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SCUTTLEBUTT 1600 - June 9, 2004Powered 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, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere. THE HIGH COST OF WINNING (Following are a few excerpts from Ian Walker's excellent two part story on The Daily Sail website about the escalating cost of campaigning at all levels.) In all the areas of sailing that I have been involved with recently, namely the Olympic classes, America's Cup and Farr 40s the standard of the fleet has improved markedly in recent times. The level of commitment required to put a competitive entry together in any of these top events has risen hugely. The problem with all this is of course the cost. I would estimate that over the last 16 years since I first started Olympic sailing the cost in the more technical Olympic Classes costs have escalated as much as tenfold. Successful teams that may have once spent £10,000 in a year would now be spending nearer £100,000. The message is clear - If you are not prepared to commit 100% to Olympic sailing don't bother starting. I believe that the rising cost of sailing associated with its professionalisation at all levels could threaten its own future success. We are already seeing the warning signs. The Europrix collapsed due to a lack of entries. The Volvo Ocean Race looks set to have just six to eight entries - few for such a great event with a fantastic history, good sponsorship and professional management. The Admiral's Cup has had to be abandoned once and few outside of the RORC would claim the event to have been any kind of success for many years. I believe that wherever possible rule makers need to act to contain escalating costs that could threaten their own class or events. - Ian Walker, The Daily Sail, full story: http://tinyurl.com/yqmyp THE 10 BEST PLACES TO SAIL Where are the best places to sail in the U.S.? In the June issue, Sail magazine offers its selection of the country's 10 most sail-friendly towns and harbors. Employing a criteria that includes such factors as sailing conditions, length of season, access to cruising grounds, and strength of the sailing community, our edit staff sifted through a seemingly endless number of possible harbors and came up with a list sure to evoke both the praise and ire of Sail readers. Here are the ten harbors that the editors selected: - Bayfield, WI - Bristol, RI - Camden, ME - Charlotte Harbor, FL - Oriental, NC - Oxford, MD - Port Townsend, WA - San Diego, CA - Sausalito, CA - Seward, AK To vote for your favorite from the above list or to submit your own choice: www.sailmagazine.com/features/BPS/ AMERICA'S CUP There is every sign that the 2003 America's Cup losers, Team New Zealand, will unveil their come-back campaign on Saturday for the 2007 cup in Valencia. A $35 million deal with Emirates Airlines is being widely talked about. Boss Grant Dalton is expected to name British double Olympic medallist Ben Ainslie and American racer Terry Hutchinson as senior sailors. - Tim Jeffery, The Daily Telegraph, full story: http://tinyurl.com/3xshr COTTON KILLS... Save your favorite cotton shirt and shorts for when you hit the dock! If you are doing the Newport-Bermuda race or Block Island Race Week or any other racing event, make sure that you have the proper wicking layers on. Team One Newport is leading the way in the wicking and dry layering systems from Henri-Lloyd, Musto, Gill, Patagonia, Railriders, Sailing Angles and Camet. Be educated by the best in the industry, and let one of their experts help you with your needs. Visit the store at 561 Thames Street, Newport, RI or call 800-VIP-GEAR or visit http://:www.team1newport.com OBLITERATING THE RECORD At 2129 GMT Tuesday Frenchman Michel Desjoyeaux crossed the finish line of The Transat at the entrance to Boston Harbor to claim victory in the 60ft ORMA multihull class of the historic solo transatlantic race. Emotional scenes surrounded the arrival of Michel Desjoyeaux on board Geant as he set a new transatlantic race record from Plymouth to Boston of 8 days, 8 hours, 29 minutes and 55 seconds. He raced the 2800 mile course at an average speed of 13.61 knots. The previous record for the race was held by solo round the world record holder Francis Joyon who set a record of 9 days, 23 hours and 21 minutes in the last race in 2000. Desjoyeaux has taken 38 hours and 52 minutes off the record. Desjoyeaux crossed the finish line between Deer Island Light and Long Island Head Light at the entrance to Boston Harbour, four miles from downtown Boston, at a speed of 23 knots. At 2338 GMT Tuesday Frenchman Thomas Coville's Sodebo crossed the finish line of to claim second place in the 60ft ORMA multihull class - two hours, eight minutes and five seconds behind Desjoyeaux. This classic solo race that began in 1960 is raced against the prevailing winds and conditions of the North Atlantic and The Transat race lived up to its reputation as the toughest transatlantic race. A total of 37 boats, included 12 ORMA trimarans, started the race at 1300 GMT on 31st May and to date five boats have abandoned the race. The remainder of the ORMA fleet will finish in Boston over the next few days whilst the Open 60 monohull class leaders are expected to arrive from Saturday (12.6.04) onwards. Competition remains fierce among the Open 60s where, as usual, just 16 miles separates the present leader, Mike Golding on Ecover from Mike Sanderson's Pindar AlphaGraphics. The boats have been skirting the eastern edge of the Newfoundland Grand Banks, an area notorious for its many fishing boats and rolling banks of fog. Sailing blind last night in the fog Golding said he was convinced he saw an iceberg on his radar set less than a mile away. "I had three contacts on the radar - they were all around us. I was thinking I don't know what's going on here, because I couldn't see anything." Sanderson is sailing even more blind as not only has his radar stopped working, but so his ActivEcho radar detector that warns him if there is shipping in the vicinity. In the Open 50 Class, Joe Harris recorded his best day yet aboard Wells Fargo-American Pioneer, covering 317 miles in one 24-hour period as he swept past Kip Stone's Artforms to take the class lead. His average speed over the same period was 13.21 knots. The two Americans will be faced with a host of tactical challenges in the upcoming final days of racing, each hoping that Neptune smiles on them with conditions that favor their boat design and position. Standings @ 0300 GMT on June 9: ORMA 60 Multis: 1. Geant, Michel Desjoyeaux, finished; 2. Sodebo, Thomas Coville, finished. 3. Groupama, Franck Cammas, 5.2 miles to finish IMOCA Open 60 Monohulls: 1. ECOVER, Mike Golding, 803 miles to finish. 2. Pindar Alphagraphics, Mike Sanderson, 17mi. distance to leader. 3. Temenos, Dominique Wavre, 64 dtl Open 50 Multihulls: 1. Trilogic, Eric Bruneel, 1078 mtf; 2. Gifi, Dominique Demachy, 102 dtl Open 50 Monohulls: 1. Wells Fargo - American Pioneer, Joe Harris, 1177 mtf; 2. Artforms, Kip Stone, 2.2 dtl Event website: http://www.thetransat.com/ WOMEN'S MATCH RACING WORLDS Annapolis, Maryland, USA - With the first full round robin completed in the BoatU.S. ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championship, race organizers from host Eastport Yacht Club initiated a second early this afternoon, banging off 16 new matches on top of the 35 remaining to be sailed in the first round robin. For the second round robin, the Race Committee is using a format in which the pairings have been set so that skippers finishing first through eighth in the first round robin will race each other first in the series, while skippers in the lower positions race each other. This format provides a bit of a hedge against uncooperative wind and weather, as it can be truncated at the half-way point if necessary before passing on to a later stage of the event. Standings after Round Robin 1 and 16 races of Round Robin 2 - Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen (ISAF ranked #4), Denmark, 12-1, 13pts - Sally Barkow (#27), USA, 11-1, 12 - Carol Cronin (#18), USA, 10-1, 11 - Paula Lewin (#9), Bermuda, 9-2, 11 - Betsy Alison (#8), USA, 10-0, 10 - Katie Spithill (#16), Australia, 8-2, 10 - Deb Willits (#20), USA, 8-2, 10 - Jenny Axhede (#12), Sweden, 8-2, 10 - Liz Baylis (#5), USA, 8-1, 9 - Claire Leroy (#7), France, 8-1, 9 - Sabrina Gurioli (#10), Italy, 7-1, 8 - Christelle Philippe (#15), France, 7-0, 7 - Elizabeth Kratzig (#23), USA, 6-1, 7 - Linda Rahm (#19), Sweden, 5-0, 5 - Nina Braestrup (#3), Denmark, 3-1, 4 - Marie Faure (#6), France, 0-0, 0 Event website: www.santamariacup.org SAMSON - OFFICIAL SUPPLIER TO NORTH SAILS RACE WEEK 2004 will be a very exciting year at the Long Beach, CA venue which features great turnouts in PHRF, Farr 40, J-105 and more. We'll have hot new products in our booth and referrals to the best local riggers stocked with Samson for all your cordage needs. http://www.samsonrope.com PERSPECTIVE How the Transat records have tumbled from 40 days taken by Sir Francis Chichester's stately 40ft monohull in the inaugural race in 1960. Since then the quadrennial race has been won in 27, 25, 20, 23, 17, 16, 10, 11, 10, nine and now eight days. What is deeply impressive about Geant's crossing is that the ORMA 60 multihulls are now a mature 10-year-old class, yet the performance gains continue to flow. - Tim Jeffery, The Daily Telegraph, full story: http://tinyurl.com/3xshr NEWS BRIEFS * Peter Commette with crew Barb Evans sailed an amazingly consistent regatta (1-1-2-2) over a wide range of breeze conditions (5-18 knots) to win this years Snipe Atlantic Coast Championships held in Annapolis in conjunction with the Severn Sailing Association's annual Colonial Cup. John Manderson/ Stu Colie also sailed very consistently (1-2-3-3) to place second while newcomer to the Snipe from the Europe dinghy class, Krysia Pohl with Snipe National Champion crew Kathleen Tocke, beat out Augie Diaz/ Lisa Griffith by one point to take third. Lee Sackett and dad Tod from Cleveland rounded out the top five. - http://severnsailing.org/results/2004/606snipe.shtml * Ken Legler, Zack Leonard, Mark Ivey and Brad Read are just four of the 14 coaches who will be working with the participants at Sail Newport's 3rd Annual Advanced Racing Clinic which begins this Friday. Created in the mold of the "CISA" clinic, this three-day clinic delivers personalized coaching in two-person trapeze dinghies (C420) Laser and Laser Radial. Special Guest Speaker is Multi Olympic Gold Medal Winner and America's Cup Winner Jochen Schuemann, who will speak to the participants on Saturday Evening. - www.sailnewport.org * After starting out slowly, Bob Monro and his crew on Bye Bye Blues won the final three races of the J/120 North American Championship for a nine point regatta win over Dragon sailed by Hugh Bulloch. Five races were sailed off Stamford Connecticut 8-22 knots of breeze and a constant drizzle on Sunday. Final results: 1. Bye Bye Blues, Bob Monro, 10 2. Dragon, Hugh Balloch, 19; 3. Ricochet, Thomas Lee, 21; 4. Excalibur, John Geissinger, 26; 5. Bella Notte, Charles Shumway 27. Complete results: www.j120.org * Practice day at the 8th annual Match Race Germany, an event of the Swedish Match Tour, offered the sailors competing on Lake Constance a likely preview of the five days ahead: light and streaky winds - not always the best for racing. The light conditions are of some comfort to event organizer Eberhard Magg as they may prevent a skipper from winning 10 straight races. Any crew that can win 10 races in a row wins a Mercedes Benz SLK 200 roadster, valued at approximately Euro 40,000 (approximately $47,000), from event sponsor Wuerttembergische Versicherungsagentur Speth. www.SwedishMatchTour.com * Zana, the biggest ocean racing monohull built in New Zealand, broke the Auckland to Noumea race record when finishing the 980 nautical mile race in 70 hours. The 30m super maxi bettered the previous record set by Hydroflow in 2002 by more than 40 hours. With winds of up to 20 knots on the last day of sailing, Zana not only broke the record to reach Noumea but also broke a spinnaker pole and blew out a spinnaker and a jockey pole. Zana finished second in last year's Sydney to Hobart. - Stuff.NZ website, www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2935840a1823,00.html IT'S A RACE: IT'S MUSTO'S MPX GORE-TEX RACE It's exclusive, it's light, it's Gore-Tex. Developed for the America's Cup, Musto's MPX Gore-Tex Race gear is extremely breathable, waterproof and durable whilst also providing maneuverability for high activity, high performance sailing - such as match racing or round the cans. It incorporates Musto's revolutionary HPX Stretch fabric in areas that require instant and high levels of mobility. Check it out at one of the following retailers: www.apsltd.com; www.fawcettboat.com; www.layline.com; www.fisheriessupply.com; www.pineapplesails.com; team1newport.com; www.sailingproshop.com; www.sailingsupply.com; or www.westmarine.com. You don't need to be a professional sailor to experience Musto. Give it a try next time. http://www.musto.co.uk 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 Tripp Alyn: As the SEISA (Southeastern) rep. to the collegiate All-America Selection Committee for nine years (1986-94) it was often that I explained the selection process and consoled top SEISA sailors over their non-selection. Learning from this is part of the character building process fostered by college sailing as the young sailors learn many of the "lessons of life" ... on and off the water. It was tough seeing the hopes & dreams of these fine young sailors dashed, but the main message which I attempted to convey to them was the fairness of the collegiate All-American selection system. It was not the "smoke-filled room" of political machines, but how they matched up with their contemporaries when they met in common events. This process was greatly aided by "The Grid," originally produced by Ann Campbell in 1987, which allowed a detailed comparison of their performances in all of the top collegiate events of the season. Numbers don't lie and the cumulative results greatly aided the ranking of the sailors. The agony and pressure over the selection of the last three or four sailors from the final group of (approx.) ten to twelve was always the toughest part, for me at least. The key to making the final cut always seemed to boil down to a notable performance which allowed them to break out of the pack. Readers with concerns over the selection process should refer to: www.collegesailing.org/aaprocess.htm * From Dean Brenner, SAC Chairman: The entire notion of a directly-elected representative body at US Sailing, like the Sailor Athlete Council, is new to the organization and to our sport. In response to the many criticisms of US Sailing and our sport that are lodged in Scuttlebutt and elsewhere, the Sailor Athlete Council is a new way to have your voice heard. Keep in mind ... SAC is a young organization, and we are in growth mode. We are adding registered athletes on a daily basis. And we are getting our legs underneath us, so to speak, both within US Sailing and in our out reach to registered athletes. In response to Vincent Casalaina's comments in 'Butt #1599, SAC is working on its ability to reach out to athletes, but if there is something that concerns you, you can reach out to us as well. The communication can run both ways. All SAC representatives are listed on the US Sailing website, with their email addresses. The more people who register and join SAC, and the more those people reach out to us proactively, the more we can help make the change within our sport that we all talk about. If you don't get involved and register you can't benefit. No cost, little time and you will be all set to provide input and help us make a difference within US Sailing. * From David Shulman: I am on the crew of a boat that won the Sappho Trophy awarded by the YRA of LIS, which is the governing body for racing on western Long Island Sound. There are numerous USSA members from this area. While several of our crew are USSA members, none of us is eligible for SAC. Virtually no one I know is. Not right, it is! * From Peter O. Allen, Sr: Francois Haussauer claims the folks on his naturist charter cruise were just friends? I suspect he 'barely' knew them. * From Tom Cain: I noted (with great pleasure) that, in today's Scuttlebutt pictures of Senator Kennedy, he "appeared to be" not wearing a PFD! Maybe the sailing community should ask him to be it's governmental advocate? www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/04/kennedy/ * From Vincent Casalaina: I'd like to follow up on Leslie DeMeuse's comment on televising sailing events. I too have been producing videos of sailing for a long time - both for broadcast and the internet. I believe to attract an audience you need to tell a compelling story and that means doing more than just covering the race around the track. Too often the story gets buried under the eye candy that is a part of so much of sports television. You've got to find some way of bringing the audience into the story that's developing on board the boats. That means providing the audience a chance to feel the excitement of the competitors. We all know its there. We've all felt it when we race ourselves. To tell that story you've got to have your cameras, and especially your microphones, on board and picking up the drama that is there and using the announcers to explain the significance of what's being said on board. It helps to have a close race, but it's the little stories that go on that will really have an impact. * From Steve Johnson: The very first thing we need to do to get broader public appreciation of sailing as a sport is to stop calling it yachting - everywhere and all the time. The word yacht has exceptionally negative connotations when associated with our sport that no amount of effort - including "yachtcams" on AC boats - is going to overcome. Talking with non-sailing friends, I sometimes get the impression they think when the starting gun goes off, we "commence yachting" and breakout the gin and tonics. THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION These days, I spend a lot of time thinking about the hereafter. I go somewhere to get something … and then wonder what I'm here after. |
