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SCUTTLEBUTT 1917 - September 6, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.STEAMROLLER The Swiss defender Alinghi continues its domination of the America's Cup fleet, winning both Louis Vuitton Acts 6 and 7. Alinghi ended the fleet racing series with an identical record to BMW Oracle Racing, but won the tie break by virtue of winning the last race. It's the third of four Louis Vuitton Acts won by the Defender in 2005, (and four of the last five overall) as the Swiss continue to show impressive form early in their defense campaign. Alinghi could have been even more dominant in this regatta had it made the finish line before the time expired in the first attempt at running the second race. Earlier that afternoon BMW Oracle Racing won the first race by squeezing across the finish line just seconds before the 40-minute leg limit expired. In the second start that afternoon it was Alinghi who was in a slow motion sprint to beat the clock. The race was abandoned when the time limit expired with the Swiss just 200-metres from the line. A race win then would have seen Alinghi with an even more impressive record. Now, the massive operation of packing up the America's Cup road show begins. The 12 teams will take apart their boats, fill their shipping containers and get ready to pack everything for loading aboard the M/V Schippersgracht. The ship is scheduled to depart for Trapani, Italy on Thursday, arriving on the 14th. Racing in the Trapani Louis Vuitton Acts is scheduled to begin on the 29th of September. Act 7 Final Standings: 1. Alinghi, 32 points 2. BMW Oracle Racing, 32 3. Luna Rossa, 28 4. Emirates Team New Zealand, 26 5. Desafío Español 2007, 26 6. K-Challenge ,19 7. United Internet Team Germany, 17 8. +39 Challenge, 17 9. Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team, 12 10. Team Shosholoza, 11 11. Victory Challenge, 10 12. China Team, 4 Event website: www.americascup.com ALINGHI'S NEW DRIVER -- JOCHEN SCHUEMANN Think Jochen Schuemann, think Olympic Gold. The two are synonymous and spell one thing: gifted. Today, he is at the helm of Alinghi, the Defender of the 32nd America's Cup, a long way from the 11-year-old, who built his own Optimist at school in East Germany. Despite nearly sinking it at first outing and missing the start of his first race ever, he got the hang of it and went on to race in the East German championships in his first year of sailing. This was the beginning of his path to the top. Jochen is a tall man and was a tall child, he soon outgrew Optimists and graduated to 420s and then the OK Dinghy, this led him on to Finn sailing - the boat he was to race in the Olympics. This was 1971. Five years later he had bagged his first Gold medal in the Finn class in Montreal, then a 5th in 1980 but his love affair with the Finn, and with Olympic sailing was put in jeopardy in 1984, when East Germany boycotted the Games. As reported in an article by Sailing World, on their election of Jochen into the Hall of Fame, he commented on his disappointment: "That was nearly the end of my Olympic career because I was so angry. I didn't want to understand why it happened". Unstoppable, however and on a Soling instead, he continued to stack up European and World championships, again winning an Olympic Gold in 1988 in the Soling class in Pusan, South Korea. Next it was Barcelona, then another Gold in Savannah and a Silver in Sydney. An opportunity to take part in the America's Cup came up, this time with Switzerland, and so he grabbed it. Becoming helmsman and sporting director of Fast 2000, he says; "even though I knew that it was going to be a difficult experience. And it was! Switzerland was launching into an America's Cup campaign for the first time. We had a lot to learn. But that opened the doors of the Cup, for both me and for Switzerland. Now look at Alinghi...!" Jochen, Alinghi Sports Director and one of three team helmsmen, has just steered Alinghi to a clean sweep victory at Act 6 in Malmö, Sweden as well as winning the Act 7 fleet races. -- http://tinyurl.com/dquqr QUOTE / UNQUOTE -- Terry Hutchinson "We need to be able to match Alinghi's boat speed. Regardless of how calm and cool things appear nothing will beat boat speed and right now Alinghi has boatspeed! The Afterguard is set for the short term so that we can continue to develop and improve our communication skills. We have to use the Acts as building blocks to developing a solid decision making team. We have not reached a point yet were we are sailing as cohesively as we need to so until then the Afterguard will remain as is. "With the only new boat in the fleet being RSA 83, I would say that 82 is performing very well. But again there are a couple of challengers and the defender that have an edge in certain conditions. With that said, we have to continue to be smart about our development. Using the Acts as opportunities to measure our performance with changes that we make and then take these results and things learned and move forward with our in-house testing and racing.' -- Excerpts from an interview by Michelle Slade to be posted on www.cupviews.com REGULAR GAS AT $3.29 AND THAT'S CHEAP!! With the ever increasing price of gas, you can save money by ordering your sailing gear online. And Team One Newport is just the place to shop. You can save even more because the items come to you tax-free! Find the best gear out there, whether it's Henri-Lloyd's Breeze jacket, Musto's MPX Race Jacket, Gill's new Gloves, Harken's Trimmer shoes, Railrider's Hemmingway shorts, or Kaenon's latest Variance model of sunglasses, all at Team One Newport. Call for our new catalog or to talk to one of our clothing experts at 800-VIP-GEAR (800-847-4327) or visit online at http://www.team1newport.com BANKRUPT Tracy Edwards, the yachtswoman who skippered the first all-female crew to sail around the world, was declared bankrupt on her 43rd birthday on Monday. Edwards was not present at a brief hearing at London's Bankruptcy Court and was not represented. The bankruptcy petition for around 60,000 pounds was brought by the dismissed former financial director of Edwards's Quest company, Gregory Browne though her debts have been reported as being in excess of eight million. Australian Browne, 38, who was dismissed last year, said after the hearing: "It's been a long fight from the whole bust-up of Quest. From that to this day has been a long hard slog so it's nice that it's hopefully over." But he was pessimistic about recovering the money due to him. He said: "God knows if I'll see it, but I don't." Edwards received an MBE in 1990 after she skippered the first all-women crew to sail around the world. She gave up sailing following the birth of her daughter, Mackenna, now five, and is now a motivational speaker and race organiser. -- Reuters, UK, http://tinyurl.com/8rhmg ETCHELLS WORLDS Over the weekend Samuel 'Shark' Kahn moved across the San Francisco Bay from St. Francis YC where he raced an 18' Skiff, to Richmond YC for the 2005 Etchells World Championship Race … and he promptly won the first race. Sailing in 18-22 knots of breeze with Jeff Madrigali, B. Lee and A. Finglas, Kahn rounded the top mark in second place and quickly moved into a lead that was never relinquished. William Palmer III finished second, just ahead of Jud Smith, Sturart Childerley (GBR), Tito Gonzales, Hank Lammens (CAN) and Iain Murray (AUS). Ten of the 72 competitors were called OCS including Vincent Brun, Dennis Conner, Craig Healy and Russ Silvestri. -- http://www.sfetchells.org/worlds/index.php THINGS I LOVE America³ and Il Moro di Venezia, the 1992 America's Cup contenders, are once again doing battle-only this time on the front lawn of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). The two yachts, owned by the often controversial winning skipper of the 1992 campaign, Bill Koch, are suspended in action as part of a recent exhibition entitled, Things I Love: The Many Collections of William I. Koch. Koch's personal collection of over 100 works, taken primarily from his homes in Osterville, Massachusetts and Palm Beach, Florida, is on display through November 13 and includes everything from Impressionist paintings and Botero sculptures to Native American artifacts and revolvers from the Wild West. But the highlight has to be Koch's maritime collection. In addition to the two full-size yachts, the exhibit features a full-scale replica of the America's Cup trophy, as well as figureheads and same-scale, exact replica models of almost every challenger and defender to sail for the Cup since its inception in 1851. It's a room certain to make any boat lover or racing enthusiast salivate. -- Sail magazine, full story and links: http://sailmag.com/undersail/Koch/ TEAM HALL SAILS FOR HOPE Sail for Hope is a charitable sailing event held each fall in Newport, RI. This year the regatta will benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina through donations to the American Red Cross of RI. Hall Spars & Rigging will field a factory team led by Phil Garland, and we invite all of our customers to join us in supporting the event. For every Hall t-shirt and hat sold through our web store now until Oct. 1 (the date of the race), Hall will add $5 to our donation to Sail for Hope. For more information on the regatta, visit sailnewport.org. Buy Hall hats and shirts online at http://www.hallspars.com NEWS BRIEFS * More than $15,000 was raised for the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund at the Museum of 26th Annual Classic Yacht Regatta presented by Best Life magazine. The event organizers held a live auction of items donated by sponsors and participants. The Regatta featured over 80 classic sailing yachts racing on Narragansett Bay on Saturday, a Parade through Newport Harbor on Sunday morning and a race around Connanicut Island on Sunday afternoon. The Sappho Trophy for the best corrected time as well as the Atlantic Trophy for best elapsed time went to Sam Croll and Henry Skelsey's 8-Metre Angelita. -- www.museumofyachting.org * Velux Group, producer of roof windows and skylights, have signed as official title sponsor of the 5 Oceans solo round-the-world yacht race - formerly the Around Alone. The event, open to IMOCA Open 60s and Open 50s, will start from Bilbao, Spain on 22 October 2006. The sponsorship announcement means the competitors will immediately benefit with a 50 per cent refund of their entry fees on completion of the race. Other benefits for the skippers include: Free accommodation for themselves and up to four shore crew in Bilbao and Fremantle, free berthing, on-site marina facilities at each stopover. -- Yachting World, full story: http://www.ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/20050805141323ywnews.html * Howard Hamlin, Mike Martin and Trent Barnabas sailed Pegasus White won the 18' Skiff International Regatta on San Francisco Bay by a four point margain over Yandoo sailed by Australians John Winning/ Andrew Hay/ Geoff Bauchop. The final spot on the podium went to Pegasus Black's Samuel (Shark) Kahn/ Cameron MacDonald/ Paul Allen. - www.stfyc.org. Photo Gallery: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/18-SF * Sønderborg, Denmark -- France's Damien Seguin won six of the nine races in the IFDS Disabled Sailing World Championship to claim the 2.4mR crown with a race to spare. The USA's Nick Scandone won the final two races to finish sixth in the 33-boat fleet, with Paul Tingley (CAN) taking ninth place. Britain's John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Stephen Thomas won the Sonar class while Ken Kelly, Brian Mackie and Don Terlson from Canada took ninth in the 15-boat fleet. -- http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?PID=15924 * Titan 12, the Reichel/Pugh 75 sailed by Tom Hill of San Juan, Puerto Rico, broke the course record in the 71st running of The Vineyard Race and saved enough time to take fleet honors in IRC. Meanwhile, Hiro Maru, a Swan 43 sailed by Rear Commodore Hiroshi Nakajima of the host Stamford Yacht Club, won the PHRF fleet. The 238-mile race from Stamford, Conn., to Buzzards Bay and back started Sept. 2 with 51 boats crossing the starting line. The Frers 80 Hercules, sailed by the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, dropped out with rudder problems. -- www.stamfordyc.com * Italian boat manufacturer Nautivela has signed the contract to supply equipment for the ISAF World Sailing Games 2006, taking place at Lake Neusiedl, Austria from 10-20 May. Around 1,000 sailors are expected at the event coming from around 70 nations with Nautivela supplying boats for the 470 and team racing competitions. The signing of the contract with Nautivela means 95 boats for three disciplines have been secured. This includes 40 470's for the men's two person dinghy and 30 for the women's two person dinghy events. Nautivela's 420's will also be used as equipment for the Team Racing event. -- http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?PID=15930 "MAN OVERBOARD!" At August's Crew Overboard Research Symposium in Sausalito, CA, testers were awed by the accuracy of SeaMarshall's Rescue Beacon and RT-202 Homing Receiver. In darkness, even in strong currents, the test boat returned to within inches of the victim. No other recovery device tested more accurate. Chip Barber: mailto:admin@chbarber.com; http://www.chbarber.com 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. This is neither a chat room nor a bulletin board - 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, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere.) * From Manfred C. Schreiber: I had read Herb McCormick's comment before leaving to Malmö and was about getting the message and kind of agreeing. Having been out there all last week and watching as well the action on the water as onshore and having been at AM Cup events before, I must say: get there, have your own look and make up your mind yourself. There has been nobody whom I have missed. New stars are rising. E.g. Jochen Schuemann and Brad Butterworth and their team being as solid as expected. NZ Emirates and Luna Rossa touching your emotions with some bad luck but good teamwork. BOR with a bit of luck looking good but still far from perfect. My doubts about fleet racing AM Cup boats, the seriousness in the Acts and all has completely gone. The action on the water was fantastic. Great match racing and inexperienced teams wrecking themselves. The Fleet racing being a positive surprise and an eye opener to myself. I think, I will travel to another Act instead of the LV and Cup finals. You definitely see more, you can better weight the teams and I do hope that the last eight will be able to close the gap at least a little until 2007. Otherwise you can bet already now the quarterfinalists, where I include the Spaniards if they will just get their boathandling right. In my opinion, ACM has done a great job, by implementing the Acts into the America´s Cup sailing * From Ted Ritter: Re. Herb McCormick's AC opinion piece, I agree with Herb 100%. The AC regattas going on now and in 2006 are not "The Cup." They are an orchestrated and prolonged warm-up format dubbed "Acts". This lead-up schedule alone drives participation budgets through the roof. Yes, fleet racing and matches are fun to watch and politics are of (very) mild interest. At least with other high budget sports being compared such as NASCAR and F1, those organization crown champions once a year. Can you imagine the drop in fan support of NASCAR if the championship were slated at Daytona in 2007? The Cup may be full in the minds of many, but of exactly what I ask? Re. Contacting DirecTV...Al Milbert's suggestion in Butt 1914 to contact DirecTV, while well intended, is a waste of time. DirecTV is simply a provider of many networks and has no role in the program decision making of individual network's (ESPN, TNT, OLN, etal). DirecTV itself is not a network. * From Joe Cazana: The Americas Cup is just like an international arms race. Someone is always escalating to outperform someone else's arsenal, be it boats or bombs. A cure would be to eliminate from the next America's Cup the two teams that reportedly spend the most on their AC program whether they won or not. * From Michael Keyworth: I have followed the thread on foredeck attributes and was interested in the piece in Butt 1916 by Tom Whitmore, Sweden. He recounted an "After guard on the foredeck" competition that happened at the 1982 Maxi Worlds in Sardinia. At the time I was the Captain of the Maxi "Nirvana". We had delivered 50 cases of Budweiser to the party, which was a reward from Jack King for towing his "Merrythought" halfway across the Atlantic the year before. The party was great but the after guard competition made the greatest impression. I will never forget Jim Kilroy, owner of Kialoa IV and Ted Turner trying to undue the knotted spin sheet amidst howls of the real foredeck crews in the crowd shouting expressions such as; "hurry up", "two boat lengths to the mark", "we've got to turn the corner". I admit that there were many expletives tossed at the struggling after guard but each time the crowd shouted "water on the foredeck" buckets of water from the adjacent swimming pool were hurled at the competitors. The mood was great. I think that Mr. Whitmore was right. Events like the one played out in Sardinia tend to bring crews together. We should do it more often. * From Bill Pringle: Just a minor point but I noticed that the report from the San Farancisco 18-foot skiff event had the Aussie boats as coming from AUT (ISAF designation for Austria) where as the the boats involved were developed in that great land of the free... Australia with an ISAF designation of AUS. We much prefer AUSsies than AUTsies. * From Michael H. Koster: Might I be so bold to suggest that those Gulf Coast yacht clubs that were not damaged by Katrina, avail themselves to open up their facilities to the real homeless that we see on the news 24/7. I suspect there are numerous clubs with showers, kitchens and open space for temporary shelters, that can provide some basic comforts to those really in need. In my mind, rebuilding yacht clubs is a very low priority compared to the suffering that is rampant in that area. * From John Yeigh: To further Tom Whitmore's support of friendly crew competition, we similarly sponsored spinnaker packing competitions during the off-season crew party circuit. Equipment needed: 1 old non-race quality spinnaker, squirt guns, spare lines, couch... er, boat cushions, a stopwatch, friendly crew rivals, and beverages served to appropriate levels. Take the spinnaker and twist, cross, tie in a loose loop, and stuff the mess into a sail bag. Then select teams of two crew members to be timed in unpacking, flaking, and properly repacking the spinnaker all the while the rest of the party-goers are bombarding with squirting, lines, cushions, and verbal abuse - "Hurry, mark in 3 boat lengths." After each team completes the packing, the spinnaker is pulled out and for any twists, the team's time is assessed a further 1 minute penalty. Crew with the fastest time wins. For the record, our crew from the front or middle of the boat beat those of us from the back every time. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx |
