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SCUTTLEBUTT 1865 - June 22, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest 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. JURY'S DECISION Valencia, June 21st 2005 - The Jury met this morning at 9.30 am to discuss the protest presented by Team Luna Rossa at the end of the match pursuant Racing Rules appendix C article 9.2. At 11.30 a.m. the Jury deliberated as follows. Notwithstanding the fact that the Umpire boat had seriously interfered with Luna Rossa, that said interference had affected the result of the match and that Luna Rossa was not at fault, nevertheless according to the Jury, the Umpires had made no improper action, denying the request for redress on Luna Rossa's part. ACT 4 COMES TO AN END (Following are a few excerpts from Matthew Sheahan's excellent coverage Act 4 on the yachting World website.) With the overall winner decided with a day to spare and fourth place buttoned up as well, it was the matches between Emirates Team New Zealand and BMW Oracle for second place and the match between the Swedes and the Spanish that drew the attention today. Both were close and both were packed with plenty of action. In the Kiwi versus Oracle match the boats were barely more than 30 seconds apart round the entire course after the Kiwis had picked the beneficial left hand side of the course to gain a slim advantage. On the first beat the US team forced 12 tacks in twenty minutes, that's around one tack every minute and a half. On the second upwind leg the pace quickened as the Kiwis notched up 31 tacks to the American's 29 in a leg time of 19 minutes. That's one tack every 37 seconds on average. Things didn't get much quieter on the second of the downwind legs with the Americans piling on the pressure with 8 gybes to the Kiwis 9. But in the end the Kiwis held a slim advantage of 17 seconds to slip over the line and take second place in Act 4 - just. On the south course, the Swedes were up against the home team, Desafio Espanol, to take fifth position overall. While fifth isn't first, there's little doubt that this was a match for the top of the 'B' division or the Silver fleet. In the event, the match started off badly for the Victory team who incurred a penalty in the pre-start maneuver, but as we saw earlier in the series, in a bizarre twist, sometimes this can force a boat into a position that becomes an advantage. And so it did for the Swedes who managed to get a slim advantage as the start gun went. As the race progressed the Swedes stretched out their lead to 43 seconds, enough to off-load their penalty at the finish to take the prestigious fifth place. - Yachting World, Matthew Sheahan, full story: http://www.ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/20050521192311ywamericascup07.html ACT 4 FINAL STANDINGS 1. Alinghi (SUI-75) 11-0 2. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL-82) 10-1 3. BMW Oracle Racing (USA-76) 9-2 4. Luna Rossa Challenge (ITA-74) 8-3 5. Victory Challenge (SWE-63) 6-5 6. Desafio Espanol 2007 (ESP-67) 6-5 7. K-Challenge (FRA-60) 4-7 8. Mascalzone Latino Capitalia (ITA-77) 4-7 9. +39 Challenge (ITA-59) 4-7 10. United Internet Germany (GER-72) 3-8 11. China Team (CHN-69) 1-10 12. Shosholoza (RSA-83) 0-11 QUOTE / UNQUOTE "We have to work on the match racing, and it was a good thing to meet all the other teams, because we have really a good idea of what we must do." - Dawn Riley, General Manager, K-Challenge syndicate "To be honest, it doesn't get much better than this, this is why we play this game for a living." - Matt Mitchell, Alinghi mast/mid bowman "We got the start we wanted, but unfortunately the wind went left about 7 degrees on the first windward leg. That gave Emirates Team New Zealand a pretty strong advantage and we were never really able to recover from that. In terms of boatspeed, it was hard to tell." - John Kostecki, BMW Oracle Racing skipper/tactician NO MORE STINKY COTTON SHIRTS Whether you're a one man wrecking crew, or a member of an elite syndicate working with dozens of team members, we have the gear that sets you apart from those who are still wearing last year's technology. The RSD Dryshirt™ and all new DryGuard™ are in a class by themselves. No other product provides better UV protection while keeping you comfortable on and off the water. From Olympic medalists to MaxZ-86 crews to yacht club junior programs, the Dryshirt™ and DryGuard™ is the 'must have' gear for 2005. Call 800-354-7245 or go to http://www.sailingproshop.com/dryshirt.htm for a dealer near you. WHY? (Emirates Team New Zealand tactician Terry Hutchinson gives his views on Act 4 winner Alinghi's SUI 75 during an interview with The Daily Sail's James Boyd. Here are a couple of excerpts.) SUI 75 was fitted with Alinghi's own version of Team New Zealand's hula, known in house as the 'Jo-Lo' (Jennifer Lopez - nice arse - geddit?), but as this so-called 'appendage' has been banned under Version 5 of the America's Cup Class rule, so the Swiss team second boat has been undergoing presumably similar surgery to that which the Kiwis have undertaken with NZL 82. While he won't go as far as saying that SUI 75 is currently the fastest boat in Valencia, Hutchinson will admit that the boat has a few 'clicks' on them upwind in the mid-teen wind speeds they have seen in Act 4. "It seems to just kind of go," he says. "In a certain conditions it doesn't seem to have a weakness upwind and they seem to be able to sail a couple of different modes angle-wise upwind which is allowing them to be very strong. VMG-wise they are sailing a click higher and the same speed as everyone else - which is really strong. Every time I have been higher and faster it has been a pretty good result!" Hutchinson feels that this may be conditions-related, the boat coming into its own when wind speed reaches double figures. "Last year we raced them twice in lighter air and we felt really good against them. So I think the boat has a little bit of a crossover." "I would suspect people might switch rudders for the fleet racing, because you don't need as much maneuverability," says Hutchinson. - The Daily Sail subscription website, www.thedailysail.com CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar TRAPPED AND CRUSHED A Scots yachtsman has been crushed to death by his own boat after the vessel ran aground. The man, who has not yet been identified but is believed to come originally from the Inverness area, was delivering the boat from Spain to the UK when it ran aground on the outer Thames Estuary, 12 miles from Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex. He was with his 30-year-old son - who watched the tragedy unfold - and a 60-year-old Norwegian who raised a mayday alarm about 4:45am yesterday. It is thought the man was trying to free a rope from the propeller of the 28ft yacht - called the Siesta - when he became trapped, suffering multiple injuries to his lower abdomen and pelvis. Two coastguard lifeboats from Walton-on-the-Naze and Harwich were sent out, and a rescue helicopter was scrambled from RAF Wattisham in Suffolk. The dead man, who was in his fifties, was airlifted by the helicopter from a sandbar 14 miles north of North Foreland. He was flown to the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate but was pronounced dead by doctors shortly after 6am. - John Ross, The Scotsman, http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=685442005 2006 VALLARTA RACE Plan to attend the 2006 San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Yacht Race hosted by San Diego Yacht Club and Vallarta Yacht Club at the Paradise Village Beach Resort & Spa. The event is scheduled for February 21st through March 3rd, 2006. San Diego Yacht Club has a rich tradition dating back to 1954 of hosting a world class race, which will be followed by the 2006 MEXORC, the premier offshore racing series held in Puerto Vallarta. Preliminary details at http://sdyc.org/raceinfo/pv06/index.htm NEWS BRIEFS * The giant grey trimaran Geronimo has crossed the start line and departed Sydney Harbour on her race against the clock circumnavigating Australia. Weather conditions are now ideal for the maxi trimaran for their attempt to set a record for a fully crewed maxi multi hull boat to circumnavigate the 6500 miles around Australia. A Nor' west breeze of 15 knots had her powered up as she traveled down the harbour at over 22 knots boat speed. - http://www.superyachting.com/ A crew of nine French and three Australian sailors will spend the next 20 plus days pushing the boat as hard as they can to set an inspirational record for the sydneyaustralia.com trophy. * Zhao Fei is one of the newest China Team members and at 23 years old, he has 10 years sailing experience in China. Nick-named 'Fly', Zhao started sailing Optimists when he was just 15, then moved onto 420s and 470s - that is, until he was invited by China Team to go to Europe to join its first campaign for the 32nd America's Cup. Ranked second at home in 420 and fifth in 470, he will be representing China in the Beijing Olympics in 2008. www.china-team.org * They say that going around "the Block" is never the same experience twice. Tuesday's experience for over 1000 sailors on 190 boats at the Storm Trysail Club's Block Island Race Week presented by Rolex was nothing short of remarkable. A solid seabreeze built from 10-12 knots at the start to a high end of 20 at the finish, and sunny, clear skies allowed the competitors a fabulous view of the island's bluffs and beaches and, conversely for the islanders watching from ashore, an even more fabulous view of the colorful fleet. Full results: www.blockislandraceweek.com * The first ten Global Challenge yachts are bunched up with only 12 miles between them. The wind seems to be favoring the most northerly positioned yachts. Spirit of Sark is the front runner closely followed by BG Spirit and Barclays Adventure, with all of the race boats doing 8+ knots towards La Rochelle, France - which is still 2600+ miles away. - http://www.globalchallenge2004.com/en/ * Act 4 was the first time Alinghi has raced SUI75 and, the boat has proven to be a machine, helmsman Peter Holmberg comments: "The successes prove that our testing is good, it was a very smart decision of ours. We gave it a lot of thought. We have tested the two boats, we have modified them both and for many reasons, we decided SUI75 was the better machine to take into the competition". * A New Zealand Department of Labour survey found that boatbuilding was one of 15 trades that have been listed as 'suffering' from acute skill shortages. The survey found that some of the occupations - which also include diesel mechanics - had a fill rate of less than 30 per cent and that not enough new workers could fill vacant positions. 'Pay and conditions for certain jobs such as boatbuilding played some part in putting people off entering those trades at all,' said the report. - Sail-World website, www.sail-world.com/news.cfm?Nid=17700&RequestTimeOut=180 * 200 sailors from 48 nations on all six continents have now entered July 14-23 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship in Busan, Korea. Not surprisingly, Asia is well represented with China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Japan, Malaysia and Myanmar all sending sailors along with full strength line ups of ten sailors coming from Singapore and the hosts, Korea. A full quota of ten sailors are also coming from Brazil, Germany and Italy as well as from the established powers of Youth Sailing: Australia, France, Great Britain and New Zealand. - http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?PID=15146 * Information on the ISAF Website relating to all aspects of umpiring, Match and Team Racing has been collected together on the new ISAF IU News and Library page. The ISAF IU News and Library page will form a helpful resource for International Umpires (IU), Judges (IJ), Race Officers (IRO) and Measurers (IM). The Library is arranged into areas covering rules, calls and cases, rapid response rules, manuals, events information, training and certification, ISAF Regulations, ISAF Meetings and Useful Tools and Documents. The page can be found in the Race Officials microsite of the ISAF Website. - http://www.sailing.org/?cm=t0,FGi6qDLtGHI * The Laser North Americans were completed in sunny skies with breezes in the teens in Seattle, Washington on Monday. Andrew Campbell of San Diego won in the full rigs over Canadians Bernard Luttmer and Andrew Childs in a convincing performance that included five wins. Jennifer Spalding of Vancouver, BC came on strong on the last day to win over Kyle Rogachenko of Tom's River, New Jersey and Victoria Crowder of Hamilton, Ontario. Ninety five full rigs and 68 Radials had racing each of the four days in some of the biggest tides of the year. http://www.lasernorthamericans.org/ * Ninety Optimists descended on Lake Erie for their Midwest Championships last weekend, hosted by Sandusky Sailing Club. For those familiar with Sandusky, you can only imagine what occurs when you combine a large Optimist fleet with one of the premier amusement parks in the US. Click through for the on-the-water action: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/optimw/ BONGO FINDS NEW HOME The sport boat for one has a new home on the web. PC Sailing's new site has all the quality you have come to expect from the Bongo site and much, much more. Information about coaching, design, finding the right boat for you. It's all in one convenient location. Check out our exciting videos, too. http://www.pcsailing.net LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (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 Ray Tostado: If us 'good ol boys' have anything to offer other than a gradually weaker body it is the reflection of witnessing yacht racing's history of innovation. Come and gone are the objections to: synthetic sail materials; moveable appendages; adjustment of center boards; double steering foils; shaped keel bulbs; winged keels; adjustable mast steps; multiple hydraulic mast adjustments; hydraulics per se; carbon spars; non human intervention used for ultimate strategies from sophisticated electronics during race events. The list goes on. What I currently am arguing for is the removal of any and all restrictions on using powered winches. It makes no sense to allow massive hydraulic devices to cant a keel, but not to trim a sail. Who will benefit? Me. And all of the other good 'ol boys, and gals, who still have a keen eye for sail trim, but lack the mid '20s arm power to tend the primary on a beat; or grind in after a quick tack. We have been consciously excluded from the "A" crew listings. And we're still hard core racers! Who else will gain? The marine winch industry when orders exceed 20,000 a year. Make them legal, make them cheap, and gain a 25% crew base for all but the upper level classes. Did allowing canting keels promote this kind of growth? I am not addressing the one design fleet rules. I want the national bodies that govern general club races and PHRF to respond with the ban's removal. Make it an un-penalized option. * From Magnus Wheatley, UK: What is it with all the AC moaners out there? AC management are being criticized for putting on a great spectacle, satisfying the sponsors, paying back the Valencia investment, raising the bar of the sailors (and boy they need that!), keeping interest in the event and pushing the boundaries of media coverage two years before the main event. It doesn't make any sense. Ernesto and Larry simply want this great event to flourish and have dragged it kicking and screaming out of dusty yacht clubs policed by stuffy individuals and brought it into the public domain. Oh the history, Oh for Newport ... get real. This is 2005 and the syndicate heads are doing their best to give you, the public, the best show on earth. The racing in Valencia has been top drawer, I've been glued to the radio commentary sick to the back teeth that I'm not there. If you don't like it, tune out and go and watch Formula 1. Now that really is dire... * From Jill Robertson (In response to negative whinging about the America's Cup coverage!): For those of us who love all aspects of sailing, from cruising with our G&Ts, to racing across oceans, I hope you will continue to provide exerpts from all sailing events around the world, including all the Acts for the Louis Vuitton and America's Cup. I peruse both scuttlebutt and scuttlebutt europe everyday, pick and choose what I may be more interested in, and enjoy every bit of it, especially the curmudgeon's observations. So please don't limit your coverage because of some of your readers' inability to be selective in the articles they choose to read. * From Peter Commette: As a senior who has split his time among kite boarding, Snipes and other boats over the years, and who has been passed over for All American honors before, Bryan Lake well knew before the year started the time honored way the All American Team is chosen. Many very good college sailors have not made All American because of other sailing interests that have filled their calendars during the sailing season. Ask Bryan. Ask the others who have missed out under the same circumstances. He and the others in his category would say, "Bothers me, but big deal. It was a good year, and I wouldn't change a thing." Knowing Bryan, he's not reading this stuff, and you couldn't find him to ask his opinion. As one of the best kite boarders in the world (and he does it without foot straps!), I'm sure Bryan is incommunicado somewhere like the Gorge and could care only infinitesimally more than less. * From John Rumsey: Being an All American and $4 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Sailing is a "What Have You done lately" kind of sport. Bryan and Jennifer defeated all the other All Americans so they should be on the list. It is not that to get to all the East coast regattas from Hawaii. * From Anthony Kotoun, A Div. Winner at 2000 College Nationals: Let's end the tread of Bryan and Jennifer. The more we remind them of the ordeal, the more they are going to want to come and kick all of our asses. Let's put it to bed before we wake the sleeping giant. Curmudgeon's Comment: Good idea. It's officially over. * From Scott Truesdell: Adrian Blunt asked for comments on satellite phones versus SSB radios. I can't comment on which provides the safest high seas communication (safety would be the chief criterion, right?) but I can comment on ease of use and ease of installation. SSB is a bear to install correctly. Any antenna on a sail boat is going to be a compromise... and usually a poor one. A good ground plane is difficult as well. And you need a lot of experience to get the best out of operating one. One needs a fair bit of knowledge to select the correct band for the atmospheric conditions, time of day, and the distance you want to talk. Satellite phones are much easier to install and much easier to use. I believe that ease of use should be a major consideration. The main advantage of SSB is the net -- how everyone can hear everyone else during roll call and weak transmissions can be relayed. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS "Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant? I'm halfway through my fish burger and I realize, Oh my God ... I could be eating a slow learner." - Lynda Montgomery * |
