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SCUTTLEBUTT 1853 - June 6, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest 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, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere. ROLEX TRANSATLANTIC CHALLENGE While the Grand Prix division scrap between Mari-Cha IV and Maximus may have taken the limelight in the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge, an equally intense battle was taking place between the two massive sisterships Tiara and Drumbeat across the North Atlantic. Measuring 178-feet (54.3m) and 174-feet (53m) respectively, Tiara and Drumbeat are two of the world's largest sailing yachts and represent the last word in luxury ocean cruising. To find one racing is unusual, to race one across the North Atlantic is exceptional, to find two such yachts undertaking a 3,000 mile match race across the Atlantic, unheard of. Yet despite calms, storm-force winds and gear failure, the two boats were separated by just one second at the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge's Lizard gate. Drumbeat pulled ahead but even then the outcome wasn't sealed as Adrienne Cahalan explains: "There was an unexpected shift coming up the Channel yesterday morning, and there were some nervous moments because we were on the wrong side of that shift. But we were 20 miles ahead at that point, and we went straight back in and covered them." In the end, Drumbeat crossed the finish line off the Needles just 55 minutes ahead. Jobson Sailing, Inc. is making a documentary of the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge to be aired on the Outdoor Life Network on Wednesday, September 28 at 1:00 am ET and again on September 28 at 10:00 pm ET. - www.transatlanticchallenge.org MARI-CHA IV (Rob Kothe spoke with Mari-Char IV's owner Robert Miller after his 140-footer obliterated the record for the recent Rolex Transatlantic Challenge. Here's an excerpt from the interview published on Sail-World website.) Despite her size Mari-Cha IV has proven to be a strong simple boat from her launch and there have been very few changes despite some very testing sea miles.Miller again explains, 'after our 2003 Transatlantic, we put in two daggerboards so we can raise or lower them when we hard on the wind, to keep the bow up, for more speed. 'Now I think we might put in some composite rigging to reduce the weight a bit more, probably the only thing.' Despite celebrating his 72nd birthday mid-Atlantic board, he has no plans to slow down. 'I will probably keep going as long as I can. At certain level it's a young man's sport, but if your legs hold out I think you are OK.'We are seriously studying a round the world attempt program. 'The round the world monohull record is 89 days and so we are looking to break 80 days… getting into the 70's would be terrific.' The likely window is November 2006-January 2007 for an attempt on the monohull round the world record. The following year the floodgates for the Hobart race could open with many commentators believing the absolute size limit is likely to disappear. As Miller comments, ' we would love to come down for another Rolex Hobart, when the 30-metre limit lifts. In 1999 we broke the Hobart record, but they only let us race unofficially and it's hard to find us in the books.' So it could be 2008 on the Rolex Sydney Hobart start line before the sailing world will know if the giant 42.6 metre schooner is really the fastest yacht in the world. - Rob Kothe, Sail-World website, full story: www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?SEID=507&Nid=17582 SANTA MARIA CUP Although the Santa Maria Cup ISAF Grade 1 women's match race regatta finished many hours before our distribution time, sadly there was nothing on the official website about the outcome of the finals and petit finals except this brief one-liner, "Marie Björling is crowned the 2005 champion!" The round robin finished last week, and those results were posted on the website: 1= Marie Bjorling (SWE, ISAF #2), 14-4 1= Paula Lewin (BER, ISAF #12), 14-4 3. Claire Leroy (FRA, ISAF #1), 13-5 4. Betsy Alison (USA, ISAF #10), 12-6 5. Sally Barkow (USA, ISAF #15), 10-8 6. Jenny Axhede (SWE, ISAF #9), 9-9 7= Christelle Philippe (FRA, ISAF #7), 7-11 7= Liz Baylis (USA, ISAF #14), 7-11 9. Charlie Arms (USA, ISAF #35), 4-14 10. Linda Harsjo (SWE, ISAF #78), 0-18 Event website: www.santamariacup.org A GREAT GIFT IDEA FOR YOUR SKIPPER OR CREW The Ockam U text explains in clear, easy to follow language often misunderstood concepts such as Polars/Targets, VMC course calculations for long distance racing, and modifying target speeds in oscillating breeze (aka "Wally"), plus much more. Whether you sail with a sophisticated fully integrated instrument system, or rely solely on a compass and the seat-of-your-pants, Ockam U provides helpful information helping you get around the course faster. It makes a great gift and is a bargain at $25 plus shipping. To order, download the Ockam U order form at www.ockam.com and fax it in or contact Lat Spinney (lat@ockam.com). SYNERGISTIC ALLIANCE Ellen MacArthur, will temporarily be stepping off the 75ft trimaran, to step on board the Open 60 Sill et Veolia and race with Roland Jourdain in the 2005 Transat Jacques Vabre. The 4,340 mile race that departs the French port of Le Havre to Salvador de Bahia in Brazil starts on 5th November and takes approximately 16-18 days. Roland Jourdain has competed in five Transat Jacques Vabre races and is a double winner of the monohull Open 60 division, claiming victory in 1995 with Paul Vatine and in 2001 with Gaël Le Cléac'h. Ellen has competed in the Transat Jacques Vabre three times finishing in 6th place in 1999 on board the Open 60 Aquataine Innovations-Kingfisher with Yves Parlier, 2nd place in 2001 with French skipper Alain Gautier on board the ORMA 60 trimaran Foncia and in 2003, again with Gautier, but only managing 9th place after suffering a major halyard problems. In the past, these two sailors have only sailed together once in the 2002 for the Grand Prix de Marseille, where Sill won. Apart from that, they have always been rivals on the water (although great friends on shore) and the bow of one boat has never been far from the stern of the other! On many occasions, MacArthur and Jourdain shared the winners the podium - in the 2000/2001 Vendée Globe, Jourdain finished just behind MacArthur in 3rd place. Jourdain and MacArthur will leave northern France on Saturday, 4th June on board Sill et Veolia to begin their 1000 mile qualifier for the Transat Jacques Vabre - a compulsory qualification process for all competing skippers. - www.jourdain-sill.com & www.teamellen.com THE GOOD LIFE We've just posted a photo on the Scuttlebutt website provided by the Valencia Life Network of how the proposed VIP area for the Americas Cup could look when it is finished. The hot-looking, stylized and linear design with a lot of glass as well as wide terraces was conceived by David Chipperfield and Fermin Vazquez, and will also include a parking area for 800 cars. It will also have a large esplanade and is expected to be completed by 2006. The Chipperfield/Vazquez design was the only one out of the total of eight submitted design projects to achieve a rating of 65 points from the Americas Cup Consortium, which reached its decision on Thursday evening, but whose deliberations were only made public Friday by Valencia Mayoress Rita Barbera. To see the rendering and a harbor update: www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/darsena0605 Also, it appeared yesterday that a possible stevedores strike in Valencia port could seriously affect the upcoming Americas Cup regattas that are due to take place later this month. This is after the National Stevedores Association announced that strike by the members would take place between June 13 and 16. In the case of Valencia Port, the strike would end at 2 am on June 16, giving everyone just eight hours to be completely ready for the first regatta that is due to start at 10 am. - Valencia Life Network, www.valencialife.net ISCA WOMEN'S DINGHY CHAMPS Final results: 1. Harvard, A: 80, B: 80 - 160; 2. Charleston, A: 98, B: 84 - 182; 3. Georgetown, A: 100, B: 90 - 190; 4. Old Dominion, A: 72, B: 122 - 194; 5. Connecticut Coll, A: 84, B: 117 - 201; Division A Finals: 1. Old Dominion, 72: Anna Tunnicliffe, 05, Emily Bartlett, 08; 2. Harvard: 80, Genny Tulloch, 05, Emily Simon, 07; 3. Connecticut Coll, 84, Amanda Clark, 05, Emily Whipple, 06, 1, 2; Elizibeth Hawkins, 08, 3-12, 14 Kirsten Barton, 05, 13; Division B; 1. Stanford, 70, Caroline Young, 07, Rebecca Levin, 07, 1-2, 11-13; Alexa Binns, 07, 7-10; Joanna Madsen, 07, 14; Evan Brown, 08, 3-6; 2. Harvard, 80, Sloan Devlin, 06, Christina Dahlman, 07, 3. Charleston, 84, Anne Bowen, 05, 1-12; Sara Wilkinson, 05, 13, 14; Liz McCarthy, 05. Event website: collegesailing.org/nas/spring05/index_files/womens_postings.htm Photo gallery: www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/icsa-w Photos of the winners: www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/icsa-ww THE TP 52 ROSEBUD IS FOR SALE This TP52 has won regattas under almost every conceivable rating system. IMS events such as Bermuda Race, Americap II events such as Chicago-Mac, IRC events, TP52 box rule events, Caribbean Handicap, and PHRF. Rosebud is seriously for sale and comes completely equipped for you to immediately win. Details at http://www.rosebudracing.com NEWS BRIEFS * BG Spirit, skippered by Australian Andy Forbes, has won Leg 5 of the Global Challenge by an unusually large margin of 243 miles. They drifted across the finish line in Boston in light airs after a frustratingly slow approach at 12:24:10 GMT Saturday. Barclays Adventure is now just 25 miles away from the finish line in near drifting conditions. VAIO is in third place, 49 miles from the finish, followed by SAIC La Jolla which is another 19 miles further back. - http://www.globalchallenge2004.com * Roberto Bermúdez de Castro's Transpac 52 Caixa Galicia with Dee Smith and Robert Hopkins in the afterguard won the first event of the Breitling Medcup, in Punta Ala - besting the Paul Cayard-driven Atlantni XV by three points. In the Corinthian Class, for amateur participants, Bamabakou steered by Craig Healy won top honors against HM King Juan Carlos of Spain's Bribon-Movistar. This was the first TP52 event for Lexus, driven by Russell Coutts with Mark Reynolds and Peter Isler in the afterguard. The boat improved throughout the event to finish fifth in the seven boat fleet. Event photo gallery: www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/medcup-1 * To date there have been fourteen retirements in the OSTAR Corinthian singlehanded Transatlantic race. These have come from all of the classes except the Eira IRC Div 3 Class. All these boats are still heading for the USA with Ayesha of St Mawes sailed by Paul Heiney bringing up the rear. According to a report on petitbateau.org.uk, in the extreme conditions with winds reaching 40kts, the leader in Open 50 Multihull fleet, Anne Caseneuve suffered a brutal fall and has broken her knee. www.faradaymillostar2005.co.uk/index.cfm?page=news * The Swedish America's Cup yacht Örn (SWE-63) was launched Saturday in Darsena harbour in Valencia. The rebuilding of Örn to comply with the new class regulations that apply for the 32nd America's Cup was started April 20 this year in the shipyard of Lindholmen in Gothenburg. Transport to Bilbao, Spain, started exactly one month later from Lysekil, north of Gothenburg. From there, Örn was transferred to a truck for further transport starting May 27 to the America's Cup harbour in Valencia. - www.victorychallenge.com * The K-Challenge team and more than 100 tons of material left their training base of Gandia (Spain) last weekend, to go to the "Darsena Interior" in Valencia, where the future bases of the 12 teams of 32nd America' S Cup are located. The K-Challenge team will start training there from Tuesday. There is a new section on the syndicate's website with interviews of the team members, clips about the K-Challenge events and images filmed on board. - www.k-challenge.org * There were white caps on the Santa Monica Bay each day for California YCs Cal Race Week. 118 boats in 13 classes on three separate races course sailed five races. Tom Coates'much traveled Masquerade from St. Francis YC won the 22-boat J/105 fleet's Pacific Coast Championship with a four point victory over Carolyn Hardy's Mischief. http://tinyurl.com/9wghe * Competing against a field of over 180 boats, local sailors proved they knew the waters and winds of Lake St. Clair the best as the Lands' End NOOD Regatta wrapped up its three-day competition Sunday in Detroit. Michigan sailors won 16 out of 17 classes. And for one Michigan sailor winning the Detroit NOOD has earned him a trip to Antigua to compete for the overall NOOD series championship. Grosse Pointe's David Holme won the Cal 25 division winning him the overall Detroit title. For complete results: www.sailingworld.com * Cedar Point YC, in Westport, CT, successfully defended the Cedar Point Challenge Cup, a beautiful silver trophy dating back to 1911. Eleven-person teams from Pequot YC, Larchmont YC, and Noroton YC competed in Lasers (3 per club in fleet racing), Vanguard-15s (3 boats per team team-racing), and Ideal-18s (umpired match-racing). Although Larchmont defeated Cedar Point in a sail-off to win the team-racing, Cedar Point topped the fleet-racing and match-racing to retain the cup won back from Larchmont in 2004. www.cedarpointyc.org/DesktopDefault.aspx "MAN OVERBOARD!" Solo or short-handing? Power boating? SeaMarshall receivers/alarms send out an electronic stream that allows programming of autopilots and fuel shut-offs when a man-overboard signal is received from a SeaMarshall automatic marine beacon. Or, integrate with charting and performance instrument systems. For information on SeaMarshall safety gear: Chip Barber: admin@chbarber.com; http://www.chbarber.com 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. 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 Chris Ericksen: After reading the text of Senate Bill S-786, the "National Weather Services Duties Act of 2005" reported upon in 'Butt 1852, I am confused. Under this bill, these duties would, as now, include issuing "data, information, guidance, forecasts and warnings received, collected, created or prepared" by the NWS so that "all members of the public have the opportunity for simultaneous and equal access to such data, information, guidance, forecasts and warnings." Other duties, however, would include providing "data, information, guidance, forecasts and warnings...through a set of data portals designed for volume access by commercial providers of products or services." Finally, the NWS would be forbidden to provide or assist in providing a service or product to the general public "that is or could be provided by the private sector" unless "the private sector is unwilling o r unable to provide such product or service." Am I missing something, or is the United States Senate fixing something that ain't broken? Are there products or services for which the public clamors but not available from the NWS that the private sector wants to supply? They can and do right now, like the site-specific wind forecasts on iwindsurf.com or hour-by-hour forecasts on AccuWeather.com. Or does the Senate seek to eliminate free NWS services so that commercial providers can sell weather information to the general public, information currently gathered by the NWS and sent to them for free? I hope someone can explain this to me, because I don't get it. * From Charlie McLaughlin: Senator Santorum's amendment, if it will indeed cut off NOAA weather broadcasts, is exceptionally ill advised. Every VHF sold provides boaters and others with immediate, convenient, and clear access to local weather forecasts and current conditions. It is a great asset to race management but far more importantly it provides the maritime community with information that can keep sailors and power boaters out of harm's way. Cutting off this stream of information is certain to add to the summer's growing boating casualty lists. * From Ralph Taylor: In 'Butt 1851 an article talked about an Excel spreadsheet for scoring and Jordan Dobrikin asked why there wasn't an off-the-shelf "Sail Racing Organization, Management and Scoring Program". There's "SailWave" (c), a Windows-based scoring program, which handles one-design, PHRF, Portsmouth Yardstick (US & UK versions), and other handicapping systems. "Organization" and most of "management" are beyond its scope. But it scores races & regattas quickly on my laptop, will upload results to a website & handles race management tasks like "scratch lists". Plus, the price is attractive -- free . "Thank you" to the UK-based developers who've done the sport a great service by providing this flexible program to thousands. It's becoming a standard by which other scoring programs should be measured. "Organization" & "management" are separate problems. I doubt we'll see an integrated "SROMS" package soon. BTW, Jordan's problem of "spotty Portsmouth" can be fixed by clubs reporting results to the national Portsmouth office. In the US, Darline Hobock, a US Sailing volunteer, will take your SailWave results by e-mail (or, will also work with paper or other formats.) Results get incorporated into the next annual Portsmouth update. * From Alexander Richards: It is truly shameful that the self-proclaimed America's Cup Hall of Fame continues to induct obscure American's while completely ignoring Ben Lexcen. Sorry - but this on-going snub has destroyed whatever credibility the organization might have once had. * From Tim Patterson: It would seem obvious that the new record in the Transat race is not quite the same as Charlie Barr's record. Powered winches and satellite data on weather make a very real difference in the boats sailed. If allowing these improvements, then why not boats of more than one hull? Did the rules of the Kaiser's challenge mention of number of hulls? As we all know, multihulls were around and doing offshore passages long before 1905. * From Dan Hirsch: With all respect to Olaf and Harken's far-sighted Procyon project I recall seeing that boat from the Pied Piper's rail, Dick Jennings' six-time Chicago Mac line honors holding Santa Cruz 70. We were sailing off Milwaukee before the Queen's Cup and saw the intriguing Procyon. Pied Piper hardened up and closed with them on a parallel upwind course. After a few minutes sailing slowly backwards, Procyon broke off this interesting comparison. We did get a laugh at their course change. I don't ever recall completing a port-port race and finding Procyon in and tied up to the bar ahead of us. Maybe they hadn't gotten their numbers worked out yet. It was an interesting collection of ideas. I won't buy boat parts without the Harken nameplate, unless there's no other choice. The Harken brothers have always been stretching out our horizons with better products and unique projects like the hydrofoil sailboard, the water bike, etc.. My (red) hat is off to them. * From Philip Thompson: The note about America's Cup coming to Sweden for the first time is not strictly accurate. In 1988 the 12 meter world championships were held in "Lulea" Sweden. This city is far to the North only 60 miles from the arctic circle with 24 hour sunlight. We had a great regatta with teams from USA, England, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Sweden and more, about twelve yachts in total. Dennis Conner and Gary Jobson were two of the many notables participating. On "Mid Summers Day Night" we commenced a race at the stroke of midnight. Many delayed afternoon races were started as late as 7.00pm because the sunlight would allow it. The event was really quite special and unique with King Gustaph welcoming us all. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS To the world you might be one person, but to one person you just might be the world |
