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SCUTTLEBUTT 1884 - July 20, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. DEJA VU The leading challengers for the 2007 America's Cup, owned by Oracle's Larry Ellison and backed by BMW in their biggest sponsorship outside Formula One motor racing, have dispensed with their skipper and sailing director, John Kostecki. The move by Ellison, BMW Oracle Racing's chief executive, against Kostecki sees Chris Dickson reclaim the skipper's role a month after promoting Kostecki to the job. Kostecki is still under contract and a team member, but while he will now have to sit out the next America's Cup he is free to pursue other sailing campaigns. The situation is reminiscent of the team's 2000-03 challenge when, in less than two years, Paul Cayard was paid off, Dickson made skipper by Ellison and then removed and Peter Holmberg made helmsman, only to be replaced by a returning Dickson. Ellison is well known for his mercurial nature and the brittleness of his relationship with the sailing crew is an open secret, yet Kostecki commands enormous respect inside and outside the team. Dickson had removed himself to concentrate on strategic duties ashore ahead of last month's Louis Vuitton regattas in Valencia, where defeat against the Swiss defenders, Alinghi, and the two most potent challenger rivals, Italy's Luna Rossa and Emirates New Zealand, triggered a review of performance and Kostecki's departure. Inevitably, questions are now raised over the future of helmsman Gavin Brady, an unhappy figure on this year's match-racing circuit who has been unable to advance beyond the semi-finals at major regattas. -- By David Brennan, The Telegraph, full story: http://tinyurl.com/b5jfa HARDER THAN IT LOOKS How is steering downwind different from steering upwind? It takes more latent ability to steer a boat well on reaches and, especially, on runs. You'll see a greater number of good helmsmen upwind than you will downwind, even though everybody assumes downwind is easy. One big difference between upwind and downwind is that you feel a lot less breeze when you are driving off the wind. For example, if the true wind speed is 14 knots, you might feel 20 knots of apparent wind on a beat, but on a run you may only feel about seven knots apparent. This means that you're sailing in lighter air a majority of the time off the wind, which is why most guys light up their cigarette or eat their sandwich-because it's a relief from the noise an wind of beating. It's tough to steer downwind well in light to medium air, because unlike upwind, the feel of the wind is less apparent and you don't have a constant angle of heel or pressure on the helm to use as a guide. It almost takes a whole new mental attitude to turn the mark and do your best downwind. For this reason, rounding the weather mark is often a good time to change helmsmen. So put lunch away-eat it upwind. The breeze doesn't stop shifting when you hoist the spinnaker, and as a driver, you need your full attention to continue using as many aids as possible-instruments, masthead fly, telltales, waves, other boats, sails, pressure on the helm, etc. - Excerpt from a story by Tom Whidden posted on the Sailing World website. Full story: www.sailingworld.com/article.jsp?ID=200957&typeID=402&catID=596 NEW 24-HOUR DISTANCE RECORD Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory led a five-boat rampage on the 24-hour distance record for the Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii Tuesday, sailing 393 nautical miles on the big boats' first full day of the centennial event. The former record was 356 miles by Philippe Kahn's Pegasus 77 in 2003. Roy Disney's Pyewacket, with 385; Randall Pittman's Genuine Risk, 381; Doug Baker's Magnitude 80, 372, and Doug DeVos's Windquest, 361, also left it in their wakes, validating pre-race expectations that these are the fastest monohulls ever to sail one of the world's great ocean races. Morning Glory was listed at 1,640 miles from the finish, Pyewacket at 1,661 and Genuine Risk at 1,669, their tracks separated by only 10 miles with the German leader now north of its rivals after leading them south a day earlier. Tuesday's reports made the day for John Reichel and Jim Pugh, who designed Morning Glory and Pyewacket, as well Roger Sturgeon's Rosebud from San Francisco, which turned 312 miles to assume first place overall on projected corrected handicap time for the 75-boat fleet. Rosebud was built in 2001. Another TP 52, Kahn's new Pegasus, posted the best day in Division II with 322 miles and rated third in class and fifth overall, behind Rosebud, Ragtime---yes, that Ragtime---Morning Glory and Scout Spirit, in that order. -- Rich Roberts, http://www.transpacificyc.org/ QUOTES FROM THE TRANSPAC BOATS "The sailing is improved a lot. We had 20 minutes of sun today and a lot of squalls." - 1D 35 Two Guys on the Edge EXPANDING OUR ROSTER At Hall Spars & Rigging, only high-performance, quality products make it into our lineup. The newest product to reach the big league is New England Ropes' Flight Line, a lightweight Spectra-cored product that tapers beautifully for spinnaker sheets. As a signing bonus, we're offering 5% off through our online store (for a limited time only). Also new to the Hall store is authentic Hall logo gear, including our limited-edition 25th anniversary polo shirt. Wear Team Hall gear and show the competition you're serious about performance. http://www.hallspars.com TEAM BUILDING (In a three part series posted on the North Sails website, Tom McLaughlin tells how to make racing fun for the entire crew. Here's an excerpt.) I have given some thought as to why one-design classes keep going year after year and why handicap racing ebbs and flows and never seems to produce large fleets. I think it's because with one-design sailing, when you finish racing you go into the same clubhouse, you get to know your competitors and re-sail the race and build friendships. The social side of things brings the fleet together, and everyone-even the guy in last place-gets their moment in the sun. For example, the problem on Long Island Sound is that the racing fleet meets in the middle of the Sound from 20 or 30 different clubs and harbors, and after the race everybody goes back to their marina-at your home club you may know the crews of only two or three boats in the race. So because the social side is missing from a lot of handicap racing, an owner has to cultivate it on his own boat. Integrating your boat with people of a variety of ages is good, and a mix of women and men is good, because it just makes the conversation on the boat a hell of a lot more interesting. A group of jocks-you know, guys just run out of conversation pretty quickly. Or else things degenerate to the lowest common denominator! But if you bring a young lady on the boat or a 14-year-old kid who wants to learn, suddenly everybody acts his or her age and it changes the dynamic. The jock stuff is kind of amusing once or twice, but season after season it would get pretty boring. More owners need to say, "Look, we really are pretty hopeless in a lot of areas. Let's get somebody aboard who can teach us, and let's work on our weak points." Getting some coaching is underutilized, I think because many owners are so high functioning. They are very successful in their careers, and so they feel somewhat diminished if they have to go ask for help in racing their boats. Yet the same folks would have no trouble getting a golf or tennis lesson from the club pro at the country club. - Tom McLaughlin, full story: http://na.northsails.com/NortheNews/May05.htm#NorthPeople HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRUNO A truly jet-set crowd gathered last weekend in Newport, R.I., for a lavish dinner hosted by Louis Vuitton that raised $350,000 for the International Yacht Restoration School. In typical LV fashion, no expense was spared; coordinators flew in plush roses from Chestnuts in the Tuileries in New York, cases of Château de La Chaize Beaujolais from France, and virtuoso violinist Eugene Draw from Toronto. Five hundred guests -- including America's Cup regatta director Dyer Jones, LV Cup ambassador Bruno Troublé, and IYRS trustees Charles Townsend and Brenda L. Wilson -- gathered under the glow of a setting sun. In addition to a silent auction of fine wines and framed photographs, the evening featured live bidding headed by a Christie's expert. Dessert came early for Troublé, when his wife, Melanie, noticed how a recently restored 12-foot Beetle Cat sailboat piqued his interest. She promptly won it with a bid of $10,500. "Happy birthday, Bruno," she yelled, then advised a waiter to fill her wine glass. "I just spent ten grand. Keep going." - Sarah Cristobal, style.com website, full story: http://tinyurl.com/7fmqm NEWS BRIEFS * This year's 266-boats Bacardi Bayview Mackinac Race, which starts Saturday with will offer real-time results, race updates by email, and a finish line web cam on Bayview YC's website. Almost half of the fleet will sail IRC (nine classes - 106 boats), with five classes sailing one-design (C&C 35, J/105, J/120, J/35/Thomas 35, NA-40), and six sailing PHRF. There will be regular online updates of the race, and class standings will be updated within 10 seconds of each boat crossing the finish line. The first boats should finish at Mackinac Island late Sunday afternoon. www.byc.com/mack05 * Tuesday marked the second day of racing at the Yngling Women's World Championship in Mondsee, Austria and US Sailing Team-members Sally Barkow, Debbie Capozzi and Carrie Howe have taken the lead after four races. Team Barkow is now two points ahead of the Australian team skippered by Nicola Bethwaite. With sailing taking place on a small lake in a mountainous region, it has been difficult for the competitors to get accurate weather predictions. Interesting to note is that no team has finished consistently within the top 10 in the first four races. -- http://www.ussailing.org/. Event website: http://www.yngling2005.com/ * New Zealand's Andrew Escourt and Pete Spalding won the tie-breaker with the USA's Dalton Bergan/ Zach Maxam, and with it the North American 49er Championship. Canada's Gordon Cook/ Ben Remocker took third place in the 14-boat fleet. In the 29er NAs it was Louis LeBlond/ Andre Lorette (CAN), Cameron Biehl/ Charlie Smythe (USA) and Jon Ladha/ Dan Inkpen (CAN) on the three podium positions at the Columbia Gorge championship event. -- www.cgra.org/Results/2005%20Results/2005_49er_29er_NA.htm ABSOLUTELY NO FLIPPIN' WAY We've gotten used to hearing that from customers who have run their arm under a water faucet while wearing the Dryshirt™ or new DryGuard™. The performance of this revolutionary gear is unparalleled in the apparel industry. Water repellent yet breathable, what you'll notice most about this gear is that you don't notice it. From Maxis, J-boats, Trans-Pac 52s all the way down to prams, the Dryshirt™ and DryGuard™ are "Must Have" items for 2005. Combine them with Musto, Gill, DuBarry, Clew Gear, and Camet for an unbeatable combination from a single source. Call 800-354-7245 (international: 562-594-8749) or http://www.sailingproshop.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 neither 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. And please save your bashing, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere.) * From Andrew Burton: With all due respect to ISAF President Goran Petersson he is never going to be able to say, "Here's the rulebook; it's one page." Attempting to dumb it down isn't going to change the fact that sailing is complicated. There are many different situations that arise in our sport and the rules reflect that. Any attempt to get the rules down to one page in order to attract young people to the sport is futile. Sailing is never going to win the battle for attention with the kid who spends several hours a day glued to a video game screen. It is not that kind of sport; it is far too subtle and physical for those kids and requires too much effort to learn. So Mr. Petersson should leave them alone and work on making the sport as much fun as it can be for those who can appreciate it. With over a thousand sailors in 350+ boats at the Newport Regatta last weekend, almost half of whom seemed to be under drinking age, I don't think the sport is in as much trouble as we keep hearing. * From Bruce Thompson: Chris Ericksen asked if other clubs are seeing strength in their junior programs. I am at Chicago Corinthian YC! Our numbers are growing so much our critical limiting factor is the number of volunteer instructors. The benefactors would be willing to increase further the number of boats from the current 16, if we can get the instructors. Good thing being a junior fleet coach is more fun than being the PRO! CCYC has also seen strength in its offshore (one-design and PHRF) racing too. This year's Chicago Mac has 17 CCYC boats. Back in 1991, when I first served on the LMSRF race management committee, we typically had only two or three. Part of that is the introduction of slips to the harbor, which allowed club members to buy bigger boats. But much is due to concentrating on an active Wednesday night race program that has both spinnaker and JAM sections and an off-season crew development program. We also have active Rhodes 19, Lightning, Vanguard 15 & Laser fleets. I'd say the key is taking care of your club's members in your planning and let the "big time" racing take a back seat. Once you've got a successful program, the world will beat a path to your door. * From Mike Kennedy: While Sir Edward Heath was leader of the Conservatives in Parliament, he confounded the experts by winning the 1969 Sydney-Hobart Race in a 34 foot boat. Then, as PM two years later, he captained the underdog British Admiral's Cup team to a win. I don't wish to be a presumptuous American but Heath, while having a mixed record as a politician, was an inspiration as a sailor. He learned to sail as an adult and I can't think of another head of a government who won two major sporting competitions. * From Paul Miller: In regards to golf handicaps for sailing, one of the clubs I'm a member of has successfully done it for many years for their beer can races. At the beginning of the season everyone starts with their base rating. If you win a race your handicap drops 6 secs/mi. Second drops 4 and third drops 2. The last place gets a 6 sec/mi boost, the second to last gets 4 and the third to last gets 2. At the end of the season the prizes include the regular ones for lowest points and participation, but also for the biggest drop in handicap. This system definitely seems to encourage more sailors who are racing to get involved. You can't take it too seriously, but you shouldn't, it's just a beer can race! * From Hugh Elliot (edited to our 250-word limit): With golf-type handicapping, a player must submit twenty scores and then, to calculate the handicap, the worst ten are discarded. Playing to, or beating, one's handicap is, therefore, a 25% proposition not a 50-50 deal. Making this system work also requires developing a standard Course Rating for every single facility as well as a Slope Rating which takes into account the degree of difficulty faced by a less than scratch player. What would we use as a system to establish the base handicap for such a system? PHRF, IRC, Americap, IMS? How would we control the skipper/ tactician qualifications? Would they have their own ratings that would be applied to the boat's basic handicap. It looks like the boat's handicap would be equivalent to the Course Rating and then the key crew members (at least) would have to have their own ratings (equivalent to the Slope Rating) and that would have to be applied for each event. The golf handicap system only really works because of egomania: people work hard (and cheat) because a low handicap confers prestige even as they expose themselves to hustlers whose aim is to pick their pockets in a small - or not so small - series of bets. Such a system in sailing is likely to expose us to the "pot hunter" (i.e. hustler) who will manipulate the handicap system in minor events to have a much better than average chance at the major trophies. Would that be an improvement? Enough of this nonsense. * From Gerard Sheridan: (In response to Robin Baker's letter in Scuttlebutt 1883): There is a long standing 'Golf like' sailing handicap system in Ireland called Echo. It caters for the desire to encourage participation and to allow the less serious campaigns to beat the local hotshot from time to time. However, as most club races and major regattas are scored under both IRC and Echo, then everyone is happy as the better and more serious racers will typically win under IRC and that's what really matters in their eyes. These links will provide some information on how it's administered: http://www.sailing.ie/inside/default.asp?pageId=65 http://www.sailing.org/technical/ECHO2002Guide.pdf#search='echo%20handicap' * From Bob Johnstone: Tom Ehman, Brad Dellenbaugh and I created and published a "golf-handicapping" system for sailing about 10 years ago, called SALT or something clever. If Robin Baker or anyone else interested would send an email to rlj@jboats.com, I'll try to find a copy to send out. Maybe Tom or Brad has better retrieval systems CURMUDGEON'S OXYMORONS Real potential |
