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SCUTTLEBUTT 2263 – January 19, 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). WAITING FOR THE FAT LADY TO SING Dan Meyers stood on the dock in front of the Westin Hotel and simply shook his head when asked how close the competition has been in IRC 1 class. Meyers and his crew aboard Numbers have engaged in a battle royale with Edgar Cato and the Hissar team with the two Farr-designed 60-footers sailing around the course in constant contact. “It’s been absolutely fantastic racing. We have battled back-and-forth all week and we have to do it one more day,” said Meyers, who steered Numbers to a pair of bullets on Thursday to take a two point lead over Hissar. IRC 1 is among 12 classes still in doubt going into the final day of Acura Key West 2007, presented by Nautica. Organizers with Premiere Racing are planning to start one race on Friday and it will be do or die for Meyers and many other skippers. Only two points separate the first and second place boats in IRC 2 and 3 as well. In the J/109 class, Tastes Like Chicken and Current Obsession are only one point apart. Surprisingly, the Farr 40s are one of the only five classes already determined after four days of racing. Skipper Ernesto Bertarelli steered Alinghi to its fourth victory of the series on Thursday to clinch overall victory in Farr 40. The team from Geneva, Switzerland holds an insurmountable 20-point lead over Flash Gordon 5 in the 17-boat class. Alinghi does not need to leave the dock on Friday, but tactician Brad Butterworth said the team is inclined to go out on the water one last time. “We came here to go sailing so why not do as much as we can,” Butterworth said. It would be nice to end the regatta on a good note. I guess we’ll see what the boss thinks.” It’s still wide open in the talent-laden Melges 24 class, largest of the regatta with 47 boats. Joe Fly, the Italian entry owned by Giovanni Maspero, increased its lead over Dave Ullman’s Pegasus 505 to five points, but things can change quickly in such a huge fleet. Franco Rossini’s Blu Moon is one of three other boats still in striking distance. Convexity, skippered by Donald Wilson of Chicago, made a major move in the 33-boat J/105 class - cutting a 19-point deficit to Masquerade down to four. Wilson placed second in Race 8 while Thomas Coates and the Masquerade crew suffered a 24th in Race 7 to tighten the standings. -- Bill Wagner & Jeanne Kleene Reports are posted at the following sites: http://www.premiere-racing.com http://www.jobsonsailing.com ESPN.com: http://tinyurl.com/ysnnra ANGRY BROADSIDE An angry broadside about the way this year's America's Cup has been organized was fired in the host city yesterday by the Italian syndicate manager, Patrizio Bertelli. After watching his wife, Miuccia Prada, smash the launching bottle of champagne on his new £3m Lunar Rossa, Bertelli said, of what was meant to be a bright new era for the trophy: "I do not believe the new formula improves the conditions, especially for new challengers. The gap between them and the defender is greater than before." He also criticized the choice of Valencia as the stage for this year's event saying: "We don't feel a love of sailing in Valencia." His view was endorsed by his Australian helmsman James Spithill, who said the world match race circuit was driven entirely by financial considerations. He said many of the venues were not good enough to stage a world championship level event but were chosen because they put up the money. -- Stuart Alexander in Valencia, http://sport.independent.co.uk/general/article2165411.ece THE OLYMPIC DEBATE (The Daily Sail subscription website interviewed ISAF president Goran Petersson about the Olympics and pressures of complying with the IOC. Here’s a brief excerpt.) As most know ISAF have, over a period of years, been tweaking sailing at the Olympics in order to make it more attractive to the media and easier for them to cover. These changes, such as the variety of different formats tried out before the adoption of the new ‘medal race’ have come under a significant amount of criticism for not being representative of the sport, but Petersson argues that such changes are not an option. Olympic sailing must be made as media-friendly as possible. The only other option is for sailing not to be part of the Olympics. “My answer is that it is absolutely essential sailing is an Olympic sport,” Petersson confirms, adding as to why this is the case: “I think there are several reasons for this, but there are two main ones. Firstly money -we need to remember that funding is a thing of the last ten years. The IOC did not give out money in any significant amount before that. Now we get a significant amount of money for being a part of the Olympics. “The second is what I call the ‘Olympic effect’. If you try to develop sailing in countries that are not wealthy enough to do it themselves then you must be able to say ‘Olympic’. If you can’t say ‘Olympic’ then the government will not fund it. This then filters all the way down to the grass roots. They provide sailing schools, clubs, boats and instructors. If you do not have an Olympic programme then this will simply not happen. -- http://www.thedailysail.com KUDOS TO 2007 KEY WEST RACE WEEK On the 20th anniversary of Key West Race Week, JK3 Nautical Enterprises wishes all sponsors, competitors, and the entire event organizing team at Premiere Racing the very best, hoping for warm breeze and competitive sailing for all. JK3, San Diego’s J Boat Dealer, is especially proud that over 31% of the participating boats are comprised of J Boats! Visit the J Boat Courtesy Tent at Key West, and please visit our website for more information on J Boats and the rest of our brands. http://www.Jk3yachts.com MORE THAN JUST A PRETTY FACE “Some hard statistics make a good case for thinking of Oracle's Larry Ellison as the best-performing CEO in the U.S.” -- by Tamina Vahidy, Line56 , Wednesday, January 10, 2007 In recently browsing through Forbes Magazine, we came across a list of "20/20": CEOs who have produced at least 20 percent annualized returns for their companies across a period of at least 20 years. The list was produced partly in order to highlight CEOs who are worth their pay in this unfortunate age of $200 million golden parachutes for executive failures. As it turns out, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is at the very top of that list, because he has achieved a 31 percent annualized return for Oracle over the past 29 years. No one else in the list, which was restricted to large enterprises, even cracked 30 percent. -- http://bmworacleracing.twoday.net/topics/Cool+People MEDIA (Glenn Bourke, CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race explains the thinking behind the introduction of a designated media crew member for their 2008-09 race.) Our TV programming from the last race made for some compelling viewing, but for us to take that to the next level we decided that we needed to include a media specialist on board. It’s difficult to film, put probing questions to a crew member, and take photographs when all hell’s breaking loose, but this is exactly where the story gets interesting for the viewer. And you certainly can’t do it when the person responsible for the media output is an integral member of the sailing team. So the media person allows the core crew to focus on what they do best – sailing the boat. We will always have skippers filing their daily e-mails to the outside world, and followers of the race will always want to hear what the guys racing on board have to say on camera. With the media person at the controls of the camera and microphone we believe the output will be more insightful. The on-board material from the last race was exceptional: dramatic and humorous in equal measure, and often in the heat of battle. This time we want to up the ante, and, by virtue of the technology we have at our disposal, broaden the appeal of the race. Question: What has been the reaction from the sailors to this innovation? Bourke: As always you get a mixed bag of reactions and feedback. As long as you get about 70 per cent of the people you canvass to agree in principle, it’s worth pursuing. At least 70 per cent of the people we consulted said ‘yes, we would be happy with a media person’, particularly the sailors who will now be able to concentrate solely on sailing the boat. It actually gives the crews an extra half a pair of hands because previously the crews were doing all the media work in their off watch periods or limited spare time. -- Read the full story: http://tinyurl.com/2roqp8 SUCCESS STORY The 12th Annual St. Barths Bucket Regatta, March 29 - April 1, 2007 has a full fleet of 30 mega yachts, with a growing waiting list, for the invitation only event. The Regatta, held annually on the relaxed and exclusive island of St. Barths, is limited to yachts over 100ft, and attracts the largest sailing yachts in the world for three days of racing and camaraderie. Several new yachts will be attending including Perini Navi’s 280’ Maltese Falcon, Holland Jachtbouw’s 141’ Skylge, Royal Huisman’s 104’ Gliss and Alloy Yacht’s 170’ Kokomo. The Bucket Regattas began in August 1986 in Nantucket, MA, as a casual race to prove bragging rights among the owners & skippers of seven of the largest yachts in town – an afternoon sail, there and back again, with a galvanized bucket as the trophy. The flavor of the first Bucket set the tone on which “Bucket” regattas have since been sailed. The primary focus is on safe sailing, proper seamanship and winning the party, rather than winning the race. Ratings are adjusted between races to favor the slower yachts, in an effort to bring them into the winner’s circle. -- http://www.bucketregattas.com OPINION With three months to go I'd say Team New Zealand is the best prepared of all the challengers. The decision to launch their first new boat, NZL84, early was a good one, especially given that the boat is strong. NZL84 looked pretty good out of the box, it looked pretty good brand new. It looks like their new boat, NZL92, is very similar. If there were any small things they wanted to alter in NZL84 they would have. They have had NZL92 out in a lot of wind on the Hauraki Gulf, so integrity-wise it will be fine. Emirates Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton made the comment that you get a boat, it's a good boat and the more you use it the better it gets. There is no doubt that formula works. We saw it with Team New Zealand in 1995 and 2000 and definitely saw it with Alinghi in 2003. Now you look at American syndicate BMW Oracle Racing and they have taken a different approach. They launched their second boat, USA98, this week, a boat which is completely different from their first, USA87. Time will tell whether having two radically different concept boats works. I have my doubts. The question is, has it come about through an incredibly creative plan or has it come about because they got their butts kicked in the last pre-regatta? I think it's the latter. The Americans, skippered by Chris Dickson, were fourth after the round-robin competition in the last regatta. In their books that was not good enough. As a result it has been rumoured USA87 has been altered to the maximum, which is pretty radical. I think they thought their first boat was going to be revolutionary and a bit of a jump on the rest, but it wasn't. It showed it had some intriguing features - manoeuvrable, quick acceleration - but at times it showed it had a couple of weaknesses, including being tricky to sail. Their reaction has been to jump into the same design corner as Team New Zealand. The Americans' new boat is similar to Team New Zealand's in that it has a lot of volume in the bow. That is a compliment to the Kiwis. -- Peter Lester, NZ Herald, full story: http://tinyurl.com/22rxa7 PERFORMANCE RACE WEEKS Six days of on the water training. Coaches on board. Video review. North U seminar leaders. A one-design fleet of award winning Colgate 26s. A tropical island paradise. Come to Captiva Island, Florida for a North U / Offshore Sailing Performance Race Week for the pure fun of it; and as a bonus, go home a better racer. You can spend a lifetime learning to be a better racer or you can come to Race Week and accelerate the process. http://www.offshore-sailing.com/racing.asp MASSIVE Registration has exploded for US Sailing’s 2007 Rolex Miami OCR. A record number of elite sailors from around the world – 850 athletes from 48 countries as of press time – have registered, resulting in the largest turnout in the 18-year history of the regatta. Seventy-one percent of the athletes who have registered will travel from abroad, proving the event’s significance as one of the world's top competitions for sailors training for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Racing will be held January 22-27 on the waters of Biscayne Bay. For the first time at the event, America's Cup Hall of Fame inductee, author and sailing broadcaster Gary Jobson (Annapolis, Md.) will provide a front row seat for spectators around the world with exclusive daily video reports. NBC will stream the reports as daily web casts on www.NBCSports.com, which will be linked from www.rolexmiamiocr.org. Jobson's production will culminate with a wrap-up special on the last day of the regatta. DEFENDER TRIALS Alinghi - the defender of the America’s Cup - will be conducting trials in Dubai to select the key members of the crew for Louis Vuitton Act 13 in Valencia. At these trials, Ed Baird and Peter Holmberg, the two principal syndicate helmsmen, will go head to head in full blown match racing in AC boats. Round 1 of the “UBS Dubai Defender Trials” is scheduled for January 31 - February 3, and will include two races per day and a prize-giving at the end. This will be followed by Round 2 on February 16 -19 which will result in the selection of the helmsman and the afterguard for LV Act 13. -- http://www.alinghi.com/en/ SAILING SHORTS * North America will be represented with five teams at the 33-boat, 29er Worlds which begin this Sunday in San Isidro, Argentina: Ian Andrewes/ Campbell Rivers; Emily Dellenbaugh/ Briana Provancha; Alain Huggler/ Eric Aakhus; Judge Ryan/ Hans Henken and Michelle Strebel/ Rachael Short. Women skippers have dominated the last two 29er World championships. -- http://www.29erworlds2007.com.ar * 957 miles separate the five boats racing the Velux 5 Oceans, with miles and clawing south towards the stronger winds in the Indian Ocean's high latitudes. Race leader Bernard Stamm’s Cheminees Poujoulat is currently leading the second place Spirit of Yukoh sailed by Kojiro Shiraishi by 181 miles - and going more than two knots faster. -- http://www.velux5oceans.com * Celebrity sighting: The maxZ86 Pyewacket was seen being trucked southward on the 405 from Marina del Rey where it has been on the hard for the last four months, undergoing modifications. Roy E. Disney donated the boat to Orange Coast College after the 2005 Transpac race, but has chartered it back for this year’s Transpac. There is speculation that major surgery is about to take place on this Riechel/Pugh CBTF design. VIDEO OF THE WEEK (sponsored by t2p.tv) The 2006 J/24 North Americans in Rochester, N.Y experienced big winds, which resulted in the sinking of USA 3888 'Jack Be Nimble.' This week's feature documents her rescue, providing emotional footage of still photos and edited video that happily has a happy ending. Set aside 5:16 minutes for this one, with the music including the uplifting song by Chumbawamba 'I Get Knocked Down' (lyrics included). Also, if you have a video you like, please send us your suggestions for next week’s Video of the Week. Click here for this week’s video: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/07/0115 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 Richard Clark: Gary Hoyt and Grant Dalton, please take a bow. Such simple, clear headed, commonsensical thought processes and they are both great sailors. At sea, on a yacht, the skipper is where the buck stops and it looks like the Olympics and the Americas Cup could not be in better hands if only the powers that be were courageous enough to listen and to act upon the ideas and the practical common sense shared. * From John Donohue Wow! When I read Gary Hoyt thoughts in ‘Butt 2262 (http://tinyurl.com/36mv5d) I sat bolt upright and thought "What a grand idea!" Then reality intervened, and I thought sadly, "But all the pooh-bahs would ever agree to it!" It is still an exciting concept, and I'm going to try to do at least a little bit of it up at the Y Camp in Michigan where I volunteer and teach sailing. This Summer we're going to have a one-week specialty session, where sailing will be one of the options. Gary Hoyt's suggestions will help me develop a curriculum. Any other good ideas out there? * From Tej Trevor Parekh: Gary Hoyt definitely hit the nail right on the head. The Olympic event that probably grabs the most attention: 100m dash. How long is it? Under 10 seconds, surrounded by days of hype! It’s true, more personalities need to come out of sailing and the current format doesn’t really allow that. I am ashamed to admit that even as an avid sailor I find the Athens footage boring to watch, except for some of the 49er/Tornado races in breeze! Sailing definitely requires a wholesale sweep of classes, but that won’t happen unless we get more visionaries like Paul Henderson, but even more extreme and forward-thinking, running the show at ISAF. What I say is Yngling out, Moth in on a downwind slalom. 470 out 29erXX in (until something faster comes along). 49er stays, but with upgrades and a tight reach. Lasers/Radials can stay, but only because there are about 200,000 of them worldwide. Stars out: no one wants to see slow keel boats run a 2 mile course over an hour and a half. And, of course, we need some big air venues with sun. Of course, all this is a pipe-dream and will take 30 years to accomplish. * From Barry Carroll: The IRC turnout at Key West is very exciting and bodes well for the sport: not only in the US, but internationally. One of the prime reasons for adopting IRC in America was the fact that it was the only viable International alternative to the fast declining IMS rule. Key West 2007 has three competitve classes, 26 boats, and 12 of them are from outside the US. That is a very encouraging trend for renewed international competition like the Commodore's Cup and Onion Patch. But the real prize is that there are finally some hot new boats being built for the US market, both flat out racers and racer/cruisers, and they are way cool! Big boat sailing is starting move forward again in the US. Curmudgeon’s Comment: It’s always great to hear from Barry, but in the interests of full disclosure it should be noted that he is the US-IRC Director. * From John Stovall: North America's largest regatta is determined by the total amount of money that is ‘peed’ away during a series. If you do not consider Key West at the top of the list, then you have not been to KWRW. CURMUDGEON’S CONUNDRUMS How many retirees does it take to change a light bulb? Just one, but it may take all day. Special thanks to JK3 Nautical Enterprises and North U. Scuttlebutt is also supported by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, the Defender of the 32nd America's Cup. |
