SCUTTLEBUTT No. 844 - June 26 2001
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.
GUEST EDITORIAL
It's happened again. Another Solo Sailor has been hit on the head by his
boom, with near disastrous results. This time it was Herve' Aubry, a Mini
boat skipper participating in a qualifying race for this years Mini Transat
race. After sending a MAYDAY at 1431GMT on 5 April '01, an RAF, Sea King
helicopter was sent to pick him up. When it arrived at the yacht the
skipper refused to be evacuated. He claimed that he had been hit on the
head by his boom which caused him to become disoriented and had mistakenly
sent the MAYDAY. The RAF helicopter returned to base just in time to be
sent back to the Mini boat by a second MAYDAY call. The Mini skipper this
time abandoned his yacht and was picked up from the stormy English Channel.
I don't know if things would have been different had the skipper been
wearing a Sailing Safety Helmet, but I suspect that they might have been. I
own a Mini boat and have experienced as I'm sure others have, the visits of
my boom to my head. It often happens when solo sailing, because of the
necessity of the sailor to perform multiple tasks while tacking and
jibbing. During storms with high wind and wave conditions, it's easy to
make mistakes. It is at these times, that protective head gear (Helmets)
can prevent serious injury. Certainly, without a helmet, a blow to the head
from a running backstay or an errant boom could be crippling or even life
threatening.
How many accidents will happen that can be prevented by a little common
sense. Most sports require participants to wear protective head gear. Even
young children and most adults, know to wear their helmets when they ride
their bicycles. Skate Boarders wear them. Climbers of all types wear them.
Automobile Racers and Skiers wear them. The list of sports and activities
that require safety helmets is long.
The time has come to demand that sailors and race organizers begin to
initiate rules that make helmets part of the safety equipment required for
sailing races. This is especially important for Mini/Solo Sailors who must
rely upon themselves for safety and self-rescue. No one would suggest going
to sea without life vests. Why not add Sailing Helmets to the safety gear
inventory for the times when circumstances require their use. To continue
to ignore the dangers of climbing a mast at a dock or at sea without
wearing a helmet, is to deny the very real risk of suffering serious or
even lethal head injury.
How many sailors must be injured, or lost? How many yachts must be
abandoned before responsible sailors and race organizers adopt or require
protective headgear for all levels of yacht racing and cruising. - Jack
Boye, www.sailsafety.com/msg1.htm
IT'S FREE
The latest version of Sailwave (v34), a popular and completely free Windows
sailing scoring application is available for download at www.sailwave.com.
Sailwave is RRS 2001-2004 Appendix A compliant as confirmed by the USSA in
their recent review. Sailwave can handle multiple fleets, has all the
popular rating systems integrated and has the capability for users to
specify their own rating system.
A variety of reports can be published as HTML including series summaries,
race details, competitor lists and declaration of retirement forms. Recent
changes include a wizard to enter results by sail number and import
facilities to read data from CSV files. Support is available by email or
from other users by means of the Sailwave User Group. A specialised results
wizard enables you to send your reports and results to Yachts and Yachting
On-Line in their standard format. New versions of Sailwave are uploaded
regularly.
Contact colin@sailwave.com for further information.
EDS ATLANTIC CHALLENGE
LONDON - One week before the start of the EDS Atlantic Challenge, race
organizers announced a very glamorous and gutsy seventh entry in this
inaugural event. In keeping with the race slogan 'Extreme Performance - No
Limits', an all-female team was officially named. Among the crew are two
Americans; Carol Archer and Suzette Smith. In a ceremony held in London the
crew were introduced and the yacht renamed 'Alphagraphics' in recognition
of the sponsor, a leading multinational print shop. Joining the American
crew and Swedish-born skipper Helena Darvelid was Tracy Edwards MBE, the
famous yachtswoman with whom Darvelid sailed in 1998 in an attempt to set a
new circumnavigation record.
Carol Archer, 39, a Southern California native, will co-skipper the
Alphagraphics yacht. She is a qualified nurse with a Fastnet trophy from
1991 and a 1,600-ton US Coastguard Master Ocean license. Suzette Smith, 37,
navigator for the newly-formed syndicate, lives in San Francisco. She is a
native of Hawaii and an America's Cup veteran who sailed with the
all-female crew aboard America3 in 1995. This formidable team is nick-named
'The Alpha Girls' and also includes one of France's top female sailors,
FrŽdŽrique BrulŽ, Polish-born offshore sailor Asia Pajkowska, and Philippa
Richards from Great Britain.
The EDS Atlantic Challenge starts from St. Malo, France on July 3rd and
races to Cuxhaven, Germany and Portsmouth, England before setting off
across the Atlantic for Baltimore on the east coast of the United States.
ĘFrom there the fleet sails to Boston and then on to the finish in St. Malo
with the first yachts expected to arrive between August 19 and August 22. -
Meaghan Van Liew
EDS website: www.eds.com.
UBIQUITOUS
People from every corner of the US are realizing the benefits of owning a
Protector Cabin RIB. Not only do they make great tenders for race boats but
they are also being used for commuting, spectating, fishing, picnic
boating, sea kayaking, camping and more. Last week many had chance to see
these boats first hand. Stay dry, stay safe, stay warm! Drive a Protector
today. Call toll free 877.664.BOAT(2628) or check us out at
www.protectorusa.com
OH MY
The official URL for the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron is
www.rnzys.org.nz/. However, it has always been possible to get to
that home page using www.rnzys.org. Not any more. That alternate URL now
takes you directly to a 'porn page.'
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON
leweck@earthlink.net
(Only signed letters will be selected for publication, and they may be
edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is not a chat room or a
bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best
shot and don't whine if others disagree.)
* Joe Sircely: I couldn't agree more with Fred Shroth ('Butt 842) in his
article about Bruce Mahoney from the University of Texas. It's a shame that
the committee fails to see the kind of hard work that goes into running and
sailing for a club sport program. Bruce spends more of his valuable
practice time not practicing for his own benefit, but running the practices
so that his team can improve. I have never met a more dedicated, organized
and talented sailor who sacrificed more for the benefit of his program, not
himself. And above all this, he goes out and wins the Singlehanded
Championships. Like Mr. Shroth, I was amazed and saddened to see the
committee failed to recognize this. In my mind, Bruce Mahoney exemplifies
the All American, far more than those sailors that sail for a program that
is well funded, well coached and "set up" for success.
* From Kevin Taugher: Fred Scroth touched on something that has bothered me
and a lot of other current/past collegiate sailors that I know. That is the
obvious unfairness of the collegiate all-american selection process. It is
my understanding that two east coast college coaches and one west coast
coach vote for and select the all-American teams after the collegiate
nationals from a list of nominees. It doesn't seem that all the college
districts can be fairly represented with this system.
As Fred states: "How did the current collegiate singlehanded champion get
insulted as honorable mention?" I don't know Bruce Mahoney, but it sure
seems like he got a raw deal to me. As long as I can remember, winning any
of the collegiate national championship (sloops, singlehanded, team race or
dinghies) was a guaranteed all-American spot (not honorable mention).
During my collegiate sailing tenure I saw this sort of thing happen a few
times. I remember one individual in particular who never beat me in a
regatta get awarded all-American status. Incidentally his coach was one of
the three voters. It comes down to who knows you, who you know and if
you're up for an all American spot against a guy who's coach has a vote -
you can forget it. It really cheapens the value of all-American status.
It's about time the ICYRA thinks about changing their selection process.
* From Mike Martin: In support of Bruce Mahoney I would like to add that
I was awarded All American Status for winning the 88-89 Single-handed
champs and I did not even sail in the spring. I would like to urge the
committee to reassess their decision and give Bruce the recognition that
every National Champion deserves. Congrats to Bruce on his Single-handed'
victory. In the eyes of your peers - including every past single-handed
winner - you ARE an All American. That's more important than what the
committee decides.
* From Antony Barran: I recently read with interest Ms. McKormick's
comments about Dawn Riley and the seeming disparity in endorsements between
Dawn and other athletes like Tiger Woods. I also lament the lack of
advertising dollars being invested by national brands in sailing. But if
Dawn and Tiger were walking down the street to whom would everyone flock?
And flocks generally drive the advertising dollars.
The goal of advertising is to create awareness for a product or service and
then leverage that awareness into sales. The challenge is to do this as
cost-effectively as possible. If you decrease the cost of making a sale,
the profit derived from it should increase and for a corporate executive
it's all about profit. Media Planning, the methodology of making
advertising decisions, is focused on finding opportunities with the lowest
cost and highest return.
In the US, sailing is so small and fragmented that media planners
completely overlook it. Why spend a lot of time and effort on a small (by
comparison) sailboat campaign or a multi-day racing event with a few
thousand people? The sport simply does not have the critical mass to
capture a national brand's attention. US Sailing should endeavor to answer
the significant need that exists to train professional sailors and event
organizers how to win in this competitive arena.
* From Corky Aucreman: There are many reasons for USA's lack of support
for sailing in comparison to other countries, some are: 1. Perception of
sailing as an elitist activity. In Europe especially, it is an everyman
sport. Local yacht clubs may only cost $25 to join, yet there is intense
"Little League"-like activity almost every day in summer. 2. A motor head
culture in the USA. If its more complicated than turning a key and pressing
the accelerator. it is too much effort.
3. No organized gambling as in other sports and other countries (Thank
goodness) 4. And very important, the sheer size of the USA.
In smaller European countries it is easy for the top sailors to race
against each other on a regular basis. Here, most Olympic and other top
sailors practice alone and have few opportunities to sail against top
competition every weekend. As my own experience attests, flying across
country every other weekend to practice or race is not easy. Our US
Paralympic Team in Sonar was made up of crew from So Cal, Rochester, and
Boston and most of our sailing was done in St. Petersburg.
* From Ralph Taylor: ISAF seems to have painted itself into a corner on
the advertising issue. The idea of writing completely separate rules for
charity regattas, though possible, must seem daunting to event organizers.
I guess charity regattas will now be limited to PHRF classes, meaning they
won't be viable in places where one-design racing predominates.
Apparently, one-designer sailors who race in charity regattas to support a
worthy cause have three choices: (1) Contribute all the money yourself
(expensive) or (2) Solicit essentially anonymous donations (difficult) or
(3) Promise public recognition through advertising on the hull or sails
(now illegal.) It's one thing to keep sailboat racing non-commercial (as if
that were possible.) It's another to keep sailors from performing a
community service.
INDUSTRY NEWS
* The New Zealand based clothing brand, Line 7, has signed an agreement
with the illbruck Challenge to become its clothing supplier for the Volvo
Ocean Race and America's Cup 2003. The agreement gives Line 7
responsibility for selling official illbruck Challenge merchandise
worldwide. Gill will continue in its role as technical clothing supplier to
the illbruck Challenge, outfitting the team with technical gear for both
the Volvo Ocean Race and America's Cup 2003.
* UBS is to be a principal marketing partner of the Nautor Challenge
syndicate for the Volvo Ocean Race. UBS is sponsoring two yachts in the
race which will be skippered by Grant Dalton of and Lisa Charles-McDonald.
* Onne van der Wal has opened a gallery in Newport RI to showcase his
marine photography - 209 Goddard Row. Brick Market Place.
QUOTE / UNQUOTE - Terry Harper
(The following quotes are from an interview Rich Roberts did with US
Sailing's Executive Director Terry Harper in The Log.)
"ISAF has tried constantly to do good things for the sport internationally
that sometimes don't translate well in a given country. Some of the
decisions ISAF has made over the last two or three years and even before
that have been unpopular with some of the American sailing public -- and we
seem to get the calls or the e-mails."
"The most difficult thing for the American sailor to understand is that the
United States has one vote, just as any other country has one vote. The
rest of the world doesn't always agree with us. Try as hard as we can to
explain how something may effect sailing in the United States, ISAF's
concern is international. We don't always win the ones we'd like to, but
our record is pretty good." - Terry Harper
BERMUDA ONE-TWO
Although news of the Bermuda One-Two Race is scarce, shorthanded sailors
will enjoy the website: www.newportyachtclub.org/bermuda1-2/
BT GLOBAL CHALLENGE
After nine and a half months of hugely competitive sailing final
preparations are being made for the start of Leg 7 of the BT Global
Challenge, the sprint to Southampton. Having enjoyed a brief respite in a
warm and sunny La Rochelle, crews of the 12 yachts are making last minute
adjustments ready for the race across the channel on Tuesday. For Compaq
NonStop and LG FLATRON the leg will determine who walks away with 'The
Princess Royal Trophy' having won the race overall. With a recent protest
against LG FLATRON having been dismissed just five points separate the two
teams in the race table. The fight for third place is still wide open. BP
Explorer, Quadstone and Logica all lie within 10 points of each other and
anyone could all find themselves taking third place overall.
www.btchallenge.com
GORI
What do Pyewacket, Sayonara, EF Language, Kingfisher, Club Med and
Playstation have in common? While there are probably a few correct answers,
the one we were thinking of is that they all have Gori Propellers. Gori has
a new US distributor, and you can order them online from pyacht.com
. www.pyacht.net/online-store/scstore/h-gori_propellers.htm
MATCH RACING
* At the Swedish Match Tour's Championship Final, the Swedish Match Cup,
in Marstrand, Sweden, just south of Gothenberg, sixteen of the world's top
skippers representing seven America's Cup syndicates will do battle off
Sweden's craggy coast from July 2-8. The skippers include: Dean Barker
(Team New Zealand); Bertrand Pace (Team New Zealand); Magnus Holmberg (Team
Stora Enso and the Swedish Victory Challenge syndicate);. Jesper Bank
(Victory Challenge); Peter Gilmour (OneWorld Challenge); James Spithill
(OneWorld Challenge); Russell Coutts (Swiss Challenge); Jochen Schumann
(Swiss Challenge); Gavin Brady (Prada Challenge); Chris Dickson (Oracle
Racing Team); Andy Green (GBR Challenge); Luc Pillot; Jesper Radich; Bjorn
Hansen; Jes Gram-Hansen; Johnie Berntsson. - www.swedishmatchgp.com
* This year's Governor's Cup - Balboa Yacht Club's match racing regatta
for young men and women under twenty years of age - will feature the
following teams: Rochester Yacht Club, Rochester, NY; Nantucket Yacht Club,
Nantucket, MA; Fort Worth Boat Club, Fort Worth, TX; Balboa Yacht Club,
Corona del Mar, CA; King Harbor Yacht Club, Redondo Beach, CA; Mission Bay
Yacht Club, San Diego, CA; Newport Harbor Yacht Club, Newport Beach, CA;
Richmond Yacht Club, Richmond, CA; St. Francis, Yacht Club, San Francisco,
CA; Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, Auckland, New Zealand; Royal Sydney
Yacht Squadron, Sydney, Australia; Royal Yachting Association, Seaford,
East Sussex, United Kingdom. The 1st alternate is the San Francisco YC,
Belvedere, CA. The event will be sailed in Santana 20s July 16-21.
FOR THE RECORD
While Sydney's inhabitants have basked in one of mildest winters in years
Sean Langman has sat in his harbourside office and hated what he has been
seeing. Each day has been the same: a seemingly endless string of cloudless
blue skies, zephyrs of breeze and 20 degree temperatures.
For Langman it all ads up to frustration. Outside his office his red-hulled
racing boat, Grundig Xena, sits ready to go, ready to have a crack at the
world 24-hour distance record for a single-hulled yacht. Everything is in
place, except the weather.
For the past five days the Grundig Xena crew has watched the development of
what meteorologist Roger Badham thought might be a perfect weather system
for the record attempt, a strong southwesterly. Right up until yesterday
the front had Sydney in its sights. Then, after sweeping across the
southern half of the continent, it all but dissolved over night.
So the waiting game continues. And current indications are that the 25-35
knot winds that Grundig Xena needs to have any chance of bettering the
current mark of 467.7 miles won't be on the horizon for at least a week.
Last week Langman and his six-man crew did grab the opportunity to test
their boat in a very short-lived and soft front that moved across Sydney
for a few hours. They drove the boat hard on a 50-mile sprint off the coast
and proved yet again that this turbo-charged Open 60 has what it takes to
break the record. With their largest blood-red gennaker set they averaged
22 knots during a 24-knot gust. The run also proved that the big new
gennaker was a little too powerful for the yacht's bowsprit. It broke and
has now been replaced with a much stronger one. - Rob Mundle
www.sail-world.com/xena
TRANSPAC
Eight Aloha Division entries launched the 41st Transpacific Yacht Race to
Hawaii Monday in an agonizingly slow start off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
Struggling against a current in a weak onshore breeze of 4 1/2 knots, the
fleet took more than 18 minutes to cross the line and head toward the west
end of Santa Catalina Island some 20 miles offshore and into the open Pacific.
Jim Warmington's Pedrick 75 Shanakee II from Balboa, Calif., was first to
pass the west end of Santa Catalina Island - the only mark of the
2,225-nautical mile course - 3 hours 45 minutes after the start.
Racing divisions III and IV will start Saturday, followed Sunday by the
larger Division I and II boats, all at 1 p.m. In all, 33 boats will be
challenging the 2,225 nautical miles to the Diamond Head finish line. -
Rich Roberts, www.transpacificyc.org
THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS
The best things in life aren't 'things.'
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