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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 800 - April 24, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome.
EXTREME SAILING Nigel Pitt, racing with Alex Shafer, is the current Inter 20 North American titleholder. He has been North American champion in the Hobie 18, Hobie 20 Nacra 6.0 and Nacra 18Ó. - Pitt has a theory. "I wouldn't attempt this race and skipper the whole thing· I've found a person I like and respect enough to sail with for a thousand miles." Alex Shafer and Nigel Pitt traded the helm in the Inter 20 nationals and won. They'll try it again in this race. There are some other big-time newcomers. Katie Pettibone, of Port Huron, MI and Lisa Charles McDonald of the UK make up the first all-female team. They are formidable competitors, having competed in two America's Cup races, Sydney Hobart races, and the Whitbread Around the World Race. Anthony Priest is a professional sailor, captain of a 133-ft sloop out of Ft. Lauderdale. He won the Maxi-Worlds in an 80-ft. monohull, competed in the Sydney to Hobart race seven times, and was helmsman for the winning Tour de France sailboat in 2000. He bought a Hobie 18 and has been practicing for the race off Ft. Lauderdale. - His crew is Tony Minebaugh a professional sailor and racer from South Africa. Reigh North and Scott MacDonald will be competing for the first time. North has logged over 20,000 offshore miles and was Hobie 18 North American Continental champion. He is a perennial contender for top honors. There's never been a stronger group of first-time sailors. But newcomers have a tough time with this race. There is no protection from the elements on these boats. There is no cabin or "below" to seek refuge. Storms, raging surf, crews lost at sea, whales, freighters, Coast Guard rescues and lightning strikes are all part of the game as racers drop out or are forced out by the vagaries of the sea. Wives and friends line the shore each evening waiting for their crews to return from the sea and tell their stories. Half the field won't make it. Captain and crew will fight. Their boats will break - along with their spirit. Their wives or husbands or mothers will be frozen with fear and undermine performance. Along the sunny Atlantic beaches, in front of pleasant resort hotels, even before reach the Graveyard of the Atlantic, along the Outer Banks of North Carolina, they will drop out, one by one. For most the honor will be simply in finishing the ordeal. Sound like "Survivor?" Well it is, but it's happening not on some remote island, but right here on the Atlantic beaches of the USA for two weeks in May. - Maybe next year Mike Worrell will offer prize money. Then everyone will be able to explain why on earth they do this horrible, magnificent race. - www.worrell1000.com
SAILING SEASON IS HERE
VOLVO OCEAN RACE Vuleta has no doubts. "We are planning for three weeks of sailing-inspired fun and excitement as Aucklanders take the world's greatest ocean-racing grand prix to their hearts," he says. "Our aim is to provide a level of free entertainment and public involvement. Three America's Cup bases will become the haul-out area and the public will have access to the fleet. There will also be sponsor displays open to the public and a huge range of free entertainment from concerts to street theatre." The stopover team predicts more than 500,000 local, national and international visitors will go through the Volvo Ocean Race Village at the Viaduct Harbour while the fleet is in town. This is expected to benefit the Auckland economy by more than $20 million. Vuleta emphasises these figures are not plucked out of the air. Government-commissioned reports on the benefits to Auckland and New Zealand from hosting the America's Cup show that event generated $640 million in economic activity, with $473 million of that, and more than 8000 jobs, in the Auckland region. "The direct economic impacts of the Volvo are expected to be wide-ranging, stimulated by the spending of syndicates, international visitors, spectators and the media covering the event," he says. "Spectator numbers will be boosted by supporter groups, sponsors' guests and race followers coming to New Zealand as well as domestic visitors from around the country." - NZ Herald Full story: www.nzherald.co.nz
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Scott Truesdell: Tom Donlan hit the nail on the head. It's bad enough that ISAF unilaterally decreed that every single sentient entity - on a racing sailboat be a member of a sanctioned yachting organization. Now they are set to take away our weed and brewskis! OK, enough is enough! Sure we all know that a crew that has been rockin' the ganj has an unfair advantage in light air, but it is politically incorrect, not to mention illegal, to - apply prejudice to our mentally challenged competitors. It just continues to happen. Despite ISAF and USSailing's assertions that they "represent" us and their admonishment for us to "get involved" and attend the policy-making meetings, the truth is that we are not all retired with enough discretionary income to fly around the country and/or world and attend these week-long meetings. The grass roots sailors are getting bulldozed by a bunch of geezers that haven't really even made their motives clear. Growing the sport, my butt! They are trying to kill it with extreme prejudice. * From Ralph Taylor: Thanks for publishing Tom Donlan's comments on ISAF, though it raised the hair on the back of my neck in fear that they could be true. His scenario isn't a "flight of fancy" considering past disputes between athletes and organizations over competing in "non-sanctioned events." These have usually ended with the athletes losing eligibility. If the "nannyism" does come to fruition, we will undoubtedly see severe fragmentation in the sport as centrifugal forces pull it apart. Then, there really will be several different sets of rules and, in essence, different sports. As to his question about yacht clubs giving entry fee discounts to US Sailing members, the clubs do this mainly because it's a condition of getting the relatively cheap liability insurance through US Sailing. At about $800 per year for regatta and off-the-water coverage, it's a significant portion of many club budgets. And few alternatives are available, even for much more money. A law of chaos theory is that mature systems and organizations suffer disintegration when (initially seeming) minor stresses lead to catastrophic failure. Is it happening to sailing? Is the butterfly flapping its wings to eventually create a hurricane a world away? * From Paul Kamen, Berkeley Yacht Club: (Re Paul Henderson's statement: "It is essential to ensure that if a sailor loses their eligibility that they cannot sail even in an entry level race.) Why oh why does Paul Henderson keep digging himself and ISAF deeper into the same hole? The first thing I did when I updated the Sailing Instructions for my club's Friday Night Series was to add "Appendix 2, the ISAF eligibility code, shall not apply." Yes I know this is not strictly kosher, but there it is. And it has met with universal approval from the racers, including those who know it's technically illegal and those who don't. It's what the racers want. I've been running these weekly Friday night races for - let's see - 16 years now. In fact I started running them long before I was even a member of the yacht club. An interesting data point for those who might agree with Henderson's notion that "the whole system collapses" if we don't enforce eligibility requirements, eh? Anyway, I'll probably be stuck running the entry-level races at my club for another 16 years. Hard to fire a volunteer, you know. And I don't even get a cut of the Olympic TV money, which I'm told funds 80% of the ISAF office (in case there's any doubt about who they're working for over there). So allow me to assure all racers that our Friday night events will continue to be open to all, regardless of ISAF status. * From Dennis Hawkins: I think Jack Spanglers criticism of the J-24 is somewhat unfair. Twenty-five plus years ago when the J-24 was introduced it was truly a breakthrough design. They were fast for that time, fun to sail, required only three or four crew and inexpensive to own and maintain. At that time the race boats of choice were designed to the IOR rule, were not that fast, had somewhat questionable sailing characteristics (especially downwind), were not that comfortable and quite expensive. Then along came the J-24, which was truly a giant killer of the time. Back then I crewed on a IOR boat and remember one heavy air race when a J-24 came surfing by us downwind with a crew of four laughing all the way while our crew of twelve struggled as we rolled side to side out of control. Lets also remember the J-24 was designed prior to the widespread use of computers to aid in design and predict sailing characteristics. The fact people are willing to cut up old J-24's to modernize them says a lot about their still respectable performance and durability. I wonder how many fewer big boat sailors there would be today if they hadn't been introduced to racing on a J-24 either in one design or handicap racing. I'm sure the Sonar is a fine boat but comparing the two is like apples and oranges. * From Dan Tucker: (edited to our 250-word limit) Jack Spangler is right about the J-24. I've been racing for J-24's for 7 years. I've said all along that they're terrible boats to sail. Uncomfortable and brutally abusive to the crew, terribly difficult to drive well and badly designed in a number of ways. That being said... I love racing J-24s and wouldn't trade it for any comparably sized one design. Those very weaknesses of the design of the J-24 are what make it so challenging to master. I race on the same line as one of the largest Sonar fleets in the US. I covet the comfy layout of a Sonar, But in the J-24 class I have dozens of opportunities each season to race against and learn from world class sailors. Watching Read bob and weave through a 50 boat fleet on port tack 20 seconds after the gun is an education in boat handling and crew work. America's Cup crews are a Who's Who of past J-24 champions. There are few one design classes that regularly attract (and develop) the best of the best: Stars, Etchells and J-24's are classes that come to mind. Regional and national J-24 events are intensely tight, competitive, strategic and tactical racing. I don't expect to ever win one of those. I'm more than happy to be the little fish in that BIG pond and win at home. Jeff Johnstone is absolutely right, "don't count on the [J-24] fading away." * From Richard Pope (Re Peter Isler's comments about movable ballast struts): The first rule of PHRF of Southern California is all of the Racing Rules of Sailing must be followed. Perhaps PHRF is breaking their own rules by rating boats like the Schock 40. Let's take Peters argument to the extreme. Assume the BF 36 class rules allow motoring and you must tow a water skier. This may seam ridiculous but Rule 86 allows Rule 42 (propulsion) to be changed. If Peter is correct I hope the 'Buttheads are ready to race powerboats. * From Dobbs Davis: (edited to our 250-word limit): I echo Jim Teeters thoughts on IRC, and point out that despite what Mr. Bouzaid claims, the lack of a stability measurement, crew weight formulation, and other performance-enhancing factors has prompted the design and build of some optimized one-off IRC boats in the UK which are not in his 'middle ground'. A photo of one of the UK's premier IRC designs appeared in Seahorse that showed the Corby-designed 40-footer with its 10,000 lb bulb sitting aground with the tide out, a foot more freeboard, and bolt upright! Can you imagine the rig loads and structure necessary to support that kind of righting moment? We sailed against this thing in a 1D35 at the UK's 1999 IRC National Championships. In course races on the Solent, we beat it boat-for-boat in light air; in the breeze it pounded us upwind and we caught up and passed it downwind - all for a single-number rating. Like all single-number systems used with dissimilar boats, if you predict the wind, you can likely predict the results. We already have that problem with PHRF, so why would IRC be any better? For Mr. Bouzaid and others who may want to adopt this here in the US, be prepared to educate the market on some completely different paradigms: time-on-time scoring, declared certificates, and some new boats which can not only be expensive to build and difficult to sail, but may also go obsolete within a year when the rulemakers change what's in the 'black box.' * From Bob Fink: Regarding the (seemingly) thousands of letters regarding the various methods of rating boats and the pros and cons of each system, allow me to offer the observation that handicap racing bears the same relationship to one-design racing that masturbation bears to real sex. Both offer a potential "reward" at the conclusion but the fun you have getting there is vastly greater in the latter case. * From Jon Rogers: Vince Brun was absolutely right in saying the kids were lucky to have such great instructors. But as one of the instructors I would like to add that I was lucky to have such a great group of students. 8:30 AM to 9PM, these kids were immersed in sailing. 15-18 knots, high 50's, low 60's, spinnakers up, spinnakers down, lecture at lunch, 3 consecutive lectures at night, eat, sleep and do it all over again. Congratulations to the sailors for giving it their all. They took it to heart that "you get out, what you put in". Congratulations to "Mom", Marylee Goyan. I think 22 years running clinic. Where'd we be without her? And thank you to the instructors who know how to win and explain it in such a positive, sportsmanlike way. A great experience for me. * From John Walton: Free speech is a right often abused by folks with prejudice. - For those of us that 1) don't want to use a crane to drop the mast, 2) don't want to own an Excursion, 3) don't want to straight leg up the weather leg to be competitive (droop hiking is far easier than perceived), 4) do want to sail a world championship where 23 countries are represented (not 6), 5) do want a boat capable, comfortable and safe in 30 kts, 5) do want to travel to other parts of the country and the world to race in the class, the Soling is a very fine choice. - Incidentally, in the recent San Diego NOOD, the Soling fleet was into the back of the Etchells fleet in a number of races, after starting five minutes behind. * From Ned Hall: Re Janet Baxter's idea in Scuttlebutt 799 about getting Federal funds for US Sailing, we should first consider the risks. One recent example is what National Public Radio is going through in Idaho with state censure of its programming. You may not agree with all that NPR presents, but that is only one small example of the penalty you risk with government funding - control through pulling support when you have begun to count on it. Corporate support is different because it's more diverse and one retreat is not the end. Short term, government funding may help our programs, but long term don't we have enough monetary support from our own sailing community without having to risk the threat of the rug being pulled out from under us when we begin to count on government funding? Also, criticism and control from the government we don't need. From what I read daily in this great newsletter, we have all we can handle among ourselves * From Mr. Jan McCollum: I was one of those people that thought coverage of the AC was more exciting when the boats were 12 meters. Well after sailing around (ha ha, they sailed circles around us) the Oracle boats this past week outside Ventura, I can honestly say these boats are more awe inspiring than I ever could have imagined. Television coverage needs to find some way to represent just how large and fast (and sleek) these beauties really are. When one of these things goes by you going 3-4 times as fast as you, it is hard not to let your jaw drop and your tongue hang out. My new goal is to get a ride on one of the magnificent machines!
QUOTE / UNQUOTE - Ken Read "The one thing we've learned in the events we've done is that there's no such thing as an easy race. The people who are in these events are being invited for one reason alone-they're good at this. So you've got to go to war every single race out there. "An interesting part of the match racing tour is that you sail very different styles of boats in different conditions at each event. At Perth we sailed little rocketships in 25 knots of breeze. At Long Beach we'll be in slow masthead clunkers, so it's interesting to see how we respond as a team to these changing sets of conditions. I said before that I don't use these events a barometer for the other AC teams, but I do use them as a barometer for our team, how we're gelling and how we're adapting to the challenges." - www.sailnet.com
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