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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 932 - October 29, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
THE RACE This decision fits in more broadly with the concept of creating an international tour for these giant multihulls. This new tour will establish a permanent world ranking and a Global Trophy that will take into account, in addition to The Race, the greatest major sailing records of the planet, such as the Jules Verne Trophy, the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Tea Route or the New York - San Francisco... This tour will be set up in close consultation with the principal actors involved so that the interests of each challenger's syndicate are taken into consideration. An annual or bi-annual gathering of these giant multihulls is also planned to become part of the official calendar of events. The main objective of this particular event will be to showcase to the general public the best of the leading edge ocean sailboat racing technologies. It will also provide sponsors with an international promotional and public relations event. The first edition of "Les Voiles du Futur" could take place in a major European harbour as early as the summer of 2003. The next edition of The Race will still take place in the "no limits" spirit, along an easterly circumnavigation route around the three capes. The fleet of giants sailing today will be confronted with the arrival of new maxi multihulls (trimarans and catamarans of 110 / 120 ft), as well as maxi-monohulls (100 / 150 ft) for whom the event shall likely be opened up after further reflection on this subject. - www.therace.org
JOHN DOE The case hinges on a phone call Reeves made to Dickson, who leads the California-based Oracle Racing team backed by computer billionaire Larry Ellison. Dickson alleges that during the July 17 conversation, Reeves offered to sell him design and technical secrets about One World and Team NZ. But Reeves said yesterday that he and Dickson chatted about old yachting stories and their babies. Reeves denied offering information to Oracle or any other syndicate and said he would sue One World over the allegations. The affair is now before the King County Superior Court in Seattle where One World is seeking an order gagging Reeves and forcing him to return any syndicate information. Documents originally filed in the court referred to the defendant only as "John Doe". Reeves' identity was uncovered in documents obtained by the Herald. - Eugene Bignham and Tony Wall, NZ Herald Full story: www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=224827&thesection=new
SMOKE ON THE WATER
VOLVO OCEAN RACE
STANDINGS at 0358 hours GMT, OCTOBER 29:
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Bob Billingham Congratulations to Andy Konstanecki. Those of us on the "88 Olympic Team will always remember benefiting greatly from his wise leadership. Good on US Sailing for recognizing his contribution. * From Katherine Sanpere: In 'Butt #931 you had a short piece about the "Special Olympics." Please print a correction that it is the Paralympics. The Special Olympics are opened to all and are for mentally challenged. The Paralympics are for elite disabled athletes. Many of the athletes, especially in track and field, are professional athletes. In sailing many of the athletes compete on an equal level with non-disabled sailors. There is a big difference between the two events. The Paralympics are actually the second largest sporting event in the world behind the Olympics.
AMERICA'S CUP Aboard the Cup boat, different crew combinations are continually being trialed. At the same time, every team member has trained in the Etchells 22 so that we develop a good understanding of match racing throughout the whole team. GBR52 is due to arrive at the base October 27 and will immediately undergo an intensive two week maintenance period to prepare the boat for her return to the water at the official base opening in mid November. Another shipment will follow in two weeks, providing the team with sails and the final containers that make up the GBR Challenge base. This week the GBR Challenge design team hand over the final drawings to the build team who in turn will begin work on the first ever modern America's Cup Class yacht to be built in the UK. * In a ceremony in Gothenburg, Sweden, the Swedish America's Cup yacht was named Örn. The christening was handled by Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebo. Principle designer for the Victory Challenge syndicate has been German Frers Jr. Chris Mellow has been head of the boat builders. Örn will be transported by air to New Zealand within a week. Part of the Victory Challenge crew is already in place at the base in Auckland. - Bert Willborg
INSIGHT Sorry we couldn't hold the Illbruck off. We have some problems and they are being sorted out now. Basically, we couldn't change sails very well with our halyard lock problems. Then we would wait to see if the shift or pressure would change. By the time we did change, the shift would be gone and we just couldn't stay ahead of the game. Were we slow in that condition? Don't really know, but I'm sure we could do a lot better, and yes we should have been able to hold them off. We were lucky to be far enough ahead of everyone else that it didn't matter. The good news it we did get a second and a huge time advantage on the other boats during the stop over. We have more time to rest, 6 day off next week. More time to get the boat sorted and go over all the data from the race. I was very worried that we could have started the regatta with a 6th. With the time we had it was quite possible. Now the crew has confidence in the boat and ourselves. We know we are not faster, but not slower either. It is time just to take a deep breath and be happy where we are. I am very happy with the way the back end of the boat is working. Grant and Roger's vast experience in sailing around the world (13 trips combined) match up with Bouwe and my tactical knowledge. What we did do well, was not make any big mistakes, in fact only a couple of small ones. This way, when the opportunity came up to grab the lead, it was possible because we were close enough. Still much work to do, but we think it can only get better. The next leg we only need to keep the boat together and ourselves, we only had a taste of the Southern Ocean, and did wake a few people up that haven't been there. Our new locks are lost in baggage some where but should be tested next week. So, everything is covered, but as Murphy knows, anything can and well happen. - Dee Smith CURMUDGEON'S COMMENT: Herb McCormick's story in Sunday's New York Times quotes Amer Sports One skipper Grant Dalton about his thoughts on Leg One. When asked about illbruck, Dalton said, "They were bigger, they were slicker, they were faster and they gunned us down. I think in the pecking order we're probably about fifth at the moment. Illbruck is absolutely the yardstick; they were never off the pace." Full story: www.nytimes.com/2001/10/28/sports/28BOAT.html
STANDING ROOM ONLY Premiere Racing, the event organizer for the annual Key West regatta, tracks entries and projections very carefully. Based on entries to date, input from one design classes, and event history and trends, all indications are that there will again be more than 300 boats racing in Key West. "There is no way to project the exact number of entries because of the many variables and unknowns, but we can certainly close in on a number when all the facts to date are accounted for and reasonable assumptions are made," stated Peter Craig, President of Premiere Racing. "It's interesting to note that one design classes represented approximately 60% of the fleet last year and could be as high as 70% in 2002." According to Craig, the very latest conservative projections based on current entries and owner /class polling are as follows: Farr 40 - 28; 1D35 - 20; J/105 - 33; Mumm 30 - 23; J/29 - 18; J/80 - 27; Melges 24 - 63; F-28R - 12; PHRF - 80; IMS - 7; Total Fleet - 311. The three largest Key West fleets ever: 326 in 2001 / 271 in 1999 / 263 in 1997. For complete details on the entry projections, including class by class justification visit the web site: www.Premiere-Racing.com
POSTPONEMENT The recessionary economy and the tragic events of September 11th and their aftermath have raised concerns about security and have led to the possibility of some competitors being reluctant to compete in May 2002.
EVERYWHERE
QUOTES FROM THE BOATS "Of course the weight saving program has also taking it's toll in the clothing and sleeping department: The very light weight, but not so warm blankets, don't stand any comparison with a proper sleeping bag, but it's only for a couple of more days so that's ok. At the same time the crew bags don't contain much these days, so every single piece of clothing is a very warm welcome to the body." - Wouter Verbraak, djuice "Trading food has stopped and everybody simply eats what they are given. There are no complaints on the freeze-dried food which, by the way, is now all history onboard. We have two dinners left (we got them onboard when we stopped to pick up the headboard car outside Brazil) and they will be a bit more tricky to do since cooking real food isn't what our kitchen normally is set up for. The most complicated dish we have under normal conditions is chili noodles." Mikael Lundh, djuice
FOR THE RECORD Skipper Rich Wilson and his co-skipper Bill Biewenga, from Newport, Rhode Island, were today 961 miles ahead of the comparable position of the clipper ship Mandarin that set the New York-Melbourne record nearly 150 years ago during the Australian Gold Rush. Mandarin logged her 69-day record in the winter of 1855-56. "We have painstakingly built a small lead of about three days over the Mandarin record," Wilson said today. "However our lead could evaporate rapidly. Mandarin hit her stride in the strong westerly winds down here. She also took a more southerly route than we are planning, thus cutting her distance. Captain Parritt has spotted us a lead - the race begins!" The attempt to break Mandarin's record is the latest education adventure program undertaken by Wilson's Boston-based sitesALIVE! website. The program enables Wilson and Biewenga to share their experience with schoolchildren by linking to an accredited curriculum delivered on the Internet to classrooms throughout the United States and Australia. - Keith Taylor The website tracking the voyage of Great American II is www.sitesALIVE.com
PRO-AM CUP Final results: 1. K-Yachting 1, Vasco Vascotto, 18; 2. K-Yachting 4, Thierry Péponnet, 18 3. Région Ile-de-France, 24. - www.proamcup.com
WORLD DISABLED SAILING CHAMPIONSHIPS Canadian Brian Mackie's team was disqualified in Sunday's opening race for crossing the starting line early but held onto the overall lead in the Sonar class with a 11-point margin over John Robertson of Sunderland, England. The top American skipper, Paul Callahan, dropped to eighth place with another American team, skippered by John Ross-Duggan, in ninth place. After a day off Monday the regatta resumes Tuesday with the final races schedules for Wednesday, Oct. 31. - Doran Cushing Full results and photos: www.spyc.org
THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION |
