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SCUTTLEBUTT 1344 - June 5, 2003Powered 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 and personal attacks for elsewhere. A NEW CUP PLAYER (James Boyd of The Daily Sail spoke to match race World Champion Karol Jablonski about Poland's forthcoming America's Cup campaign. Here's a brief excerpt from his story.) "At this stage we are lucky that we, the Polish team, can compete with the best guys and America's Cup teams in the world and to beat them. On the match racing circuit, we have beaten almost all of them. It is good to know that we are able to compete on the same level and we are not second class sailors. It is good for us and it gives us a chance to talk seriously about an America's Cup project. Because human power is still number one in the America's Cup." Jablonski says their Cup campaign has been modelled on that of Team New Zealand. "We plan to have a family of four or five sponsors, because we are not able to find one rich guy who will finance it. Team New Zealand showed many times that with less money and good management you can be successful. Everything ends up with human power. When you don't have good management and when you have problem with the sailors, even if you have good money you can't fight it." Now it is the right time for Poland to mount a Cup campaign he maintains. "There is no problem with money in Poland," he says. "We have a few rich companies. But it takes time to make such a project well known and to explain to them what the project is all about, because they ask 'why do you need 30 million Euros for only one sail boat?" And now this project has to be a national project to promote Poland and has to show that Poland is a country with big possibilities. - The Daily Sail website, full story: http://thedailysail.com PADDED SAILING SHORTS & PANTS Sailing Angles trademarked Sailing Shorts and Longpants have padded rear and knee fender options and come with rugged double Cordura seats and knees! You'll love their functional deep pockets, non-corroding zippers, waist adjustment straps, and double waist buttons - all designed to help you sail and play hard. Breathable, water resistant Supplex makes these quick dry shorts easy to pack and an absolute pleasure on the race course! Sizes: 26"-44", 4"-14" in women's, and available in 2 leg lengths. Colors: aloha silver, navy, khaki, red, black and khaki/navy combo. Now at APS, Layline and http://www.sailingangles.com ROY DISNEY (The June issue of Sailing World magazine has an interview with Roy Disney. owner of the R/P 77 Turbosled, Pyewacket. Additionally, the magazine has just posted an expanded version of that story on its website, and the following is an excerpt from some of the previously unpublished material.) Sailing World: You're 73, still an officer of the Walt Disney Company. Does work keep you sharp and competitive and eager to go sailing-or needing to go sailing. Or is it the sailing that keeps you young enough to keep working? Roy Disney: It probably goes both ways. You need to get away from both things I think. Sailing competitively takes concentration and you can't get lazy because there are too many guys that won't. But you can't do that-at least I couldn't-on a regular basis, so getting away from it at the studio is fine. And then getting away from the studio and being out at sea-I know they can't call me out there. That's pretty good too. SW: Inshore racing or offshore-you've done both recently. Which do you prefer? RD: I love both. Inshore racing is great because you get to go home and get in a bed every night. But the distance racing is about going somewhere and arriving in a new place and getting there with a degree of style and knowing you did it well. My first Transpac we got that old 52 Shamrock over the finish line after 11 and a half days, and all I could think of was, I didn't care how we did it, we did it! Now it's become a question of doing it well more and more, and there's a lot of pride. SW: You've built a strong, loyal crew. What's the No. 1 characteristic you look for in a prospect? RD: Obviously, they're all good sailors. There's a comradeship that goes with it. We've had people on the boat on and off through the years that didn't fit. We knew it and they knew it. That was the end of that. No word spoken or sour grapes or anything. It is a gang of people that's been together and had a lot fun and been through a lot over quite a long period of time now. I think it's a kind of a pride in ourselves as a group that people become attached to it when they see it. If you talk to somebody who sails with us and hasn't been with us before, like last summer going to Bermuda; they all get off boat and say, "Wow, you guys really work together well." I don't think anybody can say anything that's nicer than that. SW: Do you ever think of races in terms of being movies. Every one has a story line, lots of scenes. RD: I don't. I wish I could make a movie about it somehow or other, but I know that it tends to be really boring to most people. When Leslie and I started doing our Transpac movie we said right from the start, let's understand that this is not a movie about boats but about people. I think that's why most people who see it who don't know much about sailing actually enjoy it. It's got the history to it and real people you can empathize with. Actually, I was flicking through the TV the other night and some offbeat channel was broadcasting that old "Wind" movie. I watched for about 10 minutes in horrible fascination. It was maybe one of the worst movies ever made. - Sailing World website, full story: http://www.sailingworld.com/sw_article.php?articleID=1853 NEWS BRIEFS * The Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and Schneider Electric maxi-trimaran is now back at sea. Having returned from their 68-day circumnavigation on 20 March, Olivier de Kersauson and his 10-man crew have now set off on a new campaign in the English Channel and the North Sea. These waters have been selected by de Kersauson's team as training grounds, "To get as close as possible to racing conditions and maximise our performance. We will compare them against those we achieved last year with the boat in round-the-world trim, which means a whole tonne heavier." - http://www.grandsrecords.com * America's Cup skipper Paolo Cian has co-designed a new match race yacht that has been chosen as official boat for the 2003 World Match Race at Riva del Garda, on Lake Garda in August. The new boat, Blu Sail 24 Sport is a complete revisitation of the former O.D. Blu Sail 24, designed by Luca Brenta. The project has totally removed cabins and interiors, creating a very spacious cockpit to the advantage of crew's maneuvers during match race regatta. The new Blu Sail 24 Sport has the same hull shape of her old sister, but a new keel design for more power and stability, even the sail area has been slightly reduced, for a tight control in strong wind conditions. The first event using the boat is June 5-7 at the Blurimini Match Race, ISAF Grade 2 event, with ten skippers including, Karol Jablonski, Paolo Cian, James Spithill, Bjorn Hansen, Mathieu Richard, Kelvin Harrap, Andy Green, Ian Williams, Sebastien Col, Lars Norbjaerg. - http://www.sailing.org THE NEXT CUP (Michael Reinsch talked with Alinghi's Jochen Schümann about next America's Cup for a story in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Here's an excerpt.) "We will split 'Alinghi' into two companies. One will defend the title, and the other one will organize the competition as well and fair as possible. The regatta director will be allowed to decide how long the match race will take. After one and a half to two hours, the perfect length for a television broadcast, it should be over. "Before the match races of the challengers of 2007 we want to sail a fleet regatta with the defender. In the course of eight weeks everything should be over. In the two years before we want to establish a kind of world cup series for the America's Cup yachts. "Yes, (that will weaken our position as defender of the title), but we will strengthen sailing as a whole and the Cup. In early days the titleholders would fight tooth and nail and bend the rules. We want to win and pass on our passion for sailing. The trophy is only worth something if the competition is attractive." - Jochen Schümann, TEAM ONE NEWPORT PRODUCES BOATING FASHION SHOW Team One Newport's owner, Martha Parker, has raced all around the world on boats ranging from Ynglings to Swan 68's and Farr 40's and in events from Swedish Match to the One Ton Worlds. And now she is producing a fashion show for TV to share her knowledge on how to dress for all types of sailing conditions. Martha's picks will be available at Team One Newport, where you can find the best gear to keep you warm and dry. Martha and her Team One experts are also available for advice when you call at 800-VIP-GEAR or visit http://www.team1newport.com COLLEGIATE WOMEN'S NAs Grosse Pointe Shores, MI (June 4, 2003) - Leading from the very first race on Monday, Tufts University (Medford, MA) won the 2003 Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Women's North American Championship today. Mid-Atlantic powerhouses St. Mary's College (St. Mary's City, MD) and Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA) finished second and third, respectively. Four A-division races were sailed today, with 6 held in the B-division. Eighteen races in each division were completed over the past three days at the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club on Lake St. Clair in new Vanguard 420s provided by Vanguard Sailboats (Portsmouth, R.I.), a partner in the ICSA Growth and Development Project. Fog and light drizzle made spectating difficult at GPYC, but there was enough wind for the sailors to successfully battle the large chop and waves on the lake. Overall Results (A + B = Total Points) 1. Tufts University 62 + 97 = 159 2. St. Mary's Coll. 120 + 53 = 173 3. Old Dominion Univ. 77 + 117 = 194 4. Dartmouth College 114 + 81 = 195 5. Yale University 144 + 86 = 230 6. Univ. of Hawaii 119 + 126 = 245 7. Brown University 139 + 118 = 257 8. Harvard University 89 + 172 = 261 9. College of Charleston 161 + 130 = 291 10. Hobart/Wm Smith Coll 188 + 166 = 354 This was the first of three ICSA Spring Championships. The ICSA North American Team Race Championship is scheduled to begin Thursday. The ICSA/Gill North American Coed Dinghy Championship will be held June 8-10. - http://www.collegesailing.org/2003 CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS * June 13-15: NOOD, Chicago YC, Chicago, IL. 258 entries, including forty-seven Tarten Tens. http://www.sailingworld.com/sw_nood_subcat.php?sectionID=2505 * June 20-22: 505 East Coast Championships, West River Sailing Club, Galesville, MD. http://www.int505.org/fleet19/events/2003ECCNOR.htm QUALITY CONTROL In our efforts to insure the quality distribution of Scuttlebutt, you should have received yesterday an email detailing a couple problems that may be hindering your regular weekday delivery of Scuttlebutt. We have had a tremendous response, including many very kind notes of appreciation for Scuttlebutt (thank you!). If you sent us an email with a request, hang in there as it will take us a few days to get to everyone. Also remember that the Scuttlebutt website is available anytime you need to update your email information. - http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com 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 or a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Lenore Goldman: (re Mr. McBrearty letter) One of my pet peeves are guys who race and continually complain about the race committee, but never do any race committee work. We are unpaid volunteers! I've even had one sailor complain to the race committee that the winds were too shifty! Mr. McBrearty, any time you would like to work on a Race Committee mark set boat please let me know. I will be happy to take you out on my personal boat "Seductress" which I supply to help the race committee, as my crew. I hope you pick a good day with temps in the 50's, 20 knot winds with six foot seas, rain, hail, lightning, and all that while we're trying to set up for the next race. Oh, did I tell you there is no cabin on my boat? I think it will give you a new appreciation for the Race Committee. Oh, one more thing, results are posted as soon as all of the protests are settled. Would you prefer incorrect information to be posted when, as a result of the protest hearings, all which could change? * From Kurt Hoehne: PHRF did what it needed to do, give us racing through the demise of IOR and sputtering of IMS and now Americap. But we all know the terminal problems. And US Sailing has had plenty of chances to make Americap work. IRC is being adopted around the world. While having no direct experience with it, I've heard that it does a good job of handicapping boats as disparate as Pyewacket and a 70s Swan. Also, designers get to sharpen their pencils and come up with something new. It's not terribly expensive or hard to administer. Of course it's not perfect, but it seems to be providing great racing for the rest of the world. US Sailing will not do this for us. We have to go to YCs and event managers and start asking for it. No, demanding it. If people get a core group together in their area, they can get the ball rolling. Pacific Northwesterners, how 'bout us?! * From Chuck Hawley: There is an exemption specifically for CO2 cylinders on aircraft, but as you can see from the wording, it's unworkable for the vast majority of travelers. "With approval of the aircraft operator, one small carbon dioxide cylinder fitted into a self-inflating life-jacket, plus one spare cartridge, may be carried by a passenger or crew member in checked or carry-on baggage." - 49CFR175.10a(25) I have spoken with representatives of the FAA and DOT, and in every case, they have strongly discouraged me from even trying to contact the "aircraft operator" and get my life jacket on board. There was no logical argument process possible with the type of person with whom I spoke (the aircraft already have hundreds of CO2 cylinders on board, this is non-flammable, I will remove the cylinder, etc.) I have also traveled to countless Safety at Sea Seminars with inflatable PFDs. I generally check them in my luggage, and remove the CO2 so that if the device were to inflate, it won't blow my seabag apart. I know of no CO2 cylinders which have gone off spontaneously except through premature inflation caused by a wet inflation mechanism. * From Richard Sizefein: Anyone who thinks it should be okay to carry a CO2 powered inflatable PFD on a commerical airlines should be required to repeat childhood. Those of us with appropriately misspent youths know that CO2 cartridges aren't just "air in a can." They are a power source that can readily be used to accelerate all kinds of ordinary objects to highly destructive velocities. Inflatable PFDs as checked luggage, okay, but as carry-on luggage is just plain nuts. U.S. Sailing is way off base if it advocates for carry-on status. * From Ted Robie: As of today Southwest Airlines policy does not allow self inflating PFDs or anything with small CO2 cartridges as carry on or regular baggage. * From Andy Vare: As someone who has experienced the frustrations first hand that come with fundraising, I am more than a little disappointed with Mr. Rumsey's comments that sailors need to stop begging for donations - especially in the larger context of the thread. The 90's wrought tremendous amounts of wealth, most of which was highly concentrated amongst tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The collapse of that marketplace has created a negative "wealth effect" that severely constricts financial support for legitimate athletic efforts like Olympic sailing. Think of your benefactor's marginal propensity to "give" when they are feeling 20% poorer than last year, which was 20% poorer than the year before. Even if they were highly wealthy to begin with, a haircut like that can make anyone feel closed as a clam. Positive "wealth effects" are a necessary precondition to funding for sailors, although the opportunity cost of donated capital can be high if market returns are substantial. Such is the risk of a system of notional value, I guess, but clearly it's a desert out there right now. Ms. Lovell is right. If we want younger people to represent us on the team, who may be less jaded in their views, have fewer outside distractions to their sole focus on sailing, etc. then there is no alternative to fundraising: asking for money from older stakeholders, and giving them something in return, a chance to be a member of a winning team. * From Jon Gundersen: Scuttlebutt readers should listen to Line 7's Ross Munroe, and listen closely - my personal experience has shown that he is clearly a dedicated sponsor. I sailed with Gavin Brady at the Congressional Cup Regatta on the Swedish Match Tour and have one question to ask Paul Henderson - How is ISAF going to improve the sport of sailing with the 10% of my share of the prize money for second place? $60 dollars does not buy much these days. The Swedish Match tour is a great event, but none of the participants are getting rich from it, in fact most do not break even - how can the ISAF justify taking yet another cut? CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUM Why do people point to their wrist when asking for the time, but don't point to their crotch when they ask where the bathroom is? |
