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SCUTTLEBUTT 2508 – January 10, 2008Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, featuresand dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors. LACK OF PLAN An ISAF press release distributed Wednesday provided details on the 2008 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship, where over 250 young sailors from more than 60 nations are expected to come to Denmark for the event on July 10-19. Scrolling through the release, they comment on how the event has the support of the Royal Danish Court, and that HRH Crown Prince Frederik will be the Royal Patron of the Championship (not sure what that means, though we suspect there is some financial benefit for the event, which is extremely expensive to host). But what we were really looking for was the equipment to be used in the event, which we found at the very end. Maybe we are ignorant, naive, or simply won’t ever understand. However, we thought the purpose of the ISAF Youth Worlds was to provide top young sailors with an international event of the highest prominence, and to be a building block toward future excellence. Those that gain entrance to this event are the best from each country, so what other events would the Youth Worlds build toward? How about the Olympics? The Olympics makes sense, except that the Youth Worlds equipment is not in synch with the next Olympics. For the astute Scuttlebutt reader, you likely have guessed where this is headed. Among the events in the 2008 Youth Worlds is a multihull class, an event that is NOT among the classes to be used at the 2012 Olympics. Here is the list of events for the 2008 ISAF Youth Worlds: Boy’s One Person Dinghy - Laser Girl’s One Person Dinghy - Laser Radial Boy’s Two Person Dinghy - 29er Girl’s Two Person Dinghy - 29er Boy’s Windsurfer - Neil Pryde RS:X with 8.5m2 sail & 60cm fin Girl’s Windsurfer - Neil Pryde RS:X with 8.5m2 sail & 60cm fin Open Multihull - SL 16 Again, is it too much to ask that all these events are part of a plan that leads toward the Olympics? -- Scuttleblog, http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2008/01/lack-of-plan.html FLEXIBILITY KEY FOR GOOD OLYMPICS Team Great Britain sailing boss Stephen Park has warned that unhelpful conditions on the water and potential inflexibility over race-planning may hamper Britain’s medal prospects in Beijing this summer (at the Olympic Games). He described his squad as the strongest Britain have ever fielded, but insisted that three medals is a realistic prediction from what will be a very difficult competition – despite the team winning five medals in Sydney and again in Athens. The selection of Qingdao as a venue for the Olympic regatta has long been a source of some frustration given that the conditions – light winds, strong tidal currents and sometimes blanket fog – are hardly conducive to staging a world-class event. Park maintained that with most days restricted to just a “two-or-three-hour window” of available sailing time and just four courses for 11 classes, some could end up being judged on just a couple of races unless the Chinese authorities are flexible with the race schedule. Park said: “With the full series of 11 races – or 15 for 49ers – we would be more confident the results would go in line with the form book. But at the test event only one race was required to confirm the series and a very short series of races brings in a far higher degree of variability.” Park is hoping the organisers in Qingdao will use all days between the opening and closing ceremonies to complete the sailing or risk turning it into a lottery. “They will make a decision on the minimum number of races in March, but we just hope they are prepared to be flexible. -- Daily Express, complete story: http://tinyurl.com/2crzsc DOWN UNDER OLYMPIC ACTION Melbourne, Australia (January 9, 2008) – The 49er World Championship had to complete one final race Wednesday before the top ten advanced to the double score medal race to immediately follow. However, when faced with a lack of wind, organizers abandoned the race, selected the top ten based on the sixteen completed races, and put the medal contenders on standby. Their patience was rewarded three hours later with twenty knots of wind, and host country favorites Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin (AUS) went out and won the race and the overall title. Top North American Tim Wadlow/ Chris Rast (USA) finished fifth in the medal race to maintain their overall position. Top ten results: 1. AUS - Nathan Outteridge/ Ben Austin, 60 points 2. GBR - Stevie Morrison/ Ben Rhodes, 64 3. UKR - Rodion Luka/ George Leonchuk, 79 4. ITA - Piero Sibello/ Gianfranco Sibello, 87 5. USA - Tim Wadlow/ Chris Rast, 88 6. GER - Jan Peter Peckolt/ Hannes Peckolt, 93 7. ESP - Iker Martinez/ Xabier Fernandez, 97 8. DEN - Jonas Warrer/ Martin Kirketerp, 112 9. GBR - Paul Campbell-James/ Mark Asquith, 116 10. AUT - Nico Luca Marc Delle Karth/ Nikolaus Leopold Resch, 119 Results: http://www.yachting.org.au/site/yachting/event/14245/Overall_2_5.html Photos: http://www.sailing.org/21862.php * Next up in the Olympic class world championship season is the RS:X Men’s and Women’s Worlds at Takapuna, New Zealand on January 10-20. Over 200 men and women are entered along with 51 coaches registered. Interestingly, of the North American contingent in attendance, Mexico is the only country with the benefit of a registered coach. -- http://www.rsxclass.com/worlds2008.html BIG BREEZE KICKS OFF 2008 IN SEATTLE There’s nothing like racing in Puget Sound in January -- particularly when the wind range is somewhere between 15 and 43 knots. But Ullman Sails customers loved it as they kicked off the New Year, winning three divisions of the Duwamish Head Race, January 5. The race is the second in the four-race Southern Sound Series 2007-8. Cal 33 ‘Teaser II’ and Olson 30 ‘Sidewinder’ both remain undefeated with two wins in the series. And Express 37 ‘Kahuna’ took home its first victory. For the ‘Fastest Sails on the Planet,’ contact a local Ullman Sails loft and visit http://www.ullmansails.com VIDEO OF THE WEEK For a country that invented windsurfing, it is arguably the weakest event for the United States. This reality is particularly hard for the Scuttlebutt staff, as we can still recall the origin of the Windsurfer. The factory was a short walk from our home waters in Marina del Rey, CA, and Hoyle Schweitzer and his gang would come out and join the Lasers and Sabots for the local Thursday twilights during the summer; it seems like yesterday. But the early boardsailors were all surfers, and it didn’t take long before the equipment evolved to merge the two disciplines, and for sailor interests to begin exploring the outer edges of their sport. With ideal weather and waves at Hawaii, the top windsurfing racers would gradually travel to the island, experience the aloha lifestyle… and never come back. Among these top sailors is Kevin Pritchard, who is a multiple world champion in wave sailing and formula racing. This week’s video comes from Kevin, where his awesome wave riding footage(4:05 minutes) is a pretty good testament on why the top Americans might prefer Hawaiian living to the brutal non-stop pumping now seen on the Olympic windsurfing race course. 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/08/0107 BARCELONA WORLD RACE Open 60 doublehanded round the world race (started Nov 11; 25,000-miles) (Day 60 – January 9, 2008) Race leader Paprec-Virbac 2 anticipates an early afternoon (GMT) rounding of Cape Horn, marking their final day in the Southern Ocean. Said co-skipper Damian Foxall, “We’re nearing the end of a major part of the ‘round the world’.” Behind, Hugo Boss has stabilised its position, with better wind now and is moving at good speed following a stretch Tuesday when skipper Alex Thomson and Andrew Cape had to drop their mainsail to make a repair. -- http://www.barcelonaworldrace.com Positions at 18:00 GMT (+gain/-loss from leader since previous day) 1-Paprec-Virbac 2, Jean-Pierre Dick/ Damian Foxall, 7,065 nm DTF (+316) 2-Hugo Boss, Alex Thomson/ Andrew Cape, 1,028 nm DTL (+3) 3-Temenos II, Dominique Wavre/ Michéle Paret, 2,862 (+35) 4-Mutua Madrilena, Javier Sanso Windmann/ Pachi Rivero, 3,023 (-126) 5-Educación sin Fronteras, Servane Escoffier/ Albert Bargues, 3,551 (-78) Retired - PRB, Vincent Riou / Sébastien Josse (broken mast) Retired -Delta Dore, Jérémie Beyou/ Sidney Gavignet (broken mast) Retired - Estrella Damm, Guillermo Altadill/ Jonathan McKee, (rudder damage) Retired - Veolia Environnement, Roland Jourdain/Jean-Luc Nélias (broken mast) * The Scuttlebutt website’s weekly snapshot of the fleet finds the lead Open 60 preparing to turn the corner at Cape Horn at the tip of the South American continent, where it will then head up the Atlantic Ocean for Gibraltar to enter the Mediterranean Sea and bolt to the finish at Barcelona, Spain. Race tracker: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/bwr * (Day 47 – January 9, 2008 - 19:04 UTC) The fast pace of Francis Joyon and his maxi-trimaran IDEC have returned in their solo round the world record attempt, with speed and distance numbers for the latest 24 hours now at 21 knots while covering 503.5 nm. Joyon is about 600 mile south of the equator, and has increased his advance by 203 nm over the 2005 record set by Ellen MacArthur (71d 14h 18m 33s), which is now at 2,707 nm with only 3,561 nm remaining before the finish at Brest, France. -- http://www.trimaran-idec.com HOW TO DESIGN A FAST BARGE An article posted on the Alinghi website entails a discussion with Tom Schnackenberg, who was employed by America’s Cup Management (ACM) to coordinate the development of the AC90 rule, which was to be the rule for the 90-footers to be used in the next America’s Cup. Apparently, Schnackenberg remains employed, and in the story he discusses the 90 x 90 challenge by BMW Oracle Racing. The Alinghi group contends that boat described in the American challenge is a barge, and Schnackenberg discusses the thought process behind what it would take for the defender to design a fast barge. If this seems unlikely and ridiculous, it is based on the contention by Alinghi that the Deed of Gift challenge by the Americans is a monohull because it makes reference to a “keel yacht.” However, the recent analysis provided by Scuttlebutt legal consultant Cory Friedman states this to be a non-issue in the latest round of litigation. In short, Société Nautique Genève (SNG) didn’t present this fact in the original case, and it is highly unlikely that it will be accepted during their attempt to reargue the case on January 14th. While it is believed that when SNG replaced their previous “best lawyers” with this new firm, it was for the purpose of buying time for the Alinghi team (pretty expensive at these rates). However, Friedman adds, “With new counsel SNG is not just losing. It is getting crushed. If that were not bad enough, SNG’s counsel is making SNG look like a crew of lubberly knaves tumbling from the rigging on an out of control goose wing jibe.” For the passionate America’s Cup followers, here are the links: > Schnackenberg comments: http://tinyurl.com/26skdu > Friedman comments: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/cf/#p12 FORGET GLOBAL WARMING, LET’S TRY KEY WEST WARMING… For all those lucky sailors that are heading to the Southernmost point in the US, you can still get your gear that you need from Team One Newport. Need a new pair of Gill Quick Dry shorts and Harken gloves? What about those Ronstan boots and Henri-Lloyd Shadow jacket? Did you check out the Musto Caribbean jacket and the Railriders hydro-zip with custom embroidery? Team One Newport has plenty of Patagonia’s awesome Continental shorts and Capiliene 1 shirts which a great sun protection. They can even still make up some embroidered polos and jackets if you need them. Call 800-VIP-GEAR (800-847-4327) or visit http://www.team1newport.com SAILING SHORTS * US Sailing has just opened up the application period for the 2008 U.S. Youth Championship, the premier American youth sailing championship of the year. The event, sponsored by LaserPerformance and Nautica, will be held in Lasers, Laser Radials, Club 420s, and 29ers at the San Francisco Yacht Club in Belvedere, CA, from June 26 to July 1. Applications for the event will be accepted until March 15, 2008. -- http://www.ussailing.org/championships/youth/youthchamp * Registration is now open for US Sailing's Spring Meeting, to be held in Newport, RI, March 13-16. The meeting gives sailors the opportunity to make a difference in our sport by attending and participating in numerous committee meetings (from National Championships and Race Administration to Safety at Sea and Offshore). A special discounted rate is available at the Newport Hyatt Regency on Goat Island, where the meeting will be held, room reservations should be made by February 12. -- http://www.ussailing.org/events/meet08sp/index.asp * West Marine, Inc. announced that it will be hosting its third "New Product Review Day" on January 25, 2008 at the Watsonville, CA Support Center. New Product Review Day allows prospective vendors to pitch their products to West Marine's retail management team for an opportunity to sell at West Marine's 372 retail stores and through its website, catalogs and wholesale distribution company. To set up an appointment for New Product Review Day, email West Marine at mailto:vendorinfo@westmarine.com * With air temperature in the 30’s and brief snow showers predicted, those heading to the Toronto International Boat Show this weekend may think they are being greeted by a mirage as they ender the Ricoh Coliseum. By pumping in one million gallons of water from Lake Ontario, show organizers will create an indoor marina that will be used for sailing, canoe rides, and even wakeboarding. Three large fans will provide the wind needed for sailing, while wakeboarders will benefit from a winch that simulates the pulling action of a speedboat. -- Show site: http://www.torontoboatshow.com * French boatmaker the Bénéteau Group reports that first quarter financials for the 2007-08 year, which ended November 30, 2007, totaled €117,281,000 in their boat sales division, compared to €108,965,000 for the same period last year (1 euro = 1.47 US dollars). Bénéteau's total sales for the period, including sales from their mobile homes division, amounted to €165,915,000, a rise on €132,516,000 for the same period the previous year. First quarter sales growth for the company is reported as 25.20 per cent. Boat sales, the group's main business, are up 7.6 per cent, or 8.9 per cent on a constant exchange rate basis. -- IBI Magazine, http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20080009092746ibinews.html * Correction: Information in Issue 2507 regarding Charleston Race Week incorrectly stated that the event is on May 17-20, 2008. The correct dates are April 17-20, 2008. -- http://www.charlestonraceweek.com CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS If you are an event organizer, promoter, sponsor, etc., and you haven’t yet tried to get free publicity in the Scuttlebutt newsletter, you are not doing your job. But before you add to the number of requests that Scuttlebutt already receives, you need to post your event on the Scuttlebutt Event Calendar. Self-serve tools make it easy, and the sponsorship by West Marine keeps it free. Find it all 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 Bill Pringle: (regarding post in Issue 2507) The Sabot class in Australia is similar but not quite the same as the Sabot class in California. Both are great training boats and the photos you supplied are very true to the conditions that prevailed at the recent National Sabots here at Vaucluse in Sydney. The comments that the majority of the boats were double-handed is incorrect, however, as they sailed in two fleets in the National Championships, 1-up and 2-up. The 1-up (max age skipper 15 years) fleet (approx 50 boats), being almost twice the size of the 2-up (max age skipper 12 years) fleet (approx. 30 boats). * From R. Alemeet: As an American TV watcher, I can attest that most of us learned about flag etiquette by watching Gilligan's Island on TV. After carefully perusing pictures of the SS Minnow, both underway (out of Marina Del Rey, CA harbor) and on the hard in some godforsaken place (probably Catalina Island) we can see that she flew nothing on her mainmast atop the flybridge, nor from a stern staff or taffrail. As a motor vessel this deviates somewhat from the discussion pertaining to sailing vessels, but nonetheless served as our first impression of handling flags, burgees and ensigns in a yachtsmanlike manner. Yes, I know it's hard to conceive of, but the SS Minnow did not fly any colors. Naked. Certainly, Gilligan and the skipper have turned the NYYC rule book on its ear. To occupy such a prominent place in US history, while so blatantly flaunting decorum, thoroughly cements what we have long suspected: you can believe everything on TV, but don't believe everything you read. Surely as Harvard scholars are often vigorously countered by UC Berkeley and UC San Diego intelligentsia, so must the NYYC rules sit in comparison with, say, the Santa Cruz YC. Would Bill Lee or perhaps Ron Moore weigh in on the subject? * From Lank Thompson: There are many inconsistent doctrines for displaying the national ensign. In the US Navy, morning colors occurs at 0800 local time and evening colors occurs at local sunset. This schedule is commonly adopted by American yachtsmen. (The US Army flies the national flag from sunrise to sunset.) I assumed that the yacht pictured in the Scuttlebutt card was a foreign yacht visiting American waters. It is appropriate to fly a "courtesy flag" in these circumstances. When visiting Canadian waters, I have flown a small Canadian flag from the spreaders in addition to the full-sized American ensign at the stern (when not racing). => Curmudgeon’s Comment: I must confess that the yacht pictured in the Scuttlebutt card is the one that I chartered with friends in Tahiti, and that we were just eager to raise the flags, and likely put more thought into mixing our next adult beverages than in how the flags were hoisted. > Link to the flag report: http://tinyurl.com/yvktjv > Link to the Tahiti report: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/06/tahiti * From Neil Gladwell: (regarding story in Issue 2507) I’m afraid that you, like many others, have picked up on the petition about UK tidal data copyright without knowing that one of the basic statements of the petition is wrong. I publish tide tables here in the UK, I have a license from the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) to do it and as of last year, that license cost me nothing at all. Its not true when Mr Bartholomew states “Currently Her Majesty's Government is requiring payment by any who wish to use and publish this data.” Sure I used to have to pay but it was a tiny amount, around 1p sterling for each copy of my main publication, and that was only because I wanted to use the data for commercial ends. I hope you have the chance to mention the petition isn’t correct or amend your report. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION One of the signs that you have grown up is when you find out your friends are pregnant, you congratulate them instead of asking "Oh no, what the hell happened?" Special thanks to Ullman Sails and Team One Newport. A complete list of Scuttlebutt’s preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
