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SCUTTLEBUTT 3208 - Thursday, October 28, 2010Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors,providing a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: JK3 Nautical Enterprises and Ullman Sails. ROUTE DE FUN, I MEAN RHUM, IS READY TO BLOW YOU AWAY by Tim Zimmermann, Sailing World Back in June, I inked a big old X on the sailing calendar: the start of the 2010 Route Du Rhum. The reason was simple. It will hands-down be the most exciting sailboat race of the year, and it starts this coming weekend. How can I know that? Easy. 2010 has been a slow year, to start with. Volvo is still gearing up. The America’s Cup is still all blah, blah, blah. Yes, the Velux 5 Oceans is underway, but you already know what I think of watching Brad Van Liew spank a middling fleet of, um, five boats, all the way around the globe. More important, while the Route Du Rhum only happens once every four years, it always delivers intense sailing action, which sometimes reaches the level of serious carnage. The 2002 race, in particular, was a demo derby. This year, the RDR has 87 registered skippers, and the class breakdowns are telling. There are nine IMOCA 60s, which have been the workhorses of long-distance solo ocean racing over the past decade. That’s fewer than the 17 that started the 2002 race, but the Open 60s are always sailed to maximum potential, and the skippers in this class are as good as they come, ranging from Vendee Globe winner Michel Desjoyeaux to 2006 Route Du Rhum winner Roland Jourdain. While the IMOCA boats always deliver hyper-close racing, it’s the Class 40s and the mega-multihulls which will really launch this year’s RDR into orbit. The Class 40 is on a tear, rapidly becoming a perfect entry into big-time solo ocean racing. So perhaps it's not a surprise that there are 46 Class 40 boats registered for the race. There are lots of up-and-coming Vendee aspirants. But a few familiar names - like Bernard Stamm and Pete Goss - are also in on the action. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/SW-102710 BACKGROUND: The 3,550 mile Route Du Rhum route starts in St. Malo (France) and finishes at Pointe-a-Pitre (Guadaloupe, French Caribbean). It is a singlehanded non-stop race for the IMOCA Open 60 and Class 40 monohulls and ORMA 60ft multihull. Event website: http://www.routedurhum-labanquepostale.com/fr/s01_home/s01p01_home.php WAKING UP AN AUDIENCE Richard Worth, newly appointed to the role of Chairman, Management Board America’s Cup Event Authority, heads the body charged with the marketing and media aspects of the 34th Match and its supporting events. Here is an excerpt from a Sail-World story: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- One of the clichés of the 34th America’s Cup is the comment from Russell Coutts (BMW Oracle racing defender CEO), at the first media conference in Rome in early May, that the organizers wanted to move the event from the 'Flintstone generation to the Facebook generation'. In America’s Cup terms, Richard Worth see this more as an expanding of the audience, rather than just shifting to a younger age group of die-hard sailing fans. “It is our view that whatever changes we make to the event and television coverage, the sailing audience is going to watch it anyway. They 'get' the sport and they understand what is going on. The sailing fans will be there because it is important to them and they want to watch the America’s Cup. “There is a way to impact a much bigger audience who are not necessarily weekend sailors or fans of sailors. This audience is casually interested in sports, and they are the people that we are trying to embrace and grow with. A lot of that audience attraction and growth comes with general television and sports channel television. “What Russell is saying is there is a far bigger audience there that we can appeal to, and I think he is dead right. For an example, look at some of the sports that were introduced to the Winter Olympics - like the Snowboard Cross. Kids come charging over mountains on snowboards, making leaps, and it looks both different and interesting. There are things like that which can wake up an audience that haven’t previously had an interest in the America’s Cup. We have to do it to bring in a wider and broader audience.” Complete story: http://tinyurl.com/SW-102710A JK3 HAS J/BOATS GALORE! Have you checked out JK3 Nautical Enterprises, Inc and their latest brokerage boats? We have the largest selection of used J/Boats on the market. Give our team a call and make an appointment to see these high quality listings. We currently have listed everything from the luxurious and exhilarating to sail J/65, to a fun and sporty J/80. Or, check out one of our multiple J/105s, J/109s or J/120s listed and join the vibrant J/Boat one design circuit. We also have numerous cruising J/Boats offered. Give us a call at our San Diego office 619-224-6200, our Newport Beach office 949-675-8053, or visit us online at http://www.jk3yachts.com SHORING UP THE FOUNDATION Clarity for Olympic sailing may come next week at the ISAF Annual Meeting in Greece (Nov. 4-14), where the types of events and classes for the 2016 Games will be discussed. The manner in which decisions are made has gone through extensive review since the multihull was removed from the 2012 Games, possibly negating some of the political clout carried by the more seasoned classes. Designed in 1949, the Finn class has been in the Games since 1952. Only the Star among the current classes has more seniority (introduced to the Games in 1932). These two classes exert significant political clout within ISAF, but the singlehander may sense their position as an Olympic event is less certain than desired. Hoping to shore up their foundation, the Finn class has turned up the volume on their marketing machine. Here are some of their arguments why the Finn should remain part of the Olympic sailing equipment: Tough challenge The Finn is widely regarded as one of the toughest physical challenges in sailing. Sailors have to be tough, strong, fit, agile and athletic, while managing the mental aspects of racing at the highest level. The current world champion has a VOR max comparable with marathon runners and cross country skiers. Winning takes dedication, commitment and performing at the limits of fitness and endurance. Appealing racing visuals Modern looking rigs and hulls. Beautiful boat to sail with athletic, fit, muscular sailors. Requires extreme physical effort to sail well. Golden sail insignia for former world champions from 2011. Continuing research into sailor identification and country flags on sails. The free pumping rule has transformed downwind sailing into an absorbing display of skill, strength and athleticism. Standard boats Finns can be bought ‘off-the-shelf’ and be winning the next day. Hulls, masts and sails have all evolved into a level plateau of standardisation that means boats can compete on a level playing field. The strict class rules limits any experimentation into ‘super’ boats. Boats that are sold year after year are identical within reasonable limits and do not change perceivably over time. Caleb Paine (USA), first Junior, 2010 Finn Gold Cup: "The Finn is the best class I have sailed in. There isn’t I class I know of that has such a great sense of camaraderie. After my first international regatta I knew all the best Finn sailors in the world on a first name basis because they were open, friendly and supportive of the new kid. I think that this coherence of the class stems from the fact that the sailors often train together. This builds friendships as well as making everyone better." More here: http://tinyurl.com/Finn-102710 Much more in Finnfare, November 2010 issue: http://tinyurl.com/Finn1110 ‘3-D IS WHAT'S NEXT’ Daniel Forster, a Newport, R.I., photographer who specializes in sailing photography, recently began shooting 3-D sailing images at events he was doing for Rolex. He uses Photoshop imaging software to synchronize the two images so they're slightly off-kilter. With the 3-D glasses, they come to life. He says "the clients are amazed" when they see him shooting a sailing race from another boat in the choppy waters with a makeshift rig of two cameras. "It's quite a production." Why do it? "It makes me more competitive," he says. "It's eat or swim out there, and 3-D is what's next." -- USA Today, full story: http://tinyurl.com/USA-Today-102710 BACK TO THE ROOM FOR TEAM USA La Rochelle, France (October 27, 2010) - While Switzerland and England continue to be the cream of the crop so far in the Student Yachting World Cup, both the American team and Canadian team rolled consistent scores in the three race day to solidify their preliminary standings of fifth and sixth overall. While the Queen University (CAN) team were pleased to have avoided breakdowns and protests, the California Maritime Academy (USA) squad was not as fortunate. “This was a day that featured a fair amount of ‘bumper cars’ action with boats running into each other at the starting line and at turning marks,” noted team scribe Doug Webster. “TeamUSA was involved in a stanchion bender involving Japan and Portugal at the start of the first race. We clearly were not at fault, but due to the rules of racing, we are filing a protest against the Japanese to protect against the possibility of Portugal protesting us. We suspect there are going to be a fairly large number of them to be resolved by the Race and Protest Committee overnight, which may affect the standings when all the finishes and any penalties are factored in.” Event website: http://WWW.sywoc.org/ Team USA: http://followteamusa.csum.edu/ Team Canada: http://qstsywoc2010.blogspot.com NEXT YEAR: Team USA, aka Cal Maritime Sailing, won the 2009 National Intercollegiate Offshore Championships (Kennedy Cup) last fall in Annapolis, MD, which is the annual American qualifier to compete in the Student Yachting World Cup. The teams scheduled to attend the Kennedy Cup on November 5-7, 2010 are Navy, Kings Point, St. Mary's, Army, NY Maritime, Coast Guard, Maine Maritime, Mass Maritime, U/Conn, and Cal Maritime. ‘BEYOND MY EXPECTATIONS’ Valletta, Malta (October 27, 2010) - After the R/P 100 Esimit Europa 2 claimed line honours on Monday of the 606 nm Rolex Middle Sea Race, the Slovenian maxi held the corrected lead, but only until Bryon Ehrhart’s TP52 Lucky (USA) completed a fantastic lap around Sicily to take the overall handicap lead after their finish on Tuesday. After a couple of near misses at the handicap title by other competitors, Lucky remains the provisional leader overall on corrected time in IRC. “It’s beyond my expectations,” said Ehrhart on their performance. “The Rolex Middle Sea Race has a great reputation, which is why we came all the way down here. We thought it would be an interesting race; it turned out to be much more interesting - every sail on the boat was used, from the lightest flapper to the strongest spinnaker was put up. A very, very challenging race…technically and strategically, and thankfully, we had great navigation from Ian (Moore). Those crucial calls saved us hours and hours, and I think the corrected time difference was 25 minutes, so it’s those kinds of calls that were important. To make the calls how Ian made the calls was pure genius. “It’s unbelievable when you see the true, spewing volcano of Stromboli, it’s phenomenal. You get to encounter different colored smoke and red lava - you don’t see that in Chicago,” remarked Ehrhart, an active member of both the New York Yacht Club and Chicago Yacht Club. “The Rolex Middle Sea Race is a classic, and in my mind it will certainly remain a classic. I would encourage everyone to come here. This is the most interesting race I’ve ever done and I’ve done a lot.” Lucky’s plans for next season include the Giraglia Rolex Cup next June, and then the Rolex Fastnet Race. Following those races, the boat will sail transatlantic, compete in the Jamaica Race, then to the west coast of the U.S. for the Transpac Race, to Hawaii, enroute to Hong Kong for the Rolex China Sea Race. “The boats are quite solid,” notes Ehrhart. “We have one of the older TransPac 52s, when they were still making them really for this ‘at sea’ performance. We have very good confidence that that boat’s not going to fall apart. But the human toll is real, we have a 73-year old crew person - he’s an Etchells sailor from Florida - he’s very, very fit and did a great job. But, it’s the kind of boat you want to bring a lot of aspirin, to relieve some of that pain. This boat is very physical and any race where you have breeze over 20 knots, for any sustained period, there’s a human toll involved, but we don’t come to sit on a sofa, we came to do the Rolex Middle Sea Race.” -- Full story: http://www.regattanews.com/pressrelease.asp?pid=100444&lang=1&eid=235 TISDALE WINS 2010 BENETEAU 36.7 NA TITLE After a strong racing season, Gary Tisdale and team on “First Today” hit their stride last weekend in Annapolis to claim the 2010 Beneteau 36.7 North American Championship. Fully powered by Ullman Sails, the team secured their title by nine points. Tisdale compliments his tactician Adam Burns and crew for outstanding work as they won four races and placed outside of the top four only once in 11 total races. The team competed with a new genoa, which Tisdale said was “the best I’ve seen. It provided the speed and point we needed to get to the shifts first.” http://www.www.ullmansails.com KEYS FOR SUCCESS Don Finkle of RCR Yachts shares his observations from the Beneteau 36.7 North Americans last weekend, hitting on many of the keys for success that all regattas could strive for: “I’ll start by saying this was one of the best regattas we have ever attended. Everything was near perfect. Chairman Keith Mayes organized a fantastic event, supported by Linda Ambrose of the Annapolis YC, Garth Hichens of Annapolis Yacht Sales, and a superb race committee headed by PRO Wayne Bretsch. We had plenty of wind every day and all eleven scheduled races were run as planned. The boats were all docked together only a short walk from the social activities at AYC. They gave us a parking pass, and the facilities at AYC are first-class all the way. Food was outstanding, and we were provided with complimentary beverages after racing. We were all made to feel most welcome. Results were instantaneous; our crew was watching them on their Blackberries on the way in each day.” -- http://psndealer.com/dealersite/images/rcryachts/racersnews102710.pdf SAILING SHORTS * The top three skippers on the open rankings remain the same with this ranking release, with Adam Minoprio (NZL) holding off the advances of Ben Ainslie (GBR). The real action is in the women's rankings where Nicky Souter (AUS) returns to the #1 position ahead of 2010 World Champion Lucy MacGregor (GBR). Since the last release of the rankings, ISAF has crowned a new Women's Match Racing World Champion and the climax of the 2010 World Match Racing Tour is right on the horizon. -- Full report: http://www.sailing.org/34638.php * (October 27, 2010; Day 11) - The weather is starting to hot up as the VELUX 5 OCEANS fleet press south towards the Equator and its longtime resident: the Doldrums. At the head of the fleet, American solo sailor Brad Van Liew continues to stretch his lead over the chasing pack. The 42-year-old from Charleston, South Carolina holds a margin of 90 nm ahead of Polish ocean racer Zbigniew ‘Gutek’ Gutkowski after 4092 nm of sailing. The fleet is on the first of five race legs from La Rochelle, France to Cape Town, South Africa (7500 nm). -- http://www.velux5oceans.com/ * Sailing World's College Rankings as of October 27, 2010 reports that there are three No. 1 teams in college sailing, with Yale and Brown knotted at the top of the women's rankings and Boston College reclaiming the No. 1 spot on the coed list. Full report here: http://tinyurl.com/College-Rankings-102710 CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Is your event listed on the Scuttlebutt Event Calendar? This free, self-serve tool is the easiest way to communicate to both sailors and sailing media. These are some of the events listed on the calendar for this weekend: Oct 29-31 - Lake Pontchartrain Racing Circuit - New Orleans, LA, USA Oct 29-31 - Oakcliff Fall Invitational - Oyster Bay, NY, USA Oct 31-Nov 19 - North American Rally to the Caribbean - Huntington, NY, USA View all the events at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar INDUSTRY NEWS UPDATES The Industry News category of the Scuttlebutt Forum provides an opportunity for companies to announce new products and services. Here are some of recent postings: * High Performance Watertight Flashlight * Gail Kulp Hired as Executive Director of Sea Tow Foundation * SeaCart 26 set for take off * New MADCAPS - great stocking stuffer for sail chicks View and/or post Industry News updates here: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/INDUSTRY_NEWS_C15/ GUEST COMMENTARY Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community. Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted comments chosen to be published in the newsletter are limited to 250 words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Scuttleblog Comments: (re, elected US SAILING Board of Directors) I had assumed that since all of the choices were from New England that this year’s selections were intended to be from NE. Didn't bother to vote as a result. Now that I learn they were replacing southerners with exclusively Yankees, I do care. I recommend that the US SAILING name be changed to Yankee Sailing. Soon to be a former southern member. -- http://tinyurl.com/Scuttleblog-102710 CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION When Vicks first introduced its cough drops on the German market, they were chagrined to learn that the German pronunciation of "v" is "f," which in German is the guttural equivalent of "sexual penetration." Special thanks to JK3 Nautical Enterprises and Ullman Sails. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
