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SCUTTLEBUTT 2628 - Monday, June 30, 2008Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors. HARDESTY CROWNED 2008 ETCHELLS WORLD CHAMPION Chicago, IL (June 28, 2008) – Bill Hardesty, Erik Shampain, Steve Hunt, and Jennifer Wilson of San Diego take their first Etchells World Championship title after ending the regatta with a strong 13th place finish in the sixth and final race. Hardesty was the pre-event favorite having won both the Midwinters East and West, and had held the top ranking at the Worlds following the second day when his team earned two firsts. The lone race today was run in beautiful conditions with 10-20 knot westerly winds, waves, and warm sunny weather. Chris Busch and his team of Chad Hough, Chuck Sinks, and Peter Burton, also of San Diego, took the lead on the first downwind leg, and from there they proceeded to walk away from the fleet on every leg and capture first place by a substantial margin. This strong finish and the drop race now being factored helped Busch’s team move up to second overall. The next Etchells World Championship will be held in March 2009 on Port Philip Bay, Melbourne with the host club being Royal Brighton Yacht Club. -- http://www.etchellsworlds2008.com Final results (top ten of 83 entrants) 1. USA, Bill Hardesty/E. Shampain/S. Hunt/J. Wilson, 7-1-1-(39)-8-13, 30 2. USA, Chris Busch/Chad Hough/Chuck Sinks/Peter Burton,(49)-2-4-19-12-1,38 3. USA, Judson Smith/Henry Frazer/James Poter, 15-9-(41)-2-1-14, 41 4. USA, Peter Duncan/Thomas Blackwell/William Barton, 17-22-10-5-(51)-2, 56 5. IRL, Dave Dwyer/Andy Beadsworth/Simon Fry, (40)-24-22-4-3-3, 56 6. GBR, Graham Bailey/Stephen Bailey/David Heritage, 24-7-3-(64)-7-18, 59 7. USA, Artie Means/Will Stout/Chuck Skewes, 13-3-(84\OCS)-13-17-16, 62 8. CAN, Hank Lammens/Dirk Kneulman/Dwayne Smithers, 35-27-(43)-11-2-11, 86 9. USA, Vincent Brun/Ben Mitchell/Jeff Pape, 4-5-5-(51)-25-47, 86 10. USA, Robert Wray/Scott Nixon/Mike Wolfs, 37-4-9-34-6-(50), 90 Results: http://www.etchellsworlds2008.com/files/OverallFinalResult.htm Photos by Tim Wilkes: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/08/0628 => Curmudgeon’s Comment: Bill’s accomplishments thus far in 2008 should secure him a spot on the short list of nominees vying for the US Rolex Yachtsman of the Year award. Any other standout performances for men or women to recognize at the half-way point of 2008? Post your comments here: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6005#6005 OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN: 40 DAYS TO GO * (June 29, 2008) The complete range of winds at Kieler Woche 2008 joined with occasional rain showers for the final few race days. Amongst the North American contingent, with each entrant to be competing for their country in the Olympics, it was Canadian Michael Leigh working his way up to 3rd in the Lasers while Tania Elias Calles (MEX) finished 5th in the Laser Radial class (top ranked American Anna Tunnicliffe earned two black flag starting penalties to drop her to 14th). Zach Railey (USA) was 5th in the Finn with RS:X windsurfer Zac Plavsic (CAN) in 6th. -- Race website: http://www.kieler-woche.de/eng/sailing/index.htm * The hot topic in Qingdao is the proliferation of algae. Statistics showed that as of Saturday the algae had affected a total sea area of 13,000 square kilometers, four hundred out of which was covered by the foreign stuff. To make it worse, more than 32 percent, or 15.86 square kilometers of the guarded sea area for Olympic sailing competition, was also covered up. In order to assure the smooth going to the Olympic sailing events, Qingdao had mobilized more than 10,000 labor forces and over a thousand vessels to clean up the algae in the sea. Up till now more than 100,000 tons of algae has been weeded out. Wang said besides just cleaning, more methods, such as blocking the further inflow of the algae, would also be adopted to accelerate the speed. -- Complete story: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/29/content_8458552.htm RIGGERS - TUNE YOUR CAREER Rig Pro / Southern Spars requires experienced riggers and project managers for servicing yacht rigs in its La Ciotat (France) centre. Working on a variety of projects from superyachts to grand-prix racing yachts, you'll need experience in reading rigging specifications and drawings, fabrication/assembly of fittings, and testing of rigging through to sea-trials. Rig Pro prides itself on providing exceptional customer service so a passion for achieving 'excellence' is essential. Rig Pro is an international rig servicing operation with centres in USA, South Africa, New Zealand, France, and is part of the Southern Spars company. Please send enquiries to: mailto:vincent.patricelli@southernspars.com AMERICA’S CUP: BITS AND PIECES * Alinghi, Defender of the 33rd America’s Cup, has been able to arrange a two-boat training session with the ORMA 60s Foncia and Banque Populaire IV in Lorient, France, from June 30 until July 5. This marks the return of Foncia, which the team had capsized last March and broke its mast. Stepping up to the 60-foot trimarans should nicely augment the training occurring with the Extreme40s and the Décision35s respectively in the iShares Cup and in the Lake Geneva. -- http://www.alinghi.com/en/news/news/index.php?idIndex=200&idContent=16262 * Last week the BMW ORACLE Racing team let it be known that their sail design and production team were now well underway in developing the huge new sails required for the 33rd America's Cup. While one would expect the team would be focusing on all areas of development – including sails – the telling comment in their announcement seemed to have another purpose: “As required by the America's Cup Deed of Gift, the sails and other components of the boat must be built in the country the team represents.” This topic has come up before, and is based on language in the Deed of Gift. The question has to do with interpretation, which is whether all parts of the boat must be built in the team’s country, or that the boat merely needs to be assembled in the country, and that parts of the boat may be imported from outside of the country. -- http://xrl.us/ighch * (June 27, 2008) As a consequence of the continued uncertainty around the 33rd America's Cup caused by the Golden Gate Yacht Club's legal manoeuvres, AC Management and the Spanish institutions (Central State, Valencia Region and Valencia Municipality) have been left with no option but to revise the terms of their relationship, ending the contract signed in July 2007 that named Valencia the Host City for a multi-challenge 33rd America's Cup in 2009. -- For comments and complete story: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=5997#5997 SAILING WORLD CUP BEGINS IN DECEMBER The first ISAF Sailing World Cup is set to launch at the end of 2008, bringing a new annual series of sailing to the international sports calendar. The World Cup will be open to the sailing events chosen for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Competitions. Incorporating existing major events, the series will kick off with Sail Melbourne, Australia in December 2008, followed in 2009 by the Rolex Miami OCR, USA (January); the Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofia MAPFRE, Palma, Spain (March); Semaine Olympique Francaise, Hyeres, France (April); the Delta Lloyd Regatta, Medemblik, the Netherlands (May); Kiel Week, Germany (June); and Skandia Sail for Gold, Weymouth, Great Britain (September). Additional events may join the series in future years. The Notice of Series for the ISAF Sailing World Cup, including details of the scoring system, will be posted on 21 July 2008. -- http://xrl.us/ighkd CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar DR. LAURA ANSWERS THE CALL AT LONG BEACH RACE WEEK (June 29, 2008) There's a lot of angst around when winners in three of 19 classes are settled on tiebreakers and three others by one point, but that's the way it usually is when Acura presents Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week, co-hosted by the neighboring Long Beach and Alamitos Bay Yacht Clubs. A second day of big wind meant a rousing windup to the West's largest keelboat regatta that brought out 138 boats. After seven races on three courses over three days concluding Sunday, Laura Schlessinger, the national syndicated call-in radio hostess from Santa Barbara, not only won the Sportboat class on her J/100, Perfect, but PHRF Boat of the Week honors for winning the most competitive class. Jim Murrell's Mumm 30 class winner, Huckleberry2, was picked as One Design Boat of the Week in a small but tight class where the top three boats finished within one point. Schlessinger's win was even closer. She managed a pair of fourth places Sunday on her black J/100, Perfect, to tie Aaron Feves and John O'Connor's 1D35, Lucky, with 15 points and get the nod on the basis of two first places to their none. Other tiebreak winners were father-son Philip and Payson Infelise of Long Beach in Flying Tiger 10s, and Dick Velthoen and Paul Defrietas of Ventura Rival on their J/35, Rival, in PHRF-4. -- For full reports from all three days: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/08/0629 2008 ETCHELLS WORLDS A BIG HIT IN CHICAGO The Etchells class is known for racing hard on the water and then continuing the fun ashore. Chicago YC made this a regatta to remember with great parties, bands, food, drink, prizes and plenty of good friends on hand. Congratulations to Bill Hardesty and crew for their big win, and to Team McLube’s new Hullkote Speed Polish. McLube Hullkoted boats dominated the top ten as the Hullkoted boats went in the water looking great, feeling fast through the water, and staying noticeably cleaner than others throughout the week, especially during haul-out after 7 days. Learn more about Hullkote at: http://www.mclubemarine.com/ SAILING SHORTS * There is being in Porto Cervo, then there is sailing in Porto Cervo, and then there is sailing on superyachts in Porto Cervo. This stunning site in Sardinia was home last week to the Boat International Superyacht Regatta, and photographer Rick Tomlinson was in the air and on the water to capture the spectacle: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/08/0628a * Thomas Coville flew to New York this past weekend in anticipation of a good weather forecast to attempt to break the single-handed transatlantic record onboard his 105-foot maxi trimaran Sodeb’O. Last winter, Coville attempted to beat the solo round the world record and, twenty days after the start, the skipper broke the 24 hour speed record with an average of 25.8 knots, sailing 619.3 miles in the space of 24 hours. A few minutes later, the maxi Sodeb’O lost one of its bows and the skipper was forced to retire from his round the world record attempt. -- http://www.sodebo-voile.com/actu/news-eng.html * (June 27, 2008) Possibly the coolest powerboat on the planet, the space age, wave piercing trimaran Earthrace today took bio-fuel into history as the 78 foot, (24 metre) boat crossed the 'Round the World' finish line in Sagunto, Spain. In just 60 days Earthrace has powered almost 24,000 nautical miles around the world. Earthrace left Spain on Sunday April 27th at 14:35 local time (1325 GMT) and headed west on the long voyage around the world. The previous record for a powerboat to circumnavigate the globe was 74 days 20 hours 58 minutes 30 seconds, set by the UK boat ‘Cable & Wireless Adventurer’ in 1998. -- Sail World, read on: http://xrl.us/ighwi * Hamilton, Bermuda (June 28, 2008) - Randall Baldwin’s Taylor 42 Cabady from Ridgefield, CT took first place in the Onion Patch Series following the final event, the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Anniversary Regatta sailed yesterday. The Series is scored under IRC ratings and includes the New York Yacht Club Regatta, Newport Bermuda Race, and the Anniversary Regatta. In the team competition, the winning US Sailing Team was comprised of George David of Hartford Connecticut and his Reichel Pugh 90 Rambler, David Askew/ Ken Comerford of Annapolis in their J122 Flying Jenny VI and Hap Fauth’s new Reichel Pugh 69 Bella Mente from Jamestown Rhode Island. -- Full story: http://xrl.us/igh54 * The 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean entrant The Green Team has officially been re-named after securing title sponsorship from a syndicate of Chinese companies. The team will now be officially known as The Green Dragon Team for the 2008-09 race. The team livery will be unveiled over the coming weeks. The team already holds strong Chinese links with construction of the boat taking place at McConaghy Boats in Zhuhai. It is the first Volvo Open 70 boat to be built in China. -- http://xrl.us/igice * (June 27, 2008) One hundred twenty Lightning boats are pre-registered and more are expected as the International Lightning Class celebrates its’ 70th Anniversary with a celebration regatta to be held over the July 4th weekend in Skaneateles, New York, the birthplace of the Lightning. The first Lightning, designed by Olin Stephens, was built at the Skaneateles Boat Company in 1938. There will be a large contingent of restored wooden boats (including Fisk Hayden’s #2) as well as fleet and world class racing boats. The Lightning family will have representatives from around the world participating including many World and North American champions. -- For comments and full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=5998#5998 * All ten of the internationally-backed yachts competing in the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race are now berthed at the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven, Ireland, following their transatlantic crossing. This is the first time the Clipper Race, now in its sixth edition, has visited Ireland. The ten teams are now preparing for the start on July 3rd for the final sprint of the 35,000-mile circumnavigation from Cork to Liverpool, where the fleet will arrive on Saturday 5 July at the height of the city’s celebrations of its status as European Capital of Culture 2008. -- http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com * Correction: In Issue 2626, there was a reference on the number of allotments each country was allowed for the Youth Olympic Games. We have now learned that each country is allotted two positions that could be both in the single handed or both in the board OR one in each discipline. However, if there are two entries, one MUST be female and one MUST be male. $10 OFF SAILFAST APPAREL FOR SCUTTLEBUTT: ONE DAY ONLY! For one day only, SailFast is giving $10 off any purchase on http://www.isailfast.com. SailFast also donates 10% of every purchase to The Leukemia Society. Check out our new tech T’s, hats, graphic T’s and more. Enter ‘Scuttlebutt’ at checkout. Offer good July 1st only, does not include charity wristbands and clearance items. => Curmudgeon’s Comment: I hope that Scuttlebutt readers will take advantage of this offer by SailFast, a company that is continually supporting charitable causes. LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Reader commentary is encouraged, with letters to be submitted to the Scuttlebutt editor, aka, ‘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, 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 Gregory Scott: (edited to the 250-word limit) The position expressed by Jeff Butzer in Butt 2626 is quite true. But where did it all go wrong? Finding volunteers is becoming more difficult across the nation. And sailing is only a tip of the iceberg!! The generosity of people's time is wearing thin. I see it as the convergence of a cultural shift and fatigue arriving at the mark at the same time. In all areas of our day, more is being asked of "us" to shore up support systems. Taxation (in all forms) can't keep pace with need. So, more people are working at hospitals, school libraries and US Sailing - and those people are of a generation that are post war, "put your shoulder to the wheel and carry on" types. (as in people 80 - 70 - 60 -50) At the same time, we have an over burdened dual income generation swimming like mad to get upstream. These people aren't the frugal post-war work/ save/ pay off the house. They are the work/ work/ spend/ buy generation who have very little energy, time or interest in volunteering. (partly because they have the kids swimming Monday - tennis Tuesday - Kumon Wednesday - soccer Thursday - add in parent night at school >>) At the end of their week, bobbing up and down on a race committee boat isn't on. Yes, Jeff Butzer is right. When this group who have been carrying the load, walk out the door, we all will be wondering where it all went wrong. * From Mark Weinheimer: (edited to the 250-word limit) I think there are a couple of factors contributing to the prevalence of W-L courses. If you are racing in a top flight regatta with lots of mark boats and a good committee that calls for mark resets with every major shift, then the W-L course does provide for a wide range of tactical options. However, too often RCs are under-manned, marks are not adjusted with wind shifts, and the W-L becomes a parade both up and down wind that limits tactical options. The W-L is also easier for a short-handed committee to set; in a pinch all you need is a starting line and a windward mark, which could be a government mark upwind of the line. Use the pin for your leeward mark and you’re done. Tough to make course changes…see above. For handicap racing, the Gold Cup course is a better choice as the PHRF handicap is based on boats sailing on all points of sail, not just up and down wind. I completely agree with George Sechrist (in #2627) about the reaches – they present their own tactical options – too close for a kite or not, reach up early then set the kite with a better angle, close up with the boat ahead so you can attack on the next beat. Reaches are the best place to take advantage of “you and him go fight” boats ahead taking each other up to protect their position leaving a place for the trailing boat to sail in to leeward and pass. I also like the idea of the trapezoidal course or a bowtie style…anything to make it more interesting. * From Owen Muyt: All this past week I have not been over excited by the poor performance of the Newport/Bermuda race Web Site. It leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe I'm biased in this regard, as we Australians are spoilt with the great job the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia does with its Sydney to Hobart Race website. The Newport to Bermuda's was hard to operate with the race tracker, and had no up-to-date news bulletins on the front page to click on and opened. And what was really sad was the whole time the race was on, the same old photos of the start and pre-race were played over and over again. And this still hasn't changed with the race now over. No marketing imagination here. With all these entrants and participants, this race needs to give more to both their sponsors and competitor’s families, plus all us die-hard yachties in general. This race is classified as the one of five must-do events. But that website is one of the all time worst when it comes to information/news in a yachting event. Maybe they need to contact the CYCA and see how they do it. This way you might even pick up a great sponsor like Rolex. The ball is in your court. * From Paul Heineken, Chair, StFYC Junior Program: (edited to the 250-word limit) The St. FYC recently purchased a new fleet of Techno 293 windsurfers for our junior sailing program. So far kids have been thrilled with the boards. Due to recent advances in windsurfing that promotes teaching on wide boards and small sails, our juniors are all learning how to windsurf as part of our learn to sail camps. Even experienced dinghy sailors are gaining a new feel for the wind and the water due to windsurfing’s direct access and feel for the elements. The fact that windsurfers are so close to the water also removes much of the fear of capsizing. This has the added benefit of relaxing juniors in boats when a boat capsize occurs--a regular event on the Bay. Our club is working to have the first ever 2010 combined junior world windsurfing championship for both the Techno 293 (for the younger kids) and the Olympic RSX. Southern California was the birth place of windsurfing and the site of the first Olympic games that included windsurfing (1984 LA games where the American Scott Steele won the Silver Medal). While many believe the hottest junior sailors come from Southern California, it’s unfortunate that this region trails the rest of the nation (if not the world) in developing windsurfers. It would be tremendous if we could encourage some of the greats from the sport of windsurfing (Olympian Peter Wells, John Jackman, Annie Nelson, Eric Krebs) to rally and create a CISA junior clinic similar to what Pete Melvin has done with multihulls. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION The two biggest problems in America are making ends meet and making meetings end. Special thanks to Southern Spars, Team McLube, and SailFast. A complete list of preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
