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SCUTTLEBUTT 2014 - January 23, 2006
Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions,
features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.
HAT TRICK FOR ABN AMRO ONE
After 18 days, 22 hours, 8 minutes and 40 seconds at sea, Mike Sanderson
(NZ) and his exhausted crew on the black Dutch boat, ABN Amro One, made it
a hat trick today by winning three stages of the Volvo Ocean Race in a row;
leg one, the Cape Town in-port race and leg two from Cape Town to
Melbourne, Australia. ABN 1 now leads the Volvo Ocean Race with 29 points,
five points clear of Sebastien Josse (FR) with ABN Amro Two which finished
second on this leg - four hours behind ABN 1.
By finishing 12 and a half hours later, Spain's entry in the Volvo Ocean
Race, movistar, skippered by Holland's Bouwe Bekking, took third place on
the podium. "I think we can still catch the ABN Amro boats," said
movistar's Andrew Cape. "We believe we still have an advantage in light to
medium airs and that's where we have are chance." "In hindsight, it would
have been good if we had a heavier ram but you can only go by what things
are rated for, added Chris Nicholson. "It's like the whole boat. There are
some new aspects to the boat and that is all part of our learning curve."
The big issue for Paul Cayard's Pirates of the Caribbean is that the keel
is getting worse. 'The keel is wobbling in its bearings and more water is
coming in," he said. "There is a left over swell from the northeast which
is directly where we need to go. Our course on port tack is straight into
this seaway. This creates a violent slamming so for most of the night we
simply couldn't sail on port tack. So we have been sailing slowly and on
the wrong gybe for most of the night just trying to minimize the amount the
keel jerks around in its loose structure."
Volvo Ocean Race Standing at 2200 GMT Sunday
1. Team ABN Amro One, Mike Sanderson, finished: 18d 22h 08m 40s
2. Team ABN Amro Two, Sebastien Josse, 19d 02h 20m 23s
3. Movistar, Bouwe Bekking, 19d 14h 50m 57s
4. Pirates of the Caribbean, Paul Cayard, 179 miles to finish
5. ING Real Estate Brunel, Grant Wharington, 389 miles to finish
6. Brasil 1, Torben Grael, retired
7. Ericsson Racing Team Neal McDonald, retired
Event website: http://www.volvooceanrace.org/
PLAN B
Brasil 1 should be arriving in Freemantle, on the west coast of Australia,
next Thursday, the 26th of January. After losing its mast while 1300
nautical miles offshore, the Brazilian sailboat is using an emergency mast
and will be assisted by a fishing boat to complete the remainder of the
journey. On shore everything is in place to receive the boat and start the
repair job.
The fishing boat, currently 1500 miles off the coast, has been contacted by
the team's management and will, in the next 48 hours, meet up with Brasil
1. The Brazilians, currently 1000 miles from Freemantle, will receive 600
litres of fuel to complete the trip to Australia and will be escorted by
the fishing boat until their arrival in Freemantle. On Thursday, skipper
Torben Grael confirmed that there was only enough Diesel onboard to last
for 36 hours.
Upon arrival in Australia, the Brasil 1 will be taken apart, and the next
day, put on a trailer to Melbourne. The drive will take approximately four
days. "A truck with a trailer and all the equipment that we will need to
take the boat apart left yesterday at 5pm from the east coast of Australia
and should arrive within three days.-- - www.brasil1.com.br
FALTERING FLOTILLA SEEKS SOLUTIONS
It is hard to imagine the Ferrari Formula One team agreeing to discuss the
technical specification of their race car with rivals such as McLaren
Mercedes for the good of the sport, but that is in effect what is about to
happen in the Volvo Ocean Race. The technical failures afflicting the four
Bruce Farr designed entries have so seriously damaged the race as a
sporting spectacle that the organizers have called a crisis meeting in
Melbourne tomorrow at which representatives of all seven teams will talk
about shared solutions.
Just as in Formula One, this type of openness goes against the grain in
professional yacht racing, a sport famous for its secretiveness in which
battles between designers and engineers often play as big a role as those
between sailors. Glenn Bourke, the Volvo Ocean Race chief executive, told
The Times yesterday that he was still unsure how much real co-operation
would be evident when the teams get down to discussing the details of the
repeated keel ram failures and structural problems that have afflicted
Ericsson, Movistar, Brasil 1 and Pirates of the Caribbean.
"We will see whether we get that collaboration or not," he said. "It seems
to me that a number of these teams are working together and talking to each
other quite openly, so there is already a pretty good spirit of
co-operation at the moment. It will be interesting to see how much detail
is fleshed out in the meeting, but I imagine it will be fairly open." -
Edward Gorman, The Times, UK, full story:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,4041-2005678,00.html
POP QUIZ
Eight quiz questions are posted at NorthU.com including this one: Before
the start your astute Tactician realizes that in today's 10 knot wind there
is a windshift every six minutes. There is a windshift three minutes before
the start. How soon after the start do you expect the next windshift?
Submit your answers, see theirs, and (right or wrong) you could win a
prize. While you're there get information on NorthU's Racing, Cruising,
Weather, Performance Software and Suddenly Alone seminars. You can spend a
lifetime learning to be a better sailor. NorthU accelerates the process.
http://www.NorthU.com
ACURA KEY WEST
Racing in Melges 24 class, the largest class with 60 boats at Acura Key
West 2006,, went down to the final day with California's Dave Ullman and
Italy's Riccardo Simoneschi tied for first. Ullman pulled out the win with
a 2-3 line on Friday while Simoneschi faded to fourth due to finishes of
5-10. Reigning Etchells world champion Jeff Linton (St. Petersburg, Fla.)
called tactics for Ullman, who won two of nine races and finished second or
third in four others. This marked the fourth time the 60-year old Newport
Beach-based sailmaker has won Melges 24 class at Key West.
Ullman's victory helped USA West capture the Nautica Trophy for winning the
International Team competition, which combines the scores of Swan 45, Farr
40 and Melges 24 entries from the same country. Fred and Steve Howe's
Warpath took third in Farr 40 while Craig Speck's Vim placed fourth in Swan
45 to give USA West 90 points - 19 better than Italy 1.
A pair of Italian skippers captured the two most prestigious classes in the
five-day regatta, organized by Premiere Racing. Vincenzo Onorato, who hails
from Napoli, took top honors in the talent-laden Farr 40 class with Russell
Coutts calling tactics. Massimo Ferragamo, an Italian native who now lives
in New York, captured the Swan 45 World Championship with Star class
veteran Howie Schiebler called tactics. Not surprisingly, winning a world
championship also earned Ferragamo the regatta's most prestigious award -
the Acura Trophy as Boat of the Week.
Stay Calm II, a brand new boat owned by Stuart Robinson of London, took top
honors in Transpac 52 class. Tactician Adrian Stead and eight other members
of the GBR Challenge America's Cup team crewed for Robinson, who won or
placed second in six of nine starts after taking delivery of the TP 52 on
January 6. Moneypenny, a Swan 601 owned by Jim Swartz of Newport, R.I., won
the inaugural US-IRC Championship by the slimmest of margins over Aera.
Moneypenny's final calculation was 5.768 as compared to 5.765 for the Kerr
55, owned by Nick Lykiardopulo of Cowes, United Kingdom.. America's Cup and
Volvo Ocean Race veteran Dee Smith called tactics for Swartz.
Masquerade posted a resounding 18-point victory in the 29-boat J/105 class.
Skipper Thomas Coates steered the San Francisco entry to five bullets and
three runner-up results. El Ocaso, a J/120 owned by Rick Wesslund of
Tiburon, Cal., received the Key West Trophy as PHRF Boat of the Week.
Wesslund's team notched four bullets and finished no worse than fourth in
winning a competitive 15-boat PHRF 3 class by 12 points. -- Bill Wagner,
complete results: www.Premiere-Racing.com
Special thanks to photographers Sharon Green, Thierry Martinez, Tim Wilkes,
Sue Bodycomb, and Kevin Daily for the images on the Scuttlebutt website of
Acura Key West 2006: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/06/keywest
View and post comments: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi
View dockside reports at Scuttleblog: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog
CLASS RULES
(Scuttlebutt asked Andy Burdick, Vice President of Melges Performance
Sailboats, about the Melges 32 class rule restricting racing over 25 mph.
Here are his comments.)
The Melges 32 class has a 25mph wind limit - we had this with the Melges 24
also when we ran the class. It only makes sense as nobody wants to go out
and rag around for hours on end. We all want to race and enjoy these
wonderful boats, but we want it to make sense for everyone. It is amazing
how many people acknowledged the fact that we made the correct decision on
Wednesday of (Key West) Race Week. We took the initiative as a class to
make the call. Dave Ullman was upset that the Melges 24's went out, not
because he or the other top boats couldn't handle the conditions, but
because he wanted the thirty other boats to have fun, to enjoy their race
week, and not spend a day on the water in questionable conditions. - Andy
Burdick
EQUAL TIME
I noted the release on Jamie Dunross' crew Jeff Milligan at the 2006 IFDS
Worlds, and wanted to give your readers a little more information on the
sport. The Classification process is synonymous with the RRS and the
Measurement process. The process used at the 2006 Worlds to "measure" the
sailor's functional ability aboard their boats was developed in the
previous quadrennium and released to the countries last year (much like the
RRS, the Functional Classification Manual (FCS) works on a 4 year cycle).
The classifiers on site acted just as the jury and followed the guidelines
stablished after the 2004 Games.
The classification system for sailors is like measurement, in the sense
that each sailor is given a "rating" and falls into a scale of 1 to 7.
There are obviously faster (and slower) boats that end up getting excluded
and are not eligible to sail in certain events. No one is saying that it's
not still a sailboat - likewise, there is no finding of "not disabled"...
just not eligible to compete in that "class".
It was unfortunate that the AUS classifier didn't notify the crew that they
might not be eligible under the new system, and that Jeff and Jamie
continued to train even after the rules had been updated. I think everyone
regrets their difficulties - and certainly wishes that the range of
disability could be as broad as possible and include the maximum number of
sailors. There are, however, many other disabilities that are not included
in the current system - to include hearing loss, some visual impairments
and some levels of amputations. In the meantime, the IFDS and the various
committees will continue to work to revise systems and keep the FCS up to
date with the evolution of the sport. We hope more people will get involved
with the process and add their constructive comments and input. Thanks for
understanding. -- R/ Serge Jorgensen President IFDS
ALCOA IFDS DISABLED SAILING WORLDS
Royal Perth YC, Australlia -- With a pair of bullets in the two classes
contesting the 2006 Alcoa IFDS World Disabled Sailing Championships, the
pendulum has swung back in Britain's favour in their tussle with Germany
for top spot on the leaderboard. With a south easterly breeze of about 15
knots, all the crews agreed that the conditions were difficult, with big
shifts, and fluctuation in strength.
Standings after 5 races, no discard - Sonars: 1. John Robertson/ Stodel/
Thomas (GBR) 11pts; 2. Jens Kroker/ Schoenberg/ Schuetz (GER) 13pts; 3.
Dror Cohen/ Efrati/ Vexler (ISR) 23pts; 9. Ken Kelly (CAN) 46pts; 14. Jen
French (USA) 64pts.
2.4 Metres: 1. Helena Lucas (GBR) 16pts; 2. Heiko Kroeger (GER) 15pts; 3.
Bjornar Erikstad (NOR) 28pts; 4. Paul Tingley (CAN) 33pts; 6. Roger
Cleworth (USA) 36pts. -- www.2006ifdsworlds.com.au
DO EXPENSES AFFECT MORE THAN JUST YOUR BOAT PERFORMANCE
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TRANSPAC RESCORED
The Transpacific Yacht Club has dropped all time penalties that were
imposed on boats for missing mandatory radio check-ins in last summer's
race. Transpac rules penalized 13 boats 30 minutes each time they failed to
report during one of the twice-daily mandatory check-in times. Among those
was Fred Detwiler's Transpac 52, Trader, which filed an appeal of the
penalty. The other boats did not appeal. Transpac Commodore Jerry
Montgomery said, "Following the finish of the 2005 race, the boat Trader
appealed the one-hour time penalty imposed upon her by the Race Committee
for missing two mandatory check-ins. The Appeals Committee reversed the
Protest Committee's decision to deny Trader's request for redress and
voided the penalty against Trader due to a procedural error by the Race
Committee in imposing such penalty.
"As a result of the removal of the one-hour time penalty, Trader moves from
fourth Overall and fourth in Division II to third Overall and third in
Division II, and Coruba goes from third Overall and third in Division II to
fourth Overall and fourth in Division II. Although the appeal technically
applies only to Trader, the Transpacific Yacht Club hereby voids the time
penalties against all boats that were penalized for failing to make
mandatory position reports or bed checks." Although the latest action
removed penalty time from 12 other boats besides Trader, it altered only
one other position. Sensation moved ahead of Pursuit into fifth place in
Division IV.
Montgomery also said, "It is all but certain that the boats in the 2007
race and beyond will be equipped with position tracking transponders, and
the roll call by single sideband radio will be used only as a backup in the
event of a transponder failure. As a result, the imposition of penalties
for failure to report will, for future races, become insignificant or
nonexistent, and the procedural error that gave rise to these corrected
result will not again occur." - Rich Roberts, www.transpacificyc.org
NEWS BRIEFS
* With 30-40 knots winds blowing in Melbourne Australia, racing on final
day of the J/24 world Championship was abandoned and the Brazilian crew of
Bruschetta, skippered by former two-time Tornado Olympian, Mauricio Santa
Cruz, were declared winners. Final results - 40 boats, 10 races, one
discard): 1. Mauricio Santa Cruz (Brazil) 34pts; 2. Wataru Sakamoto (Japan)
54pts; 3. Ian Southworth (GBR) 58pts; 4. Mike Ingham (USA) 65pts; .5. Luigi
Ravioli (Italy) 73pts; 6. Doug McGain (AUS) 78pts; 7. David Klatt (USA)
83pts; 8.Sean Wallis (AUS) 88pts; 9. Yasutaka Funazawa (Japan) 91pts; 10.
Sean Kirkjian (AUS) 100pts. -- http://www.sailmelbourne.com.au/
* There is a very interesting in-depth story about Key West Melges 24 class
winner Dave Ullman posted on the OC Metro website. It is definitely worth a
read: http://www.ocmetro.com/metro011906/cover011906.html
* Scuttlebutt is currently polling our readers on whether they think that
the Volvo Ocean Race should abandon the In-port race after Leg 2 to afford
the fleet additional time for needed repairs before the start of Leg 3. All
votes cast before the poll ends Monday at 3:00pm Pacific Time will count
toward the final results: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/06/0119
CHARLESTON RACE WEEK PRESENTED BY SEABROOK ISLAND
Online registration is now open! The 11th edition of this rapidly growing
event will be held April 6-9, 2006. The best sailors will be challenged by
tricky wind and current conditions, and enjoy the charm of Charleston's
hospitality. Free storage for trailered boats, free dockage for first 50
entries. http://www.charlestonraceweek.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. 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, and personal attacks for elsewhere. For those
that prefer a Forum, you can post your thoughts at the Scuttlebutt website:
http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi)
* From Adrian Morgan: What should or should not break on a racing boat is a
fascinating subject. Breaking a mast is acceptable, losing a keel is not,
seems to be the gist of some of the recent comments. That suggests a
"pyramid of acceptable breakages". At the apex would be the hull integrity,
then the keel. For those to fail would be unacceptable. Below that perhaps
the rudder, and below that the standing rigging, then lower down we come to
the mast. Towards the base of the triangle we would find items such as
sails, winches and other "consumables", then watermakers, cookers, filters
and at the base itself non-essential items such as the laminated teak trim
round the crew berths (ha! ha!).
In short: for an item at or near the apex of the pyramid to fail is
unacceptable. Full stop. Can you imagine a bobsleigh disintegrating on an
Olympic run? Or a competition glider? Or an acrobatic airplane? Sports
which are equipment dependent must be able to depend on their equipment,
surely.
* From Jim Newman (Re Scuttlebutt 2013): Reynald Neron doesn't seem to
realize that if a mast breaks the boat stays upright and everyone is safe.
If a keel falls off the boat turns upside down!
* From Peter Pepper: Whilst Magnus Wheatley and his supporters (Eero
Lehtinen and Ross Field included) are writing letters to race organisers
via Scuttlebutt, could they please write and demand that Mark Turner and
Dame Ellen McArthur immediately stop their plans for the Barcelona World
Race. To use Open 60's two handed must surely be madness their keels
actually fall off with alarmingly regularity. And if the keels don't fall
off, they roll over and the skippers have to be rescued. While you are at
it, can you also write to the Sydney Hobart organisers and demand that
they stop their race as well we will all recount with sorrow what
happened in recent years and was almost repeated only two races ago. Surely
its madness to continue.
And the Fastnet; 1979 is a long time ago and a large storm must be due soon
please get that stopped as well. I believe movistar sailed 20,000 miles
from Australia to Europe via Cape Horn and set the then monohull world
record. Can anyone tell me if she had any prolems on that passage ? I don't
think the Volvo rule and the Open 60 rule restrict the building of safe,
fast boats (ABN AMRO TWO) so why blame race organisers for what the teams
and their designers create. You want excitement, you got it.
* From Doran Cushing: John Tormey's letter about the Corsair 28Rs at Key
West, noticing "three-fourths of the fleet scored DNCs..." on the breezy
Wednesday needs clarification. Due to a lack of communication within the
Corsair fleet (using handheld VHFs in wild conditions), three boats started
a race not knowing the other nina had, as a class, agreed not to race.
Those three boats finished and were scored but subsequently "retired" at
the request of the class president. Kudos to the sportsmanlike conduct
within the class. Those three teams proved the boats and the crews could
handle the conditions, however miserable it might have been.
CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION
If you don't pay your exorcist, you get repossessed.
Thanks to North U, Efficient Market Portfolios, and Charleston Race Week
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