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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 806 - May 2, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome.
ADMIRAL'S CUP A quick glance around the sailing scene in 2001 will tell you all you need to know about what the vast majority of these customers are after. They want to steer their own boat, and they want to sail it with a crew largely made up of friends, though they're not adverse to having a couple of top class pro sailors aboard to help point the boat in the right direction and tweak the sail controls. And they want the whole experience compressed and intensified, they are there for a good time, not a long time - short races, short regattas and glamorous venues. Classes and events that offer this set-up - Farr 40s and Key West are the paradigm - have boomed. The 2001 Admiral's Cup offered only one owner/driver class with pro-am crew restrictions, plus long races and a longer regatta. Thanks, but no thanks, was the response from the owners. The second potential customer is the modern professional sailor and racing team manager. Examples are Grant Dalton and Ellen MacArthur, people who can put together the finance for a sailing campaign from the marketing budget of international companies. What these people want is very simple - sufficient publicity to make the sports marketing dollars invested in the campaign money well spent. If this media return on the investment isn't there, then the sponsors won't come and neither will the pro teams. - Mark Chisnell, madforsailing website. Full story: www.madforsailing.com
FOR THE RECORD PlayStation and her international crew plan to test sail this week and be fully prepared for an attempt at the Miami-New York record from 5 May. The current record for this passage is 2 days 22 hours 50 mins, held by Explorer, co-skippered by Bruno Peyron (France) and Cam Lewis (USA) and set on 2 June 1999. On arrival in New York the team will go on weather standby for an attempt at the 11 year old NY-UK TransAtlantic record - 6 days 13 hours 13 mins 32 secs held by Serge Madec (France). Fossett, looking forward to the challenges ahead, said "The TransAtlantic record is perhaps the most difficult to break of the major ocean records. PlayStation is the biggest and most powerful of the 4 new unlimited catamarans - now we will try to prove she is the fastest." - Steve Fossett Ocean Challenge website, www.fossettchallenge.com
UBIQUITOUS
BIG - VERY BIG The 50 nautical mile Hoya Round the Island Race, to be held on Saturday 16th June, is once again proving its celebrated popularity with this year's entries including, for the first time, 5 International America's Cup Class (IACC) yachts and a number of other high-profile competitors and prestigious past winners defending their titles. With over 850 bookings taken so far, both the Island Sailing Club and Hoya are delighted to have received an entry from Peter Harrison's GBR America's Cup Challenge who will compete against four other International America's Cup Class (IACC) yachts, 3 of which are Sunsail charters and the fourth, called 'HOYA High Voltage' and owned by Johnny Caulcutt, will be skippered by top international yachtsman, Eddie Warden Owen. In keeping with the America's Cup theme, is an entry from the beautifully restored classic J-Class yacht 'Velsheda', which graced the Solent in the mid-1930s. - Sue Warden-Owen, Sailing Online website. Full story: www.sailing-online.com.au/welcome.cfm
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Robbie Doyle (edited to our 250-word limit): Mark Reynolds comments need to be taken very seriously. But so do Peter Lawson's. As a member of the 1968 Olympic Team in Finns I came across sailors that had increased their weight and strength in amazing amounts over a short period of time. We were too naive to think it was anything but hard work. There were rumors of energy enhancing substances taken for competition. However, most sailors are unaware of the "drugs" that are illegal, and even over the counter cold medications as was seen in the last Olympics can have enough illegal substances to put one over the limit. There are prescription drugs that people might be taken for a condition totally unrelated to sailing. Drug testing is invasive and also requires very exacting procedures to insure the data is definitive. Sailors at the level of, and personal character of Mark Reynolds understand such inconvenience comes with the territory. But I believe there are very few regattas in the world that would be considered important enough for anyone to be taking performance enhancing drugs. I feel a committee of international sailing officials, US Sailing officials, regatta officials such as Peter Lawson, Peter Craig, and local club race officers such as Annika at St. Francis should be put together to discuss the impact of such testing and how it can introduced to obtain its objectives but not put another barrier to weekend warriors form enjoying the sport of sailing. This should be done before the testing is introduced. * From Scott Fox: I am writing in response to Mark Reynolds lunatic fringe comments. He states "This testing is critical for catching cheaters. I chose to be an Olympic competitor, so I accept it." Well Mark for the 99.99% rest of us that do not choose to be an Olympic competitor we do not accept our basic rights being infringed upon. For most of us sailboat racing is a recreational sport that we do because we enjoy the freedom of sailing. It is also a sport in which I can pay a simple entry fee and compete on the same course as Olympic Champions and the best professionals of our sport. Try getting a tee time with Tiger Woods or getting an at bat against Pedro Martinez, its not going to happen. If US Sailing and its anti-doping agency wants to test the US Sailing team members daily that is the price you pay. But if US Sailing starts testing and then tossing out the recreational sailor because they drank 4 cups of coffee, a six pack of cola and took two sudafeds while driving 12 hours to get to a regatta you'll be sailing by yourself. Maybe it's time to use Steve Eller's idea of setting up an amateur organization. * From Leslie Johnson: The tail just keeps wagging the dog. Have you tried to read Dick Rose's five page explanation of the revised Rule 18 (Rounding Marks and Obstructions) in the May issue of Sailing World? That rule is now 634 words long, but as Rose explains, full understanding of Rule 18 also "depends heavily on statements found in FIVE other places in the rulebook." Why is this rule so complex? Rose explained that too: "Match racing and team racing competitors and umpires found the (present) rule led to several unintended 'game changes'." So the 'simplified racing rules" were rewritten to 'fix' those problems. And then there's drug testing. Olympic Gold medallist Mark Reynolds tells us that, "Drug use in the Olympics (and most levels of sport) is a serious matter · that testing is critical for catching cheaters." OK, but what's that got to do with me and my Catalina 27? First our governing bodies insisted that my crew to join a yacht club, and now my mates have to pee in a bottle. While no one on my boat will ever really understand the 'simplified rules' that apply at rounding marks, we do understand why our sport is not growing. It's got a lot to do with a tail wagging a dog. * From Paul Kamen: More agreement with Hal Smith and Peter Bentley on how sailboat racing relies on self-policing. Unfortunately, changes to the racing rules have worked against us. Simple example: Remember the old rule 39, luffing after starting? "A yacht clear ahead or a leeward yacht may luff as she pleases." It was a specific exception to what has become Rule 16. You could maneuver against that windward boat without fear of being found at fault, even if there was contact (and no serious damage). And, if the windward boat hailed "mast abeam," that hail was binding and the tables turned. The whole structure of this rule was tailored to self-enforcement, and it worked remarkably well for most of the last Century. But now there's such a large gray area that the outcome of a defensive luff is much harder to predict. Did windward have room to keep clear? Without an on-the-water umpire, nobody can say for sure. And this is the real reason that protest activity in YRA-level racing is down. It's not that we've all become better mannered on the race course, and it's not that we're all getting older and don't have as much protesterone in our veins. It's the increased uncertainty of our ability to make a case stick. It's becoming easier to believe that this is all being driven by Olympics (tm) and other high-end events where the umpire is the norm. And it's not good for the rest of us. Support the USASA! * From Jo Mogle: There are thousands of us out here who echo Richard Jepsens comments. In earlier years, when all that many of us thought about and participated in was racing, many of us had similar thoughts about [then] USYRU as we see reflected in so many of the emails that are selected for inclusion in Butt. When the US Sailing's Training Program was developed in the early 80s, however, we joined the cause, which meant spending hundreds of hours attending meetings, conferences, and symposiums, and working with the hierarchy. It has been a long road - an often expensive and frustrating one - but well worth it, and most of us are still at it. To list all the accomplishments that US Sailing's Training Program alone has achieved over the past twenty years would boggle the mind. Wed like to think that by improving access and bringing quality instruction to beginning sailors and those learning to race that were fostering a new generation of sailors who will be safer, better educated, more highly skilled, and more responsible boaters. Please realize, as you bash our governing body over primarily racing issues, that there are thousands of new participants in our sport who may never see a representative of US Sailing other than their certified Instructor - who represents us all with a professionalism achieved, in great part, through an increasingly excellent training program developed and overseen by hundreds of very dedicated volunteers. * From Tim Rossi: Wow. I'm not sure Mr. Jepsen actually attended official US Sailing annual meetings because "mudslinging" is indeed alive and well at said meetings. As a former staff member until recently, I can assure you that the US Sailing volunteers are a rather snobby, elitist, bureaucratic bunch who are only concerned with their own, individual agendas. And as for the staff...what a dysfunctional group they are, with the exception of the Training Director and her department (the only properly-run department in the organization). Visit the Porstmouth, RI, office and you'll find that the management is mainly haughty and aloof and they don't really care about the "grassroots" sailor. But don't blame the staff. Alas, everything comes from the top and trickles down. Coming from somebody who was on the inside, I thought that many of you Scuttlebutt readers might want to know that, all-around, US Sailing is indeed as fundamentally screwed-up and clueless as you think they are. * From Doug Schickler: Contrary to Mr. Franklin's comment, anyone who takes the time can score an IMS regatta. Mr. Nolan can do it within minutes after the finish. His efforts to serve should not be insulted. * From Peter Chandler: The quote from Giovanni Soldini in Scuttlebutt # 805 inspires a response to John Burnham's editorial epitaph on the Admiral's Cup in the current Sailing World. Mr. Burnham attributes the demise of the Admiral's Cup to aging sailors, who "like finishing a day's racing and enjoying a hot shower, a drink, food, and a comfortable bed." Undoubtedly, there is a generation of racers whose experience is limited to inshore races, or whose time is too precious to enjoy the time required to prepare for and compete in an offshore race. But as I tell our children, "Thank God we are not all alike." There are also generations of sailors for whom the joy of racing includes the satisfaction of preparing a boat for a serious offshore passage. They enjoy the challenge of mastering natural phenomena like Cape Sable fog or Bay of Fundy currents, as well as their human competitors. Their most memorable meal could be a superb beef tenderloin and a fine vintage while bouncing through the Gulf Stream. And they would trade the finest bed at the Ritz for the windward leecloth, or the opportunity to share the midnight watch with trusted friends. We are indeed fortunate that events like the Bermuda Race continue to provide a venue for top-notch sailors to enjoy their version of the sport. These events will not suffer the fate of the Admiral's Cup because their organizers focus steadfastly on the values of safety, seamanship and fun as well as competition. * From Peter Harken: Butt's readers should write to the Secretary of the Interior Gail Norten who is now going to "review the ban on PWCs" imposed by the National Parks and may likely nullify it due to the intense lobbying pressure of the Jet Ski Industry and NMMA. The Bush administration is beginning to worry me on such environmental issues and they are looking into this sole problem which normally they would leave to the National Parks Dept. to sort for themselves. It smells like the NMMA and the PWC Industry lobby is deep into their pockets to be able to get the administration to take over this project from the National Parks Dept. Russell Long through his Blue Water Networks, who we all know as a former avid racing sailor, has been championing these marine environmental causes regards the pollution and noise of 2 cycle engines especially in PWCs. He has almost single-handedly worked with the National Parks system to ban these worst of worst marine playtoys from some of our National Park waters. He is spending his life doing this and we who give a damn ought to give him and our nation, more than anything, our full support and write to Secretary of the Interior Gail Norten to uphold the ban!
NEWPORT TO ENSENADA RACE
NOOD
HOT IMAGES
CHARLESTON RACE WEEK Complete results: www.sailnet.com/cora
THE CURMUDGEON'S COUNSEL |
