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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 897 - September 10, 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.
MEASURING THE WAVES Swedish company 'Pilotfish' has devised a revolutionary new moveable wave height reader. The device will constantly measure wave height between 0-130 metres from sensors built in to the eight competing yachts. A small 'Seakey' computer will be housed in the yachts that constantly interfaces with the sensors. Via Satcom-C the data will be sent constantly to Race HQ, situated near Southampton, UK. Race HQ is manned 24 hours a day while the yachts are at sea. They send weather information to the fleet on a regular basis and by the use of a 'ping' device, they can locate the exact position of each one at any time. This is the basis of the four, six-hourly reports, which are sent out each day giving the positions of each yacht. Current speed, average speed for the last six hours, and the direction in which the yacht is heading are all part of the additional data. Position data from every 10 seconds over the last 6 hours is the backbone for the revolutionary race viewer from Virtual Spectator (VS), a world leader in 3D animation products for both television and the Internet. - www.volvooceanrace.org
CHANGING TIMES Since taking over the even-year regatta from Yachting Magazine following the1994 event, Premiere Racing established Block Island Race Week as a well-respected regional event on the East Coast racing calendar, growing the event from 85 boats in 1994 to a 135-boat fleet in 2000. "Unfortunately, it takes more than fleet growth and high-caliber competition to translate into a successful regatta," Craig said. "There is no single, overriding reason for this decision -- in fact, there are numerous issues which when combined made this the prudent choice for Premiere Racing." The every-other-year status and presence of a larger Block Island regatta during the odd years diminished the perceived continuity, name recognition and value for sponsors, Craig felt. The ongoing trend of Corporate America backing away from sponsorships in sailing, coupled with this regatta being a regional, bi-annual event, made for a very difficult sell. Industry participation also lagged due to these same issues. Furthermore, competing events diminish the likelihood of continued growth. The concurrent running of the historic Newport-to-Bermuda Race and New York Yacht Club's new even-year Race Week in early July draw heavily on prospective entrants and supporters. "These are troubling times for professionally managed regattas and their event organizers in this country," Craig said. "A quick look at the Volvo Ocean Race, Olympic sailing support, and other high profile regional and national regattas reinforces this fact. Premiere Racing has already adjusted the traditional business model for its other events. Given the many constraints associated with the Block Island venue, a realistic model for this event was not achievable." - www.Premiere-Racing.com
SMOKE ON THE WATER
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Larry Law: Good on Ya Will Loe for speaking out on the choice of the 29er for the World Youths and Youth qualifier (Butt 895). A great fun boat it is; but how many boats can a young sailor train and compete in and be competitive. The technical difference in the boats is night & day. With the FJ and 420 largely the collegiate and high school boats of choice - now we have to add the 29er into the mainstream rather than for those serious about a 49er challenge or just playing in a skiff? Have we (in the US) not put ourselves at a great disadvantage by abandoning the I-420 and focusing on the Club 420 such that have a great competitive handicap when we get overseas? Will someone explain why ISAF, US Sailing, commercial boat builders or whoever makes this stuff up cannot agree on boats and programs that would actually assist the direction and competitive training of our US junior sailors rather than let them drift around like kids at a video game parlor. So this year the best of our budding Olympic and international youth have to distract themselves from the circuit they do nationally to tackle the "reaching rocket"! I suspect that many of them will abandon the youth qualifiers and keep their focus on their primary competition circuit. Do we have to make progressing through the ranks to the top any harder than it is? Will we ever use our brain trust to create an advantage! From Peter Johnstone: Junior administrators threatened by the idea of something new? I say bring it on! 29er fires up the few who stick with the sport. Some thoughts: 1. ISAF World Youth Championship is the pinnacle for youth. Olympics are one step away. It's not a club championship, nor an endorsement for training fleets. 29er is pinnacle equipment on several continents. 2. The sheer monotony of today's junior sailing boats is enough to drive away 95% of the kids who started in Optis just a few years earlier. Keep track of 100 opti kids as they age, and only 5 or so will be sailing after college. Why? After optis, yacht club/high school/college programs only expose kids to CC420s, a solid but outdated training boat. Administrators and coaches pick what they know. A safe and easy route. What do the sailors want? Have they been exposed to enough to even be able to answer (most have not)? Youth should be exposed to equipment/disciplines beyond CC420s. The 29er is an enticing carrot for top youth sailors. 3. 29ers are cool and challenging. Old, overweight, and dorky does not work with the 16+ crowd. If it did, they'd worship their parents, and buy Oldsmobiles. 4. World Youth Doublehanded boat selection rarely involves a choice. Any given location might have one builder willing to invest/risk in the supply of boats to the event. Bashing 29er's generosity is crazy. Thank these folks! 5. I wish the 29er was around for my youth sailing. I'm envious. * From Scott Fox: Regarding the 29er debate Charles Schmeckle stated "The C420 class has been established for a much longer period with fleets worldwide and more substantial numbers racing." Unfortunately he and others are wrong. The Club 420 and Club FJ classes were invented and built by Vanguard in North America to be used as durable school and institutional boats. To my knowledge they are not used anywhere else in the world. The previously World Youth boat was the International 420 which has characteristics more like the International 470 then the Club 420s. Int'l 420s require far more knowledge of mast tuning, sail controls and other "complex concepts of tuning" than the Club 420s our kids are sailing here in the states and they have always been at a disadvantage at the Worlds because of this. The 29er actually should level the playing field somewhat as it is a fairly new design and all kids from around the world are on basically the same learning curve. * From Sean "Doogie" Couvreux (re selection of 29 for youth worlds): please note that the 29er is about the same price as a 420. The boats are fast and fun and much more susceptible into keeping kids in sailing. Kids want to sail boats that are fun and exciting, they want to look forward to the boat they are going to sail. Also, since the 49er is an Olympic class, it makes sense to have a trainer for that class. * From Bill Koch (Concerning some of the responses to David Dellenbaugh's article on man overboard and edited to our 250-word limit) I find some of the responses unrealistic. There is a gross misconception about what the IACC yachts and a competent crew can do. They can stop, turn around, hoist a jib and pick up a crewmember well with in 2 minutes. In 1992 we practiced that,. If you are going to have any chance of winning the America's Cup, you have to be able to recover quickly from any mishap. Furthermore, the IACC boats have an advantage in that they can have their tenders recover the man overboard, and only have to stop their boats to pick up the crewmember. When I was sailing maxis, we were not allowed tenders on the racecourse. Before each regatta we practiced religiously man overboard. We were able to recover one with in 2 minutes. Maybe this is one reason our crew was able to win the America's Cup and 2 maxi world championships. Not stopping for a crew member and letting the tender pick him up and bring him to the boat under full sail at full speed is nothing more than an old dirty tactic of deliberately breaking the rules to gain a competitive position and lying in the jury room to try to get away with. Forgetting about sportsmanship, when a crew safety is involved, this tactic is the most reprehensible one I have ever seen. It reminds me of the old unwritten rule of the British Navy of leaving a seaman who fell overboard but stopping to pick up an officer. * From Nick Longhurst (re man overboard): Now we have heard from Tom Zinn, who was there, it's a lot easier to make a judgement on the man overboard situation. If the yacht in question was aware that they had no tender following, it is absolutely and utterly inexcusable that the skipper did not turn around to collect his crew, and just as inexcusable of the RC not to deliver a sanction which would have hit him like a ton of bricks. It is such a fundamental part of sailing ethics that crew safety is of paramount importance, I still have a hard time believing that a vessel could sail blithely on with a man in the water for several minutes. Okay, so this was a prestigious event, trotting out the glorious remnants of a 12 metre history in which, for some reason, lifelines have never played a major role, and yes, the eyes of the world were watching, but it's not that long since Larry Klein lost his life in similar circumstances in San Francisco while boats sailed all around him ... let's not forget that. * From Mark Green: I am disillusioned after reading the latest in the model sailboat racing thread (i.e. the one about the enthusiasts that go to the extent of making carbon hulls and kevlar shrouds for their model boats). The first article held the promise of a sailboat class without necessity of (or debate on) extreme methods: kinetics, moving the entire contents of the boat from side to side after each tack, performance enhancing drugs, freeze dried food, kevlar toothbrush holders, illegal weather routing, leaving men overboard, etc. Alas ... it looks like I will have to keep looking for that ideal class where all boats are created equal and we can just go out and sail... * From Rod Carr: While Chris Welsh accurately describes the activities of those who explore the formula and development classes in the Radio Controlled yachting aspect of the sport, it needs to be mentioned that a substantial segment of the skippers prefer the close racing and tactical challenge of sailing in the many one-design classes that are sanctioned by the American Model Yachting Association (www.amya.org). One designs range from tightly controlled, single manufacturer classes to somewhat looser restricted classes which allow rigging experimentation. An example of the latter is the 58" LOA 1962-3 vintage East Coast 12 Meter which is likely to draw 50 competitors to its National Championship at Lake Norman in North Carolina in early November (www.ec12.com). You can pick your medicine and explore any of the many avenues in sailing competition through the 23+ classes that are sailed under radio control throughout the US.
V.O.R NAUTOR CHALLENGE UPDATE - Dee Smith Because of the testing and work needed, we missed the Fastnet race. It is a two-edge sword here. We could be racing and learning so much, but we just don't have the time to spare. The 2000-mile qualifier had to be finished and there were boats and sails to test. Not racing over the last few months will definitely hurt our effort. This is the cost of a late start; payment will be during the first leg. - This report is extracted from my latest Race Diary for Seahorse - Dee Smith
V.O.R. PERSPECTIVE "When you're out there and you surf down that perfect wave in the sunshine and the whole team's working well, that's when it brings the whole sport and adventure and history of it all together. You're going really fast, mixing it up with the others and you think `Gosh, that's fantastic'. Five thousand miles of that is really exhilarating. It's really hard to express that to the general public, because there's nothing like it on land. "People say, `Well, how much hot water do you have for your showers?' ," she scoffed gently. (I hastily crossed that question out). "We don't have hot water for 35 days, except what we boil up for our meals." She pealed with happy laughter. "We don't even have showers. Just cold salt-water buckets." Ah, salt water buckets and the other joys of simple living. But knock it as much as you like, McDonald can attest to a growing number of skilled and enthusiastic female sailors, which perhaps reached its apotheosis in videoed, sou'westered, death-defying pocket form of Ellen MacArthur. Whether the old sea dogs like it or not, women have come out of the galley. Tracy Edwards and Maiden "broke the glass ceiling" as puts it, in 1989-90. Since then the numbers have escalated hugely, especially compared to the debut running of the race in 1973 when only three British women were entered across the whole fleet. Even then the official race record-keepers seem to think they might have been men in drag. They append a little note to the historical roster: "This list may not be entirely accurate due to the fact some female names could be mistaken for male." Well, I am not sure there can be much doubt about `Wendy', but never mind. The point is that women sailors have proved their worth. There are extremities out there and instead of bursting into feminine tears, they cope. "It is the greatest roller coaster ride in the world," said McDonald. "It is the nature of the beast. It's such a minimal way of life that when something does go wrong it's quite dramatic. - Sue Mott, The Telegraph Full story: sport.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2001/09/07/somott08.xml
THANKS DAVE
SAILING WORLD LARCHMONT NOOD As 133 boats--sailing from 10 states and Canada--waited for breeze today, different hopes coursed through skippers' minds. After two days of racing in solid 6- to 15-knot breeze, class leaders didn't need a final race to lock their victories in. But those who trailed the leaders in points desperately needed a last chance to better their position. When a 6-knot southerly breeze blew over the fleet, it was enough to give the racers a final race. - Cynthia Goss A total of 14 classes competed at the NOOD. Seven of those classes used this regatta to vie for class championships. Class winners included: J 105 (23 boats) Kerry Klingler, Magic; J 24 (18 boats) Britt Hughes, Shogun; J 44 (11 boats) Jeffrey W. Willis, Challenger IV; J 80 (10 boats) Michael Lague, Flash: Soverel 33 (10 boats) Erik Will, Bushwacker. - www.sailingworld.com
SAILING ON TV
SHIELDS CLASS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
ONE MORE TIME
FARR 40 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
Final Results (22 boats):
CANADA'S CUP
OH MY LORD!
THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION |
