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SCUTTLEBUTT 2300 – March 14, 2007Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is distributed each weekday, with support provided by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, Defender of the 32nd America's Cup (http://www.ubs.com/sailing). BUZZ-CUTS, BATTENS, AND CARBON With Round Robin One of the Louis Vuitton Cup set for blast-off on April 16, Cup sail designers are focusing on the marriage between carbon mainsails and carbon rigs—and coming up with mainsails you can spot a mile away. (BMW Oracle Racing’s sail designer) Steve Calder explains why the fastest mains sport radical buzz-cuts. * Bring us up to speed on the latest America’s Cup mainsail designs. Calder: First of all, the best material for America’s Cup mainsails is still carbon/Mylar. Some the teams have tinkered with other materials, but Cup mains are very highly loaded—they’re very flat sails that need a lot of sheet tension. To get the sail down to weight and achieve the flying shape we want, there’s nothing better than carbon. * Some Cup teams are showing up at the starting line with three codes of mainsail. Calder: While other teams are carrying three mainsails, we’ve tried to limit it to two, with a little bit more crossover designed into the sails. Our goal is to limit the decision-making options and thus take some of the pressure off the trimmers—at the heat of the moment they have to decide which mainsail to hoist. Plus, in Valencia the range of wind speed isn’t as wide, or as aggressive at the top end, as it was during the Cup in New Zealand. * Square-top mainsails seem to have reached an extreme. What’s the advantage of a square-top? Calder: A square-top configuration lowers induced drag by virtue of the increased width across the head of the sail. Historically, the rigs of Cup boats haven’t been good enough to support a large girth at the top of the sail, so the Cup syndicates have made a big commitment to integrate the mast and the sail. From a design point of view the goal is to be able to support the head area we want, which means increasing the rig stiffness so that it won’t be overwhelmed by the added loads of a square-top. What we’ve seen is that as the rigs have gotten better the sails have gotten bigger. -- Complete interview: http://na.northsails.com/northenews/March07.htm#AmericasCup SMOKE ON THE WATER The Environmental Protection Agency issued stringent new rules to curb harmful emissions from diesel locomotive and marine engines. Over the next quarter-century the regulations -- which cover 40,000 marine vessels and nearly 21,000 diesel locomotives -- will cut these engines' annual emissions of nitrogen oxide, a key ingredient in smog, by 80 percent and fine particulate matter, or soot, by 90 percent. EPA officials estimated that by 2030 the health benefits associated with the new standards will outweigh the costs by 20 to 1, preventing 1,500 premature deaths and 1,100 hospitalizations a year. "By tackling the greatest remaining source of diesel emissions, we're keeping our nation's clean-air progress moving full steam ahead," EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson told reporters in a telephone news conference last week. "Over the last century, diesels have been America's economic workhorse, and through this rule, an economic workhorse is also becoming an environmental workhorse." -- Washington Post, full story: http://tinyurl.com/3b4v6y * The state of California has announced it will introduce a new, more stringent set of exhaust emission regulations for sterndrive and inboard (SD/I) gasoline marine engines beginning January 1, 2008. Under the new regulations, the state will require all boats outfitted with gasoline SD/I engines manufactured after January 1, 2008, to be equipped with catalyst technology. -- IBI News, full story: http://tinyurl.com/2qzw73 NOT SAILING THE LAST RACE When Mauricio Santa Cruz recently won the 2007 J/24 Worlds, he did so by not having to sail in the last race. Because the regatta was scored with a drop race, and because no one could beat him if he used the final race as his drop, Santa Cruz and his team opted not to race, and headed in for an early celebration. I also had this option after leading a National Championship, and I chose to do the same. After battling through the strain of a major regatta, it felt so good to have some calm, to be by ourselves, and to enjoy the moment. Wondering how others would handle the situation, this week’s Scuttlebutt Poll asked “When leading a regatta with a drop race, do you sail in the final race if you have already mathematically won the event?” I must admit that the Scuttlebutt readers caught me off guard with their response, which said that 64% would sail in the last race. The comments submitted defend both positions, but the majority of the voters say to stay. When I sat out of the last race, I felt that I had earned it, and that my heart wouldn’t be into sailing the final race. When any boat sits out of a race, the standings are conceivably affected, as they are now a lost point that might have changed the score totals within the fleet. Would I do it again? Not if I sensed it would offend others, but it does seem like a lose-lose decision, as by sailing the final race, you are also affecting it. -- Craig Leweck, Scuttleblog, http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/07/0312 PETER AND OLAF HARKEN’S AMERICA’S CUP STORY A chance meeting, army-green ball bearings, and a prototype Big Boat block. From this small beginning in 1977, today 11 of 12 AC syndicates are completely equipped with Harken hardware and winches. Read Peter and Olaf’s entertaining interview on how they got there and why they committed to the pressures of the AC business. -- http://www.harken.com/ac/AmericasCup_Interview.php RUDDER DAMAGE Competing in the Velux 5 Oceans race, Graham Dalton reported on Monday he had hit a UFO in the water. As it was pitch black, he was uncertain what it was but it had caused serious damage to one of his two rudders. The damage sustained has forced him to cut the cassette away and remove the rudder blade, and is now in communication with his boat builder to establish a method to stabilize the remaining rudder so that he can recover steerage. At the time of the incident, Dalton was running fourth boat for boat of the five remaining entries, sailing in 15 knots of east-southeasterly breeze just over 150 miles off the coast of Brazil, and a little over 3,200 miles from the finish of Leg 2 in Norfolk, VA, USA. -- http://www.velux5oceans.com OLYMPIC DRIVEN One of the toughest decisions in small-boat racing is finding a partner who shares your level of commitment. “If you are not obsessed to the same degree, there are going to be questions,” San Diego's Molly O'Bryan said last week. O'Bryan and Belvedere's Molly Carapiet were having commitment issues with their sailing partners last year when they discovered one another. “We started talking and we realized we were on the same page,” O'Bryan said. “I'd known Molly for a while when I was coaching (sailing at the U.S. Naval Academy) and Molly was a student at Yale. When we started talking, we realized we both wanted to focus harder on the goal.” That goal is the 2008 Olympics in China. And last week, after less than a full season together, the two Mollys were ranked No. 3 in the women's 470 dinghy class on US Sailing's national sailing team. The ranking is important since a top-three ranking carries financial backing. US Sailing will pay for the cost of shipping the two Mollys' boats to a series of international events leading up to the U.S. Olympic Trials in October in Long Beach. “It's a major plus,” said O'Bryan, 27, a product of one of San Diego's leading sailing families. “If you are not among the top three, you have to do everything on your own.” -- Union-Tribune, full story: http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20070313-9999-1s13boatcol.html TOP GUN SCHOOL Honolulu, HI (March 13, 2007) If you could pick two people to show you how to sail an ocean race, how about Mike Sanderson and Stan Honey? Both will be with the Morning Light crew for its third of four monthly training session starting this week and leading to the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu in July. New Zealand's Sanderson and California's Honey were the skipper and navigator for ABN AMRO ONE's runaway victory in the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race. The feat earned Sanderson the International Sailing Federation's honor of World Sailor of the Year, while Honey's esteem in his specialty reached new heights with bold moves that buried the rest of the fleet. Honey, long the navigator for Roy E. Disney's record-setting Pyewacket campaigns, has been a regular member of the group grooming the 15 young men and women, ages 18 to 23. Sanderson will spend a week with them during this session, sometimes on board with them on their Transpac 52 and other times observing from a chase boat or lecturing on shore. Sailing manager Robbie Haines said, "The sailors have come to know Stan very well, but they may be in awe of Mike for awhile. I'm sure he'll have their attention." Sanderson is scheduled to be one of their fellow crew members when Morning Light makes its longest sail yet: an overnighter to Maui and back next week. -- http://www.pacifichighproductions.com/ SAILING SHORTS * The Canadian Yachting Association has appointed the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club as host of the 2007 CYA National Sailing Championships from 9-15 August. The Championships will bring more than 300 young adult and youth sailors from all ten provinces to Hamilton for six days of competitive racing and social activity on Hamilton’s waterfront. -- http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j1~FnAzqr&format=popup * North Sails has partnered with Sailing Weather Services to provide free weather forecasts for the Sperry Top-Sider San Diego NOOD Regatta, from March 15-18, 2007. To receive these daily forecasts via email, please log on to North Sails' Weather Center: http://na.northsails.com/ew/ew_main.taf * After competing in the 2003 and 2005 Transpac races, the San Diego-based Challenged America program (for kids, adults and veterans with disabilities) announced that it was unlikely the team could return the 2007 race. Urban Miyares, two-time Transpac sailor and blinded Vietnam veteran, said that the sailing team, which is comprised of sailors with disabilities, will continue to prepare for the race, but senses that a shortage of time and money will keep them from participating. For additional information on the Challenged America program: (619) 594-8805, mailto:Port@ChallengedAmerica.org * Clearwater, FL (March 13) Despite the fickle conditions on the final day of the Snipe class Midwinter Championship and Pan Am Trials, Augie Diaz/ Tracy Nan Smith posted a 1-3 to win the event. Coming on strong in the light conditions was Brian Bissel/ Alexis Rubin, claiming a 2-1-2-1 over the final two days to pull themselves up to second. Mikee Anderson-Mitterling/ Dave Hughes, the top-ranked US men’s Olympic 470 team, posted a 12-2 in the final day to move into third. The top team will represent the US at the Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro this July. -- Complete report with results: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/SnipeCircuit * When you have the pre-eminent America’s Cup rules advisors for BMW Oracle Racing, Victory Challenge, and Luna Rosa together, and they find themselves trying to sort out the application of RRS 18.4 at the gate, it is reassuring to know that with all the muscle of the America’s Cup, that they still speak… with their hands: http://tinyurl.com/2r7scc * The Swiss Defender of the America’s Cup, Alinghi, became the final Cup team to sail from Port America’s Cup this year when they slipped out for a late afternoon shake-down of SUI 91 on Tuesday. They joined an assortment of the 11 challengers who have been engaged in training and practice racing for weeks now. Alinghi had held a winter training camp and ‘defender trials’ in Dubai over the winter months, before returning to Valencia at the end of February. The goal on Tuesday was to check SUI 91 was ready to go in order for the team to get in full training sessions later this week. -- http://tinyurl.com/2mcchn DRY, WICKING, MOISTURE MANAGEMENT, COOL, PIRATES LAIR All words that describe the best-outfitted regattas this year. Upgrade your t-shirts and polos from cotton to technical. Log on to http://www.pirateslair.com/sailing for a free catalog or call 888-724-5286. LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or simplicity (letters shall be no longer than 250 words). You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot, don't whine if others disagree, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Steve Gregory: The announcement (in ‘butt 2299) that US Sailing is now in the Event Management business must have been a thrill to those companies already trying to serve this sector of the sport. As the administrator in the US, is this within their scope of work? When will US Sailing also start making sails, or building cleats? * From Kathy Weishampel: I would like to comment on Mr. Dobrikin’s comment about dropping penalties for touching marks because they are now inflatable. I can only imagine what might happen if that rule change came to pass. Once changed, I could see yachts deliberately ramming a leeward mark to get a weather advantage on another yacht. Moving a mark to get an advantage on another competitor would become a fine art. Remember too, that not all marks are inflatable many areas are still using USCG bell buoys, etc. In combined driving (a horse event) they had to make a rule that if posts were broken there was an automatic penalty because drivers were deliberately breaking them off to get more room. I say keep the rule. * From Derek Paterson: Ted Livingston is right (in Issue 2299) - the results (in the Star class Bacardi Cup) were great for spread of countries. Interesting to note that in the results I saw, after 4 rounds only 1 boat in the top 10 had a gun. Consistency clearly wins regattas. * From Juergen Klinghardt, Bremen, Germany: Bill Lee (in issue 2299) has totally hit the point which seems to be overlooked by most of the IRC advocates that "using a rating rule that can be adapted to ... wind speeds and directions for an offshore race is important". It is a big advantage of a scientific-based line prediction program/ velocity prediction program (LPP/ VPP) system like IMS (which is a relative of ORR) to consider the performance of a boat as close to the reality as possible. This cannot be achieved by any other kind of rating rules like e.g. IRC, where nobody knows how the rating factor is really produced and whether it is really as fair as possible. Amongst other deficiencies, IRC completely ignores the influence of stability and righting moment as IMS does, a very critical topic which results not only from the design, but also from the crew weight both being carefully considered by IMS. Under a LPP/ VPP system (almost) no dog has its day! Therefore, the ISAF allows no other rating rule than IMS to be used for scoring offshore sailing world and continental championships. * From Bob Johnstone: Deja vu all over again. Great to see Augie Diaz and Peter Commette still duking it out at the top of the leaderboard... this time at the Snipe Midwinters and Pan Am Trials. 34 years ago they finished 2-1 in the inaugural US Youth Championship in Wilmette IL, sailing Lasers. Peter won and elected to sail the Laser Worlds. Augie was runner-up and represented the USA at the IYRU Youth Worlds, which he won. Stay tuned. The story isn't over yet. * From Sue Reilly: (edited to the 250-word limit) I’m a little shocked by Bob Phillips letter (in Issue 2299) regarding using Umpired Fleet Racing to control win at any cost competitors. If the class has a problem with our current rules and protest procedures, I’m not sure how Umpires will help them to understand the rules. Has he read Experimental Appendix Q? It changes a number of them. As for the Umpires being able to "adjudicate infractions on the spot and to DSC a boat from a race for a serious infraction" that’s not what I read in the Appendix; they’re limited at what they can rule on without another boat protesting. Besides all this goes against the first line of The Racing Rules of Sailing's Basic Principal: Competitors in the sport of sailing are governed by a body of rules that they are expected to follow and enforce. Umpires can't be everywhere watching unless you have close to a one-to-one ratio of Umpires to Racers. What happens if they don't see the incident? Green flag as they do in Match Racing? That seems to defeat the purpose of having them. If Umpired is how you really want to run a regatta, run a Match Race or Team Race Event. There ’s a time and a place for Umpires and I just don't see Fleet Racing at this level as it. Besides, assuming these are Adults that are sailing, why would you want to assign Baby Sitters to monitor how they play? That goes against everything that makes sailing great. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION Law of Close Encounters: The probability of meeting someone you know increases when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with. Special thanks to Harken Yacht Equipment and the Pirate’s Lair. Scuttlebutt is also supported by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, the Defender of the 32nd America's Cup. |
