SCUTTLEBUTT #336 - June 3, 1999

GOOD WEEKEND

Cal Race Week was great event for Marina del Reybut Ullman Sails enjoyed it too. Boats with Ullman Sails swept three of the four one-design / level-rating classes in the regatta, where speed -- not handicaps -- determines the winners. Ullman had full inventories on the top five boats in the 18-boat Schock 35 class; the top two boats in the J/120 class; and the R/P 70 Taxi Dancer won its third consecutive ULDB 70 championship buoy regatta. Students of history will notice a pattern here.

http://www.ullmansails.com/

NATIONAL TEAM RACE CHAMPIONSHIP
With a near perfect record, St. Mary's College won the Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association (ICYRA)/Ronstan National Team Race Championship, held May 30-June 1 on Boca Ciega Bay. Twelve colleges qualified through district eliminations for the event, which was raced in two-person Vanguard 420s and hosted by Eckerd College as the second of a triumvirate of ICYRA championships signifying the culmination of the fall and spring collegiate sailing seasons.

Team racing, which has been called "sailing's highest art form," pits each college's three-boat team against another's in a round-robin series. Using plays that employ the racing rules and different covering techniques, competitors pin, block or slow opponents in order to move their teammates into a winning combination.

Based on a win-loss record of 11-0, St. Mary's progressed with College of Charleston, Hobart/William Smith College and University of Southern California to sail in two final-four championship rounds, which determined the winner. Again, St Mary's College dominated, winning all of the six finals races save one, which was taken by eventual third-place finisher Hobart/William Smith College.

The three-day event began with light and shifty wind conditions, but a southeast wind of 15-18 knots kicked in on the final day to provide some extra excitement for sailors and spectators alike. With St. Mary's holding tightly to their early lead, the race was for second. College of Charleston posted a 4-2 record to Hobart/William Smith College's 3-3. -- Barby MacGowan, Media Pro Int'l

Final Results for Final Four: 1. St. Mary's College, St. Mary's City, Md., 5-1 2. College of Charleston, Charleston, S.C., 4-2 3. Hobart/William Smith College, Geneva, N.Y., 3-3 4. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif., 0-6

Final Results Overall: 1. St. Mary's College, St. Mary's City, Md., 16-1 2. College of Charleston, Charleston, S.C., 13-4 3. Hobart/William Smith College, Geneva, N.Y., 12-5 4. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif., 8-9 5. Tufts University, Medford, Mass., 7-4 6. Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., 7-4 7. Tulane University, New Orleans, La., 5-6 8. University of California, Santa Barbara, Calif., 3-8 9. University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Fla., 3-8 10. University of Washington, Seattle, Wash., 2-9 11. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich., 2-9 12. University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind., 0-11

Event website: http://www.icyra.org

LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON
Letters selected to be printed here are routinely edited for clarity, space (250 words max) or to exclude personal attacks.

-- From John Roberson, Australia -- While the sponsorship debate is hot on the Scuttlebutt topic list, there is one "basic principle" of sponsorship that so many people forget. Whatever sum of money a company puts into a sponsorship, they need to spend at least the same amount on promoting that sponsorship.

So, if "Flyaway Airlines" give the inner Mongolian Olympic sailing team $100,000, they need to spend at least $100,000 letting the world know what they have done.

There are many different ways of achieving this, depending on the product the sponsor is selling. If you have a consumer product that is in all the supermarkets, you can run a competition to send someone who buys you goods to the Olympics, or you can use the team you have sponsored in advertisements.

If you are in the corporate world, say a re-insurance company, public advertising or supermarket promotions are obviously not for you, but entertaining your best, or potential clients at the event your teams is competing it can be very beneficial.

Also looking at sponsorship like betting on a horse race is dumb. If you are banking on your team winning to get the return from your sponsorship, you are in the wrong game. Sponsorship should be structured around getting a return from the team participating, with winning a bonus.

-- From Ray Wulff -- Fundraising - It's all about visability. Has the US Sailing team members ever considered putting on "US Sailing Team Clinics / Seminars" to put a face with the name. I know tons of people who would pay up to hear some of the best ideas from America's talent. Locations to do it? Newport, Annapolis, Chicago, San Diego, St Petersburg, LI Sound. ( Or maybe in conjunction with Oylmpic Class regattas so the members are already there) Being a member of the US Sailing Team is a very prestigious title. Local sailors crave for these types of events.

It doesn't have to be dinghy specific - how 'bout tactics, sail trim, weight placement, mental preparation. The only clinics I've seen of this nature is only for juniors. If we had a clinic put on by one of the Laser US Sailing Team Members, in a day I could find 50 Laser sailors willing to listen to what he has to say. Your best resource is your experience - Let's hear about it

-- From Mike Wathen -- Before everyone throws in the towel and waits for San Diego Yacht Club to revamp the Cup venue, I would like to point out the following 1994 Protocol adopted by the SDYC Board of Directors. This "modification to the Deed of Gift" was designed to keep just such things from being overly manipulated by one or two individuals at one club. I would hope the good folks at SDYC will not overlook this document. This philosophy helped restore the venue to where it has returned to today. (Copies of the Protocol are available from the curmudgeon upon request.)

-- From Ken Signorello -- Secure US Sailing membership renewal is now available on line:
https://www.pshift.com/ussailing/membership.htm

-- From Jeffrey Littell -- My observation: The most recent issues of Scuttlebutt have been filled with letters complaining about one thing or another. If it isn't United Airlines, it is US Sailing or Olympic campaign funding or sponsorship. Guys (and gals), maybe it is time for a reality check. Let's all get our tails on the starting line and go sailing. Take the energy directed towards these situations and redirect it towards making a better tack, gybe or start. Then let's fill Scuttlebutt with interesting regatta reports and get back on track to what is really important: sailing!

US SAILING
Daniel T. Nowlan of San Diego, CA, will move to Newport, Rhode Island, to become the Offshore Director of US SAILING, the National Governing Body of the sport. Dan brings to US SAILING a strong science and technology background, as well as program management, planning, and business skills. A 1962 graduate of MIT (Aeronautics & Astronautics) and Case Institute of Technology (M.S., Fluid, Thermal and Aerospace Sciences, 1967), Dan has been a Technology Management Consultant in San Diego for the past 5 years. From 1980 to 1994, Dan was instrumental in developing a small company, Sparta, Inc. into one ranked as one of the 500 fastest growing US companies by INC. Magazine.

A former owner of a Santa Cruz 50 sailboat, Dan has raced under the International Measurement System (IMS), which is administered in the United States by US SAILING, and under PHRF. Before accepting his current position, he was the chief PHRF handicapper for Southern California, fleet captain and handicapper for the California 50 fleet, and Entry Chairman, and chief handicapper for the Transpac Yacht Club's biennial Los Angeles - Honolulu race.

Dan has been involved on a volunteer basis with US SAILING's PHRF Committee for the past four years. In February 1999, he was one of several people throughout the United States invited to participate in a working party to develop US SAILING's continuing ability to provide services to offshore sailors, and has been instrumental in the development of a new program whose working title is "The Handicapper's Toolbox."

"I, for one, am delighted that Dan became interested and available for this position," said US SALING's Executive Director, Terry Harper. "Dan and I worked together on the 1992 America's Cup in San Diego, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Dan brings great skills to us, but he also brings a new perspective."

"I have been a user of US SAILING's products and services for offshore sailing," said Dan Nowlan, "They are very useful, but everything can be improved. I have a very good idea what the Offshore Department does, what it provides, what we can improve upon, and what we need to add."

Dan is tying up loose ends on the West Coast, and should complete his move to Newport by June 21.

SYDNEY - HOBART RACE INQUIRY
Australian skipper Richard Purcell said yesterday that he took the decision not to stop and help a stricken Sydney-Hobart race yacht, from which British Olympian Glyn Charles was swept to his death because he feared for his own crew in a severe storm. The yacht Margaret Rintoul II faces two separate inquiries into why it did not stop to help as Sword of Orion floundered in appalling conditions during last year's race.

"Much misinformation has been circulated but many basic facts have not been mentioned relevant to the extraordinary conditions at the time," said Purcell, Margaret Rintoul II's skipper. "I am confident my decisions and actions, supported by my crew, will be fully vindicated," he said in a statement. "The total responsibility number one I have got is to my crew," Purcell said.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) have referred the incident to the state coroner as part of an investigation into the race in which six yachtsmen died, 55 were rescued and 12 boats abandoned or sunk. Purcell must first face the race's protest committee, who on Tuesday will examine whether Purcell and Margaret Rintoul II were guilty of gross misconduct under Rule 69 of the International Sailing Federation's racing rules. -- Nelson Clare, Electronic Telegraph, UK

For the full story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

VOLVO OCEAN RACE
LEVERKUSEN, GERMANY -- After five weeks of intensive training in Spain, the crew of the illbruck Round the World Challenge is eagerly looking forward to the Fastnet Race in August. This traditional long offshore race is the next test the team faces in its preparations for the Volvo Ocean Race 2001-2002. illbruck, an international plastics fabricator headquatered in Leverkusen, Germany, has entered its own boat in the Volvo Ocean Race, the toughest sailing regatta in the world.

"We accomplished a lot more than we expected to from the first training camp", says Skipper John Kostecki. Sixteen sailors from six nations came together in Sanxenxo, Spain, on the Atlantic shores of Galicia. Their first task was thorough testing of the campaign's two used Volvo Ocean 60 racers, including their equipment.

Kostecki noted: "We've assessed and compared the performance potential of 80 sails. Our navigators Juan Vila (Spain) and Ed Adams (USA) developed a big database using two laptops. The data they collected included a variety of sail trim combinations. During the testing we encountered virtually all the conditions that we expect to find in the Round the World Race - winds exceeding Force Eight and five meter high waves, as well as light breezes."

The database will now be analyzed and will influence the development of the new boat that will be built for the race around the world. illbruck is planning to construct its V.O.60 racer in-house next year in Leverkusen to the drawings of the well-known US design office Bruce Farr & Associates located in Annapolis, Maryland.

Members of the training team that auditioned in Spain for the 12 crew jobs for the race in 2001 included seven participants from seven different boats in the last Whitbread Race. "We want to distill their experiences, to install the optimal equipment," says the 34-year-old Kostecki. "We need their input about everything from the deck layout down to the shape of the bunks."

Crew already named for the Volvo Ocean Race are Kostecki, Sailing Manager Tim Kroeger from Hamburg, Germany, who coordinates the boat handling, and New Zealand-born Ross Halcrow, who is responsible for sail development. Three more names should be under contract this summer.

Kostecki will continue crew selection during the Fastnet Race, which starts on August 7 at Cowes on the Isle of Wight on the south shore of England. illbruck will participate with one of its two boats in this 605-nautical miles long race. The Fastnet will take the V.O.60's between two and three days. For the first time the illbruck Round the World Challenge will meet other competitors for the Volvo Ocean Race.

The Fastnet will be the last gathering of the core illbruck crew before most of them head to the America's Cup to Auckland, New Zealand, where they will scatter to work for different syndicates.

The V.O.60 training yachts will begin a second base camp running from the beginning of July to the end of October in Kiel, Germany. This camp will concentrate on corporate sailing activities with clients and employees. The potential race crew will meet again for more testing in April 2000 in Sanxenxo. The final training, with the new boat, might be conducted in the rough lonely wastes of the Southern Ocean in 2001. "Then we really would have tested all conditions," says Kostecki. - Keith Taylor

Event website: http://193.121.103.185/

AUCKLAND UPDATE
(Reprinted with permission from DEFENCE 2000, which is available for US $48 per year from John@roake.gen.nz)

"The America's Cup is a battle of two organizations - A battle that just happens to be settled in sailboats." Dennis Conner

* The FAST 2000 team, Switzerland's first America's Cup challenge, have received yet another setback. A writ has been attached to their tune-up boat in Auckland, served by America's Cup Village. Money owing for berthing and storage in the Viaduct Basin, the syndicate's Auckland base, remains unpaid. The writ involves over NZ$100,000. The issue is complicated by the fact that the French syndicate Le Defi Sud owns the boat and has plans to sail it in the challenger series. America's Cup Village could persue legal rights to auction the boat to recover their debt.

Meanwhile some help has arrived for this beleaguered challenger. Movenpick is giving a firm hand to the Swiss Challenge at a crucial moment! Movenpick Foods Ltd is a market leader in ice cream and have declared "we are happy to offer our support to the Swiss Challenge during this critical period. As a Swiss company with worldwide operations, we are very sensitive to Switzerland's international image, which can affect, in one way or another, our economic activities. FAST 2000 is a project able to demonstrate internationally our capacity to tackle daring enterprises. There is hardly any success without taking some calculated risk!" This support, believed to be only SF150,000, is a very small percentage of what is needed but has enabled FAST 2000 to keep the yard working at finishing the mould of the hull. There is still a lot of money yet to be found.

THE CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUMS
If your vacuum cleaner really sucks, is that good?