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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 937 - November 5, 2001Scuttlebutt 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.
VOLVO OCEAN RACE: HEINER OUT, MCDONALD IN Neal McDonald from the UK will take over as skipper for the second leg from Cape Town to Sydney. McDonald is recognized as one of the world's best sailors with an impressive record in ocean racing and short course tactics. He is married to Lisa McDonald (USA), the skipper of Amer Sports Too. Heiner comments: ÓLeading an ocean race crew must be one of the most difficult jobs in the world. The guys on board ASSA ABLOY are very competent and strong individuals but I have come to the conclusion that my leadership approach does not bring the very best out of this particular team.Ó The place left on the boat by the departure of Roy Heiner has yet to be filled, and details on an additional crewmember are expected to be released early next week. -- ASSA ABLOY press office
VOLVO OCEAN RACE: PROTESTS AGAINST ILLBRUCK The protest claimed that "the site http://atmosfera.lma.fi.upm.es ... listed in Leg 1 Sailing Instruction Annex C, has no links to the rsm sub domain and was therefore not available to other competitors without the knowledge of the suffix, and was not Ôpublicly available' as required by NoR 7.4.3." illbruck demonstrated (using a laptop connected to the internet) that the site http://atmosfera.lma.fi.upm.es/rsm was accessible through another nominated site (with the domain name noaa.gov). Assa Abloy accepted that the site was publicly available and asked for the protest to be withdrawn. The jury permitted the withdrawal of the protest. The second protest against illbruck was in regard to non-approved modifications, specifically the addition to a faired-in sharp leading edge to the Volvo S-Drive, for the purpose of cutting weeds. The jury issued the following "facts found": "Before the start of leg 1, illbruck modified her Volvo S-Drive by the addition of a faired-in knife blade to its leading edge, and filling and fairing over the oil drain plug. illbruck was hoisted out for inspection on 11th September. On this day, Ken McAlpine (a member of the measurement committee) inspected the S-Drive seals, which were the subject of interest and were therefore being inspected on all boats. The inspection of the seal involved grasping the S-Drive. An illbruck representative drew Ken McAlpine's attention to the knife-edge so that he would not cut his hands, but did not draw his attention for the purpose of addressing whether it was Ôclass-legal'. There was no attempt by illbruck to hide the modifications. The Chief Measurer (John Warren) issued a measurement certificate on 14th September." The jury concluded that "Contrary to illbruck's claim, issuing the measurement certificate did not constitute approval for a modification as envisaged by Class Rule 5.4.2. By not receiving specific approval of the modification, illbruck broke the Class Rule. The jury considered the following in making its decision on whether to penalize illbruck points and places for the first leg: "(a) The Race Director, Michael Woods, representing the race committee, expressed the opinion that a place penalty was inappropriate. (b) The Rules permitted a weed cutter forward of the S-Drive if it was mounted on the hull. (c) News Corp's delays in clearing weed were calculated by the jury to be approximately one and a half hours, whereas illbruck won by more than two hours. Therefore the jury is satisfied that no place was gained by the infringement. (d) In responding to an invitation to make submissions in relation to an appropriate penalty, the three observers present (representing djuice, Assa Abloy, and News Corp) confined their submissions to the possible time loss clearing weed, and made no suggestion as to an appropriate penalty. (e) Although not significant, the modification increased drag. (f) Ken McAlpine, giving evidence as a witness, stated that when a measurer finds an item on a boat during inspection that contravenes the Class Rule, it is normal practice to bring it to the attention of the boat's representative. (g) Ken McAlpine stated that not to have realised that the modification infringed the Class Rule was an oversight. (h) The jury accepted that in making the modifications it was not illbruck's intention to break a rule." Taking those rationales into consideration, the jury imposed a monetary fine, the amount of £1,000 being the maximum allowed under SSI 1.7.2(a), and declared that the modifications were to be removed prior to the start of Leg 2. Many feel that the penalty assessed was considerably less than deserved. Bob Fisher writes in the Guardian: "When the decision came, it was greeted with surprise and derision ... no points were docked. 'This virtually condones the infringement,' said an international judge who advises an America's Cup squad on the rules. 'I can't think what Bryan [Willis - Jury Chairman] was contemplating. It is bizarre.' The financial penalty is ludicrous. Illbruck's budget for this and the parallel America's Cup campaign exceeds £50 million - the fine represents 0.00002 per cent of that total, effectively no penalty at all. It is not surprising therefore that the sailors in the other boats are distressed at the whitewash which they argue has been applied following this protest. They feel cheating has been condoned." Full text of Fisher's article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4291550,00.html Event site: http://www.volvooceanrace.org
SHE'S FAT, BUT SHE'S AWFULLY CUTE
TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE Ellen MacArthur partners with Alain Gautier abour the trimaran Kingfisher-Foncia, while her famed monohull, renamed Casto-Darty-BUT (three of the retail chains in the Kingfisher company) will be sailed by Kingfisher project manager Mark Turner and Australian Nick Moloney. MacArthur currently leads the FICO-LACOSTE skippers world championship - a league which groups together all the major offshore sailing events in the past 2 years, both monohulls and multihulls - but she is closely followed on points by Michel Desjoyeaux, and Roland Jourdain, close rivals from the VendŽe race. The monohull start was a light air affair, with winds less than 5 knots. The 14 multihulls fared better on Sunday, with winds at the start of 12 to 15 knots. Herb McCormick in the Sunday New York Times wrote: "At its highest levels, the French consider ocean racing to be something of a cross between a sporting competition, a grand adventure and a spiritual quest. The players are professional athletes fawned over by the news media and the public. Their boats are floating billboards for the companies footing the bills. Furthermore, an ocean race does not seem worthy of the title unless an ocean is actually crossed in the exercise. As for crews: the fewer people on board, the better. This weekend, the latest installment of nautical French fanaticism is starting out from the seaside village of Le Havre, and even by the local standards it is promising to be a radical affair. Under the title sponsorship of a French coffee company, the Transat Jacques Vabre is now in its fifth edition, the first race having been run in 1993. As such, the course was conceived to follow the routes of the trading ships that transported coffee beans from South America to Europe. Each previous Jacques Vabre concluded in Cartagena, Colombia. The wisdom of sending a fleet of short-handed sailors - who by circumstance are a sleep-deprived lot - on a chase for caffeine has apparently never been questioned. This race also differs from previous incarnations in the number of international sailing stars it has attracted. Once the nearly exclusive domain of French sailors, racers from Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Australia and Britain are in the fleet." Complete text of Herb's article: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/04/sports/04BOAT.html Complete information on the event site (in both French and English): http://www.jacques-vabre.com
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON From John Diggins: USSAILING has established the simplified protest procedure Ken is trying to invent. It is called pre hearing arbitration, conducted by a single Judge, who will not serve on the Jury if arbitration fails. Only the two skippers are present; they each have about 3 minutes to present their side, the Judge is to reach a conclusion within 10 minutes or let the dispute go to a hearing. The process resolves about 1/3 of the cases heard, depending on the level of the regatta and the participants involved. It is an excellent way for less knowledgeable competitors to learn the RRS ( Often times they have never owned or read the Rules) Ê
From: Clark Chapin: At the US SAILING Annual Meeting in St. Petersburg, Rules Committee Chair Dick Rose identified four areas where the Committee wanted input from sailors and various constituent groups: From: Colin Case re: ESPN2's Ultimate Sailing Best of the West show: How can we tell ESPN2 to pressure most of the cable companies in the country to carry their signal?Ê The majority of the San Francisco Bay Area (the fourth or fifth largest media market in the country) does NOT get ESPN2. Write your cable providers, write your local government (they grant the cable licenses), write you newspapers' entertainment section, write your local Yacht Racing Association, and pass this on.
THERE IS A RUN IN OUR NYLONS
OPEN FOR RECORD ATTEMPTS Also to be found there will be extracts of the current rules for record breaking at 500 metres inshore, the one nautical mile leg, 24-hour distance run, as well as the offshore routes. For would-be record breakers and other sailors there is a direct contact facility with the full time Secretariat of WSSRC. Visit WSSRC at http://www.sailspeedrecords.com
MATCH RACING
INDUSTRY NEWS With TracVision 4, mariners can access 300 channels of direct broadcast satellite television as far as 100 miles off the North American or European coasts. Tracphone 25 provides secure voice, fax, and data services to boats as small as 35 feet and is capable of simultaneously supporting multiple phones through a PABX system, as well as a fax machine and computer -- http://www.kvh.com
THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION |
