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SCUTTLEBUTT 3331 - Friday, April 29, 2011Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors,providing a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: The Pirates Lair and O’Pen BIC. FOR THE GOOD OF SAILING...MAGIC BUTTONS AND ALL By Leighton O'Connor, photographer (April 28, 2011) - I was invited to a press conference in New Zealand on Thursday where they were wrapping up the third day of testing the new course configuration and technical systems for the AC45's. Unfortunately, I had to journey down under via a conference call. The kick off time was 4PM their time - midnight my time. I figured what the heck. Conan is all repeats this week and Letterman has been pretty lame lately. I was late in getting dialed in because my land-line didn't like the conference call software. I joined the press conference in mid sentence of Principal Race Officer John Craig as he described how protests will be handled. "Boats will have magic buttons,” explained Craig. “Skippers can press a button for a black protest flag or a button for a red protest flag . That request goes to the umpire booth, they review it and they will declare if there is a penalty or not and text the offender." What? It was late, but did I hear that right? Magic buttons? Texting a skipper? America's Cup CEO and the Regatta Director Iain Murray and Craig took turns answering questions about the weird high tech gadgets on the AC45's. The skippers will have four buttons. Two for protests and two to announce tacks and room. So if James Spithill wants to protest Terry Hutchinson, he presses a button. The umpires are notified instantly in their cozy booth on land that there is a protest. The umpires will now be using monitors to determine protests. If they feel the protest is justified, they issue a penalty to the offending boat's black box via a text message making lights blink on and off on the box and the skipper needs to take the penalty. Not only do the umpires get cues from the magic buttons, all the teams get a text about other team's protests and penalties via their own black box with blinking lights. "The boats can be tracked within two centimeters and are tracked ten times per a second. We are testing the tracking this week to see if it's accurate enough for calling the start line," Craig said. Imagine calling the line from a booth on land and not even seeing the boats? Just a little weird. And in case the umpire's tracking software goes bad, there will be umpires on two jet skies watching the action the old fashion way and reporting back to the land locked umpires. -- Scuttlebutt Forum, read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=11766 NEED TO ASSESS WHO THE CUSTOMERS ARE By Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt editor I remember it well. The Snipe class had awarded the 1995 U.S. Nationals to Richmond Yacht Club on San Francisco Bay. Now, this is a great club with a one design tradition, and it was the hub of Snipe racing on the Bay. But the Nationals were scheduled for August. And on SF Bay, the wind snorts in August. The Snipe class is main/jib only doublehander that’s popular on both coasts, but also quite popular in the interior of the country. I knew the top teams would welcome the venue, but big wind, waves, and current would be a bit much for the lake sailors. To get a good attendance at this event, the organizers would have to lie through their teeth about the conditions. When I say lie, I mean it in only the savviest marketing sense. They just left out details. Their big pitch was that the race course would be close to the club, and positioned in the lighter winds to leeward of Angel Island. And this was all true. But the reality is that Angel Island could only do so much, and when the fleet got out to the reach mark (because we reached back then), it was a carnival of carnage. Despite their marketing plan, the event only drew 41 boats, lowest turnout in 43 years. I recall the first couple days during qualifying, where my wife/crew and I raced only as much as we had to so as to save strength for the finals. We weren’t in good enough shape to sail full-on for five days, and this strategy helped us survive to finish second overall. Why am I sharing this story? In two weeks, the Melges 24 World Championship will be held in Corpus Christi, Texas. This class has grown to be an exceedingly competitive fleet, and the conditions for this Worlds are going to be warm and windy, really really windy. For a well-sailed sportboat, this should be Mecca. So why have only 34 boats registered? I believe the top teams will go just about anywhere to compete. Give them a decent location with decent conditions, and they will fight it out for the big pickle dish. But for the rest of the class, the Worlds should provide a convention of both competition and camaraderie. And this venue appears to have missed the mark. Said one professional sailor who preferred to remain nameless, “You couldn’t pay me enough to sail this year. That event is going to eat up the crew.” No doubt, the sailing in Corpus is going to be off the hook, and I have every reason to believe the event hosts at Corpus Christi Yacht Club will show competitors a great time - because that’s how they roll in the south. But when the event only pulls 34 boats, half that of the previous year in Estonia and two thirds of the 2009 entrants in Annapolis for a dreary fall event, all class organizers need to assess who the customers are, and how can they best be served. -- Scuttleblog, http://tinyurl.com/Scuttleblog-042811 BORDER RUN, ETCHELLS WORLDS, LONG BEACH RACE WEEK, FIGAWI Above par regattas choose The Pirates Lair for their graphics, tees, jackets and tech gear. Find out how we can help make your event world-class as well as sponsorships and online sales. Call (888) 724-5286 or check out our website at http://www.pirateslair.com/SFNT.html ISAF SAILING WORLD CUP - EVENT FOUR Hyeres, France (April 28, 2011) - Ever since the inclusion of the Medal race, which advances only the top ten in the Olympic fleet events to a single non-drop double point race, days like today at the Semaine Olympique Française are all about who is in, and who is out. At the fourth event of the ISAF Sailing World Cup season, the Medal race tomorrow (Friday) is for those that survived the cut. But the intent of the Medal race was to keep the event alive with a high value final race. But dominance in four of the nine Olympic events - Finn, 470 Men, 470 Women, and Star - finds the gold medal confirmed. Most dominant among the events was Ben Ainslie (GBR), who won 6 of the 10 Finn races and never finished out of the top ten. “It’s nice to win with a day to spare - it takes the pressure off the medal race,” notes Ainslie. “There’re a lot of new faces [in the fleet] and there’s been some changes - it’s much more physical now than we’ve seen in the past, which is good. It’s hard work, but it’s good - I think it makes the class very physical. I guess that’s what the Olympics is all about, right?” Among the North Americans advancing to the Medal race are Zach Railey (Finn, 3rd), Erin Maxwell/ Isabelle Farrar (470 Womens, 7th), George Szabo/ Mark Strube (Star, 4th), Andrew Campbell/ Ian Coleman (Star, 5th) and Rick Merriman/ John Von Schwarz (Star. 10th) of the United States. In the Women’s Match Race, Lucy Macgregor (GBR) eliminated Genny Tulloch/ Alice Manard Leonard/ Jenn Chamberlin (USA) 3-1 in the Quarterfinals, with Macgregor advancing tp face Sally Barkow/ Elizabeth Kratzig/ Alana O'Reilly (USA) in the Finals. Racing concludes on April 29. Racing begins at 10 am. Daily report/results: http://sof.ffvoile.net/index.php?page=18&lang=en&news=115 Canada: http://tinyurl.com/CYA-042511 USA: http://sailingteams.ussailing.org/Events/World_Cup/SOF.htm GETTING THE JOB DONE After winning the 2008 Women’s 470 World Championship, Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar (USA) have been juggling work and competition as they seek to represent the U.S. at the 2012 Olympics. Their results have suffered during this span, but they are putting their ‘real lives’ on hold this year so as to have no regrets. It’s hard not to like these two, who consistently crank out daily reports from their events. Their update from Thursday was a particularly good one... --------------------------------------------------------------------- We placed 6th in the one race today, and moved up one spot to 7th overall! We accomplished our goal of qualifying for the medal race, and are in a position to move up to 6th place tomorrow! We started the day in 8th place. The pressure was on to have a good race today in order to qualify for tomorrow's medal race. We had to beat two of the three teams immediately behind us, BRA 177, JPN 4151 and GBR 855. Additionally, CRO 111 was only 13 points back, and FRA 9 and RUS 700 were only 15 points back. In a 55 boat fleet, those points can disappear in a hurry! We knew that with that many boats to worry about, our best plan was to do well in the race. After all, if we placed 4th or better, we were guaranteed to be in the medal race! The forecast for today was dismal, but as we launched a light southeasterly filled in. We saw this same direction yesterday, and had seen better pressure on the left. Looking upwind before the race, we thought that it looked like that same pressure was on the left again, so we decided to go left. We had another great start at the pin, left end of the line, and headed left! As we sailed left, the breeze picked up about 2 knots to approximately 8 knots. We were set up for 6 knots, so struggled with our speed initially before we changed our settings. We did well on the left with pressure and a left shift. We approached the windward mark somewhere between 12th and 15th -- awesome! FRA 9 was third around the windward mark, and GBR 855 was just two boats in front of us. All the other teams that we wanted to beat were behind us. -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/11/0428/ SAILING SHORTS * Following a hugely successful campaign in the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race and an overall position of second place, Finland has confirmed it will return to the race track with an entry in Clipper 11-12. At 40,000 miles the Clipper Race is the world’s longest global ocean race and this year’s entry, named Visit Finland, will act as a floating billboard as she races around the world, promoting the region as a tourist destination to an audience of more than half a billion people who visit the race stopovers or follow it in the media, over the course of eleven months. -- Full story: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/race_news/?item=12483 * (April 28, 2011) - Velux 5 Oceans racer Zbigniew ‘Gutek’ Gutkowski has passed the halfway mark of his passage from Fortaleza in Brazil to Charleston, USA. The Polish solo skipper pulled into Fortaleza for 11 days during this race leg to repair damage that included a broken forestay and bowsprit, and also to help heal broken ribs. He expects to finish the leg in Charleston in five to seven days. The final race leg from Charleston to La Rochelle, France begins May 14th. -- http://www.velux5oceans.com * With the completion of the Barcelona World Race, the 2010 rankings in the IMOCA Open 60 class find Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec 3) on top. Each year, the IMOCA class draws up its rankings based on the results of the previous two years, with these rankings using the results from the 2009 Istanbul Europa Race, the 2009 Transat Jacques Vabre, the 2010 Route du Rhum and the 2010 Barcelona World Race. Full report: http://tinyurl.com/IMOCA-042811 IT’S NOT TOO LATE It’s not too late for 2011 to excite your junior sailors. Several prominent Yacht Clubs, Community Programs, and Camps are taking delivery of their O’Pen BICs and/or windsurfing fleets in May, June, and July. As retention rates in sailing programs remain an issue, it’s no coincidence that modern alternatives for kids are hot topics at the National Sailing Program Symposium and the Yacht Club Summit. You can join the fun too. See why more Junior Programs are successfully adding excitement at O'Pen BIC and Techno 293 windsurfing (see videos below). Contact info@bicsportna.com or 508-291-2770. BIC also offers great Stand Up Paddleboards. O'Pen BIC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9_botWb8KU Techno 293: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOa8rhmGI7c PHOTOS OF THE WEEK Some of the random photos from the sport received this week at Scuttlebutt include reggae regatta, new breed of boats, public helicopter, proud man, nice ride, and Opti-zoo. Here are this week’s photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/11/0429/ SEND US YOUR PHOTOS: If you have images to share for the Photos of the Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com VIDEO OF THE WEEK The choice of events for the 2016 Olympics will be the focus of the 2011 ISAF Mid-Year Meeting in St Petersburg, Russia on May 4-8. One of the 10 events in question is Women's Match Racing, which will debut at the 2012 Olympics. While the Video of the Week feature is not for politics, this week's clip provides a unique presentation of how match racing believes it fits into the objectives of the Olympics. The video is fast paced, well produced, entertaining, and exhausting (in a good way). And it's only 1:51 minutes! Enjoy: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/11/0429/ BONUS 1: Have you ever seen a Laser stick the bow into a wave downwind and “head down the mine”? That’s what happened when 12 Laser Masters went out on San Francisco Bay for Pre Worlds Master Clinic: http://youtu.be/eqLcex-IdOs BONUS 2: When you need a ‘personal day’ from work to recharge the batteries, where do you go? Philippe Kahn recently snuck down to Santa Cruz harbor to take out his Devoti-One singlehander. And he strapped on a GoPro Hero Camera to the sprit to show us how fun an outing like this can be. Enjoy: http://youtu.be/eW_zG_VqfZ4 BONUS 3: There may be a time when it gets old watching the America’s Cup catamarans capsize, but it’s not yet. Here is a video of the latest casualty when Oracle Racing ‘crossed the line’: http://youtu.be/ddZNDavV4Y4 BONUS 4: The 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race doesn’t start until October, but the Kiwi team is already trialing their boat AND Media Crew Member (MCM) Hamish Hoooper. Here he provides a slice of life off the east coast of New Zealand as the crew onboard CAMPER battle through winds in excess of 40 knots. Good times: http://youtu.be/-7oDbKn4EuY SEND US YOUR VIDEOS: If you have clips to share for the Video of the Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com GUEST COMMENTARY Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community. Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted comments chosen to be published in the newsletter may be limited to 250 words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From A L Crafer: (re, ‘Call to Arms’ in Scuttlebutt 3330) I completely disagree and cannot believe that Scuttlebutt is promoting sailors to oppose the bill. Anything that helps to preserve the world's seas, oceans, lakes and waterways should be commended. * From Renata Goodridge Why is it that if I can find this (ePaint, a copper-free antifouling paint) on the internet in under three minutes and the RBOC can't??? There is no excuse for all sailors not to change to products that help to keep our waters clean. And if it has to start with recreational boaters, then step up and set the example! * From Brian Todd: Regarding the comment in Butt 3329 by John Harwood Bee about Olympic costs, the World wide sailing community and the town of Weymouth has already seen the benefits of the Olympic investment in the area with the new facilities set up for the Games. In several visits, I have seen this community transformed to a World class sailing venue for not only the Olympic sailors but for the hundreds of local kids that sail from the site on a daily basis in a safe clean environment. On top of this the local community and businesses must be doing very well as it is very difficult to even get a room in the area unless it is a long term lease. The site is also recouping costs by charging countries for parking boats on site, up to the Olympics (and it’s not a small amount, either). As an example, Kingston Ontario Canada, home of the sailing in 1976 Montreal Olympics, 35 years later still holds the annual CORK regatta plus numerous World and continental championships from the venue. It is also the home of the Canadian Yachting Association. As all Games, it is not about the year that they are held, it is about the legacy and what they will do for sport for years to come. NOTE: Thanks, ugh, for the reminder of how the U.S. has no lasting legacy from the sailing events of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. * From Roger Marshall: With two sons active in sailing all the way from optis to worlds - and at last count ten boats, including a J 22 and a J 24, in the yard and driveway - I find the issue of coaches in sailing to be a no brainer. Aren't we all coaches at some point? Haven't we all helped a newbie or a beginner learn more about 'our" fleet, "our" boat or "our" race course? Haven't we all been a fleet follower in a powerboat? The goal is to share and impart information to improve every sailor. At a recent Worlds, my sons got help from a "pro" sailmaker who volunteered (read coached) to help them go faster and compete against him. When they returned to their fleet they spent time helping others in their fleet to compete with them. As one member of the fleet said, "By their going to the worlds, they raised the bar for the entire fleet." Whether the coach is paid or not, the best coaches help everyone. Having a coaching boat in the area is a safety net for all junior sailors. For people concerned about coach boats on the race course, simply write in the Sailing Instructions to keep coaches outside a designated area during a race and ban communication with the sailors until after the races. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION There are people who look to you for stability, so hide when you bite your nails. SPONSORS THIS WEEK Point Loma Outfitting - Doyle Sails - North Sails Melges Performance Sailboats - Interlux - Team One Newport Morris Yachts - LaserPerformance - Ullman Sails - Summit Yachts US Sailing - The Pirates Lair - O’pen BIC Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
