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SCUTTLEBUTT 2204 - October 18, 2006Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is distributed each weekday, with America’s Cup coverage in Scuttlebutt brought to you by UBS (http://www.ubs.com/sailing). US SUSPENDS GUN DRILLS ON GREAT LAKES Ottawa, Canada - The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended machine-gun practice on the Great Lakes as Washington considers whether the live-fire drills pose an environmental danger to fish and a safety hazard for boats. Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said Monday Canada is concerned about possible lead poisoning of the lakes, noting that the use of lead shot and sinkers in fishing gear is already banned. Canada has informed the United States about its environmental worries, he said. “We're concerned most particularly in the environmental aspect.” Mr. MacKay said he is less concerned about the safety of boaters. “I have seen no report that suggests anyone is in any peril,” he said. The live-fire exercises “are not in close proximity of civilians.” Canadian diplomats will monitor public meetings in U.S. Great Lakes cities as the Coast Guard explains its proposal to set up target-practice shooting zones. Mr. MacKay suggested that Washington is reviewing its decision to arm Coast Guard lake boats with deck-mounted heavy machine guns. -- Read the complete story, particularly the part about how the Coast Guard has conducted at least 24 live-fire drills on the lakes since January, firing about 3,000 rounds of lead ammunition each time. - Jeff Sallot, Globe and Mail, full story: http://tinyurl.com/y7a6tb RAY DAVIES - THE OPTIMIST (Louay Habib, editor of the ‘Bang the Corner’ website, has posted an interview with Ray Davies, who was part of the Mean Machine team that won the 2006 TP52 MedCup series, and that will be contending for the 2008/2009 Volvo Ocean Race. Here are some excerpts) Q: What was your very first sailing or racing experience? Ray Davies: The first boat I ever sailed in was a ‘P’ class with my father when I was about one and a half years old and the first racing was the Rothmans father and son class in New Zealand, obviously with my dad. The first time I won an event was in the Optimist class, but the most memorable major regatta I won as child, was the Rothmans father and son Nationals in 1981 when I was 10; I was driving and dad crewed for me. My earliest memory of The Whitbread Round the World Race was in my Optimist. I sailed across the front of the fleet at the start of the leg from Auckland to Punta del Este in the 1981-82 Whitbread . . . a reporter took a photo which ended up on the front page of the New Zealand Herald. Q: Besides sailing, what sports did you do as a kid, where you any good at them? RD: To be honest I spent most of my youth out on the water, but managed to play soccer, golf, tennis, and badminton – I won the under 14 North Shore Badminton Doubles with my best friend Gary Taylor. Complete interview: http://www.bangthecorner.com/news/read/4681 MARKETING THE EVENT Organisers of the 2006 Rolex Middle Sea Race are facing a 'pleasant' problem in their build-up for this year's Mediterranean classic. The 74 boats registered so far - an all-time record - have left the Royal Malta Yacht Club (RMYC) with limited berthing space to accommodate all. RMYC Commodore Georges Bonello Du Puis yesterday told reporters that the organising team were not expecting such big numbers for the 2006 race, the 27th since 1968, which starts on October 21 from Marsamxett. However, efforts have been intensified to make sure that all syndicates will have the required facilities. "Seventy-four boats is a big surprise for everyone here at the club," Bonello Du Puis said. "During the past few months, we embarked on a profound marketing exercise to try and lure to our shores the best sailing teams in the world. We could not have aspired for a better result even though it has left us with an unexpected problem on accommodation. - The Times, full story: http://www.timesofmalta.com/core/article.php?id=239739 * From the RegattaNews.com site: “The Rolex Middle Sea Race takes place in the heart of the Mediterranean and covers one of the most beautiful courses in the world. Unique in that it starts and finishes in Malta, the route includes the deep azure waters of Sicily and the Straits of Messina, the islands of Pantelleria and Lampedusa, and even features Stromboli's active volcano as a course mark. In addition, two days of coastal races around Malta and Gozo take place prior to the start of the long-distance race.” FREE HARKEN WALL CALENDAR FOR ‘07 Purchase $100 of Harken products from the Harken Store to get the new Harken Ultimate Sailing Calendar by Sharon Green… for free! Action packed photographs provide 365 days of pure sailing pleasure: a wild ride aboard Harken-equipped ABN AMRO, a skiff’s bowsprit pointed skyward, Windquest streaking down the Molokai Channel. The perfect place for logging your favorite weekend regattas and must-see races like the Velux 5-Oceans, Sydney-Hobart, Key West and 32nd America’s Cup. http://www.harken.com/scuttlebutt/Harken_2007SailingCalendar.php LIVING THE DREAM "It's weird looking out the window and for as far as you can see, there's desert." The view of endless sand from his dormitory room is a huge adjustment for 19-year-old Rikard Grunnan, a freshman at Arizona State University. Grunnan is more accustomed to seeing the great harbors of the world - Cape Town, Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Portsmouth, Rotterdam - through the porthole of an ocean-racing yacht. Grunnan has salt water in his veins. He grew up on the northern San Francisco Bay, on the east side of the Tiburon peninsula in Paradise Cay. After graduating from Redwood High School, where he competed on the sailing team, Grunnan decided to get some practical experience before starting his formal education in Mechanical Engineering. He signed on for a year as the youngest member of the shore support team for the boat Pirates of the Caribbean, the Disney entry in the Volvo Ocean Race, the world's premier ocean race for mono-hull sailboats. "It was the trip of a lifetime," Grunnan said. "Now it's hard adjusting. In Arizona there is Tempe Town Lake, but I'm not going to waste my time out there. It's not exciting like a lap around the planet." Grunnan's year-long odyssey started in August, 2005, when Disney flew him to Southampton, England to help with the construction of their boat. - Read on for the complete story by Jan Pehrson, Marin Independent Journal: http://www.marinij.com/sports/ci_4480644 FINDING THE WINNING COMBINATION (The Silver Panda team racing team recaps their impressive 2006 season) It has been a full year since our last update and much has happened. Two weeks after our second place finish at the 2005 ISAF Team Racing World Championship, we competed in the US Team Racing Championship for the Hinman Trophy and were eliminated in the semifinals. Needless to say, we were burnt out after peaking for the Worlds. With a disappointing fourth place finish at the 2005 Hinman, it helped to put team racing into perspective and we decided to change our approach to championship preparation for 2006. After the Hinman, Patrick Hogan and Carlos Lenz retired from active Panda duty. Patrick and Carlos were instrumental in Panda success from 2002 until 2005 and left large hiking boots to fill. Knowing we needed to find a boat with experience, skill and boathandling abilities second to none, we asked Clay Bischoff and Lisa Keith to join the Pandas. After taking the winter off, we jumped into the 2006 season by flying to the UK to sail the British Open Team Race Championships for the Wilson Trophy. We finished second losing 3-2 in a best of five series in the first ever all American Wilson finals. Having finished 2nd at the Wilson in '05, 2nd in '06 felt disappointing. The good part was that we knew we could improve and we were only feet away from the title. - Full report: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/06/1013a A PLEA FOR HELP (Scuttlebutt receives a lot of requests for help, and in our efforts to keep each issue of the newsletter at a manageable length, we are not always able to oblige. However, this time we are making space. Read on.) You may know of the Downtown Sailing Center in Baltimore's Inner Harbor through having one of our sailing instructors, Steve Manson, selected to participate in Roy Disney's Morning Light Transpac movie (as documented in Scuttlebutt). Steve is a hard working, bright, ambitious, and thoroughly agreeable young man who has made us all very proud of him and the program at the DSC in which he learned to sail and now teaches others. Several months ago, the DSC initiated an ambitious plan to remove and replace its floating docks with donated concrete docks from the Inner Harbor Marina in Baltimore, MD. We have recently learned that the timeline for Phase 1 completion has been accelerated. As a dedicated group of skippers, crew, instructors, and generally all around sailing enthusiasts, we appreciate anything your loyal band of 'Buttheads' can do to help us with this fund-raiser. - Curtis Weist Full details of this worthy effort can be read here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/06/1017.htm SAILING SHORTS * Six clubs gathered at Larchmont Yacht Club, NY October 14-15 to sail for the YRA of Long Island Sound's club vs. club team racing championship. Each club entered a Varsity and a Masters team that raced for respective LIS team race championships. The Glencairn Trophy, presented to the club with the best-combined performance, was decided on a tie breaker, where Larchmont’s combination of a Masters first and a Varsity third allowed the host club to beat Noroton two second place finishes for the title. For more information and complete results: http://www.larchmontyc.org/racing/Glencairn.shtml * (October 17, 2006) It was announced today that Northshore Yachting (Sydney, Australia) have signed an exclusive license agreement with Melges Performance Sailboats (Zenda, WI, USA) to build and distribute the Melges 24 throughout the Asia Pacific market. - http:// www.melges24.com * For anyone interested in making a donation direct to the family of Hans Horrevoets, who lost his life during the Volvo Ocean Race ‘05/06, the family has now a set-up a dedicated bank account for donations. Scuttlebutt received an address correction Tuesday on the information we provided last week. Details are available at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/06/hh * A sneak peak of the new CrossCurrent 33 Day Racer was seen recently at the annual Sail For Hope Regatta organized by Sail Newport in Newport, RI. A collaboration that included Hall Spars and Rigging and North Sails helped develop this unique luxury performance daysailor, which follows the recent trend of big cockpit, small cabin boats. Features include the first Hall EZV Boom to assist in sail handling; look for Phil Garland of Hall Spars and Rigging to be onboard when the CC33 competes in Key West 2007. Photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/06/1016 * The FIS Tracking Services will be used for the 1125-mile Marina Del Rey, CA to Puerto Vallarta, MX race, thus enabling the recording of each Racing Division yacht’s passage over “crossing lines” off of Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas, and Punta Mita. Awards will be given for First Overall for each leg. The PV Race begins on February 16, 2007 and is the longest and oldest continuously run event to mainland Mexico. - http://www.PV07.com * (St. Petersburg, FL) Some of the world’s most accomplished sailors will gather at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club in St. Petersburg, Fla. for the Rolex Osprey Cup, the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Grade 1 women’ s match racing regatta. The 10th annual regatta is scheduled for October 18-22 and will take place in Sonar class keelboats on Tampa Bay. World #1 ranked match racer Claire Leroy (France) and her crew will compete against Americans Betsy Alison, Liz Baylis, Sandy Hayes, Kathy Lindgren, Katy Lovell, Rachael Silverstein, and Anna Tunnicliffe; and Swedes Anna Kjellberg and Malin Millbourn. - http://www.rolexwomensmatch.org/roc/2006/ospreyhome.html * If you were unable to attend the US Sailboat Show earlier this month in Annapolis, MD, t2p.tv took a tour of the show and now has the video footage online: http://www.t2p.tv/guide/usss06.php FREE NORTH SAILS BAG North Sails has a great selection of gear and accessories that are perfect for Fall. From cozy and stylish hooded sweatshirts to fleece blankets and jackets, head North to shop online for items that will keep you warm as the weather starts to cool down. From now through October 31, when you order $60 or more (excluding tax & shipping), we'll send you a free North Sails cinch sack. Enjoy: http://na.northsails.com/FreeBag.htm LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or space (letters shall be no longer than 250 words). You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot, don't whine if others disagree, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, there are no word or frequency limits on comments sent to the Scuttlebutt Forums. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forums: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From David Redfern, England. (Re Sandy Purdon's recollections in Issue 2203 of the Cup in London for the first time in 1990) The Cup actually came to London in 1983. It was en route to Australia, and Quantas displayed the Cup to the media in their London offices in Piccadilly. I was then PR for the British Victory '83 team that was beaten in the final of the Challengers' series by Australia II in Newport RI. The room the Cup was shown to all had a very low ceiling, and the TV lights made the room very hot. I felt a little faint, and went behind a curtain in the room to avoid any embarrassment. Behind the curtain was the black box the Cup traveled with in those days, and the infamous bolt that had secured it to its plinth in the NYYC. I used the bolt, about a meter long, as a kind of walking stick. Then two security guards rushed in, flashed the Cup into its box and zoomed off. I'm still holding the rusty bolt! Do I keep it? A momentary thought only, so I rushed after the guards into Piccadilly, who were putting the Cup into the back of a security van. They saw me, running at them with a long iron rod, and assumed the worst. It took a while to persuade them to put the bolt in the box with the Cup. Where's that bolt now, I wonder? Is it still with the Cup? * From Bill Roos: It has been extremely rewarding to witness the transformation of this historical yacht club, located on the North East River of the Chesapeake Bay, from a traditional (mostly power boats), old school establishment, to the sailing hot-spot North of Baltimore. This exciting growth pattern, which predominantly prevailed over the past ten years, has to date only been constrained by the availability of slips in the club’s deteriorating 50 year old marina. NERYC and it’s members are proud to announce that it is building a new, state of the art, floating dock system this winter. The new marina will double the number of permanent slips and make provision for at least twenty-five, fully serviced transient slips. The floating concrete breakwaters will make this a true safe harbor and a haven for sailing and power vessels visiting this sought-after Northern Chesapeake Bay destination. Curmudgeon’s Comment: Sounds good… and congrats! However, I wonder if the club conversion can be considered complete as long as the club website navigation includes choices such as ‘Restaurant’ and ‘Weddings & Banquets’. * From Ryan Hamm, Coach, James Island Charter High School Sailing Team, Charleston, SC: My opinion is that high school sailing and other things are actually great at making our kids much better sailors than they would be if they did not participate. However, the youth sailors are a much-underutilized group in beer can regattas and one design classes. Their skills allow them to jump on any boat and at least do something on the boat (ie, jib trim on a J/24 or steering many boats). I feel that our sailing system lost a generation last generation. High School and College sailing has provided us a talent pool that we can and should use so we don't lose this generation. My boat (Melges 24) uses high school and college sailors or graduates of same and we do better than the guys who just want to learn how to sail through crewing instead of taking lessons. We win a lot also. Comes from bringing in the youth to our sport and keeping them there. I am also a volunteer high school coach. I try to get my kids in as many opportunities of other sailing aspects besides the Olympic track. That track only works for some but Wednesday night races and crewing in one design regattas will help them also and will help us get better crew in the long run. Don't lose another generation. Ask a high school or college sailor to crew (or drive if you want to win) on your boat! * From By Baldridge: I would like to invite Blake Billman (whose comments were in Issue 2203), who I respect, to come back to Houston Yacht Club and see the changes since his tenure as a coach. Our youth participation has dramatically increased, eight sailors at Opti Nationals, and many of our kids crewing in larger boats. They contributed on our GYA Lipton team, fared well in the club championship series held in Ensigns and regularly crew on J-22s and other classes. Our Sailing Director, Allan Couts has engineered a dramatic increase in the quality of HYC's youth program that is now the strongest in Texas. Curmudgeon’s Comment: On the Forums, Joanne Kolius also commented on the current activities at Houston YC. All letters on this subject (Have we lost a generation of sailors?) that have been posted in the newsletter are also being posted in the Forums, where additional comments such as Joanne’s are being made: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/2006/1010 * From Ken Miller, The Pirate's Lair: In response to Bruce Brown's "Industry Commentary” (in Issue 2201), I have a side note to growing the sport. As a leading supplier of regatta goods into the industry we service numerous junior events that are being held at yacht clubs that have spoken and unspoken policies about kids even being at the club. Several where the junior program supports itself without "adult" members' blessing, and at least one program that is the only department financially in-the-black at the club! While this is not the norm, my point about juniors is that growth in the sailing industry is much like that in church. Serve the kids an interesting product and win their hearts. Support members that excel in teaching and giving access to kids. You'll find that where kids want to be is where their parents will be. Whether that be soccer, pop-warner, auto racing, cycling or yachting. This is the best long-term growth model I can think of, and all it takes is having an interest in yours and others kids. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION To keep a healthy level of insanity, put your trashcan on your desk and label it "in." Special thanks to Harken Yacht Equipment and North Sails. America’s Cup coverage in Scuttlebutt is brought to you by UBS. |
