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SCUTTLEBUTT 2167 - August 25, 2006Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.OLYMPIC WARM UP Qingdao Olympic Sailing Centre -- While France holds the yellow jersey in three of the eleven Olympic events of the Qingdao International Regatta, the sailors at the top across the remaining eight events represent eight different nations - a clear demonstration of the depth of talent here in Qingdao. The host nation China continues to deliver some fantastic results, particularly in the men's and women's RS:X events. Steady winds filled in across the race course, with the crowds on the harbor wall able to enjoy the racing on the courses adjacent to the wall where the Laser, Laser Radial, 49er and RS:X fleets were out racing. Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) got the bullet in the Laser Radial fleet, which moved her into eighth place after a discard was scored. Paige Railey's eighth in the same race became her discard -- the only Laser Radial competitor to discard a single-digit result. Railey is now in third place, one point out of second and four points behind the class leader. Mexico's Tania Elias Calles Wolf has moved up to fifth place, while Keamia Rasa remains the top Canadian in 19th place in this class. There are no North Americans in the top half of either the Women's or Men's RS:X classes, and Canadian Bernard Luttmer in 15th place, is the only North American in the top half of the 36-boat Laser fleet. However, Zack Railey (USA) has move up into the fifth spot in the 18-boat Finn class, (where Ben Ainslie (GBR) now holds an overpowering 19 point lead over the fleet after just four races) while Amanda Clark/ Sara Mergenthaler (USA) slide to tenth in the tightly packed, 37-boat Women's 470 standings. Tornado sailors John Lovell and Charlie Ogletree (USA) are now in fourth place in the 19-boat Tornado class - the same position that the USA sailors Sally Barkow/ Debra Capozzi/ Carolyn Howe occupy in the Yngling standings. Dalton Bergan/ Zachary Maxam USA) are North America's top crew in the 49er results, presently positioned in ninth place, with Canada's Rob Dale/ Hunter Lowden in 14th. -- http://www.2006qdregatta.com/ AS SEEN BY THE USA SAILORS * We started a second race as the breeze fell away and the current built until it was ripping. Most of the fleet made it over the line against the current but ten minutes after the start gun there were still five or six boats which were still short of the line. At that stage with no weather improvement expected, the committee called it a day. -- Anna Tunnicliffe, Laser Radial http://www.annatunnicliffe.com * . after that we began losing boats ... and we also realized that there was something stuck on our rudder. Several attempts to clear it with our trusty weed stick failed, and we worked our way to the back of the fleet by the finish. Very frustrating, but at least understandable... this is a very tough fleet to be slow in since there are no slackers. After a quick swim to clear the rudder (not a pleasurable experience since we had to dodge the most obvious trash to find a tolerable spot) -- Team Cronin - Carol, Kim, and Margaret, Yngling, http://www.teamcronin.org IT'S GONE NATIONAL Improvements have been made to the steadycrew.com website. It's gone national; the site has the ability for every harbor in every geographic area of the United States to us the matching capabilities of the site. The way it works is Skippers and Crew create a login into the site with information about which Geographic area and then more specifically which Harbor they sail out of. Each Harbor has its own specific "Home Port Calendar" that races are added to and edited by the users of the site from that area. So the users login, go to the "Home Port Calendar" and then mouse over each race that has been added to the Calendar and a little menu box comes up that allows the user to "Make Themselves Available" for the that race. Skippers have one extra step and that is to inform the site what position is needed to be filled for this race. Now the site knows which skippers are coming, and what positions are needed to be filled, and the site also knows which crew are available and what positions they feel capable of filling. The site matches up the skipper and the crew based on this criteria. The fact that the site has gone national means its possible for a crew person to be going to Hawaii on vacation and make themselves available to be crew in Hawaii, and then get a list of skippers in Hawaii that need them for a race. Call or e-mail the skipper and set yourself up with the ride. The crew person has also made themselves available and now the skippers from that area will see them on the available crew list and can call or e-mail him. Because of this very specific means of matching skippers to crew, the contact information about the users of the site is not made available to the spammers of the world, a nice feature of the site, because in other crew listing sites it's frequently easy for the spammers to get the entire list of people and start sending out Viagra ads or Mortgage Loan ads. -- http:// www.steadycrew.com SAILFLOW.COM - WEATHER WHERE YOU SAIL! SailFlow, the leader in real-time and forecasted marine weather, announces the completion of a new website. By collecting all public weather data (buoys, forecasts, warnings, satellite/radar, etc), SailFlow's new FREE service eliminates your need for multiple weather bookmarks by giving you everything in one convenient location. Plus SailFlow operates a network of proprietary weather stations placed right where you sail and uses their own computer model to forecast conditions. A recent addition is a revolutionary weather graph that scrolls between current, past, and forecasted conditions without having to reload the page. -- http://www.SailFlow.com/new DINGHY CHAMPIONSHIPS Final results for ISAF Grade One event for Olympic Classes Laser and Laser Radial are available on the CORK Website. The 91 boat Laser class was won by Kingstonian, Michael Kalin after six races, with 36 points ahead of fellow Canadian David Wright and in third Josh Junior from New Zealand. The Radial Female class, also an ISAF Grade 1 event, was won by Rosie Chapman from Great Britain, ahead of Canadians Danielle Dube and Victoria Crowder. The fleet included 57 sailors in total. Rosie Chapman also won the Open Radial division, ahead of Canadian Matthew Archibald and Ian Sutherland from the USA. The open Radial fleet had record participation with a total of more than 150 boats competing. The 29'er North American Championship saw Jen Class and Genny Tulloch from the USA take the Gold Medal with 45 points in twelve races ahead of Canadians Brock Hopemorley and R Jason Hearst in second and fellow Canadians Murray McCullogh and Chris Hewson in third. North American Champion in the Byte CII is William Hutchins of the Bermuda Yacht Club and Jean-Luc Robitalle of Quebec, Canada, won the title in the Byte Standard Class. The Laser II North Americans was won by Canadians Ben Whan and Drew Copeland with 28 points in 13 races. The 420 class honours went to Elizabeth and Alexander Whipple and of the U.S.A. with 22 points in eleven races. Winner of the Laser 4.7 fleet was Dan Nickerson of the U.S.A. after twelve races with 14 points. For the complete results and racing schedules check out the CORK web site at: http://www.cork.org ALMOST LIKE THE SOUTHERN OCEAN San Francisco -- On the third day of the 18' Skiff International Regatta Howard Hamlin, from Long Beach, Calif., won the first race and followed Samuel (Shark) Kahn, 17 in the second race for a 1-2 day that moved him past Australia's John Winning (2-3) into first place overall with four races remaining. Friday's action includes the 6 o'clock Bridge to Bridge classic---five miles from the Golden Gate to the Bay Bridge, with a flock of windsurfers and kite boarders joining the fun. The 18s will tune up with one of their usual nine-mile buoy races at 4 p.m., three times around a 1 1/2-mile long windward-leeward course along the bay front. Two boats will be sailing with their 10-foot-long bowsprits repaired or replaced. Grant Rollerson's DeLonghi and Peter Barton's West Marine both limped back to the beach during the second race after their extensions snapped. If the brisk winds continue---during Thursday's racing it peaked at 32 knots near Angel Island on the north side of the course and 24 at the leeward mark---the Bridge to Bridge should be a spectacle. Kahn's Pegasus Black craft had capsized three times in the first two days but Paul Allen, Kahn's forward crew, figured they've now found the secret to success. "Keeping this big black stick in the air," he said, referring to the mast. "Once you get in the lead, if you stay upright you usually stay there." -- Rich Roberts The leaders after 6 of 10 races with one discard: 1. Pegasus White, Howard Hamlin/Mike Martin/Trent Barnabas, 8 points. 2. Yandoo, John Winning/Andrew Hay/'Geoff Bauchop, 9 3. Pegasus Black, Samuel (Shark) Kahn/Cameron MacDonald/Paul Allen, 10 Complete results and photos: http://www.stfyc.com (Click successively on Regatta Information / 2006 Racing Calendar / August) SAILING SHORTS * Thomas Coates' seriously campaigned Masquerade has a tenuous two point lead after the first two races of the J/105 North America Championships at the California YC in Marina del Rey. With four points from finishes of 1-3 in the 31-boat fleet, Masquerade is closely followed by Tom Carruthers' Invisible (6 points) and Lowell North's Triple Play (8 points) after a day when the Santa Monica Bay rarely produced more than eight knots of breeze. Dennis and Sharon Case's Wing (11pts) and Gary Mozer & Doug McLean's Current Obsession 2 (14pts) round out the top five. -- http://www.calyachtclub.com * They made up the "youth team" in the Volvo Ocean Race. None of the sailors on ABN Amro Two were allowed to be older than 31. Now three of them have joined Victory Challenge: Simon Fisher, 28, Great Britain, Andrew Lewis, 24, USA, and Luke Molloy, 26, Australia. "They are all young, but they have the international sailing experience we need, as well as specialties that are merits to have in our team. SiFi also has America's Cup experience, he is one of seven in the team who sailed with GBR Challenge last time," says Magnus Holmberg, skipper and helmsman. * Lexus, with Russell Coutts driving and Gavin Brady calling tactics won Thursday's second race under very shifty and light conditions of the 16-boat Breitling MedCup TP52 fleet racing for the Athens Trophy. Peter de Ridder's Mutua Madrilena strengthened their overall lead with a display of sheer boatspeed, good starting and safe sailing that contributed to their victory in the first race of the day, which was contested in a light, and at times fickle sea breeze. Standings: 1. Mutua Madrilena, 19pts; 2. Cristabella, John Cook/ Charlie McKee, 21pts: 3. Caixa Galicia, Vicente Tirado/ Roberto Bermudez-de Castro, 28pts. -- http://athenstrophy.horc.gr/about.php * It looks like the Farr 40 Worlds in Newport RI next month may hit 40 boats - which would be the largest Farr 40 fleet ever assembled. It will also bring together a sizable collection of rock stars which will include Terry Hutchinson, Mark Reynolds, Morgan Trubovich, Brad Butterworth and Russell Coutts. -- http://www.farr40worlds.com FREE LUNCH Scuttlebutt has continued to provide daily sailing news since 1997, largely due to the great companies that support the newsletter and website. Scuttlebutt advertisers provide everything the sailor needs, and we hope that you can reciprocate their support by shopping with them (note the SailFlow ad in this issue). Another way to support Scuttlebutt is to direct your Amazon.com shopping through the banner ad on the Scuttlebutt website, wherein Scuttlebutt receives a referral fee for any purchases you make. For a full listing of Scuttlebutt advertisers: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers 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. You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. And please save your bashing, and personal attacks for elsewhere. For those that prefer a Forum, you can post your thought at the Scuttlebutt website: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi) * From Tom Hubbell, Vice President US Sailing: Peter Huston's commentary identifies a national and international trend, fewer sailors. The Brits looked at it, hired a consultant, and rolled out a plan for collaboration between the sailing industry and the national organization to grow the sport. ISAF similarly has a plan in the works, Connect to Sailing. US SAILING reviewed the Brit's plan, realized our organization itself needed a fix first, did that, and now we're starting to develop a plan. About one in ten US sailors engages in sailboat racing. Like most self-analysts, we racers are too close to the problem to see it. When you went skiing the first time, did some guy insist that you enter the slalom competition that day? When you learned to ride a bike, did your dad enter you in a biathlon the same weekend? We need to teach the skills and the fun first. Later, a lot later, we could mention that there are races going on. To get the ball rolling we could each take someone new and "just go sailing." * From Steve Morrell: As editor of Southwinds magazine, I see many reasons for the decline in club racing. One is money. Although new boats aren't selling, used boats are selling like hotcakes. As fuel goes up, boats are being sold or downsized. Slip rental has skyrocketed as slips disappear, making boat ownership real expensive. This general decline has affected the racing, although I see the diehard club racers, who sail more regularly than almost anyone else, not giving in: they still do the weekly beer can races, almost religiously. Here in West Florida, we have experienced strong growth in racing (last year, West Florida PHRF had the largest growth of any U.S. PHRF organization). One of the main reasons is the growth of the "True Cruising Fleet," where cruising boat owners, who didn't race previously, can now race against similar boats-in a more relaxed way. This is the greatest potential for involving more boaters. Many of these races also have a pursuit start-eliminating what keeps many non-racers from becoming racers, as the start can be intimidating for those who have a slow boat, or who just don't want to be that competitive. After all, most people sail for the relaxation and quiet. In Lake Lanier, GA, they have had similar success with the new Performance Cruising Racing Fleet (PCRF), involving cruisers in racing. If there are others out there doing the same thing, I would like to hear about it. Let me know at editor@southwindsmagazine.com. * From Glenn Selvin: Peter Huston is spot on when he discusses the decline in yacht racing in America. Speaking only for myself, I think that some of the regattas, even club regattas, are just way too time consuming, and often are grueling with so many races in a weekend. I race a Lemieux Finn dinghy, and am looking at my club's upcoming Labor Day regatta, and see four races on Saturday and four more on Sunday. Ugh! The first race of the day is always great, and the second is fun to try to correct the first race's mistakes, and even the third race is fun to go try it again. By race four? Ok, ok, enough already! I'm ready to come in for the barbecue! Yet this regatta is two solid days of racing, time spent away from family, etc. Our club ran a survey a few years back which showed, and I agree, that people prefer one day regattas, as it doesn't burn up the entire weekend! Race all day on Saturday, put the boat away, and then relax on Sunday at home... now, that's my idea of a weekend! * From Brad Read: Apparently Peter Huston needs get on the water more. In Southern Narragansett Bay there was more sailing in 9 days than I have ever seen before. 310 young sailors competed in the US Sailin Jr. Olympic Festival in Jamestown / Saunderstown, 20 Farr 40's competed in the Farr 40 New England Championships, between 150 and 200 kids in their daily sailing schools at 5 local sailing schools, a 15 boat Melges 24 OD regatta, a Grand Prix Ocean Race with 80 footers down to 30 footers called the Ida Lewis Distance Race, the Hinman Masters Team Race Regatta in Sonars at NYYC, The Clagett Clinic and Regatta for Paralympic Sailors at Sail Newport, a 35 boat Shields Wednesday Night Series run by Ida Lewis YC, a 65 plus boat PHRF Series on Tuesday Nights in Jamestown YC, 32 J/24's race on Thursday's from Ida. Did I mention the scores of adult lessons run each week here at Sail Newport, the Rental Programs for tourists and locals to get them on the water? So far as my limited math skills can attest, that is a total of over 200 "unthinking and self-serving volunteers" on the water running our events. But who is counting . . . * From Urban Miyares: Found "How Do We Stop The Decline" (Scuttlebutt #2166) most interesting. In my 50 years of sailing, I too have seen a shift in sailing participation, but at a tremendous increase. Maybe it's due to the type of sailors I share the water with, from around the world. (I'm disabled - total blind, with other medical challenges.) At San Diego's Challenged America program there has been a steady growth (24%) yearly) in the number of sailors with disabilities, due to innovative design and sailing techniques now providing sailing access to those who were once unable to participate in the sport, and to the seasoned sailor who has experienced a life-altering disability, and is now able to continue sailing. Today, sailors with disabilities, from around the world, are actively sailing, with a growing number crossing the "disability line" and participating with and against able-bodied sailors, in traditional sailing and racing venues. Only in sailing is this possible, as in many organized sailing events (such as the Transpac) and in many one-design classes, disabled sailors are now active and recognized as "sailors" first, by fellow able-bodied sailors, then the "how-do/did-you-do-it" questions come. Yes, maybe sailing is declining in the traditional demographic profile. But the growing number of sailors with disabilities is, hopefully, filling some of the sailor participation void. Thousands of kids and adults with disabilities are waiting for the opportunity to sail with you. * From Tim Dick: How about Charlie Dole, ex University of Hawaii sailing coach who still wins on the race course regularly at just on 92. He's hard to beat in his J/24 in the Kaneohe Yacht Club Thursday Night series and is often seen driving the 1D35 Two Guys On the Edge to a win in the Waikiki Friday Night series. I recall a moment during a Friday night race last year aboard the Farr ILC43 Flash Gordon when powering into the downwind mark off Honolulu Harbor in a solid 25 knot breeze and commensurate swells. We were kind of high and working down to the mark while hoisting the jib for the tack upwind leg. Up from behind storms Charlie, helming Two Guys hot & fast under our bow, very politely slamming the door from the inside on us, jib up & ready for the tack which was perfectly executed as usual. It was a thing of beauty - we just shook our heads in awe. We only saw his transom for the rest of the evening. Ever the gentleman, Charlie always heads to the yacht club bar for a Budweiser with his crew and everyone else's. We could all learn a little something from him on the water and off. Hats off to you Charlie, I want to be like you when I grow up! I owe you a Bud. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION In order to be smart you have to allow for the possibility that you don't know everything. Today's issue of Scuttlebutt presented by SailFlow.com |
