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SCUTTLEBUTT #337 - June 4, 1999SPONSORSHIP FOLLOW-UP - Peter HarkenWow! My 'flapjaw' drew a lot of response regards the problem of sponsorship in the U.S and I'm glad to read that most of us are on the same wavelength. It's a lot easier to repair a problem when we agree on the faults so lets have at it! If we make improvements in the coming year and the Millennium we must all thank Scuttlebutt, i.e. Tom Leweck for getting this stalled train finally " smokin down the tracks, man!" This info repair process is going to happen in bits I suspect because we all have other jobs to concentrate on, but who ever said life is easy? No one in the marine industry " fer shure!!" OK -- to start; Hugh Elliot is right. In general we companies in the sailing industry do lack clear sponsorship guidance rules and that is something we are beginning to work on. Peter Huston is probably right regards the non-availability of sponsorships from larger U.S. companies due to the fact that we are a peanut size industry and sport and they want to spend their dollars reaching millions. That is a fair general statement, BUT we have the problem of sponsorship requests nevertheless and it does happen all over our sailing world even though it's on a smaller scale. Not all is bad because there is a lot of good stuff in sponsorship handling in the U.S. Rolex is apparently happy so someone involved is hard at work and I'll bet there is a lot of company guidance and requirements. I wonder if we could get their input on " how to?" Nautica had a bad experience in general and has left our sport. I believe they do smaller programs once in a while due to their name connection to the "sea". They sponsored youth sailing so that was a bad loss. Our fault----not theirs! We generally have very good luck with small grass roots YCs events. They are very reasonable in their requests and we get inundated with thank you letters; especially neat is the ones from kids. Thank you, small YCs in the hinterland! To be honest, even if I burn a bridge here and there, the nationally known big YC regatta events are a poor return value for us because their monetary requests are too high for the exposure they dictate they will let us have. No more----" we be writing de rules, mon! " Otherwise go find another wallet. The banner in the beer tent doesn't cut it! Tom Ehman said that this is an " industry" problem and so maybe Sail America rather than U.S. Sail should "sponsor" the attack on helping us to correct this problem???? SANTA MARIA CUP Today marked the halfway point of the Santa Maria Cup, an international women1s match racing event. Early on, blustery unstable west/northwest winds pummeled the fleet, causing changes in positions around the race course. The shifting breeze plagued the race committee until about 3:30 PM when a more steady Northwest breeze settled in for the last two races of the day. Seven races for each of the 12 competitors completed the first of two round robin elimination series which will ultimately decide the semifinalists for Sunday1s showdown. ESPN is filming the event for a half -hour special on the event, to be aired twice on ESPN 2 on July 3. At the end of racing today, Drusilla Slattery and her team from Marblehead, MA sat alone at the top of the leader board, posting a 10-1 record. Slattery is a talented Sonar sailor who seems to be finding the J-22 to her liking. The competition is fierce behind her though, so even a slim lead is not enough. Nipping at her heels is a pack of talent: Klaartje Zuiderbaan (NED), Shirley Robertson (GBR), and Cory Sertl (USA) are all 8-3 having had very solid race days. Team Hall Spars/Hall Rigging skippered by Betsy Alison is right there in the hunt with a 7-3 record, after a single point was deducted from her 8 wins for a collision yesterday with Dru Slattery. -- Susan J Anthony Standings: Dru Slattery (USA) 10-1; Klaartje Zuiderbaan (NED) 8-3; Cory Sertl (USA) 8-3; Shirley Robertson (GBR) 8-3; Betsy Alison (USA) 7-3 * (Penalty Point Deducted); Dawn Riley (USA) 7-4; Marie Bjorling (SWE) 5-6; Marie Klok (DEN) 5-6; Paula Lewin (BER) 3-8; Sandy Grosvenor (USA) 3-8; Jane Moon (CAY) 1-10; Charlie Arms (USA) 0-11. Event web site: http://www.eastportyc.org/santamariacup/default.htm WEYMOUTH STORM FOLLOWUP There has been national press coverage concerning the storm, some of which has been reasonably accurate, and some of which has not. All Dart 18 sailors competing in the Nationals (in Weymouth, England) have been accounted for. There have been no serious injuries. There have been misleading reports that 30 sailors have been hospitalised; this is not true. No sailors have been taken to hospital, though there is an unconfirmed report that the crew of one rescue boat was suffering from hypothermia. Stronger winds had been forecast for much later in the day, long after racing had was supposed to have finished. After postponing the morning's start due to poor visibility, the it was decided to run one race. The vast majority of competitors and the coastguard still agree that this decision was taken responsibly. In the closing stages of the race, the wind increased to around 40 knots, and the sea state worsened considerably. Many of the competitors on the final downwind leg were capsized by the wind and waves. The leaders, who had rounded the leewad mark, were able to beat up to the finish, and then struggled home; approximately 30 boats from a fleet of around 80 finished the race.The remainder fought to right their boats, some suffering damage to masts, rigging and sails. Many were able to drop their mainsails, and broad reach back towards the mainland under jib alone. Others were not so lucky, with rigging failures or broken masts; they were picked up by the lifeboat, rescue crews, or helicopter. Their boats were abandoned; some were later recovered, and towed back to the beach. After approximately three hours, due to the sterling work of the rescue crews, RNLI, coastguard, and the organising clubs' safety tally system, all competitors were accounted for. Event website: http://www.dart18.com/ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIAL A few years ago I bought a Gill Antigua jacket, it kept me dry and comfortable on the bow of the Express 27 on many a beat up San Francisco Bay. When I tried to wash out some sunscreen that had messed up the collar by rubbing it with some liquid laundry detergent, the waterproof backing on the fabric came off. At Pacific Sail Expo last April I stopped at the Douglas Gill booth and mentioned this to one of the Gill representatives. He told me to send the jacket in for them to look at. I did, and a few weeks later I received a brand new replacement jacket. -- Ross Werner THE RACE Giant is too modest a description for the 120-foot catamaran Pete Goss is building for The Race, a dash around the planet starting on New Year's Eve 2000 for the largest, fastest and most radical sail-powered machines in the world. You could drive a double-decker bus under the cross-arms of the catamaran and would need a stadium-sized pool to float it. It costs over L2 million, is being built from carbon fibre and is scheduled for launch this autumn. The design team of Adrian Thompson, Martyn Smith and Barry Noble have created a highly unusual concept. Lightness is everything as Goss plans to sail with a crew of just five, less than half the norm. The hulls are knife-like, designed to slice through waves with minimal loss of energy and less stress on the structure. Instead of one central mast the cat has a 136ft windsurfer-style free-standing rig on each hull. -- Tim Jeffery, Electronic Telegraph, UK For the full story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ NORTH SAILS RACE WEEK Sailors lusting for a shot at the new Volvo Trophy are alerted that June 8 is the deadline for discount entry fees in Golison & Golison's 15th annual North Sails Race Week, the climactic event of the new Volvo Inshore Championships. Entries received after that date are subject to a $25 late fee. Upwards of 150 boats are expected for North Sails Race Week, scheduled June 25-27. This year the Long Beach sailing tradition is the third and final leg of Southern California's new Volvo Inshore Championships series, following the Yachting Cup at San Diego and Cal Race Week at Marina del Rey. Besides hosting the big, fast ULDB 70 sleds for the first time, NSRW will feature the charter fleet of Catalina 37s from the Long Beach Sailing Foundation. After attending the two preceding events, NSRW producer Bruce Golison said, "We are pleased with the success in San Diego and Marina del Rey and are looking forward to watching the series reach its final outcome at our event. We expect that with the addition of the Volvo Inshore Championships component, North Sails Race Week will reach a new level of competition on the water and greater fun ashore." NSRW, based at the SeaPort Marina Hotel adjacent to the Alamitos Bay Marina in east Long Beach, offers a busy schedule off the water. It leads with a free North Sails Open Forum panel discussion Friday, June 25, at 11 a.m. featuring North experts Gary Weisman, Vince Brun, Keith Kilpatrick and John Gladstone. Friday's 4 o'clock race will be followed by a Coors party poolside. The Rusty Pelican's dinner for leukemia will follow Saturday's races, and awards will be presented after Sunday's windup races with hors d'oeuvres and the Elm Street Band in the courtyard of the hotel. Because of a disparity of boats in PHRF-2, the largest handicap class, organizers have decided to split awards between heavy and light displacement competitors. NSRW also offers several special competitions: --The Yacht Club Challenge for three-boat teams representing their clubs; --The Lydia Kent Trophy for the highest-placed boat with three or more family members on board; --The West Marine Trophy for the skipper with the closest near-miss for a trophy; --The Rusty Pelican Crew Dinner in which the winning skipper is weighed to determine twice his weight, which is his crew's dinner allowance. Entry information is available at (714) 379-4884 or by e-mail to bgolison@earthlink.com. LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected to be printed here are routinely edited for clarity, space (250 words max) or to exclude personal attacks. -- From Chris Bouzaid -- I read with interest Seth Radow's piece about how famous the sailors are in Australiasia. This did not happen by chance. I am often reported as the "Father of New Zealand Sailing". The reason for this is because I was partly responsible for making the man in the street in New Zealanders aware and understanding of sailing. Until 1968 the three sports in New Zealand were, Rugby, Racing (Horse) and Beer (Drinking). I remember being at an Admiral's Cup with a young fellow named Bruce Farr. He was tired of being called an Aussie so he made a T Shirt design with a Kiwi bird riding a horse with a Rugby ball under one wing and a beer bottle under the other and written in big letters was "I'm not an AUSTRUCKINFALIAN." Whenever we went overseas for a sailing event we took a top sports reporter with us. The reporting would be syndicated all over the country and it would be both informative and instructional. The outcome was that the people became more and more interested in sailing. As this interest grew so did the sponsorship dollars. Today in New Zealand it is a country of Sailing, Rugby, racing & Beer. Who was that great reporter? None other than Alan Sefton, General Manager of Team New Zealand. US Sailing would be serving a useful purpose if they put some of their effort into getting higher understanding and the consequential interest for sailing. This would then make it easier for them and others to raise sponsorship dollars. Do you think anybody would watch American Football if they didn't understand it? I certainly fall in that category. -- From Craig Fletcher - Guess what? The Farr 40 Association turned down Walt Logan's request to allow me to be an alternate helmsman for his boat, Blue Chip. What is going on in the Farr 40 class is interesting. I am sure you read Peter Isler's article in Sailing World on the cost to race a Farr 40, and the rebuttal from the Farr office. Those costs were accurate except the amount the owners are paying the pros. This true cost is grossly understated -- this is the new pro class. The majority of the top boats have the maximum number (4) of pros on board. Here in lies the hypocrisy. You may pay four people to sail with you, yet under their so-called 'Corinthian clause' a good amateur is not allowed to steer. I cannot think of anything more un-Corinthian. I urge the Farr 40 class to increase the number of pro's to 9 (creating more jobs) and leave the amateurs out of the equation -- you obviously do not want us. Curmudgeon's comment: Craig Fletcher is a Southern California Group 1 amateur sailor who has been a trimmer on Walt Logan's Blue Chip since last year's Kenwood Cup. -- From Alan Johnson -- With so many "sprit boats" on the market now, it is a good time to change the Lipton Cup. This may acquaint many new people to the tactics and sail handling of asymmetrical spinnakers. INNOVATION When a new grand-prix 50-footer sails for the first time you'd expect hours of rig tuning, that is, unless it's a carbon/Kevlar wing mast without shrouds, spreaders, or discontinuous rod rigging. So it was when Krazy K-Yote Two, Ortwin Kandlers' 50-footer for the French Admiral's Cup team set sail for the first time last week on Narragansett Bay-the rig was pre-tuned with only the forestay, running backstays and checkstays for the crew to control. "IMS gives a rating credit for the rigging's drag even if there is no rigging," said the boat's 27-year-old designer Juan Kouyoumdjian while watching Bertrand Pace sail the boat upwind. "Also, the lack of shrouds allows for closer sheeting angles-as close as 5 degrees compared to about 8.5 degrees with conventional rigs, and tacking will be faster." "As a competitor, I'm terrified that it's going to work," said Ken Read, helmsman of the American Team's Nelson/Marek 50, Idler. "But as an innovator, all the power to them for trying something new. After the regatta they'll probably outlaw the rig." - Michael Tamulaites, Grand Prix Sailor Tamulaites' full story will be posted online after 9:00 AM PT: http://www.sailingworld.com AMERICA'S CUP Larger-than-life Australian cup legend Alan Bond won't get parole in time to see the America's Cup in 2000, but his old superyacht will be here. Southern Cross III, a 165ft boat Bond had built in Asia, has booked a berth in the New Zealand Cup Village with its new owners. Bond is eligible for parole from a Western Australia prison in April 2001. So far, 65 superyachts have booked space in the village, which has room for 88. - New Zealand Herald For the full story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ REGATTA INSIGHT - Report by Bill Hardesty 155 top international Laser sailors competed in the 1999 SPA regatta held in the small town of Medemblik located in the North of Holland. The newly finished sailing center in Medemblik is an awesome venue with new enclosed harbor and massive regatta building. Corporate sponsorship was everywhere with Oneil, Heineken, Volvo, and of course SPA water signs and banners everywhere the eye looked. There was spectating of the 49ers and Soling match racing from the beach. The breeze was usually strong which kept the action alive. The fleet was divided into three flights for the first three days of racing. The final two days would be sailed in championship fleets of 52 in Gold fleet and the remaining sailed in silver and bronze divisions. The first day of racing was in a fairly strong southwesterly of 15-20 knots. This offshore wind gave nice directional shifts and flat water. The Americans were doing all-right with Mark Mendelblatt finishing 3,6,4; Brett Davis 8,2,9; and myself having a rough first race finishing 24,7,12. Unfortunately this didn't compare well to Britain's Ben Ainsle finishing 1,3,1 and Australian Brendan Casey 1,2,3. Day two brought lighter winds (4-10 knots) from the northeast. It is very difficult in this condition because everyone in the fleet is capable of doing well which doesn't allow boat speed to make up for mistakes. Personally I had an all right day finishing 22, 11, 1. The recipe for the last race was winning the pin end start and never looking back. Brett Davis had a solid 1, 19, 2 and Finland's Roope Suomalainen was doing very well with a 1, 4, 2. Ainsle finished 29, 1, 3. The Breeze was back on for the third day, 20-25 knots from the south west and very shifty. Downwind was very fast and exciting with continuous planing from the windward to leeward mark. Robert Scheidt from Brasil won all three today and the last race yesterday to have four wins in a row. Ainsle was very solid with a 3, 3, 1. Day four was totally different with a light north easterly with longer drawn-out oscillating shifts. There was basically one shift per beat and you were either making gains or losing depending on which side of the course you chose. Ainsle had two bad races finishing 33, 51, 3; Scheidt finished 10, 39, 11. Averaging in the top ten was considered a good day! I finished 20, 10, 5. Roope from Finland moved into the lead with a 5, 16, 7. One race was scheduled for the afternoon of the last day. The breeze was strong 20 knots from the north with a bit larger chop than previously in the week. After a few general recalls, the black flag penalty of DSQ was displayed and if a boat was caught over the line within one minute before the start it would face disqualification. Unfortunately I was in an aggressive group in the middle of the line and six of us were caught and disqualified. Roope from Finland was one of these boats and dropped to third overall. Ben Ainsle from Britain went on to win the regatta with his rival from Brasil, Robert Scheidt, close on his tail. Curmudgeon's comment: Bill Hardesty finished 14th at the SPA Regatta with Brett Davis in 8th and Matt Mendelblatt 16th. AUCKLAND UPDATE (Reprinted with permission from DEFENCE 2000, which is available for US $48 per year from John@roake.gen.nz) * NZL10 and NZL12, the boats that formed part of Team New Zealand's unsuccessful challenge in 1992 are for sale. There is Australian (Iain Murray) and European interest in their purchase. Most likely purchaser is Murray's company that operates a corporate sailing venture on Sydney harbour. These were the two boats used in the "Road to the America's Cup" regattas. * Talks have already been held with Ports of Auckland Ltd about the proposed base for the Russian challenge. Their proposal is to use the ship that will bring their challenge yacht to Auckland as a base for their operations. Crew will live on board and the Age of Russia will be winched up onto the boat after each day's racing. Definitely different! Auckland's port officials say they can accommodate the ship at one of their harbour anchorages. Sceptics amongst America's Cup circles are saying "we'll believe it when we see it." Funding for the Russian challenge is now reputed to be coming from a church organisation, Holy Russia, who have a license to run a Lotto game in Russia. Pardon us, but all this seems to be a very odd combination! LONG BEACH RACE WEEK - JUNE 18-20 Only 2 weeks until Race Week! Cal 20s to 50 footers will be on hand for the June Classic. Racing starts at 4:00 Friday. 6 races with a throwout are scheduled. Parties include the Ullman Sails Crew Party Friday night, the Mount Gay Rum Party Saturday, and the Corona Beer Awards Party after racing on Sunday. For Entry or Notice of Race: http://www.lbyc.org FRONT RUNNER The Front Runner Association announced the 5th annual Front Runner Cup at Fishing Bay Yacht Club in Deltaville, Virginia on Saturday August 14th and Sunday August 15th. The event will also host many other classes on three race courses. - Thomas Moulds Race information: http://members.tripod.com/~FBYC/60AODRNOR.htm THE CURMUDGEON'S COUNSEL Never agree to plastic surgery with a doctor whose office is full of portraits by Picasso. |
