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SCUTTLEBUTT 2106 - June 1, 2006Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.GUEST EDITORIAL -- Bill Lee It is clearly time for the America's Cup to be raced in multihulls. If The Cup is to include technology, it should be real breakthrough advancement, not just trying to make the basic leadmine go 0.1 knots faster. If is often argued that heavily ballasted boats are good for The Cup because they can't squirt away from each other in a local puff, Instead they will remain close and the racing will be tactical and exciting. In reality, with the current boats and format, once one boat wins the start, the lead seldom changes and the racing is rather boring. If keeping the boats closer together is an objective, a far more effective approach is to have much shorter races and many more of them. An afternoon of racing should be the best 5 out of 9 with 15 minute races and a strict 5 minutes in between. Multihulls do have a much wider variety of spectacular and catastrophic failure modes. For the team, avoiding these failure modes is the key to winning. For the spectators, it is often the best part. There are other advantages to multihulls. They weigh little more than a current AC boat mast. What a savings in carbon fiber! The land based compounds can be simpler and the need to ship (or fly) 40,000 pound bulbs is eliminated. Less draft means venues can be closer in for better viewing. Multihulls would attract huge new interest, both in technology and spectators. "The Wizard says it's time." -- Bill Lee IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN Spain took the honors in the latest release of the ISAF World Sailing Rankings, which sees six changes in the top spots. The Spaniards now occupy four of the top spots and have displaced Great Britain as the top performing nation. The Brits may well have starred at Medemblik, the Aussies took the honors in Austria and the French took second best at both, but Spain gets the biggest reward in this release of the Rankings. Whilst Britain and Spain both have six places in the top three spots between them, the Spaniards have an incredibly impressive four top spots, although in the tightest Rankings of the year so far, their advantage is dangling on a thin thread. -- http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j6vFh`z/8 North American sailors in the top eleven of their respective classes include: George Szabo/Eric Monroe, (USA) Star #1, Mark Reynolds/Hal Haenel, (USA) Star #4; Brian Cramer/Tyler Bjorn (CAN) Star #10 John Dane/Austin Sperry (USA) Star #10 Andrew MacDonald/Brian Faith (USA) Star #11 Paige Railey (USA) Laser Radial #1 Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) Laser Radial #2 Lisa Ross (CAN) Laser Radial #5 Victoria Crowder (CAN) Laser Radial #9 Jen Spalding (CAN) Laser Radial #10 Bernard Luttmer (CAN) Finn #9 John Lovell/Charlie Ogletree (USA) Tornado #5 Zachary Plavsic (CAN) Men’s RS:X #8 Amanda Clark/Sara Mergenthaler (USA) Women’s 470 #6 Jennifer Provan/Carol Luttmer (CAN) Women’s 470 #7 Michael Anderson Mitterling/David Hughes (USA) Men’s 470 #11 Sally Barkow/Carrie Howe/Debbie Capozzi (USA) Yngling #11 FLYING DUTCHMAN (In Punta Ala, thedailysail subscription website spoke to one design specialist turned TP 52 owner, Mean Machine's Peter de Ridder. Here’s an excerpt.) The only problem with the TP 52 firing up in such dramatic style, alongside with the America's Cup being a year away, is that there is now allegedly a shortage of top quality crew for the Farr 40s. The attraction of the TP 52 is not hard to appreciate. As De Ridder puts it - it is the pinnacle of big boat racing outside of the America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race. "The moment it was kicking off in Spain you could be sure that all the good sailors would they want to go where the action is. And it is amazingly big class already. I remember the IOR 50 and you had 10 or 11 boats on the line and that was the fleet more or less. Now you already have 32 boats around the world and 19-22 are sailing here in the Med this year." De Ridder attributes the huge number of boats and owners in what is not a cheap class, to the change in the global economy compared to 15-20 years ago. One of the main differences between his boat and the other TP 52s is it has tiller steering. "I was convinced that the tiller was the way to go on these boats, because if you compare them to the IOR 50 they are so light - they are 60% of the weight, they have a far better hull shape, they are flying asymmetric spinnakers so they are much quicker so you never have so much pressure in the sails because these boats don’t stop - they free themselves up." -- http://thedailysail.com EMOTIONS RUNS HIGH Guests emotional prize-giving ceremony for leg seven of the Volvo Ocean Race yesterday evening were shown video footage from the dramatic last leg during the prize-giving. The team on movistar won the media award for their presence of mind in recording incredible footage of their final moments onboard. They filmed the increasingly desperate situation, even when abandoning ship and trying to get onboard ABN Amro Two from liferafts. When presented with the award, Bouwe Bekking gave the £1,000 cheque straight to Sebastian Josse, skipper of ABN Two, for the Hans Horrevoets Memorial fund. Bouwe also presented ABN Two with the Musto Seamanship Award for saving the lives of his crew when they had to abandon movistar, who was sinking fast. -- http://www.volvooceanrace.org MELGES 24 RACING - TIME TO GEAR UP The hottest racing circuit in the world right now is in the Melges 24 class. The fleet is just coming off a massive winter series that included a 100 boat World Championship in Key Largo, Florida. With the Gold Cup in Newport, RI in July, the US Nationals in Jacksonville, FL and the famous Melges 24 Winter Series upcoming, it is time to gear up. With all of this sailing and the 2007 World Championship in Santa Cruz, CA. you’ll want to be fresh. New boats and official authorized parts are at Melges Performance Sailboats. Please race to http://www.melges.com STILL MISSING Talks with the insurers of the Spanish Volvo Open 70, movistar, are continuing and it is not yet decided whether a further search for the abandoned yacht will take place today. Yesterday, the team covered a large area, spending 5 hours searching for the yacht in a jet aircraft, but saw no sign of the vessel, despite having a good view of the sea surface. Campbell Field, movistar’s shore manager and head of the retrieval effort, told BYM News that there were three reasons for continuing the search “The insurers would like to have the opportunity of examining the damaged areas, it is our duty to make every effort to find it, because it could be a hazard to navigation and, finally, it is a very valuable object.” -- BYM News, full story: http://www.bymnews.com/new/content/view/29965/48/ THEY WILL CONTINUE ON Sebastien Josse, skipper of ABN Amro Two announced that he and his crew will continue in the 2005/6 Volvo Ocean Race. The crew’s participation in the race was thrown into doubt following the tragic death of their crewmate, Hans Horrevoets. “We are all agreed that we want to continue this race for Hans and that it is what he would have wanted us to do,” Josse said. “After the tragic events of the last leg we needed to take some time to ourselves before deciding what next but we are all in agreement that this is what we want to do.” ABN Amro Two is currently in fourth place overall just three and a half points behind Brasil 1 and nine points behind the Pirates of the Caribbean in second place. ABN Amro One can no longer be beaten for the overall prize, 17.5 points still available for the taking. The team is now preparing for Leg 8, which starts on Friday just off Southsea Castle, close to Portsmouth. From the start line the fleet will race through Spithead and the Solent, out into the English Channel, past Lands End and the Fastnet Rock, before heading northwards round the top of Britain and Ireland, including the Orkney Islands, before heading down the North Sea to Rotterdam, Netherlands, the home of the ABN Amro team. -- http://www.abnamro.com/team TRIVIA QUESTION Prior to Dee Caffari becoming the first woman to sail solo, non-stop around the world against the prevailing winds and currents, what had been her claim to fame? (Answer below) BOATU.S. SANTA MARIA CUP Ten women’s match race teams descended upon Annapolis, MD and the Eastport Yacht Club to race in the BoatU.S. Santa Maria Cup. Racing began Wednesday in J-22s, and the results after six rounds are: Jen Provan (CAN) 5-1 Christelle Phillippe (FRA) 4-2 Liz Baylis, 4-2 Carol Cronin, 4-2 Katie Spithill (AUS) 4-2 Giulia Conti (ITA) 3-3 Deb Capozzi, 3-3 Lorenza Mariani (ITA) 1-5 Katy Pilley-Lovell, 1-5 JoAnn Fisher, 1-5 Event website: http://www.santamariacup.org. UNINVITED GUESTS While 103 boats started, only 15 finished the Storm Trysail Club's 61st annual Block Island Race, which began late Friday afternoon, May 26, on Long Island Sound. The annual distance race (185 nm) hosted one of its largest ever fleets of IRC- and PHRF-rated boats; however, two uninvited guests -- light wind and fog -- caused much mischief, prompting most of the fleet to retire instead of spending endless hours worrying about when, and how, to get home. For overall performance winner Gary Grant, who sailed his J/120 Alibi in the IRC doublehanded division with fellow Westport, Conn. sailor Steve Fisk, the Block Island Race was long but rewarding in the end. Colin Rath's Googolplex turned in the best corrected time (53:25:19) for IRC, while Ron Weiss's Crazy Horse turned in both the best corrected (50:40:02) and elapsed time (50:40:02) for PHRF and best performance by a vintage yacht. Beau van Metre's Running Tide turned in the best elapsed time (38:16:56) for IRC. -- Media Pro Int’l, http://www.stormtrysail.org ULLMAN SAILS REPORT: 2006 SIR THOMAS LIPTON CUP Congratulations to San Diego Yacht Club for successfully defending the Sir Thomas Lipton Cup sailed this past weekend in J/105's. Five highly talented Southern California Yacht Club teams competed for this prestigious trophy with boat speed being the dominant factor. All teams performed their own extensive on-the-water sail testing programs. The end result… Ullman Sails was the predominant sailmaker for the top four teams, with each of these four teams winning at least one of the nine races in the event. For the "Fastest Sails on the Planet," contact your local Ullman Sails loft or visit http://www.ullmansails.com SKIPPER IMPRESSIONS How are things going for Olivier de Kersauson ad his 8-man crew on board the Capgemini and Schneider Electric trimaran as they try to set a West to East record from Yokohama to San Francisco? De Kersauson’s latest writings provide a lot of insight: “Rain, calm, fog. With this weather, there is nothing to see. Of course, this is not a surprise but it is really bad! This is the kind of weather that whispers “Go back to the start line.” But, that would be difficult given our upcoming schedule. So, let’s think about better conditions (which will be easy given what we’re in now). I have the impression of walking around and around in the same place under the rain as though there is nothing magical in this world: no horizon, no forms, no colors. The night is coming, dark and greasy. We just wait for the voice coming from the sky "Have fun little idiots!" I'm wondering if I did not hear it for real...” -- http://www.cimdev.com.au/superyachting/site/index.php AHEAD OF SCHEDULE The rebuilding of Gypsy Moth IV is making good progress in the Emirates Team NZ yard. Working two shifts a day from early morning to midnight the 15 strong building team is slightly ahead of schedule, says lead skipper Richard Baggett. As we saw on Monday, the damaged parts of the hull have been cut away and reskinning has begun. So far three of the six skins of African Mahogany have been re-laid. Each skin is about 4mm thick. All the removable interior furniture has been removed and cleaned up. The main bulkhead which had cracked and shifted has been replaced. All the chainplates have been removed, checked and replaced. Unfortunately all the communications equipment was located close to the hole in the hull and suffered severe water damage after that part of the hull flooded while Gypsy Moth IV was on the reef. About NZD60,000 – 80,000 of damage was done to this equipment. The keel will be removed. All the keelboats have been located and are or will be removed. -- Sail-World NZL, full story and photo: http://tinyurl.com/qseax COLLEGIATE NATIONALS Charleston, South Carolina (May 31, 2006) – The first day of racing at the ICSA/Gill National Coed Dinghy Championship didn’t end until well after 6PM on Wednesday. Racing in an average wind speed of 12 mph , it turned out to be a nice day with a steady breeze that provided good and competitive racing. Six races were completed in the A Division and four in the B Division … which sets the stage for a long day of sailing on Thursday. The leaders are: 1. Harvard (23-21) 44 2. Georgetown (21-30) 51 3. Tufts (30-34) 64 4. St. Mary's (36-30) 66 5. Charleston (40-28) 68 http://collegesailing.org/nas/spring06/ SAILING SHORTS * Thursday, June 1 marks the beginning of the 2006 hurricane season. Following on the heals of the very active season last year, Scuttlebutt was eager to hear from our readers in the Gulf Region to learn how the recovery efforts were going for the sailing clubs that were effected by Hurricane Katrina. Please click here to post your comments: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/2006/gulf * While the Volvo Extreme 40 'Tommy Hilfiger' performed a dramatic pitch pole during the racing in Portsmouth, the nearby photographers couldn't believe their luck. Thanks to Kos Picture Source, the Scuttlebutt website now has an eleven photo sequence shot as the crash unfolds: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/06/0531/ TRIVIA ANSWER Dee Caffari, The Aviva Challenge skipper who became the first woman to sail solo, non-stop around the world against the prevailing winds and currents, had previously been known as one of the twelve skippers (and the only female skipper) in the Global Challenge 2004/5, where she successfully skippered eighteen amateur yachtsmen around the world, sailing the same 72-foot yacht which she used for her solo circumnavigation. 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. 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 Mike Ingham (Re: "the rules are supposed to be enforced by we sailors, not outside authorities" --'Butt 2104): Recently when badly fouled we took a lot of grief for not protesting. After racing, we chose instead to talk to the offender with beer and rule book in hand. The facts found were not in question, just an obvious interpretation issue. For some reason the way we handled it got a lot of widespread press, some good, but not all. The naysayers said that we should have protested and that is what protests are for. They thought that our approach could be seen as derogatory. We did not want to go to the room because these are our friends and we did not want to spend our evening away from the party. But we also did not want to just let it go. I don't know the right answer, but the comments brought up some good points. * From Ray Medak: I could not agree more with Ralph Taylor and Chris Ericksen more about the integrity of the sport lies with the sportsmanship on the water. Chris mentions how certain people prey on the less aggressive sailors to take an advantage of others. I hate to say it but this practice is found at all ages of our life. Starting with "Bullies" in schools - to "Sharks or tycoons" in the business world. I wish there was a way to chastise these types of people, but it seems to be a problem through out our past history and no body has found a descent solution yet , except for exile or possibly banning people from the sport ! After all in the professional ranks of sports people are constantly fined and have suspensions, but they still come back and do it again. * From Bill Canfield, St. Thomas: I write with fatherly pride about the Antilles School Sailing Team from St. Thomas, USVI who won a second High School National Championship in as many weeks. They went undefeated at the Baker Team Racing Regatta in light air off Martha's Vineyard this past weekend. This small school with just 160 upper school students in just their third year of high school competition scored an impressive "double win" this year against march larger schools who in some cases have been going at it on the water for over half a century. Tradition and size be damned, Cy, Taylor, Thomas, Nathan, Mimi, Sarah, Hugo, and Rob (their coach) had a wonderful dream that began with a just a few boats and virtually no one to practice against, that they could win a high school championship. With tremendous pride they hoisted the Virgin Islands' flag over Vineyard Haven Yacht Club as their dream came true for a second time. * From Peter R. Szasz: While I could not agree more with Mark Townsend's aversion to general recalls for all the reasons he cites and more, it is generally not recommended to hail "all clear" to the competitors, as such hail is not prescribed in the rules and may be misinterpreted. * From Don Bedford: "No General Recalls" reminds me of my mom, Helen Bedford running races. I recall one Snipe race when she hoist the X-flag and yelled "Everyone over but 20221..." She also had a "habit" of speaking very loudly to her other R/C team just before the start stating those boats that were "getting close" or "... over, ... over." You don't need to run too many races like this before you gain a certain reputation from those on the water. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATIONS You know you're a redneck when the biggest city you've ever been to is Wal-Mart. Special thanks to Melges Performance Sailboats and Ullman Sails. |
