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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 582 - June 1, 2000NOTE TO READERS: Apologies to our dear friends and enthusiasts of Scuttlebutt for the hiccups in delivery the past two days. While we endeavor to have 110% reliability of delivering "the word" to you everyday, once in awhile we experience unavoidable glitches in hardware, software, or network delivery systems that we have all come to know as a "bug." It's not the "Love Bug", thank God, but it nevertheless is upsetting for all of us. Our network gear heads are in the thick of it with hammers, wrenches, and monkey grease...so please bear with us, your beloved Scuttlebutt should be back on track here within the next 24 hours. We are sending you this manually to ensure you are kept abreast of the situation.From your fanatical friends in sailing, The Boats.com Team VOLVO OCEAN RACE SEB becomes principal partner in Swedish Volvo Ocean Race project SEB, Sweden's largest bank, has become the principal partner in a project for The Volvo Ocean Race 2001-2002, organised by Global Team AB. As the principal partner, SEB has the right to name both the project and the boat. A Swedish boat, with Gurra Krantz as the skipper, will thus be on the starting line for The Volvo Ocean Race. SEB is paying 12 million US dollars to Global Team for the commercial rights and will allocate an additional 8 million US dollars for the utilization of the commercial opportunities over the two-and-a-half-year duration of the project. The project is based on a partnership and is being conducted in co-operation with the more than 20 companies who will constitute the commercial partners, and a syndicate company. This project, with SEB as the principal partner will be implemented through two campaigns: a "summer campaign" during the June-August period of 2000, and a "campaign 2000-2002 for The Volvo Ocean Race" during the period beginning September 2000 and extending through November 2002. "The 2000-2002 campaign is based on participation in The Volvo Ocean Race as well as in activities before and after the race," Gurra Krantz says. "It will begin with the purchase of a second training boat during the late summer of 2000. The purchase is being made in order to conduct sail tests and training activities, and to continue the selection of crewmembers in Portugal or Spain during the autumn of 2000. Construction of a new V.O.60 will begin in September 2000, with a scheduled launching at the end of March 2001. - Lizzie Green Website: http://www.VolvoOceanRace.org PROFESSIONAL SAILING World record setting maxi-catamaran PlayStation is still looking for additional crew for her 2000 and 2001 goals of the TransAtlantic & Jules Verne records and The RACE. "It's going to take a crew of 12 to 14 to sail PlayStation Around the World aggressively", Skipper Steve Fossett explained. "Our recent crossing of the Atlantic has impressed us with number of sail change operations needed to produce the best results, and each sail change is heavy work". At least two or more professional crew with backgrounds such as Whitbread, America's Cup, and distance multihull racing are being sought now. Interested candidates should submit their c.v. by email to: lakotajsb@aol.com. PlayStation now preparing to conduct additional UK waters trials and English Channel based record runs. - http://www.fossettchallenge.com/ KENWOOD CUP US SAILING has announced that two USA Teams have been selected to challenge for the Kenwood Cup this year and a third team may still be selected. The USA RED Team will include the new Farr 50 ESMERALDA owned by Makoto Uematsu and skippered by Ken Read, John Kilroy's 1999 World Champion Farr 40 OD SAMBA PA TI and Philippe Kahn's Farr 40 OD ORION. The USA WHITE Team will include Seth Radow's highly optimized Sydney 41 GLAMA!, Scooter Simmons Sydney 41 CHA-CHING and Doug Taylor's Farr 40 OD ZAMBONI. The USA BLUE Team is currently under consideration. The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron has announced the New Zealand Team selected to defend the Kenwood Cup in 2000. The New Zealand Team will include Mick Cookson's new Farr 47 HIGH FIVE #5, Naohiko Sera's new Farr 47 SEA HAWK and Hideo Matsuda's Farr 45 BIG APPLE III. The team reserve yacht will be Andrew Taylor's Davidson 55 ANDIAMO. BIG APPLE III was the winning boat in the '98 Kenwood Cup and this year will be crewed mostly by members of Team New Zealand with Dean Barker as skipper. SEA HAWK will have Ray Davies as skipper, Tom Dodson as tactician, George Hendy as navigator and Team New Zealand's Mathew Mason at the mast. HIGH FIVE #5 owner Mick Cookson has put together a strong crew with Harry Dodson, David Barnes, Nick Heron and Chris Salthouse among them. Team Manger for the New Zealand Team will be Brett Neill who's Cookson 39 WHITE CLOUD was a member of the winning Kenwood Cup team in 1998. The Royal Hawaiian Ocean Racing Club unveiled their new web site for Kenwood Cup 2000 this week. The new site contains a list of entries and all the information you need to plan your trip to attend the event in Hawaii this summer: http://www.kenwoodcup.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net) Letters selected to be printed are routinely edited for clarity, space (250 words max) and to exclude unfounded speculation or personal attacks. This is not a chat room. You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if people disagree. -- From Daniel Forster (Edited to our 250-word limit) - Isn't it ironic that people talk about the Kiwi sailing mercenaries possibly battling each other for the right to challenge their countrymen for the America's Cup? Little history lesson: During the medieval times, the Swiss soldiers were so much sought after that they were hired as mercenaries by many different European countries. It was not uncommon that Swiss were battling Swiss for different emperors or kings 500 years ago! But nobody complained! I have said years ago that big egos - not nations or yacht clubs - challenge for the America's Cup. When have we last talked about "clubs" challenging? I think it was in 1851 when the New York Yacht Club's AMERICA won. In the last 17 years the clubs were only "facilitators", providing the burgees and hosting the event. The persons creating the headlines and signing the checks were tycoons, wealthy gentleman sailors and heirs of family fortunes. Michael Fay founded a Yacht Club on his private island, the clubhouse was a rusty car. Dennis Conner is the exception who confirms the rule. How about the pessimists who in 1995 said that if the Cup goes to New Zealand it would be the end of America's Cup racing. Then there was an echo in 2000 saying that nobody would be interested to return to "far away New Zealand" to challenge if the Kiwis would win. There might be less challengers in 2002/3, but certainly better quality! And don't worry, Quokka Sports, Virtual Spectator and yachtphoto.com will be there to cover it! -- From Rick Bernstein - Stop, stop, stop....I'm so sick of this AC crap. It's gone, it's lost, the Cup as we all know it has lost its luster. Since I was a kid, the majesty of friendly competition piting nation against nation held my attention every four years or so. Now, it's gone, there's nothing "nation against nation" except the names on the boats and I'm disgusted with "ALL OF YOU." My six AC posters hanging on my walls are coming down and as far as I'm concerned, this regatta is dead. Long live local to international dinghy racing!!!!! -- From Paul Larsen - Yeah for wall to wall AC news. Keep it coming! -- From Rick Hatch, Vancouver - Although I was pleased to hear that Laurie Davidson will contribute his significant talents to his home State's syndicate and as much as I would enjoy the Louis Vuitton Cup and AC itself being held just down the road from here some day (one reason to become an ISAF umpire), unless the various syndicates were to hold the event in a late autumn or early spring storm it would be truly tragic if the Cup were raced in Puget Sound's light airs. What a nightmare that would be dealing with commercial traffic and the VTS scheme in such narrow confines! The same comments generally applies to any waters around Vancouver, by the way. As for the Kiwi beachhead in Switzerland, having lived there Lake Geneva looked pretty glassy every time I went by it. Notwithstanding the professional prerogative astutely exercised by Russell and Billy, there is likely still enough sailing talent in New Zealand for the Hauraki Gulf to be the venue at least two more times, during which interval I have to believe the American racing fraternity and corporate community will get their act together and bring the America's Cup to San Francisco Bay for some heavy duty IAAC racing. It's not like there isn't enough talent in the US, or enough personal or corporate wealth. Just get on with it! --From Tom Donlan, Annapolis J-30 fleet - Seth Radow, an Americap racer in a 41-foot offshore boat, observed that "In a perfect world, we would all sail perfect One Design boats. Since that boat has yet to be designed or built, those of us who don't sail One Designs have chosen one compromise over another. In buying a boat, we all settle for compromises." Perhaps Mr. Radow should try compromising with other local sailors so they could put together a one-design fleet of some boat, any boat. A one-design boat doesn't have to be perfect, it only has to be the same as all the others in the fleet. Anything from a Bermuda 40 to a Mumm 40 can be a perfect one-design boat. THE LONG OLYMPIC TRAIL (A report on the Olympic preparations of the US Tornado Class representatives, Charlie Ogletree and John Lovell) The 2000 Spa Regatta was held in Medemblik, Holland. Medemblik is a small Dutch sailing town about 40 kilometers from Amsterdam. It has a great sailing facility and the Spa Regatta always draws a large number of sailors. The headlines for this year's regatta was in the newspaper, "Fierce Winds Sweep Netherlands." The regatta was five days long and we only left the dock two days to race. The other three days were canceled due to too much wind. The velocity ranged from 30 to 65 knots. It was wild, with lots of rain, sleet and wind damage. Unfortunately, we did not get a lot of sailing time in. The two days we raced were ironically in light air. The first day was 3 to 8 knots and very shifty. The first race was even protested by one of the competitors for the race being sailed under our class wind limit. We had an average day racing including one OCS. The second day of racing was again in light to medium air, 6 to 10 knot, very shifty and in rough water. We had a better day with two top ten finishes. The wind and the regatta was so tough, our current World Champion finished 13th. We finished 15th overall. We had Mitch Booth as our coach and we were able to make some progress during the two days of racing and the two days prior to the regatta. We are now in Copenhagen, Denmark after a long drive yesterday. Our next regatta is here and begins on Thursday. STAR BOATS (Following are two excerpts from Nautica Star Worlds Notebook published in SpinSheet magazine.) * The overall winner of the Star Class World Championship Regatta earns the right to replace the standard red star on his mainsail with a gold star. However, the vast majority of past worlds winners opt not to compete with the gold star flying. Annapolis resident Jim Allsopp, sailing in the 2000 event with Jim Kavle, won the 1976 Star Worlds in Nassau, Bahamas. He has spent very little time racing Stars since that victory, but when he decided to compete at the 2000 event, some friends encouraged him to fly the gold star on his mainsail. On Opening Day, Allsopp and Kavle were called "On Course Side" of the starting line before the starting gun and dropped out of the race after learning of their mistake. After the race, Allsopp said, "Flying a gold star gets you called over early and it gets you tacked on a lot. The Race Committee was able to pick us out on the starting line, and then we got slammed the whole way up the leg." He peeled off his gold star and replaced it with a more anonymous red one before the second race. * Annapolis sailors Terry Hutchinson and Andrew Scott were bitten by the Star bug during the (recent World Championship) regatta. Hutchinson, an Annapolis native and twice College Sailor of the Year at Old Dominion, has a J/24 World Championship and an America's Cup campaign with Paul Cayard on top of his resume. Scott is a third generation Annapolis sailor who has earned a reputation as a first rate all-around competitor. At the close of the regatta, the duo purchased a Star boat from past World Champion Roberto Benamati and plan to begin a Star campaign. The boat they purchased won Race #4 and was second in Race #5. - Spin Sheet Full story: http://www.spinsheet.com/whitegui/Section.asp?sectionID=1&articleID=816 MILLENNIUM 600 RACE Bayview Yacht Club's and Chicago Yacht Club's Millennium 600 Race from Port Huron to Chicago has received 35 entries. The race from Port Huron, MI, to Chicago, IL, a distance of 548.9 nautical miles (over 600 statute miles) begins on July 15, 2000. TNZ (Following are a number of excerpts from Suzanne McFadden's story in the NZ Herald) * Dean Barker struggled with exhaustion as he sailed to clinch the world matchracing championships by day, and tried to hold together the besieged Team New Zealand crew by night. The young Team NZ skipper collapsed triumphant in Croatia yesterday - after winning the world championships and signing on three more America's Cup crew. But he is only too aware that there is a serious task to complete when he arrives home tomorrow, with more sailors to sway towards staying. * I'd get to bed about 1 am every night, and then I'd be back out there at seven," Barker said from Croatia. "It was mentally exhausting - trying to keep tabs on who's staying and who's going, and concentrating on racing. "So I'm looking forward to getting home and nailing a few contracts down." He has succeeded with his four world champion crew - tactician Hamish Pepper, grinder Chris Ward and trimmers Tony Rae and James Dagg - who have given their word that they will stay with Team New Zealand. * It was also an emotional week for crewman Tony Rae, who decided just before the finals to turn down offers from three foreign syndicates and re-join Team New Zealand. The talented mainsail trimmer had a "pretty serious" offer from Seattle, which has already claimed designer Laurie Davidson, had spoken with American billionaire Larry Ellison and was approached by Prada. "With all this going on, I had to make a decision." "And now I'm able to stay with Team New Zealand which is what I really wanted to do all along," he said. "With a lot of guys going, it means I can take on a lot more responsibility now. That's the challenge I want. One of the big reasons to stay was to carry on our matchracing team with Dean. We've got a big future ahead." - Suzane McFadden, NZ Herald Full story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sports/ PRO - AM WORLDS A record 28 teams expected from six countries for the boats.com Farr 40 World Championship for the World Cup, with, each bringing their finest in amateur and professional sailing talent. Racing will be held over June 6-9 in the waters off historic Newport, RI, with nine races expected on courses set in Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Returning to defend his title earned at last year's Worlds in San Francisco, John Kilroy and his team on 'Samba Pa Ti' will be facing stiff competition from 1998 World champion Jim Richardson, who will be on his home waters. Kilroy will have tactical help from AmericaOne veteran tactician John Kostecki, while Richardson will have help from UK-based Mumm 36 champion Adrian Stead. International Class President John Calvert-Jones from Australia, who ranked second in the 1998 worlds and third in 1999, will be travelling to vie for top honors with tactician Grant Simmer. Other top-named talent at the event includes Gold Medallist Robbie Haines with George Andreadis on 'Atalanti XI'; America True helmsman John Cutler with George Carabetta on 'Diana'; Rolex Award winner Ed Adams with Helmut Jahn on 'Flash Gordon'; Whitbread winner Paul Cayard with Massimo Mezzaroma and Antonio sodo Migliori on 'Invicta-Nerone'; reigning America's Cup winner Brad Butterworth with Vincenzo Onorato on 'Mascalzone Latino'; past match race champion Peter Holmberg with Phillippe Kahn on 'Orion'; J/24 World Champion Terry Hutchinson with Alexis Michas on 'Phish Food'; Star Worlds runner-up Ross MacDonald with Richard Marki on 'Raging Bull'; three-time America's Cup winner Tom Whidden with John Thomson on 'Solution'; and Whitbread winner Kimo Worthington with John Ryan on 'Swordflounder'. - Dobbs Davis Class website: http://www.farr40.org TECHNOLOGY If you've wondering why the delivery of 'Butt has suddenly become erratic (and in some case nonexistent) - so am I. Technology is great when it works, but just when we start to rely on it ... THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS Pity the poor people who keep doing the same thing...expecting a different outcome. |
