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SCUTTLEBUTT 3014 - Monday, January 25, 2010
Scuttlebutt 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.
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Today’s sponsors: Southern Spars and Webb Institute.
TOP TEAMS SAVOR GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENT
Key West, FL, (January 22, 2010) - With the completion of the five day Key
West 2010 event, Mike Williamson sported a very satisfied look as he sat in
the cockpit of his Summit 40 sipping a Heineken and reflected on capturing
IRC 2 class. “It feels very, very good to win this regatta. Key West is well
known around the world so certainly it’s a great accomplishment,” Williamson
said.
There were hearty handshakes and slaps on the back among the Joe Fly crew
upon return to the dock on Friday after the Italian team topped the Farr 40
class. Skipper Giovanni Maspero and tactician Francesco Bruni have brought
the Joe Fly program to North America’s largest winter regatta for many years
without winning in either the Melges 24 or Farr 40 classes and thus were
overjoyed. “We are very happy to finally win in Key West. We have always
been second and third so it feels good to be the champion,” Bruni said.
Over at Truman Annex, the UKA UKA Racing crew was in tremendous spirits as
they dropped the mast of their Melges 24 after winning Key West for the
second straight year. Blu Moon helmsman Flavio Favini needed to win the last
race and have UKA UKA Racing take third or worse in order to snag the
overall victory. At one point in the last race, Favini had put Alan Field’s
WTF between Blu Moon and UKA UKA Racing. However, the Italian team rallied
on the last leg to win the last race along with the regatta.
John Kilroy and the Samba Pa Ti team completed an impressive run in the
Melges 32 class, largest of the regatta with 22 boats. Stu Bannatyne called
tactics while Morgan Reeser and Sam Rogers served as trimmers aboard Samba,
which took the lead on Tuesday and never relinquished it. There was an added
bonus for the Malibu, California resident as Samba Pa Ti was named Boat of
the Week.
Bluto, an Evelyn 32 co-owned by Bill Berges and Ben Hall, was chosen PHRF
Boat of the Week. Bluto won three of the last four races to edge the J/109
Rush (Bill Sweetser) by one point in a very competitive PHRF 2.
Complete story: http://www.premiere-racing.com/KW10_Results/kw10_news.htm
Final results: http://tinyurl.com/y987z4f
* VIDEOS: Five daily recap videos at Key West 2010 were produced by T2P.tv,
with Scuttlebutt also capturing some of the event vibe by video. If you are
just getting home from the event, you have a lot of clips to view. For those
of you who have been keeping up on the viewing, the latest Scuttlebutt
segments posted on Friday include Chris Larson, Ben Mitchell, Jud Smith,
Jonathan Bartlett, Sharon Green, Jeff Johnstone, Harry Melges, Kevin
Coughlin (New England Ropes), an iguana, a rooster, and the ‘Melges Rocks!’
party. View it all here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/10/kw
* PHOTOS: Sharon Green leads a cast of six contributing photographers that
provided some of the amazing imagery in the Scuttlebutt photo gallery of Key
West 2010: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/10/0123
* SEAHORSE DISCOUNT: As a special offer to Scuttlebutt readers and
participants at Key West Race Week, SEAHORSE Magazine is offering a
substantial discount rate for 1, 2, 3 and 5-year subscriptions. New
subscribers can save up to 40% off the cover price and 30% off the standard
rates for monthly airmail delivery of the world's premier publication on
international performance sailing. Details here: http://tinyurl.com/yfg8dct
BOAT OF THE WEEK: MELGES 32 SAMBA PA TI
Although he has run successful campaigns in the Farr 40 and TP52 classes in
recent years, Samba Pa Ti's John Kilroy had only sailed a handful of Melges
32 events prior to Key West 2010. Coming into the event, he figured it would
be a learning experience.
"Since our program is new to the class, our goal for the week was to figure
out what was fast, figure out what works, and try to learn a few things,"
says Kilroy, whose crew includes tactician Stu Bannatyne and main trimmer
Morgan Reeser. "It was really just a coincidence that we did well. Sometimes
your goal is to achieve one thing, and you achieve another."
What Kilroy's team achieved was first place in its class and Boat of the
Week honors. "I like goals," says Kilroy. "I like to learn. To me, it's all
learning. And because I didn't grow up sailing dinghies - I grew up on big
boats - the Melges 32 doesn't come naturally to me. To me, it's like a
dinghy.
"I learned a lot about driving the different sails, about rig tension, about
where to set ourselves up on the line," he continues. "At any start, you
want to have some distance above the boats to leeward. But in this fleet,
sometimes you've just got to realize that's not going to happen. For me,
being so competitive, it's always, 'I'm first, I want to be out in front, I
want to be number one.' But sometimes it takes a while to get there. You
have to chip away. You have to be patient. You can choose the breakfast you
want, but it's not always the breakfast you're going to be served. Sometimes
you're going to eat something you don't want to."
Kilroy learned to eat his porridge this week, and he hopes the discipline
will serve him well down the road. "In the big picture, our goal is the 2010
Worlds," he says. "They're in San Francisco, where my family has a house, so
we're hoping to do well there."
Leading up to Melges 32 Worlds in September, the two-boat Samba Pa Ti
campaign will make stops in Miami, Italy, and California. As if that
ambitious schedule won't keep him busy enough, Kilroy has something even
bigger in the works. "My goal is to design a boat that will be good for the
Sydney-Hobart, the Pineapple Cup, the Fastnet, the Honolulu Race, things
like that," he says. -- Sailing World, read on:
http://www.sailingworld.com/article.jsp?ID=1000079905&cmpid=enews011310
=> Curmudgeon’s Comment: The Sailing World link will also take you to their
Key West 2010 event blog, where they had Peter Isler (Highland Fling), Chuck
Allen (J/80), Terry Hutchinson (Farr 40), and Jonathan McKee (Melges 24)
submitting reports during the week.
RIGGED TO WIN….KEY WEST 2010
When it’s strictly about winning, the bottom line is - you need the power to
perform at optimum in any weather condition thrown your way. Key West 2010
was no exception. Powered by the carbon force, Southern Spars congratulates
the Key West 2010 winners in the Farr 40 class, Melges 24, Melges 32’s, and
IRC Div 1 - Bella Mente and Highland Fling XI, also rigged with EC6
Continuous carbon rigging. Learn more about how these yachts are powered to
perform in anything: http://www.southernspars.com
THE GIFT THAT KEEPS GIVING, AND GIVING, AND GIVING
With a date of February 8th looming large in the headlights for the
commencement of the 33rd America’s Cup, there remains unsettled weather in
both Valencia, Spain and New York, USA. Weather guru Jon Bilger for the
defender notes, “We're expecting very strong north-easterlies tomorrow
(Monday) and potentially for the next three maybe four days so it’s unlikely
that we are going to be able to get any sailing in. It's unfortunate but
expected at this time of the year... it's an interesting place to have an
America's Cup in February!” As for the storms in the states, they are more
the figurative type as Scuttlebutt’s legal analyst Cory E. Friedman
describes in his 54th report on the legal portion of this match:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(January 24, 2010) - We have Société Nautique De Genève’s (SNG) papers in
opposition to Golden Gate Yacht Club’s (GGYC) Constructed in Country (CiC)
motion to DSQ SNG and SNG’s CiC Cross Motion to DSQ GGYC (surprise,
surprise). First of all, what is going to happen on the return date, January
28, 2010? Not much. The clerk will call the calendar in Room 130 (not room
148 as appears on the papers). If the law firms’ paralegals get to the right
room, they will hand up the papers the law firms previously served on each
other, the clerk will take the papers, check the affidavits of service, and
put them in a folder. That is it. The folder for these motions will then be
logged in and eventually sent to Justice Kornreich’s chambers, which will
then instruct the clerk that oral argument should be scheduled (oral
argument is mandatory in the Commercial Division).
Almost certainly, because of the February 8, 2010 Match date, Phil Bowman
from David Boies’ law firm (for GGYC) will be on the phone with Justice
Kornreich’s law clerk requesting an early hearing rather than the normal
wait of about two weeks. Based upon the papers thus far, Bob Giuffra of
Sullivan & Cromwell, SNG’s latest law firm, is not likely to be in any hurry
for a hearing, so it is entirely possible that nothing will happen before
February 8. Indeed, unless GGYC’s papers are a walk off home run, the
chances of any decision before February 8 are pretty slim.
So, what is Giuffra up to? Standard top quality large firm defense. SNG’s
combined papers have four broad elements: 1) GGYC’s Motion is procedurally
improper; 2) as Justice Ciparick ruled back in the day in Mercury Bay, the
parties should go race and bring any complaints to the court when they are
done; 3) Alinghi 5 is CiC and fully Deed compliant, and 4) USA is not CiC,
not compliant with its challenge, and not Deed compliant. Elements 1 and 2
could be written on a picture post card and decided pretty quickly on
another picture post card. Points 3 and 4 are the ones that make your hard
drive sag and are designed to prevent a quick decision. -- Read on:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/cf/#p54
Alinghi statement: http://tinyurl.com/ycden7r
BMW Oracle statement: http://tinyurl.com/ybqvcb5
Video of wing by BMW Oracle CEO Russell Coutts: http://tinyurl.com/y96lbls
BIG REGATTA, BIG GUNS READY FOR OPENING DAY
Miami, FL (January 24, 2010) - If you can make it here, you can make it
anywhere. That’s what 630 of the world’s best sailors are counting on as
they prepare for Monday’s opening day at US SAILING’s 2010 Rolex Miami OCR,
the second of seven stops of the International (ISAF) Sailing World Cup
2009-2010 and one of the most competitive regattas in the U.S., if not the
world, for elite Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls. For six days, Miami’s
Biscayne Bay will populate with the spectacle of 440 boats representing 45
nations and competing in the 13 classes selected for the 2012
Olympic/Paralympic Games in Weymouth, England.
“This is the third largest fleet we’ve had in the event’s 21-year history,”
said Event Co-Organizer Gary Bodie (Hampton, VA). “Usually our bigger years
are right before the Games; right now we’re a full two years out. It speaks
to the commitment sailors must make to their campaigns throughout an entire
four-year quadrennium.”
The Rolex Miami OCR hosts the same 10 Olympic and three Paralympic classes
chosen for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Competitions. At the same
time, it closely replicates the format and feel of what sailors can expect
at those regattas. The classes are: Laser Radial (women), Laser (men), Finn
(men), Men’s RS:X, Women’s RS:X, 49er (men), Men’s 470, Women’s 470, Star
(men) and Elliott 6m (women), 2.4mR (open, able and disabled), SKUD18
(mixed, disabled) and Sonar (open, disabled). -- Full report:
http://rmocr.ussailing.org/Press_Room/2010_Press_Releases/Preview.htm
Twitter page: http://twitter.com/RolexMiamiOCR
Facebook fan page: http://tinyurl.com/OCR10-FB
VIDEO: Live coverage from Sailgroove at 10am ET daily, while T2P will
produce daily racing highlight packages on Wednesday through Saturday:
Sailgroove: http://www.sailgroove.org/sc/miamiocr
T2P.tv: http://www.t2p.tv
USING DYNEEMA FOR LIFELINES
Composite lifelines are being used by sailors more frequently, especially in
around-the-buoy racing. In the 2010-2011 edition of the ISAF Offshore
Special Regulations, Dyneema is now an approved lifeline material for
offshore racing. There have been concerns that the offshore regulations were
in conflict with the racing rules regarding lifeline materials.
The Racing Rules of Sailing for 2009-2012 (RRS) rule 49.2 states that “on
boats equipped with upper and lower lifelines of wire, a competitor sitting
on the deck facing outboard with his waist inside the lower lifeline may
have the upper part of his body outside the upper lifeline.” In an answer to
a recent question posted on an ISAF question and answer page, ISAF clarified
that Dyneema is not wire and boats wishing to use the provisions of rule
49.2 will need to continue using wire for upper and lower lifelines.
However, RRS 86 states that RRS 49.2 may be changed by the sailing
instructions or class rules to allow the use of other materials. -- Complete
report: http://tinyurl.com/ybobwf3
WHAT FLOATS YOUR BOAT?
Are you or someone you know interested in engineering, design or
architecture? Interested in learning to design yachts, ships and offshore
platforms? Check out Webb Institute! Our program combines mechanical,
electrical and civil engineering with the principals of architecture and
design and leads to a Bachelor of Science degree in Naval Architecture and
Marine Engineering. All students receive a full tuition scholarship and we
have 100% job placement. Webb's beautiful waterfront campus is located on
Long Island Sound in New York. If the idea of earning a comprehensive degree
in a unique learning environment floats your boat, then visit
http://www.webb-institute.edu/scuttlebutt
SAILING SHORTS
* At the first annual US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) Awards Banquet
last Friday evening in Miami, Florida, the Olympic Sailing Program presented
seven US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics Awards to the 2009 team members who
achieved excellence in the following categories in 2009: Best Individual
Performance (Anna Tunnicliffe), Best Team Performance (Scott Whitman and
Julia Dorsett), Best Performance by a Newcomer (Andrew Campbell), Best
Teammate (Stuart McNay), Most Improved Fitness (Paige Railey and Clay
Johnson) and Commercial Award (Graham Biehl). -- Details:
http://sailingteams.ussailing.org/Releases/USSTAG_Awards.htm
* Corona del Mar, CA - The inaugural National Youth Match Race Clinic and
Regatta will occur this year, hosted by Balboa Yacht Club on May 14-16. The
event is organized to attract youth match racing talent from across the
United States, with the winner of this event getting an automatic berth in
the 2010 Governor’s Cup International Junior Match Race Championship with
other top finishers to be considered by the Governor’s Cup Selection
Committee for the invitation only event. -- Full details:
http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=8982
* The Volvo Sailing Podcast was in Valencia to hear a rant from Russell
Coutts, a rebuttal from Brad Butterworth and how to sail solid wings with
Cam Lewis. Listen here: http://tinyurl.com/yc9c5z8
* Multi One Design S.A. has announced that Michel Desjoyeaux and his sponsor
FONCIA are officially entering the MOD 70 circuit. The Multi One
Championship will bring together an international fleet of 12 one-design
trimarans for an offshore and inshore crew racing programme starting in
2012. Following the official launch of the project in July 2009, the
delivery of the first 4 MOD 70 is expected in Autumn 2011, with an objective
of 7 teams to be racing in Europe in May-June 2012. -- Full report:
http://tinyurl.com/ydh8lod
* Sixteen year old Abby Sunderland left Marina del Rey, CA at about noon on
Saturday to pursue her quest to become the youngest person to sail around
the world alone. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/yb35nnv
* Key West, FL (January 24, 2010) - In his first-ever attempt at match race
sailing, Charleston-based Guy Mossman has won the 2nd annual Key West Match
Race Invitational, organized by the Chicago Match Race Center (CMRC). On the
strength of superior boathandling of his Melges 24 in the fresh 15-20 knot
breezes and short 15-minute race courses, Mossman and his team of Mike
Buckley, Skip Baxter, Ben Allen, and Danielle Soriano dominated both the
five round robin series and win the first-to-two point Final convincingly on
a 2-0 score. -- Complete report:
http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=8986#8986
* COMMENT: The Scuttlebutt team extends our apology to those who felt the
Curmudgeon’s Observation in Issue 3013 was insensitive given the recent
earthquake in Haiti. It is safe to say that the Haiti disaster will be
remembered in 5 years, and that it puts many other so-called disasters in
perspective.
SCUTTLEBUTT SAILING CALENDAR
Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar
LETTERS AND FORUM
Please email your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, ‘The
Curmudgeon’). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer
than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). One
letter per subject, and save your bashing and personal attacks for
elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is
available on the Scuttlebutt Forum.
-- To submit a Letter: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com
-- To post on the Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum
* From Brad Dellenbaugh:
Regarding Peter Isler's comments in Scuttlebutt 3013 on the 33rd America’s
Cup starting strategy, don't expect any dial-ups. The sailing instructions
show an 'entry mark' that appears to be set about 25 degrees below the
port-end starting mark. The line between this entry mark and the Race
Committee boat forms the Entry Line through which the two boats must 'enter'
by crossing from the course side to the pre-start side within a two minute
period after the preparatory signal (after which the 'entry mark' has no
relevance). This is designed so that as long as the 'port end' boat enters
on time, she will be able to cross ahead of the 'starboard end' boat and
avoid any chance of a dial up in these multihull beasts closing at
incredible speeds.
Instead, expect the boats to focus on their timed approaches to the line,
maybe circling a couple of times depending on maneuverability, and trying to
control the end of the line that is on the side of the course that they want
to protect. The excitement may come when approaching the line on their final
runs, perhaps a bit early, and the trailing boat trying to 'hook' the lead
boat (get a leeward overlap) either to luff them over the line or hold them
outside the starboard end of the line, OR to force them to sail fast to
protect against this, but end up too early for the pin end. Pretty exciting
at 40 knots! Wonder which hull overlapping which other hull will count as a
leeward overlap! And as Pedro says, you definitely don't want to end up
parked in a multihull at the start of a race!
* From Will Baillieu:
I think it would be better if they started at opposite ends of a 2 mile long
rectangular track, and went direct at each other, with long lances. Full
speed reaching, with a closing speed of about 60 knots. A $200 million game
of chicken. Whoever swerves loses.
* From Kett Cummins, New Orleans:
George Hill of Newport (in Scuttlebutt 3013) raised an interesting point
about BOR's sail number, but perhaps he missed part of the equation:
Odd-numbered U.S. boats are undefeated (4-0) in America's Cup finals, while
the only U.S. defeats (twice) have come with even-numbered sails. An odd
sail number is definitely the safer choice for BOR!
Odd-numbered U.S. sails in AC finals (4 times): 1962 Weatherly US-17,
defender, won; 1987 Stars & Stripes US-55, challenger, won; 1988 Stars &
Stripes US-1, defender, won; 1992 America3 USA-23, defender, won. U.S.
defeated in AC finals (twice): 1983 Liberty US-40, defender, lost; 1995
Young America USA-36, defender, lost.
And don't forget that U.S. challengers are 2-0 in AC finals (1851 & 1987),
so BOR has that streak in her favor, as well!
* From Ken Guyer:
George Hill in Butt 3013 talks about sail numbers on US 12 meters who
successfully “defended” the Cup being all even except Weatherly and the
possible effect it may have on Ellison choosing his favorite sail number 17.
Ellison is “challenging” for the Cup and the ONLY successful US 12 meter to
challenge was US-55, Stars & Stripes, in 1987. In addition the ONLY
multihull to ever “defend” the Cup was USA-1. Sounds like the deck is
stacked in Larry’s favor.
CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION
What happens in Key West, stays in Key West.
Special thanks to Southern Spars and Webb Institute.
Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers
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