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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 970 - December 21, 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.
TRIAL
ISAF The minutes of the Executive Committee meeting of 9 November 2001 are also published on the website. All other Committee Minutes from the 2001 November Conference will be published as approved by the respective Committees. For details of the major decisions taken at the 2001 November Conference read the Overview Report as linked to below. 2001 November Conference - Council Minutes: www.sailing.org/meetings/minutes/2001_CO_16_11.PDF Searchable Database of Meeting Minutes: www.sailing.org/meetings/minutes
2001 November Conference - Overview Report:
EQUIPLITE SPECTRA CONNECTORS
SYDNEY - HOBART RACE The pill has not been sweetened by the CYCA having found no sponsor for this the 57th running of the event following the end of Telstra's six year sponsorship last year. Saying this the CYCA should be congratulated for keeping this classic offshore race going and hopefully after the 1998 disaster becomes a distant memory (like the 1979 Fastnet) a sponsor will return and numbers will increase. - James Boyd, madforsailing website Full story: www.madforsailing.com
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Jim Bailey: Folks, you need to check your history. Back in the days of the J boats, owners such as Vanderbilt and Sopwith (sp?) drove their own boats. They were writing the checks and sailed as well. Vanderbilt knew when to turn over the wheel to Sherman Holt when the going got tough. Why should today be any different? * From: John Alofsin: Dustin Romey's made the comparison between an NFL team owner going in the game for a few plays and an AC syndicate head driving his boat for some period. The football fans certainly would be upset due to the lack of skill of the team owner in comparison to a pro. However, there's a big difference here - the NFL owner expects to make mucho money from his team and the fans pay to go to the games. In the AC the syndicate heads shell out big bucks and have no chance of making money - they plan to come out millions in the red. In my book that gives them the right to do just about whatever they want. When and if the sailing gets to a point where fans pay to watch and syndicate heads have a real chance of making money if their team does well, then people can complain if the best pros aren't "on the field". CURMUDGEON'S COMMENT: While I'm sure Mr. Ellison is grateful for all of the management help we've given his campaign, it's time to kill this thread and move ahead. * From James Malm: Alex Watters thoughts on Rule 42 seem similar to current problems in the 2001-2004 rules. In addition, the use of external devices opens the door to starting infractions, etc... Currently each class can determine how they enforce rule 42 and state so in the notice of race and sailing instructions. The event organizing committee along with help from the race committee can take control on the race course with posted signals, similar to the life jacket signal. The class guidelines could be set in place to determine what conditions they want Rule 42. The RC can post a flag when Rule 42 is not in affect. It is the competitors responsibility to watch for the flag. Could it be posted at certain marks? After watching more races than I have sailed, I have come to the conclusion that top competitors work their boat as hard as possible - within the rules - to perform their best. Elite sailors physically push their skills as far as possible to gain an advantage. It would be unfair for me or any observer to judge Rule 42 in a boat and class we don't currently race competitively. To be fair to all competitors, it is best left up to the competitors to police each other. In the event a competitor protest is filed, then and only then should the judge give his or hers opinion. * From Ben Jarashow (edited to our 250-word limit): I recently was an on the water judge at the ICSA singlehanded North Americans, held in Lasers and Radials. In US College sailing, there are fairly clearly defined guidelines for how to decide whether or not to protest someone for a possible violation of Rule 42. www.collegesailing.org/ICSA-PR.html Moreover, there is a webpage by Pat Healy (the USNA head coach), which includes pictures of the recommendations that the Naval Academy asks it's judging staff to use as guidelines. www.nadn.navy.mil/SailingTeam/intercollegiate/rule42/Rule42.html. The resources, which can guide a potential judge exist already (yes Ð I do recognize that ICSA Rule 42 is slightly changed). Moreover, at the regatta that I judged, we all carried audio recorders on the water in order to have a (verbal) record of the violation we saw to bring into the protest room as evidence. We required a unanimous decision among the judges on a given judge boat (at least 2 judges) in order to hail a protest. In my opinion, the most important thing right now is to be certain that event organizers are bringing in the best possible people to do this job. On-the-Water judging will only be fair to every competitor in every event when there is a large enough group of experienced judges to cover each regatta that needs to be judged. A well-done video would help as a training tool, but to require video on the water would not work. Making an audio recording was not easy. * From Bjoern Anker-Moeller, International Judge/ International Umpire: I think Don Becker's "10 commandments" are a great starting point for newcomers when learning the racing rules, but I strongly discourage using them as the only rules for any real-life race, however "informal". Just try to mentally go through the stages of a typical race and the situations you encounter, and you'll quickly find the need to add clarifications, precedence rules, etc. Just a few examples: You're on final close-hauled approach to the perfect start at the starboard end of the line, only to find somebody barging in, claiming room with an inside overlap. OK, we need to prohibit this. On the first beat, you get close to the shoreline and would like to tack, but a nearby competitor prevents you. Maybe we need rule 19 after all? Next, you carefully plan to arrive at the windward mark on starboard tack, because that gives you right of way. But then a port-tacker wants room as the inside boat. Now it's getting dangerous - you don't know which rule applies in a potential T-bone situation. On the downwind leg, with everybody "tacking downwind", you come in on starboard towards a port-tacker. You think it's port-starboard, he says you're overtaking. And so on. Before long, you'll find that all the additions and clarifications add up to something with very close resemblance to Part 2 of the RRS. With one exception, probably: the problematic rule 16.2. But that's a different discussion. * From Reynald Neron: For the past few days (weeks?), I have been reading the ideas regarding the implementations of the new rules. So far, I could summarize what I have read by the following:
1st solution: Simplify the rules Well, all this appears very complicated to me. (specially as I was previously using my own simplified old rules...) So I came up with a 4th possibility: Read, learn and use the new rules (and get on with your life). Worked for me :-)
WEEKEND SAILING ON TV * Sunday, December 23 America's Cup Jubilee on ESPN2 at 12:00 pm (9:00 am PT) 60 minutes - America's Cup Jubilee For the past year we have been collecting historical images of the 150 years of America's Cup history. Last summer the Royal Yacht Squadron and the New York Yacht Club hosted a 150 year celebration. This one-hour program is half about the Jubilee and half about the history of the America's Cup. This is one you may want to tape for your private library. * Saturday, December 29 Rolex International Year in Sailing on ESPN2 at 3:30 pm (12:30 pm PT) 30 minutes - The Rolex International Year in Sailing 2001 was the year of sailing on the edge. Long distance passage records were broken with alarming frequency and one fleet after another raced around the world. This program also includes a special tribute to Sir Peter Blake
THE KEELS WERE DIFFERENT BUT THE CLOTH WAS THE SAME
RESEARCH Dr. Simon Boxall, who works on the project, says: "We need to be able to measure where these phytoplankton are, what density they are. The rainforests are fairly straightforward because we have rainforests that will last hundreds or thousands of years so we can map them fairly easily. But in the ocean, phytoplankton patches last for two or three weeks, so we need ships and satellites." Each of the Volvo yachts is equipped with lightweight instruments to measure the colour and temperature of the water. A black box acts as an onboard computer, gathering the results from the sensors, which are also embedded in the keel. Once the black box has collected the data it puts it into a format that can be beamed back via satellite using the yachts' navigational transmission systems. The data is sent to the project's headquarters at the Southampton Oceanography Centre on the south coast of England. Scientists analyse the information then, with help from the space agency NASA, translate it into colored global charts and post it onto a Web site. Wildlife experts have been drawn to the project. A plentiful food supply is vital to help increase the numbers of species, like Southern Right Whales that come to the deep bays around Cape Town to breed and rear their young. Scientists are able link the data from the race yachts with sightings of whales and dolphins that the crews are recording as they make their way through some of world's most remote waters where most shipping freighters do not dare to go. Dr. Andy Williams, who is working on the project, says: "Trying to get out there and do research on whales and dolphins is very expensive. So when the opportunity to have yachts travelling there and people to report back, and to have ocean color data and sea surface temperature information was a unique opportunity that we couldn't miss." Volvo has agreed to back the project until after the next Ocean Race in four years. - CNN.com / Inside Sailing website, www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/sailing/12/20/tours.tech/index.html
QUOTE / UNQUOTE * "I don't think we as a shore crew can win the race for the team, but if we're not doing our job well, we could certainly lose it and that's what drives you." -- Neil Graham, Shore Manager of Assa Abloy - www.volvooceanrace.com * "On average, each member of the crew lost 3.04 kilos (6.7 pounds) during the second leg. They seem to have got accustomed to eating freeze-dried food. And they'd managed to smuggle some sweets aboard as well - by the middle of the second leg, the price of a "Snickers" or "Dajm" (Swedish chocolate bars!) went ballistic as supplies started to run out. This led to some heavy-duty black marketeering!" - Hasse Back, Team SEB, www.teamseb.com/teamseb/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=164&a=1681 * "I've got something that was built by a doctor in Manley. It's an injury that is quite common with Ice Hockey players when they get smacked against the wall, and they fracture the little bones that come off your vertebrae; fast bowlers also get it a lot. So it's an injury they're used to treating here, they make a plastic thing that sticks around you and keeps you in column, so you can't get out of column." - Grant Dalton, Amer Sports One, www.volvooceanrace.com
THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION |
