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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 1030 - March 19, 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.
AMERICA'S CUP "It was not planned to come to New Zealand at this time," said syndicate president and team skipper Vincenzo Onorato. "The plan was to train up the crew in Italy on Mascalzone 10 - the old Spanish boat Bravo Espagna - but then we had the opportunity to buy Stars & Stripes [from OneWorld] and that was really a marvelous opportunity for us to come here immediately and start practicing. The base we are starting to build up and we expect it to be ready by mid-June. We are a low-budget syndicate so we are just taking care of ourselves." Onorato returns to Italy next week, and the sailing team who are here will go back in a fortnight. The whole team will come back to Auckland with their new boat in July. * "We have a good helmsman in Paolo Cian, he is very good at match-racing, and then we have Flavio Favini, who is wonderful tactician," Onorato said "In business - and in the America's Cup - it's very important to put together a good group of people." While many new to the game may find Syndicate Row a tad daunting, Onorato is not fazed. "We have no time to sit here and look at the others. We are a new and young syndicate. The time we have is to take care of our own problems." - Julie Ash, NZ Herald, full story: www.nzherald.co.nz/sports/
VOLVO OCEAN RACE However, once more we are watching illbruck increase her distance on all around her as she puts even more miles between herself and her nearest competitors in the last few hours, extending her leading to 12 nautical miles over second placed Assa Abloy. Tyco is one of the few yachts to have held her own and not lost any distance over the last six hours, she remains 15 nautical miles behind the leader, which is opening up the fight for second place once more, with only three miles separating Assa Abloy and Tyco. Whilst the back runners can just sit and hope they will soon be in the trade winds, illbruck is speeding off with a speed over the last 24 hours of 14 knots. Compare this to djuice's run of just 9.1 knots and it is clear to see why she is increasing her lead once more. The jostling for places continues too further back in the fleet, with Amer Sports One hot on the heels of SEB, closing the distance by the minute, while News Corp is just 11 miles behind Amer Sports Too, the girls who have sailed better than ever this leg will be pushing hard to avoid loosing their current sixth position. Whether djuice is out of the doldrums or not remains to be seen, although her 24 hour speed is disappointing, she'll be pleased (and relieved) now that she is making consistently 13 and 14 knots.
POSITIONS at 0403 GMT on March 19:
AROUND THE WORLD:
BIGGER AND FASTER Only 12 more days remain till regular entries close in the 2002 Newport Bermuda Race. Applications for entry are due at race headquarters on or before April 1st. Applications may be filed on-line or downloaded in PDF format. As of March 18th, 156 entry applications had been filed for the 635-mile ocean classic that starts June 14th in Newport RI. Of these, 23 are AMERICAP cruising, 8 are AMERICAP double-handed, 9 are IMS racing and 116 are IMS Cruiser/Racer. IMS yachts will sail in Racing and Cruiser/Racer Divisions, while AMERICAP yachts may enter the non-spinnaker Cruising Division. The Classic Yachts Division, the Double-Handed Spinnaker Division and the Double-Handed Non-spinnaker Division will also sail under the AMERICAP rule. - Talbot Wilson, www.bermudarace.com
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Mike Wilcox (Re Herb McCormick's story about world speed records): "Debutante" is holder of the world speed record. It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. It was officially recorded in 1938 by a class "A" stern-steerer on Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA. It lists the record as 143 mph (229kmh) with a wind speed of 72 mph (115 kmh). It was set by a man named John D. Buckstaff who lived in Oshkosh at the time. * From Chuck Losness (In response to Tom Cain's and Arthur Stock's comments about regatta's being a financial loss): We don't have that problem at Dana Point Yacht Club. The small cost of trophies, mailings and maintaining race equipment is more than off set by the increased food and bar sales that take place after a day of racing. We consistently have over 50 boats racing in the Dana Point Series and our other regatta's average 20+ boats. The financial success of a racing program begins with increasing the number of participants. If you have a good racing program, you will have more entries. The finances will then take care of themselves. * From Craig Fletcher: Regattas never lose money. Yacht clubs choose to purchase regattas with dues, sponsor dollars, entry fees or fundraising. Most YC dining rooms do not cover costs. Are they losing money? No. Dues cover their cost. The debate in most clubs is simple. Do the majority of members want to spend their collective money on fine dinning or on the water activities? We should all remember we make our reputations on the water, not in the dinning room. * From J. Joseph Bainton: Is the Olympic Regatta the most important regatta in sailing as Paul Henderson suggests? I observe that only a very few teams participate and obviously only one from each country. While I am both a fan and friend of Mark Reynolds, who won Gold in the Star in Sydney, I point out that Americans Eric Doyle and Vince Brun, each of whom have also won a Star World Championship, did not participate and each would have had a far better chance of beating Mark Reynolds in Sydney than did a number of the other competitors. Every sailor who has won both Olympic Gold and a Star World Championship believes that winning the Star World Championship was by far the more difficult of these two great achievements. I suspect the same is true of the Laser Worlds versus the Olympic Games. I also suspect that winning the Etchells, Snipe or 505 Worlds is far more difficult that winning Gold in the 470 Class. All of these world championships typically consist of between 75 to 125 boats. In my view this suggests that Mr. Henderson's focus on the Olympic Regatta has more to do with his own political aspirations within the International Olympic Committee than it has to do with the best interests of the vast number of ISAF members who aspire at most to participate credibly in a World Championship and are content to leave both the America's Cup and the Olympics to the professional sailors to whom ownership of both events was ceded years ago.
SPRING MEETING The spring meeting of the U.S. Sailing Association was an unlikely high-altitude gathering in of all places, Colorado Springs, home of a major U.S. Olympic Committee training center. From this lofty vantage point, a planning session produced strategic objectives for the association's executive committee that underscored the organization's long-term shift toward balancing its emphasis on competitive and non-competitive sailing. An increasingly diverse cadre of committee members attending the meetings also represented US Sailing's continuing shift toward being more inclusive. A proposal was put in motion to create a Cruising Council to provide representation for cruising sailors including a board of directors' seat. The leaders of the National Women's Sailing Association continued talks with the US Sailing Women's Sailing Committee on integrating the broad-based efforts of the former with the competition focus of the latter. Exploration also began on how to further expose the work of the Safety at Sea Committee and to improve and expand on the Cruising World/US SAILING Safety at Sea Seminars, which are sponsored by West Marine. At the same time the recent move to require more high-level athlete/sailors on all committees of US Sailing, including board and executive committee, has had the noticeable effect of bringing the elite sailors including Mark Reynolds, John Lovell, Louise Gleason, Hal Haenel, and Dean Brenner into prominent positions. A voluntary registration system for all sailors has been established to define Category A to C levels of accomplishment (www.ussailing.org/saac/). - John Burnham, Sailing World website. There's lots more: www.sailingworld.com/sw_article.php?articleID=729
JUMBO DISPLAYS
QUOTES FROM THE BOATS "Anthony Merrington crossed the equator today and he will remember this day for years to come. Total humiliation is the only way to describe it with Tom Braidwood and Scott Beavis eager to hand out the punishment after their first leg experiences. King Neptune asked many a question of Anthony. Not one was answered right. Some of them were just plain simple, like, 'how long is a piece of string?' We can only assume that he was away from school that day. To his credit he performed a marvelous rendition of 'Waltzing Matilda' all the time covered from head to toe in stew, while wearing some marginal attire more suited to the cross." - Tony Mutter, SEB
TROPHEE JULES VERNE
STEINLAGER/LINE 7 REGATTA This is probably the hottest line-up the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron has ever attracted in the 23 years they have been running this event, with eight America's Cup team represented. Harold Bennett, the race director of the Steinlager/Line 7 commented, "when you get a line-up of top guys like this, there is going to be some very hot competition, and some aggressive racing." The twelve skippers contesting this event will sail a single round robin, before the top eight progress to the quarter finals, followed by semi-finals, with the finals scheduled for Sunday 24th March.
Skippers: -- John Roberson, www.rnzys.co.nz/racing/events/sl7/info.html
SPONSORSHIP Rolex has become very supportive of major races. Other races they sponsor include the Giraglia Rolex Cup from St Tropez, France, to Genoa, Italy; the Rolex IMS Offshore World Championship in Capri, Italy; the Rolex Fastnet Race in England, to be held next year; the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo, Sardinia; the Rolex Commodore's Cup in England; the Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship in the USA. Additionally, Rolex sponsors the prestigious ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards, the 2001 winners being solo ocean racer Ellen MacArthur (female) and Olympic gold medallist and World champion in the Laser dinghy class, Robert Scheidt. Notice of Race for the 2002 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is expected to be available from the CYCA in early April. Rolex will present two of their magnificent chronometers to the winners. - Peter Campbell
SAN DIEGO NOOD A low-pressure system ushered in 15- to 20-knot winds for the opening two days of the event, and the fleet saw its requisite carnage in rugged conditions with swells that ran 10 feet high. By Sunday, the breeze had calmed to 5 to 10 knots: contests of wet and wild survival were over, and the fleet's tide of adrenalin calmed into what is known as business as usual in this part of the world. - Elizabeth Carroll
Class winners included: Etchells (30 boats) Erik Bentzen, Odin; J/105 (25 boats) Dennis Case, Wings; Melges 24 (15 boats) Cathy Wood, Foxtrot 22; Ultimate 20 (12 boats) Bob Aman, Rogue; International 14 (11 boats) Zach Berkowitz; J/24 (11 boats) Troy Smith, Danada; J/120 (10 boats) Chuck Nichols/ Chick Pyle, C.C. Rider.
DOWN UNDER
THE CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUM |
