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SCUTTLEBUTT 1399 - August 22, 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. ATHENS PRE-OLYMPIC REGATTA The god of the winds was in high spirits Thursday, playing with the nerves of those racing at the Olympic Sailing Centre at Agios Kosmas. The wind changed direction constantly, making it difficult for the sailors taking part in the Athens 2003 Regatta. Two of the three scheduled races in the 49er class were called off, as there was relatively a dead calm at the start of the second. But sailors are trained to compete, whether Aeolus is on their side or not. Elsewhere today there was an impressive performance from British Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie. He won both today's races and forged ahead on the road to the gold medal, leading the overall classification in his class. - Athens 2004 website, http://tinyurl.com/kt1o * It takes a significant performance for one Olympic gold medallist to impress another. So, when Iain Percy said of Ben Ainslie's two wins in the Finn class at the Athens Olympic Test Regatta: "It was bloody impressive, what Ben did today was special," you knew his display was outstanding. To most, the winds were written in code, but Ainslie saw every shift and puff on the second day with utter clarity. "Some days it clicks, other days it doesn't," said Ainslie, the clear leader of the Finn class. "Today was a good day." Contrast this with Percy and his Star class crew, Steve Mitchell, who got called for a penalty turn under the illegal propulsion rule in the first of yesterday's races, dropping them from first overall to seventh after four races. Percy took issue because the crackdown on the use of body weight and movement to boost speed means that the umpires are encouraged to police sailors without being properly trained. "We got penalized because Steve was standing for five seconds," Percy said. "I sympathise up to a point because sailing is so complex you have to understand how each class of boat reacts in different conditions. But we had an umpire who didn't even know that it's impossible to gybe a Star without the crew standing up." - Tim Jeffery, The Daily Telegraph, http://tinyurl.com/ksmk STANDINGS: Yngling (3 races): 1. Hannah Swett, USA, 6; 2. Taran, UKR, 9; Wagner, GER, 13; Paula Lewin, BER, 25; 13. Clarke, CAN, 38 49er (3 races) 1. Tim Wadlow/ P. Spaulding, USA; 12; 2. Sibelo/ Sibelo, ITA, 14; 3. Sundby/ Bovim, Nor, 15. Star (4 races): 1. Peter Bromby / L.C. White, BER, 14; 2. Pickel / Kolb, GER, 20; 3. KAT/ Martens, NED, 21; 5. Paul Cayard/ Phil Trinter, USA 24; 15. Ross MacDonald/ K. Bjorn, 50. Mistral Men (2 races): 1. van Dijk, NED, 4; Tobin, NZL, 7; Santos, BRA, 8; 19. Barger, USA 35; 21. Bolduc, 40. Mistral Women, (1 race): 1. Senini, ITA; 2. Lee, HKG; 3. Shreeve, AUS; 13. Lanee Butler, 19. Valee, CAN. 470 Men (3 races): Marinho/ Nunes, POR, 14; 2. Molund/ Andersson, SWE, 14; 3. Kliger/Gal, ITA, 15; 21. Paul Foerster/ Kevin Burnam, USA, 60; 27. Russel/ MacDonald, CAN, 73 470 Women ( 4 races): 1. Ward/ Ward, DEN, 26; 2. Bekatorou/ Tsoulfa, GRE, 30; 3. Hesson/ Dickson, NZL, 34; 5. Provan/ Girke, CAN, 40; McDowell/ Kinsolving, USA, 47. Tornado (2 races): 1. Bundock/ Forbes, AUS, 2; 2. Lange/ Espinola, ARG, 4; 3. Hagara/ Steinacher, AUT, 6; 8. Daniel/ Jacobsen, USA, 19. Europe (2 races): 1. Sundby, NOR, 8; 2. Smidova, CZE, 11; 3. Brouwer, NED, 12; Meg Gillard, USA, 19; 22.Marcil Bonneau, CAN, 40 Finn (4 races): 1. Ben Ainslie, GBR, 10; 2. Godefroid, BEL, 23; 3. Kuret, CRO, 26; Cook, CAN, 66; 21. Peck, USA 78. Website: http://www.athens2004.com/page/default.asp?id=10876&la=2 Curmudgeon's Comment: Interestingly, major European media outlets all seem to have their top yachting reporters covering this event, but so far we've found no first hand or even timely coverage on North American media outlets or websites. The websites of our major sailing magazines actually seem to be ignoring the event. (I'd love to get a ton of letters explaining how wrong I am.) QUOTE / UNQUOTE - Ben Ainslie (Great Britain), Finn "The works at the venue have progressed a great deal and the venue itself is very impressive. It fully conforms to the standards of the 2004 Olympic Games. It's just perfect, I could say! The only problem is the distances, as the venue is enormous. The course is a challenge, both when the northern winds are blowing, since the northern winds are very changeable, and when there is very little wind, as it is very hot, which is a problem for the North Europeans. The competition is of very high quality, because if you want to be successful in the Olympic Games you must be here this year. That at least is the case for my class, Finn, but I imagine it is also true of the other classes". J/24 WORLDS While it is not official at distribution time, it looks like the team of Lorenzo Bressani has won the J/24 worlds in the Netherlands, with a race to spare. The eighth race was won by Italian Andrea Casale, but a third place by Bressani will likely put him beyond the reach of the other competitors. Results (8 races with 1 discard - 66 boats): - 1. Lorenzo Bressani, ITA, 21 - 2. Mauricio Santa Cruz, BRA, 35 - 3. Albert Kooijman, NED, 38 - 4. Gabriele Benussi, ITA, 40 - 5. Andy Horton/ Rudi Wolfs, USA, 42 Website: http://www.j24.nl/worlds/ UV DEGRADATION You worry about it for your lines; you worry about for your sails. How often do you worry about it for yourself? Everyone loves those sunny sailing days, but that long-term sun exposure can lead to cancer. Annapolis Performance Sailing and Gill remind you to wear protection. In addition to a good pair of shades and sun block, wear UV protective clothing like Gill's new rash guards. Available in short or long sleeve, they're made of quick drying 8 oz., 50 SVF, UV flex fabric to keep you cool and protected. For more info, check out http://www.apsltd.com/depts/dept3288.asp NEWS BRIEFS * Allan Terhune has won Charles Schwab Lightning North American Championship at the Cedar Point Yacht Club, Bluff Point, Westport, Connecticut. Bill Healy finished second, JoAnne Jones third, Jody Lutz fourth and Gianni Cuccio fifth. Jamie Brickell won the President's Division. Results are online now: http://www.cedarpointyc.org/DesktopDefault.aspx * September 8th is the 30th anniversary of the Whitbread Round the World Race - now the Volvo Ocean Race. While the celebration will be a family affair, that family, in many ways, extends all around the world. http://www.volvooceanrace.org/ * The 2004 Acura SORC will be raced from Wednesday February 25 - Sunday, February 29, on ocean courses off Miami Beach, FL, with all shore side activities headquartered at the Miami Beach Marina. Entries will be accepted from boats racing under handicap rules, IMS, and PHRF, as well as one-design classes such as the Farr 40, Mumm 30, Melges 24, J/105, J/80, Multihulls, Swans and any class with more than five entrants. www.acurasorc.com. * CORK Series One attracted 664 sailors who enjoyed a good mix of wind. Full results and stories are posted at: http://www.cork.org/ CAL 20 NATIONALS Mark Golison has finished second in the Cal 20 Nationals a bunch of times, but winning that championship has always eluded him. Until this year. Sailing with his wife Jennifer and Steve Flam, Golison left no doubt that, for the moment at least, he's the one with the "hot hand' in this very competitive one-design class. During the three days of racing at the Long Beach Yacht Club, Golison was one of only two sailors who got through the three-race Qualification Series and the seven-race Championship without ever logging a double digit finish. The 46 boats that raced in this year's Cal 20 Championships were blessed with the kind of conditions competitors dream about - bright sun, flat water and 10-15 knots of breeze for all of the races. And most of the racers agreed that this may have been the most competitive championship in the history of a class that spans nearly 40 years - a point that was underscored when several former class champions did not make it into the top ten. Final Results: - 1. Bandini Mountain, Mark Golison/Steve Flam, 23 - 2. Convicts on Tour, Mike Sentovich, 32 - 3. Basic, Tom Pollack, 37 - 4. Rigormortis, Doug McLean, 38 - 5. Lolo, Chris Raab, 56 Complete results: http://www.cal20.com/championship.html U.S. YOUTH SAILING TEAM US Sailing has named its 2003 U.S. Youth Sailing Team. The team members are considered the best and brightest of young sailors in the U.S. They each won or were the highest U.S. finishers at a US Sailing national championship or are members of the U.S. Youth World Team, which represented the U.S. at the 2003 ISAF Youth World Championship held last July in Portugal. (The U.S. Youth Sailing Team is an honorary team. All members were presented with official team uniforms at their qualifying event.) - www.ussailing.org. U.S. Youth Championship: Emery Wager (Seattle, WA) - Laser Frank Tybor (Coronado, CA) Club 420 skipper Melanie Roberts (San Diego, CA) Club 420 crew U.S. Junior Women's Doublehanded Championship: Leigh Kempton (Island Heights, NJ) - skipper Kaity Storck (Huntington, NY) - crew U.S. Youth Multihull Championship: Bret Sullivan (Matawan, NJ) - skipper Samantha Simon (Aberdeen, NJ) - crew U.S. Junior Women Singlehanded Championship: Charlotte Hill (Miami, FL) U.S. Junior Singlehanded Championship: Kyle Kovacs (Pennington, NJ) U.S. Junior Doublehanded Championship: Frank Tybor (Coronado, CA) - skipper Mandi Markee (Rancho Santa Fe, CA) - crew U.S. Junior Triplehanded Championship: Baker Potts (New Orleans, LA) - skipper Allan LeBlanc (New Orleans, LA)- crew Edward Levert (New Orleans, LA) - crew U.S. Youth World Team: Chris Branning (Sarasota, FL) - Laser Paige Railey (Clearwater, FL) Laser Zach Brown (San Diego, CA) Club 420 skipper Graham Biehl (San Diego, CA) Club 420 crew Caroline Young (Tampa, FL) Club 420 skipper Shannon Heausler (Tampa, FL) Club 420 crew Philip Muller (Fort Pierce, FL) - boardsailor Nancy Rios (Naples, FL) - boardsailor LAYLINE JACKS UP THE PRESSURE! CREAK, GROAN, SNAP! In Layline's continuing quest to cut through the hype and correlate sailing experience with our cordage manufacturer's spin, Walt has added a 42" ten ton cylinder to the test bench. How about taking a look at it's picture and sending in a name for the bigger and badder system. Tip: Something spoken in the accent of California's recall election front-runner would be appropriate. Stand by for results of upcoming testing and destruction. 1-800-542-5463 if you would like to vocalize your suggestion. http://www.layline.com/llf/articles/ten_tons_of_liquid_rage.htm CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar 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 Peter Harken (edited to our 250-word limit): We just had a very frustrating annual ILYA Scow Championships in Madison WI. with hot, humid fickle, meandering, no-wind, wind from here, from there, from no-where. It was all low-side-wet-butt-itis with panic climbs to the high side immediately followed by back to the low side wet butt routine. The race committee had a hellish job, trying to settle down the windward mark compass course praying it would be within reason, plus the miserable job of trying to set up a fair line with the huge shifts when there was adequate wind. Needless to say it didn't always go right and as usual a few competitors expected perfection and grumbled. But, what made it really decent and kept the humor up among us sweating masses was the constant information and humor of the PRO on the VHF channel before the start. You felt very much akin to his problem, i.e. he wasn't just a silent, stoic, grim looking race officer that only used flags and a sound warning for communication. I believe the handheld VHF radio in your boat with a race officer that chats up info in a friendly manner and you can hear him talk to the mark setters plus wind angle directions from his assistant coarse boats before the warning gun really makes the process a whole lot friendlier and fun especially when the conditions are brutal. It definitely closes the ranks between the race committee and the competitors. * From Steve Travis: Given all the articles that talk about racing and the professional crews and the Olympic medalists, and what will interest people and what will not, we seem to have lost the focus on general racing? At this years Cowes week there was a class of Sunsail 37's with 40 boats in it - no one in any of the yachting magazines will write about them. On our Monday race ( we were in IRM) , as we were going downwind, we watched their start and one boat Port tacked the fleet at the start - absolutely spectacular - no idea if he won the race, but that takes guts - will anyone read about it? Maybe in a Sunsail magazine? Has the press lost the focus on general racing? We enjoyed Cowes week, just as Cork last year and will go to Cork next year - more Americans should come! * From Jamie Stern: While I think it is great that the old OSTAR race has found a new home with Offshore Challenges taking over, and sponsorship and professional management of the race is likely, one question seems obvious. Isn't it a conflict of interest for one organization to own the race, own boats in the race, and have sailors on staff competing in the race? It's the old rule of checks and balances. What happens when Ellen McArthur or Nick Moloney protest the race committee? Wouldn't they be protesting the hand that feeds them? Wouldn't race organizers inherently have a preference to please the sailors they employ and the sponsors that they have signed for those boats? There appears to be no system of checks and balances and certainly a situation that will prove complex at the least. The only comparison I can draw is if the Dale Earnhardt Jr. team in NASCAR were to purchase the Daytona 500 event. Would race rules and decisions be preferential to their car? Their driver? Probably. * From John Wade: I think no one is interested in sailing or sailboat racing except sailors. Was it not Commodore Vanderbuilt who said, "Watching a sailboat race is like watching grass grow."? No one ever complained about the coverage of sailing races, until professional sailors began to need to justify their salaries, and sponsors needed to justify their advertising budgets. This talk about compromising a boat's crew to put a journalist aboard, is about a logical as having a journalist as the 11th man on a football team, on the field, so we could get the "real" story. I have been sailing and racing all my life (60 plus years), and I don't read all the "news" about sailing. Heck, I don't even read all of "scuttlebutt"; and no one else in my family reads anything about sailing. I think jousting with windmills is a lot more logical than trying to make sailboat racing interesting to the non-sailor. Explain to me why Farmer Joe in Montana, should give a damn whether or not Augie Diaz wins a snipe race in some foreign country, and you will have the answer to this journalistic "problem". * From Peter Campbell, Sydney: We pride ourselves on the media coverage generated in Australia for yachting through the daily press, television, radio and, of course, Australian and international sailing websites, including Scuttlebutt and Sail-World. We are a already getting quite a lot of coverage for the 2003 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and recently had good media coverage for the Australian team win in the Admiral's Cup and Alfa Romeo's success in the Rolex Fastnet Race. But we have to work hard at it. There are already lots of interesting stories on the RSHYR web site: www.rolexsydneyhobart.com.au * From Mark Eustis (edited to our 250-word limit): Big sponsors don't support sailing for a simple reason...no "reach." Count sailing-interested folk vs. those interested in tennis, golf, motor racing, or ball sports. I can buy a racket or some clubs and flail around myself; I drive a car every day; maybe I even played some ball back in the day. Since it takes major cake to compete in sailing, the pitch is invariably, "these folk have lots of disposable income, so it's a rich target market." Well, sure. But as a luxury car company, I can sell to the market where it counts by having my local dealer throw up a banner, park a couple cars on the Mrs. Brown's lower lawn, and give away shirts. Heck, maybe my next national ad campaign we'll park the ZYX3300 on a dock and reach hundreds of thousands. Case in point: Hawaiian Punch. Cadbury-Schweppes/Motts could sponsor a series of sailing events, and it'd make a sense: lots of sunny fresh air, clean water, athletic people having fun on hi-tech stuff wearing Punchy shirts, that sort of thing. But where's the reach? When it comes to moving product off the shelves in your local Safeway, will people identify with sailing, or skateboards? So if you don't understand why big sponsorship doesn't work in sailing, you don't understand how big advertising works. Get over it, get some (local) help to defray the cost of running your event, and wear their shirt around town. That's reality...the rest is fantasy. * From Andrew Yeager: My wife and I are in the media and both sail. I can not think of better advice to promote sailing than that offered by Scuttlebutt reader John Glynn: get your local media to start covering what is happen on the water near them. We live on the North Shore of Chicago. Between the city papers and the local rags, there is pitiful coverage of sailing - despite thousands of racers in the area, several yacht clubs hosting national championships, etc. If yacht clubs don't make it a point of reaching out to the media - be it their Commodores, secretaries, or a newly assigned officer of "media relations" - this person might also be the club's webmaster for example, then sailing/sailors will not see the media coverage it desires. Mr. Glynn is right: start small - a sailing column in the village paper that might post race results, list upcoming regattas, etc. you'd be surprised how media is looking for content! CURMUDGEON'S QUOTATIONS It matters not whether you win or lose; what matters is whether I win or lose. - Darrin Weinberg |
