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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 1055 - April 23, 2002Scuttlebutt 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.
COMMENTARY - Christine Brooks, Executive Director, USWA Whatever the future holds for windsurfing in the Olympics, the young people who strive to participate will carry valuable memories and experiences with them forever. The entire windsurfing fraternity should help ensure more experiences like these for youth. It is our collective obligation to put politics and economic self-interests aside and to encourage more young people to seek the Olympic Dream. It is our obligation to celebrate those among us who dare to pursue an exceedingly difficult task - to become an Olympian. The best of luck to all of you - I am pleased that windsurfing is doing its part - however small - to improve the health of our young people and to help strengthen their values. www.uswindsurfing.org
FOR THE RECORD "There is no prize for second place when you are breaking records," Edwards said. "With only four days training to get used to the boat and get her up to speed, to come so close is an achievement in itself. Grant Dalton had been training for months before they tried the record and they also broke the 24-hour record. It's amazing to think that Maiden II only went back in the water 26 days ago!" - Mark Bullingham, www.maiden2.com
MORE COOL GEAR
CHALLENGER RANKINGS
1. Alinghi, Switzerland Full story: www.victorychallenge.com/start.phtml?lang_id=1
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Brian Trubovich: I don't know why Malcolm McKeag brought the French way of genderising boats into the discussion, as the French choose to name an object masculine or feminine without any logical basis at all, as any French student will confirm. A boat is "Le Bateau", hence will always be masculine. We English speakers, on the other hand, without any Gallic flair, but with heaps of logic, will name an object feminine if it has those qualities that we associate with a woman, in this case, curvy lines and hollowness, i.e. a negative as opposed to a positive form. For the same reason we should always refer to a mast as "he," not "she." * From John Roberson: Like a number of other media outlets, the Agence France-Presse seem to be getting mixed up between US $ and Aus $. The entry fee for the race is US$4,625,000, which buys the boat - another point that many people seem to have got confused about. Once entered for the race you own the boat, and can take it home afterwards. The prize money for first across the finishing line is US$2,500,000 and the maximum amount that any one entry can win is US$4,650,000. When you buy the boat, you get sails as well. The only added costs are crew, their transportation to Fremantle, and their accommodation before the race, provisioning, and crew clothing. I would encourage people to study our website, www.antarcticacup.com - it is full of useful information. * From Jeff Witter: I sail in a unique situation where the owner of the boat assumes equal representation with his crew at all times. Finding good crew is usually paramount to being successful. Our Team found ourselves with 3 boats and inadequate crew to have 3 competitive boats. We joined forces to fix this problem. When we enter a regatta we use the boat's name as the owner name- "Team Jade". When called up for awards, we all go. We refer to our program as Team Jade and insist that it be used when perpetual trophy's are awarded. Who is Team Jade? Depends on who went. Does everyone know who we are? Of course. Do I get recognition as a member of Team Jade? Yup. Most importantly, The boat is the only common denominator. We have 4 committed sailors who get the boat away from the dock for every race. We also trade spots to build a stronger team. Our least experienced crew sails us in & out of the basin. We trade driving, tactical & forward crew positions often. I have been involved in 2 of these teams over the last 10 years. Both have worked wonderfully to give "ownership" to all those on board. We have all benefited from this experience & equally share the credit. * From John Maltman: Anyone who believes "individual Liberty should sit on the board of directors of a yacht club that is involved in a fatality situation and see if their opinion changes. I've done that, and every time the fleets went out that I worried that at the end of the day I would be involved in a tragic accident, and in litigation. Through good fortune, competitors who wore life vests, and wonderful race committees, we were lucky to avoid major problems. It may be your "liberty" to choose not to wear a life vest and die. But it becomes the clubs problem when your heirs don't have the same opinion. * From Cole Price: I witnessed first hand, the value of a life vest last Sunday (4/21/02). While doing a regatta off of Long Beach, CA, when someone working foredeck fell off the bow of another boat. Despite their attempts, the other boat was unable to pick her up for over 10 minutes. After sailing over to her, my crew Doug grabbed her hand, pulled her up to the boat at which time I handed the helm to my son Michael to held the boat into the wind. It took all of the strength that Doug and I had to pull her aboard our Cal 20. If she hadn't been wearing a PFD, she might not have survived the 10 minutes or so that she was in the 60 degree water as it was blowing 15 to 25 knots and there were 2 to 3 foot swells. As it was, she was in pretty good condition and sailed the next race with us. Doug and I each weigh over 200 pounds, work-out at the gym regularly, and have above average strength. But, as I previously stated, it took all of our strength to pull a 150 pound person onto a little Cal 20 which has a lot less freeboard than most other boats. I strongly suggest that Skippers and Crew practice man-overboard drills at least once a year so that they are prepared for just such a life threatening circumstance. Such an exercise will also demonstrate the value of a PFD. CURMUDGEON'S COMMENT: On this note, we now declare the PFD thread officially dead - again!
BRUCE FARR When the teams were forming for this year's race, one competitor, Richard Brisius of the Assa Abloy team, said "it would be irresponsible" not to consult with Farr. The designer develops whiz-bang innovations long before each race. Then he offers prospective clients a basic, off-the-shelf design or pricier, customized versions. Six of eight teams in this year's race found Farr's high-velocity promises irresistible. Among them are Assa Abloy, which bought a basic design, and the race-leading illbruck team, which went for a custom blueprint. The teams come to Farr with buckets of cash -- up to $500,000 for a Volvo blueprint -- because he almost always wins. He wins long races and short ones. He wins with big boats and little ones. In Europe, in the Americas, in New Zealand. He wins everything, that is, except the biggest of them all -- the America's Cup -- where his failures are as mythic as his triumphs everywhere else. Yet Farr's woeful Cup performance hasn't scared off Oracle software titan Larry Ellison, who is throwing somewhere between $10 million and $20 million at the Annapolis firm to design a dream boat for next year's race. - Angus Phillips, Washington Post; full story: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18205-2002Apr19.html
TROPHEE JULES VERNE With new found speed and daily runs of more than 500 miles, Orange will enter the calms of the famous intertropical convergence zone by midday on Wednesday 24th. "It more and more up to the helmsmen now" emphasized Peyron. "The solent helps us to generate apparent wind. So it means helming with finesse to preserve speed." The crossing of the Doldrums looks like being without any major problems, in light easterly airs. Orange won't start to slow down until late evening Tuesday. - www.maxicatamaran-orange.com
QUOTE / UNQUOTE - Tom Schnackenberg, TNZ Design coordinator "We're in a situation where we take this initial shape which is a bulb or a bomb, if you like, going through the water and then say - well, let's factor in some stability effects. If we squash it a bit - which is to lower its vertical dimension and to increase the horizontal one - then the drag will go up a little but the VCG of the whole thing goes down. Initiallly, that's a gain. Eventually, you run out and you start picking up more drag then you gain stability and so on. So you have to think about that." - Partial transcript TVNZ's Sailnztv programme, posted on the 2003AC website by Cheryl, isuzu21.webcrossing.com/WebX?50@199.NZyZa4Amace^1@.ef2c7f4
BURSTING FOR EXTRA STRENGTH
QUOTE / UNQUOTE - John Kostecki
AMERICA'S CUP
LIFE AFTER THE CUP
May 9-11 - Sausalito Cup Four San Francisco-based IACC teams and four International teams have committed to the 2003 season. The foreign teams bringing their yachts to San Francisco include current Italian America's Cup Team Mascalzone Latino with ITA 55 (former USA 55 Stars & Stripes), Polska 1 the Polish challenge for 2006 with POL 5 (former Espana 5), and the IAC Challenge Nassua with NZL 10 and 12. - www.iaccsf.com
WOMEN'S MATCH RACING The racing will be raced in 33-foot International One Design sloops on short windward-leeward courses inside Hamilton Harbour. The ADT Women's Match Race Championship will offer a prize purse of $15,000. - www.adtgoldcup.com
THE MASTERS
THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS |
