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SCUTTLEBUTT 2302 – March 16, 2007Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is distributed each weekday, with support provided by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, Defender of the 32nd America's Cup (http://www.ubs.com/sailing). WRITTEN IN THE WIND The temperature is sweltering, there isn't a single cloud in the sky. Emirates Team New Zealand's black boats are thundering across the Mediterranean in a sea breeze when all of a sudden one latches on to an unexpected wind shift and edges ahead. Team New Zealand's wind spotter, Adam Beashel, said at first he was mystified by such shifts. To a certain degree he still is, but he has accepted they are part and parcel of racing in Valencia. "When you get a sea breeze it looks similar all over yet, it is very shifty," he said. "You think you are sailing along hazy, dazy and next minute the other guy is in two knots more pressure and a shift. There is not a cloud in the sky and the breeze on the water hasn't changed. You are looking, scratching your head wondering 'what the hell made that happen'?" As for the effect such shifts will have on the racing, Beashel said there would be plenty of tacking duels. "Even if you are thinking 'it looks good here, we are happy to minimise the amount of tacks we do', you know there could be something random coming along, so it makes you cover the other team more tightly." -- New Zealand Herald, full story: http://tinyurl.com/3at8dp COLLEGE SAILING CONFLICT The ICSA College Nationals Berth Allocation list went out across the newsline last week in a timely fashion and stirring some controversy among the districts. The announcement of the slight changes of the allocations is surely unintentionally timed during the weekend of Selection Sunday for the NCAA Basketball National Championship Tournament, but the parallel selection systems do deserve some comparison. The Coed Dinghy Nationals Berth Allocation System is called into question, and perhaps the system is ready for an overhaul. Dismay spread across some of the District’s email lists as well as the ICSA list particularly regarding the loss of one of the two automatic bids previously enjoyed by the Pacific Coast Conference. Because the number of active teams in the South Atlantic District has recently increased and surpassed the number of schools active in the Pacific Coast District, SAISA’ s berths were upped from one to two automatic berths. Normalcy is apparently disrupted across the board for all the districts. -- Read on for how Andrew Campbell sees this change affect the allocation of at-large bids, and his suggest to overhaul the whole system: http://tinyurl.com/354jn2 * The Sailing World College Rankings as of March 15, 2007 are now available online, where Yale leads the coed teams, and Charleston tops the women's: http://tinyurl.com/36tvf4 CUSTOMS ALERT - USVI The new requirement by Homeland Security that U.S. Citizens must have valid passports to gain entry to the U.S. Virgin Islands might now be well known, but another new, less-publicized, requirement may not, and for non-U.S. citizens wanting to gain entry to the U.S. Virgin Islands for the International Rolex Regatta, there might be problems getting through the front gate. The law states that non-U.S. citizens arriving on a non-commercial vessel--for example, a private sailboat-- must have a visa. (Note: if you come by way of a commercial vessel--for example, by plane or ferry-- a valid passport will still suffice for non-U.S. citizens.) This may cause unexpected inconveniences for boats being delivered by non-U.S. citizens for the International Rolex Regatta, which runs March 23-25 in St. Thomas, USVI. The normal procedure is for the boat and its crew to stop at Cruz Bay in St. John, USVI, check in to the Customs Office there, and then proceed to St. Thomas. But again, if a non-U.S. crewmember is aboard without a visa, he or she and the boat will be turned away. "The solution for those without visas is to re-route to West End, Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands," said International Rolex Regatta Co-Chair John Sweeney, "and take the 20 minute ferry ride to the St. John Customs Office. Since you came by commercial ferry, the customs office will stamp your passport and allow you to enter the U.S. Virgin Islands or even to re-enter at St. John aboard the private vessel--but you must have the documentation saying that you've been cleared." Sweeney says the St. Thomas Yacht Club is on standby to assist with questions and has made arrangements to privately ferry sailors back to West End from St. John, should they need it, after they've cleared customs. Contact Sweeney at 340-998-2754 or Bill Canfield at the St. Thomas Yacht Club, 340-775-6320. FREE NORTH SAILS HAT North Sails has added new clothing and accessories for Spring to Air Necessities, including Camp Shirts for men & women, Canvas Handbags and North Sails Sandals in new colors. Scuttlebutt readers who spend $65 or more (excluding tax & shipping) until March 23 will receive a free North Sails hat when you write the word "Scuttlebutt" in the comments box during check-out. Head North today: http://na.northsails.com/an/AN_catalog.taf?_function=list&category=46 YOUTH DEVELOPMENT TEAM ANNOUNCED (March 15, 2007) US Sailing has chosen six talented sailors to the US Elite Youth Development Sailing Team, which was created this year. These young athletes – all under 21 years old -- have been identified as future Olympian prospects in the Laser and Laser Radial classes. This year, three Laser Full Rig sailors and three Laser Radial sailors have been selected from a pool of over 60 candidates. The members of the 2007 US Elite Youth Development Sailing Team are: Emily Billing (Clearwater, Fla.), Anne Haeger (Lake Forest, Ill.), Sarah Lihan (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), Luke Lawrence (Palm City, Fla.), Kyle Rogachenko (Collegeville, Pa.) and Fred Strammer (Nokomis, Fla.). US Sailing created the US Elite Youth Development Sailing Team this year to provide a national coaching, educational, administrative and financial support structure for the country’s top youth sailors and future Olympic prospects in the Laser and Laser Radial. These athletes will travel to major international regattas with the guidance of elite-level coaches in order to gain more competitive sailing experience against the best in the world. In order to qualify for the Team, sailors must be younger than 21 years old. "The Elite Youth Development Team identifies the best, young sailors in the USA and provides an opportunity for them to gain further experience in international-level sailing," said High Performance Director and Head Coach Gary Bodie (Hampton, Va.). "We plan to share our hard-won lessons on competing abroad." -- Full details: http://www.ussailing.org/olympics/EYDT/2007/team.asp LIGHTNING SOUTHERN CIRCUIT What’s pink and white and bruised all over? Pale-skinned Northern Lightning sailors after two days in Miami’s plentiful breeze and tropically sunny conditions. The mid-week Miami Midwinter Championships drew 59 Lightnings to Coral Reef Yacht Club, including 45 boats continuing on from Savannah’s Deep South Regatta. Quantum Racing’s Skip Dieball won with a very consistent set of finishes (2,4,8,2,2 for 18 total). Dieball, who stayed with many-time World Snipe Champion Augie Diaz, said he took advantage of the “Old Man Express.” That is, according to “Old Man Diaz” (Augie’s dad Gonzalo), when the wind comes from 115 degrees or higher on Biscayne Bay, go left until lay-line, go a little more, and then chug on into the mark. Seems to have worked great for Skip, his brother Ernie, and fore-decker Anne Marie Shewfelt. Deep South winner David Starck finished second with 26 points in total. – The Lightning has one more stop on their Southern Circuit. After completing events in Savannah, GA and Miami, FL, they now are heading to St Petersburg, FL for their final event this weekend. -- Read on for the full report: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/LightningCircuit VIDEO OF THE WEEK We spotted this video on the ‘Mr Boat Blog’, and chose it as much for the music as for the action. The British Spitfire Class Association produced this 3:24 minute video, where the Spitfire catamaran demonstrates its ability for both high-speed action and pitchpoling destruction. Titled ‘Trouble’, it is set to music of the same name by Pink, which will hopefully pass the muster at your place of business, and will surely sound nice through your multi-speaker home system. Also, if you have a video you like, please send us your suggestions for next week’s Video of the Week. Click here for this week’s video: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/07/0312 * While not sailing related, this video is worth a look. Earlier this week, an angry whale knocked a Japanese fisherman out of his small boat while he was trying to rescue the whale, which had strayed out of open waters. The body of the fisherman was later discovered by divers, and pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. The whale than started to thrash and threw two other fishermen from another boat into the water as well. Nasty: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=764_1173795959 * The BMW Oracle Racing website has a helmet-cam video of a recent skydiving jump over the America's Cup harbor in Valencia, taken by shore team member Pete Balash. If you are looking for some aerial footage of the area, here it is: http://bmworacleracing.twoday.net/stories/3316285 SAILING SHORTS * Hall Spars & Rigging will be one of the segments on this Friday's Discovery Channel show "How It's Made." Show time on March 16th is scheduled for 9pm EST. -- http://dsc.discovery.com/ * This week's Volvo Sailing Podcast features three top interviews, starting with a true sailing legend and the first man to sail round the world nonstop, Sir Robin Knox Johnstone. Sir Robin explains why he's going round the globe again at the age of 67! Also included is Peter de Ridder discussing all the news from the Mean Machine team, and Alex Thompson revealing current plans and reflecting on recent traumas. -- http://www.volvooceanrace.org/podcast * (March 15, 2007) Kojiro Shiraishi, onboard his Open 60 Spirit Of Yukoh, today crossed the finish line of leg 2 in the Velux 5 Oceans at 08:47 local time (12:47 UTC). After 60 days, 6 hours and 47 minutes at sea and 15,113 miles of racing, Shiraishi (JPN) arrived in Norfolk (Virginia, USA) after starting the leg in Fremantle (Western Australia) on January 14. Graham Dalton, onboard A Southern Man - AGD arrived at Fortaleza, Brazil Wednesday morning, where he will remain for a minimum of 48 hours to assess the damage to his rudder cassette and electronics and make the necessary repairs to continue racing. -- http://www.velux5oceans.com * Alain Thébault and his L’Hydroptère Team is entering the record attempt phase to beat the 500 meter speed record in category D and the absolute speed record on one nautical mile. The certification process from the World Sailing Record Council is now nearly finalized. The final step will correspond to the visit of a supervisor on l’Hydroptère, who will validate the new GPS Trimble measurement system and certify both records. With a suitable weather forecast, this supervisor will stay for seven days in La Trinité-sur-mer at which time the team will increase the number of runs to beat both records. -- Sail World, full story: http://tinyurl.com/3842dq * The ISS (International Superyacht Society) has announced that nominations for its 2007 Design Awards are now being accepted. Specifically, the ISS is compiling a complete listing of vessels that includes custom new build projects completed, launched and delivered in the 2006 calendar year that are 23 meters (75’) or larger in length overall. Any and all members of the superyacht industry are encouraged to submit vessels. Contact: Vanessa Stuart, 954.525.6625; Amy Halsted, 540.297.4695 * Correction: The video in Issue 2301 from the Cabo race was taken onboard Jim Madden’s R/P 66 “Stark Raving Mad lll”, not “Brand New Day.” For video of BND, that can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t24sO5zQ9tE AN ABSORBING INTEREST Holy Grail or Poisoned Chalice – your chance to find out by reading Bob Fisher’s two-volume, lavishly illustrated history of the America’s Cup – An Absorbing Interest. All the races, including eliminations, of the 31 challenges - the characters and the myths - the truths and the lies. Discover it all at: http://www.wiley.com/go/americas CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Here are some of the events listed for this weekend: March 16-17 - Audi International Laser Regatta - Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. March 16-18 - Intl. Sunfish Class Masters Champs - Port Charlotte, FL, USA March 16-18 - Leukemia Cup Regatta - Mandeville, LA, USA March 17-18 - 60th Truxton Umstead Trophy - Annapolis, MD, USA March 17-18 - Varc Harken Opener Regatta - Vancouver, BC, Canada March 17 - Gig Harbor Islands Race - Gig Harbor, WA, USA View all the events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or simplicity (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 save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Geri Conser: (regarding story in #2300) Calling all you armchair sailors who enjoy reading the sailing exploits of others. Where are those people or companies who could take their pocket change and get these Challenged American sailors on track to make the 2007 Trans Pacific Race? I am sure there is an individual out there who could even send an anonymous gift of a boat, cash, or both. It is real shame that such a wonderful program is stopped because of $$$$. The skill and talent not to mention the bravery of these young people who sail this challenging race is unbelievable. The first time I flew up in the helicopter and saw that team of great sailors roaring down the Molaki Channel my heart skipped a beat. Come on, let’s get them in this race. I will give my - services how about you? (For additional information on the Challenged America program: (619) 594-8805, mailto:Port@ChallengedAmerica.org) * From Michael H. Koster: I got a a chuckle out of Canadians William Hendershot and Alain Vranderick's Mid Fleet Perspective commentary in Butt 2301. In a fleet of 75 boats, I would suggest leaving the Marlboro's home. This might be the key to moving up in the standings! * From Reynald Neron: Regarding the topic "do you race the last race if you have already won the regatta", I am lucky enough to have been in that position during a week regatta down here in Australia. But really, there was never any discussion about it: Of course we raced! Firstly, when you have 15-20 knots of warm winds and sunny days, would you want to give all the fun to the other yachts? More importantly, one more race means a bit more experience. Nothing beats experience; one should grab it as often as possible. Also, I strongly believe that if you do not race, you actually influence the result of the regatta. Maybe a boat that can finish 2nd needs to have one boat between her and her competitor. That boat could be you. And what if all the yachts whose placing had already been decided before the last race did not show up? If the regatta starts with 50 boats, it should finish with 50 boats. Finally, I consider that it is plainly rude to the race organisers and the numerous volunteers not to show up for the last race... "oh well, I won, can’t be bothered going racing this morning..." Well, maybe those volunteers needs cheering too and it is important to recognise their efforts by fully embracing the regatta. So we did race on that last race, and enjoyed every minutes of it... much more than if we stayed at the bar all day. * From Mark Townsend: Howard Hamlin won the I-14 World Championships last September, and did so with a race to spare. He chose not to sail in the last race. His reasoning was as follows. The only way he could loose is was if he sailed. If raced and was protested and subsequently disqualified and the ruling of the protest was that he could not discard that disqualification, a DND, he would not win the regatta. If he stayed ashore he could not be beaten. Several years ago I won the British Snipe Nationals with a race to spare and chose to sail the last race, given the DND possibility, which I had not considered, I might have stayed ashore in retrospect. * From Chris Upton: Sue Reilly brings up a good point in having enough umpires on hand. What if we do? How much damage to the race course will be caused by umpire boats jockeying for proper viewing? Umpire boats throw the most wake at sail boat speeds. Regardless of the merits of having them adjudicate, how much fun would be left in 6-10 knots of wind and tight competition? It would be like trying to run a formula one race on Rt. 95 in Connecticut; potholes everywhere. Would there be an art form in getting the umpires to obstruct another competitor with a wake? We complain about the accuracy of PHRF, a flawed, but useful handicap. How much bickering would come from the impact of the umpire’s presence? Do we really want someone telling us if we are right or wrong? Some clarification may be good, some enforcement has been useful, but we are adults that have proven ourselves to be able to navigate the right and wrong decisions of life in order to show up on a starting line. * From Bob Phillips, Chairman, BVI Spring Regatta: The Volvo Ocean Race chose to use Umpired Fleet Racing Rules for its in port races. The Farr 40 and Mumm 30 classes modified their class rules to allow on-water adjudication. A number of one-design classes use Rule 42 on water judging. The win at any cost thread has been lengthy. ISAF saw a need for Appendix Q and the new Experimental Appendix Q. All of these, in my view, are indicators of a problem that isn’t being self-policed with competitors looking for solutions that don’t involve lengthy afternoons in the protest room. * From Steve Reed: Try eliminating the penalty for touching a mark. We did...in a J/35 One-Design regatta many years ago. The intent was to avoid unresolvable arguments about alleged minor contact by booms, spinnaker sheets etc with the mark. I had watched crowded roundings in collegiate dinghy regattas where many boats touched the windward mark, took no penalty, and no one seemed to care as long as the boat got around the mark. As an experiment, we tried eliminating the penalty in one regatta. There was initial opposition to this before the regatta.... threats of "cutting the corner" or squeezing inside other boats. It turned out the experimental rule change was a "non-issue". I don't recall any boat touching a mark all weekend and no problems among overlapped boats in roundings. Consider.... if you drag the mark it hurts you and helps those behind you. Boats still must leave the mark on the required side. Try it, you might like it. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION Why did God invent whiskey? So the Irish would never rule the world. (Happy St Patrick’s Day) This issue of Scuttlebutt provided by North Sails and Bob Fisher. Scuttlebutt is also supported by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, the Defender of the 32nd America's Cup. |
