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SCUTTLEBUTT 2900 - Tuesday, August 4, 2009Scuttlebutt 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. Twitter updates: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Today's sponsors are Morris Yachts, North Sails, and Speed & Smarts. GETTING A KITE COMPLEX, I THINK By Kimball Livingston Now we know what it takes to get the number-one, bull goose kiteboard developer to about-face: A world championship for course racing. That, and San Francisco Bay. Paolo Rista shapes boards for himself, also for the likes of Bruno Sroka, who has been ripping up everything in 2009. And Paolo Rista has been developing fins and techniques that go a new direction. He and Sroka “ride flat” and rely upon fins only - they don’t dip the rail - to resist the pull of the kite. With success has come the flattery of imitation. Now these two have a plan for how to sail the first-ever Kiteboard Course Racing World Championship. Turn success on its tail, and dip the rail. It’s about the venue. The inaugural course racing worlds is happening on San Francisco Bay, Tuesday through Saturday, because that’s where the discipline was developed. There were a few key members of St. Francis Yacht Club - John Gomes more than others - who went from the traditional junior sailing experience to the traditional young-adult sailing experience to the kiting experience to the question: We’re sure as heck going to keep on kiting, but we miss sailboat racing, so can we combine the two? And would the club support the experiment? Yes and yes. All the way from the grassroots to US Sailing to ISAF. -- Read on: http://kimballlivingston.com/?p=4 RULE 53 - SKIN FRICTION There are too many sailing rules. It is a popular contention, and some feel it holds the sport back. Rules experts point out that despite the girth of the rule book, it is only the 14 rules in Part 2 that are relevant on the race course. To provide a simpler rules guide, Scuttlebutt posted in March 2009 an abbreviated rules publication by Ken Quant titled ‘The Basic Sailboat Racing Rules All Racers Should Know’. US SAILING also provides a simplified, pocket sized rules guide to help. Now the America’s Cup defender, the Swiss Alinghi team, is coming to the rescue as well. For the next Match, they have decided to eliminate six rules from the rule book. Among them is Rule 53 - Skin Friction. The rule reads, “A boat shall not eject or release a substance, such as a polymer, or have specially textured surfaces that could improve the character of the flow of water inside the boundary layer.” Without this rule, what is it that we will see on these maxi multihulls? The uproar last week at the Swimming World Championship was about the new generation of body suit that is 100% polyurethane, admittedly better and soon to be banned from that sport. So that is one option. What about air hockey? How cool would it be for tiny air jets along the hull to lift the boat up and out of the water? Better yet, how about bow jets emitting a substance so the hulls glide through something more slippery than saltwater? There has to be some kind of chemical that is faster to sail through than saltwater. The America’s Cup has always been a source of technology break-thrus that trickle down into the sport. Let’s hope this isn’t one of them. -- Scuttleblog, http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2009/08/rule-53.html MORRIS M52 AND M29 TO SHOW IN ROCKLAND MAINE AUGUST 7-9 The new Morris M52 and M29 will be shown for the first time at the Maine Boats Homes & Harbors Show August 7-9 in Rockland, Maine. This boat show and coast of Maine lifestyle show is the kick off of the boat show season. Both boats will also be shown in September in Newport and in Annapolis is October. Morris Service will have a display in the tents so stop by to discuss your boat’s winter storage and work details. It has been a busy summer at Morris Yachts so far… to check out all the happenings go to http://www.morrisyachts.com/news/ FILLING THE YOUTH SAILING VOID The RAD 420 was designed to fill the void in many Junior Sailing Programs, that gap between Opti and C420. Many programs have had a hard time keeping and engaging junior sailors who are either becoming too big physically, getting lonely, getting bored or have just lost interest in skippering an Opti. Historically, sailing programs had three boats to transition to as the kids developed: first a Sabot, Pram or Dyer Dow and now Opti; then the initial simple and affordable crewed boats (Blue Jays, etc.); then the premium race boats, now the C420. Edgartown Yacht Club (Edgartown, MA) as well as many other clubs have tried to fill this gap, but have had little luck finding a suitable solution. Faced with a terrible economy and no clear momentum for any one class, we decided to reengineer/modify our older C420s in hopes of designing a new class that would be affordable, easy to adapt, and fun for the kids. We started with a reduced sail plan that got two to three kids sailing the boat without trapeze and or spinnaker (although instructors have let the kids try it all for fun challenges). The Main Sail design is about 28% smaller, has a loose foot for easier rigging and launching, and doesn’t use a full length batten to help in depowering. We decided to keep the existing Jib design as to not create another purchase requirement. -- Scuttlebutt Forum, read on and comment here: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=7978#7978 STAR WORLDS Varberg, Sweden (August 3, 2009; Day 2) - An American team led around every mark of the second race of the 2009 Star World Championship. Mark Mendelblatt and Mark Strube (USA) suffered a little more heartbreak today as they watched their 100 + yard lead vanish during a second run on which the fleet experienced a bit of rotation, shiftiness and the crossing of a current line. While Mendelblatt/Strube went high on the run, George Szabo and Rick Peters (USA), Flavio Marazzi and Enrico De Maria (SUI) and Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada (BRA) went low and found the passing lane. The three kept their jets on and played the right side up the final beat in 4-5 knots of lumpy swells and rainy gray conditions. Scheidt/Prada approached the finish line from the starboard layline and tried to time shooting the line with the precision of Michael Phelps gliding into the wall, but Szabo/Peters were able to slowly chug across the finish line on port and pull off the win. In Szabo’s words, “What a difference a day makes.” He was quite pleased with the San Diego-like conditions and the win as opposed to his 54th yesterday (on Sunday). -- Read on: http://www.worldregattas.com/ViewInfo.php?ContentID=311 Preliminary Results - Top 10 of 86 1. SUI, Flavio Marazzi/ Enrico De Maria, 3-3, 6 2. SWE, Fredrik Loof/ Johan Tillander, 2-5, 7 3. USA, Mark Mendelblatt/ Mark Strube, 8-4, 12 4. POL, Mateusz Kusznierewicz/ Dominik Zycki, 1-12, 13 5. NZL, Hamish Pepper/ Craig Monk, 11-9, 20 6. IRL, Peter O Leary/ Tim Goodbody, 15-10, 25 7. GER, Alexander Schlonski/ Frithjof Kleen, 9-17, 26 8. BRA, Robert Scheidt/ Bruno Prada, 26-2, 28 9. ITA, Nicola Celon/ Edoardo Natucci, 7-21, 28 10. USA, Andrew Campbell/ Magnus Liljedahl, 14-14, 28 Results: http://www.starclass.org/search.cgi?Action=view&Event_id=1654 WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CYNTHIA WOODS? On June 6, 2008, the Cape Fear 38R Cynthia Woods capsized in the Gulf of Mexico when it suddenly and unexpectedly lost its keel, resulting in the loss of one crew member, Roger Stone. The vessel was owned by Texas A&M at Galveston (TAMUG), a member of The Texas A&M University System. Within days following the accident, the Chancellor of the A&M System ordered the commission of a complete and thorough investigation into the cause of the accident and requested recommendations, as appropriate, on necessary operational changes to the TAMUG’s Offshore Sailing Program. Now completed, this report dated July 17, 2009 is the culmination of that investigation and operations assessment, where it was concluded that the cause of the June 6, 2008 accident was the result of an inadequate design and construction of the vessel’s hull and the keel-to-hull connection. -- Full report: http://tamus.edu/offices/communications/cynthiawoods/finalreport.html * The U.S. Coast Guard conducted their own investigation, and among the findings in their report dated December 19, 2008 was that the loss of the Cynthia Woods' keel was likely attributed to a number of groundings and subsequent improper repairs to the vessel prior to the incident of June 6, 2008. According to the technical report submitted by Ancon Marine Consultants, the falling off of the keel did not occur because of bad weather or normal racing loads. -- Full report: http://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/425/245691 RECYCLE YOUR SAILS & SAVE! Would you like to see your old sails recycled? From now through August 31, North Sails will pay for you to ship your old sail(s) to North’s Recycling Center in Portsmouth, RI and as an added thank you, you will qualify for 25% savings toward your new sail purchase. (North America only, 50 feet LOA & under, restrictions apply, one design sails not included.) We will also send you a free tote bag made from recycled sail cloth by SEA BAGS, Inc! When ‘thinking green’ matters, head North: http://na.northsails.com/tabid/14647/Default.aspx SAILING SHORTS * Afterburner, Bill Gibb's Ventura-based 52-ft Bladerunner catamaran, used idyllic catamaran sailing conditions to set a new course record of 5 h, 37 m in last Friday's 81-mile race from Santa Barbara to Redondo Beach. The Kiwi-built cat averaged a marvelous 18 knots for the distance sailed, and a little over 14 knots for the rated course, to beat her old record by 10 minutes. But when it came to corrected time honors in the 107-boat fleet, Chris Slagerman's Firebird Phat Cat stole the show by nearly 40 minutes over John Staff's Viper 830 Plankton. -- Latitude 38, full story: http://tinyurl.com/mb7m5a * The twelve teams competing for the Grade W St. Moritz match race have been confirmed, with the event taking place on September 1 -6 in the Swiss Alps. Eight members of the world’s top ten will be among the field vying for a prize purse of approximately 100,000 Euros. -- Full report: http://www.worldmatchracingtour.com/da/99182 * (August 3, 2009) - An ecstatic skipper Pete Cumming (GBR) and Oman Sail Masirah have won the UK round of the Extreme 40 iShares Cup at Cowes Week and now take the overall lead in the iShares Cup 2009 series at the halfway stage of the six-round European circuit. -- http://www.isharescup.com/en/ * Clay and Teresa Prescott, owners of ABC Yachts in Sausalito, California, last week pleaded not guilty to charges of embezzlement. They were released on bail after the judge reduced the bail amount to US$100,000 each from US$500,000 each. The couple were arrested in mid-July after allegations by local law enforcement that they used money owed to clients for boat sales to pay off their debts. -- IBI Magazine, read on: http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20090703154221ibinews.html * When Nautical Enterprises closed its doors in mid-June, the 75 people who worked for the West Coast's largest dealership found themselves suddenly out of a job. Despite the poor economy and its affect on the marine industry, most of those people have secured new employment. That was evident at the San Diego Yacht and Boat Show last week, according to Barrett Canfield, who was vice president for Nautical's Southwestern Yachts division. -- Trade Only, read on: http://tinyurl.com/ll4cul * Tom Perkins, prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist and ultra-millionaire, is close to finalizing the sale of his super yacht, the Maltese Falcon. The reported price tag: 60 million pounds ($101,531,400), according to the British newspaper The Times. After nearly a year on the market, the price was trimmed from about $150 million, which is believed to be about what Perkins had paid for the boat. -- SF Chronicle, read on: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=44839 * The new route for the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race has been unveiled, with the addition of an eighth leg delivering a second Great Cape for the non-professional crews and, at 40,000-miles, Clipper 11-12 becomes the world’s longest round the world yacht race. As the berths on Clipper 09-10 were sold out three months before the race start, organizer are already well into planning for Clipper 11-12. -- Full report: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/race_news/?item=583 STORIES FROM THE 1979 FASTNET The Rolex Fastnet Race 2009 on August 9th will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the saddest chapter in the 608 mile race's illustrious history, one that began in fine weather, and then suddenly became a terrifying ordeal which led to 24 boats being abandoned, five that sank, and 15 sailors that died. To honor this anniversary, a Scuttlebutt Forum thread has hosted countless stories from that race, with this one posted by Keith Lorence: “I was sitting calmly in my Seattle office when my brother Ed Lorence called me for a phone number of a friend to be a trimmer at Cowes week. I responded, “What am I, chipped fish?” Next day I was on an airplane to England to sail on La Pantera for the Hong Kong AC team. La Pantera was, (and still is) the prototype for the Serendipity 43. “Cowes Week was a windy affair with many Sharon Green photos showing bare bottoms. We started the Fastnet under fair skies headed for the west. One of the first points that remain in my mind was when anchored under The Bill Of Portland to escape the strong flood. We anchored near a 50 footer, and every twenty minutes or so, Ed would say to them, “That's another 5 minutes you owe us." Time on time. “After Land's End, we were off watch ripping downwind in what sounded like 25 knots when Ed asks all of us off watchers to go all the way aft behind the rudder post, and would we bring all of the sails with us. We all yanked the sails aft and sat in the back of the bus until reality hit. As watch captain, I asked all of the guys to get their gear on and go up on deck, and be prepared for the worst. Five of us huddled around the rudder post, grunting into wool and foul weather gear. Loads of fun.” -- Read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=7896#7896 => Curmudgeon’s Comment: I encourage others to share their stories as well. They can be sent to mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com or posted directly into this forum thread here: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=7783 MASTER THE 2009-2012 RACING RULES! Improve your knowledge and application of the rules with Dave Dellenbaugh’s new ‘Learn The Racing Rules’ for 2009-2012! This two-part DVD set uses live sailing and animation to explain the right-of-way rules and their limitations (Part 1) plus all the rules at marks and obstructions (Part 2). To order or get more info: www.speedandsmarts.com/products/ A STRANGE CASE OF JUSTICE At approximately 9:30 p.m. on April 29, 2006, five friends on a 27’ O’Day were sailing toward their marina on California’s Clear Lake. It was an almost moonless night, very dark, with barely a hint of wind. The sailboat was ghosting through the water when a 385 hp, 24’ Baja Outlaw with three people aboard sped through the darkness and struck the sailboat’s starboard stern quarter. According to forensic experts, the Baja ramped over the sailboat and crushed the cabin bulkhead, leaving prop marks in the deck. Much of the sailboat’s cabin top was torn off and its aluminum mast was sheared completely off at the base. The Baja exited on the port bow. Although the O’Day had rolled heavily to starboard and taken on water, both boats remained afloat. All five people on the sailboat suffered injuries, ranging from cuts and bruises to broken ribs and concussions. A 51-year-old woman, Lyn Thornton, who was the fiancée of the boat’s owner, Mark Weber, died a few days later from her injuries. The sailboat was insured through the BoatU.S. Marine Insurance program. After a brief investigation by the Lake County Sheriff’s Department, 39-year-old Bismark Dinius, who had been at the helm of the sailboat, was charged with manslaughter and faces up to four years in jail. The driver of the powerboat, Deputy Sheriff Russell Perdock, was not charged. Perdock is the number two official at the Lake County Sheriff’s Department. If you think there’s a story here, you’re right. And the story is still unfolding. -- Read on: http://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/justice.asp LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Please submit your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, ‘The Curmudgeon’). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). One letter per subject, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- To submit a Letter: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- To post on the Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Tom Weaver, Eastport Yacht Company: About the Transatlantic record, let’s start in 1905 when Charlie Barr set the fully crewed transatlantic record at 12 days and 4 hours that stood unbeaten for nearly 75 years. Then in a flurry of attempts in the 1980’s the record was lowered to 7 days 6 hours, and by the end of the 90’s the record was lowered to 6 days 13 hrs (knocking off less than a day in 10 years). We are now looking at a record almost 50% faster in the 00’s at an incredible 3 days, 15 hours and 25 minutes! Bravo to everyone involved with Banque Populaire V. The trick, of course, is getting in front of a particularly fast moving low pressure system that is going to make it all the way to England without turning right or fizzling out before it gets there. The technology involved rests with advanced weather forecasting models as much as the machines themselves, however, that part must be getting a little easier when you only have to forecast the next three plus days. We are all privileged to be living in an era of ocean sailing that has not been matched since Columbus set out from Spain. This is pure adventure and I am now looking forward to seeing the 1000 nautical mile day in my lifetime. Who could have imagined that 10 years ago? * From Dean Dietrich: Am I the only one who thinks that an America’s Cup match between two multihulls is going to be a blowout for one side or the other? Never before has the Cup been contested between such radically different boats. It is likely that one will be clearly superior and the Cup match will be decided in the first 10 minutes of racing. Sure, one boat may be faster upwind and the other downwind but how likely that these will be competitive offsets? The best part of this saga may be taking place in the courtroom and not on the water. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION You know you are getting old when everything hurts, and what doesn't hurt…doesn't work. Special thanks to Morris Yachts, North Sails, and Speed & Smarts. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
