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SCUTTLEBUTT 3760 - Wednesday, January 23, 2013Scuttlebutt 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: Southern Spars, APS, and UK Sailmakers. NACRA 17 DEBUT AT ISAF WORLD CUP MIAMI (January 22, 2013) - Biscayne Bay in Miami, USA is about to come alive with the sights and sounds of Olympic sailing as ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami gets underway on Monday January 28 through to the medal races that bring the regatta to a close on Saturday February 2. Held at US Sailing Center Miami, Coconut Grove Sailing Club, Miami Rowing Club and Shake-A-Leg, hundreds of sailors will kick start their Rio 2016 Olympic ambitions. While strong entry lists prevail in the Laser, Laser Radial, 49er, 49erFX and Finn, there’s plenty of interest in the Nacra 17, which will make its first international appearance at a major regatta. Seven teams have registered to sail the new mixed multihull. The Nacra 17 entrants feature some exciting young talent coming through the ranks as well as experienced campaigners. Puerto Rican multihull legend Enrique Figueroa is the most experienced sailor in the fleet with an Olympic career that goes back to Seoul 1988 where he finished 13th. Further Olympic appearances came at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 and now, he's back. Other Nacra 17 sailors include Canada's Luke Ramsey, who sailed in the Men's 470 at London 2012, and young Americans Taylor Reiss and Matthew Whitehead sailed the SL16 together at the 2011 ISAF Youth Worlds in Zadar, Croatia finishing sixth and have made the jump up to the Nacra 17. Reiss will be sailing with Sarah Lihan who represented USA in the Women's 470 at London 2012 whilst Whitehead will sail with 17-year-old Sarah Streater. Other teams include former Women's Match Racer Elizabeth Kratzig Burnham who joins Jonathan Farrar (USA), Sarah Newberry and John Casey (USA), and Lindsay and Dalton Bergan (USA) -- Full story: http://www.sailing.org/news/33826.php SARAH NEWBERRY: PRIMED TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP The pendulum has swung back. Interest in multihull sailing is on the rise. Heck, even ISAF decided a new catamaran design - the Nacra 17 - was Olympic worthy. So for the next four years, the race is on to see who can become the very best by the 2016 Games. A leading contender is the team of Sarah Newberry (24) and John Casey (38). Both have made their mark in the U.S. multihull scene and are primed to take this next step. With the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami next week, Scuttlebutt checked in with Sarah regarding their campaign: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * What has, up to this point in your sailing, given you the confidence to take this step? SARAH NEWBERRY: I think that the Olympic path is one I have always wanted to be on. I spent a long time trying to understand the way a campaign works from the outside, and asking questions because I was too shy to take action instead. A lot of experienced friends, like Jay and Pease Glaser, were very patient about this. Then, after sailing very well for several days at the 2011 US Multihull Championship, I lost first place in the event because I was unprepared. I had only practiced once or twice in six months, and honestly, I didn’t even really understand how to sail the F16 Viper. I learned what lack of discipline and dedication could feel like, and it shocked me into changing the way I looked at sailing - I decided to re-approach my sport. I realized I had to treat myself like a real athlete or I would never be happy racing. Last fall I gave a presentation which was live streamed to a global audience. I shared how my passion for the sport had grown over time, and how it had led me to decide to pursue a path to the 2016 Games. Having to announce this goal to folks around the world was a pretty big step. Saying it out loud really directed my approach. When the Nacra 17 was announced this past spring as the multihull for the Games, I made the phone call and put my name on the list to purchase a boat. Afterward, in a panic, I called my mother and said: “Mom, I think I just did something really crazy.” I wasn’t sure how I was going to accomplish it, but I knew committing to the boat was the next step and that my conviction was really all I needed to make everything work out. So the answer is: it wasn’t so much the confidence as much as blind determination that has gotten me this far. Now I have started to develop the kind of true confidence that one needs to keep taking intelligent steps forward. * Has the uncertainty of multihulls in the Olympics since 2008 had any impact on how you approach sailing? SARAH NEWBERRY: This is a great question. I think it really has impacted the way I approached the idea of becoming involved in Olympic sailing. I certainly do not take for granted the fact that the multihull has representation now, and I feel that ensuring that it continues to be represented is a responsibility that we share as racers and enthusiasts. Multihull sailors know what it feels like to not have an Olympic path. The uncertainty, at least in my case, has created quite a sense of urgency to participate - and especially a sense of urgency to participate in a way that can help to develop multihull sailing from the ground up in the United States. I don’t want to see the path disappear again. I think it’s lent me a very community-oriented sensibility. I want to share my experiences and processes to help raise the level and build the sport. Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/13/0119/ You can follow Sarah and John at… Website and blog: http://www.usamultihull2016.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/newberrycasey2016 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sailrio2016 EC6 RIGGING IN THE VENDEE GLOBE 2012/13 As the 2012/13 Vendee Globe fleet are on the home stretch, over a third have been forced to retire. Four of the current top seven Open 60's in the race are sporting full or partial EC6 carbon continuous rigging packages supplied by Southern Spars and from all reports their rigging has been 100% reliable. EC6 cables are constructed form a bundle of small diameter pultruded carbon rods - even if "a single twig breaks, the bundle of twigs will stay strong". For more information on EC6 rigging please visit http://www.southernspars.com STRONG WINDS A CHALLENGE AT QUANTUM KEY WEST 2013 Key West, FL, (January 22, 2013) - Competitors in the Melges 24, Melges 32 and J/70 classes were all hopeful of having a 12-race series and Division 2 principal race officer Dave Brennan is trying his best to comply. With northerly winds in the 12-16 knot range, Tuesday provided a perfect opportunity to complete an extra race, for three races on the second day of the 26th annual regatta. “It was a great day of sailing. The wind was fantastic and the race committee did a superb job of giving us some quality racing,” Melges 24 skipper Brian Porter said. Porter and the Full Throttle team are engaged in a good battle with Alec Cutler and his crew on Hedgehog at the top of the Melges 24 class, second-largest of the regatta with 23 boats. Porter posted a solid line of 2-3-1 on Tuesday, but has not been able to completely overcome a seventh suffered in Race 1 that resulted from a poor start. Cutler, a resident of Pembroke, Bermuda, won Tuesday’s first race and has also posted three seconds in totaling 10 points - four better than Porter. J/70 is the largest class in the regatta with a whopping 38 boats. The Allsopp brothers Cole and James aboard Moxie grew up sailing together before heading off to College of Charleston and the Naval Academy, respectively. Cole is driving while James is handling the bow and the team closed with a fourth and third on Tuesday to overtake Ullman, the Day 1 leader. Bombarda holds a narrow one-point lead over Mascalzone Latino in the Melges 32 class after both Italian entries won races on Tuesday. There has been considerable trading of places in Farr 40 class, which has six well-sailed boats. Jim Richardson steered Barking Mad to a second and third on Tuesday to take the lead away from John Demourkas and Groovederci. “Our fleet may be small in numbers, but the boats that are here are high, high quality,” Barking Mad tactician Terry Hutchinson said. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/as99jwx Full Results: http://www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=716 Tune into the Live Coverage at: http://www.premiere-racing.com/KWRWLive/ Event Website: http://www.premiere-racing.com/QKW2013_event.html QUOTE / UNQUOTE “What we have learned over the years, and especially last year, is that winning in this fleet is very hard. And so this time we have really concentrated in coming into 2013 just a little bit stronger in every area. One particular area is our strength and physical training, making sure we are all stronger and fitter. Otherwise the changes are sails and minor improvements.” -- Guillermo Parada (ARG), helm of TP52 Azzurra, winner of the 2012 52 Super Series, http://tinyurl.com/avpnyqn A HOME FOR LIGHT, FAST BOATS A fleet competing at Key West Race Week for the first time is the High Performance Class. The plan for the class, which will use the new High Performance Rule (HPR), was to gather light displacement boats ranging from approximately 26-45 feet and an approximate PHRF handicap range of -10 to -70. HPR Communications Director Dobbs Davis provides this report: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- We are seeing a lot of forward progress: we will have 10 boats who have measured HPR certificates, in contrast to the handful in 2012 that were done with some guessing on measurements on a preliminary version of the rule. At this stage the rule calculator has evolved to a Version 4D, just released this month, so hopefully we're now locked in now for ratings for the event. There have been two burning issues: (1) How to manage crew weight - it is a measured parameter in HPR, but the Farr 400's do not yet have a weight in their rule. So we've compromised by having everyone declare their own weight (because it is calculated into the rating formula), and they get one guest on board for free to allow for media, sponsors, juniors, prospective new owners, etc. (2) A thorough re-examination of the rule formulation on Beam, which was perhaps too punitive to wide boats (eg, Ker 40) and too lenient on narrow boats. This was vetted by Jim Teeters and Bill Lee with help from Jason Ker and Alessandro Nazareth of the ORC's ITC. We hope this will help keep the racing a bit closer, but this is still a development rule and refinements are possible in order to make the racing closer and more fair, yet still encourage new designs. So, HPR is turning out to be a nice home for those that want light fast boats and are not too bothered by having to rally together a minimum number of their own kind for a one-design class. I think Key West will be fun, and this will be one of the more competitive classes at the event. -------------------- HPR website: http://www.hprsailing.org/ VIRBAC-PAPREC 3 LOSES KEEL (January 22, 2013; Day 74) - Despite losing his keel a little before midnight with 2,000 miles to the finish line in Les Sables d’Olonne, Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec 3) has not abandoned and is working out what to do next. “There were already noises in the boat, rather strong and quite screeching," Jean-Pierre explained. "I thought it was the sound of keel jack but in fact the head of keel was already damaged. All of a sudden there was a popping noise. The boat was lying on its side in a second I realised that the keel had broken. There was certainly a moment of doubt about the boat, luckily it did not flip over. The boat was safe enough to put in more ballast and take a risk and further reduce the canvas.” Dick was still making good speed in the third place and continuing on his normal route in 16-18 northeasterlies, 200 miles ahead of Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss). But the challenge will come if he is faced with bigger winds and particularly rougher, cross seas, that he could face, especially in the Bay of Biscay. “A fabricated keel has the life span of one Vendée Globe, period,” said Mike Golding, currently in sixth on Gamesa. “If it makes the finish it is a design success, if it breaks it is a design failure. Unfortunately we have seen far too many design failures with fabricated steel keels. For me I chose to switch to a carbon keel, so I’m on a carbon keel, theoretically if the carbon keel is good, it is good for the life of the boat, theoretically [laughs].” -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/almjjyf http://tracking2012.vendeeglobe.org/en/ Top 5 of 20 - Rankings as of Tuesday, January 22, 2013, 20h00 (FR) 1. Francois Gabart (FRA), Macif: 1595.1 nm Distance to Finish 2. Armel Le Cleac'h (FRA), Banque Populaire: 96.7 nm Distance to Lead 3. Jean-Pierre Dick (FRA), Virbac Paprec 3: 472.3 nm DTL 4. Alex Thomson (GBR), Hugo Boss: 667.1 nm DTL 5. Jean Le Cam (FRA), SynerCiel: 2273.8 nm DTL Full rankings: http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/ranking.html BACKGROUND: Twenty skippers began the 24,000-nm Vendee Globe, a solo, non-stop around the world race in the IMOCA Open 60 class. Starting in Les Sables d'Olonne, France on November 10, the west to east course passes the three major capes of Good Hope, Leeuwin and the Horn before returning to Les Sables d'Olonne. Michel Desjoyeaux (FRA) set the course record of 84 days in the 2008-9 edition. -- http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/ ONLY A WEEK LEFT: THE JANUARY RIGGING SALE AT APS The APS Annual January Rigging & Cordage Sale is in its last few days. It's time to replace those halyards, sheets, shrouds, and lifelines. With discounts up to 25% off normal retail prices, it's a practical opportunity to do some excellent upgrades as well as the preventative maintenance that will keep you on the water all season long. More info here: http://bit.ly/APSdeals SAILING SHORTS * Twelve youth sailors have qualified for US Sailing’s 2013 Youth World Team to represent the United States at the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Youth World Championship in Limassol, Cyprus from July 11-20. The sailors named to US Sailing’s 2013 Youth World Team: Addison Hackstaff (Laser Radial boy), Haddon Hughes (Laser Radial girl), Wade Waddell/ Henry Fernberger (I-420 boy), Casey Kinglier/ Fiona Walsh (I-420 girl), Quinn and Dane Wilson (29er), Maximo Nores (RS:X boy), Marion Lepert (RS:X girl), and Ravi Parent/ Sam Armington (multihull). -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/adjvbh6 * (January 22, 2013) - Itajai, Brazil will once again be a Host Port for the Volvo Ocean Race in 2014-15 following the huge success of the stopover there in the last edition. Brazil will have two stops along the route for the 12th edition of sailing’s most prestigious round-the-world race after Recife was named as a Host Port last week. The race route is expected to take the fleet from Itajai to a U.S. port that has yet to be named. -- Details: http://tinyurl.com/aoytged * San Francisco, CA (January 22, 2013) - The America’s Cup and Live Nation have announced that Sting, the multi-Grammy award-winning musician will be the first headline act to play at the America's Cup Concert Series at the America’s Cup Pavilion, located between Piers 27/29. The America’s Cup Pavilion will host multiple events in the summer of 2013 in San Francisco's first outdoor, waterfront concert venue. -- Story: http://media.americascup.com/pressreleases/?id=1043 * The awards of this year’s European Yacht of the Year contest were determined after thoroughly inspecting and testing the 25 nominated boats in Southampton and La Spezia. Leading the winners in five categories was the J/70. Details here: http://tinyurl.com/Boats-012213 FREE CLASSIFIED ADS The Scuttlebutt Classified Ads provide a marketplace for private parties to buy and sell, or for businesses to post job openings. Here are recent ads: For Sale - * Shaw 24 Hull #1, Cape Cod, Mass. * Flying Tiger 10, San Diego, Calif. Now Hiring - * Launch Operators, Beverly Yacht Club, Marion, Mass. * Club Manager OCSC, Berkeley, Calif View/post ads here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/classified_ads EIGHT BELLS With great sadness we announce the sudden passing of long time Water Rat Sailing Club (Toronto, Ont) member and club executive Heinz Gebauer (1932-2013). Heinz suffered a massive heart attack on the evening of Thursday January 17th, 2013. Those that know Heinz remember him as a wonderful man who never hesitated to help out, give sailing tips and also as a sailor extraordinaire winning the World Laser Masters Championship as well as placing in the top 5 numerous times throughout his sailing career. Heinz was an active member of the Water Rats Sailing Club both in participating in racing, pleasure sailing and running the sailing club as he held several positions on the executive. This is a shock to all of us and will be hard not to see his smiling face down at the sailing club. The funeral will be held on Sunday January 20th at 3pm, visitation will be at 2pm. All those that knew Heinz are welcome to attend. Directions: http://tinyurl.com/8Bells-012213 TRY IT FOR FREE: NEW ONLINE RACING RULES QUIZ FROM UK UK Sailmaker’s online Rules Quiz has been called “the easiest way to learn the Racing Rules of Sailing.” UK’s revamped Rules Quiz incorporates the latest graphic techniques and online learning tools, creating more informative and interactive quizzes. Test your knowledge of the new Rules with a sample Quiz: http://www.uksailmakers.com/Education/Rules-Quiz.html GUEST COMMENTARY Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community. Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted comments chosen to be published in the newsletter may be limited to 250 words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Bruce Brown, Costa Mesa, CA: I had the opportunity to work with and for Dr. Bob Foresman for many years. He was a great inventor with a real eye for equipment that made boating fun, safer and easier. His whisker poles, tiller extensions and spinnaker poles became the standard across the sailing industry. The Marelon valves and thru hulls are standards for OEMs and aftermarket installers and are found on boats around the world. More than the President of Forespar, he had a real passion for boating. Bob's eyes lit up whenever he talked about a day or a week on board. He enjoyed sailing and later, his powerboat. One great element of Bob Foresman's legacy is his willingness to share his passion with all of us. I will miss his wit and his creative spirit. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION A pipe gives a wise man time to think and a fool something to put in his mouth. SPONSORS THIS WEEK JK3 Nautical Enterprises - Dieball Sailing - North U - North Sails Sail To Prevail - Southern Spars - APS - UK Sailmakers - Ullman Sails New England Ropes - Storm Trysail Block Island Race Week Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
