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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 949 - November 21, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
VOLVO OCEAN RACE Knut Frostad's djuice team suffered another headboard car failure which Frostad estimates cost them 20 miles. "Our new unbreakable headboard car came off the mast. It hadn't actually broken, but the fittings that hold the slide rods broke off and then the whole car came off," explained Frostad in an email. "Learning from the last leg we have a spare one with us and it took us about two hours with hardly any speed to get the main down, get the new one on and fix a couple of batten fittings that flew off during the same night. "Also we now have a ripped mainsail," continued Frostad. " A two-metre long tear in the bottom of the sail has caused us some worries lately. Trying to repair it properly is not very easy as the bottom of the main is constantly under heavy spray." Team SEB holds a ten mile lead over Assa Abloy, now the most northerly yacht in the fleet. Past leaders News Corp and djuice in the south now have over 35 miles to make up on the front-runners. POSITIONS on November 21 @ 0400 GMT: 1. Team SEB, 3289 miles to finish; 2. Assa Abloy, 10 miles behind leader; 3. illbruck, 15 mbl; 4. News Corp, 35 mbl; 5. djuice, 39 mbl; 6. Amer Sports One, 206 mbl; Amer Sports too, 584 mbl. - www.volvooceanrace.org
QUOTES FROM THE BOATS "Changing headsails in more than 40 knots is probably the most difficult and dangerous change we have. Six guys hooked on with safety lines on the bow, trying to pull down and in the old jib. The boat is still logging up to 20 knots and suddenly a wave washes the bow, pushing the six, big guys back at high speed. Then they crawl forward and start all over again pulling the jib in. Soaking wet but still smiling we crawl back together in the cockpit." - Knut Frostad, djuice "There is so much water, on deck, downstairs, in my clothes, in my sleeping bag. I tell myself that it is okay; at the speed we are going I won't have to put up with it for as long. But it is still difficult climbing out of wet clothes and into a wet bunk." - Mark Christensen, illbruck
FREE EXCHANGE
FIRST OUTING Five months and several thousand hours of work have gone into the boat, which has at last made contact with her true element. She is the first of the new generation of yachts to sail. "This is a very important moment for us indeed", said Russell Coutts, Team Alinghi's skipper. "This boat is full of innovations, and we were all highly motivated at the idea of being able to sail her at last, and finally to put our ideas to the test. First impression are excellent from the whole team and I have faith in the future." The first sailing session did not last long: just two short hours before the sun went down over the horizon, forcing the team to come back in. Training sessions will be taking place every day from now on. - www.alinghi.com
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Marc Herrmann: I couldn't agree any more with Bill Simpson's comment (Butt 948) regarding rule simplification. Being a part-time "armchair" sailor/racer, I to would welcome the "KISS" principle approach to rule definitions. Good on ya Bill. I hope others feel the same. * From Geoff Newbury: I agree with Bill Simpson and would add that the rules 'simplification' did not. Old Rule 40.2 (headed 'Safety Limitation' has no counterpart in the new rules. It appears that under the new rules, a racer has to have read and understood all of the 'updated' appeal cases (which having been re-written in accordance with the new rules, are in fact, hypothetical decisions), in order to understand the situation at sea. Major disagreements as to the meaning of the rules can be documented from rec.boats.racing: does an intruding 'barging' boat acquire the right to call for room to pass, once she can no longer luff above the RC; similarly, does an intermediate boat have rights where a windward boat will not respond. At least old rule 40.2 made the safety aspect clear, *without affecting the liability of the yacht to being penalized*. The present rules it is argued by some, in fact reverse the expected position, so as to allow the intruding yacht a priority over the 'right of way' yacht. These problems arise because 'simplification' was regarded as end in and of itself. But these rules cannot be simple. The result is that the rules are no LESS clear than they were. And a 50 year history of refinement, based upon the long standing wording was basically thrown in the trash. The only area of the rules which needed change and which could have been done without major reconstruction, was/is the change to remove the concept of 'mast abeam'. * From Paul LaMarche: Windsurfing or boardsailing or whatever you want to call is dropping off because the only part of the sport everyone sees is the extreme. Not everyone wants to jump 20 feet in the air or sail down a 20 foot wave. It's hard to get people exited when there perception is that death is eminent. Although it doesn't make good footage, lake sailing in 10 knots of breeze is would be much more appealing to the masses. I have been windsurfing for over 15 years. Bar hopping and visiting other live-aboards while sailing on Lake Union is fun, safe and entertaining. People love to watch others in near death situations but don't want to be there. Let's promote all forms of sailing as fun and non-threatening and maybe our sport will grow. I took over 12,000 people sailing off the Seattle waterfront last year and scared very few but gave many first timers an experience they would never forget. * From Chris Woods: It seems obvious to me that windsurfing isn't more popular simply because it is hard to do. The average person doesn't want to spend three days standing on a board, "up hauling" a wet sail and then falling into the water to learn a sport that is unlikely to be often pursued given the average local weather conditions, time available for recreation and the "sociability quotient" of the sport. It is a totally kick-ass sport, but you have to pay the price to learn it and there aren't many places where you can get the full rewards from it. It has always struck me the extent to which many of those involved feel that "everyone" would want to do a certain sport, if only we made it easier or marketed it better. To some extent improving the rules, equipment, marketing or accessibility can increase participation, which is always a good thing. But there is certainly a limit on the amount one can grow the core participation of a sport. In the last 6 years our local sailboat racing scene really didn't grow all that much, but that local recreation sailing grew considerably. It would seem that no matter how you slice it, sailboat racing rules will always be tough to learn and getting boats to go fast, in the right direction, will always be a challenge. Not many people want to pay their dues (DFL) in order to become merely competent at a non-mainstream sport. * From Bob Anderson: Tom Willson's logic is perhaps a little flawed. I agree there are hundreds of windsurfers every summer at the gorge and there are a few dozen at various spots in Southern California that have a ball reaching back and forth. That looks like fun but it's not "sail boat racing" Tom said 95% of the people at the gorge are not interested in racing. Of the 5% that are interested how many race? Probably close to none. The most interesting thing you can do with "sit on" small sail boat is race. Are we not talking about small boat racing at it's highest level? Reaching back and forth at great speed may be great fun but it's not sailboat racing. Why are perverting the perfectly good pastime of reaching back and forth at breakneck speeds by having wind surfers air row around an Olympic Course? "(The crew has) learned the hard way a few days ago to remember to fasten the safety harness around something solid forward of you. Otherwise you get flushed down the deck and sometimes right into the wheel, causing damage all around." - Rudi Rudiger, Assa Abloy
AMERICA'S CUP However, the biggest difference is the bow, which now looks like a cross between NZL60 and the original Le Defi bow form. In other words, it has a very distinct knuckle, and as it sails uphill through the choppy water (Northerly breeze in the gulf today) you can see the bow profile quite clearly. Evidently the NZL60 bow form has been adopted by the Swiss for this boat at least. Interesting to see the difference between this boat going uphill and the old NZL38 (which was identifiable today in its Swedish colours). NZL38 projects a huge length of bow into the air as it hobby-horses a bit in the chop, while SUI59 does not, only a short portion of the boat's length is ever out of the water - much like the NZL60 and NZL57 hulls. Boats that I can see out and sailing around today are 2 Prada, 2 TNZ, 2 OWC, 1 GBR, 1 Swedish, 1 Swiss. I do not know whether the viable Oracle boat is out or not, I have not seen it for the last few days myself, but it might have gone out where the other one lost its keel earlier - perhaps they are doing stuff they do not want others to watch. There is a reasonable breeze - I guess around 15-18 with some stronger puffs, and it is supposed to get stronger. - Justin, 2003ac website forum, www.2003ac.com * This morning I watched the new Swiss boat, SUI-64, as it was towed out of the Viaduct Basin into the Gulf about 11 am. Visually, it's an eye-catching boat, both in its design and hull paintwork. It has a definite knuckle shaped bow, perhaps slightly more pronounced than on NZL-60, although this may be accentuated by the upward sloping bow section. The deck surface in the bow section has a distinctive upward slope rather than being flat. At the rear there is a reasonably long overhang with the stern narrowing quite severely. The stern's hull edges are raised rather than being cut away, emphasizing its narrowness. The rig is a conventional inverted V (Christmas tree) design and not the millennium X rig. As yet there is no sign of SUI-59 (former BeHappy) on the syndicate forecourt. On land, Sui-64's hull and keel are concealed by a deck to ground skirt, similar to those on TNZ's Black Magics and on Oracle's two boats when they are operative. Oracle's USA-59 disappeared from view immediately after the keel drop; USA-61 disappeared from public view a couple of days later. Neither has re-appeared to date. - Cheryl, 2003ac website forum, www.2003ac.com Preceding SUI-64, both TNZ boats, two GBR boats, two OWC boats, Victory Challenge's SWE-38, Prada's ITA-45 and one of theYA boats were towed out into the Gulf. Oracle crew members sailed out in their 4 Etchells and remained sailing around the area in front of the Viaduct Basin.
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CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS
FINN GOLD CUP
TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE Five hours and 17 minutes after Sill Plein Fruit finished, Ecover (Golding/Hutchinson) swept into second place, Casto-Darty-But (Moloney/Turner) finishing 3rd an hour and a half later. The Open 50 Tredici lost 10 metres of its 22m mast after the rupture of a bottlescrew caused the rig to break above the second spreader. They are heading to Brazil under main with 3 reefs and staysail. Mary Ambler - www.jacques-vabre.com
INDUSTRY NEWS
INTERNATIONAL 14 In the end U.S.A. led the qualifiers into tomorrows semi-finals with a perfect 5-0 record. Second was Great Britain A on 4-1, with Canada in third with a score of 3-2 and Switzerland completing the list with a 2-3 score. Wednesday sees the U.S.A. team paired against Switzerland and Great Britain A taking on Canada in a best 2 of 3 series. The winners will sail for the finals and the R.B.Y.C. Challenge Cup. The forecast is for winds of 15-25 knots. The Worlds Championships start on Friday, November 23rd in Bermuda's Great Sound. There are 54 teams entered from countries around the world. - Kevin Blee, www.rbyc.bm/
VOLVO OCEAN RACE QUIZ We have sailed past icebergs during the past week and both the water and the air temperatures are 4 degrees Celsius. We dress like rolly polly Michelin men and cannot immediately identify each other under all the gear without hearing a voice, recognizing the colour of the eyes, or checking the name written on the jacket. hmmmm, time to go north. - Genevieve White, Amer Sports Too, www.nautorchallenge.com/
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