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SCUTTLEBUTT 2260 – January 16, 2007Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is distributed each weekday, with support provided by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, Defender of the 32nd America's Cup (http://www.ubs.com/sailing). DAY ONE Two races were completed at Day One of Acura Key West presented by Nautica in sunny and mild conditions – not a lot of sails were broken. With finishes of 1-2, Joe Fly sailed by Giovanni Maspero of Como, ITA showed solid speed in the 47-boat Melges 24 class – the largest class in the event – but only has a one point lead over Lars Horn Johannessn’s Siste Stein from Oslo, NOR in a class where Europeans control the top five positions. In the 17-boat Farr 40 class, America’s Cup defender Ernesto Bertarelli scored a 2-1 to take a four point lead over Groovederci sailed by John Demourkas of Santa Barbara, CA. Other class leaders include: J/105: Convexity, Donald Wilson, Chicago, IL; J/80: Lifted, Kerry Klingler, Larchmont, NY, Melges 32: Let's Roll, Claudio Recchi, YC Italiano, ITA; Mumm 30: Hiroshi, Giulietti Armando, Rimini, ITA; IRC-1: Numbers, CM 60, Daniel Meyers, Newport, RI; IRC-2: Samba Pa Ti, TP52, John Kilroy, San Francisco, CA, IRC-3: Spirit of Malouen, Sinergia 40, Stephane Neve, La Trinite-Mer, FRA; PHRF 1: Blue, 1D48, Charles Buckner , Hunts Point, TX; PHRF 2: Endorphin, BH 36, Erik Wulff West River, MD; PHRF 3: Man-O-War, J/35, Tom Beery, Pascagoula, MS; PHRF 4: As-If, SR-33, Jeff Kitterman, Kemah, TX; PHRF 5 Rhumb Punch, J/29, J & L Edwards, Solomons, MD; PHRF 6: Jazzy Jr., Mariah 27, Dan Romano, Farmington Hills, MI Corsair 28R: Dealers Choice, Steven Marsh Stuart, FL; J/109: Vitesse, Jon Halbert, Dallas, TX; Event website: http://www.premiere-racing.com/ QUOTE / UNQUOTE "It was a great day, beautiful day for sailing. The first race was light and lumpy. The second race just got lighter and lumpier. -- Dave Ullman MORE TROUBLE Less than 24 hours into the second leg of the Velux 5 Oceans, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (GBR) has turned his Open 60 Saga Insurance back to Fremantle. During the night both the autopilot systems failed and refused to re-start. He officially suspended racing at 08:00 local time on Monday January 15 (23:00 GMT Sunday) as he motored around the Island, and will therefore be able to re-start from the same point at 08:00 local time on Wednesday January 17, assuming he has been able to make all the repairs necessary. Back on the race track, skippers are being battered in 40 knots of wind, Bernard Stamm has charged ahead and holds a 30 mile lead over Japanese hero Kojiro Shiraishi (JPN) on Spirit OF Yuoh. Graham Dalton (NZL) on the Open 50 A Southern Man AGD, is only 1 mile further behind in third place, with the Basque skipper Unai Basurko (ESP) on Pakea in fourth, 76 miles behind the leader, having chosen to head further west than the other competitors. The fleet are heading west off Western Australia in order to make a pass south of Cape Leewin. -- Tim Kelly, http://ww.velux5oceans.com MELGES 32 -- LET’S ROLL Key West Race Week started off in style; Claudio Recchi and his all-Italian team on ‘Let’s Roll’ blasted off with two bullets on Day One of the Melges 32 Midwinter Championship! The Melges 32 is off and rolling with a 20-boat fleet! Chasing ‘Let’s Roll' is Glenn Darden with a 2-2 and Jeff Ecklund with a 3-3. The Melges 32 has Race Week buzzing, as these new boats are everywhere. To get into an exciting, fast one-design class that is growing and is simple to move around from event to event, get into a Melges 32. For full details: http://www.melges32.com CHANGING TIMES (The Daily Sail subscription website looked at the changes that will be a part of the next Volvo Ocean Race. Here are a few excerpts.) One of the most dramatic changes from the last race will be to the crew. Crew numbers for male teams remains the same except that all boats are now obliged to carry a media/environmental non-sailors on all legs. An attempt was made to do this in the last race but the 'media person' ended up instead being a 10th crewman with 'media responsibilities'. The new arrangement may prove awkward for the teams but should dramatically improve the quality of the media material coming off the boats and Volvo is to be applauded for making this move. Quite how this is policed will be a thorny issue. "They are effectively a crew member but they can’t participate in the sailing. If they do in any way and we find out we’re not going to hold back," says Hindley. In an attempt to get some fresh blood into the race, on all boats 30% of the crew must now be under 30 come start day. However there is an interesting exception - 30% of the crew must be under 30, unless all the crew are over 50 come start day! With the brute force required to sail a Volvo Open 70 the number of crew in female or mixed teams has been increased. One additional crew is allowed if at least five of the crew are women, while an all-women's team can sail with 14 including the media person. It is believed that movistar may be looking to field an all-female team this time. – http://www.thedailysail.com COUPLES SAILING – RECIPE FOR DIVORCE? (Following is an excerpt from a story by Sail-World Cruising.) How do people go sailing on a tiny boat for years? In a space not much bigger than your normal bathroom, and often a lot wetter? Are relationships destroyed? Do they get stronger? Or is it the very best recipe for divorce? Not at all, say Don and Sandi Goodman of Miami Florida, who have just finished their own circumnavigation of the world. (Unlike Ellen McArthur, who did it alone in just over two months, the Goodmans have done it together together in their boat Destiny, and taken just over 14 years.)In fact, they say that long-range cruising couples, once they have survived the first few years, are unlikely to split. ‘The relationship gets stronger!’ says Sandy, ‘By the time they recognise cruising as a reality, not the dream that they might have expected, they have sorted out their problems. However, according to Daniel Weiss of the Columbia New Service, Chris Myles and his fiance KT Roddick, after three years of sailing, don’t quite agree. A few months into sailing around the world, Myles and Roddick met a couple who had weathered a cyclone the previous year. This couple's relationship had emerged intact, but three other couples they knew had lost their boats and ended up divorcing. Myles estimates that 5 percent to 10 percent of sailing couples break up, frequently because the woman discovers that sailing is not the romantic life of pina coladas and palm trees her partner had led her to expect. In their three years at sea, Myles and Roddick have found the natural division of labor on a boat into 'blue and pink jobs' to be the greatest challenge to their relationship. At home in Ventura, Calif., they worked as equals at an electronic-engineering company, but at sea, Myles captains the boat and works on the engine while Roddick cooks and cleans. However, he also says, 'I've never seen stronger relationships than I've seen out here. They're sharing more of the raw, basic-human-nature kind of experience that you sort of miss when you're doing the whole 9-to-5 thing.' – Full story: http://www.sail-world.com/cruising/index.cfm?nid=30028 LARRY Billionaire Larry Ellison prides himself on being a maverick who can make his own cutthroat decisions while navigating the global marketplace's dicey shoals. Ellision, the (BMW Oracle Racing's) team owner and founder, is also in the after guard. A top-ranked amateur, he is serving in what the crew has dubbed "Larry's position.'' "I'm sure he'll be there on race day," (syndicate navigator Peter) Isler said about the billionaire. "He's involved in the decision-making and the monitoring of the performance of the boat, and does a lot of driving as well." Ellison's sailing team appears to be in place, following a series of personality clashes and switches, including skipper Dickson's decision two years ago to remove Bay Area sailor John Kostecki from the race team. Kostecki is now gearing up to skipper a Volvo 'Round the World Race campaign next year. "There's not a lot of drama as to decisions or who's in charge," Isler said. "I think we're all comfortable to who's driving and who’s on the race team." -- Excerpts from a story by Jim Doyle in the San Francisco Chronicle, http://tinyurl.com/y8hyxp FREE MOORING FOR OUT-OF-TOWNERS AT L.B.R.W. The West's largest keelboat regatta---Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week on June 22-24---has the welcome mat out again for boats from everywhere. The City of Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine Dept. is waiving mooring fees for out-of-town competitors from Sunday June 17, through Tuesday, June 27. But competitors are advised to file online entry forms (including fees and mooring requests) early because transient slips and end ties are limited, and last year 160 boats from San Francisco to San Diego were in town enjoying winds of 20 to 22 knots. More information: mailto:raceoffice@lbyc.org. Online entry: http://www.lbrw.org SAILING SHORTS * Having recently opened a new facility and completed a management restructuring DK Yachts of Malaysia will begin production of three new Mumm 30s, to be ready for delivery this spring. These boats will be built in accordance with strict one design standards and will come from the factory incorporating all approved hardware upgrades. – http://www.mumm30.org * Italian Matteo Miceli, 36, has sailed a 20-foot beach cat named ‘Biondinanera,’ 2700 miles across the Atlantic solo between Great Canarian and Guadalupe in 14 days, 17 hours and 52 minutes. -- http://tinyurl.com/y4qrvr * For the fifth year in a row ISAF's Athlete Participation Programme (APP) will assist young athletes from developing sailing nations attend the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship. With an annual budget of £15,000 (US$ 29,400) to help young sailors pay for travel costs and entry fees, the APP has now assisted well over 100 youngsters taking part in youth sailing's premier event. In the four Youth Worlds prior to 2003 an average of 38 nations attended the Championship, since then that figure has risen to an average of 50. – http://www.sailing.org * It turns out now that the "bowsprit" on ESP-97 and her angular bow, as were seen during the "parade" through Valencia last December, were nothing more than an innocent joke by the Spanish America's Cup challenger. -- http://valenciasailing.blogspot.com/ * US Sailing’s Team Racing Committee and U.S. Team Racing Championship Committee are joining forces to create plans and programs that will advance team racing to the next level in the U.S. All interested parties are invited to attend the Team Racing Summit on February 3 at Larchmont Yacht Club in New York, including sailors and team race event managers, umpires, and representatives from clubs seeking to establish their own team racing programs. This is not a “how to,” but rather, the Summit will identify initiatives that will grow this important segment of our sport at all levels. – full story: http://www.ussailing.org/ *Magnus Holmberg, skipper of Swedish sailing team Victory Challenge, is proposing a 'friendly' race against America's Cup rival Alinghi in the waters of Dubai. “We're so happy to be here. The reason why we chose to come to Dubai was because of the wind conditions. It is perfect here, and we can train on the water everyday, which is the most important thing. And the sun is shining, so it's very nice." The Victory Challenge team plans to remain in Dubai until early February, when they will go back to Valencia to start training on their new boat, SWE 96. – http://www.gulfnews.com/sport/Sailing/10097103.html * The 17th Chesapeake Sailing Yacht Symposium will be held on March 2-3, 2007 at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. Dedicated to advancing the study of both the art and science of sailing yacht design technology, every two years, professional yacht designers, sailing yacht enthusiasts, and others with interest in yacht design travel from all over the world to attend the symposium, where they present papers, exchange ideas, and further the progress of yacht design. Topics include sail aerodynamics, appendage hydrodynamics, performance prediction, structures, stability, and more. To view a complete list of papers and to register: http://www.csysonline.com * Life is not all peaches and cream for the families of America’s Cup syndicate member. According to the Valencia Life Network, “The most exclusive and luxurious urbanizations of Valencia such as Santa Barbara and Mas Camarena have been virtually under attack from thieves since the summer. Police sources stated that they were ‘snowed under’ with documents from these robberies and were ‘unable to cope’. The vast majority of these robberies were carried out in the usual way – whilst the owners of the houses were asleep inside them.” -- http://www.valencialife.net/ * Thanks to a collaborative effort by Jeff Borland and Erik Hedin, the new and improved Women's International Match Racing Association website is now up and running: http://www.wimra.org * A new Rodger Martin designed Class 40 will be on the start line for the Global Ocean Challenge in September this year. The new boat, being built in Rhode Island USA by Al Fresco Composites, is for experienced sailors Stuart Williams and Jared Lazor. Williams, a former member of the US Ski Team will skipper the boat. The boat, to be named Gwaihir is expected to be sailing off Rhode Island in early spring. http://www.gochallenge.net * BMW has helped to build and engineer racing yachts which will compete in this year's America's Cup race series. The engineers used BMW's simulation software to develop the boat's strong and rigid, but lightweight, carbonfibre structures, similar to those of the BMW-Sauber F1 car. The boat even features a carbonfibre roof - as on the M6 Coupe. "BMW helped in the structural analysis", said syndicate spokesman Tom Ehman, "and the weight distribution and keeping the weight down. They helped us to keep the structure strong, and to get more weight to the bottom of the boat" (for stability). -- http://tinyurl.com/ydcn8r * Vodafone Spain has become the Official Mobile Network Provider of the 32nd America's Cup. It is the eighth official Supporter of the event. Vodafone Spain has collaborated on the deployment of the 3G and HSDPA technology that covers the race area (over 600 square kilometres) and Port America's Cup. Additionally, Vodafone Spain has collaborated with the Meteorological Data Service run by the 32nd America's Cup (MDS), which provides weather data from the race course to all of the teams. Vodafone has provided a GPRS modem for each of the 22 weather buoys. -- Newswire.co.nz, full story: http://tinyurl.com/yzv7j8 GET OFF THE RAIL Go sail a Laser! Get a great work out, make some new friends, and join one of the largest one-design classes in North America. Laser sailing is faster and more competitive than ever. Get into a Laser! Go to http://www.teamvanguard.com to find your local dealer and the US class website (nalaser.org) to learn more. LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or simplicity (letters shall be no longer than 250 words). You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot, don't whine if others disagree, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * Michael Rosenauer: If they can race around the globe every four or so years, a race that has a course exceeding 30,000 miles, it seems to me that they should be able to stage the America's Cup more often than every 6 years, especially when you consider that the actual cup races cover less than 100 miles. * From Mark Playsted: Regarding the leap from Optis to a bigger dinghy; when I was a child we would move from Opti's to a 12' scow type boat called a dabchick. It had no cockpit so was a wet boat, but it was easy to right by two 12 year olds and faster and more complex than an Opti. It was ideal as a next step boats and we all looked forward to graduating to them before moving into more traditional classes. * From James Pleasance – Force10 Marketing: To clarify a quote made by me yesterday in Scuttlebutt 2259 (‘Time for an Overhaul’), I fully support plans for the America’s Cup to be staged every two years. I was not inferring that it would be impossible for new challengers to be competitive against current teams under a two year cycle, only that it would be a shorter timeframe in which to do so. With reduced costs over two years instead of four, this would obviously lessen the financial requirements for new teams. * From David LaPier: I am a Laser sailor and Brodie Cobb is my friend. Regarding Rule 2 and Rule 69, please consider if you have ever: * Yelled at your crew * Yelled at a competitor * Given the finger to a passing motor boat * Tried to get your way at mark rounding, knowing that you would foul another boat * Pumped or rocked on purpose * Tried to intimidate a competitor with words or deeds CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground. Special thanks to Melges Performance Sailboats, Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week, and Vanguard Sailboats. Scuttlebutt is also supported by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, the Defender of the 32nd America's Cup. |
