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SCUTTLEBUTT 1581 - May 12, 2004Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is adigest 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. CHANGING THE RULES Centennial Transpacific Yacht Race organizers have taken action to allow that the battle for the 'Barn Door' in next year's race will be more than a two-boat duel between maxZ86s. But with other changes in the wind, the big guys may have a tougher task beating out their smaller rivals for overall honors on corrected handicap time. The Transpacific Yacht Club board of directors has approved a 2005 race rating limit intended to equal "the speed of a canting keel maxZ86 on the Transpac Course," according to the text of the rule, that will "allow both maxZ86s and non-maxZ86s to compete for shortest elapsed time, as well as the overall fleet handicap trophies." The rating limit will consider such speed factors as sail area, weight displacement and waterline length. Boats exceeding the limit must adjust their sailing configurations to conform. The rating limit also states: "Yachts which have an IMS age date of June 30, 2004 or earlier may have an LOA [length overall] up to 30 meters. Yachts which have an IMS age date later than June 30, 2004 are limited to essentially the length of a maxZ86." The 30-meter limit will apply only to boats with Barn Door potential. The age definitions are meant to level the competition for maxZ86s and other modern monohull designs rapidly merging on the sailing scene and at the same time leave older boats a reasonable opportunity to be first past Diamond Head. Historically, a handful of entries pursue the Barn Door, the unique slab of koa wood awarded to the monohull with the fastest elapsed time. Philippe Kahn's Pegasus maxi sleds have won the last two, while Roy Disney's former Pyewacket holds the record of 7 days 11 hours 41 minutes 27 seconds, set in 1999. But in 2005, as always, any boat will be eligible to win the King Kalakaua perpetual and Governor of Hawaii take-home trophies for best corrected handicap time overall---and the chances of smaller boats outscoring the marquee entries may be getting better. As for the Barn Door battle, two recent developments made an update in the rating rule necessary. Early in 2002 Transpac agreed to allow the three maxZ86s then planned or under construction to race in 2005 if all three were to start. But while the first maxZ86, Zephyrus V, was committed to a water ballast configuration, Disney's new Pyewacket and Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory switched to the faster canting ballast, twin foil (CBTF) technology. Zephyrus V's new owner, Dick DeVos, still plans to race the renamed Windquest but is targeting handicap honors in Division I instead of the Barn Door. Transpac Commodore Jerry Montgomery said, "To eliminate uncertainty and to assure some competition at the top end of the fleet, the Transpac Board and the 86 owners agreed that Transpac would relieve the 86s of the need to have three boats on the start line. But, in exchange for that, other boats that were not maxZ86s could compete so long as they rated no faster than an 86." - Rich Roberts, www.transpacificyc.org SCUTTLEBUTT CONTEST: GOOGLE IT Yesterday's Scuttlebutt Contest asked the 'Buttheads to use the Google search tool in the Archived Newsletter section of the Scuttlebutt website to find out which persons had been busy enough to attain at least 200 mentions in the past issues of Scuttlebutt. The contest winners are: 1.) Dave Kendig, 2.) Dana Paxton, and 3.) Suzy Hawkins for searching out nineteen notable people, and for providing a few surprises along the way. Curious whose name has appeared in 'Butt more than 200 times? Here's the list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/contest/google CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar SAMSON - OFFICIAL ROPE SPONSOR FOR NORTH SAILS RACE WEEK Summer racing heats up with Premier Racing's North Sails Race Week in Long Beach, CA, June 24-27th. Get ready for good breezes, warm weather and great racing. Samson is proud to continue sponsoring events where sailors meet and compete! Be sure your boat is rigged with Samson's high performance ropes. WarpSpeed™ (Dyneema™ core), Validator SK (Vectran™/ Dyneema™ blended core) and Progen™ (PBO core) are winning combinations. For halyards, sheets and control lines, Samson covers the range of performance braids. Ask your local rigger for Samson - The Strongest Name in Rope! http://www.samsonrope.com HELPING HANDS Key members of the Swiss Alinghi team, the current holders of the coveted America's Cup, have offered to help South Africa's America's Cup sailing team in their maiden bid for the Cup. The generous offer was made to South African America's Cup skipper Geoff Meek while competing in the high profile Antigua Race Week in the Caribbean last week. Meek was racing on a new 78-foot hi-tech Cape Town-built yacht, 'All Smoke', helmed by Jochen Schuemann, a helmsman and strategist on Alinghi. Alinghi bowman Pete von Neiton was also part of the crew, while competing against them in the same class was Alinghi tactician Brad Butterworth on the 86-foot Swan 'Asperation'. One of the most titled Olympic sailors with three gold medals and a silver from the Sydney Olympics, Schuemann was also sports director for the Alinghi team when they won the America's Cup in Auckland last year. "We had a very fruitful meeting with them and discussed a range of issues relating to the America's Cup. Their offer of assistance is a big thing, and way more valuable coming from them than any other America's Cup syndicate. Perhaps one of the main differences between the Alinghi team and ours is that every single crew member is so good in his own right that they are able to keep the management relatively simple as everyone is so self motivated. It was particularly useful to hear their views and philosophy on self-motivation and team management, and I'm sure we will be able to put a lot of it into practice here." -iafrica.com, full story: http://sport.iafrica.com/news/321979.htm YNGLING WOMEN'S WORLDS Santander Spain - Perfect sailing conditions greeted the 37 crews competing for the Yngling World Championships at R.C.M.S in Santander, Spain. With a light 5-8 knot NW breeze blowing under clear blue skies, the Race Committee took the most of the opportunity to catch up from yesterday's abandoned Race 2. Race 2 say a depleted fleet of 30 boats get cleanly away first time. The remaining seven crews having been black flagged yesterday and therefore still ineligible to race in today's race. For those nations trying to qualify for the Athens, it is looking very good for the Dutch with two boats in the top four and New Zealand who is 6th. The next three nations are all very close with Canada 20th, Norway 21st and Columbia 24th. Standings after 4 races: 1. Janneke Hin, NED, 15 pts 2. Trine Palludan, DEN, 32 3 Ulrike Schuemann, GER, 36 13. Sally Barkow, USA, 69 20. 24 Lisa Ross, CAN 76 Event website: www.rcmsantander.com/yngling/index-y-i.htm 470 CLASS WORLDS Zadar Croatia - Men's Qualifications Standings (5 races with 1 discard - 101 boats) 1. Yevgen Braslavets/Igor Matvienko, UKR, 7 2. Nathan Wilmot/ Malcolm Page, AUS, 13 3. Tomislav Bašic/Petar Cupac, CRO, 14 15 Paul Foerster/Kevin Burnham USA, 22 53. John Russell/Brent MacDonald. CAN, 62 Women's Qualifications Standings (5 races with 1 discard - 53 boats) 1. Therese Torgersson/Vendela Zachrisson SWE 11 2. Vesna Dekleva/Klara Maucec SLO 14 3. Sofia Bekatorou/Emilia Tsoulfa GRE 17 17. Amanda Clark/Sarah Mergenthaler USA 35 Event website: http://www.uskok.biz.hr/470wc2004/index.htm WEAR THE FIGAWI Most of the planet is water. Most of your own body is too. There's a message in that - to hit the H2O with your two feet running. Sperry Top-Sider built the Figawi, the world's only true water shoe. Geared for max traction and torque. Get Wet. http://www.sperrytopsider.com COCA COLA HOBIE 16 WORLDS Hobie 16 Worlds semi-finals day 2, Barcelo Maya Beach Resort, Riviera Maya, Mexico - The fleet was again racing in marginal double trappezing conditions with steep waves. Race one and two went off without a hitch, but the groups racing in race three had a much tougher time. Race three was plagued by general recalls, postponements (while waiting for the wind to increase) and abandonment. The race was not completed until some five hours after the boats left the beach. As a result race four for the day was not completed until 6:00 at night and, needless to say, the race committee's goal of getting in five races today was not met. Racing in the semi-finals will continue tomorrow. Gavin Colby and Simone Mattfield from Australia are in the lead at the moment. When asked who his competition was for the championship Colby responded that he wasn't focused on anyone else. His goal was just to continue to get good starts and top five finishes in the races. In that regard the Australians faltered a bit today with a 21 in the second race today, which at this point they are throwing out. Colby and Mattfields teammates from Australia, Worrall and Seibold, are in second but have also sailed a bad race, a 31. - Bob Merrick, www.hobieworlds.com/h16-2004/default.asp NEWS BRIEFS * The five remaining Open 60s in the 1000 Milles De Calais have now completed more than half the course. At 01:40:00 GMT on May 12, the top four boats were still within 9 miles of each other: 1. Ecover - Mike Golding (GBR) - 460.2 miles to finish; 2. Bonduelle - Jean Le Cam (FRA) - 460.4; 3. PRB - Vincent Riou (FRA) - 468.2; 4. Virbac - Jean-Pierre Dick (FRA) - 469.1. www.1000millesdecalais.com/indexuk.php * Subject to World Sailing Speed Record Council ratification there is a new Round Britain and Ireland, non stop, crewed, monohull record. "Solune", the 60 ft monohull skippered by JP Chomette crossed the Lizard finish line at 21.41 Monday night, the 10th May 2004, to claim an elapsed time of 7 days 4 hours 46 minutes and 22 seconds for the 1787 nm course. This exceeds the existing record held by Alex Thomson by over 3 days. - http://www.sailspeedrecords.com/ * The Final Olympic Qualification Regatta before the Olympic Sailing Competition in Athens in August starts today as the world's single-handed sailors in the Laser Class travel to Bodrum in Turkey for their World Championship. This Championship is so big that the International Laser Class Association imposes allocation criteria on entries, in order to keep numbers to a manageable level. The number of entries granted to member nations of the Laser Class Association depends the number of Laser sailors in the country, but there are also places available to sailors by qualification at a number of Regional Championships. Event website: www.laserinternational.org/wor2004/w04index.htm MUSTO: OFFICIAL CLOTHING SUPPLIER TO THE TRANSAT 2004 The 2800 mile solo race is a tough test for skippers of the 40-strong fleet of monohulls and multihulls - hence Musto is not only the Official Supplier to the race, but the brand of choice for over 50% of the entries including Mike Golding, Yves Parlier, Nick Moloney and Thomas Coville. If you want to be part of the action, why not check out Musto's Transat Race Collection, available at the Transat Race Village in Plymouth. You don't need to race solo across the Atlantic to experience Musto. Give it a try next time: http://www.musto.co.uk LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com) (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 Malcolm McKeag (About the ISAF-endorsed world match racing championship and the rankings): Years back I found myself chatting to Dennis about a youngster called Chris Dickson. 'Doing well on the Junior Circuit', noted DC. Chris was at that time ranked No 1 on the (then IYRU) World Match Race Rankings. I'd say 'The Junior Circuit' covers it rather neatly. Many of those whose absence from the rankings is cited as evidence of that score-sheet's irrelevance earned the right to be thus cited precisely by reaching the higher echelons of that very ranking system and then going on through the ceiling. Recognize the ISAF world rankings for what they are: a ladder to a trap door that leads up into the floor above, the Senior Circuit aka America's Cup, and keep your blood pressure under control, is my advice to those currently getting hot under their collars. * From Reynald Neron: I was curious about your article stating that Mr. Emil Baldyga (POL) was suspended from racing in International events. Like everyone else reading the great quality Scuttlebutt, I wanted to read what created an infringement to rule 69. So I went to webpage address given: First disappointment, I still have no idea what the life jacket said to put the sport of sailing into disrepute. Then, I read that the decision dated 1 October 2003. Why only talking about it now? Then, I read that there are 4 other sailors in the same bunch, including one that is not eligible until 2008. (He must have been pretty naughty !). So why only talk about that poor polish bugger? * From Chris Simon: Presumably, suspending Emil Baldyga until next November 31 for a violation of Rule 69 (Gross Misconduct) is a subtle form of lifetime ban - because November 31 will never come. * From Jon Williamson: Scott Larson's comments get to the core of the issue with US Sailing and the notion of a new grand prix rule. Maybe it is that US Sailing is smart to drop out of this group. Is there even a need for any new rule? The fundamental problem with a new grand prix measurement rule is that organizations like ISAF and the National Governing Bodies are trying to create a market via legislation. The free market will always prevail in the long run, and the long run began ages ago when owners said, "Screw it - I just want bigger and faster now". So we end up with terrific, if not spectacular, boats ranging from TP 52s to all the unique mega maxis in their various sizes and shapes. Other owners that want close competition in offshore boats have never had as good a selection as currently exists from a field that includes, but is by no means limited to, Farr 40s, J/105s, and several of the Beneteau XX.7 series. PHRF and other similar rules work well for the vast majority of recreational racing sailors. Isn't creating a new measurement rule sort of like trying to perfect black and white TV? * From Doug Lord (re Tom Pollacks comments): While the TP 52 may be a fine relatively low tech raceboat to tout it as not having"mercurial canting keels"..."with marginal benefits" is laughable! Marginal benefits: like double the righting moment? Or the same RM for half the weight? The new canting keel boats especially the CBTF boats are setting the world on fire with performance more akin to multihulls than the lead-bellies of the past! * From Bob Fisher: John Drayton might like to know that I spent a fruitless two days taking my wife to Elba in an effort to convince her that the Mumm 36 that was for sale there would make an ideal family cruising yacht. She could see that I was keen however and the sunshine did the trick. "That's no cruising boat," she said observantly, "but you are going to buy it anyway." Curmudgeon's Comment: I'm not sure the old "sunshine trick" would have the same affect on John Drayton's wife as it did on Mrs. Fisher. The Daytons live in Newport Beach, California - which enjoys a somewhat different climate than Fisher's home in the UK. * From John Fox: Derek Blancké states, "Geoff Van Gorkom wrote a letter criticizing ISAF categorization from the viewpoint of people working in the marine industry. What he fails to realize is that the majority of people turning out to race every weekend are paying for their racing as an expensive pastime." What Derek and many other people fail to realize is that most people working in the Marine Industry also pay for their racing out of their own pocket and often have a wage scale lower than their non-industry counterparts. Group two classifications stop people like myself from competing in some classes. (I'm not a group 3 because don't race on boats that I built or engineered). I sail strictly for fun with my wife or crew for friends, yet the day I sail on a boat I built, my status is the same as Paul Cayard's? There should be only two classifications: Professional and Amateur. Being a mechanic on cars for a living does not make one a professional racecar driver, yet bolting hardware on sailboats makes one a "marine industry professional". Paul Henderson says, "change classes." What if you just want to sail locally and there is no other class * From Damian Craig: I believe Mr. Derek Blancké misses the point. It's a case of 6 of one half dozen of the other. For all racing I've done where the ISAF categories are used a 2 is the same as a 3. The only difference is that you are one year closer to becoming a 1 if you were to quit your job in the industry. * From Steve Pyatt - Auckland: I was interested to see your comment on the Yngling Worlds that (while under a Black Flag) "Six boats were over identified as being OCS, but this did not matter as at the bottom mark the wind died and the Race Committee decided to abandon the race." It does matter. They can't sail when the race is re-sailed. See rule 30.3! * From Tom Fischbeck: I cannot agree more with Rich Hazelton's comments on The Hobie Class! The Hobies where Shunned in the 70's by yacht clubs, so they formed there own organization. Catamarans where not considered yachts! The Hobie Cat has been an invaluable boat for this sport and should finally be recognized. Can we please replace the Olympic Tornado with the Hobie 16 Please? More people in the world have more access to this boat than any other boat in the world. Hurray for Hobie Alter and Phil Edwards for producing "El Gato" (1st plywood cat they built)and later the Hobie Cat and all the great surf board shapes from the last 3 1/2 decades! THE CURMUDGEON'S OXYMORONS Terribly nice |
