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SCUTTLEBUTT 1966 -- November 14, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.OLYMPIC FORMAT DECIDED The format for the 2008 Olympic Sailing Competition has been decided at the ISAF Annual Conference in Singapore. The Olympic Champions will be decided after a final 10-boat race, judged on the water and carrying a weighted double points score. ISAF President Goran Petersson's submission 025, with friendly amendment by Council member Charley Cook (USA), was passed with a massive majority at the second day of meetings of the ISAF Council on Friday. ISAF most recently held meetings with the the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Olympic Broadcast Services (OBS) and broadcasters, during which they provided some positive guidance and input to ISAF on changes to the format. It was from these discussions that submission 025 was prepared. The submission started its path of debate in Singapore at the Olympic Classes Commission, where it received unanimous support from the representatives of all Olympic classes, who directly represent the sailors. It then moved on through the Classes Committee, Women's Sailing Committee, Windsurfing Committee and Race Officials Committee before being put before the responsible reporting Committee to Council, the Events Committee. Each in turn supported the proposals although of course had queries particularly on how the scoring would be implemented. Throughout the week various groups had been undertaking scoring models to ensure the best solution, and achieve the desired outcome whilst retaining the 'heart and soul' of sailing. Emphasizing the partnership between ISAF and the IOC, the President commented, 'The IOC has not told sailing what to do. It has identified some issues and we have worked together to move forwards.' Over the past week it had become increasingly clear that the President's submission had generated strong support, especially with an amendment stretching the application of the discard from races 1-5 to 1-10 and a clear proposal on the scoring. The majority of debate has centered around the issue of weighting. Early in the week the Olympic Classes Commission floated the idea of double points in the medal race. Events Committee member Phil Jones (AUS) had produced some modeling based on the Athens results. Regatta Format - An 11 race series (a 16 race series for the 49er). A Medal Race will be scheduled on the day designated for each class's medal ceremony, even if the full schedule has not been completed by that day. - The top 10 placed boats advance to the Medal Race. All boats advancing will be required to compete in the Medal Race. - On the water umpiring will be used in the Medal Race. - This format will apply to all test events and the 2008 Olympic Regatta (for all classes). Scoring System - There will be one discard for the series score but the Medal Race shall not be discarded. - Competitors will carry their series scores (ie total of race scores after discard) through to the Medal Race. - Race scores for the Medal Race will be doubled (ie 2 points for first, 4 points for second, and so on) and added to the series score. - Any series tie after the Medal Race will be broken in favour of the boat finishing higher in the Medal Race. - If the Medal Race is not completed, medals will be awarded based on the series score for all the prior races (in the normal way). -- ISAF website, full story: http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j19Fh0,C2 STUMPED FOR HOLIDAY GIFT IDEAS? Is there a sailing enthusiast on your holiday shopping list? Looking for that perfect crew gift? Don't want to give your co-workers another fruit basket? This holiday season you can't go wrong with Cory Silken's fine art sailing photography! With its classic and clean look, Silken's photography will enhance any wall in a home, office or boat. Available in a variety of framed limited edition prints, photographic gifts, and the 2006 Classic Sailing Calendar, order yours today! Or give the gift of a private yacht photo shoot! Log on to see Silken's work and for ordering information: http://www.studio6x7.com, +1-617-268-4672 DREAMS COME APART The Volvo Ocean Race has got off to the worst possible start, with four of the seven boats suffering serious damage during the first 24 hours of the first offshore leg. The carnage, which forced two boats, Bouwe Bekking's Movistar and Paul Cayard's The Black Pearl, to head to port for repairs, has served only to underline fears that the new breed of Volvo Open 70s are not yet ready for ocean racing and certainly not the immense challenge of the Southern Ocean. The most worrying is the damage to Movistar, a Bruce Farr-designed hull that had completed more mileage in testing in the build-up than any other boat. However, this was not enough to prevent serious structural failure when the boat flew off the front of a wave while hammering down the Portuguese coast in gale-force conditions after the start from Vigo on Sunday. Movistar slammed back down into the sea and as she did so the crew heard what they described as a "sickening loud crack and bang", which proved to be the carbon-fibre structure in which the hydraulic rams controlling the swing keel are seated, giving way. More worrying was that the huge instantaneous loading on the keel caused the damage to spread to the main bulkhead, which buckled badly. -- Edward Gorman, Times on Line, full story: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,4041-1871396,00.html * Paul Cayard and his team of Pirates have suffered leakage around the keel of the Black Pearl. On Sunday, Pirates of the Caribbean General Manager Kimo Worthington reported, "Erle Williams went off watch to do a boat check and saw lots of water around the keel structure. Upon closer examination he saw that the lid on the fish tank was being pushed up by the water pressure causing the water to come out. At the time, the wind was at 25 to 35 knots and the boat was traveling at 30 knots. Paul came to assess the situation and made the decision to slow the boat down, which took about an hour. After the boat slowed, the leak stopped. The boat is now headed to shore sailing under storm jib and tri sail with wind at 40 to 50 knots." * Brunel Sunergy broke her gooseneck and is now en route to Madeira to make a permanent repair. "We estimate that it will take us around 26 to 30 hours to get there, and about six hours to repair the damage. We are still in a yacht race and we want to turn around our repair as soon as possible and get back out on the track," said navigator Campbell Field. Meanwhile out on the race track the wind is easing, but it will build again dramatically in three to four hours time. The wind is currently 30 - 35 knots across the whole fleet building to 40 knots this afternoon, with gusts of up to 50 knots. -- www.volvooceanrace.com 1. ABN Amro Two, 5801 miles to finish 2. ABN Amro One, +8 miles 3. Brasil 1, +14 miles 4. Ericsson Racing Team, +25 miles 5. Sunergy and Friends, +227 miles 6. Movistar, +293 miles 7. Pirates of the Caribbean, +372 miles * Prior to the start of the Volvo Ocean Race, Australian skipper Grant Wharington has revealed the mystery sponsor behind the last-minute rescue package which has secured his team's start in the Volvo Ocean Race tonight as Dutch solar cell technology company, Sunergy. The Australian designed and built Volvo Open 70 yacht will be re-named Sunergy and Friends, and will be crewed by an impressive list of mostly Australian sailing professionals. Barney Walker, a long-time sailing partner of Grant Wharington, will be on board and will take up his pivotal role as Sailing Master and Watch Captain. They are joined by New Zealander Jeff Scott, another around-the-world stalwart. * Up to 1 million people watched the start of the Volvo Ocean Race. With 70,000 people lining the dockside alone and 2,000 spectator boats out on the course area, the race got a magnificent send-off from the Spanish port of Vigo. THE DESIGN PROCESS BMW Oracle begins the design process with experiments in the computer employing Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to look at every aspect of the boat's movement through the water, working up to large-scale models of approximately 27 feet long. As the team tests different combinations of sails and boat changes, massive amounts of data stream off the boat into a computer that turns all the data into one single number. That number essentially shows what worked or didn't work. Then it's down to perceptions. Does the sailing team like how the changes feel? Do they work in practice as well as in theory? Every single aspect of the boat, from rig to keel to deck layout, will get a thorough look before the first boat is built. The team is naturally cagey about the timing of the new boats - all Design Coordinator Ian "Fresh" Burns will admit to is that Boat Number One will be started "soon," with the second boat depending on the look of the initial new boats from the competition. The team will build 20 to 22 models, at US $250,000 each. (If you're wondering, 25 to 30 percent of the team's budget will be spent on design.) Costs are relative. Both the materials and the methods for constructing the boat and the mast are strictly regulated to help manage costs. The sails, however, are under a much more flexible rule, and are allowed more freedom in their design. But with flexibility comes expense - a jib sheet can last a regatta, but a genoa survives only 60 tacks, which works out to $500 to $1,000 per tack. Given that kind of consumable expense, the sails are monitored closely by the team during testing. Cameras are mounted on the mast to record sail movements and angles. The Version 5.0 rule, Burns feels, will undoubtedly mean fairly conventional packages from the competitors, with no one likely to attempt to "hit one out of the ballpark" on design. Burns summed up the BMW Oracle design philosophy as they head into the final stretch of boat design: "The ideal design is achieved by combining the crew's vision with technical excellence. We're looking for that one small advantage that will make the difference between winning and losing the Cup." -- Diane Swintal reviewing the BMW Oracle traveling yacht club 'road show' on the Cup Info website, full story: http://www.cupinfo.com/en/BMWO-roadshow-05.php WINTER DEALS AT THE PIRATE'S LAIR If you're a planner, then you can be a saver. Book your winter and 2006 regatta plans with The Pirate's Lair now and save up to 15% on T-Shirts, Embroidery, Graphics, and Deliveries. Get your fuzzies, beanies, and foulies now for mid-winters. Log on to http://www.pirateslair.com/sailing NEW LEADERS In the Open 60 Class of the Transat Jacques-Vabre Race Sill et Veolia (Roland Jourdain / Ellen MacArthur) have nosed in front of Virbac-Paprec (Dick / L. Peyron) after taking small chunks out of their lead consistently over the weekend. The Anglo-French duo have worked hard to reposition themselves to the West of Virbac-Paprec, and their boat speed and course made good has been fractionally higher by 1-2 knots. Also, there is a close race going on in the ORMA 60 class as four of the five trimarans left in the race enter the Doldrums at 11 degrees North, which as ever has re-distributed the cards left on the table. Leaders at 18:44 GMT Sunday: IMOCA Monohulls: Sill et Veolia, Roland Jourdain & Ellen MacArthur; ORMA Multihulls: Banque Populaire, Pascal Bidégorry & Lionel Lemonchois; Monohull Class 2: Gryphon Solo, Joe Harris & Josh Hall; Multihull Class 2: Crêpes Whaou!, Franck-Yves Escoffier & Kevin Escoffier. -- http://www.jacques-vabre.com/pages_uk/accueil_uk2005.htm NEWS BRIEFS * Starting from 2006, the ISAF Match Racing World Championship will no longer be held as a single event. Instead a World Tour will decide the World Champion. Meanwhile in 2006 the ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championship will be hosted by the Royal Danish Yacht Club in Copenhagen, Denmark. -- http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j1vFh0,kD * Neville Crichton's huge 30-metre Alfa Romeo set a new record in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's 180 nautical mile Cabbage Tree Island Race with on an elapsed time of 18 hours 33 minutes 56 seconds. This bettered Brindabella's race record, set last year, by 23 minutes and 41 seconds. The record was an impressive effort as winds have been only light to moderate, between 5 and 12 knots, off the coast since the race started at 8pm on Friday. * After a frustrating start Saturday the crew on the maxi trimaran of Capgemini and Schneider Electric, Geronimo set off again on Sunday in their attempt to break the current WSSRC record for the 2225 mile ocean passage from Los Angeles to Honolulu. Crossing the line for the second time Geronimo headed out to sea at eight knots boat speed in a five knot breeze. The decision to restart this attempt for the Los Angeles to Honolulu Challenge record was made when unfavourable weather conditions where experienced by the team onboard Geronimo over the first 12 hours of the record challenge. -- www.superyachting.com * The Jersey Clipper arrived in Cape Town to have her rig checked before continuing on the second leg of the Clipper 05-06 Round the World Yacht Race to Durban. Clipper Ventures Maintenance Manager Justin Haller is in Cape Town coordinating the repairs to ensure that the Jersey Clipper is fit to complete the circumnavigation. After the South African based rig manufacturer checked the rig, Haller reported that no obvious problems had been found but they are re-tensioning the rigging and replacing bottle screws on the backstays. Westernaustralia continues to lead and is now 93 miles ahead of second-placed New York. -- www.clipper-ventures.com J/109 CLASS GEARS UP FOR 2006 Owners rave about the speed and comfort of the J/109, the first J Boats "sprit" model under 36' with a cruising interior. With 250+ boats worldwide and growing, class activity is starting to boom. New for 2006 will be the first European Cup (Deauville, FR) and North Americans (Newport, RI). http://www.j109.org LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. And please save your bashing, and personal attacks for elsewhere. For those that prefer a Forum, you can post your thoughts at the Scuttlebutt website: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi) * From Bob Merrick US Olympic Team 2000: Olympic scoring systems must be concerned with one thing and one thing only, determining the worlds most worthy champions. Anything less undermines the foundation of Olympic competition and devalues the level of achievement that an Olympic medal represents. The Olympics is the most recognized sporting event in the world because it represents the highest level of achievement in sport. The world watches these competitions because of what is at stake. Made for T.V. sporting events come and go with the tide but the Olympics have endured because of the competition, not the camera angle. The need for television revenue is real but if it compromises the Olympic ideal then the Games will not be worth filming. * From Martha Henderson: I totally agree with Magnus Wheatley's comments about Submission 25. I wrote to every person I had an e-mail address for who was at the ISAF meetings begging them to reject this proposal. I urge all sailors to do the same and write e-mails asking their national representatives to vote this down as it will have a deep impact on the sport. Why do we care so much about TV when the hits on the sailing web site has been in the top 5 at the last 4 Olympics. TV is passe - the internet is where the future is at! Please do not do this to us! * From Oscar Gallo: The Olympics have become like the UN! What have they done for the world lately? * From Peter Huston: The problem isn't over-coaching - the problem is keeping kids in Opti's until they are 15 years old, or older in Sabot's. I look at these Opti's regattas with parents standing on the beach bored out of their minds, paying a coach to teach their kid to sail, and I thank God I grew up in an area that didn't have Opti's or Sabot's. Once a kid learns to tack and jibe on their own, they should have the opportunity to sail in double and triplehanded boats - human's are fundamentally social animals, and isolation in a slow, uncomfortable boat is no way to retain interest of kids who are overwhelmed with opportunities in life that scream speed, fun and community. Virtually every sailor that I grew up with - which includes Olympic team members, several international class world champions and one Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, had the distinct advantage of sailing Lightings as crew for our parents or their friends, starting when we were about 12 years old, sometimes younger. At its core, the sport is best when families sail together. That experience was vastly superior to any paid coach - and it was a lot more fun. Kids are better served with mentors than coaches. * From Chris Shining (re junior coaching): I am of the belief that all supplemental junior improvement coaching is to the detriment of leisure time sports for kids. It only feeds the egos of the parent and the coach. Don't get me wrong -- I am far from the "do gooder, everybody should be included, we don't keep score because that makes kids too competitive crowd." I'm just not convinced that competitive junior sailing does anything to build a life long love of yachting. In fact it most likely burns kids out and keeps them from choosing sailing later in their life as their main leisure activity. (I think this applies to most leisure time junior sporting activities as well.) As with any sport, the athletic skills sets needed to compete far outweigh anything junior coaching skills can bring to the table. The biggest drain on leisure activity is that all organized "camps" have become training sessions or daycare for the few weekends or school breaks the kids get. Sailing is hurting exactly because nobody has the time anymore. Coaching simple makes the parents feel better when the get quicker results in a shorter period of time. If yachts clubs feel the need for trophy results out of their junior programs then they should find the funding and go recruit the best talent to sail for them. That's how any sports machine works. If the program is there so the club's members have an avenue for their children to learn how to sail, then treat it that way * From Alfred Poor: If TV producers can put a yellow line on a football field that isn't there, and can instantly calculate the odds card-by-card on a Texas Hold'em championship hand, they surely can come up with a way to depict the aggregate score in any sailing race. Maybe show phantom boats to indicate who has to beat whom in order to win. Maybe show predicted positions if the current conditions hold. Maybe have expert analysts (not just talking heads) handicap the current situation with odds of a given maneuver paying off. If they wanted to, they could gussy it up with all sorts of special effects to make the more obscure details obvious. It's a matter of lack of imagination, lack of will, or most likely, lack of budget that keeps them from doing this. * From Jay Sharkey With all respect to Mr. Nicholls, sailing does need to be promoted. Big time. Yes its true that those who are sailors will continue to sail, however, even those who have sailed for 30+ years like my father of 62, get tired of pulling on halyards so they retire and buy a trawler. The industry, from sailmakers and boatbuilders, to hardware manufactuers and cushion makers cannot survive unless we keep bringing in new sailors and bringing up a new generation of sailors. As pointed out in 'Butt 1965 by Mr. Jepson, sailors are probably the best professional athletes to emnify. Who would you rather have your kids worship? Some football, baseball, or NASCAR driver, or Russell Couts, Ellen MacArthur, and Brad Van Liew? There's a connection with the planet and the environment that sailing brings out. If there were more sailors on this planet the world would be a better place. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself. -Josh Billings |
