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SCUTTLEBUTT 1396 - August 19, 2003Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is adigest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. SPECTATOR SPORT In order to launch their campaign for the America's Cup 2007, Team Alinghi and Oracle BMW Racing will race for the Moet Cup on San Francisco Bay from September 15 to September 20, on a shortened but very windy course that will introduce a number of new concepts. The regatta will be raced on very short courses and the yachts will complete "out and back" circuits in under one hour, which should guarantee an exciting view for the many numbers of spectators expected. Unlike the America's Cup, the finish of each race will be on a close reach rather than downwind. This will allow spectators to experience the event in the best conditions and be as close as possible to the boats. The Moet Cup is divided into two events: a professional regatta and an owner/ driver race. As such, Ernesto Bertarelli and Larry Ellison will go head to head on the race course before handing back the helm to Russell Coutts and Gavin Brady respectively. The Alinghi team sailing on SUI-64 will be a slightly different configuration that that seen in Auckland. This week fourteen members of Team Alinghi have the job of putting together some hundred tons of materials - boat, masts, keel, support boats, sails, and to reassemble SUI-64 to winning condition. This is an impressive task managed by Michel Marie and his team. The Alinghi crew will also be a little different to those involved in Auckland. As such, Jochen Schuemann will hold the position of tactician while new crew will be on trial during the racing. The Moet Cup will give the two teams the opportunity to present their program for the coming year. In effect, both Alinghi and Oracle BMW Racing will demonstrate their intention to modernize the America's Cup and enable spectators to be closer to the racing with this event. A number of regattas are planned for each year, The Moet Cup being the instigator. - http://www.alinghi.com FIXING THE BLACK BOATS Team New Zealand will compete in an international regatta next year with the black boats that failed so miserably in the America's Cup. Beaten 5-0 by Alinghi, Team New Zealand were let down by their race boat, NZL82, after it broke down in two of the five races. Team New Zealand's managing director, Grant Dalton, said an independent study was about to be conducted into why NZL81 and NZL82 failed. Once it had been established what was wrong with the boats, they would be repaired and Dalton hoped to have them back out on the Hauraki Gulf by February. "There is no point going sailing in them now. They will sink," Dalton said. "We need to find out what went wrong with them, whether it was engineering, the way they were built, the materials or all of the above. "When we know the answer - and we know there is an answer because the other boats didn't break - then we need to fix whatever it is." Dalton said the study, which would take until December to complete, would be conducted by labs and outside computer modelling experts. Alinghi are planning a series of regattas to seed the challengers leading up to the next cup and if Team New Zealand manage to find the estimated $150 million needed to mount a challenge they will need reliable boats as early as next year. Syndicates will not start constructing their new boats for the 2007 cup for some time, which means 2003-generation boats will be used in the regattas in the meantime. "We will go sailing for a short period in February after the boats are structurally sorted and checked," Dalton said. "Then we will go to our first regatta in Newport, Rhode Island, at the end of June. We will probably take the same boat on to Europe and maybe do two regattas. "Then we will come home and alter the boats straight away." Team New Zealand became the talk of the yachting world during the last cup regatta when their boats were unveiled sporting revolutionary hull appendages. - Julie Ash, NZ Herald, full story: http://tinyurl.com/k9rm MUSTO IN THE USA The America's Cup, Volvo, Vendée, the Mega Cats and the Super Maxi's: Musto is the favorite brand of foul weather gear amongst the crews. It is available to purchase across the States - try one of the following retailers or by going on-line: PX Annapolis Performance Sailing - www.apsltd.com Fawcett Boat Supplies - www.fawcettboat.com Layline - www.layline.com Fisheries Supply - www.fisheriessupply.com Pineapple Sails - www.pineapplesails.com Team One Newport - www.team1newport.com West Marine Stores - www.westmarine.com You don't need to be a professional sailor to experience Musto. Give it a try next time. http://http://www.musto.co.uk GBR CHALLENGE Peter Harrison's next America's Cup campaign took a distinctly upward turn recently with the news that Finn Gold medallist and Star World Champion Iain Percy has been signed up to the fledgling team. Percy says that the first meetings to discuss his coming on board GBR Challenge took place a couple of months ago. "I've been keen from the beginning to get involved with a British America's Cup challenge. It's been in the back of my mind for ages." He says, canny bloke, that he wanted to make the annoucement now to quash any rumours and speculation that might detract from his Olympic campaign, which is still very much his priority in the short term. Within the new look GBR Challenge Percy sees himself having at least two roles - on the water and off it. The make-up of the afterguard for GBR Challenge v2 is still far from finalised, but the scenario many are seeing is Percy as part of the tactical team with Ben Ainslie behind the wheel. "We've been talking a lot to Ben," says Percy. "It is all very positive - it is just a matter of timing when he comes on board." Like Percy, the most pressing matter at present for Ainslie is his Finn campaign for Athens. Percy believes that this combination will work well - he and Ben have been priming themselves for the helm/tactical roles for some time, although apart from a couple of occasions when they have sailed on big boats together for sponsors such as Volvo and Skandia, they have being developing these roles independently. - The Daily Sail website, full story: http://thedailysail.com/ NEWS BRIEFS * A 43-year-old French woman from Morbihan who crossed the Atlantic on a windsurfer has set off from Peru hoping to cross the Pacific Ocean alone and unassisted in the same manner. Her board is 7.8m long 1.3 m wide and 1.05 m deep. It carries batteries and solar panels and a desalinator to make fresh water from seawater. She also has an Iridium satellite phone, a VHF radio, and GPS. She has four carbon masts and three aluminum booms and a 90 day supply of dehydrated and freeze dried foods. - Yachting Monthly, http://tinyurl.com/kczo * Royal Yacht Club Hollandia, Medemblik, The Netherlands. On day one of the J/24 worlds, the wind came at 16.30. Results of race one: 1. ITA, Gabriele Benussi; 2. ITA, Gingerinup Fabio Nocera; 3. BRA, Mauricio Santa Cruz; 4. USA Horton/ Wolfs; 5. GER, Leif Tom Loose. - http://www.j24.nl/worlds/ * Fourteen crews from the US, Canada and Mexico descended upon the Columbia River Gorge for this year's 49er US National Championships hosted by the Columbia Gorge Racing Association at Cascade Locks, Oregon. Saturday, was no disappointment. Under a clear blue sky and with winds of 18-24 knots gusting to 28. Sunday brought more moderate breezes of 14 to 20 knots. Finals results: 1. Andy Mack /Adam Lowry 9; 2. Mogan Larson/ Adam Koch, 23; 3. Patrick Whitmarsh/ Paul Allen, 26. Complete results and photos available: www.cgra.org * Laser II World Championship, Watersport Vereniging Hoorn, WSV Hoor, Medemblick, The Netherlands, final results: 1. IRL, Noel. Butler 26; 2. USA, Kevin Teborek , 30; 3. GBR, N.Skudder, 40: 4. GBR, G. Bristow 42; 5. GBR, M. Joesburry, 54. http://www.laser2.nl/worlds/index.html THE PARTY'S OVER (The following item was found on the Yacht Racing Website.) After a quick visit to the official site, it has come to our attention that due to lack of sponsorship, the organizers of The Challenge Series have called it a year. The Challenge Series, ex International America's Cup Class San Francisco (IACCSF) was founded by John Sweeney to promote the racing of vintage America's Cup class boats on the San Francisco Bay. The following is the official word from their site: The Challenge Series: The Challenge Series has now completed five regattas over two years. We have grown from two yachts to seven and along the way saved four AC yachts from the scrap yard. The partners, Tina Kleinjan and John Sweeney, have funded the events until now. At first we planned on one event and then it was three, four, then five. The line has been drawn at five, and we now need a company to back the Challenge Series to make it an ongoing event. The deadline to achieve this was 8/14/2003, and although many sponsors have showed great interest, nobody has committed to a level that would let the events be self sufficient. We have cancelled the September 5-8 event unless somebody provides funding, and will do the same for October. The plan is to wrap everything up and set our sights on three great events in 2004 with sponsors and television. We will change the rules to only allow 1992 and 1995 AC yachts and work closely with America's Cup Properties to secure the official Vintage America's Cup Class rights. The regattas have been a huge success, not only for the sailing community but for Bay Area public who finally got to see America's Cup Class racing in the perfect amphitheater. John, Tina, Nick, and the team appreciate all the support everyone has offered. This is a passion of ours and a very large undertaking. We look forward to seeing it grow again next year and hope with time and planning to make it an even bigger success. If you are interested in funding it or know who might be, please let us know ASAP. It's a shame to see such a great series of events cancelled. - Yacht Racing website, http://www.yachtracing.com/ UPGRADE YOUR OCKAMS Is your Ockam system still living in the 1980's? Because backward/forward compatibility has always been a mainstay of Ockam's engineering approach, your system can easily be updated to 2003 standards. Consider Ockam's newly developed products, updated existing components, firmware and software. We even offer trade-in credit for older gear. Want to interface that new GPS and trade-in your old Loran interface? Update Version 14 CPU firmware for Unisyn V16? How about swapping out your clip-in card type 005 displays for the amazing Matryx? Unisyn CPU to Tryad T1!? Contact Tom Davis (tom@ockam.com) or look for dealers at http://www.ockam.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com) (Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is not a chat room nor a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Warren St. John: In criticizing Magnus Wheatley's entirely reasonable, if impassioned letter to Scuttlebutt, Andrew Bray inadvertently makes Magnus's point. He says Yachting World's "bread and butter' is finding 'someone on board that boat who can string a few words together and commission(ing) them to send in reports. Who writes these "commissioned reports"? The very crew that is being reported on? Aren't they by nature going to be predisposed to paint events in a positive light? In the best case, such reports are unreliable, and in the worst cases, as we saw often at the America's Cup in Auckland, they are intentioned to mislead. And something else; sailors are good at sailing; and journalists are good at journalism. * From Peter Ernstved Rasmussen (Comment to Bob Fisher): Magnus Wheatlys tirade against journalists is not untimely. It is about time! The main part of Sport Editors all over the world finds sailing very boring. Therefore every yachting journalist has to think about how to make the sport more interesting. Magnus Wheatley has one idea, and he deserves to be praised for a very well-founded proposal. In this sport organisers and participants have never learned the importance of giving professional information about what is going on, and that is one of the reasons why sport journalist and editors never pick up the stuff by they're own. With all respect for your lifelong writing about Sailing we all need to think in a new way to hit the columns - and the Media en general. Instead of accepting the facts with old-fashioned and traditional thinking we need to brake down walls in the Media organisations. Why should we as yachting journalists yield to the incompetence of the Sport Editors and accept they're condescending attitude to sailing? * From Cynthia Goss: I applaud Magnus Wheatley's ideas on how to generate more media coverage for sailing. But as someone who has handled public relations for regattas, I also understand why many believe, no one cares. Wheatley's strategy of putting a strong reporter onboard is spot on: Having a Paul Cayard racing around the world and sending dispatches works, because he is articulate, an excellent writer, and digs beneath what is happening onboard to tell a deeper story. He wrote about things people could relate to--whether they sailed or not. But not every boat has a writer like that - so it should be the job of sailors, PR people, and journalists who want more column inches to pull the interesting stories off the boats. I think the key is to stand back and figure out, what would interest a non-sailor about this event? Surely not the lefthand shift on the second upwind leg. But a 70-year-old skipper duking it out on the starting line against sailors half her age? That might fly. It's not rocket science. It's a sales and service job to the media that takes some creativity and persistence. It may not work every time, but I believe the only way to get our sport on the mainstream media's radar screen is to lead the press to the good stories. * From David Gill: With regard to Magnus Wheatley's Commentary - I would like to offer a different perspective. Sponsors and media coverage, is that what sailing is about? Will sailing continue to be a sport even without having paid crews and boats that cost as much as a small country's GDP? I would venture to say that there are people out there who love to sail and will do it regardless. The competitive spirit lives at all levels. It is this spirit that brings the inspiration and appeal of a sport. Without sponsors and the media, people will continue to race. They probably won't be racing multi-million dollar boats with all of the latest and greatest equipment. They will be racing, challenging themselves and others to live life to its fullest wondering what is at the edge and not what is in their bank accounts. * From Bill Schoenberg: Thank you Cam Lewis. Every day I read the butt to find out what is going on in our sport. Every day I get to read about who has spent what amount of money to get the best sailors to sail in the back of their boat. Finally I get to read a post that will actually have a positive influence on the future of our sport. I don't know whether jet boats are the best approach, or whether better motor boat training is the answer, but I do know that by raising the question and asking for input, we are much closer to improving the safety of all sailors. * From Mark Green: It seems to me that all of the discussion about propeller vs. jet drives on coach boats misses the fundamental point: any collision between a coach boat and a competing vessel is unacceptable and will cause damage, if not personal injury, regardless of the means of propulsion. Why aren't we talking about keeping coach boats out of the way and having them driven by operators who are alert and capable of avoiding collisions? * From David Hazlehurst: I can relate to Bob Afflerbach's point that it may not be wise to decide which is the right side before the start. Part of my exercise regimen is playing tennis and some of my worst shots occur when I decide where to hit them long before they get to me. With that parallel it seems that waiting until you are over the starting line may be the best time to decide which is the right side. * From Henry (Harry) H. Anderson, Jr. (Re Michael Short's comments about Ben Lexcen): The Contender was declared winner by the IYRU (now ISAF) committee (of which I was a member) conducting the Observation Trials at Mdemblik, Holland, to replace the Finn as the Olympic singlehander. A factor in its never achieving the popularity - worldwide distribution - to win approval as the replacement was the addition by the Permanent Committee (now Council) of ca. 25 pounds to its structural components. This perceptively compromised its performance. The sensitivity of the PC to criticism over the light construction of some of the International Classes was not justified in the case of the Contender. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS It's downright annoying to argue with a fella who knows what he is talking about. |
