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SCUTTLEBUTT 1963 -- November 9, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.AND THE WINNERS ARE . . . Dame Ellen MacArthur of Great Britain and Tornado World Champions Fernando Echavarri Erasun and Antón Paz Blanco of Spain are the winners of the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards 2005. At an Awards Ceremony tonight in Singapore, the three sailors were honoured for their outstanding sailing achievements between 1 September 2004 and 31 August 2005, when MacArthur completed her record-breaking solo sprint around the world in her maxi-trimaran B&Q and Echavarri and Paz were crowned Tornado World and European Champions after a string of outstanding results. This is the second time that Ellen MacArthur, 29, has won the coveted female ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Award. In 2001, she dominated women's sailing after taking the runners-up trophy in the 2000 Vendée Globe and becoming the fastest female and youngest sailor ever to race around the world solo, non-stop. The year previously, she also earned a nomination for the Award by winning Class 1 of the Europe 1 New Man STAR (Single Handed Trans-Atlantic Race Plymouth to Newport). MacAurthur is currently racing in the 2005 Transat Jacques Vabres with her friend Roland 'Bilou' Jourdain on the Open 60 Sill et Veolia but found time to express her surprise and delight at scooping the Award for the second time. Tornado sailors Fernando Echavarri Erasun and Antón Paz Blanco continued in 2005 where they left off the previous year and have enjoyed an extraordinary 12 months, starting with victory at the ISAF Grade 2 Barcelona Olympic Sailing Week in March where they won five of the nine races. In May, they took the gold medal at the ISAF Grade 1 Holland Regatta then followed it up the following month by winning the ISAF Grade W Tornado World Championship. In August, they reinforced their credentials as the most exciting talent on the Tornado circuit by adding the European Championship title to their portfolio and as a result accumulated more points to boost their ISAF World Ranking position. Through the nomination period they climbed steadily to the top spot, making it theirs on 29 June. The other Female nominees for the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards 2005 were, Claire Leroy (FRA); Blanca Manchon (ESP) and Paige Railey (USA). The other male nominees were: (Peter Gilmour (AUS); Finian Maynard (IVB); Bruno Peyron (FRA); Vincent Riou (FRA) and Rohan Veal (AUS). -- www.regattanews.com DISTRESS BEACONS APLENTY A cold front has collided with the Transat Jacques Vabre fleet of multi and monohulls, and set off a series of incidents. 1. 2200 GMT Tuesday night, Brossard (Y. Bourgnon/ C. Caudrelier), with major rupture along central hull, taken under motorboat tow by Laurent Bourgnon and reached Guernsey at 2300hrs. 2. 0315 GMT CROSS and MRCC informed that Sodebo (Coville/Vincent) and Orange Project (S. & Y. Ravussin) had set off their EPIRB distress beacons. 3. Sodebo skipper Thomas Coville reports to Race HQ that the port float has broken up, resulting in a dismasting. Sodebo located 150 miles off Brest in 35 45 knots of wind and very rough sea state of 7m waves. They are safe but can no longer control boat. 4. Orange Project skipper Steve Ravussin reports to Race HQ that a beam had broken, resulting in capsize. 5. 0615 GMT Project Manager Alain Gautier informs Race HQ that Foncia has capsized 220 miles off French coast lying 2nd in fleet at the time. 6. Armel Le Cleac'h reports to Race Doctor that Damian Foxall has injured his ribs and has a possible broken collarbone. 7. 0930 GMT Sodebo skippers report that a French fishing boat has taken the boat under tow and they are safely onboard the fishing vessel, heading for Brest. 8. 1000 GMT Galileo Open 60 monohull Brazilian skipper Walter Antunes reports broken boom, they are derouting to Spanish port before deciding whether to continue. 9. 1000 GMT Multihull Open 50 boats Victorinox and Branec heading for French coast as Victorinox reports broken bowsprit and Branec a broken port hull 10. 1030 GMT CROSS took over rescue operation, and French Navy helicopter from Brest lands on aircraft carrier Jeanne d'Arc in the zone of operation to refuel and then set off to rendez-vous first with Foncia and then Orange to evacuate the skippers. 11. 1230 GMT Navy helicopter rendez-vous with Foncia, and both crew safely winched off boat with help from diver. Orange Project only 6 miles away from Foncia so French Navy helicopter flies directly to evacuate the Swiss skippers. 12. 1400 GMT All four skippers from Foncia and Orange safely winched off and in helicopter en route to Jeanne d'Arc 13. 1500 GMT All four skippers will be onboard the Jeanne d'Arc to receive immediate medical assistance, after which they will all be helicoptered to Brest. Thomas Coville later recounted their incident on Sodebo: "The seas were immense. We were around the edge of the continental shelf when the wind rose to its highest point. A huge wave suddenly slammed violently into the boat and the port float opened up in two right in the middle. We took furled the mainsail immediately and fought to get the boat facing downwind, to be less exposed. But the mast fell down, breaking the beam and smashing on the leeward float." The Open 60 monohulls were further south than the trimarans this morning, but they also experienced the brunt end of the cold front, but with less violent seas. They are all now back on starboard tack heading south passing Cape Finisterre in a 25 30 knot north westerly breeze, and the seas have therefore become more manageable. The first boat to get over to the West nearer to the direct route, Virbac-Paprec (Dick/Peyron) has therefore taken over the lead from Jourdain and MacArthur on Sill et Veolia, even though the Anglo-French duo are the furthest boat south in the fleet. Standings at 1844 hours Tuesday ORMA Multihulls 1 Groupama 2, Franck Cammas & Franck Proffit, 4565 to finish 2 Banque Populaire, Pascal Bidégorry & Lionel Lemonchois, +18 miles 3 Géant, Michel Desjoyeaux & Hugues Destremau, +63 miles IMOCA Monohulls 1 Virbac-Paprec, Jean-Pierre Dick & Loïck Peyron, 3600 miles to finish 2 Sill et Veolia, Roland Jourdain & Ellen MacArthur, +4.5 miles 3 Ecover, Mike Golding & Dominique Wavre, +16.3 miles Multihull Class 2 1 Crêpes Whaou!, Franck-Yves Escoffier & Kevin Escoffier, 3840 miles to finish 2 Acanthe Ingénierie, Anne Caseneuve & Christophe Houdet, +7 miles 3 Jean Stalaven, Pascal Quintin & Raphaël Sohier, +154 miles Monohull Class 2 1 Gryphon Solo, Joe Harris & Josh Hall, 3782 miles to finish 2 Vedettes de Bréhat, Servane Escoffier & Bertrand de Broc, +47 miles 3 Top 50 Guadeloupe, Luc Coquelin & Chantale Foligné, +151 miles Complete standing on English language website: http://www.jacques-vabre.com/pages_uk/accueil_uk2005.htm VOLVO 70s POWERED BY HARKEN Harken and VO60 Illbruck dominated the 2001-2002 Volvo Ocean Race. Harken also dominates the 2005-2006 Volvo 70 fleet, supplying six of seven teams with hi-tech racing packages. ABN Amro 1: winches/hardware. ABN Amro 2: winches/hardware. Movistar: winches/ partial hardware. Ericsson: hardware. Pirates of the Caribbean: hardware. Premier Challenge: winches. Why? To win this 33,000-mile race, these powerful machines can't break down. Harken used state-of-the-art design tools and materials to engineer pedestal-driven carbon winches, strong lightweight CRX roller bearing travelers, and America's Cup-tested blocks. This, plus great service at every port, allows crew to focus 100% on the racing. http://www.harken.com/sailing/volvooceanrace.php WHARINGTON MAY MAKE START LINE In Sanxenxo, Spain, there are signs of 11th-hour financing for Grant Wharington's Premier Challenge team ahead of the Volvo Ocean Race's leg one start on Saturday to Cape Town, thus ensuring seven starters. An announcement is expected soon but around the docks there is plenty of circumstantial evidence. Wharington's shore team are buying tools rather than borrowing them from other teams as they try to beat the clock to plane lead off the yacht's keel in order to bring the total displacement in line with the class rule. With the boat overweight, Premier Challenge are having to compromise performance by reducing potential stability as trimming lead is the only fast way to reduce all-up weight. In dock at Sanxenxo is the old Dutch Whitbread entry Sunergy from two races ago, leading to speculation that Sunergy company director Benno Wiersma could be offering late backing to Wharington. Having lost most of his crew in September, when the Premier Challenge project stalled, it appears that the Australian has a strong line-up once again, possibly including Ian 'Barney' Walker. -- Tim Jeffery, The Daily Telegraph, full story: http://tinyurl.com/cpcrt LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL Sanxenxo -- Racing in the Volvo Extreme 40 was cancelled Tuesday when Sanxenxo was hit by a fierce front with winds gusting up to 35 knots followed by long windless periods with the wind shifting constantly. All the Volvo Extreme 40's were on the water in the afternoon for several hours but the race committee did not find the right conditions to start in between the squalls and the calms. English Tornado specialist Hugh Styles, skipper onboard team Basilica, experienced highlight of the day. "We were on the edge of a squall and we decided to give the boat the full ride. And we did, we were showing all our flags. With the spinnaker up we were flying. We are used to some high speeds on the Tornado but we had big grins on all the faces onboard. We must have been doing over 20 knots and going down waves accelerating even more. A full roller coaster ride." Tomorrow the racing is scheduled to start again at 14.30 hours. The forecast is for winds between 10-15 knots and sunny conditions. Carolijn Brouwer leads the point's table with her team, with Mitch Booth in second place on Holmatro. -- www.volvoextreme40.org NEWS BRIEFS *The inaugural IRC East Coast Championship held November 4-6 in Annapolis, Md., offered everything a racing sailor could desire: 7-28 knots of wind speed from a steady direction, flat water, warm sunshine and scenic racecourses. For the 43 boats competing in the first IRC event offered on Chesapeake Bay, the ideal conditions combined with six races in two days and an optional long-distance race added up to a successful debut for the regatta. Tom Stark (Greenwich, Conn.) and his TP52 Rush bested a fleet of 30 who qualified for the IRC East Coast Championship Perpetual Trophy. -- www.stormtrysail.org * Though the 52-foot Dorade did not launch Olin Stephens's career as a naval architect, it might well be said that her launching and subsequent successes were a major springboard in establishing Olin Stephens's reputation as a premier yacht designer. In 1931, with Olin and Rod Stephens aboard, Dorade (the second smallest of the fleet) won the Trans- Atlantic race to England by almost four days on corrected time. She then went on to win the Fastnet Race that same year, and Class B in the Bermuda Race in 1932. And the classic yacht is now for sail. http://tinyurl.com/9qfup * T2p.tv has just posted three new free video shows on their website: The Dry Creek Vineyard Bitter End Yacht Club Pro Am Regatta, Hillman Capital Management J-24 East Coast Championship plus a short tour of Newport Rhode Island. -- www.t2p.tv * North Sails has partnered with expert meteorologist Chris Bedford and his team at Sailing Weather Services to provide free weather forecasts for the Lands' End Texas NOOD Regatta from November 11-13, 2005. To sign up, visit North Sails' online weather center: http://na.northsails.com/ew/ew_main.taf * The Curmudgeon has just finished reading 'Temple To The Wind' -- the story of Nathanael Herreshoff and his masterpiece, Reliance. Good book, filled with fascinating biographical background on both Captain Nat and also of Sir Thomas Lipton. And along the way it provides interesting insight into the yachting scene as the world moved into the 20th century. Surely, most readers will know how the story ends, but author Christopher Pastore makes the journey extremely pleasant and totally illuminating. The book is published by The Lyons Press. J/65 HULL #2 AVAILABLE IN JANUARY J Boats' newest and largest addition to the fleet, the J/65, recently launched Hull #1 in San Diego, and completed delivery to Hawaii last weekend. Now Hull #2 is getting ready for a January delivery, fully optimized for distance racing, yet with all the creature comforts deserving of this yacht's placement in the luxury market. Hull #2 is being constructed with a strong, lightweight carbon bow and stern to enhance sailing performance whether racing or cruising. Contact Jeff Brown for your look at the new J/Boats flagship today: call 619-709-0697 or email mailto:jboat@cts.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. 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, and personal attacks for elsewhere. For those that prefer a Forum, you can post your thoughts at the Scuttlebutt website: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi) * From Thomas Hubbell, Vice President, US Sailing: Why grow the sport of sailing? At the very least, we need to build a bigger cadre of buyers to acquire our boats when we all go off to the nursing home for the last trip! How about some other reasons. Every one of us thinks it's a great way to enjoy life. Why not share the magic with the uninitiated? As our society moves ever faster with bigger engines (or smaller and faster microchips) in daily life, wouldn't it be a good thing if more people learned the consuming pleasure of cruising or the excitement of racing a boat at 4 or 6 or 10 knots by virtue of their own wits and the wind. People are going to keep buying boats. Would it not be beneficial to introduce more of them to the "right" kind of boats: the kind that are quiet, that are (usually) respectful of other boaters, and that have limited environmental impact. Now it's something like 100:1 power boat purchases over sailboats. Wouldn't we like to shift that a little? Don't worry about crowding. It will take years to rebuild the sailing community to its previous size. Let's get started. * From Chip Barber, SeaMarshall: In response to Ray Medak's claim in Butt #1962 that no advances have been in 40 years to make sailing safer, especially in the field of crew-overboard recovery, I beg to differ. In the 26 years since navigating to silver in the 1979 Fastnet Race, I've been involved in all aspects of offshore sailing safety. And while I strongly believe that it is best to always be tethered to the boat, there have been wonderful and effective advances in recovery technology. I've become an advocate of Marine Survivor Locator Devices (MSLDs) and homing receivers. These modern devices can do everything Mr. Medak wished for: 1.) sound an onboard siren; 2.) automatically drop the MOB waypoint on the GPS/chartplotter; 3) trip any electrical or electronic device onboard…such as the diesel's fuel solenoid or an autopilot…even the boat's 406 EPIRB; 4) and IT IS WORN by the victim in the water, sending out a radio signal that the crew on-board (or a Coast Guard cutter or helicopter) can use with a direction finding receiver to home-in on the victim at night and in poor visibility. The best MSLDs are automatically water-activated, and are completely reliable. Originally developed for the harsh conditions of the North Sea Oil Industry, they have to be. I've observed ranges of several miles - ranges confirmed by independent military and industry tests. So, there is a better way to use technology to help save lives. * From John Harwood-Bee: In response to Ray Medak's comments regarding MOB electronics. There is such a system available now. Whilst contemplating an entry into the 'Quest' ROW race last year I was shown a system call MOB i-lert. The demonstration was excellent. In effect, the vessel has an electronic 'firewall 'around it. Crew members wear small rechargeable transmitting pendants connected by signal to an onboard computer system. The system monitors each member of the crew and in the event of MOB, the firewall is penetrated , the alarms triggered identifying the exact crew member in the water, the fix registered and a track back system comes into operation to take you back to the last known position. Having just checked my files I find details can be found at www.mobilert.com * From Mark Penny: Perhaps the most "Olympic" of all the Olympic sports - the decathlon - is not scored based on who wins the last event. Sailing is more like the decathlon than closed rink speed skating I think. * From John Rumsey: Why not just sail the last race in the Olympics It would save a lot of time and money and the winner would win the gold. Another alternative would be to use Scandinavian Gold cup scoring where the first one to win three races out of seven, wins the Gold. The format could be modified to make it five of nine or so but some of the boats would be eliminated along the way, (like in other sports) but the winner of the last race always wins. * From Edward E. Matus: (RE: Olympic TV Interest) I've heard discussions at clubs around San Diego that sailing is hard to televise in a way that appeals to the non-sailing audience. I've raced in dinghies, keelboats, sailboards, and even miniature 12-meter boats at "The Plunge" in Mission Bay. Television needs to compact the action into an area that the camera can display. This requires establishing a ratio of course size to boat size and speed. When the camera can display enough of the course, then the viewer can imagine the strategies being played out, avoiding simulations with elaborate commentary. Smaller courses increase the athleticism since crews have less time to set & douse spinnakers and mark roundings become more frequent and more crowded. This is frequently done at sailing clinics to pack more action and experience into less time. Course designs suit the committee more than camera or racer. I suggest combining windward leeward with a slalom reach. I've tried this with juniors many years ago and they loved it. Set the gybe mark with 3 slalom marks on each of the reaching legs (shorter legs produce the desired results). This increases opportunities for positions to change for more action and excitement. A windward-leeward, triangle (with slaloms), windward-leeward race with 7-minute legs, lasting about 35 minutes is a format that TV producers and viewers are more likely to enjoy. This doesn't compromise the sport. It concentrates the action and increases the athleticism, excitement, and challenge for sailors. And remember, to complain to your TV service for more sailing! CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUM Why do people point to their wrist when asking for the time, but don't point to their crotch when they ask where the bathroom is? |
