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SCUTTLEBUTT 1589 - May 24, 2004Powered 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, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere. GOING, GOING, GOING . . . Britain's two most talented sailors could be working for an overseas team at the 2007 America's Cup in Valencia. Iain Percy has joined the Italian Clan Des Team America's Cup challenge - according to Britain's GB Challenge, to whom he had been linked last summer - and fellow Olympic gold Medallist Ben Ainslie is also a target for the Italians. Percy was giving nothing away yesterday as he traveled with his crew-mate Steve Mitchell to next week's Spa Olympic classes regatta in Holland. Ainslie is in Holland too, attending this weekend's British Olympic sailing team get-together in Noordwijk. Ainslie has been linked with Team New Zealand since he sailed with Dean Barker last October and assisted the Kiwi skipper in his own Olympic campaign, yet a move to Italy cannot be discounted. That is because the man talked about as possible Clan Des Team skipper is Luca Devoti, who won silver behind Percy in the Sydney Games and whose company is builder of both Percy's and Ainslie's Olympic Finn dinghies. - Tim Jeffery, The daily Telegraph, full story: http://tinyurl.com/36k33 GETTING SERIOUS Team New Zealand's NZL82 will be back on the Hauraki Gulf next month to prepare for the first of the America's Cup regattas in September. The yacht, which broke down twice in five races during the last America's Cup, has been undergoing strengthening work for the past three months after an independent study into why it and its sister yacht, NZL81, failed. The findings of the study have not been made public but Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton said they had identified precisely what the structural issues were. Once NZL82 has been thoroughly tested, it will be shipped to Europe for the first of the America's Cup class regattas. Work will then begin on NZL81 and the former Illbruck boat GER68, which arrives in Auckland in July. The first of the cup regattas is in Marseille from September 5 to 11 and will involve fleet and match racing. The second and third regattas will be held in Valencia, the host of the 2007 America's Cup. The first regatta, from October 5 to 12, will be match racing and the second, from October 14 to 17, will be fleet racing. All the regattas will be used to help seed the challengers for the 2007 challenger series but it is not yet known how much weighting this year's regattas will have. Immediately after the regatta in Valencia, they plan to ship NZL82 back to Auckland. Either it or NZL81 will be then modified to comply with the new version of the America's Cup class rule, which will apply for the regattas in 2005 and beyond. The "hula" will be removed and changes made to the draught and displacement. - Julie Ash, NZ Herald, full story: http://tinyurl.com/2cflh UNFINISHED BUSINESS His round-the-world yacht was lime green, but German businessman Michael Illbruck won't mind if his America's Cup yacht GER68 is painted in good old black. Illbruck has loaned to Team New Zealand, free, his yacht, which was built for the last cup but was never completed after his syndicate failed to raise enough money. Designed by Michael Richelsen, who has recently joined Alinghi, and Friedrich Judel and Torsten Conradi from the firm Judel/Vrolijk, the hull has been lying in a boat yard in Germany for the past two years. The yacht, which is similar in style to Alinghi and Oracle, is expected in July in Auckland, where it will be completed and sailed against the black boats. Now a member of Team New Zealand, Illbruck doesn't have a specific role, but will contribute to the syndicate financially and will return to Auckland this year to see GER68 launched. He also hopes his support will help Team New Zealand and their sponsors and raise the profile of the America's Cup in Germany. Illbruck said the Cup had almost become too much of a rich man's game. "The sailing world is at the mercy of a few individuals. We have to bring sailing to more of a corporate sponsorship level." - Julie Ash, NZ Herald, full story: http://tinyurl.com/2opsk UV PROTECTION! IT'S IMPORTANT! Sailing Angles Sailing Shirts and our Lycra Farmer Johns are form fitting, very breathable, quick drying and block the Ultraviolet A & B rays. We use a special Lycra knit to create this protection. Our royal blue fabric carries a rating of 50, meaning that it blocks more than 99% of the ultraviolet A & B rays. Wet or dry, these great shirts and farmer johns offer unencumbered movement for both the big moves and small ones. Buy them at APS, Layline and at Sailing Angles and let's go sailing! 800-666-3616, http://www.sailingangles.com GRAND PRIX RULE (The Daily Sail website interviewed Jim Teeters about why the USA pulled out of the Rule Working Party developing a new rating rule for Grand Prix racing. Apparently, one of the key areas of disagreement was who RWP was writing their rule for. Here are a couple of brief excerpts from that story.) "There's the guy who says 'rate my boat, here it is, I'm not going to change it, just give me a fair rating. And there's the guy who says give me a rule and I'll get a team together and we'll design and build a boat to beat that rule," explains Jim Teeters "Both are very honorable forms of racing, but I don't think you can service both of them with the same solution." Rules such as IMS, IRC and PHRF handle the former admirably while the new Grand Prix Rule or ORCA's (Offshore Racing Club of America) new equivalent should deal with the latter. In the UK the situation is not nearly so black and white. There are few programs run along America's Cup lines with professional crews and boats that undergo regular wholesale development or are replaced every two or three years, as one finds in the upper echelons of the IMS class in Spain and Italy. There are however many more semi-pro boats where the owner has a reasonably quick platform, has one or two 'pros' or semi-pros sailing on board and season to season might tweak the keel slightly and get some new sails. The disagreement between the original Grand Prix Rule stakeholders boils down to whether or not a Grand Prix rule should encompass this group - should a Grand Prix Rule apply to the top 20% of race boats or the top 5% internationally for example? RORC think the former, fearful of another Admiral's Cup where no teams turn up, whereas US Sailing think that is not 'Grand Prix' enough and prefer the latter. - The Daily Sail, full story: http://tinyurl.com/3e8ax IMS WORLDS DECIDED BY THE JURY On Thursday, a number of boats protested the running of Race One that saw a big wind shift during the race. The jury upheld the protest eliminating the race. That put Marco Birch's new Botin/ Carkeek 58, Talisman - a US entry steered by Terry Hutchinson, with Peter Isler navigating and Adrian Stead calling tactics - as the top boat in the Non Corinthian Class of the Rolex IMS World Championship. But then the jury changed its mind. After further consideration, the jury reinstated Race One, moving Meridiana-Italtel into 1st place from 3rd and dropping Birch's Talisman from 1st place to 4th place overall. Very light air conditions caused the final races to be cancelled on Friday. Non Corinthian Class Final Standings: 1. Meridiana-Italel, ITA, Antonio Orlandi, Grand Soleil 42R, 17.5 2. X-Prozac ITA, Stefano Spangaro Grand Soleil 56R, 34.5 3. Fram XV, NOR, Einar Sissner, Farr 50, 42 4 Talisman, USA, Marco Birch, B/C 58, 48.75 5 Near Miss, SUI, Noel Frank, Grand Soleil 42R, 57.75 Complete results: www.yccs.it/files/stagioni/2004/rolexIMS/results.htm J/22 WORLDS Annapolis YC, Annapolis, MD, USA - Alec Cutler with crew Max Skelly and Paul Murphy of Annapolis, Maryland won the 130-boat J/22 World Championships in the final race over 2003 champion John den Englesman of the Netherlands. Conditions ranged from 4-14 knots with strong current being the topic of the week. Final results - Gold Fleet: 1. Alec Cutler, USA, 40; 2. John den Engelsman, NED, 42; 3. David Van Cleef, USA, 61; 4. Henry Filter, USA, 67; 5. Scott Nixon, USA, 74; 6 Greg Fisher, USA, 80; 7 Matt Beck, USA, 82; 8. Marvin Beckmann, USA, 95; 9. Terry Flynn, USA, 98; 10. Terry Foster, USA, 98. http://www.j22.org/worlds JOB OPENING AT VANGUARD SAILBOATS Vanguard is looking for a Product Line Manager for our Seitech, Magic Marine Gear, Storm Covers, English Braids and Parts/Accessories businesses. We offer opportunity, competitive compensation, comprehensive benefits, an open and accessible management style, an attractive work location and an exciting products environment. Go to http://www.teamvanguard.com for more details. ATLANTIC 1000 CATAMARAN RACE Kill Devil Hills NC - No surprises. It was Worrell veterans Kenny Pierce and Brian Lambert of Team Tybee taking all the honors for both the first Atlantic 1000 and the Outer Banks 500. Close behind, as they've been since Islamorada 12 days ago, were the adventurer/racers Semp Toshiba with co-skippers Roberto Pandiani of Brazil and South African Duncan Ross (who last year were the first to sail the Drake passage on a 21-foot catamaran). Injuries prevented two teams from continuing the full thousand and three others were registered for just the Outer Banks half in which all were racing Inter 20's. "I think we deserve a lot of respect for putting on this race for only five boats," said Jon Britt of the Outer Banks Catamaran Club. "People were saying 'Why don't you just cancel?' But we couldn't do that to the sailors who were so enthusiastic for this. It wasn't easy to pull it off with just five registration fees, but we made a commitment and we kept it. We've learned a lot and we'll do it again with more boats next year." - Diana Prentice, www.obx500.com and www.catsailor.com NEWS BRIEFS * Sixteen nations will participate at the 2004 Paralympic Sailing Competition in Athens, Greece, with racing from 18-23 September 2004. Based on the Paralympic Qualification System, 15 nations have qualified in the Three-Person Keelboat - Sonar and 16 in the Single-Person Keelboat - 2.4mR. For the first time, the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games will also be responsible for organizing the Paralympic Games. - ISAF website, full story: www.sailing.org/Article_content.asp?ArticleID=7152 * This past weekend saw roughly £40 million worth of ocean racing yachts arriving in Plymouth ready for the start of The Transat, single-handed race to Boston. The entries stand at: 12 ORMA 60ft multihulls, 17 IMOCA Open 60s, six 50ft multihulls and four 50ft monohulls a total of 39 boats in all. The public can view the boats on the pontoons at Plymouth Yacht Haven until the May 31 start. The Transat Race Village is also open to the public. - www.thetransat.com * The Etchells Long Island Championships were completed from Milford Yacht Club, Milford, CT. The scheduled five race series became a three race series after two mornings of fog delay. PRO Peter Reggio of Essex, CT. managed to juggle the wind and fog combination each day to get the 33-boat fleet some good racing. The regatta was won by Connecticut native Hank Lammens, with Dirk Kneulman of Torento taking 2nd and Westport, CT resident Steve Girling finishing 3rd. Full results: www.etchellsmyc.org/04lis.htm IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT... All good Newport-Bermuda race stories start out that way! If you are going out on that dark and stormy night in the near future, be sure to visit Team One Newport so you can stay warm, dry and comfortable! They are the experts at teaching sailors how to dress for any and all conditions and have been doing it for almost 20 years! They have the best from Henri-Lloyd, Musto, Gill, Patagonia, Ronstan, Railriders, Aigles, Camet, Kaenon, and tons more! Call 800-VIP-GEAR (800-847-4327) or view all the gear (and check out their cool crew uniform section) at http://www.team1newport.com 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 Andrew McIrvine, UK: It seems a sadly backwards step for the world of international offshore sailing that just a few weeks after the US contingent suspended their involvement in designing a new truly international rule they launch one of their own. What hope of continuing progress to encourage owners to build and race internationally now. Why does the US want to go it alone? Hopefully the rest of the world will see more sense. * From Mike Leneman: ORCA is also a long standing multihull organization (Ocean Racing Catamaran Association) which has been around for over 40 years. We rate offshore multihulls in So. Calif. * From Jack Klompus (edited to our 250-word limit): Mid-regatta spot weighs or weighs of top daily finishers will cause the best performing crews to not drink water during the regatta/ day's racing as they anticipate a weigh-in to come, this is unhealthy, and folks should be able to eat a decent dinner and drink plenty of water without worrying about possibly causing the team to be DSQ'd. Replacing the present system in order to avoid extreme pre-regatta weight loss will simply result in extreme mid-regatta weight-gain prevention, by dehydration in advance of expected weigh-ins. The top teams will always push the envelope, and a new weigh-in system merely shifts the issue to a regatta-long ordeal rather than handling it pre-regatta and being done with it. Even if the current system is abandoned in favor of spot weighs, the Class should reject a "zero tolerance" rule; instead, competitors should have 1-2 hours to get under weight if they fail on first weigh, along with a one-pound tolerance. Being automatically DSQ'd or prevented from racing, etc., just for being one half pound over on a surprise weigh, with no chance to lose the weight, is something no rational boat owner would agree to -- such a system could suddenly cause the boat's (very expensive) participation and chances at a major regatta to be unilaterally ended, with no recourse. Finally, it seems like a bad idea to adopt a new weigh-in procedure several months before the Farr 40 Worlds that many boats have been prepping for a year or more. * From Max Rosenberg: Why don't we just weigh the top three crew's and some random weigh ins, half way through the regatta and at the end for the top three. Allow for a five pound per person gain after initial weigh in so all crewmembers can eat and drink afterwards. This way if someone fasts or dehydrates, they can only bulk back up five pounds. Then impose a no tolerance deviation other than the five pounds. Six pounds over and you are out. I think it is a little bizarre to weigh in at the beginning and then to not allow for any weight gain as Robbie suggests. Isn't it fun to participate in regatta's socially by going out to crew dinners etc.? Furthermore crews may still fast to get a particular person on board and this will cause the whole crew to stay in the dehydrated state if a no weight gain limit is imposed. I specifically remember going to dinner with a Farr 40 crew the night before weigh in and watching them all look at my food like starving models. The practice of famine before regatta's may be fast, but at what cost? Health? Fun? * From Al Russell: I'm not in favor of daily weigh-ins. Let's make our sport as hassle free as possible. I'm tired of people imposing rules on top of rules. If people diet to the extreme to make weight that's their problem - they are responsible for their actions. * From Kenneth Throckmorton: The racing rules of sailing have a lot of trust built into their structure. During offshore races, no one would think of running their engines at night when they couldn't be seen. And any skipper who cheated like that would never be able to put together another crew. However, some classes also have rules that establish a maximum crew weight, but too often once the weigh-ins have take place, boats will blatantly violate that rule - with no shame whatsoever. Did I miss something? When were competitors given the option of which rules they would adhere to, and which ones they could ignore? It seems that the competitors would rather knowingly violate the maximum crew weight - which is cheating - than give up the parties or the crew dinners. * From Malcolm Kirkland: When I read Philippe Kahn's interposing the view that kids find the Optimist a bathtub, I wonder if he and other adults have modeled that view for the son. When we bought our Optimist for our son at age 13, it was as if we had turned over the key to Cutty Sark. The fact is that unfortunately most sailing venues do not have good waves for surfing. In terms of the actual skill of sailing waves, is that a lifelong disadvantage? It doesn't appear so from looking at top Olympic sailors. I see Mark Mendelblatt, a flat water ex-Optimist sailor and college sailor in his formation, reigns supreme again in the Laser, certainly in North America. * From Stephanie Helms: I'd like to express my appreciation of Mark Washeim's remarks regarding Mr. Huston's comments on "morality" and the IOC. Gender dysphoria is an agonizingly painful condition for those who suffer from it. Taking affirmative steps to squarely face the issue often involves great anxiety and suffering for all involved. To think anybody would undergo sex reassignment in order to achieve a competitive advantage in some sporting contest is such a ludicrous notion it hardly bears comment. In any case, such an individual would likely be denied the procedure by the medical community that performs it. Sex reassignment surgery is generally performed under the Harry S. Benjamin standards of care which, among many other things, require two psychological practitioner's (one possessing an MD) referrals for the procedure after at least one year of therapy which includes living in the target gender role. The ultimate goal of the therapy is to bring mind, body, and spirit into accord. This is hardly a trivial matter. It was the testimony of medical professionals with real knowledge of the psychological, emotional, and physical circumstances of gender dysphoria and its treatment that the IOC relied on in its recent ruling. Thankfully, they relied on professional expertise and experience, not knee-jerk uninformed bigotry and salacious judgmentalism in forming their policy. * From Brad Avery: We're all in agreement that the decade of sled fleet racing for first-to-finish in Transpac was terrific. But the caravan has moved on. Maxi boats around the world are bigger and much faster. It will be great to have two MaxZ86's race for the Barn Door in 2005; maybe with another boat or two sailing at the limit. I want to see these incredible boats (and the video footage!) talk to the sailors, and be in Hawaii when the record is shattered. I'm also looking forward to seeing another big fleet of Cal 40's, a fleet of super-fast Transpac 52's, and a bunch of well sailed modern racer-cruisers. Long live the camelot sled era, but bring on the 86's and the new (and old) fleets! Curmudgeon's Comment: On this note from a past commodore of TPYC, we declare this thread officially dead! * From Richard Hazelton, Editor 48° North: I was more than disappointed that Gary Jobson's 25 years of Sailing wasn't aired at a viewable time. I structured an reflective editorial around it and touted its showing on ESPN. My phone rang off the hook during the times (6 & 9PM PDT) it was supposed to be on, with cries of "Where is it?" I've registered my complaint with ESPN and will think twice before publicizing another of their "specials". Hopefully it will come on again, but like most things sailing on TV it will be potluck to catch it. THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Of course, so does falling down a flight of stairs. |
