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SCUTTLEBUTT 1834 - May 9, 2005
Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions,
features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections,
contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting
viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing, whining and personal
attacks for elsewhere.
COUTTS TIES THE RECORD
Porto Azzurro, Italy - New Zealander Russell Coutts moved into a tie for
the career victories lead on the Swedish Match Tour today with his second
straight triumph in the Toscana Elba Cup - Trofeo Locman. Coutts won the
event, Stage 5 of the 2004-'05 Swedish Match Tour, with a 3-2 victory over
Australian Peter Gilmour of the Pizza-La Sailing Team. The Coutts Racing
team featured Danes Michael Arnhild (bow), Jes Gram-Hansen (tactics),
Christian Kamp (headsails) and Rasmus Kostner (mainsail). They finished the
match-race regatta with a 13-8 record, and won 25,000 ˆ (approximately
$32,000) of the 75,000 ˆ (approximately $96,000) prize purse.
Coutts now has six career victories on the Swedish Match Tour dating back
to 2000, and is tied with Sweden's Magnus Holmberg of the Victory
Challenge. Coutts has won four of those events since he committed last July
to sailing with the Danish crew at the Swedish Match Cup. Coutts also
closed the gap on Tour leader Ed Baird (USA) of Team Alinghi. Coutts scored
25 points towards the Tour championship and has 70 points. He trails Baird,
who placed fifth at the Toscana Elba Cup, by 5 points. Gilmour, the
reigning Tour champion, also closed his deficit on Baird. Gilmour earned 20
points for placing second and increased his total to 62 points, 13 points
in arrears of Baird.
The Tour champion will win a $60,000 bonus and a BMW 545i Touring from Tour
partner BMW at the Swedish Match Cup. Coutts isn't expected to compete on
the Tour again until the season concluding Swedish Match Cup (July 4-10),
so the championship will likely be decided between Baird and Gilmour, who
will both compete next week at Stage 6 of the Tour season, Match Race
Germany. In the Petit Final, Spithill beat Holmberg 2-0 to place third,
while Holmberg finished fourth in his first Tour event since last year's
Swedish Match Cup. Spithill finished with a 10-5 record and won 10,000 ˆ
(approximately $12,800) while Holmberg was 7-8 and won 7,000 ˆ
(approximately $8,900). - Sean McNeill
Toscana Elba Cup - Trofeo Locman Final Standings
1. Russell Coutts (NZL) Coutts Racing, 13-8, 25,000 ˆ (approx. $32,000)
2. Peter Gilmour (AUS) Pizza-La Sailing Team, 12-5, 15,000 ˆ (approx. $19,000)
3. James Spithill (AUS) Luna Rossa Challenge, 10-5, 10,000 ˆ (approx. $12,800)
4. Magnus Holmberg (SWE) Victory Challenge, 7-8, 7,000 ˆ (approx. $8,900)
5. Ed Baird (USA) Team Alinghi, 8-4, 6,000 ˆ (approx. $7,600)
6. Iain Percy (GBR) +39 Challenge, 6-7, 5,000 ˆ (approx. $6,400)
7. Gavin Brady (NZL) BMW Oracle Racing, 5-6, 4,000 ˆ (approx. $5,100)
8. Ian Ainslie (RSA) Team Shosholoza, 4-10, 3,000 ˆ (approx. $3,800)
(*USD amounts based on 5/8/05 exchange rate of 1ˆ = 0.779330USD)
Swedish Match Tour Standings (After 5 of 8 stages):
1. Ed Baird (USA) 75 points
2. Russell Coutts (NZL) 70 points
3. Peter Gilmour (AUS) 62 points
4. Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN) 45 points
5. James Spithill (AUS) 35 points
6. Staffan Lindberg (FIN) 26 points
7. Philippe Presti (FRA) 24 points
8. Mathieu Richard (FRA) 21 points
Event website: www.swedishmatchtour.com/
BEN AINSLIE
Walking slowly through the breakfast room of the luxury hotel overlooking
the picture-postcard harbour resort on the island of Elba, Ben Ainslie
could just about raise a weak smile. It is unlikely that any of the staff
knew they were watching a man with two gold and one silver Olympic medals,
one of the finest natural talents in the world, a man acknowledged by the
peer group all around him as very special. Ben Ainslie is 28, and would be
seen by most as having a glittering future, but his world, which is now the
Emirates Team New Zealand America's Cup challenge, is in turmoil. The
short-term cause of the hunched shoulders was the frustrating
disappointment of the way he had tumbled out of the Toscana Elba Cup, the
opening event in Europe of this season's Swedish Match tour.
But the real problems are much deeper-rooted. By way of contrast here,
Ainslie's friend and fellow gold-medallist Iain Percy, who has also
followed the America's Cup trail as skipper of +39, one of three Italian
challengers, was upbeat about finishing sixth in a talent-packed field. As
apprenticeships go, Italian-style is proving sunnier than Kiwi-style.
Ainslie is a complex character. His success had been as a single-handed
sailor, where he thrives on intensity and self-sacrifice and prospers from
near-genius ability. On shore he is shy, diffident, unassuming. On the
water he is ruthless, and can succumb to explosive temper.
In his new world he has to work within a team, and he has found that
difficult before. He joined the OneWorld challenge for the America's Cup in
Auckland in 2002-03 but found himself marginalized. After leaving, he
confined his reflections to saying it had been tough, but a great learning
experience.He went back to Olympic sailing, where he could run his own
programme, make his own decisions, and his results demanded he be given the
job he wanted. Now, he says: "Have I made life more difficult? Of all the
options, this was probably the hardest. I used to set my own goals. Now
it's hard for me to set the goals."
What he does know is that he will not be helming the New Zealand A boat
this year, that he will probably not even be on the bench for the event
itself in 2007, and that he even has to share the helming of the tune-up
boat with someone else, Kelvin Harrap. The match-race circuit he is now on
is quite glamorous, but that has no appeal. "That's not why I sail, and I
don't give a toss about five-star hotels," he says. "I want to win." -
Excerpt from a story by Stuart Alexander in The Independent, full story:
http://sport.independent.co.uk/general/story.jsp?story=636559
WHERE IS SHE NOW
Australia II - KA 6 - the first challenger to win the America's Cup after
132 years of futility, served as trial horse for the defense at Fremantle
in 1986. After that, the boat was on display in the National Maritime
Museum of Sydney. In the 1990s, the State government of Western Australia
succeeded in getting Australia II back. The crew was re-united to sail her
again in the historic regatta celebrating the Jubilee anniversary of the
America's Cup at Cowes, in August 2001. Australia II is now among the
collections of the Western Australian Maritime Museum at Fremantle! -
America's Cup Official website, full story: http://tinyurl.com/8q329
UK RULES QUIZ WINS IN THE ROOM
Reggie Rainard, a sophomore at NY Maritime College and skipper of the
school's J/105 Resistance, won a protest in the American Yacht Club's
Spring Series by relying on what he learned in a UK Rules Quiz. After the
hearing, at which he prevailed, the protest committee chairman, who had
picked up on his naiveté, asked how he was so certain when presenting his
case. Reggie told him, "Because I learned that situation from the UK Rules
Quiz." Check this out (free) at http://www.uksailmakers.com and click on
Rules Quiz 19 (Reggie used Quiz 7). What have you got to lose?
CALLING THE PUFFS
On a windy day, especially as you fight your way off the starting line in
close quarters, you can hear the calls from the talking heads of your
nearest competitors: "Puff in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . followed by a lull
and two steep waves." Getting this kind of input back to the helmsman is
critical, not just at the start, but all around the racecourse, because as
you know, huge gains can be made by taking advantage of puffs and lulls,
both large and small. It's important as a crew to communicate what's
happening with the wind, and do so with confidence. To call a puff
effectively, you need to recognize one, determine its size, estimate how
strong it is, and figure out what direction it's moving. But before I go
any further, let me stress that it's just as important to call the lulls
preceding or following a puff.
Remember, a puff is simply an increase in breeze-big or small. When I'm
calling puffs to the helmsman, I refer to them as fan puffs or directional
puffs. A fan puff is the leading edge of a gust, a mass of air dropping
from aloft and fanning out from its center of impact as more air piles on
top of it. A directional puff is essentially the remnants of the fan puff,
overcoming the initial surface contact and moving in the direction of the
upper air mass from which it came.
The initial puff is always a fan puff. Its appearance is generally darker
and more solid than a directional puff, and it will appear on the water as
an expanding oval. After a short period, the puff stops spreading as the
air overcomes the initial surface resistance and moves in the same general
direction-now it's a directional puff. Puffs will come from the prevailing
wind direction, so figuring out where they're coming from is a matter of
scanning the area to weather to see where they originate. Watch to see if a
puff is expanding to the sides: if it's still expanding, it's still
fanning. If it's just moving straight, it's a directional. - Excerpt from a
story by Moose McClintock on the Sailing World website. Full story:
www.sailingworld.com/article.jsp?ID=201688&typeID=402&catID=596
BE A BUTTHEAD - WIN A PRIZE
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NEWS BRIEFS
* The record breaking swing keel super-maxi Mari Cha 4 will be racing
across the Atlantic in this month's Rolex Transatlantic Race after being
'turbo-charged' this winter by the addition of two six metre (twenty foot
long) retractable daggerboards similar to those found in Open 60's and the
new Volvo 70 fleet. The boards were designed and engineered by naval
architects Owen Clarke Design working with one of the yacht's original
designers Clay Oliver, and SP Technologies, in co-operation with the Mari
Cha 4 Design Team. The boards run in self aligning bearings mounted in
rectangular carbon-nomex cases. - www.owenclarkedesign.com
* The Eastport Yacht Club has announced that the ten match race skippers
for the BoatU.S. Santa Maria Cup in Annapolis on June 1-4 includes: #1
ranked Claire Leroy of France, #2 Marie Bjorling of Sweden
#4 Jenny Axhede of Sweden and #7 Christelle Philippe, of France. North
American sailors include #10 Betsy Allison, #11 Elizabeth Baylis, #14 Paula
Lewin (BER) #16 Sally Barkow and #37 Charlie Arms. The match racing will be
done in J/22s. - www.SantaMariaCup.org
* A current list of USA IRC boats with their ratings is now posted on-line:
http://us-irc.org/pdf/Current_IRC_TTC_20apr05.pdf
* The mainland's first "Transpac Village" has graduated quickly from dream
to reality. Twenty-two of the 72 current entrants in this summer's
Centennial Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii already have applied for free
mooring space since the City of Long Beach's proposal last month to
transform the colorful downtown Rainbow Harbor into the official assembly
point for racers. Thus, when the venue opens July 1 it will become a crown
jewel component of the city's annual Sea Festival celebration. The Transpac
boats will be on informal display before their respective starts scheduled
July 11, 15 and 17. - www.transpacificyc.org
* The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) is seeking Organizing
Committees who would be prepared to host Regional Qualifiers and the Grand
Final for the 2006 Nations Cup. The aim of the event is to broaden the
availability of match racing and provide international match racing
competition for national authorities and sailors at reasonable cost, while
acting as an incentive for national match racing programs. Organizations
interested in being a potential host for the 2006 Nations Cup Regional
Qualifier and 2006 Nations Cup Finals, should sent their bid to Katie
Richardson <katierichardson@ussailing.org> at US Sailng by May 16, 2005.
Full information: www.sailing.org/nationscup
* BoatU.S. Founder and Chairman Richard Schwartz was made an Honorary
Commodore in the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. Schwartz was honored
by Coast Guard Commandant Thomas A. Collins and Coast Guard Auxiliary
National Commodore Gene M. Seibert for "Notable service to the Coast Guard
and Coast Guard Auxiliary which has been of exceptional value to the
recreational boating safety mission for over 20 years." Admiral Collins
singled out the work of the BoatU.S. Foundation for Boating Safety and
Clean Water which was established during Mr. Schwartz' watch. -
www.BoatUS.com/news/releases.asp
* The intensity of college team racing was recently captured by
photographer Glennon Stratton during the Pacific Coast district
eliminations for the June college nationals. Colored sails, tight covers,
radical roll tacks, and youthful energy are all included in the latest
Scuttlebutt photo gallery. Put your coffee down and enjoy:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/pcc-tr
* Last Thursday, FRA-60, which won the America's Cup in 2000 as NZL-60, was
christened by legendary French pop star Johnny Hallyday. The ceremony took
place at the K-Challenge team's training base in Gandia, south of Valencia.
After breaking a bottle of Moët & Chandon over the bow for luck, the next
day Hallyday went for a sail with the team when it resumed its training. -
http://tinyurl.com/akrqt
* The headsail changes of the last leg of the Global Challenge RTW race
have been replaced with constant attention to the trimming of the kites to
encourage maximum speed and avoid costly damage. "With the trade winds
almost directly astern," wrote BP Explorer skipper David Melville. Barclays
Adventurer is in front on the leg from Cape Town to Boston - just a mile
ahead of Team Stelmar with SAIC La Jolla only four miles off the pace. The
lead trio is closely followed by VAIO and BP Explorer. -
www.globalchallenge2004.com/en/news.asp?chco_id=17014
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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 not 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.)
* From John Harwood-Bee: I too find the amounts spent on AC boats
ludicrous. Being a 'G' Class Multihull fan I also find the AC incredibly
boring. But I defend any man's right to spend his money as he wishes. Many
of the big players make significant private and anonymous charitable
donations. If they then choose to spend zillions on racing so be it. We
elect people to sort out social problems and we donate to charities to aid
those less fortunate. Let's leave it there. Scuttlebutt is one place where
I do not need to be lectured on what to do with my money.
* From Mike Walbolt: The complaint of all that money being spent on the
America's Cup was spoken by someone who's not on the receiving end of those
funds. Thousands of people enjoy being on that receiving end. It is widely
recognized that the ratio of those who receive these funds is around 6.2 to
1. What should these wealthy people do with their money, keep it in some
static investment or spend it out into the community. Come on, let them
pass it around.
* From Peter Commette: The question isn't what class is better - the
Optimist or the Sabot - but as Eric Knopf said, "What can be done to keep
young sailors interested and continuing to sail throughout their lives."
From listening to my friends raise children in both camps, the Naples
Sabot survives, and Southern California youth thrive and stay with the
sport with less burn out, perhaps because of the regional focus of the
Naples Sabot class.
I just don't think it's a great thing for Optimist kids, young families and
expensive coaches on princely per diems to have to go all over the country
for a 10 year old to someday develop into a lifelong committed sailor. All
Sabot events lie within a 130-mile radius. The Sabot class is sailed by all
ages, with the junior class for sailors under 18 years. They race in
separate divisions based on their ability and move up to the next higher
group by achieving superior event results. Kids typically 'age-out' of
Sabots before 18, but it's their choice. When they are ready, they go to
the Club FJ's and 420's, which still provides them plenty of time for
national and world travel. I can see how this system could be easier on
everyone - kids and parents - plus it minimizes the "travel ball" aspect
that is rampant in all youth sports.
Can the Optimist class learn anything from the Sabot? Concrete suggestion:
National Opti regattas only for red fleeters under the non-performance
based system being used now.
* From Don Becker: One thing a lot of people don't realize is that the
Naples Sabot is not a "junior" boat. The Naples Sabot Class has both Junior
and Senior National Championships. At our yacht club the "Briny Bunch"
(average age above 40) sails and races these boats several times a week,
and they have very intense but friendly competition on our summer Wednesday
series. It is a boat you can sail your whole life and I would bet "that in
15 or 20 years" some of the youngsters sailing Naples Sabot today will
still be sailing them.
* From John Hopper: Does anybody else find it funny that every member of
the National Championship Point Loma High School Sailing Team learned how
to sail in a Naples Sabot. They all seem to be doing just fine to me.
Curmudgeon's Comment: A historical fact of Southern California youth pram
sailing is that the Sabot class has had over the years many flavors -
Naples, Windward, Westward, Sidney, and US. The Naples Sabot has always
been the most popular and consistent, with strong fleets spreading from
Long Beach to San Diego. The other fleets are to the north use boats with a
daggerboard rather than the leeboard on the Naples.
* From Nick Roosevelt (Regarding the video on the VO70s): They should have
2 more things: At least one camera should continuously record a 5 or 10
minute loop, and when they hit that red button, the previous 5 or 10
minutes should be saved
and they should have one camera at the stern looking forward that takes
an image every minute, and then use that to do a time-lapse movie of the
whole trip.
CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION
Some guy hit my fender the other day, and I said unto him, "Be fruitful and
multiply." But not in those words. - Woody Allen
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