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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 978 - January 4, 2002Scuttlebutt 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.
ASSA ABLOY WINS LEG THREE When crossing the finish line, a weather front went through and not long after Skipper Neal McDonald was thrown into the water by his teammates, surrounded by a bunch of spectator boats. Even though it was raining heavily several hundred spectators welcomed Assa Abloy into Viaduct Basin. Amer Sports One crossed the finish line in Auckland, just under two hours after Assa Abloy. Amer Sports One managed to gain some distance on Assa Abloy in the last 24 hours, but not enough to beat the boat, which maintained her lead almost throughout the second stage of leg 3. She did however, manage to keep the cushion between her and the tussling trio, illbruck, News Corp and Tyco. In an extremely close finish the three yachts Tyco, illbruck and News Corp fought for places three to five. Tyco decided for a more easterly route ten miles from the finish and split. illbruck faced the dilemma to decide whether to stick with main rival News Corp or to go and cover Tyco. They let Tyco loose and had to accept losing third place to her. Finishing third in his hometown was a great satisfaction for Kevin Shoebridge and his crew. Shortly later Jez Fanstone and the News Corp crew started to attack illbruck and managed to draw even with the green German yacht. Kostecki pulled out his America's Cup match race skills and finally managed to secure fourth position when News Corp got stuck in less wind. Over the morning the harbor has filled with several thousand spectators and a fleet of boats welcomed the three yachts that have delivered them on of the closest finishes in the history of round the world racing. djuice finished on the disappointing sixth place, not having the chance to improve their performance from the last two legs. From the beginning on they were stricken with bad luck as their bow section started to fill with water shortly after the start. In their latest email while racing, skipper Knut Frostad admitted speed problems, but that they are fully motivated to use the long stopover in Auckland to take a hand on that. Erle Williams was taken off the boat at the finishing line and taken to Hospital as he was suffering from suspected intestinal problems. Tests are being carried out now and djuice will issue a report later.
FINISH TIMES: 1. Assa Abloy, 17:20:42 GMT
QUOTE / UNQUOTE - Grant Dalton "We started with 26 to one shot at the start of the race, and I think we were probably seventh on paper, but now I'd say we are one of the top four but probably no better than that. We had no sail development, we did that in the first two legs and now our sails have come on stream here, We will go faster from here, that doesn't mean we will go out and blitz the leg but I think we are on an improving track and we'll get better. I think we're still playing catch-up in sails, and learning the techniques of the boat, but I think we're getting there." - Grant Dalton, Amer Sports One.
QUOTE / UNQUOTE - Knut Frostad
EQUIPLITE SPECTRA CONNECTORS
FIVE-YEAR PLAN * "Maybe the Vendee Globe again one day, but not in 2004..." Ellen surprises a few..."It may be the Everest of sailing, and there is certainly some unfinished business for me, but for now I want to move on to what could be described as the K2 of sailing - multihulls, extreme, fast, on the edge - with a crew around the world, alone across the Atlantic and everything in between." * So its the [4 yearly] Route du Rhum solo transatlantic race on 'Kingfisher' monohull in November 2002, and then on to multihulls in a steady build up to the Route du Rhum 2006 solo race on a new 60 foot trimaran, 'Kingfisher3', designed in 2004 for a 2005 entry in to the International ORMA circuit * Winter 2002/3 will be busy following the Rhum with a Jules Verne, no limits, crewed attempt to be the fastest around the globe, in a chartered 110ft mega-catamaran, renamed 'Kingfisher2' - 71 days is the record to beat. * 2002 will be spent gaining more valuable experience on the trimarans, racing with Alain Gautier, concluding with some unfinished business of the Transat Jacques Vabre event - 2 up France to Brazil, the event in which just a few weeks ago the pair had victory snatchedÊ away in the final few hours. Ellen's company Offshore Challenges also launched the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team and announced its first full time professional sailor - Nick Moloney - who will leave in just a few weeks time with Bruno Peyron to attempt to break the Jules Verne record, on his mega-cat to be renamed 'Orange'. http://www.kingfisherchallenges.com
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Bob Perry: I continue to be amazed at the amount of vitriolic comments directed at various yacht races, the recent Sydney-Hobart race for instance. As the designer of the 65' cruiser/racer ICON that came second in the IRC division I can say with certainty that I view this race as an excellent test of a new design. Despite the derogatory comments about the race I'm very proud of my design's performance in this year's race. I can think of no other sport with the exception possibly of Little League Baseball where there is so much whining. * From Russell Painton: Grant Dalton epitomizes just what has happened to sailboat racing in the last few years. He thinks that if you don't have the newest and most expensive boat going, you just are not racing. Wrong. The future of sailboat racing depends on the continued support of the average racing sailor. That is one who: 1. owns and sails his own boat, and 2. pays for it himself. Neither of these criteria does Dalton meet. Until he does meet these criteria, I suggest that he not bother the rest of us with his opinions. * From Sherwood Kelley (re Craig Fletcher's comments on Pros vs. Amateurs): This is always a great debate worth commenting on. While it is true that sometimes it may seem that the amateurs get pushed back in the final standings because of the presence of pros, it is also true that the issue is class specific. Witness the Etchells class where Craig sails regularly; this class has always welcomed pros in their midst and the class has immensely benefited from their contributions over the years. Pros come into the class because of the tremendous competition they get from amateurs, as evidenced in the final standings of the last 3 Etchells' Worlds championships. Weigh the great contributions these guys make to raising the quality of racing vs. those (infrequent) times where they consistently finish first. I personally would rather be down in the standings against the best there is vs. finishing at the top with guys who are just out there for the fun of it. By the way, Craig does very well against the pros.
AMERICA'S CUP The Business Club sits as the third level of partnership with GBR Challenge, giving companies who are not in a position to become sponsors or suppliers the opportunity to take part and support GBR Challenge. In return for a donation of £25,000, Business Club members will benefit from a range of networking, hospitality and promotional activities for their business and brand, as well as for clients and employees. Among the many special offers and exclusive opportunities available to Business Club members are networking receptions, on the water hospitality days, corporate travel packages and even the chance to sail on an America's Cup boat. All members will have access to GBR Challenge's sponsors, partners and supporters as well as being part of an online directory which can only be accessed by other Business Club members, providing further exclusive networking. - http://www.gbrchallenge.com
AROUND ALONE Torbay, England, will host the first stopover in the five leg Around Alone 2002-03 solo, round the world yacht race. This West Country region will become the first European stopover in the 20-year history of the race. This also marks the first time a solo RTW yacht race has involved England, since the Sunday Times' Golden Globe, 34 years ago in 1968. Race Chairman, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston said that a great deal of time had gone into researching the average speeds of the anticipated fleet which looks to be significantly faster than in 1998, the last time Around Alone was raced. "We have reduced the overall time of Around Alone by nearly a month. The schedule is challenging, but speeds in recent races have shown it to be perfectly possible and we remain conscious of costs of the fleet in long stopovers and have thus reduced stopover times in each port, whilst still allowing for boat repairs to be carried out in time for the start of the following leg." Knox-Johnston reported. Start dates of legs 2-5 will be reconfirmed 24 hours after the first boat crosses the finish line.
Race Schedule: The first boats are expected to complete the round the world race in Newport around 14th April 2003, with the remainder of the fleet finishing by 23rd April 2003. - Mary Ambler, http://www.aroundalone.com
EXTRA AIRX!
CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS * November 9: Route du Rhum, a single-handed transatlantic race from Saint-Malo (Brittany) to Pointe-a-Pitre (Guadeloupe, a sunny Caribbean island). The organizers will allow up to 60 entries. The start for the monohulls and the 40 and 50-footer multihulls will be on Saturday November 9, 2002 and another start for the 60-footer multihulls on Sunday November 10, 2002.
CARIBBEAN BIG BOAT SERIES The organizers of the CBBS are delighted that "Roy Disney will travel to the Caribbean to take part in the series. This is Mr Disney's first time at trying his hand at Caribbean racing. Someone must have told him about the secret that we have been trying to hide for so long as to how wonderful it is to race on crystal blue waters with the warm sun on your back and a glass of Caribbean rum after the race to celebrate." Some more new entries to the series are Roy Disney's Pyewacket; Tom Hill with his Andrews 68 "Titan" (ex Grins); the open 60 "Gartmore", skippered by Josh Hall, 3 Farr 65's from Formula 1 events in the UK. - http://www.bigboatseries.com
AWARDS
18-FOOT SKIFFS INTERNATIONALS Four previous winners of the famous JJ Giltinan Trophy, which has been raced for since 1938, will be competing - Australian skippers Trevor Barnabas (who has won the trophy on no less than 5 occasions), John Winning and John Harris, together with Tim Robinson from Great Britain. Ten of the eleven visitors come from the northern hemisphere (the exception is the team from New Zealand), where it is currently the closed season. This, together with the fact that there are some new and unknown teams, makes current form very difficult to judge, which will make the opening heats particularly interesting. In addition to those who have won the trophy previously, the favourites will include Howard Hamlin from the United States and Robert Greenhalgh from Great Britain. Seven heats will be sailed between the 5th and the 13th of January, with each boat's best six scores counting for the championship. - Peter Danby
THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS |
