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SCUTTLEBUTT 3083 - Monday, May 3, 2010Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors,providing a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt on Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Scuttlebutt on Facebook: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/facebook Today’s sponsors: Doyle Sails and Atlantis WeatherGear. SWEET SPOT WAS UNDER 8 KNOTS As an engineer for the Alinghi design team, Kirst Fedderson provides a detailed report on how they developed their catamaran in their failed attempt to defend the 33rd America’s Cup, confirming that their boat was only intended to excel in very light winds. Here is an excerpt: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- As a group we assembled at our team base in Valencia late in 2007 and began to develop an outline of areas to focus our design efforts. Any design effort usually begins with a review of previous designs, and a study of strengths and weaknesses of your competitor. We began to develop a rough picture of the yacht that our competitor would race. Oracle had hired the French design firm VPLP, who had designed the most advanced ocean racing trimarans including Groupama 3 and the recently-launched Banque Populaire V. The 90' beam and 90' LWL dimensions that BMWO specified in their challenge documents match the length to beam ratios of a lot of their recently launched designs. Groupama 3 was a pretty new boat at the time and, although designed for ocean racing, had similar dimensions to what BMWO specified. It seemed logical that Oracle would develop a lighter grand prix version more optimized for inshore America's Cup racing. The thing that Oracle did not know at the time was what sort of wind they would be sailing in. The challenger has the right to set the date of the match with their challenge, but the defender has the right to choose the venue and, in that sense, the wind conditions. Strategically, you try and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent and then try to leverage your position to take advantage of their weakness. The Alinghi sailing team has a long history of racing super lightweight, massively overpowered multihulls on the nearly windless Lake Geneva. Since the BMWO design team had a history of experience with off shore around the world Trimarans, it was surely of no surprise then that we began thinking in terms of maximizing light wind performance. Since a light wind boat needs to be feather light, it was decided early on that we would be building a catamaran rather than a trimaran, since a catamaran is naturally lighter. Remember earlier in the story, about deciding to design for light wind conditions? That only works if you can end up sailing in light wind conditions. BMWO did a better job in their legal strategy than Alinghi, and managed to disqualify our venue choice of Ras Al Kamiah in the United Arab Emirates, which would have produced a light but stable building sea breeze. While the breeze during racing in Valencia appeared to be very light, at the top of the nearly 200 ft-tall mast, the breeze was slightly higher than AL5's sweet spot of under 8 knots. Oracle did a great job on their part and produced an amazing wing sail, just months before the regatta. It was a pretty big gamble on their part because such a revolutionary new design can often have lots of unforeseen problems and jeopardize an entire campaign. All credit to their design team for producing such a weapon. -- AllAtSea.net, full story: http://tinyurl.com/29qcxvg * AC34 UPDATE: The first official news conference of AC34 has been set for Thursday, May 6th in Rome at 1200 CET (0600 ET; 0300 PT). Speaking jointly will be Russell Coutts, who will represent the Defender (GGYC/BOR), and Vincenzo Onorato (ITA, Mascalzone Latino) representing the Challenger of Record, Club Nautico di Roma. Information expected will include a timetable for making and announcing the big four decisions -- date, venue, boat and format -- by the end of the year. The news conference will be streamed live to the website: http://www.americascup.com WHERE IT ALL BEGAN Britain’s America’s Cup team, TEAMORIGIN, has invited the America’s Cup holders, BMW ORACLE Racing, to Cowes this summer to compete in a match race tournament that will involve a race clockwise around the Island over the historic original course that saw the birth of the America’s Cup in 1851. This inaugural event will be named The 1851 CUP. In that summer of 1851, fourteen British yachts raced a visiting US yacht called ‘America’, clockwise around the Isle of Wight. The American yacht won. Her owners were awarded a silver ewer, which became, and continues to be to this day, one of the world’s leading sports trophies – the America’s Cup. Named for the year of the original race, The 1851 Cup is a new invitational match race regatta which will become a perpetual event that will be competed for by America’s Cup teams invited by TEAMORIGIN and the Royal Thames Yacht Club. This year the British and American teams will use their own ACC Version 4 boats, GBR-75 and USA-76, both are currently being prepared for shipping from Valencia, Spain to the UK. -- Full details: http://tinyurl.com/2b8wrb5 SUMURUN WINS ANTIGUA CLASSIC More than 52 vintage and classic boats including Spirit of Tradition yachts, J Class yachts and tall ships took part in this year's Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta April 15th-20th. After five days of sailing in the Caribbean waters, Sumurun took line honors in Vintage Class and won the Panerai Overall Performance Trophy. Sumurun's owner Robert Tobin was awarded a Panerai special edition Radiomir Regatta 1/8th Second Titanio - 47 mm for the overall boat with the Best Total Corrected Time. Whether you have a classic or modern boat, for sails that optimize the performance of your boat visit http://www.doylesails.com ISAF SAILING WORLD CUP Hyeres, France (April 30, 2010) - The Medal Races and Womens Match Race Finals, in an image of the whole week, were sailed in light and shifty winds. Uncharacteristic of the Semaine Olympique Française, light air plagued this fourth event on the ISAF Sailing World Cup, and once again caused delays and cancellations. With racing postponed for an hour, the 470 men and the Star events started behind schedule, and as a consequence, there was no time to for the RS:X Mens and Womens Medal Races. For the North American contingent, US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics’ (USSTAG) Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.), Molly Vandemoer (Redwood City, Calif.) and Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.) was the lone podium finish, earning a silver medal in the Women’s Match Racing event after losing the final series against Germany’s Silke Hohlbrock. Team Tunnicliffe, who had accumulated a 12-1 record during the week, commented on their 1-3 Finals loss, “The races we lost today, we lost off the line. We had control of her for most of the start and made silly mistakes at the end of the sequence to lose control and give it to her. The race that we won, we also started behind, but sailed very smart and managed to take over the lead again by the second windward mark to win the race.” Two other USSTAG boats competed in today’s Medal Races: 2008 Olympians Amanda Clark (Shelter Harbor, N.Y.) and Sarah Chin (Hoboken, N.J.) finished eighth overall among 44 Women’s 470 boats, while Olympic Silver Medalist Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla.) finished ninth in the 52-boat Finn class. Canadian Michael Leigh finished 11th in the 141-boat Laser class. France was the clear medal winner, earning eight Olympic podium finishes with Great Britain next with four medals. Among the eight countries with multiple athletes in an Olympic Medal Race were Poland (RS:X Men-2, RS:X Women-3, Laser-2), France (RS:X Women-3, Finn-2, 49er-2, 470 Men-3, 470 Women-3), Israel (RS:X Men-3), and Spain (Laser Radial-3). The next ISAF Sailing World Cup event is the Delta Lloyd Regatta, scheduled for May 26-30, 2010, in Medemblik, The Netherlands. Event website: http://sof.ffvoile.net USSTAG website (reports, photos, videos): http://tinyurl.com/US-SOF-2010 WINNER REVEALED MONDAY: Did you enter the Scuttlebutt/ Atlantis WeatherGear contest? Entries will be accepted until Monday, May 3rd at 12:00pm PT, after which the winner will be revealed. Enter to win the United States Sailing Team Alphagraphics Microburst Jacket here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/10/awg HIGH SCHOOL SAILING CHAMPIONSHIP Twenty high schools have qualified through their district to compete in the Interscholastic Sailing Association (ISSA) Fleet Racing Championship (Mallory Trophy), hosted by Indian Harbor YC at Greenwich, CT on May 7-9, 2010. These schools are: MASSA (3) - Broadneck High, Annapolis, MD; Norfolk Collegiate School, Norfolk, VA.; Severn School, Annapolis, MD. MISSA (2) - Lake Forest HS, Lake Forest, IL; Loyola Academy, Wilmette, IL. NESSA (4) - Portsmouth Abbey, Portsmouth, RI; St. Georges School, Middletown, RI; The Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, CT; Darien HS, Darien, CT. NWISA (1) - North Kitsap HS, Poulsbo, WA. PCISA (5) - Coronado HS, Coronado, CA; Point Loma HS, San Diego, CA; The Branson School, Ross, CA, Newport Harbor HS, Newport Beach, CA; Cathedral Catholic, San Diego, CA SAISA (4) - Antilles School, St. Thomas, VI; Sarasota HS, Sarasota, FL; St Thomas Aquinas HS, Fort Lauderdale, FL; H.B. Plant HS, Tampa, FL. SEISA (1) - Lake Travis HS, Lakeway, TX. 2009-2010 ISSA Championships: Cressy Trophy - Singlehanded Fleet Racing, Corpus Christi, TX, Oct. 30 - Nov 1 Mallory Trophy - Doublehanded Fleet Racing, Greenwich, CT, May 7-9 Baker Trophy - Team Racing, Seattle, WA, May 21-23 ISSA website: http://www.highschoolsailingusa.org/ SAILING SHORTS * English Harbour, Antigua (April 30, 2010) - The final day of Antigua Sailing Week 2010 was to decide the overall results for many of the completing classes. For the biggest boats in the fleet, Titan - Tom and Dotty Hill’s custom Reichel/Pugh 75, and Niklas Zennstrom’s 72ft Judel Vrolijk-designed Ran engaged in their match-race style battle, once again, on the two-mile leg, windward/leeward course set just to the east of Falmouth. Ran however, pulled off a stylish win beating Titan by just over a minute on corrected time. In doing so, she not only won her class, but also won Division A overall. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/ASW-043010 (photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/10/0430a/) * (April 30, 2010) - Bermuda’s ace IOD skipper, Eugene “Penny” Simmons, had no mercy for visiting competitors as he made a clean sweep of the winner’s silver and gold in the IOD Class. As the 2010 Bermuda International Invitational Race Week concluded on the Great sound, he won the six-race “A” Series, the five–race “B” Series and the Vrengen Cold Cup for the eleven races overall trophy. Over 50 boats competing in seven classes participated in the annual event. -- http://www.biirw.bm/ * (May 2, 2010; Day 13) - As the Clipper 09-10 Round The World Yacht fleet edge their way south, their route to Panama now finds them off the Guatemala coast. With every day that passes the humidity levels are increasing as the mercury on the thermometer rises and this is making life on board uncomfortable for all the crews. The next couple of days are going to be hard work as a large wind hole is squeezing up from the south and threatens to stop the fleet dead. ‘Spirit of Australia’ continues to lead the nine boat fleet, now 862 nm from the finish. -- Event website: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com * Gmunden, Austria (May 2, 2010) - After USA 18 (Larry Ellison/ Russell Coutts) won the match race segment of the RC 44 Austria Cup, the BMW ORACLE Racing team holds down the top position in the fleet racing standings. The America’s Cup defender is on a roll with both USA 18 and USA 17 (Ian Vickers/ John Kostecki) sharing the lead at the end of day one of the fleet regatta, ahead of Pieter Heerema’s No Way Back and Igor Lah’s Ceeref. -- Class website: http://www.rc44.com/en/regattas/news/index.php * San Diego, CA (May 2, 2010) - Sunny weather, light winds from an uncharacteristic southerly direction were the theme for San Diego Yacht Club’s Yachting Cup. Nearly 100 boats raced in IRC, four divisions of PHRF and seven one design fleets. The winner of the Yachting Cup, awarded to the most competitive fleet, went to Chuck Nichols and his J/120 team on CC Rider. -- Event website: http://www.sdyc.org/yachtingcup/ * Barbados, West Indies (May 2, 2010) - Chips Howarth & Vyv Townend (GBR) won the 2010 Fireball International Week regatta, where a total of 60 boats took part in the warm up to the 2010 Fireball World Championship. Seventy boats from 15 countries began the Worlds today, where Howarth/ Townend continue their dominance, leading a Great Britain squad that currently holds 9 of the top 10 places. -- Event website: http://www.fireball-worlds.com/ DISCOVER: THE NEW SPRING '10 LINE FROM ATLANTIS Since 1972, Atlantis has provided innovative and great-looking sailing gear. The new 2010 line continues that legacy with new styles and colors that offer sailors the ultimate combination of performance and style. Developed and tested in Marblehead, the Spring '10 line delivers even more features designed by sailors for sailors, plus new products like the G3 crew jacket and vest, the Helmsman's pullover, the new Aegis line for women and kid's versions of some our more popular pieces. Visit http://www.AtlantisWeatherGear.com to see the new line, enter the Sailor's Paradise Sweepstakes and to find a dealer near you. Discover Your Atlantis => Curmudgeon’s Comment: The Bitter End Yacht Club in the BVI is home to the Scuttlebutt Sailing Club Championship. It is also where the winner of the Sailor's Paradise Sweepstakes gets to go. Enter here: http://www.atlantisweathergear.com/about-you-SP-enter.html SCUTTLEBUTT SAILING CALENDAR Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar LETTERS AND FORUM Please email your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, ‘The Curmudgeon’). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). 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. -- To submit a Letter: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- To post on the Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Cory E. Friedman ISAF has come in for a lot of unfair criticism regarding the recent revisions to Appendix Q. As all sailors know, ISAF demonstrated in the 33rd America’s Cup that it is focused like a laser solely on the best interests of sailors and the sport, not on VIP treatment at the Olympics or cushy junkets as in other sports. In fact, ISAF's revisions to Appendix Q are far too conservative. The way to please TV is to do away with rules altogether, including prohibitions of boat to boat and sailor to sailor contact. Ramming and bench clearing brawls never hurt TV ratings. The only rules should be requiring the skimpiest bikinis for female sailors as in beach volleyball and pirate garb for men. Equipment and courses need review. Sailing will never get any TV attention if nobody needs EMS. Instead of commentators like Peter Montgomery or Gary Jobson, commentary should be by Simon Cowell, Glenn Beck, Howard Beale or somebody else who can really deliver eyeballs. Rather than constant carping about ISAF, we should all be supporting ISAF's efforts to turn our sport into something TV will love and we can all be proud of. * From Paddy Boyd, Executive Director, Canadian Yachting Association: How fortunate those kiteboarders were to stumble across the (w)right man at the right time. David’s cool head, seamanship skills and marine experience resulted in an extraordinary rescue. Canadian sailing is very proud and privileged to have David as a member of the Canadian Sailing Team. Thanks also to John Bertrand for letting us know about this, David’s genuine modesty makes him uncomfortable in the role of hero. Well done David! (Rescue report: * From Brent Boyd: (re, What's Really Wrong With Yacht Clubs in #3078) The fact is that families with parents in mid 30’s are constantly torn with demands on their schedule (i.e. little league, school, soccer, clubs, homework, etc). They just run out of time and sailing generally encompasses a whole day when you count getting to the club, rigging boats, waiting for good wind or RC, unrigging, cleaning up and getting back home where there are still house chores and homework before the weeklong rat race begins again. If you or your kids race, that can completely take up Friday afternoon for regatta travel, Saturday and Sunday for racing, and Sunday night to get back home. All of this entails a huge time investment and generally precludes other sporting activities that can be completed in a couple leisurely hours on Saturday afternoon. Time is not the only factor. Bang for the buck is also a big issue for many families. YC club dues keep going up, special assessments are all too common, plus we all know boats and their maintenance are cash sink holes. For many young families club expenditures can be real budget issues when kids can play soccer or T-ball for $50.00 a season including the equipment and uniforms. These alternate sports activities are far less time and money consuming while leaving weekend time for kids to maintain good grades and participate in diverse activities, so they can get into good schools which is getting more competitive each year. As we all know sailing scholarships at the college level is still a big NO-NO; I put two very good sailors through school on my own dime like all sailor parents do. I would vote for this situation to change immediately no matter what the opposing arguments. Just my usual “two cent rant”. I don’t have a solution, but maybe wiser souls can come up with some ideas. * From Robert D. "Dan" O'Brien, Olympia WA: If you want to build yacht club membership and draw younger people into your club, you have to decide first what sort of place you want your yacht club to be. The one you belong to now probably looks like the old folks home and has more rules than 17th century convent. If you want young people you have to make membership cheap! New classes of membership: - STUDENT: (one who is learning to sail, any kid that wants to learn how to sail, row a boat etc. Minimum age 10) $5 per year. Membership lasts as long as the member is in some sort of class. - JUNIOR (a direct relative of a senior member) No charge. - CREW: Anyone who crews on a boat, teaches a class, or volunteers their time to an activity, includes their spouse/significant other and kids. $25 per year. The new classes of membership may be restricted in some way or another, such as no charging privileges or parking in the member parking lot, no voting rights or whatever. This will guarantee that your club will change. There will be more energy, excitement and conflict. It will be a lot more fun and a hell of lot more eye candy. Your club will be a place to go for an adventure, and not a place with a nautical decor where the old folks sit around and bitch that there are no young people around. => Curmudgeon’s Comment: All the letters in this thread are also being posted on the Forum for easier reference. Interestingly, Nicholas Hayes’ commentary - which began this thread - came at the same time when a Southern California city approved a monthly rent reduction to help a club from potentially defaulting on its property due to a 40% loss in membership and subsequent revenue since 2007. Hayes thread has now gone from Saving Sailing, to Saving Yacht Clubs, to Saving Cities. -- Forum thread: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9717 CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION "Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much -- the wheel, New York, wars, and so on -- whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins believed themselves to be more intelligent than man for precisely the same reasons." - Douglas Adams, author of ‘Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy’ Special thanks to Doyle Sails and Atlantis WeatherGear. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
