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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 939 - November 7, 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.
DRY CREEK VINEYARD PRO-AM REGATTA The Curmudgeon jumped into the Laser class for the morning regatta and managed to win one race but was never a factor in the series standings. However, he found life easier in the Hobie Waves and swept the afternoon series with straight bullets. The complimentary beer at the prize giving celebration on Sunday night flowed so freely, it was a good thing that no one had to drive home after the event. No one had an easy time of it racing in the opening round of Pro-Am Series itself. The wind was much further to the right than the normal Easterly Tradewinds. This made the conditions on the BVI's North Sound so shifty that only seasoned lake sailors could have been in their comfort zones. The regatta uses a Triple Race format in Freedom 30s with the guests of the resort serving as crew. Triple Racing is a three-boat match race, with only the winner scoring a point. The second and third place boats get nothing. Each of the first four races of the Masters Division had a different winner, with Keith Musto, Butch Ullmer, Rod Johnstone and the Curmudgeon each scoring one point. Lowell North thought he'd won the last race of the day, but when he learned he'd rounded the wrong mark on the second weather leg, he withdrew giving that win to Johnstone. In the Junior Division, Robbie Haines won two races, with both JJ Isler and Ed Baird winning one. Peter Isler and Marie Bjorling were both shutout. Team Scoring: Baird & Leweck, 2 points; Haines & North, 2; JJ Isler & Ulmer, 2; Peter Isler & Johnstone, 1; Musto & Bjorling, 1. The action resumes again on Thursday morning with the Scuttlebutt Sailing Club's Championship Regatta scheduled for that afternoon. --www.beyc.com
EVERYWHERE
TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE The Transat Jacques Vabre Race HQ in Paris has just received the news that Sergio Tacchini (Fauconnier/Proffit) is retiring to home base at Port La Foret in France. They managed to detail more of their incident this morning and here is a transcript of that explanation from their shore team: The duo were up front furling the gennaker when a 40 knot gust came in and the boat luffed violently, cracking the bowsprit, which hit Karine on the head and holed the bow, ripping part of the gennaker too. Franck managed to push the bowsprit back so the boat could continue downwind sailing but then the gennaker unfurled at the top and the boat took off on a surf, and then stopped dead as the bows planted straight into the wave in front. The main sail filled out suddenly as the boat stopped and in doing so broke all the battens in one fell swoop. Franck Proffit, winner of the last Transat Jacques Vabre, did not hide their disappointment: "We were convinced our Westerly position was paying, and thought we had to hang in for just 12 more hours before escaping these terrible conditions! But we have to use our heads here and even if we could have made a stop at Lisbon it would have risked this new boat being more damaged than it already is. Also we have had to cut the lazy jack to get the main down and the goose-neck has broken." In the Open 60 Monohull fleet, Loic Pochet is the first skipper to officially abandon the race with co-skipper Patrick Tabarly, La Rage de Vivre fell victim to a broken rudder. "I was helming in 30 knots of wind, with genoa and one reef on port tack. I felt a great shock through the boat, no idea what we must have hit but the starboard rudder has just disintegrated." They got all their sails down, checked through the boat, and are heading North West, waiting for the NW breeze for them to turn towards Lorient, France. Temenos (Wavre/Paret), currently down to 10th position at 1800hrs FT polling, exploded her gennaker during last night and Wavre says it is totally irreparable. As the duo were bringing down the shreds, the boat bore away suddenly on a surf and the main sail hit the backstay, breaking the battens in the process. The seas & wind are too big for them to safely carry out batten changes so they are under genoa, staysail and main with 3 reefs. SME-Negoceane (ex-Gartmore), skippered by Spaniard Javier Sanso paired with Eric Dumont, stopped dead in the water during an 18 knot surf, to find that a whale had got itself stuck between the two rudders! Thankfully, Sanso reported no damage, which must have been a relief as he was on board when the rudder broke during the last leg of the EDS Atlantic Challenge. The 'green speed-machine' is currently in 8th position, 131 miles behind the leading boat, Ecover. Sixth placed Sollac Atlantique, skippered by two expert Figaro sailors Joe Seeten & Eric Drouglazet reported that they had torn their spinnaker as they were getting it down on the deck, finding it hard to furl. Joe, a sailmaker by profession, is attempting to repair it and they have a reserve spinnaker, but smaller. Bobst Group - Armor Lux, the transatlantic record breaking boat of Bernard Stamm, has declared that it will make a technical stop to pick up a replacement spinnaker, and no doubt will sacrife their 5th place in the fleet. Setrabio, the ex-Cray Valley, in the Open 50 class, may also make a pit-stop in Madeira as the spinnaker has wrapped itself around the forestay and cannot be unfurled, even after a mast climb. -- Mary Ambler
Multihull Fleet Positions at 1800hrs
Monohull Open 60 Fleet Leaders
Monohull Open 50 Fleet Leaders Event site: www.jacques-vabre.com
ILLBRUCK CREW GEAR
GUEST EDITORIAL In 1993 under a rule change initiated and approved by ISAF restrictions on the use of kinetics were lifted, allowing amongst others pumping of the rig. This was widely supported and applauded by the windsurfing athletes. I use the term athletes as the new rule change demanded high levels of physical fitness and this immediately became apparent in 1993. This initial year also saw a slight increase of overuse injuries as coaches and competitors were experimenting with new training programs to improve their performance, then a decrease over the years as programs became more sophisticated. Now almost 9 years later the President's statements in his Scuttlebutt August guest editorial appear to be "slightly" out of line with what is really happening. Uncontrolled pumping is still widely supported by all windsurfing classes. It is generally accepted that physical and physiological conditioning is an important part of preparing for a windsurfing campaign. I believe this is also the case in most of the Olympic sailing classes, and is inherent of the Olympic ideal. In my 12 years of professional coaching I have failed to see the doctors, masseuses and orthopods on the beach trying to revive young sailors so that they can be ready for the next race as stated in the article. I have most certainly not seen any statistical evidence that windsurfing in light winds, and the accompanied pumping, has lead to high numbers of serious injuries. It is however the case that some of the better funded Yachting Associations have started bringing physiotherapist as well as sport scientists to events to improve performance levels of their athletes, in all sailing classes. In most classes, in spite of increasingly higher fitness levels, it is still tactical decisions and sound board speed that determines the winner. It is most definitely not true that there has been an implosion in the Olympic Windsurfing Class, numbers have steadily increased and more and more younger sailors are competing as a result of a well organized class structure. This includes age group competitions. I am sure IMCO is willing to publish these numbers if there is doubt. All this leads me to ask one question. Why would the President want to put windsurfing in such a bad light? None of what he has written can be supported by scientific or even statistical data. It would surely not befit the President to express himself in such a negative way about one of the Olympic Classes under the Federation he presides over! So here is my conspiracy theory, open for discussion: As windsurfing is a popular class, well supported by both the ISAF council and ISAF MNA's, only when the class would fail to produce results at an Olympic Games would it have any chance of being removed. The easiest way to do this would be to raise the minimum wind limit, this would also pave the way for a change of equipment as to that what is at the moment used in the Formula Windsurfing (short boards that need more wind to compete). Raising this wind limit would be widely accepted and supported if indeed pumping would cause the extent of physical injuries that the President is dreaming up. With both Athens in 2004 and Qingdao in 2008 being light wind events a change of class that would not perform well in these light winds could accomplish exactly that. So then the question is, which classes has the President in mind to include in the Olympics if he succeeds to get rid of one the most popular classes? Hopefully I have got this wrong, and a statement to that effect by the president would be highly appreciated so that MNA's and athletes can continue to invest in a healthy future for windsurfing. For a president who claims to speak on behalf of the sailors I am sure the current Olympic class windsurfers would be delighted to see him at one of their events and put to rest any of the perceived problems that were expressed in the article.
Rene Appel,
Reply from Paul Henderson, ISAF President:
VOLVO OCEAN RACE South Africa's boat-building community received a major boost when it was confirmed that Roy Heiner, former skipper of Assa Abloy, would be part of a South African bid to compete in the next Volvo Ocean Race, slated for 2005-2006. The announcement of the intention to enter a syndicate in the next race was made at a two-day boat-building symposium hosted as part of this year's stopover in Cape Town. A strong global team has been put together to manage this bid, consisting of some of the biggest names in yachting in Cape Town today. Significantly it includes David Gant, chairman of Boat Partners South Africa, Lars Ahren, a veteran of four previous Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Race syndicates, Manly Hopkinson, a former round the world skipper and marine engineer, and Ian Douglas, chief executive of the Cape Town International Convention Centre Company. Bruce Parker-Forsyth, the Chairman of the Cape Town stopover will also join the board to handle the sales, promotion and marketing activities required by the initiative. -- www.volvooceanrace.org
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Alan Blunt: It seems the current thread about protests being open to the public is very relevant to the astounding decision in the illbrook VO60 protest. Would they have reached the same decision if their reasoning was out for public review? Last weekend my young niece participated in an extremely light air Sabot regatta at which the rules covering ooching, sculling, giving room and hitting marks did not seem to apply. Like all the other kids trying to play by the rules, she decided not to protest because she knew how futile it probably was and couldn't see the point in making the effort. Are these kids taking lessons from the big guys? * From Charles Smith: We have been doing open protest hearing at Lac Deschenes Sailing Club for several years. They are, as stated, an excellent way for innocent bystanders to gain some insight into the rules. Entertaining too as you sit on the deck sipping a "beverage" with the dinghies all put away. There are two downsides we have found. Somebody has to be strict about limiting the kibitzing from bystanders. This can make hard feelings for a while. The other is that if the protest committee works in public it exposes the fact that they have to consult and search the rule book. Serving on an open protest hearing means leaving your ego at the non-existent door. * From Tom Donlan: Arbitration before a single judge is a really good way to handle most protests, and the time limit idea that the Albacores in Toronto use also sounds good. But most arbitration systems seem to call for excluding the arbitrator from the three-person jury, should one of the parties wish to take the case on to a full-blown protest hearing. It seems foolishly legalistic to exclude the arbitrator just because he or she already knows something about the case. In fact, the arbitrator's opinion would carry more weight with the parties if the loser in arbitration knew that it would be necessary to convince both the other jurors in order to prevail. The problem with arbitration is that it's usually limited to large regattas, where more than three judges are available. It would be nice if it could be available at "regular" events, where ignorance of the rules and reluctance to protest are really problems. * From Yves Arrouye: The discussions regarding Rule 90 (have fun), about people not protesting, and about the so-called penalty for illbruck's illegal modification of their boat, are all related. It is not fun to protest. It is not fun to change the winner after (s)he has been named. And spectators do not understand it. The Volvo Ocean Race is not only targeted at hardcore racers, but is used to communicate with a vast public that has no idea about all these "technicalities." We thought one-design racing was going to eliminate the problems for the non-racing public by having a winner known in real-time. But all problems were not solved. In the case of illbruck, I understand why it was hard to change the published race results. But juries may have other options, like a time handicap on the start of the next leg. This wouldn't have changed already publicized information, would have put some real penalty in the verdict (if indeed that was the right thing to do), and has been done before I believe.
ACURA SORC WEBSITE GOES LIVE In its 61st year, the Acura SORC will be raced off Miami Beach, March 6-10, 2002. The regatta once again features racing on ocean courses with all shore side activities headquartered at the Miami Beach Marina.
AROUND ALONE RETURNS TO NEWPORT Ownership of Around Alone, a 28,800-mile solo circumnavigation sailing race, was acquired by Clipper Ventures in April 2001. Held every four years, the 2002 event will be the sixth since the race's inception. Clipper Ventures and Newport will enter into three profit-sharing deals relating to local merchandising, local sponsorship, and a waterfront festival timed to coincide with the September starting date. Newport will be providing Clipper Ventures with extensive goods and services including moorings, race offices, media facilities. The deadline for entries has been set at March 2002. Over 20 distinguished, lone sailors from 12 countries have already registered. From the Newport start-line they will race across the Atlantic and stop over on the English south coast. They will then proceed to Cape Town, South Africa; New Zealand, and Salvador, Brazil. Competitors are expected back in Newport in spring 2003. -- www.clipper-ventures.com
QUOTES FROM BOATS: TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE Jacques Caraes, Bonduelle: The sea-state is horrible. You have to have one hand on the sheets and the other on the helm & stay totally on the ball - so no sleep for either of us last night. We've put all the sails and food - the heavy stuff - towards the back of the boat to lighten the bows. We are now positioning ourselves more in the West to keep up this performance for the next few hours. Mark Turner, Casto-Darty-But: We have a few electrics problems including a short which means the instruments keep re-setting themselves suddenly - no good when you are half way down a wave and the only gauge you have (true wind angle) blacks out!" Miranda Merron, UUDS: We really enjoyed having to furl the spinnaker in 28 knots of wind...then the gennaker in 38 knots! The NKE system no longer works and stern ballast has sprung a leak but all is okay otherwise!
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