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SCUTTLEBUTT 3183 - Thursday, September 23, 2010Scuttlebutt 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: Southern Spars and Ullman Sails (THANKFULLY) CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR The nine event World Match Racing Tour makes one North American stop - the Argo Group Gold Cup on October 5-10 on Bermuda. With 24 teams representing fourteen countries all vying a for share of the USD$100,000 prize money, the event annually holds its collective breath for one important no show... hurricanes. This year’s hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean began on June 1, 2010, and won’t end on November 30, 2010, and last weekend Hurricane Igor had Bermuda in its path. However, the organizers at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club breathed a big sigh of relief as Igor faded from a Cat 4 to a Cat 1 storm and passed fifty miles to the west of Bermuda. Trees were downed and power interrupted but the International One Design (IOD) sailboats used in the Tour’s penultimate event weathered the storm nicely. “We were certainly in Igor’s bulls eye for a long time and were lucky to escape major damage on the island,” said Royal Bermuda YC Commodore Peter Shrubb. The RBYC uses ten locally owned IOD’s for the six-day event. Eight are primary boats and two are held in reserve if boats are damaged in the intense competition Bermuda is famous for. The boats are matched based on performance and experience gained during local racing throughout the year. One boat in the Bermuda IOD fleet, Solna II, sank in the storm, but luckily it wasn’t one that the Argo Group Gold Cup planned to use. The Argo Group Gold Cup is followed on the World Match Racing Tour by their prestigious season ending finale. The Monsoon Cup sailed for the Tour Championship in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia starts November 30th. -- Event website: http://www.argogroupgoldcup.com ISAF WOMEN’S MATCH RACE WORLDS Newport, RI (September 22, 2010) - It was not the spectacular sun lit day with a smoldering southerly that highlighted the second day of the ISAF Women’s Match Race World Championship. Nor was it the multiples of surfing photo finishes. Instead, today the sailors illustrated the term they use to describe the pinnacle of match race maneuvering: surgical execution. For the top seeded sailors after the nine flights of Stage 1, today was a day of comebacks and last minute passes. The precision with which Claire Leroy (FRA) used to up end a confident Ekaterina Skudina (RUS) in broaching whitewater luff was inspiring as the two boats sailed within feet of each other in 17 knots of breeze and three-foot waves. All starts, roundings and finishes were within inches and penalties pushed the umpires to the limit. Some of the competitors used today to settle into a winning routine. “It wasn’t just one thing,” said Finnish skipper Silja Lehtenin. “It was more like 20 things.” Lehtenin won most of her races this morning and said that her new team was finally clicking. Though often sailing with a new team, American Sally Barkow is leading the blue group with a tie-breaker over Leroy at eight wins. Nicky Souter (AUS) is close behind with seven wins and Skudina and Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) both have six wins. Tomorrow (Thursday) competitors are split into a gold fleet and Repechage. The top two competitors from the Repechage will meet the gold fleet of six for a quarter finals. Here are the six that have already advanced to the quarter finals: (From Red Group with seed) 1. Lucy Mcgregor, GBR 2. Katie Spithill, AUS 3. Genny Tulloch, USA (From Blue Group with seed) 1. Sally Barkow, USA 2. Claire Leroy, FRA 3. Nicky Souter, AUS Event website: http://nyyc.org/ISAFWOMENS/ Competitor blogs: Lucy Macgregor (GBR): http://www.matchracegirls.com/ Samantha Osborne (NZL): http://www.silversailsracing.com/ Genny Tulloch (USA): http://getsailing.org/ Anna Tunnicliffe (USA): http://www.annatunnicliffe.com/ THE PROOF IS IN THE RESULTS Our congratulations to all competitors in the 2010 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, particularly the division winners: Esimit Europa 2, Highland Fling, Singularity (Maxi); Ranger, Velsheda, (J Boats); Ran, Shockwave (Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship). The winning formula that these yachts used? A Southern Spars mast and EC6 Continuous rigging. Tested and proven time and time again, this winning combo provides the ultimate in performance! In the Supermaxi division, Hetairos and Gliss were 1st and 2nd respectively using Southern Spars rigs. To learn more about what goes into designing performance winning rigs visit http://www.southernspars.com IT’S ALWAYS LIKE THIS San Francisco, CA (September 22, 2010) - It was the first day of the Melges 32 World Championship, and early to the party was Andy Lovell's Rougarou serving up some hot Cajun today on the Berkeley Circle in conditions which left the competitors hoping for seconds, even thirds! Clear blue skies and fresh breeze in the 18 -25 knot range plus that lovely 3-4 foot square chop was presented in heaping portions. Warpath and Banshee collided in race one with Warpath protesting and Banshee retiring. The second race was delayed after Rougarou managed to grab a leeward gate with their keel during the start, the mark a tad closer and in line with the favored committee boat end. The heavy favorites Pieter Taselaar’s Bliksem had a lousy first race settling for a 24th but bounced back with a 12 and 2 to climb into a respectable 12 overall. Another favorite John Porter and his Full Throttle team was OCS in race 1 but managed to get a third in the race only to struggle with 23 in race 2 and now sits in 9th. Of all the favorites B-Lin Sailing are in 4th, after starting off with a 16th in race 1. Three races today were completed and the RC is hoping to squeeze in 10 total before Saturdays last race, however, conditions are expected to lighten as the week progresses and two races a day might be all mother nature allows! -- Pressure Drop, daily report and photos: http://www.pressure-drop.us/forums/content.php?680-Melges-32-Worlds-Day-1 Preliminary Results - Top 10 of 32 1. Rougarou, USA136, Andy Lovell - 2, 4, 3; 9 2. Tirade, NZL221, Stefan Goldwater - 1, 3, 8; 12 3. Leenabarca, USA174, Alex Jackson - 10, 5, 4; 19 4. B-lin sailing, ITA23, Luca Lalli - 16, 6, 1; 23 5. Heartbreaker, USA201, Robert Hughes - 11, 8, 7; 26 6. Goombay Smash, USA142, William Douglass - 13, 1, 14; 28 7. Red, GBR700, Joe Woods - 7, 20, 5; 32 8. STAR, USA32, Jeff Ecklund - 6, 19, 9; 34 9. Full Throttle, USA49, John Porter - 3, 23, 10; 36 10. Yasha Samurai, JPN203, Yukihiro Ishida - 4, 21, 11; 36 Complete results: http://tinyurl.com/2010-M32-Worlds Complete crew lists: http://www.melges32.com/?p=news&id=672 VIDEO: There will be live video coverage of each race at the Melges 32 Worlds. The video stream brings you every start, every mark rounding and every nail-biting finish, live from the water. Sailgroove's Chris Love and St. Francis Yacht Club Junior Director Mike Kalin will be doing the commentary. Details: http://tinyurl.com/2010-M32-Worlds-video BEST LAID PLANS: After winning Key West Race Week, John Kilroy’s comprehensive Worlds training schedule included events on both U.S. coasts and Europe. A key to any program is its tactician, which made it a shock to learn of Kilroy’s change on Monday when he swapped Stu Bannatyne for John Kostecki, a San Francisco Bay local. GRAND PRIX YACHTING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN Cagliari, Italy (September 22, 2010) - Skipper Guillermo Parada’s (ARG) Matador lead the Region of Sardinia Trophy after winning two of today’s three races on the second day. Their two well won victories sandwich a fifth place to keep them five points clear of skipper Karol Jablonski (POL) and the team on Synergy going into tomorrow’s coastal race which carries a 1.5 points multiplier. Audi MedCup Circuit champions Emirates Team New Zealand followed a similar pattern to their opening day, starting badly with a tenth, but fighting back to a second and third to lie third on the overall regatta standings. The final race of the day was marred by a first beat collision between Audi A1 powered by All4ONE and Bribon. The Franco-German team lost control in the final, painful seconds as the tried to duck the Spanish boat and struck them hard one third of the way from the back of their port topsides. “Nobody likes to see any boats damaged, and I think the Germans were just trying to duck us,” said Bribon tactician Ian Walker (GBR). “We were on starboard and I think they must have stalled. They didn't get behind us and just came straight through us. So it was a big crash, definitely one of the biggest crashes I've been involved with.” Commented Jochen Schuemann (GER), skipper Audi A1 powered by ALL4ONE (GER/FRA): “There's not much to say, obviously we misjudged the situation. We were fighting for second and third place with Bribón and it seemed not to be very decided if they wanted to tack leeward of us or crossing, then with the motion, we were close and got too much helm and heel, and couldn't avoid it. So, stupid in the end.” Both boats had to retire, and while All4ONE can repair their broken sprit to return Thursday, Bribon will not be able to take any further part in the regatta. -- Full report: http://www.medcup.org/news/?id=4038 Current results after Day 2 1. Matador (ARG), 2+8+2+1+5+1= 19 points 2. Synergy (RUS), 6+5+3+4+1+5= 24 3. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), 8+2+1+10+2+3= 26 4. TeamOrigin (GBR), 7+4+4+8+4+2= 29 5. Audi A1 powered by ALL4ONE (FRA/GER), 5+1+5+6+3+11(DNF)= 31 6. Quantum Racing (USA), 9+3+7+2+6+4= 31 7. Bribón (ESP), 1+9+8+3+8+11(DNF)= 40 8. Artemis (SWE), 3+6+10+5+9+8= 41 9. Cristabella (GBR), 4+10+6+9+7+6= 42 10. Luna Rossa (ITA), 10+7+9+7+10+7= 50 Crash video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKHYK5T9aFo MedCup photos and video: http://www.medcup.org/gallery/ SHOWTIME: Audi MedCup TV is offering live racing action from the race course including real time 3-D tracking with VirtualEye Interactive. Details: http://www.medcup.org/home/ SAILING SHORTS * Hoorn, the Netherlands (September 22, 2010) - Three races were held today under very light winds on the second day of the 2.4mR World Championship. It proved to be a very solid day for the Canadian team, with Bruce Millar winning the day with a 7-5-3 followed by 2008 Paralympic gold medalist Paul Tingley with a 2-9-6. Both Canadians are in the hunt for top spot after a total of 6 races, with Tingley in second and Millar in fourth overall. -- Full report: http://www.sailing.ca/features/2010_24_world_championships/ * (September 22, 2010) - Charlie Leighton, US SAILING’s Executive Director, announced he has elected to retire in October. Leighton has been on the job since January of 2005.During Leighton’s successful six-year stint as the National Governing Body’s executive director, US SAILING significantly improved its foundation by achieving and sustaining financial stability. Moving forward, Leighton plans on continuing to chair the Medalist fundraising program for the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics in a volunteer role. President Jobson and the board of directors will name an acting executive director of US SAILING within the next week. -- Full report: http://media.ussailing.org/Latest_News/Leighton_retires.htm * Interscholastic Sailing Association (ISSA) elected a new President this past weekend at the Annual General Meeting in Chicago with Don Shea (Chicago, IL) taking the reins. Tim Hogan (Newport Beach, CA) stepped down after 5 years in which ISSA saw an increase in the number of registered teams and improvement in the quality of Championships. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=10545 * CORRECTION: Congrats if you caught the mistake in the ‘Some Things Never Change’ story in Scuttlebutt 3182. The sail number of Freedom was US 30, not US 55 (with deep regret by the author). To refresh our memories further, it was the Sparkman & Stephens designed Freedom that won the 1980 America’s Cup with Dennis Conner on the helm, defeating Australia four races to one. But what happened after that match is nearly as interesting. Here is the story: http://www.sailmag.com/restoringUS30/ WILSON’S CONVEXITY WINS 2010 J/105 NA TITLE Don Wilson & his “Convexity” crew raced a stellar regatta last week to earn themselves the 2010 J/105 North American title in Chicago. Fully powered by Ullman Sails, “Convexity” sailed consistently in a wide range of conditions from 30 knots and large waves to light breeze and flat seas. Wilson posted five straight bullets in the first four days to help secure first overall. The “Convexity” team includes Don Wilson, Nathan Hollerbach, Milosz Mogilnicki, Hans Pusch, Mauro Matias and Tod Reynolds. Ullman Sails J/105 designs continue to deliver speed, performance and results on the racecourse! Invest in your performance. www.ullmansails.com NMMA UPDATE ON ETHANOL IN BOATS By Christine Pomorski, National Marine Manufacturers Association As many of you may know, in the spring of 2009 Growth Energy, a pro-corn ethanol lobby group, petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to allow ethanol to comprise up to 15% (E15) of gasoline sold in the United States from the current level of 10% (E10). As mandated by law, the EPA had 270 days to make a decision on the waiver petition, which would have been December 1, 2009. On that date, EPA announced that it would delay its decision until late summer of 2010 to allow more scientific tests to be completed. We now anticipate that the EPA will make its decision later this month or early next month. Reports indicate that EPA may also grant a “partial waiver” for some on-road vehicles only. This means that E15 would be approved for use in cars of certain model years, but not any marine engines. While we would be pleased that this scenario would exclude marine, we remain concerned about the risk of misfueling for boaters once E15 becomes available at gas stations. We are also concerned that E15 will be marketed as a less expensive regular-grade fuel, while E10 will be available in premium grade gasoline. As consumers make fuel decisions primarily based on price, this increases the risk of misfueling. As we wait for EPA’s announcement, NMMA and our partner organizations in the “Say NO to Untested E15” coalition are encouraging concerned boaters to visit www.FollowTheScience.org to write an email to President Obama requesting that he urge the EPA to thoroughly and comprehensively test all gasoline-powered engines, including marine engines, before allowing E15 into the marketplace. What you can do to help? Read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=10546 CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Is your event listed on the Scuttlebutt Event Calendar? This free, self-serve tool is the easiest way to communicate to both sailors and sailing media. These are some of the events listed on the calendar for this weekend: Sept 24-26 - Sonar North American Championships - Marblehead, MA, USA Sept 24-26 - 82nd Atlantic Nationals - Cold Spring Harbor, NY, US Sept 24-26 - Canadian Fireball Championship - Montreal, QC, CAN Sept 25-Oct 3 - American Yacht Club Fall Series - Rye, NY, USA View all the events at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar INDUSTRY NEWS The Industry News category of the Scuttlebutt Forum provides an opportunity for companies to announce new products and services. Here are some of recent postings: * Charles Mason retires from SAIL Magazine * Boat review of new J/111 * Boat review of new Beneteau First 30 * Boat review of new Beneteau First 35 * Events Clothing secures Line 7 marine apparel To view all the Industry News updates, or to post some breaking news from your own company, here is the link: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/INDUSTRY_NEWS_C15/ 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 are 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 Damian Christie, Melbourne, Australia: So much for a "fairer" America's Cup! BMW Oracle and the Golden Gate Yacht Club, like prior US Cup holders, have waived the rules to rule the waves and Mascalzone Latino is just another "CNEV"! Wasn’t the main reason Oracle challenged Alinghi to a one-on-one duel for the 2010 Cup because it didn't like Ernesto Bertarelli’s strong arm tactics with regard to the rules after the 2007 defence? Yet with the boot now on the other foot, the first thing the new US trustee does is strong arm a timid Challenger of Record to get exactly the kind of America's Cup it wants! I don’t disagree with the choice of a catamaran per se. What I object to is that Russell Coutts and Larry Ellison - in cahoots with Vincenzo Onorato - have made a unilateral decision about the Cup boat without consulting the other prospective challengers, including Team New Zealand and Team Origin. It is clear that the other challengers favoured a return to monohulls. Given that under the Deed of Gift the Challenger of Record (not the defender) traditionally nominates the vessel, then in the spirit (if not the letter) of the Cup competition, all the challengers should have been heard. Instead, they have been denied that fundamental choice. Whether in catamarans or monohulls, the America's Cup will never be treated credibly worldwide while the defender - particularly a US defender! - continues to write the rules to its advantage. * From Kerre Woodham, NZ Herald Columnist: I'm not a great yachting fan. I didn't understand the hysteria of the America's Cup, where people who didn't know their stern from their starboard went out and bought red socks to contribute to a campaign run by millionaires that employed millionaires. It seemed a nautical version of a swinging-dick competition and when the battle went off the water and into the courtroom, that was just about it for me. The only thing I really liked about yachting were the yachts. The sleek, streamlined monohulls were miracles of beauty and technological precision. Except, of course, NZL 82 which almost came to serious grief in 2003. Now with news that the America's Cup is to turn into a sprint between catamarans in a bid to woo the younger generation, any vestiges of charm the America's Cup had for me is gone. I'm not the generation they're trying to attract but good luck in trying to get the cynical, media-savvy, and broke Facebook generation propping up any jingoistic America's Cup campaigns. -- http://tinyurl.com/NZ-Herald-092210 * From Mike Taggett: After hearing for months how much "consensus building" was going to happen with the next edition of the America’s Cup, it would be interesting to get candid feedback from the dozen or so syndicates about the final result. Did a majority really support a multi hull? Or is the bottom line that Oracle BMW has a distinct and major advantage and thus Larry said "Multihulls it will be". It really is a sad result. Can you do a poll of them? Sooo....no sail changes, no tacking duels, no close in tactics. I am neither a Flintstoner nor a Facebooker. I am an aficionado of the spirit and decorum of one of the coolest, classiest, most historic and yes, sometimes boring sailing events. I have to say I hope someone else wins and returns it to the elegance of well executed monohulls. => Curmudgeon’s Comment: Needless to say, there have been a lot of emails sent to Scuttlebutt about the plans for the 34th America’s Cup. To stave off any criticism that the Scuttlebutt editor is censoring ‘butthead opinion, all the letters (or at least all the legible letters) are gradually getting posted in the Scuttlebutt Forum. Of course, the most direct path is for readers to do this themselves. Here is the link: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=10552 * From Carl Watson: I have read many comments in regards to Simon Daubneys induction into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame. I was fortunate to work with Daubs in the era of Chris (Buzzard) Bouzaid at Hood sailmakers in Auckland. Simon was far from the dumb scholar as he portrays himself. I was fortunate to work with the late Helmer Pederson and Bouzaid in the development of Tri Radial spinnakers and as we moved forward Daubs took over my position and therefore etched a role in skilled sailmaking, prior to watching the jib at the top spreader. Simon has earned his role as a sailmaker and professional yachtsmen and I salute his initiative in over 33 years of endeavour, I am sure that Simon’s endeavours will be a role model for all young aspiring yachties globally from whatever walk of life they come from. * From Mike Esposito, Chicago: Regarding the S’butt 3182’s CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION: Why are there cars named after the jaguar, the cougar, the mustang, the colt, the stingray, and the rabbit, but not one named for a dog? It’s probably because the Greyhound bus stole the show. Of course there have been a couple named for specific famous dogs, such as the Chevy “Astro” ( “The Jetsons”), the Ferrari “Dino” (“The Flintstones”), the Dodge “Shadow” (“Homeward Bound”) and the Vauxhall “Victor” (RCA’s canine logo). OK, maybe saying the cars were named “for” the dogs goes a little too far. Woof. * From Scott Truesdell (Re: Curmudgeon's Observation 3182) Come on! You live in southern California and you've never seen a cougar riding in a car? Granted, in Newport Beach there are more cougars in Jaguars than Cougars, but, bless their hearts, they are out there! CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION We are not all born at birth. For some of us, it takes longer. Special thanks to Southern Spars and Ullman Sails. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
