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SCUTTLEBUTT 1411 - September 10, 2003Powered 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 and personal attacks for elsewhere. STAR EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS Torben Grael won the final race of the Star European Championships to win the regatta with a three point advantage over Mark Neeleman from the Netherlands, who finished fourth. Just as in the four previous days, by 1300 hours, the Stars started leaving Marina de Cascais heading for the racing area. The difference was in the weather conditions: very strong wind (more than 25 knots) and choppy sea, "It means impracticable conditions for the Star class," said José Cancella de Abreu, Clube Naval de Cascais races responsible. Nevertheless, at the scheduled time (1400) the Race Committee fired the starting shot for the last race of the 2003 Star European Championship. However, in sight of the lack of the smallest security conditions to the boats and its crews, the Race Committee was forced to hoist the postponement flag, which made the crews come back on shore waiting for new instructions. Until 16h00 there could have been a new start. At 1514 the postponement was struck and the Stars went one more time to the sea - this time about half of the fleet had chosen not to get in the race again. The final race stared at 1628 with the wind blowing from the north at about 18 knots, which fell to ten by the end of the race. Final standings of the 62 boat Star European Championships (six races with one discard): 1. Torben Grael/ Marcelo Ferreira, BRA, 14 2. Mark Neeleman/ Peter Van Niekerk, NED, 17 3. Colin Beashel/ David Giles, AUS, 33 4. Iain Percy/ Steve Mitchell, GBR, 34 5. Fredrik Loof/ Anders Ekstrom, SWE, 35 6. Peter Bromby/ Martin Siese, BER, 36 7. Ross Macdonald/ Kai Bsorn, CAN, 52 8. Mark Reynolds/ Magnus Liljedahl, USA, 57 9. Iain Murray/ Andrew Palfrey, AUS, 58 10. Mark Mansfield/ Killian Collins, IRL, 59 15. Rick Merriman/ Bill Bennett, USA; 78 Website: http://www.stareuro2003.com/Home_Event.asp THE VENUE Portugal is willing to make a "significant investment" to help stage the America's Cup in 2007 if it wins the right to host the yachting regatta, Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso said Monday. "Considering the benefits which this investment would bring in terms of tourism and image for the country, the government is open to making a significant investment to make sure it is held here," he said at a joint press conference with visiting Swiss President Pascal Couchepin. The prime minister would not say how much money his centre-right government, which is struggling to contain a ballooning public deficit, would be willing to set aside to cover the costs of the event, considered the world's most prestigious yachting trophy. Switzerland won the right to organize the event when its Alinghi team thrashed the defending Team New Zealand 5-0 in Auckland in March. But the land-locked country cannot defend the trophy on Swiss water as Cup rules specify the competition must take place at sea. Switzerland is now engaged in a search for a host port for the next challenge, with various European coastal cities vying for the honour. In June the Swiss syndicate and Alinghi, which are organizing the next competition, shortlisted the candidate cities down to five: Lisbon, Portugal; Marseille, France; Naples, Italy; Palma de Mallorca and Valencia in Spain. Barcelona in Spain and Tuscany-Elba in Italy were eliminated from the running following on-site visits and technical checks on facilities and local weather patterns. Patrick Monteiro de Barros, president of the Lisbon organising committee, has said the former fishing town of Cascais, located just outside of Lisbon, offers the best wind conditions of all the candidates. "I am not saying the others are also not good, but aside from offering excellent winds, we have wind all year," he told weekly newspaper Diario de Noticias on Sunday. - The Daily Times, full story: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_3-9-2003_pg2_27 BIG BOAT: BEHIND THE SCENES The 2003 Big Boat Series in San Francisco will see Raider RIB's from the 30' Cabin 900 with twin 225hp, 6' 4" head room, a fresh water shower and enclosed head, to the 26' Center Console and Cabin models 790 with 225hp, removable rear seat and enclosed head, plus the new 22' Raider 665 with 115hp. This new center console boat, complete with motor trailer, even has an enclosed head with special introductory pricing. Quality made affordable. Test drive in San Diego, San Francisco or eastern US. Call for details at (877) 772-4337 or view online at http://www.raiderboat.com AC HALL OF FAME Sailor and businessman Ted Turner will be on hand October 16 when the Herreshoff Marine Museum (HMM) honors its 2003 inductees to the America's Cup Hall of Fame -- Alan Bond (Fremantle, Australia) and Gary Jobson (Annapolis, Md.). Turner will lend his personal insight to the introduction of Jobson's considerable accomplishments. As skipper and tactician, respectively, the pair captured the America's Cup aboard Courageous in 1977. Introducing Bond, the entrepreneur who led the Australian effort to win the Cup in 1983, will be the Australian Consul General Ken Allen. The Induction Ceremony will take place Thursday, October 16, 2003, at the Union League Club in New York City, starting at 6:30 p.m. Tickets to the black-tie affair are available individually ($250-$350) and by the table ($2,500-$5,000). For information: j.russell@herreshoff.org 1D35 US NATIONALS John Musa's Jacaibon from Dillon, Colorado claimed this year's eight race 1D 35 National Championship Regatta, held over a three day period September 7-9, at the San Francisco YC. With Terry Hutchinson as the tactician, Jacaibon notched her first major regatta victory for owner John Musa in commanding fashion, finishing ahead of second place Chris and Kara Busch's Wild Thing (San Diego, CA) by a whopping 24 points. The third podium finish belonged to the DeVos brothers from Holland, MI. Final Results (8 races with no discards): . John Musa, Jacaibon, 17; 2. Chris and Carla Busch, Wild Thing, 41; 3. Dick & Doug DeVos, Windquest, 42; 4. David Kirk, Detente, 44; 5. Bill Wright, Zsa-Zsa, 49. - http://www.sfyc.org/Regattas2003/Results/031D35CSV.HTM NEWS BRIEFS * Having been waiting patiently on shore since Sunday for the weather to settle, the 70 competitors in the Mini Transat finally made their way to the start line off La Rochelle Tuesday afternoon. The decision by Grand Pavios and Class Mini to postpone the start for two days was well received and the weather for the eventual start at 1730 couldn't have been better. In a 20kt north-north-westerly and two-metre swell the 70-boat fleet crossed the start line and commenced their 1,350-mile first leg of the course to Lanzarote. - Sue Pelling, Yachting World website, full story: http://tinyurl.com/mt3q * The World Tour of 18' Skiffs came to St.Francis YC last week. Nine races were sailed in 18 to 25 knots. With starts, finishes and mid course gate set 100' from the St.FYC bar, the spectators could feel the adrenalin. Fresh from their International 14' World Championship win, the highly polished works team of "RMW Marine" Rob Greenhalgh and Dan Johnson sailing with Sam Gardner won the event. In second was "West Marine" with reigning World Champions Howie Hamlin and Mike Martin sailing with Andy Zinn. The 2000 World Champs - "Yandoo," John Winning, Geoff and Euan McNicol - took third. - www.stfyc.org * Among the casualties when Hurricane Fabian swept across Bermuda, with winds in excess of 140 miles per hour, was Tim Kent's Open 50, Everest Horizontal. During the storm, the dock lines parted and the boat was driven onto the rocks behind Ocean Sails. Kent reports that the boat looks pretty good, and is presently trying to raise the money to fly to Bermuda to assess the damage before the boat is re-floated her. www.everesthorizontal.com * Light winds in Nova Scotia caused the Clipper 2002 fleet to motor East from Halifax into open water where the eight teams staged a Le Mans start on Tuesday. Hurricane Fabian caused the start of Race 15 to Jersey to move from New York to Nova Scotia and delayed it by a full week. - www.clipper-ventures.com * With the goal of raising $15,000 - $30,000 for the Washington DC area Kids Set Sail program for urban teens, J World Annapolis and GEL have teamed up to invite area corporations and organizations to enter the October 24th B.I.G. Team Regatta. J World is providing 26-foot J/80s staffed with a professional sailing coach and each entering organization will receive an evening or afternoon session of team building and race training in the weeks before the event. Enthusiasm, not sailing experience, is the central requirement. For information: http://www.gelcorp/big SCUTTLEBUTT WEBSITE LINKS Classifieds: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/classifieds Sailing events: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar Photo gallery: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos Interviews: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/interview FASTEST SAILS ON THE PLANET! Ullman Sails produced another dominating race season for our customers. From Key West to Seattle or Block Island to San Diego, Ullman Sails customers enjoy unparalleled performance, durability and service. From local one design sailing to international competition, let Ullman Sails give you and your crew the speed advantage for 2004. With the 2003 racing season coming to a close, it's the perfect time to reflect and begin planning for 2004. For the "Fastest Sails on the Planet" give your local Ullman Sails loft a call or visit us online at http://www.ullmansails.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 Roger Strube: Get over it. Sailing is a rich man's sport. The irony of Mr. Matus' comments critical of elitist yacht club members posted in same issue of Scuttlebutt as the Sailing World story listing the preseason top five coed school rankings was glaring. Sailing, and more specifically sail racing, is very expensive. I don't know if the decline in participation in sailing is directly related to increasing separation between the rich and poor and the decline in the middle class but it would seem to make sense. For sailing not only is perception reality, the perception is accurate. The real issue and the threat to our sport is the decline in numbers of participants. Sailing just dropped out of the top 20 in participation. General aviation seems to be facing the issue of shrinking participation and the root of the problem may be the same the shrinking middle class. The EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) has sponsored the "Young Eagles" program where kids are taken flying to introduce them to the sport. If you want to improve participation in our sport join US Sailing. They have the knowledge, information and materials necessary to build a yacht club, community sailing center, high school or college sailing instruction and racing program. Become a volunteer. We will never change the image of our sport. It is just too accurate and real. What we can do is facilitate involvement of young and not so young wanabees in our sport to reverse the participation down trend. * From Peter Branning: I'm sure you have heard this a million times, but there is no secret to the fact that the America's Cup is boring to the average viewer. It's just not much fun to watch. With the array of exciting boats such as skiff's, 49ers, Catamarans as well as others that could be developed for a lot less than a cup boat, why doesn't the America's Cup Committee choose a boat that will create the thrills and chills that will elevate this event to the spectator sport that the viewing public demands? Erratic television coverage of such an event is inevitable otherwise. Sponsors will be frustrated. The public will continue to be bored. Rich sailors will continue to play what is actually a rather personal game - as it always was really. * From Alan Ouellette: The idea that the RC needs to immediately individually notify every OCS boat puts them on a very slippery slope (what else is in the box Pandora?). It is ultimately up to the competitors to start properly and I think that the RC's job should be to minimize the impact that OCS boats have on boats that have started properly. To this end, it seems more appropriate to broadcast OCS boats a minute or two after the start and post OCS boats on a board at the weather mark. The only thing worse than sailing the entire race only to find out it didn't matter is realizing you may unduly affected the race of a boat that started properly. * Peter Horsch: While I have the utmost respect for Paul Cayard as a sailor, I find it ironic that he suggests the United States use lottery revenue (or some other government money) to help fund olympic campaigns, when in the same breath he refers to going to the Olympics as his anecdote (I think he means antidote) for his mid-life crisis. (September 2, 2003) Improved education or public transportation would have a much greater impact on the quality of my life, as well as most other Americans, than the color of the medal of an Olympic sailor. * Nancy Noyes: As a local sailing writer, I've watched with great interest the discussions in recent issues of Scuttlebutt about why press coverage is hard to come by and what we can all do to make it better. I'm grateful to have the support for coverage of our sport from our local daily, The Capital (Annapolis, MD), which does a creditable job making space for this important local form of recreation -- at least between April and October. But as recent writers also have been pointing out, it's true that there is an unfair perception in the greater outside world -- at least in the U.S. -- that sailing is a rich man's sport. These two topics actually are related. Apparently that perception of privilege and trust funds also is shared by many sports editors, and is another serious factor in why coverage for sailing events can be so hard to obtain. Years ago, when writing a weekly sailing column for a large regional daily, I was horrified at the response from my editor when I suggested an additional mid-week story on a large local regatta only to be brushed off with a snide remark: "What's that? Biff and Muffie go yaaachting?" This kind of attitude, promulgated by wannabe or washed-up-jock sports editors who can't relate to anything not involving the use of a ball, eventually led to that newspaper cutting back sailing space so extensively that it wasn't worth my time and effort. * From Peter Grimm Jr.: Tim Kent is spot on! I have been involved with the Hospice regatta for over five years now and I can tell you it is the most successful event in south Fla. because everyone from cruisers to racers and everything in between race for fun and raise money for Hospice care of S. Fla. The reason that it is successful is that it really is fun and no protests in 5 years! 90 plus boat regatta... the cruiser racer and family folks love this event because they don't feel intimidated even though we have world class sailors racing here. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS One of the perks of being over 65 is that there is nothing left to learn the hard way. |
