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SCUTTLEBUTT 1935 -- September 30, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.AMERICA'S CUP NOW THE GLOBE'S CUP I'm writing as one of the few American media to directly experience the America's Cup Acts in Europe this summer. You can count us Americans in the crowded media center here in Trapani on one hand, or at times, on one digit. The Cup is alive and well here in Europe, but this event is forever changed. The level of competition and glamour remain, but there is a new element. The European Acts, and their predecessors in San Francisco and Newport RI, move the sport of sailing into the realm of public entertainment. Italians love a party. Last night, this city of 60,000 people closed down for the opening day parade of America's Cup boats. Everybody who was mobile, including Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, flocked to the waterfront. Church bells rang. Bands played. Crowds cheered the three Italian teams and politely clapped for the others. Kids ran wild. Fireworks exploded. Europeans have always been better than Americans at marketing sailing and generating sponsorship. We have a lot to learn from them if we want to raise the level of sailing in the USA. Our sailors could use the support. -- Jan Pehrson, www.JanPehrson.com OPENING DAY There was sun and wind for the first day of the Trapani Louis Vuitton Acts, the two most important ingredients for successful racing. Add in a big spectator fleet, plenty of crowds on shore in the America's Cup Park and a few upsets on the race course, and the final regatta of the 2005 season is off to a grand start. Early in the day, it appeared it might be difficult to start racing as there was no wind over the race area. But close to start time, the wind began to build and 12-knot south-westerly breezes allowed racing to get underway. Towards the end of the first flight however, the wind had eased and had become much more shifty and fluky and this was the dominant trait for the second flight of the day. Luna Rossa was the star among the three Italian teams on the first day. Skipper Francesco de Angelis led his team to two wins over China Team, and then past the Sicilian favourites, +39 Challenge. The Sicilians had a more difficult start to the regatta, falling as well to Victory Challenge. The third Italian team, Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team had a day best forgotten, losing to K-Challenge and then sailing into a dreadful shift during its second match to fall by a large margin to the German team. -- Andy Rice / Peter Rusch, http://www.americascup.com SURPRISE Having struggled to show even a fraction of the form that had people talking about them last season, K-Challenge came out of the box fighting to take two wins on the opening day of racing at Trapani. Two points against anybody would have been good cause for some smiles and back slapping, but the second of their victories must have tasted particularly sweet. Beating the Kiwis is unlikely to have been on their list of expected results today but, in shifty and light conditions the French team demonstrated just how quickly things could change. We wanted to be able to match them in the gybe," said Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker. "We went to gybe and there was a bit of a crew mistake and we were forced to gybe back. That forced us into a dying breeze that was already heading. We never wanted to be there. We can't blame our result on the conditions." Losing points to smaller teams isn't the way to dominate the top of the leader board but some are quick to point out that at this stage, with 18 months to go before the Cup proper, such results don't make much difference. -- Excerpts from a story by Matthew Sheahan on the Yachting World website, full story: http://tinyurl.com/bumxf QUOTE / UNQUOTE "The afterguard combination worked well. We have a long way to go in terms of being a well-oiled machine, but there were no problems at all. Tactician Bertrand Pacé gets my Player of the Day award. He did a fantastic job of making very clear and concise calls right through the day." -- Peter Isler, BMW Oracle Racing navigator "We wanted to start left of the Chinese, but the time we chose to come back into the line was just a little too early, so in order to gain some time I tacked over. From that point, I made a couple of communication errors that led me to have a very bad start. After apologizing for my embarrassing mistake, I realized that I learned a lot about how we have to talk to each other in that situation, so it was actually very valuable and fortunately didn't affect the outcome of the race for us." -- Ed Baird, Alinghi helmsman ACT 8 STANDINGS 1. Alinghi, 2 pts 1. BMW Oracle Racing, 2 pts 1. Luna Rossa, 2 pts 1. K-Challenge, 2 pts 1. Victory Challenge, 2 pts 6. Emirates Team New Zealand, 1 pt 6. United Internet Team Germany, 1 pt 8. +39 Challenge, 0 pts 8. Mascalzone Latino Capitalia, 0 pts 8. China Team, 0 pts 8. Desafio Espanol 2007, 0 pts 8. Team Shosholoza, 0 pts Images of Trapani by photographers Carlo Borlenghi/Francesco Ferri: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/trapani/ CELEBRATE THE ARRIVAL OF THE SWAN 601 CLASS IN THE USA Pekka Koskenkla, the founder of Nautor in Finland, had a dream to build a sailboat capable of cruising and racing. That dream has been a reality for nearly forty years, and over this time Nautor has launched a series of extraordinary yachts. Please join us for the christening of "Moneypenny," the first Swan 601 Class in America on October 8, 2005, 17:00-20:00 at KKMI in Point Richmond, CA. A cocktail reception will precede the christening and tour of "Moneypenny," and a short film biography about Pekka and his dream. RSVP by October 5th at 510-235-5564 ext 125 or mailto:Erica@kkmi.com END OF AN ERA Swedish Match, the Stockholm conglomerate that for seven years has been a partner in the professional match-racing tour, is concluding its association with the Swedish Match Tour at the end of the year. Swedish Match, a niche tobacco group, has decided to end its association due to a new Swedish law that prohibits tobacco companies from sponsoring sports events. "We're disappointed by this turn of events," said Bo Aulin, Senior Vice President of Swedish Match and Chairman of the Swedish Match Tour. "It's not a shock because we knew it was coming. We knew it would come to some kind of restriction or ban, but we hoped it would be limited to trademarks, not corporate branding." Tour officials are in negotiations with several companies regarding sponsorship. "It's extremely unfortunate that we are losing such a great partner and supporter of the sport," said Tour Director Scott MacLeod. "We are currently seeking a new title sponsor for the Tour, but the series will continue either way next year. We have developed a very strong series of events and television package that will help carry the Tour forward." Swedish Match has been a sponsor of sailing events other than just the Swedish Match Tour. The company also sponsored an entry in the 1997-'98 Whitbread Round the World Race (now the Volvo Ocean Race) and was the title sponsor of the Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand for 12 years. -- www.SwedishMatchTour.com RUSSELL Russell Coutts has officially joined the Quantum Sail Design Group to help promote and develop their product. Coutts's involvement grew out of his participation with the Quantum Racing Team and the TP 52 Quantum/Lexus entry in this year's Breitling MedCup circuit. The MedCup series has provided Russell with an opportunity to see Quantum sail perform under a range of conditions and "they have measured up or exceeded my demanding standards". After a rough start with a brand new boat at the first regatta, Coutts and company then managed a second place followed by two first place finishes in the last two regattas. "As the only boat without North sails, their performance has made an impressive statement to the TP 52 class". Coutts explained, TP52 NEWBIE (Ian Walker talked to thedailysail subscription website about the TP52 Patches' first foray into the big time at the Breitling MedCup regatta in Sardinia. Here are a few excerpts from that story.) At the regatta Patches was up against her Reichel-Pugh designed sistership, Lexus-Quantum, steered by the far from shy and retiring Russell Coutts. The two boats have virtually the same hulls but different appendage packages, different mast and sail packages. Their deck layouts also differ, Patches having a central, pedestal-driven main sheet winch while Lexus-Quantum has mainsheet winches either side of the cockpit. Walker adds that where they are currently weak, compared to the other TP52 campaigns, is in their sail inventory, particularly for the lighter than expected breeze they encountered off Porto Rotundo. While the TP52 rule doesn't limit sail numbers, Patches at present has only got one mainsail. "You can have a light air round-backed main, you can have another main for when it is windy, so you have the potential to really optimize for all sorts of different conditions. We're not at that level yet. One of the most telling observations Walker has to make is the TP52 racing compared to that in the Farr 40. Despite the Farr 40s being one design, he believes the box rule TP52s are closer. "Like all sailing, there are fast boats and slow boats and everyone has their moment and the guys who put in the most time and have the best set-up do best," he maintains. "But it is not an exaggeration to say you get as big a speed difference in the Farr 40s." -- www.thedailysail.com TESTING, TESTING, TESTING 0307 hours Thursday aboard the VO 70 Black Pearl -- The day started off very slowly with very light winds from the southwest. It slowly built and by mid afternoon we had 20 knots from 230. We tested our masthead running spinnaker against our masthead reaching spinnaker to find the cross over in angle that each can be carried efficiently. We tested whether having water in our aft tank was better than without. We tested big stay sails and smaller ones. All in all a productive afternoon. These boats are a handful for five people (one watch) to handle. We are working on systems to deal with this, as I am sure our competitors have already figured out. - Paul Cayard RACING ROUNDUP * Cowes, UK -- The penultimate day of the Sonar World Championship started with a brisk north-westerly of about 15-18 knots, superb sailing and fascinating results, which left everything to play for in Friday's final race. After a day of topsy-turvy racing in which the lead changed dramatically in the second race of the day, the current World Champion, American Steve Shepstone, leads Paul Bowen's local team aboard Billy - the works boat of Sonar Manufacturing and Sonar Yachts - by six points with Pete Galloway (USA) another two points adrift in third. Americans fill five of the top six slots. -- http://sonar2005.result.vg/perl/series?class=2;series=2 * Newport Rhode Island -- The threat of big breeze caused the Grey Goose ISAF Team Racing World Championship race committee at New York YC to send the boats out on the water at 9:00 a.m. -- hoping to get in some racing before the weather front came through. But after only 10 races were completed in a breeze that was building to 25 knots, the boats were sent back to the dock. The weather service recorded gusts to 47 mph shortly before noon and at 1:00 p.m. racing was canceled for the remainder of the day. -- Complete results: www.nyyc.org. Scuttlebutt Gallery: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/trworlds/ *The 2005 Comet International Championship was contested on Deep Creek Lake, in Western Maryland. Hosted by the Deep Creek YC at Turkey Neck, the regatta consisted of seven hotly contested races in gusty and shifting wind. The narrow branching configuration of the lake made for tight courses and resulted in close contact between the boats. Peter Schell and his brother John placed first, sailing a beautifully restored and upgraded wooden boat built in 1957. Second place went to four-time International Champion Talbott Ingram and his wife Lee with Rudy Bailey and Fred Bulford from, Bermuda taking third. http://www.cometclass.com/ * The second leg of the Clipper 05-06 Race began on Wednesday in Cascais, Portugal. Due to the later than expected arrival of the fleet into Cascais, the start was put back a day to give the teams a little more time to make the necessary repairs and maintenance work before the three week race to Salvador, Brazil. Durban and westernaustralia.com set the early pace, trading first and second place in similar fashion to the previous race. The Victoria boat, who due to a failure of a bolt in their steering cable system, came back to port for a quick repair. http://www.clipper-ventures.co.uk/n05_06/homepage.php 12 METER WORLD CHAMPIONS Ockam would like to congratulate Edgar Cato and the crew of Hissar for dominating the Modern Class at the 2005 12 Meter World Championships. Their great performance deserves the precision and flexibility of Ockam Instruments. Both Mr. Cato's 12M & his Farr 60 utilize Ockam's superior Tryad processing speed, power and autocal capabilities in conjunction with the functionality and control of the Expedition tactical/navigation software. This combination produces the most accurate, stable data in all conditions. Known around the world for performance, accuracy and reliability, Ockam offers instrument solutions for a distinct competitive advantage. Improve your results, Contact: mailto:lat@ockam.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is neither a chat room nor a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. And please save your bashing, and personal attacks for elsewhere.) * From Paul Kamen: It's not just the lone nut who benefits when the Coast Guard spends big bucks to pull his or her unfortunate derriere out of harms way. Many of us follow those whacky expeditions vicariously, and many of us believe that some day we will have an opportunity to do something similar, in a big or small way. We all benefit from having this freedom, even if few of us ever exercise it. Requiring lone voyagers to post a rescue bond in advance would take much of this freedom away. The occasional rescue tab is worth it - not just for the person rescued, but to sustain the dreams of the rest of us. On the other hand, when a crackpot voyage has a corporate sponsor, the game changes. Suddenly it's not for the personal challenge, not to keep the dream alive, and not for communing with the spirituality of the sea. Sponsored voyages have another purpose entirely: To sell soap. That's when the corporate sponsor should be liable for the cost of reeling in their floating advertisement gone bad. As a general rule, when there's a corporate logo on the hull or sails, then the advertiser should, in my humble opinion, pay the cost of rescue. They are in it for the money, and they can afford to pay the bill when things go south. It's a clear place to draw the line. * From Dave Culp: One more comment on Dom Mee's expedition, if you'll indulge me. I am perhaps not a disinterested party; my company, KiteShip Corporation, built the kites Mr. Mee was using in his attempted crossing. However, I tend to agree with Mr. Habib's assessment. I remember well my personal thoughts during and after the 1996 Vendee Globe when several boats were inverted and failed to right. Much money was spent in rescue attempts in the Southern Ocean. Reputations were forged and broken, and at least one man died. The boats at that time had too little righting moment at 90 degrees--and far too much stability when inverted. The organizers and participants knew this well, yet pulled off the event regardless--with tragic results. I joined the hew and cry to "Bill the sons of b*&$@hes!" but later learned that the actual SAR organizations involved--both Australia's and New Zealand's, as I recall, actually welcomed the opportunity to exercise their men and equipment in real-world rescues, and were happy that so few lives were at risk. Just a thought; it seems that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger. * From Piers Stanbury: As you can see from my email address I am an Insurance Underwriter, I specialise in Travel, Personal Accident and Search & Rescue covers, I hope that I can bring something to the debate. The problem is that Dom Mee would never be able to afford the cost's of insuring against the risk's to his life, the loss of his boat or the coastguard's costs, as the premiums would bust his budget, such risks are insurable and have been purchased in respect of climbing Everest, crossing Antarctica and racing yachts around the world. Generally you would find that such cover is purchased by expeditions /teams who have good sponsorship support and large budgets, as it is not in a sponsor's interest to lose one of their 'asset's' as it doesn't make good PR. The problem for Insurers is that so few clients purchase such cover that the pool of money taken as premium to insure against such risk is very small, correspondingly any claim against the pool will be significant, therefore rates will remain beyond the reach of your 'average' intrepid adventurer/ yachtsman. Until the time when purchasing such insurance is compulsory for undertaking adventures (and who would really want to live world such as that?) the cost of rescuing some one in Mr Mee's position probably cost's each Canadian tax payer 0.001 of a cent, so in real terms not a lot at all, the Coast Guard would have spent the money training anyway and at least this way the got to do the real thing. * From Bob Hofmann: If I'm not mistaken, in Alaska, before anyone is allowed to climb one, or some, of the mountains up there in a National Park, they have to put up rescue money in case of problems. The park service feels that it should not be a taxpayer problem for an individual's rescue in a patently dangerous venture. It seems to me that the same should be done in the case of sailing adventures that are outside the norm. As pointed out in another letter, this is a risk that should be covered by insurance, and if the adventurer can't get insurance, let him put up a substantial deposit as determined by and with the Coast Guard prior to departure, and he can get it back when he arrives at his destination safely. * From Betsy Alison: Just wanted to give you some more background that makes Nick Scandone's win at the 2.4mR Open World Championship so impressive. In this event, Nick bested seven other 2.4mR World Champions including the boat's designer, Peter Norlin, builder Imma Bjorndahl, sailmakers Stellan Berlin and Rickard Bjurstrom. He is the third sailor in the past 10 years with a physical disability to win the Open Worlds. There were 88 competitors in the event, 34 having a disability. Three out of the top five sailors in the standings have active Paralympic campaigns, and show that "training" and practice makes a significant difference in performance. Which just goes to prove that with some minor adaptations to equipment, the 2.4mR is a singlehanded keelboat that is perfect tactically and strategically for any sailor to compete in - regardless of physical ability. Kudos Nick, we are all very proud of this amazing achievement, and we hope you'll get the nod for Rolex Yachtsman of the Year! * From Bennet Greenwald (Re Rolex Yachtsman Yachtswomen): A meaningless ridiculous contest. Who cares? CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Horse sense is what a horse has that stops it from betting on humans. |
