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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 910 - September 27, 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, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
OLYMPICS ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- The International Olympic Committee's new leader issued a harsh review of Greek Olympic preparations Wednesday, saying the country had no time to spare in meeting the "unparalleled" construction task. IOC president Jacques Rogge made the assessment during a meeting with Greek Premier Costas Simitis in which he warned that construction must begin soon on nearly a dozen long-delayed sports venues and facilities. * Work has begun on the Olympic Village and rowing center, but there has been no progress on at least eight other venues. They include the sailing and equestrian centers, wrestling hall and gymnastics arena. Some are still in the bidding process. "I met with the prime minister and other Greek officials to underscore the importance of meeting all construction deadlines, since this falls under their responsibility,'' Rogge said. In recent days, Simitis has for the first time admitted the building delays, but said his ministers hope to make up for lost time by speeding up timetables. "Despite all the work that has been accomplished, the task ahead for the construction sector is unparalleled in the history of Greece, and time is ticking away,'' Rogge said. "There are less than two years left before the majority of the extremely important test events take place, and only 10 months before the first one takes place in sailing.'' A regatta is to take place next August, but the area where the sailing center is to be built has not yet been cleared and a nightclub remains on the site. www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Greece-IOC-Visit.html?searchpv=aponline
ROLEX WOMEN'S KEELBOAT CHAMPIONSHIP Multiple wind shifts in the first race allowed for large gains and losses, readily shown by a 16-minute time difference between the first and last boats to round the second of two weather marks on the five-mile windward-leeward course. However, Berge seemed never to be out of phase the entire race and by that second mark held a lead of more than a minute over ultimate second-place finisher Paula Lewin of Bermuda. Following a series of finishes in the teens and twenties, Berge's victory might have looked like a fluke, but she backed it up with a solid seventh in the second race of the day, catapulting herself from an overall 17th yesterday to tenth today. Winds built slowly to a 6-8 knot range during the second race, allowing the fleet to remain fairly tight and impress the spectator fleet with a mere five minutes separating the first and last boats as they rounded the weather marks Carol Cronin kicked off her day with a very useful third place, but the wheels fell off her challenge in the next race when she finished 31st. Luckily for her and the other top competitors who suffered a bad one, they can discard their worst race in overall scoring. But Sertl not only tops the fleet by 10 points over Cronin, her discard is also a very respectable sixth place. Nancy Haberland, of Annapolis, was leading this regatta after the first day, but saw her chances of overall victory severely diminished by a 9-12 score today. "I usually like those shifty conditions," she said, "but today we just weren't getting it." She is fully aware of how dominant Sertl's position is with seven races completed and just three more to go. "It's time to start taking some risks," she said. Olympic Bronze Medallist Courtenay Dey, of Westerly, R.I., had a similar day to Haberland and was hitting some corners hard to try to get back into the fight. "I'm normally a more conservative sailor, but if I see a risk for a potential big gain, then I'll certainly be taking it," she said.
STANDINGS:
CUSTOM INSTRUMENTS
ANOTHER POSTPONEMENT
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Wendy Siegal: It was great to see the recognition that Gus Miller received from other Finn sailors. Gus had his Finn at the University of Michigan sailing club when I sailed there and was always available as a mentor to new sailors. Gus taught me to sail a dinghy without a rudder which was a huge help years later in 1986 when I was aboard a Vic-Maui competitor that lost its rudder. I often wonder what happened to the people I sailed with at Michigan and it is good to hear that Gus is still active in the sport. * From Norman Davant: I just can't get over all of the cancellations of races coming up. The US Sailing Championship of Champions, the Crystal Cup in Nassau, now the Melges 24 Worlds, why don't we just cancel Key West and the SORC? Maybe we should cancel racing for 2002. Perhaps we should call back the guys on the Volvo and postpone the America's Cup. The sailing industry is on the verge of taking a huge beating because regattas are being cancelled. I ask that everyone involved in the management of racing take a deep breath and then go forward with their schedule. I for one have gotten on airplanes in the last week, right now I can't think of a better time to fly, flights are on time, fares are cheap. Getting from point a to point b is no problem. The teams showed up for the Rolex Woman's Championship and they are all racing. If we want to do the responsible thing run your races, don't cancel anything, life does go on (if we choose to let it). As a country and as an industry this is the best thing we can do. * From John Browning: As reported in Butt #909, the decision of Lauderdale Yacht Club to withdraw from hosting the Melges 24 Worlds November 8-18th -- due 'to current world conditions' -- terrorists will surely see as a win for terrorism. Terrorism: A method of keeping political control by means of causing fear among the people governed; also using means planned to cause fear among the persons governing [Websters Dictionary]. Hopefully Butt sailors will e-mail the Commodore of Lauderdale Yacht Club (Commodore@LYC.org) to say that his Club's fear is not that of American sailors and to the International Melges 24 Association in Britain to apologize for what has happened and to trust that it will be able to incorporate the Melges 24 Worlds into Key West Race Week 21-25 January 2002.
VOLVO OCEAN RACE Alongside the three leading Farr designs in essentially her first proper offshore racing outing and test, the crew of Amer Sports One continue to be impressed with the pace of their Frers design, an unknown commodity before the start that has performed impeccably so far: "It has been an interesting start for us to see whether we have enough pace or not. So far so good. We think that as soon as we are in a power environment we are okay but fair to say that illbruck looks like a class act, very fast upwind but we are still to see them downwind. Assa Abloy and Tyco look good as well. As everyone expects it's going to be a tough race," reported the boat this morning.
STANDINGS on 27 September, 0400 GMT:
VOLVO CARNAGE "We had a big problem about 24 hours ago," said skipper Knut Frostad. He explained: "Our headboard split and that cracked the headboard car that holds the mainsail up so we had to lower the mainsail for quite a few hours and sail without the mainsail. " This car has now broken off which means there is nothing holding the top of the mainsail to the mast. The boat came to a complete stop while they pulled the main down to perform part of the repair. Skipper Knut Frostad continues: " We have made a temporary repair where we have some smaller cars we use for battens we can lash together with the top of the main. Then we have the mainsail fully hoisted by sending someone up the rig and actually lash the mainsail to the rig, which is a little risky because it doesn't enable us to reef when we want to reef. The consequences are that we have to have a permanent hoisted mainsail which can be quite dangerous. At the moment we can't have it fully hoisted because of the conditions we can't really have anyone up to lash it". They are currently sailing with two reefs in place and using the halyards from the fractional spinnaker to help keep the sail up and ease pressure on the main halyard. As the boat heads into lighter winds, they will be able to perform more extensive repairs. - dragons.djuice.com
FOR THE RECORD Light winds over the past two days, and the need to avoid the hurricane, slowed Great American II as she strove to beat the sailing record to Melbourne, set 145 years ago by the American clipper ship Mandarin carrying fortune hunters to the Australian gold rush. This year, Australia is commemorating the 150th anniversary of the discovery of gold down under. Great American II's early pace out of New York Harbor put her ahead of the ghost of Mandarin for the first two days but the weather conditions forced her east. Today, seven days into the voyage, the trimaran trails the clipper by 280 nautical miles. The attempt to break the 69-day record set in 1855-56 by Mandarin is the latest education adventure program from Wilson's Boston-based sitesALIVE! website. - Keith Taylor, www.sitesALIVE.com
THE RIGHT STUFF
505 WORLDS
Standings after six races (105 boats):
FARR 40 NAs On thing became abundantly clear after the first days racing. Consistency is key and although John Kilroy did not win any of the races, Samba Pa Ti ended the first day with a slim one point lead over Heartbreaker. An 8th place on race 2 damaged Heartbreaker's chances for the top spot, but with two wins for the day, they hold onto a firm second. Voodoo, skippered by Richard Grunsten is in third place in the 17-boat fleet. - Brian Hancock, www.chicagoyachtclub.org CURMUDGEON'S COMMENT - Although the Farr 40 website refers to this event as the North Americans, their press release calls it the Nationals. But I suppose that 'a rose is a rose, is a rose . . .'
CANADIAN ALBACORE CHAMPIONSHIP
Final results:
FINN GOLD CUP
Standings (57 boats):
CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS
QUOTE / UNQUOTE "Personally the trip did not start so well for me. Each crewmember was bought a silk sleeping bag liner to use in the tropics. We were told it had been placed on our hook. After the boat left the dock I went down to claim mine. Not there. Small dilemma, but I was assured it would be on board; maybe it was buried under some of the gear. So I looked, under the gear. This is no small task, there are 3 med kits, 17 food bags, storm sails, spares etc. probably about 30 bags in all, each weighing 15kg. Could not find it anywhere. As a last resort, I went aft and check my personal bag, maybe in a blond moment I had put it away and forgotten it. No. By now I wasn't too happy and as I walked forward I forgot to duck under, the winch base and smashed the lenses on my new sunglasses. We still haven't even started. "That night I climb into my bunk and stood on the plastic latch of my new 'bum bag', 'fanny pack' whatever they are called and broke that as well. We use these to keep our safety gear in so no matter what you are wearing you can have your strobe light etc. with you. I guess that was three and it couldn't get any worse." - Mark 'Crusty' Christensen, illbruck watch captain * "This upwind work we are doing in rough weather is hard on both the boats and the people onboard. No real breakages other than a broken cover on a jib halyard. At times it has been difficult to sell the dinners and lunches, as it is quite uncomfortable onboard. Again we have proven that these boats are better off downwind." - Gurra Krantz, SEB * "A few of them [crew members] are wondering why it was they wanted to do the round the world race at this point." - Grant Dalton, Amer Sports One
YORK CUP
THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS |
