companies to post their personnel, product and service updates. For free. As a bonus, each week the Scuttlebutt newsletter includes some of the recent updates. Are you in the marine industry? Post your updates in the Industry News section of the Forum. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION "When I was 5 years old my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life." - John Lennon SPONSORS THIS WEEK Kaenon Polarized - Vineyard Race - North Sails - J Boats APS - IYRS - Ullman Sails - Point Loma Outfitting Need stuff? 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