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SCUTTLEBUTT 2258 – January 12, 2007Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is distributed each weekday, with support provided by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, Defender of the 32nd America's Cup (http://www.ubs.com/sailing). LEADING OUTSIDE OF THE RESULTS COLUMN We sense this was a busy week at the US headquarters of the sport. For the past six months, the US Sailing Review Board had been dealing with the process of Brodie Cobb’s gross misconduct case, with the final decision of a two-year penalty now announced. Additionally, the results of the Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year awards were finalized and published. A most serious offense decided, and the honor of the sport’s elite awarded, all in the same week. One theme struck us from these announcements: sportsmanship. Obviously, Cobb had not succeeded in this department. What should be noted is that Cobb is a highly decorated sailor. A former All-American at Tulane University, he is a two-time winner of the US Sailing Singlehanded Championship (’84 & ’85), an America’s Cup effort organizer, a former US Olympic team campaigner, and just this year (after his Rule 69 incident), winner of his age division at the 2006 Laser Masters Worlds. The Scuttlebutt poll in December on who the ‘buttheads thought should win the Rolex awards felt as much like a debate on sailing talent versus popularity. In the men’s category, winner Jud Smith and Greg Fisher proved to be supremely popular. On the women’s side, Anna Tunnicliffe was a run-away favorite. The involvement of these three sailors in active one-design classes as both sailors and instructors, along with Anna’s time in college sailing, likely led many supporters their way. Sailing needs people to look up to. Top sailors - just as any top athlete in their sport - are thrust into the role model category. Perhaps some are not capable of dealing with this responsibility. Managing the requirements of competing at the top level, along with supporting the needs of the sailors around you, is not an easy task. However, for folks like Smith, Fisher, and Tunnicliffe, we should feel fortunate that they are leading our sport in more than just the results column. -- Scuttleblog, http://tinyurl.com/svxm3 KEY WEST PREVIEW (Scuttlebutt publisher Craig Leweck is heading to Key West next week to check in with this annual assembly of winter racing, and polled a few of the industry experts to hear what he could expect.) * Ken Read, Club Swan 42, IRC 3 class: One quick pre-regatta observation is how I am very pleasantly surprised at the IRC turnout for the event. We spent a bunch of years in the hayday of IMS with only one class. It was great competition - just not a lot of boats. IRC certainly has its critics and its issue's, but the fact is there are 30+ boats signed up for Key West in three great classes. I’m very excited to see how this will turn out. * Farley Fontenot, J/109 one-design class: Having sailed all 20 Key West Regattas, I've learned that it does not matter if you have a large or small class, the competition at the top is always fierce, and this year in the J/109 class is no different. We have the '06 KWRC winnner, "Mojo", the '06 NA Champion,"Vitesse", long time winner "Taste Like Chicken", an unknown boat from California, "Current Obession" plus 6 more. Sailing on the boats are George Szabo, Mark Ploch, Mark Foster, David Hiebert, and David Dwyer. Putting all of the above together, it should be a great week of racing. * Harry Melges, Melges 32 one-design class: We have 20 boats signed up this year, and everyone seems really excited about the enthusiasm in this owner-driver class right now and the growth that we are experiencing. We're looking forward to a great week of close racing and great Key West conditions and incredible rides! CALLING ALL KID CATHEADS US Sailing and Performance Catamaran have signed a two-year agreement wherein Performance Catamaran will provide Nacra SL16s at the U.S. Youth Multihull Championship in 2007 and 2008. The selection of the SL16 is in line with the International Sailing Federation (ISAF), which has named the SL16 the multihull boat for its Youth World Championship. The 2007 U.S. Youth Multihull Championship will be held March 29 - April 1 and hosted by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach, Calif. Registration for the '07 U.S. Youth Multihull Championship will open by February 1, 2007. The U.S. Youth Multihull Championship, established in 2001, is an open event (no pre-qualification required) for young men and women who do not turn 19 in the year of competition. For more information on the Championship, please visit http://www.ussailing.org/championships/youth/multihull FAST, SMART Bicycles. Bobsleds. Sailboats. No matter what you race, you’ve got to be fast to win. If you race sailboats, then you can learn the latest FAST at a North U TRIM Seminar. Strategy, Tactics, Rules. Upgrade your Smarts at a North U Tactics Seminar. Trim and Tactics, back to back. You can spend a lifetime learning to be a better sailor. Accelerate the process at North U. Act Fast. Be Smart. Call 800-347-2457 or Visit http://www.NorthU.com DID THE VOTERS GET IT RIGHT? Each year in January, a panel of yachting experts gather for a conference call on who they feel is most deserving of the Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year awards. Each panelist has a list of sailors in front of them that had been refined from the nominees submitted by US Sailing members, wherein the short list of names are those that truly stood out during the previous calendar year. With the announcement this week of Jud Smith and Paige Railey winning their respective awards, we beg the question, did the voters get it right? Hard to argue that Jud’s domination of the Etchells class on the world stage, and Paige’s conclusive win at the Olympic Games test event in China (and her winning of the ISAF Sailor of the Year award), were not worthy of the Rolex award. But what about the others? -- Scuttleblog, read on: http://tinyurl.com/y3tkjc CAFFARI AND AVIVA LAUNCH CAMPAIGN (After winning the Raymarine/YJA Yachtsman of the Year award that recognizes British sporting excellence in sail, Dee Caffari is not about to stop off the wave she is riding. Here is her next endeavor.) Aviva, the international savings, investments and insurance group, is to sponsor the world record-breaking yachtswoman Dee Caffari as she attempts another world first. Caffari, not content with one record, now plans to become the first woman to sail solo, non-stop around the world in both directions. Her next campaign will see her move into the highly competitive world of Open 60 racing. The Aviva Ocean Racing campaign is planned to culminate with her entry into the 2008/9 Vendée Globe. This race, contested by ocean racing's elite, is regarded as one of the world's most gruelling sailing races. Only seven months ago, in May 2006, 33 year old Caffari completed the Aviva Challenge, becoming the first woman to sail solo, non-stop around the world against the prevailing winds and currents. In doing this, she proved herself to be a yachtswoman of the highest calibre - Dee now aims to prove that she can be fast, as well as tough. Caffari's campaign will include a series of IMOCA (International Monohull Open Class Association) Open 60 races throughout 2007/8 in preparation for her entry into the 2008/9 Vendée Globe. In the first phase of the campaign she will use a training boat, ‘Aviva', formerly known as 'Hellomoto'. The preparation of a new purpose built race boat for the 2008 Vendée Globe entry will also start immediately. Caffari and her team have selected the highly experienced Merfyn Owen of Owen Clarke Designs to design the new boat. -- Full report: http://www.avivaoceanracing.com/index.asp?pageid=6&newsid=3 RUNNING RIGGING 101 (The following tips are provided by David Van Cleef of VC Performance Rigging. While they were written for the J/22 class website, the advice is easily applicable outside that class as well.) Main and Jib Halyards For main and jib halyards, a Vectran core with a polyester cover is your most competitive choice. Vectran provides a very high breaking strength with low moisture retention while yielding good abrasion resistance. The polyester cover provides protection from chafe and UV rays. Spinnaker Halyards and Jib Sheets Spectra/Dyneema core with a polyester cover is your best performance choice for spinnaker halyards and jib sheets. Spectra/Dyneema provides a high breaking strength, excellent abrasion resistance, and no moisture retention. This allows the lines to run smoothly while resisting kinking and hockling. Control Lines and Main Sheet The primary consideration on the remaining running rigging is moisture retention. These control lines and sheets should be made of a core of polypropylene/spectra blend with a polypropylene cover or a single braid made from the same fibers. This will allow your line to bend well through blocks and sheaves, and very importantly, will allow no moisture absorption. Any moisture retained in your running rigging will greatly reduce the performance of your line and its handling characteristics. Special Care As with most high modulus fibers, care must be taken when going around corners to ensure that the fibers load evenly. Splices and knots will weaken lines depending on the line, the type of knot and the quality of the splice. Line becomes significantly weaker in a knot because the outer strands in the bend are forced to carry most of the load while the inner strands take very little of the load. A bowline can reduce the strength at the knot as much as 65 percent. Meanwhile a properly executed splice can retain up to 85-90 percent of the line's strength. -- Complete article: http://www.j22.com/running_rigging.html * For those attending Key West Race Week, there will be a discussion forum titled “The Future of Running Rigging” in the Reception Tent on Wednesday, January 17th, 16.30 to 18.00 hrs. Themed as “The Future of Running Rigging”, the event will bring together an audience of representatives and stakeholders from all aspects of performance yachting from materials, rope manufacturers, riggers, rigging equipment manufacturers, sailors, and the yachting media. VIDEO OF THE WEEK Sailing and TV are not always well-suited, but one facet of the sport has no problem transferring their excitement to the screen: offshore multihulls. Bring in the breeze, and these beasts become a mix between Motocross racing and Formula 1. Put a fleet of them together for some buoy racing, and you have drop dead, must-see TV. Enjoy 2:07 minutes of high stakes action. Also, if you have a video you like, please send us your suggestions for next week’ s Video of the Week. Click here for this week’s video: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/07/0108 MORRIS YACHTS TRAVELING THE GLOBE THIS WINTER See the M36 in Düsseldorf Germany at Boot Düsseldorf January 20-28, and at the Seattle Boat Show January 25-February 3 in Seattle, Washington. This is a first appearance for the M36 at both of these high profile shows. The Morris Team will then head south for Strictly Sail Miami, February 15-19th. In Düsseldorf, we’ll be in Booth Halle 16; for Seattle, we’ll be at the Qwest Field Event Center Booth West 10; and in Miami, look for us at Miamarina at Bayside Slip A14 and A15. Please come see us this winter! For more information: 207-244-5509, mailto:sales1@morrisyachts.com or http://www.morrisyachts.com/sail/M36 SAILING SHORTS * The Monsoon Cup, Stage 6 of the 2006-’07 World Match Racing Tour, is scheduled to be broadcast in North America on Versus Sunday, Jan. 14. The show was originally scheduled to air last month, but was canceled due to a technical problem with the show. It is now slated to air on Versus (formerly OLN) on Sunday at 2:30 pm Eastern time. It is scheduled to be rebroadcast on Thursday, Jan. 18, at 3:30 pm Eastern time. The program is 30 minutes in duration. -- http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar/shows * US Sailing and Mount Gay Rum, the official rum of US Sailing (and Scuttlebutt), are kicking off the third year of the popular US Sailing Mount Gay Rum Speaker Series later this month. The 2007 season will consist of 16 events held at sailing organizations nationwide from January through April, bringing the country's top sailing experts into the hometowns of many sailors. Speakers confirmed for this year's season include renowned sailing commentator Gary Jobson, America's Cup Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio, racing rules expert Dave Perry, and past Yngling World Champions and Olympic hopefuls Sally Barkow, Carrie Howe, and Debbie Capozzi. -- http://www.ussailing.org/sponsorship/speakerseries * Vodafone Spain and the 32nd America's Cup have revealed an agreement that sees Vodafone Spain become the Official Mobile Network Provider of the 32nd America's Cup. It is the eighth official Supporter of the event. Vodafone Spain has collaborated on the deployment of the 3G and HSDPA technology that covers the race area (over 600 square kilometres) and Port America's Cup, providing Vodafone customers with 3.6Mb/s of speed of data transmissions. Additionally, Vodafone has provided a GPRS modem for each of the 22 weather buoys, to transmit data from the buoys to the teams and organizers of the 32nd America's Cup * Correcting the correction: To close out the Mark Strube confusion, he contacted Scuttlebutt and told us that he sailed with America True for ‘98 Key West, Kenwood Cup, and trained with America True for about 8 months in New Zealand till early ‘99. Shortly after, he joined Abracadabra and was there through 2000, until they got eliminated. CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or simplicity (letters shall be no longer than 250 words). You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot, don't whine if others disagree, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Eric Robbins: I'm sure the long-awaited decision from US Sailing will warm the hearts of those who finished behind Brodie Cobb at the Laser Masters Pacific Coast Championship, the Laser Masters NA Championship, and the Laser Masters World Championship, all events that he competed in (and won) following his Rule 69 incident. If the decision to suspend Cobb for 2 years was retroactive back to the time of the incident, he would have to give back those nice trophies. Oh well, those who finished 2nd now have a moral victory, right? I have to also wonder that if he had appeared at either of the hearings he was notified of, and provided his explanation of the circumstances - and any possible provocation - might he have received a much lesser penalty. By rolling the dice, and waiting for USSA to act, the effect of the punishment as a deterrent to others was lessened by providing him an additional six months of trophies on his mantle. With all due respect to the hardworking volunteers on the US Sailing Review Board, it is clear that the process needs improvement. * From Jay Franklin: In the individual sports that I can think of (track, bicycling, swimming), if the athlete is detected as cheating, he is banned AND forfeits any victories he or she had claimed. So what about sailing? Based on the US Review Board, Brodie deserved to be suspended from the sport back in July. My recollection is that he collected quite a bit of Laser Master booty between then and now. Is it time for US Sailing to change its policy on how bans are handled, where they should be backdated to the time of the incident? * From Rob Stephan: (in reply to Bruce Bates in Issue 2253 regarding the Morning Light team) You must not be aware that this is a well chosen group of the finest young sailing talent who ever stepped on a boat. Several have sailed in weather as rough as the Volvo dishes out. They have a mixture of skills from being comfortable at the top of an 80' mast making 16 knots in high seas, to strong ocean navigation skills and long open ocean racing resumes in addition to some of the most hard core one design racing around. This is a team that will not only be capable on the water racing a TP 52, but can very likely win the TransPac. They are being coached by the best ocean racing talent on the planet and 5 months in advance of the race. This is no "bunch of high school kids" - this crew can compete against the best in any weather. Curmudgeon’s Comment: Here’s an update from the team, where they are now training in Hawaii -- http://tinyurl.com/yx4kbg * From J.D. Stone, USA 1171: (In response to Chris Erickson’s comments in BUTT # 2256; edited to the 250-word limit) I’ve been in the class for 7 years and currently own an Etchells that was built by Ontario Yachts in 2000. My first big race at the “National” level was at Biscayne Bay YC, where we won an award…for last place. To improve, we watched the pros and high finishing non-pros, and quizzed them on why this and why that. The interaction was a great learning experience. All were helpful in giving tuning advice, tactical advice, etc. We even had the pleasure of two Jud Smith on-the-water seminars at our club in Macatawa, Michigan at no cost to the fleet. Finally, we began to improve. There is nothing wrong with local fleet racing. It’s great to be on the water competing against other boats essentially identical to yours, but for those who want to increase their skill level going head-to-head with the best, competing at the “national” level in my opinion is well worth the effort. Knowing the top sailors will be there notches up the experience. Can a person of modest means compete at the top level in the Etchells class? Guess that depends on how you define modest. Easy to trailer, and only three or four bodies to feed and lodge at the away regattas. Several used competitive boats in the $20 to $30 thousand range, and its tough to spend more than $5 grand a year to keep the boat on an even par with those at the top. That’s a lot of bang for the buck. * From Mark Lammens: Re: Chris Ericksen: "professionals so dominate the top end of the fleet at major events that a new perpetual trophy has been established for the top non-professional team at the North American Championship." I guess the term "Professional" needs to be clarified: My brother bought me a beer after we had a good race, (a 'see through' light beer because of the E boat weight limit thing), I guess that made parts of our boat 'professional'. I would like to think that the "professional guys" are the good sailors that take their sailing seriously, which is certainly the E-22 class. If you are looking for lots of nice pots/ trophies this is not the class for you, unless your name is Jud Smith. CURMUDGEON’S CONUNDRUM Do Roman paramedics refer to IV's as "4's"? Special thanks to North U and Morris Yachts. Scuttlebutt is also supported by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, the Defender of the 32nd America's Cup. |
