|
SCUTTLEBUTT 3675 - Thursday, September 13, 2012Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors,providing a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: Gowrie Group and Ullman Sails. DEBRIEF: OLYMPIC GAMES - SAILING EVENTS Jerome Pels is the Secretary General at the International Sailing Federation, the highest employed position of the organization. Here Jerome discusses the recent Olympic regatta and some of the issues that face the 2016 Games. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * Is ISAF satisfied with the last Olympic Games? JEROME PELS: "Yes, we think it was highly successful. We tried some new things that worked well, and have had a very positive feedback. The ticketed viewing area, for example, worked particularly well. It was sold out in advance, and attracted an enthusiastic public." * That's true, but wasn't the public almost entirely made up of sailors? Can our sport attract a wider audience? JEROME PELS: "I don't agree with you, there were many non-sailors in this public. Bear in mind that the British sailors were expected to do very well, and this has attracted people who don't sail but wanted to see one of their fellow citizens win a medal." * According to some sailors, this ticketed area compromised the quality of the sailing and the event wasn't fair. JEROME PELS: "Some sailors who haven't obtained the results they were expecting have effectively said so. But I think the reality is different. We've had a fantastic feedback from most competitors, who said they had never before sailed in such a "stadium", where they could hear and see the public. There has been a real interaction between the public and the athletes for the first time in the history of Olympic sailing, and this is definitely positive. As for the negative consequences of sailing close to the shore, they didn't occur." * What were the other most important changes this year? JEROME PELS: "There were many, for examples the downwind finishes who provided passing lanes during the last leg and opened up the game. The prohibition of Rule 42 (pumping) in some circumstances also changed the game. The sport of sailing is indeed changing radically. * On the other hand, what didn't work as well as you expected? JEROME PELS: "We've had some rights issues with the IOC, which I regret. We developed GPS tracking and 3D animations, and both ISAF and Swiss timing invested a lot for this; however we were not allowed to use them because it was a violation of the IOC broadcast contract." * What will be kept from those Olympic Games and transferred to Rio? JEROME PELS: "It's a wide question, and still open at this stage. However there are clear trends. For example, we are considering shortening the Olympic sailing contest in order to reduce the costs for the organization. With the new equipment selected for the next Games we will also consider new format of courses." * In order to satisfy the media and the public? JEROME PELS: "The media don't have a direct impact on the racing; they can follow the races well and we don't need to gear the events towards them. It is different with the public as we want to increase the interaction. For example, if the viewing area is on leeward of the course, then the arrival should also be there. I believe that there will be more public in Rio than there was in London, so we need to get this right." Complete interview: http://www.worldyachtracingforum.com/newsletter-view.html?n=67 HAVING THE SKILLS Current Alpari World Match Racing Tour Champion, Ian Williams (GBR) was one of many keen observers of the Olympic sailing last month in Weymouth. Although fleet racing was the focus, Williams believes the regatta was a great advert for match racing, with no less than "three of the nine" fleet racing competitions exhibiting tactics more commonly seen on the Tour. "Aside from the women's match racing event," observed Williams, "three of the nine Olympic medal races had a strong element of match racing in there. Ben Ainslie took a gold in his Finn class whilst the two 470 matches were perhaps the purest examples of match racing amongst the fleet disciplines, as the two top teams already knew they had the silver going into the medal race." Williams suggests that match racing experience may also play its part off-water: "In those instances, I think a lot of the advantage gained by sailors with match racing experience comes in the preparation as some of the guys wouldn't do a great deal of match racing so the prospect of going head-to-head is something they wouldn't be as familiar with. "On the water, even if it is complicated by the presence of several other boats that are out there in a fleet race, additional experience is always of benefit. The fundamental techniques that a match racer learns in affecting your opponent, as well as recovering from unusual situations, became vital in the one-on-one encounters. That versatility from an experience across a variety of disciplines can really help." Ian Williams is now turning his attentions back to the Alpari World Match Racing Tour as he bids to secure his record-equalling fourth ISAF Match Racing World Championship this season. He currently sits second on the leaderboard behind Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Mekonomen Sailing Team. The sixth stop on the eight event tour is Match Race France (September 24-29) in Marseille, where eight of the nine Tour Card Holders will compete. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/WMRT-091212 LET GOWRIE GROUP INSURE YOUR LIFESTYLE We know your life is complicated - whether you're at home, managing your company, or out on the water. No matter where you are, no matter how complex the risks you face, Gowrie Group is ready to protect you and your homes, vehicles, boats, businesses, and interests. Gowrie Group is the leading independent marine insurance specialist in the US, and is one of the top providers of personal and commercial insurance solutions in the country. Let Gowrie insure your lifestyle. Request a complete insurance review now at: 800.262.8911, http://www.tinyurl.com/gowriereview (use code: Scuttlebutt) ALL THE WAY BACK This year's preseason college sailing rankings of No. 1 and No. 2 for the Yale University women's and coed sailing teams continue a long tradition of success for sailing head coach Zack Leonard '89. Since sailing became a varsity sport at Yale in 2002, the coed team has earned a preseason ranking within the top ten in all but one year, and the women's team has yet to fall below the ninth spot. This sort of perennial success is not foreign to the sailing team or to Leonard. Fifty-five All-American sailors, five national championship appearances and four current Olympians are just some of the achievements Leonard has helped the Yale sailors attain since he was asked to head Yale's sailing coaching staff in 2002. Leonard has also shown his own prowess on the water. "It was a lot of people working hard together to get things back where they have been," Leonard, a four time U.S. Team Racing Champion and one time U.K. Team Racing Champion, said. Leonard added that the last time Yale sailing had found similar success was in the 1970s, when sailing remained a club sport. Members of the Yale sailing team attribute its success to Leonard and his assistants. "I think he is the best collegiate coach in the country," Cam Cullman '13, skipper and captain of the coed team, said. "We are really lucky to have him. He is very calm and knowledgeable in addition to being so technically sound." Cullman added that Leonard's sturdy technical foundation has enabled him to impart invaluable skills on the sailing team. Leonard said the two components to effective racing are speed and quick decision-making. His goal has always been to teach both as quickly as possible. Cullman came to Yale as a strong single-handed sailor. Under Leonard's coaching, however, Cullman said he quickly developed the skills and tactics he required as a competitive double-handed sailor. He attributed the acquisition of these skills to a combination of hard work and Leonard's style. "He is very focused and always has a game plan," Cullman said. "He has a great eye for seeing trends and always knows what is going to happen on the water before it happens." This competitive intuition that comes with Leonard's fruitful sailing experience has helped the team with more than just technical prowess. Crew Kate Gaumond '15 said Leonard has surrounded himself with some of the best coaching staff in the country to compliment his style. Bill Healy, the 1995 U.S. Sailing Men's National Champion and Stuart McNay '05, who placed 13th at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the Men's 470 class, complete Leonard's team of advisors. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/Yale-091212 UPDATE: The latest college rankings were released September 12th, which now has Yale leading both the Coed and Women's teams in the first national poll of the season. Georgetown and Charleston round out the top three coed teams, while Dartmouth and Brown take second and third spots in the women's rankings. Compete rankings here: http://tinyurl.com/SW-091212 COULD THIS BECOME THE NEW STANDARD? By Laurence Mead I refer to the letter in Scuttlebutt 3664 from Roger Marshall about the issues surrounding falling overboard. 1) A swimmer towed at more than 4 knots could not keep their head above water and would drown if the boat was not slowed down, 2) Getting back on board is a lot harder than virtually anybody realizes, and 3) It's almost impossible to swim in an inflated lifejacket. My son, solo sailor Oscar Mead, who shot to fame as the youngest ever competitor in the fabled singlehanded OSTAR race across the North Atlantic, has designed and built a new type of harness after a guy died in the UK last year in exactly this way, dragged along by his tether for 5 minutes and he was dead even though he was never more than 12 inches from safety. TeamO Marine Safety Products, a new UK based business is launching a revolutionary new harness at the Southampton Boat Show in the UK this Friday, which answers two and a half of the issues raised by Roger Marshall: First, the TeamO design has a unique and patented system where the tether pops over the wearer's shoulders when called into service so that they are towed backwards with face and mouth away from the water rather than chest forward being drowned as they go as is the current standard. Second, it's A frame design makes for easy attachment of a halyard to recover the man overboard from the water by simply hoisting them up on a halyard with no fishing around for other lines or strops. Lastly, the lifejacket bladder has a pleat in the back so that the fit is more ergonomic meaning it is possible to at least make forward motion when trying to swim in it. It's a brilliant new design that has evolved from lengthy development, and will be available by the end of the year. Full details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=14490#14490 CLASSIC LONG BEACH CONDITIONS Long Beach, CA (September 12, 2012) - The second day's results in the GLOBALTECH Formula 18 World Championship had just been posted when Billy Besson was told that his Swiss team was in first place among the 118 boats from 13 countries. "Cool," he said with a smile. Nearby at the host Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, Matthew Whitehead, 19, crew for Taylor Reiss, 17, learned that their boat from Florida was in seventh place, the highest ranking American boat, after six of 15 races. "Cool," Whitehead responded, his eyes as wide as a multihull. By the third and final race of the day, the wind had built to 13 knots from the southwest with gusts to 15 with the catamarans skimming through whitecaps like a field wildflowers---classic Long Beach conditions. But, not so cool: John Bauldry of Michigan, whose boat Hot Pink was wrecked in a spectacular pitchpole and crash with rival Steve Rosenberg, whose crew---14-year-old son Jacob---was being checked for trauma to his nose and the back of his head. Then there was Kelly Thompson, female crew for Canada's Benoit Sonrel, who left the race course for urgent care in mid-afternoon with a possible dislocated kneecap. That's when Bauldry's boat, with the Rosenbergs on his tail, flipped forward and pitchpoled upside down, directly in front of the Rosenbergs who couldn't avoid a violent collision. Meanwhile, contrary to previous interpretations of the Notice of Race, the qualifying phase is finished after six races, not nine. The fleet will now be divided evenly into Gold and Silver groups for the last three days through Saturday in the first F18 Worlds ever contested in the USA. The schedule still calls for three races each day, starting at noon, conditions permitting. The first of two throwouts kicked in with Race 6 Wednesday; the second will be after 11 races, with as many as 15 total on the open ocean course off Seal Beach. The results of the first two days will count in the final overall scoring. That's fine with the Swiss and the Florida kids. Besson, with crew Jeremie Laguarrigue, has a finish string of 3-6-1-1-4-(7) for 15 points, just one ahead of France's Olivier Backes and crew Matthieu Vandame. -- Read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=14500#14500 ULLMAN SAILS POWER ITALIANS IN F18 NATIONALS SWEEP Ullman Sails showed solid speed at the Italian F18 Nationals, powering the top five Italian finishers in the 51-boat championships! Congratulations to Vittorio Bissaro and Carlo de Paoli who claimed the 2012 Italian title, finishing just one point ahead of defending champions Vincenzo Sorrentino and Laura Pennati. The two Italian teams finished 2nd and 3rd in the event behind the Dutch team of Coen de Koning and Thijs Visser. Daniele Saragoni and Luca Filippi were the third best Italian crew, finishing 8th overall. The top five Italian teams were fully powered by Ullman Sails! Invest in your performance. http://www.ullmansails.com SAILING SHORTS * East Tawas, MI (September 12, 2012) - Chris Doyle of Youngstown Yacht Club in New York controlled the 31-boat fleet at the J/22 North American Championship to take the title. With crew Will Harris and Adam Burns, the team ended the nine-race regatta with just 16 points, after dropping a 22 from Race 1. During the other eight races, they had all top three tallies. Behind Chris Doyle was Brad Julian of Annapolis, MD with 28 points and Terry Flynn of League City, TX with 29 points. -- Daily reports/photos: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=13602 * Hamilton, ONT (September 12, 2012) - Two races were completed today at the Star North American Championship, giving the 33-boat fleet now five races for the scorecard. Tied atop the rankings are Arthur Anosov/ David Ceasar and John MacCausland/ Guy Avelon, who have built a nine point lead over Jud Smith/ David Timberlake in third. Racing continues through Saturday. -- Full report: http://www.starclass.org/search.cgi?Action=view&Event_id=2499 * The United States Powerboat Show 2013 in Annapolis, Md., is now scheduled for the week before the annual Sailboat Show because of the unpredictable weather Maryland can experience in late October. The Powerboat Show will be take place Oct. 3-6 and the Sailboat Show will follow on the traditional Columbus Day weekend from Oct. 10-14, according to organizers. The 2012 Sailboat Show is set for Oct. 4-8 and the Powerboat Show runs Oct. 11-14. -- Soundings, full report: http://tinyurl.com/TOT-091212 INDUSTRY NEWS UPDATES The Industry News category of the Scuttlebutt Forum provides an opportunity for companies to announce new products and services. Here are some of recent postings: - Book by Renowned Ocean Racer Jim Kilroy - SD Model Makers Expands Tall Ship Offering - Book Release: Nick of Time - The Nick Scandone Story - Timeless Jewelry with a Nautical Twist View updates here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/industry_news GUEST COMMENTARY Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community. Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted comments chosen to be published in the newsletter may be limited to 250 words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Tom Fischbeck: I had the chance to sit next to George Griffith on a NHYC Opening day race on Pegasus (Cal 40). He explained the whole Cal 40 beginnings, but I did not realize how he REALLY made the Cal 40! My vote for the best boat of the century! I hope his tombstone will say "Fin Keel and a Spade Rudder". RIP, Mr Griffith! * From Peter Allen, Rochester, NY: Regarding the discussion this week on NORs and SIs and Skippers Meetings, Race organizers often complain that so few competitors register in advance for regattas. I bet they would improve this by offering to send by return email the NOR and SIs to those who register in advance. However, this would also mean that the SIs would be written in advance, instead at midnight on the eve of the event. I bet that sleep deprivation and alcohol consumption often lead to the stupid provisions that creep into the SIs. Competitors could then spend more time before the first race on the boats and on the water, rather than standing around listening at the skippers meeting. Only rarely are there reasons for last second changes in the SIs. I do like the editor's suggestion that the RRS require "boiler plate" SIs, leaving a place to insert local notes. * From John McNeill: I've been watching intently the postings regarding 'seamanship', as I honestly believe that to be an important part of what has happened in recent days. What occurred to me this morning though, is that it appears that the definition of what seamanship is may be very complex and elusive, and the acquisition of that skill equally as perplexing. Wikipedia says: "Seamanship is the art of operating a ship or boat. It involves a knowledge of a variety of topics and development of specialized skills including: navigation and international maritime law; weather, meteorology and forecasting; watchstanding; ship-handling and small boat handling; operation of deck equipment, anchors and cables; ropework and line handling; communications; sailing; engines; execution of evolutions such as towing; cargo handling equipment, dangerous cargoes and cargo storage; dealing with emergencies; survival at sea and search and rescue; fire fighting. The degree of knowledge needed within these areas is dependent upon the nature of the work and the type of vessel employed by a mariner. However, the practice of good seamanship should be the goal of all. The deep meaning of the word seamanship derives from the word seaman & ship. Thus it is the seaman who makes a good ship through his qualifications. Above all, Seamanship means Safety onboard and this is managed through continuous training and implementation of good working practices." So, I would put to the community of sailors the following: 1) Just what is seamanship, in your opinion? 2) How does one acquire it? Or is that education ever complete? SEND US YOUR RACE REPORTS Posting your event information on the free, self-serve Scuttlebutt Event Calendar tool is the easiest way to communicate to both sailors and sailing media. But don't stop there... send us your race reports too. Here are some of the upcoming events listed on the calendar: Sept 13-21 - J/24 World Championship - Rochester, NY, USA Sept 14-16 - Snipe North Americans - Toronto, Ontario, Canada Sept 14-20 - Rolex Farr 40 World Championship - Chicago, IL, USA Sept 15-16 - US-IRC Championship of Long Island Sound - Riverside, CT, USA Sept 17-23 - Soling World Championship - Milwaukee, WI, USA View all the events at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Independent is how we want our children to be as long as they do everything we say. SPONSORS THIS WEEK Southern Spars - US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider - North Sails New England Boatworks - J Boats - Doyle Sails - IYRS - Pure Yachting Gowrie Group - Ullman Sails - JK3 Nautical Enterprises - The Pirates Lair Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
