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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 1035 - March 26, 2002Scuttlebutt 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.
COMMENTARY - Tim Jeffery The immediate future of the Volvo Ocean Race is green as John Kostecki's lime-hued overall race leader, Illbruck, is pushing strongly for a fourth win from five stages in Miami tonight or tomorrow. But what of the race's future? Will Volvo, having spent close on £28.5 million on their first, back a second? Most likely is the view of the race's chief executive, Helge Alten, who will hand over the reins after the finish in Kiel, Germany, in June, though Volvo remain uncommitted. The impact of the race, especially on the Volvo car brand, is still being measured. Though upbeat, Alten recognises the race has drawn its smallest entry and appeared sterile compared with previous Whitbreads. He already has suggestions for his successor to cut costs and to re-engage the public. More are likely to come from outside consultants and internally from Ford's Volvo Cars division. "In terms of media coverage it is very good," Alten said. "We have done pretty well. I think Volvo and the sponsors of the boats are happy. When it comes to the stopovers themselves, we haven't really made the race for the public. It's been too much for the corporate sponsors of the boats." To cut costs, the race could be reduced from nine months to six. This could spell the end of short stages such as Miami-Baltimore, La Rochelle-Goteborg and Goteborg-Kiel. "This keeps the race to what it used to be, four or five stops and that's it," Alten said. "That doesn't mean you can't do things that are interesting to the public in the ports, such as mini regattas. I think we could make them count. They could score points: not a hell of a lot, but enough to keep the sailors interested." Costs which bring little or no return to sponsors or the public are prominent in Alten's thinking. Hence his liking for replacing the Volvo 60s, used for three races now, with a bigger class of identical one-designs. - Tim Jeffery, Daily Telegraph, full story: sport.telegraph.co.uk
VOLVO OCEAN RACE Grant Dalton's Amer Sports One was struck by lightning during a storm early at 0430 GMT Monday. A short communication from the boat to the Volvo Ocean Race HQ indicates that everyone on board is all right, and the boat appears to have suffered no structural damage although most of the electrical equipment on board has blown as a result of the strike. "The weather was a beautiful spring shower, it was kind of like standing under Niagara Falls," the short communication from the boat reads. "We were in the middle of a cloud about 24 miles wide, sailing downwind in winds of 15 to 30 knots shifting 50 degrees for about six hours and we seemed to be moving at about the same speed as the cloud. The strikes started to come more often and closer each time until the major one... a flash at the same time as a big bang. The rest of the crew now have as much grey hair as I do." "The guys are now working to load their Sony media computer with communication software and weather routing programmes. Once that's set up they should be able to communicate more easily because the Satellite C system appears to be undamaged. That should allow them to get the weather data GRIB files that the Race Office supplies to all the boats. But I think they'll have lost their internet connection and access to any other weather data. So while they're not 100 per-cent, they're not completely out of touch either" commented Andy Hindley, Yacht Equipment and Racing Manager for the Volvo Ocean Race.
POSITONS on March 26 @ 0400 GMT:
BIG PROBLEM
ON THE HAURAKI GULF The hull of ITA-45 is now fully skirted from deck to ground level. Formerly only the keel was concealed. The rig is a conventional 2000 generation rig (not a millenium rig). The latest information on the Prada website dated 9 March 2002 states: "We are on holiday. Team Prada completes training session in the Hauraki Gulf. The activity in New Zealand waters for team Prada is over and by the end of next week the boats and equipment will be ready to be shipped back to Italy via cargo ... Team Prada will be sailing again in Italy from around mid May." It is now apparent that ITA-45 was not shipped back and testing is continuing on the Gulf. It seems the results from testing whatever modifications have been made cannot wait the six weeks it takes for the boats to be transported from Auckland to Italy. - Cheryl, 2003AC website, www.2003ac.com
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Lloyd Causey (re Dean Ellis' comments of Assa Abloy encounter with the lobster pot): Commercial fishermen keep setting fishing gear in navigation channels all over the world with no concern of whose boat they will damage. Every sailor that I know has had the expense of tangled crab pot lines damaging boat gear. The idea that Assa Abloy should have stopped and tried to find a fisherman and notify him that his fishing gear was damaged is silly, no it is inane. I will go to Miami to make sure that Mark has his share of lobsters to dine on. That is if I have any money left after paying for the latest damage that illegally set fishing gear has caused to my boat. Would Mr. Ellis wish to donate to my repairs? * From Michael Levitt, communications director, NYYC: I don't know if Christian Fevrier was writing as a "private citizen" regarding the Transatlantic racing record holder - Scuttlebutt 1034 -- or as a member of the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) on which he apparently sits. However, according to John Reed, the WSSRC secretary, in a letter dated July 10, 2001, "In the case of the Transatlantic Race from New York to the Lizard, the history of the New York Yacht Club organisation goes back to 1866. The WSSR accepts that there is only one organiser for this race and that therefore the Race Record is that which is confirmed by the NYYC. "There is evidence that another race was organised in 1981, which was won by Kriter VIII in a record time. Had this information been authenticated and forthcoming, it is possible that WSSR might have considered this as the benchmark for the monohull Transatlantic record. However we would not have recognised this as the Transatlantic Race Record. "On behalf of the WSSRC, I can confirm that we will re-insert the Transatlantic Race in our list, currently quoting the Atlantic record time of 12 days 4 hours and 1 minute..." If Mr. Fevrier is not privy to this correspondence, he or anyone else can write communications@nyyc.org for the complete text. The NYYC will be hosting a Transatlantic Race, the Transatlantic Challenge, in 2005 with Rolex as the sponsor. This will be the 100th anniversary of Atlantic's racing record. * From Maxwell Rosenberg: Coastal California to Mexico races are fun. Sleds, sun and surfing. Between Boils, Bergs and small bunks, why race Volvo 60's around the world?. Why not wide bunked, mandatory fresh water makers and maxi sleds? Isn't it one design? Who is responsible for this madness?
AMERICA'S CUP Chairman Peter Harrison said the team would build a second hull. Barnes said it was unlikely the boat would be used in this forthcoming regatta, but they were not ruling it out. "Our intention is to build a second hull so that we have two 2003 generation boats," he said. "We are plugging away at it, but we'll see how it goes and how the finances go." - Julie Ash, NZ Herald, full story, www.nzherald.co.nz/sports/ * The hoopla around the staging of the America's Cup this summer has just taken a turn for the worse. Auckland City is cutting funds from parades and free events to concentrate instead on promoting its "brand name". The council's combined committees meeting on Wednesday cut the America's Cup parades fund by NZ$25,000. The chairman of the recreation and events committee, councillor Scott Milne, says money could be better spent lifting the city's profile "by getting our brand out there". America's Cup 2003 director Tony Thomas says this will mean the parade might not be as good as it has been previously. "We'll still have a parade but it will have to be cut accordingly," Mr Thomas says. The combined committees decided the NZ$25,000 cut should be retrieved from the private sector. But Mr Thomas says it will be too complicated to get sponsorship as there are already sponsors in other parts of the event. American Express public affairs manager Craig Dowling says sponsorship will be hard to find. "It's a very difficult time to get money. There aren't many organisations out there which are just able to write a cheque without seeing the benefits," Mr Dowling says. - Annabel Scaife, Auckland City Harbour News, posted on the Stuff NZ website, full story: www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1141787a1500,FF.html * Skip Lissiman has been appointed as coach for the Swedish Victory Challenge in the America's Cup. Lissiman, 44, has taken part in three America's Cups representing Australia, in 1980, 1983 and 1987. He was port trimmer on Australia II when it took the world's oldest sailing trophy away from the USA. Besides running his own marine service business, Skip Lissiman has been heading operations for a fleet of match racing boats in Perth in recent years. * Auckland will need 105 to police the cup, Police Minister George Hawkins said in response to a parliamentary question about how many "additional police" would be required. - N.Z.P.A. www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1145902a1501,FF.html
JUMBO DISPLAYS
INDUSTRY NEWS
QUOTES FROM THE VOR BOATS
TROPHEE JULES VERNE "We're progressing on an east-south-east heading at about fifteen knots, peaking at 20! Not bad under staysail and 3 reefs! We need to get down into the Fifties, and get under a tropical low that is forming ahead of us at 43¡ South. The sea is still untidy. It's hell for the helmsman who is permanently taking icy green water in his face." - www.maxicatamaran-orange.com/site/en/index2.cfm
YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP Qualifying Events: Girls Singlehanded Entrant: The 2002 U.S. Junior Women's Singlehanded Championship (Leiter Clagett Trophy) scheduled for July 31-August 4, 2002, sailed in Laser Radials at Southern Yacht Club, New Orleans, La. Boys Singlehanded Entrant: The 2003 Laser Midwinters East, dates and location t.b.a. Girls Doublehanded Entrants: The 2002 U.S. Junior Women's Doublehanded Championship (Ida Lewis Trophy) scheduled for July 5-9, 2002, sailed in Club 420s at Newport Harbor Yacht Club, Balboa, Calif. Boys Doublehanded Entrants: The 2003 420 Midwinters, dates and location t.b.a. Boys and Girls Multihull Entrants: The 2002 U.S. Youth Multihull Championship (Hoyt-Jolley Trophy) scheduled for July 12-14, 2002, sailed in Mystere 4.3s at Port Clinton Yacht Club, Port Clinton, Ohio. Boys and Girls Boardsailing Entrants: qualifying event to be determined. - Jan Harley, www.ussailing.org
INSIGHT Ken Read, skipper of Dennis Connor's Stars & Stripes challenge team, underscored the difficulty of the competition by saying "This is like being in sailing school. This is totally different than sailing in IACC boats, and I've not sailed on any boat with a tiller in a year and a half, much less in two knots of current!" Read's tactician and mainsheet trimmer Terry Hutchinson, an accomplished match race sailor in his own right, echoed the difficulty by saying the pre-start action "is so intense, I really haven't had any time to look around and help much on tactics. But we're getting better at it, and our teamwork is still solid." Completing their team's quintet, Read and Hutchinson had Andrew Scott and Morgan Trubovich trimming the sails and Greg Gendell on the bow. Just as many of the Auckland-based teams have been chartering MRXs for their intramural competitions, the Stars & Stripes team (based in Long Beach, CA) has also been honing its match-race skills by sparring in the wheel-driven Catalina 37s made available to them by the Long Beach Yacht Club. - Dobbs Davis
WOMEN'S MATCH RACING
CORRECTION
THE CURMUDGEON'S COUNSEL |
