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SCUTTLEBUTT 1348 - June 11, 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. TOP YACHTING NATION Plans are under way to hold an annual Sir Peter Blake memorial regatta at the Viaduct Harbour to decide the top yachting nation. Yachting veterans John Street, a life member of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, and Tom Ehman, who was Oracle's rules adviser at the last America's Cup, are trying to organize the regatta, which will be known as the Blake Cup. Mr Street, who was a director of the America's Cup Village in the 2000 defence, said the idea came after New Zealand lost the America's Cup and Alinghi changed the nationality rule. "We thought, 'Now the cup is gone, we have to utilize the facility in the Viaduct Harbour and put it to some other use'." And with Alinghi taking away the nationality qualification, we thought, 'Why don't we have a nation to nation sailing competition'." The details of the proposed regatta will not be finalized until next month, but it is hoped the first race will be next February. Mr Street said the regatta, which will last for 10 to 12 days, would be divided into four categories: * Junior class sailing in Optimists. * Olympic class in 49ers or 470s. * Fleet division racing in Etchells. * Offshore division racing in 50-70ft keel yachts. There will be one team per country, with each member having to hold a passport for that country. Organizers say the regatta will always be held at the Viaduct Harbour, irrespective of which country wins. Mr. Ehman, who is American, has been meeting a series of yachting's big names, such as Larry Ellison, Dennis Conner and Paul Cayard, to discuss sponsorship and participation. - Ainsley Thomson, NZ Herald, full story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sports/sportsstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3506802&thesection=sport&thesubsection=watersports&thesecondsubsection=yachting&reportID=62070 COLLIGATE CHAMPIONS After placing second for the past two years by a combined 9 points, today Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.) won the 2003 Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) / Gill North American Coed Dinghy Championship at Bayview Yacht Club by 69 points. Following Harvard's 165 point tally was University of Hawaii (Honolulu, Hawaii) with 234 points. With 238 points, St. Mary's College (St. Mary's City, Md.) finished third, followed by the University of Southern California (264) and Tufts (270). Strong currents and a wide range of wind conditions made for good racing over the past three days on the Detroit River. ICSA President Mitch Brindley (Smithfield, Va.) was pleased with "the range of conditions which made for close competition." Each division sailed 18 races in new Vanguard 420s provided by Vanguard Sailboats (Portsmouth, R.I.) In A-division, Senior Clay Bischoff (Miami, Fla.) sailed with senior Lema Kikuchi (Bethesda, Md.) and sophomore David Darst (Greenwich, Ct.). Junior Cardwell Potts (New Orleans, La.) sailed with senior Michelle Yu (Mountain View, Calif.) and juniors Diana Rodin (West Roxbury, Mass.) and Gabe Dorfman (Port Angeles, Wash.) in the B-division. Bischoff, Potts and Yu are returning All-Americans. Derek Webster, http://www.gillna.com COLOR MATCH 24 SYSTEM When you are pressing to win, you want the best lines available. Look to the leader, Samson Rope Technologies. You've seen the ads and heard the talk about the new Color Match 24 system. But how do you tell a Samson line from all of the others? Simple; look for the red and green tracer! This critical I.D. marker is your assurance that you have Samson quality on board. Don't trust the race to cheap alternatives. Rigging failure is not an option. Check for the red and green tracer! Samson, The Sailor's Line. http://www.samsonrope.com/home/recmarine/index.cfm OLDEST FRESHWATER CHALLENGE TROPHY The Canada's Cup International Match- Race Series has been contested on the waters of the Great Lakes since 1896. It is only slightly younger than the venerable America's Cup. It pits Canada against the US and has been sailed 19 times with the US holding an 11-8 lead in the series. In 2001, breaking with tradition but hoping to stage the Series on a more regular basis the one design Farr 40 was agreed upon by RCYC and Bayview Yacht Club . It proved to be an ideal choice, providing exciting world class match racing. The combined delta for the first three races was 24 seconds. Terry McLaughlin's Team Defiant won the best of 13 series in 12 races to return the prestigious Cup to Canada after a 13 year absence. The Farr 40 has again been chosen for the 2003 Canada's Cup. From June 13-18 The Royal Canadian Yacht Club in Toronto will host the Canada's Cup Trials to select the Canadian Defender for the September Canada's Cup Defense against the US Challenger. Terry McLaughlin is returning with his successful 2001 Team Defiant crew of Olympians and trusted pros while Alek Krstajc with Honour has brought in some big guns from Oracle BMW Racing to aid with his efforts to be the Canadian Defender. John Cutler, Jon Ziskind, and Cameron Dunn were all part of the Oracle BMW Racing Team that was the 2002/2003 Louis Vuitton finalist as well as winner of the 2002 Swedish Match Racing Tour Season Championship. - www.canadascup.com FARR 40 WORLDS The 2003 Rolex Farr 40 World Championship will be sailed on the waters off Porto Cervo, Sardinia over four days 2nd 5th July, hosted by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. Twelve countries, France, Italy, Switzerland, United States, Great Britain, Greece, Germany, Norway, Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium and Australia will race for an ISAF endorsed World Championship title. 36 boats, the largest ever assembly of the class in Europe, will race a ten race series where all races count. In the days before racing gets underway in Sardinia the fleet will be put through rigorous safety controls and test measurements. The number and size of sails as well as the total crew weight are all strictly controlled. Random spot checks will also be made after each race day to ensure rules compliance throughout the event. The Rolex Farr 40 Worlds, held alternately on either side of the Atlantic each year, will be the culmination of a busy programme of racing in European waters this year. The 2001 Champion Ernesto Bertarelli, fresh from winning the America s Cup, will be joined by some elements of his Alinghi Team crew, back sailing together again for the first time since the America's Cup in Auckland. - Media Pro Int'l The Complete Entry List for the 2003 Rolex Farr 40 World Championship can be found at: www.farr40.org ULLMAN SAILS WIN CAL RACE WEEK Congratulations to our customers for their prestigious victories at this year's Cal Race Week held in Marina del Rey, CA. PHRF A: Wasabie*; PHRF B: Black Knight*; PHRF C: Defiance; J/105: Indigo 3; Schock 35: Whiplash; Martin 242: 9 Lives. Are you and your crew ready for the "Fastest Sails on the Planet?" Give your local Ullman Sails Loft a call or visit us on line at http://www.ullmansails.com * indicates partial inventories JOHN KOSTECKI Veteran American sailor John Kostecki could be sailing for Team New Zealand in the next America's Cup. Team New Zealand head Grant Dalton met Kostecki in the United States last month and the American is now expected in Auckland this month for a second meeting with Dalton and Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker. "I have been in talks with John," Dalton said. "We are planning further talks with him later this month, when he will meet Dean and me." An Olympic silver medallist, two-time America's Cup tactician, 10-time world champion in a range of one-design classes and Whitbread veteran, Kostecki would be a huge boost for Team New Zealand. His leadership and sailing skills would strengthen Team New Zealand's inexperienced afterguard, which was heavily criticised after the 5-0 loss to Swiss syndicate Alinghi. Kostecki was tactician on Young America in 1995 and on America One in 2000. His most recent success was in the 2001-02 Volvo Ocean race, in which he skipped German entry Illbruck to first place. With half-a-dozen New Zealanders aboard, Illbruck dominated the race, winning four of the nine legs. The plan was for Illbruck to finish the round-the-world race then move to Auckland and challenge for the America's Cup. But the team could not find enough money to pay for their campaign and it fell over, despite the hull of GER 68 being almost completed and a base already set up in Auckland. - Julie Ash, NZ Herald, full story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sports/sportsstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3506778&thesection=sport&thesubsection=americascup&thesecondsubsection=teamnz FINN EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS Royal Gothenburg YC - On the penultimate day of the Finn European championships Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie scored two first places to successfully defend his European title with a day to spare. Ainslie sailed a perfect day crossing the line first in both races in winds varying from 15-16 knots on the first race and 12-14 in the second. Ainslie won from Finn Olympic gold medallist Mateusz Kusznierewicz of Poland and silver medallist Sebastien Godefroid of Belgium. - Yachts and Yachting website, http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/default2.asp After seven races, the top North Americans in the 79-boat Finn fleet are: 19. Mo Hart, USA; 24. Chris Cook, CAN. - http://www.gkss.se/media/emfinjolle/results_day5.htm START SAILING FASTER WITH SEITECH DOLLIES They're at all of the regattas. Your friends have them. Isn't it time you have one? Seitech has a dolly for every dinghy plus storage racks and accessories for all your boat storage and transportation needs. Spend your time sailing faster. Check out our full product line at http://www.seitech.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 Peter Evans: Awww, come on Jill Nickerson! A sense of proportion please! Since when did a 'dislocated shoulder and minor cuts and bruises' equate to 'practically killed'? * From Stephen A Van Dyck (edited to our 250-word limit): Gary Jobson's article in Sailing World sure struck a cord with me. Having sailed in five Americas Cup campaigns in the 12-meter days that Olin Stephens referred to, I have had a pretty traditional view of the sport. We sailed for the sheer thrill of it. We loved the boats, the spectacle, the competition and especially the friendships that were formed in the crucible of the campaigns. When we won it was the thrill of a lifetime. And when Gary Jobson eliminated us in 1977 Cup trials we celebrated his victory. As I grew older I was able to buy a series of ocean racing boats including two forty-eight footers. My crews were largely ex-Cup sailors and friends. We won a lot of races and had a lot of fun. Then it started to change. Other owners started paying crew members in contravention to the then rules. It became more and more necessary to have a paid crew if you wanted to win. I no longer own a racing boat even though I love it. When the fleets started shrinking and the number of paid crews/ boats started outnumbering the Corinthians I stopped. I was obviously an anachronism, coming from a time when it was a thrill to just show up on the starting line of the Fastnet, Bermuda or Transatlantic. And it certainly was no fun to go the bar after a race and overhear a pro complain about the owner wanting to steer his own boat. * From Seth A. Radow: Messers Stephens and Jobson are true men of passion when it comes to sailing. They have given, selflessly, of themselves to the sport of sailing with a zeal and zest that is virtually unmatched for most of their lives. To all of those owners who labor to build a crew of amateurs into finely tunes machines on the water, my hat's off to you. Only with passion amongst the entire crew can each individual learn to work together as a true team. It takes time on the water, time off the water, books to read, drills to run, dinners with the crew and their families. All of this builds that camaraderie that no paycheck can match. It builds an extended family that lives and sails together, week after week, year after year. It builds a team where the crew learn to love and respect one another as true friends. This is what I enjoy so much about sailing. It is what keeps me coming back time and again, win or lose, year after year. This is what brought the crew of Bull together as friends. It is what brought us together as sailors competing in and winning Transpac 2001. That's a memory that all of us will remember forever. We all earned that victory. We all worked as professionals for the love of the sport. Thanks Gary and Olin for putting this in words. * From Max Rosenberg: Sailing/ Boat owning is truly a rich mans sport. Gary Jobson is wrong. Sailing used to be loose and easy and now it is equalized and fair to crewmembers and owners. In the old days ... the 70's that Jobson refers to, sailors did get perks and payment. It was just on the sly. Mr. Jobson knows this. This is not the time to destroy what has taken years to regulate and formalize. Getting paid to sail is good for the sport. Limit pro's, like the J/105 class does. Acknowledgement that paid sailors exist has helped the sport. Everyone knows that paid sailors sail boats like A-Cup boats or Farr 40's. * From Bill Stump: 1. From 'Butt 1344, Jochen Schumann and Alinghi's AC organizing "company" wants races be one and a half to two hours. Fine - deep six the finish line and fire the "finish" gun after the allotted time has elapsed. First boat to cross the other, intersecting their rhumb line to the next mark, wins. Neither can cross - keep sailing. 2. From 'Butt 1345, the Chief Measurer for the RORC asserts there are no subjective elements to the IRC ratings. Assuming this system didn't appear on the 11th stone tablet, it has to be subjective - somebody made it up. Just because a computer spits out the numbers doesn't automatically make it better. Velocity Prediction Programs and any other design calculations or performance forecasts start with assumptions - assumptions made by very un-objective humans. Fact is, get enough like-sized boats with similar sailing characteristics on the same starting line and almost any rating system will be great! By the way, if rocket scientists can reverse-engineer other countries' space craft, sailboat rating calculations are never "secret" for long. 3. From New Jersey, each player on the winning Stanley Cup team (that's hockey, mate) gets to take the Cup home with him for a short period of time during the ensuing year. The America's Cup may be well served by making it immensely more public - it's a trophy, not the crown jewels. * From Bill Munster: The case for the US Sailing Power Boat Course really comes to light with the unfortunate accident involving the German Tornado sailors...and who can forget the Board sailng accident a couple of years ago that nearly took the life of our top womens board sailor. If the people who are or have to be on the course are trained properly we can save lives and serious injuries to the racers and the RC volunteers. Lets support US Sailing and not always find something wrong with the things they are doing for the good of all of us. The organization is manned by volunteers who are trying to help us all on the water. * From Jon Rogers: There has been a growing problem in all of the Olympic classes with too much powerboat traffic on race courses. As the Olympic Classes become increasingly professional more powerboats are escorting the fleets in the form of coach boats, spectator craft, RC support boats, press boats, and sponsor/VIP entertainment boats. During the Star Olympic Trials in 2000 my partner and I were nearly run over by a coach boat while we were racing because the coach had stopped on the race course to take wind readings and was not looking where he was going. Only after evasive action did we avoid a collision. This scenario was again repeated at the Bacardi Cup this year. The situation is out of control and many of us have been waiting for someone to take action. It seems we are going to have to wait until there is a loss of life before something is done. Thankfully, the Tornado crew survived the accident. I hope that organizers will take notice of these incidents and begin to put measures in place to help protect competitors. * From Robert T. King: As a prior Fleet Captain Race of Corinthian Yacht Club in Seattle, I would like to respond to Enrico Ferrari's 'leftout' in Seattle commentary. CYC operates one of the most successful racing programs in the United States, and provides racing on salt and freshwater venues. Behind the racing program exists an infrastructure of Fleet Councils comprised of Class Fleet Captains representing sailors in respective classes. Many past and present Class Fleet Captains are proficient at fleet building. For example, Dick Rose contributed to the local success of the Laser Class. Paul Bieker and Kris Bundy contribute to the ongoing success of the I-14. Keith Whittemore and Harry Dursch have been active in the J/24 Fleet from the onset of the class. Currently, on a CYC One-Design Thursday night, one can race Tasars against Carl and Carol Buchan and Jonathan and Libby McKee, or compete in Etchells Fleet 3, active in Seattle since the boats were first built. If you enjoy the Star, Bill Buchan and Mark Brink will be happy to show you around Shilshole Bay. My point: dedicated sailors create proactive Fleets, not the boat. Motivated sailors can effect changes through established channels. Rather than complain about perceived shortfalls in our local infrastructure, become involved. Present your Utility Start and rating system ideas to the Club. Build a Utility Fleet comprised of a variety of boats, apply for Fleet status at CYC, and come join us on the racecourse. Don't feel left out, for you are welcome. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION There is only one pretty child in the world … and every mother has it. |
