|
SCUTTLEBUTT 1943 -- October 12, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.A GATHERING OF THE EAGLES Three-time America's Cup winning skipper Russell Coutts and Australian America's Cup skipper James Spithill have joined a distinguished roster of past class world champions and America's Cup sailors who have entered the 2005 Corum Melges 24 World Championship to be sailed off Key Largo, Fla., in December. Entries don't close until November 8, but already 61 skippers have signed up. The list includes the winners of all past Melges 24 world championships but two. Coutts, who has had a successful year skippering the TP 52 ocean racer Lexus in Europe, will sail in Key Largo as tactician for San Francisco software developer Philippe Kahn aboard Pegasus 575. Spithill, the youthful skipper of the America's Cup challenger Young Australia in 2000, is now a helmsman for Italy's Luna Rossa challenge for the next Cup. Spithill, who finished second in the highly competitive Melges 24 Class aat Key West Race Week this year, will skipper his boat Luna Rossa. San Diego sailmaker Vince Brun, who won back-to-back world championships in 1998 and 1999, has said he will enter. Italian skipper Flavio Favini, 2001's world champion, (helming for Switzerland's Franco Rossini) is returning for another tilt at the title. Harry Melges III from Zenda, Wis., won the worlds in 2002 steering Star entered by Jeff Ecklund of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Melges, the president of Melges Performance Sailboats, builders of the Melges 24, will not take the helm at Key Largo but is expected to crew for Ecklund. Sixteen-year-old Samuel "Shark" Kahn, who pulled off the unprecedented feat of winning the 2003 worlds at the age of 14, is a strong contender for the title this year. -- Keith Taylor, http://www.2005corumm24worlds.com GOING HOME Long monotonous days of testing are in store for Team New Zealand as they return to Auckland for their last full summer of training on the Hauraki Gulf. The regattas in Trapani mark the end of the America's Cup roadshow. From now on the pre-regattas will take place in Valencia, the boats will be skirted from January and teams will be barricaded in their multi-million dollar bases. Before that Team New Zealand will return to Auckland where they will train from November until the end of March before relocating to Valencia. "Grant [Dalton] drove the point home the day that we lost to Alinghi, if you work straight for the next two years every single day and you win, it wouldn't matter," said Team New Zealand tactician Terry Hutchinson. NZL82, the boat that was used in the last cup, will go from Trapani to Valencia where it will be stored. The team will train with its sistership NZL81 and the former illbruck boat GER68 until the launch of their new boat NZL84 early in the new year. The new boat will then be trialed against either GER68 or NZL81. Team New Zealand will be the second team, behind Team Shosholoza, to launch a 2007generation boat, something skipper Dean Barker is hoping will work to their advantage. Although there has been much discussion about whether it is wise for teams to sail their new boats in next year's regattas, since it allows their rivals to gauge their performance, Barker said it was an opportunity to "make sure we are going in the right direction". "We'll see other teams' ideas and I am sure there will be ideas we take back to our team. It is sort of give and take." -- Julie Ash, NZ Herald, full story: http://tinyurl.com/acruf ON THE TUBE Portsmouth, UK -- Independent sports producer Sunset + Vine has signed a deal with ITV to provide coverage of the Volvo Ocean Race. Sunset+Vine, part of The Television Corporation, will produce 32 weekly half hour programmes for ITV4 and eight one-hour long programmes for ITV1. John Leach, Managing Director of Sunset+Vine said "Our Volvo Ocean Race coverage for ITV and the rest of the world will present sailing in a new light. State of the art equipment will record the crews' adventures, relationships with each other in the confined space aboard the boats, and their battles to overcome the extreme conditions. We want to make the sport much more accessible to a wider viewing public in the same way that we transformed the way cricket has been covered." The Volvo Ocean Race is one of the harshest sports challenges. Starting in Galicia, Spain in November, the crews spend a grueling seven months battling severe weather and each other in demanding conditions, taking in Cape Town, Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro and New York before finishing next June in Gothenburg. The yachts are scheduled to arrive in Portsmouth in May next year.With 10 cameras onboard each boat, linked by satellite to a purpose built studio and editing facility at race headquarters just outside Portsmouth in the UK, Sunset+Vine's coverage will show key moments of the battle between the world's top professional sailors and the worst that the oceans can throw at them. -- www.volvooceanrace.org THE BOX RULES! Pisco Sour is overall winner of the MedCup. Pegasus wins class at the Big Boat Series. Rosebud wins class in the Transpac Race. Patches wins class at Cowes Week. All are equipped with high-performance spars from Hall Spars & Rigging. All are designed to the TP52 box rule. Hall's scientific approach to spar design embraces the interaction of sail area and righting moment, rigging and gear, mast and sail, owner and crew. The result? Each boat receives a custom spar package that fits the box perfectly. If you're thinking inside the box (rule) think Hall. http://www.hallspars.com TEAM RACING NATIONALS Starting this coming Friday, Larchmont Yacht Club (LYC) and Long Island Sound will be challenging some of the nation's finest team racing sailors, and the weather gods, by hosting two of the United States' most prestigious team racing regattas in a simultaneous but separated format. The two events, US Sailing's U.S. Team Racing Championship and the Hinman Masters Championship, feature exciting competition over three days. In total, 25 teams comprised of 150 world class skippers and crews from across the country are arriving at LYC throughout the week to compete in these two separate regattas this weekend. For teams Cape Cod WHishbone and Silver Panda in the Team Racing Championship, the Nationals comes less than two weeks after finishing first and second respectively at the Grey Goose ISAF Team Racing World Championship. The team of Cape Cod WHishbone - made up of Tim Fallon (N. Falmouth, Mass.), Tim Wadlow (Beverly, Mass.), Karen Renzulli (Needham, Mass.), Matt Lindblat (Newport, R.I.), Erin Largay (Osterville, Mass.), and Karl Ziegler (Norwalk, Conn.) - is the two-time defending champion of the U.S. Team Racing Championship and is trying to make it a hat trick this year. This will not be an easy feat, considering the competition they'll have to face: 13 teams and a total of 78 well-known sailors from across the country sailing supplied Vanguard 15s. The Hinman Masters, sailed in Ideal-18s, is a regatta where teams representing yacht clubs race against each other. A total of 11 Masters teams will compete against each other, including hosts Larchmont and New York Yacht Club teams; Southern Yacht Club (who lost its clubhouse in Hurricane Katrina); Annapolis Yacht Club; Eastern Yacht Club; St. Petersburg Yacht Club; the Storm Trysail Club; and Long Island Sound clubs Pequot, American and Noroton Yacht Clubs. Coming from across the Atlantic Ocean to compete is the Royal Thames Yacht Club from England. For the Masters, skippers must be at least 45 years old and crews 40. Information on both events is available at: www.larchmontyc.org CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar QUOTE / UNQUOTE "Doldrums and Douches. Pretty much sums up things on board Liverpool 08 at the moment. Periods of light winds interspersed by heavy squalls which leave us sat on deck looking like drowned rats. There doesn't seem much point in putting on our oilies in this heat so we just grin and bear it in our swim wear and wait for the sun to come out and dry us off again. The changeable weather has meant lots of head sail changes from Spinnakers to Genoas and back to spinnakers again." - Zoe, aboard Liverpool in the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (Doldrums) on the Clipper 05-06 Race. -- www.clipper-ventures.co.uk/n05_06/homepage.php NEWS BRIEFS * California International Sailing Association (CISA) is holding their first annual Youth Multihull Clinic at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach, CA on November 25-27. The Youth Multihull Clinic will model after CISA's Advanced Racing Clinic, and will focus on developing youth multihull sailing, and to help prepare those sailors who seek to compete in the Youth Multihull division at the US and World Youth Championships. Coaches include Pete Melvin, Jonathan Farrar, Bob Merrick and Jay/Pease Glaser, and the clinic will be sailed in Hobie 16's. Complete details at http://www.cisasailing.org/multihull.htm * After two years of individual world record attempts, multiple World Champion Bjorn Dunkerbeck (DEN) and current world record holder and nominee for the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Award Finian Mayard (IVB) will clash for the coveted sailing barrier of 50 knots at one of the world's premier speedsailing locations in Saintes Maries de la Mer, France. The event is slated to run from October 26 - December 20. The windsurfing's current hold on the outright world record stands at 48.70 knots or 91km/h, an average speed over 500 meters. -- http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j12Fh0p/D * The Storm Trysail Club (STC) ran its largest-ever Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta at Larchmont YC over the Columbus Day holiday weekend (October 8-9). The two-day event the regatta intended to expose college dinghy sailors to the fun and teamwork of offshore racing hosted 32 teams from 24 schools Nearly 250 college dinghy sailors competed aboard offshore boats ranging in size from 34 to 44 feet. Teams from Georgetown University won two of the four classes. The two other class winners were the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and St. Marys'. Video coverage: www.t2p.tv -- complete results: www.stormtrysail.org * Big boats will be very much in evidence at Acura Key West 2006. "The combination of 10 Transpac 52s, the Swan 45 Gold Cup, and a big boat IRC class elevates the grand prix component of the 2006 edition of race week," said Premiere Racing's Peter Craig. Two Swan 601s and five custom boats over 60 feet LOA have already entered, including James Madden's new canting keel, Reichel-Pugh 66 Stark Raving Mad III. But it's not all about size, as more than two thirds of the expected 300-boat fleet are less than 40 feet long. Entries are posted at: www.Premiere-Racing.com * The winner of the first leg of the Transat 6.50 Charente-Maritime/Bahia, Corentin Douguet was back at the head of the ranking on Leg 2. Less than a mile behind at the first ranking of the day, Stanislas Maslard has taken the driving seat, albeit by just 1.2 miles, the duo orchestrating a series of gybes in a prevailing 10 knot N/NE'ly set to build to 15 knots down the African coast. Fractionally astern of him this morning, Stanislas Maslard (Crédit Agricole Skipper Challenge) opted for a slightly more extreme course which now seems to paying dividends. -- Yachting Universe, full story: http://tinyurl.com/c73eq VALLARTA RACE The big boats are coming to Puerto Vallarta! Doug Baker's "Magnitude 80," Bob Lane's "Medicine Man," Dennis Conner's "Mongoose," and Jim Madden's new J/65 are among the early entrants for San Diego YC's biennial Vallarta Race. Already promising to be SDYC's best event ever, their 26th race to Mexico's west coast starts February 20th, with the 1,000-mile course finishing at Punta Mita on the north end of Bahia Banderas. The magnificent Paradise Village Resort and Marina will host the festivities at the Nuevo Vallarta Harbor, with MEXORC returning to Puerto Vallarta following the race. Complete event details at http://www.sdyc.org/vallartarace 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 neither 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. And please save your bashing, and personal attacks for elsewhere.) * From Chris Ericksen: I read with some interest the piece in 'Butt 1942 about the use of leeward gates in the upcoming America's Cup regattas. I hope this will lead to more recognition of gates in the Racing Rules of Sailing. I believe the only numbered rule that talks about gates at all is 32.2; Appendix L also refers to them in incorporating them into sailing instructions, but there is no direction to race committees as to the use and misuse of gates. An interesting question is, can the angle of and distance between marks in a gate be adjusted during a race, and if so when? Can the gate be adjusted after a fleet has gone through it? Should notice be given that a change has been made, and if so, what notice ? Also, what happens if one gate mark sinks? Should flag M on a boat or staff be set, or does the gate revert to a single mark? The America's Cup regattas have led to many changes in our sport; perhaps this will be another. And I fervently hope that this letter will not lead to an endless string of folks sharing opinions, informed or otherwise, about gates: I hope that somebody in the rule-making community can explain why the rules are so silent about gates and if there is any plan to address them in future. * From Jeremy Gordon Walker: Thanks for posting a link to the Economist article about the German company planning to put kites onto commercial vessels to reduce fuel consumption. It's a great idea, and with modern aerodynamics, spectra line, and automated line management systems, will be quite feasible in the near future. It's unfortunate, however, that the Economist gave such a large and exclusive 'vaporware' puff to a European company which has yet to build and sell one square metre of nylon, while ignoring our very own Californian experts at Kiteship Corp (www.kiteship.com) who have over 40 sail and power vessels happily using their Outleader traction kites all over the world. I'm trying to set the record straight for your readers - just because it appeared in the Economist doesn't necessarily mean that it's the whole (or even the correct) story. * From Ole Eichhorn: The kite thing to help propel ships across oceans is all very cute, but not very realistic. First, kites are only good for going downwind of course. Second, they only work if the wind is blowing significantly harder than the vessel is traveling. Since oceangoing freighters typically travel 40+ knots, the number of situations in which a kite could help are very small. Sails require masts and so on but they are airfoils, so they work to whether, and furthermore they generate more lift as the boat goes faster. So they are actually a much better solution. They fact that even they are not typically used simply reflects the economics of fossil fuels over wind. * From Brent Foxall: Alinghi wasn't the first AC team to develop the twisting mast in the current AC class. That honor would go to the 2000 Young America campaign. Their rig was developed prior to the TNZ millenium rig geometry coming online . It was a large wing section, three spreader conventional geometry rig that rotated a fair bit and had it's moments. Current class rules won't permit rigs to rotate nearly as much, so teams may be wasting time on this smoke and mirrors exercise. Time will tell, none the less and it will be interesting learning from the opportunity to see this technology in action. * From Scott Gregory: The story in 'Butt 1941 about how Ben Ainslie will be balancing his time between his Olympic Finn campaigning and the A-Cup mentioned that this was his first go around with the Auld Mug. But didn't he dance with the OneWorld Challenge in 2003 before parting ways? Seems like Ben wants to start at the top rather than working up the latter. Must be something to be said for establishing yourself in the offshore arena prior to declaring your A-Cup aspirations. Or is it important that A-Cup campaigns sign up sailors like Ben that have name recognition, to help get fundraising started? There sure are a lot of talented sailors that A-Cup teams have decided not to include. Who is playing whom? CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS "I may be drunk madame, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will be just as ugly." --Winston Churchill |
