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SCUTTLEBUTT 1640 - August 5, 2004
Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. 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.
IT'S OFFICIAL
The 18 members of the 2004 U.S. Olympic Sailing Team - winners,
respectively, of the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 11 sailing events - are now
"Olympians" after completing the U.S. Olympic Committee's (Colorado
Springs, CO) Team Processing held this past Saturday at the American
College of Greece. While most of the sailors have been in Athens for
several weeks, and in some cases several months, they have spent the last
few days together living in the Athlete's Village and moving boats and
equipment into the Aghios Kosmas Sailing Centre to begin the final leg of
their Olympic journey.
The sailing venue - located in Glyfadha, an upscale suburb to the south of
Athens - officially opened for the Games on August 1. For the next week,
the sailors will make the final adjustments to their equipment and go
through the measurement process before the first official practice races
begin on August 12. Laser sailors, competing in the only event that
utilizes equipment provided by the organizers, participated in their draw
for boats yesterday.
Television coverage of the sailing events will be hosted by Gary Jobson
(Annapolis, MD), with race reports scheduled to air every scheduled race
day on the Bravo cable channel beginning August 14, and continuing through
August 26. The planned coverage will rotate classes every day and will
feature one or two races each day, often with on board cameras. The
"non-featured" classes will have some, but not complete, daily coverage.
The half-hour of programming will air between midnight and 1:00 a.m. in the
Eastern and Pacific time zones. Viewers in the Central and Mountain time
zones will follow the Eastern time zone (i.e. 11:00 p.m. Central; 10:00
p.m. Mountain). On August 28, CNBC will show two hours of Olympic sailing
coverage from 3:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific. Additionally,
Jonathan Harley, US Sailing's Olympic Director, will provide a
behind-the-scenes look at the sailors' experience through his Olympic
Diary- http://www.ussailing.org/pressreleases/2004/Olypreview.htm
THE OLYMPIC DIFFERENCE
Here is an excerpt from a Daily Sail story by two-time British Olympic
medalist Ian Walker (470 and Star), where he explains why the Olympics are
not like any other regatta.
When you see sailors interviewed prior to the Games about dealing with the
pressure of the Olympics they often trot out their intention to treat the
Olympics 'just like any other event'. This is absolutely the right approach
- but is it feasible? My advice to them is that this is far easier said
then done. The Olympics is not like any other event. If you need convincing
here are a few reasons why:
1. It is likely to be the most important sailing event that you have ever done.
2. You are not just representing yourself and your crew, but you are
representing your country.
3. Everybody you know and millions more that you don't will be following
your every move.
4. Personally you will want to sail better than ever before and the
internal and external pressures will make even simple decisions become hard.
5. In some classes the fleet will be much smaller than normal
championships; this must affect your tactics.
6. It is all about finishing in the top 3.
7. There is an inordinately long build up and the event will seem long and
tiring.
8. For the technical classes measurement that will be stricter than you
ever normally experience.
9. On shore you will be surrounded by country team mates from different
classes and not in your normal fleet environment.
10. You will have more support and external advice than normal as your
governing body tries to help as much as they can - beware it does not
always help!
For the rest of Ian's list, along with the full story:
http://www.thedailysail.com
VITAL STATISTICS
The new Volvo Open 70 makes it's debut in the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race, and
at present, you can find her only in drawings and computer-generated
images. Killian Bushe is currently building the first boat in Holland for
ABN AMRO, which will be launched at the end of the year.
Just by studying the measurements of the Volvo 70, you will see that this
is going to be one impressive beast. She measures 36 metres from the bulb
to the top of her mast. That is equivalent to an 11 or 12 floor apartment
building. The bulb weight of 4,500 kilos is the same as three Volvo estate
cars. The rest of her is quite trim. Her total weight is 12,500 kilos -
eight per cent less than the 10-foot shorter V.O.60 (the boat used in the
last three races). The Volvo Open 70 will be able to set up to 775 square
metres at a time - equivalent to 11 apartments or three tennis courts.
To say that a sailing boat is driven solely by air is not the full truth.
You need to add water and food for the crew. They consume a lot. The
average male, living a normal life, requires approximately 3,000 calories
(Kcal) per day and about 2.5 litres of water. A Volvo Open 70 crewmember
requires twice as much: 6,000 kcal and 5 litres of water (7.5 litres a day
in the heat, close to the equator). During a long leg of the race, at least
1,000 litres of water is required - just for drinking. - Volvo Ocean Race,
full story: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/pages/news/news75.htm
SPECIAL PRICING
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SAILORS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
North America's leaders in singlehanded and doublehanded competition for
sailors with special needs will shed their wheelchairs and other aids to
race in the U.S. Independence Cup/ North American Challenge Cup (IC/NACC)
August 7-9 at the Chicago YC. The 40 participants have qualified through a
series of local and regional regattas and by invitation. Each participant
will travel to the Windy City with all expenses covered by the event sponsors.
This year, 14 two-person teams will compete for the championship title in
20-foot Freedom Independence sailboats specifically designed to accommodate
sailors with a broad range of disabilities. The boats feature special chest
and waist belts as well as counterweighted seats to enable sailors to pivot
between opposite sides of the boat. They are also equipped with several
safety features, and competing teams will be accompanied by a third
non-competing able-bodied volunteer to ensure the safety of those aboard.
The regatta will also feature 13 competitors who will sail without
assistance in singlehanded 2.4mR boats. These same boats are used by both
disabled sailors and able-bodied sailors in international competition. -
Holly Jespersen, www.ussailing.org/independence
JUNIOR SAILING PHOTO CONTEST
Scuttlebutt's latest photo contest is profiling junior sailing in North
America. Do you have a stack of photos from another great summer of
sailing? We are calling out to all program directors to send us images in
the following categories: on-the-water (beginners and advanced),
instructors in action, controlled chaos, and humor. Top ten entries get
their photos posted on the Scuttlebutt website, with the best three earning
prizes from Vanguard Sailboats. Entries due by this Friday, August 6th. For
more information:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/04/juniorsailing/info.html
2005 ADMIRALS CUP
The Royal Ocean Racing Club announced plans for the 2005 Admiral's Cup, to
be held at Cowes, Isle of Wight, from Saturday 9 to Sunday 17 July 2005.
Member National Authorities are invited to send up to two national teams,
with each team consisting of three boats. Each team competing for the
Admiral's Cup in 2005 shall comprise the following three boats:
- One IRC (Endorsed) boat with provisionally a TCC between 1.300 and 1.550
and appropriate limiting DLR and Hull Factors. Precise rating and other
limitations will be confirmed in the Notice of Race.
- One Swan 45
- One Mumm 30
The 2005 Admiral's Cup will comprise a series of both inshore and offshore
races, which will be sailed in and around the Solent area and the English
Channel. The event format has been compressed to attract the world's top
sailors without sacrificing the quality of the event. - ISAF website, full
story: http://www.sailing.org/Article_content.asp?ArticleID=7762
2004 FORMULA 18 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Ullman Sails congratulates our Hobie Cat customers on their outstanding
results at the 2004 Formula 18 Worlds in Punta Ala, Italy, 10-16 July.
Ullman Sails new designs finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in a 160-boat
fleet. After a year of extensive Tornado Class research and development for
the Olympic Games, design data was transferred to the Formula 18 program.
The world class sailmakers at Ullman Sails accomplished these design
changes during a series of local and national events that culminated at the
2004 Worlds with great success. For the "Fastest Sails on the Planet" visit
us at http://www.ullmansails.com
REAL TIME EDUCATION
Erin Myers is home after 2 1/2 years sailing with her crew around the world
on the 43-foot ketch-rigged school-ship, Makulu II. The trip, which set
sail in November 2001 and returned this past May, was part of a New York
City-based outreach organization called Reach The World
(www.reachtheworld.org), a nonprofit company founded in 1998 that promotes
the international exchange of ideas.
The idea is to launch expeditions and use them as a platform to link
students around the world, through computer technology and
telecommunications, and help them learn, in real time, about each other's
cultures and the world at large. RTW's first voyage, from 1997-1999, racked
up 27,000 miles to Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America; the crew shared
their journey in real time with students and teachers in public school
classrooms across the nation. The boat's name is Zulu for "chieftess."
At age 23, Ms. Myers was hired to run the second expedition. Before the
trip, Ms. Myers and the crew met with teachers to develop an online
curricula for participating classrooms and create interdisciplinary
materials tuned to teachers' needs. Actively participating in the project
were 25 classrooms in New York and one in Texas. Other schools around the
nation were following the trip on the web and occasionally sending
messages. Some children followed the trip for its entire journey. - Laurie
Schreiber, The Bar Harbor Times, full story: http://tinyurl.com/3ml6k
Curmudgeon's Comment: Reach The World is ramping up for their next trip to
begin this fall. See the Scuttlebutt Classifieds for crew recruitment
information: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/classifieds/#Other
NEWS BRIEFS
* Perth yachtsman and former Australian champion Michael Manford matched
his previous day win by taking Thursday's fifth race in the ACE Etchells
World Championship 2004, maintaining a 52 second lead over second place
Dennis Conner. The sixth race positions and overall results were not yet up
at Scuttlebutt press time. -
http://www.mooloolabaetchells.com/etchells2004/2004home.htm
* Following the rumors and news published in the international press, the
Americas Cup Team Mascalzone Latino, confirms that no agreement has been
reached with Mr. Pedro Campos of Spain regarding the wider project "Mas
Latino", which is organized and is in process of realization by our team.
The challenge for the America's Cup on the part of Mascalzone Latino is
based on victory in this very hard competition utilizing resources from the
entire Latin world."
* Seventy-three boats competed at the CFJ Nationals last weekend in Long
Beach, CA, where Tyler Sinks/ Hadley Rockicki of San Diego YC beat out
second place team Charlie Buckingham/ Marla Menninger of Newport Harbor YC
by fourteen points. Third was Chris Wenner/ Greg Dair of California YC. For
complete results and photos: http://abyc.org/2004REGATTAS/CFJ/results.htm
COMING TO TV
* The Outdoor Life Network is scheduled to broadcast four events of the
Swedish Match Tour in August. The 30-minute programs will air on successive
Fridays at 12:00 p.m. beginning this week. The Congressional Cup (Long
Beach, Calif.) is scheduled for Friday, August 6, at 12:00 p.m., and is
followed a week later by the Toscana Elba Cup - Trofeo Locman (Porto
Azzurro, Italy) on Friday, August 13, at 12:00 p.m. The ACI HTmobile Cup
(Split, Croatia) is scheduled for Friday, August 20, at 12:00 p.m., with
Match Race Germany (Langenargen, Germany) scheduled for Friday, August 27,
at 12:00 p.m.
* This Saturday, August 7, ESPN2 will re-air Gary Jobson's 25 Years of
Sailing at 5:00 PM ET.
These programs (and others) are listed on the Scuttlebutt website:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar/shows/
SAILMAKER-HANDWORKER JOB OPENING!
Ullman Sails in Newport Beach, CA is hiring for a full time handworking
position. The job is available immediately. Some experience would be great,
training available. Need motivated, organized person. Are you ready to
build the "Fastest Sails on the Planet"? Please email your resume to
ullman@ullmansails.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 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 Chris Ericksen: Thanks for putting the latest kerfluffle over the
America's Cup into perspective by inviting us to read Terry Maddaford's
story posted on the NZ Herald website ('Butt 1638). My favorite controversy
of America's Cup's past was the Dunraven flap of 1895 wherein Lord
Dunraven's English cutter "Valkyrie III" lost a windward-leeward protest to
"Defender," skippered by the legendary Hank Haff. Among the events that
occurred thereafter was Dunraven's protest over the alleged reballasting of
"Defender."
Dunraven's later rehashing of the issue in the press of the day and the
1896 expulsion from the New York Yacht Club of Lord Dunraven for his
ungentlemanly and unsportsmanlike behavior. Only the appearance on the
scene in 1899 of Sir Thomas Lipton restored the good will between Great
Britain and the United States regarding the America's Cup. The Twenty-First
Century controversies don't hold a candle to the issues that took place in
the Nineteenth!
Curmudgeon's Comment: For those readers who missed Terry Maddaford's story
about the great controversy in America's Cup history, it's still online at:
http://tinyurl.com/54fae
* From Craig Coulsen (In respect to the letter from Zach De Beer): What is
the problem with US sailors when not only do they allow a small lobby to
kill off the new offshore rule but now that they have left only one rule
standing they do not want to play. Clearly most people seem to be
complaining about PHRF. However to say IRC will not work in the US is
nonsense given the number of one designs now sailed on both sides of the
Atlantic unless of course IRC shows up that they are not that well sailed
in the USA when compared against the European boats. Secondly the
performance on local design can be gauged relevant to the benchmark one
designs (Mumm 30s, J boats 40.7s and the like).
The real strength of IRC now seems to be that so many different types of
boats have been rated so the sample is very large. So perhaps the yachting
authority can show some leadership for the benefit for the majority of
their constituents. Of course IRC is a threat to the top end of the
industry because as an owner, you don't keep needing new boats and good
(and relatively cheap) production boats do just fine racing under it. So
perhaps that is the basis for the real opposition to IRC but hopefully the
certain parts of the industry will get what they deserve.
* From Mark Weinheimer: Bruce Thompson blasts PHRF for not fairly rating a
Catalina 22 against a Farr 40 (or some other zero rating boat). He back
doors an IMS rating for the 22 by comparing a subjective, relative number
to a sophisticated boat measurement rating system. Who cares how that works
out?? Around here, we've known for years that the system gets progressively
worse rating boats of any kind after the ratings get more than 40 or 50
seconds apart. The entry level racer, and for that matter, even fairly
serious club racer, will typically have a production boat at least a few
years old. The only really serious injustices crop up when you have small
fleets with a big rating spread and old heavier displacement types sailing
against trailer-sailers and other lightweight boats. These sorts of
mismatches tend to favor light boats on light air days and bigger boats on
heavier days. The fix is more boats to close up the rating spreads and
divide the classes at the largest natural break points in the list. Also
using time-on-time instead of time-on-distance closes up the results by
factoring in wind speed as a function of time spent on the course. While we
know that PHRF has its limitations, let's not condemn a simple, workable
system for failing to rate Grand Prix 40 footers against Mom and Pop boats.
* From George M. Hansen: Regarding the America's Cup, and the systemic
discrimination of some of yachting's most qualified and deserving yachtsmen
(Coutts and Cayard), one idea keeps coming to mind. I believe it was
four-time Olympic gold medalist Paul Elvestrom who said, "If, in the course
of victory you have not won the respect of your competitors, you have won
nothing at all." Shallow will be the victory for Bertarelli or Ellison if,
in their pursuit of the Cup, their only successes will be to exclude the
best competition and alienate sailing's fans.
* From Peter Dreyfuss: I was amazed to see Mark Mendelblatt missing from
ISAF's review of the Laser class contenders at the Olympics! What, getting
second at the World Championships just months before the games doesn't mean
anything? I would guess they were short-sightedly looking down the class
ranking list and comparing it to the entry list... And we remember what
people have written in about those ranking lists.
Curmudgeon's Comment: Even more amazing is the fact that Great Britain's
Finn sailor, Ben Ainslie did not make it onto the podium in the rankings?
For a reminder of the problems with the ISAF ranking system, see US Olympic
Coach Gary Bodie's comments:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/04/isafrankings
* From Mason Chrisman: Yes, Carl Eichenlaub is a wizard at fixing boats and
boat "stuff." But many remember what a great sailor he was. I know - he
used to beat our brains out in the Lightening Mid Winters years ago when he
came east.
THE CURMUDGEON'S COUNSEL
Don't name an animal you plan to eat.
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