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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 689 - November 14, 2000GUEST EDITORIALThe decision of the ISAF to allocate the women's keelboat for 2004 is not just another round in the squabble about the Olympic events. It represents probably the most massive waste of effort in the history of modern sailing. It is the tragic reversal of all the guidelines given to the top women keelboat sailors of the world over the last six years. The initiative to prepare women's match racing for Olympic status was created by the ISAF in 1994. In 1993 there were just 8 teams helmed by women on the ISAF Match Race ranklist. Today there are 143 (compare the 114 teams ranked on the Soling Fleet/Match Ranklist). A circuit of over a dozen major international women's match race events has been created. In November 1999 the Council voted that the decision fleet v. match be taken at that 1999 meeting and then voted 31-5 that the 2004 event would be Women's Match Racing. The rationale for that decision is contained in a paper at www.sailingsource.com/wimra/wmrcase.pdf The 2000 Match Racing, Women's and Events Committees did not question this decision. Then, out of the blue, it was announced that this was not acceptable to the IOC because the discipline was not practiced in 35 countries. No time was allowed to produce evidence to the contrary. In one step the ISAF has nullified the work of six years and handed the event to fleet racing, where there is at present no serious international competition for women teams, bar a single biennial event at which only five nations were represented. The women sailors of the world will not forget this episode for a very long time. - Helen Mary Wilkes THE RACE November the 13th should have been a great day for both of these maxi-catamarans. Things went according to plan in Cherbourg, as Team Adventure was finally launched. However, just a stone's throw away on the other side of the Channel in Totnes, Team Philips's third launching was not as smooth. Unfortunately as the catamaran's masts were being hoisted on board by crane, one was superficially damaged in the manoeuvre. Totnes being a tidal river, the boat had to be moved back to Dartmouth for safety reasons. without its masts. Pete Goss announced that the damage was superficial and should not entail much work before being rectified. Less than two weeks of training will be possible for the team before they head off to Monaco and a prologue race planned for the 13th of December. All race participants should be in Barcelona for the 19th of December. On the 29th, Pete Goss and his crew will have to trade their heavy weather gear for suits and ties at the official The Race opening ceremony. - Sail On-line website Full story: http://www.sail-online.com/ EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW IS RIGHT HERE! The last time you bought a sail did you ask about the cloth? Sailcloth.com is a new web site by Bainbridge International designed especially for the boat owner and sailor. It is packed full of easy to follow information and handy tips to explain why you should be talking to your sailmaker about a better quality cloth. http://www.sailcloth.com TO RACE OR NOT TO RACE (On the Quokka Sailing website journalist Mark Chisnell looks at the readiness with the boats preparing for The Race. The following excerpt from that story summarizes his views.) I've been a proponent of the theory that to have a second Race, there has to be a first. Get this one done and move on to the next. And while no one on the outside has any idea of the sponsorship deals and their limitations, it's evident that good money and considerable effort has already been committed to the start date. But it's also apparent that if they start on December 31, it won't be much of a race. I don't support the argument for putting it back a year, momentum would be lost and the last thing we need is a clash with the Volvo Ocean Race - but a month or two might be enough. Conditions in the Southern Ocean will still be reasonable and even that small amount of time would make a big difference to those projects that are close, but currently won't be getting a cigar. - Mark Chisnell, for madforsailing.com Full story: www.quokka.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net) Letters selected to be printed may be edited for clarity, space (250 words max) or to exclude unfounded speculation or personal attacks. This is not a bulletin board or a chat room - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. -- From Tom Farguhar - The gentleman who suggested last week (#683) that a sound signal is not required with the X flag needs to read the inside back cover of the rule book "Race Signals". This material is, by definition, a part of the rules, and specifies a sound signal with the X flag. I don't know what ISAF actually approved last week, but there was a proposal to put the language regarding sound signals back into the text of the rules for 2001-2004. -- From Stuart Streuli - In response to Mr. Godfrey's recent comments, I was so happy to learn that at age 29 that I haven't yet finished growing. At 5'9" and 170 pounds I find myself often overpowered in a Laser when the wind gets near 20 knots, but since "full-grown men can't be competitive in it in anything but gales" I must still have some growing left to do. The Finn is a great boat and it produces some great sailors, but since you must be over 6-feet tall and over 210 pounds to be competitive in the boat the vast majority of men don't even bother to get into one. The Laser may have a similarly small competitive weight range, but I'm willing to bet there are a lot more men who share Gold Medalist Ben Ainslie's physique (5'9", 172 pounds) or Bronze Medalists Michael Blackburn's physique (5'10", 172) than can stare eye to eye with Finn champion Iain Percy (6'2", 209) or silver medalist Luca Devoti (6'1", 227). When you throw in that Americans tend to be bigger on average that most other people, the choice of Laser over Finn (should it ever come down to that) becomes even more obvious. And if he bothered to check he'd find out that ther 49er is already open to men and women. -- From James Noyes - The "Vendee Globe" boats will have been at it for 52 days when "The Race" starts on December 31st. My recollection is that the record finish for the "Vendee" is 109 or 110 days. "The Race" web site estimates a 60 to 70 day circumnavigation for the large cats. Does this mean that the big cats will scream by the middle and trailing boats in the Vendee fleet somewhere in the Atlantic in early March? 107 days is March 1st for the Vendee boats, and exactly 60 for the big cats in The Race. The tired Vendee skippers may be advised to look over their shoulders occasionally as they approach the European coastline around the first weekend in March. CURMUDGEON'S COMMENT: In a story just posted on the Quokka website, Vendee Globe leader Yves Parlier said "I expect to arrive in Les Sables on the 11th of February with 99 days under my belt." If accurate, this would eliminate that problem. Full story: http://www.quokkasailing.com/stories/11/SLQ_1113_vendee_WFC.html -- From Scott Truesdell - I am a little rusty on the exact dates, but on one of the last two Vendee Globes the Australian search and rescue organizations were severely tested when a devastating front swept the racers southwest of Australia. As expected, a few individuals and organizations expressed outrage that the public should fund and the rescue crews should risk their lives for a frivolous sporting venture. The national head of the rescue organization (forgive me for not remembering the name of the individual or the organization) made a public statement that the massive rescue operation was only marginally more expensive than a standard training exercise and that it was impossible to assign a value to the experience and practical knowledge they gained. This fits almost exactly what Pete Mohler opined in Scuttlebutt No. 688. A few years later, when a similar effort was needed during the disastrous Sydney Hobart, nobody mentioned cost. VENDEE GLOBE At the exit of the Gulf of Gascogne, new 20 - 30 knot winds from the Northwest arrived to kick start the fleet downwind and at last they are heading South. The sea has calmed, allowing the 23 boats in this 4th edition of the Vendee Globe to accelerate towards the Canaries. Yves Parlier (Aquitaine Innovations) commented: " I am reaching an average of 17 knots from the GPS, surfing occasionally at 23/25 knots. Ideal conditions out here, with the temperature rising and the sun shining. ". These ideal conditions are giving each skipper the chance to sort out the residual mess after the heavy upwind weather and relax into the rhythm of the race. From his radio conversation, Parlier was one of the only skippers who seemed not to have needed any time to adapt to the race. The weather forecast announces stable NW winds for the following days. The skippers are getting a big morale boost and should profit from these excellent winds as they head down to the Canaries. Yves Parlier and Michel Desjoyeaux (PRB) are still neck and neck, very near each other on parallel routes. - Philippe Jeantot Standings: 1. Aquitaine Innovations, Yves Parlier 2. PRB, Michel Desjoyeaux (+9 miles) 3. Sill Matines La Potagere, Roland Jourdain (+ 54m) 4. Active Wear, Marc Thiercelin (77m) 5. Whirlpool, Catherine Chabaud (+ 87m) 6. Kingfisher, Ellen MacArthur (+ 91m) 7. EBP - Esprit PME - Gartmore, Josh Hall (+ 100m). Race website: http://www.vendeeglobe.com CLASS SEARCH Looking for a contact with a one-design class? Without question, the most complete listing available is on the US Sailing website: http://www.ussailing.org/odcc/class_resultsquery.asp PERFORMANCE PRIORITIES (There are few sports that require the diversity of skills that sailing demands. In a story on the SailNet website, Sailing instructor Zack Leonard discussed how to coach yourself. Here's a brief excerpt.) The single largest mistake that I see most junior sailing instructors, high-school coaches, and college coaches make is to start off by teaching boat-handling skills first. While basic tacking, jibing, and acceleration techniques are necessary just to turn the corners on a racecourse, many of the concepts needed to understand proper boat-handling techniques are hard to grasp if they aren't first introduced in the context of straight-line speed. Understanding through experience the concepts of helm balance and rudder load, pressure on the sails, steering with weight and sail trim, crew-weight positioning, and kinetic responsiveness is crucial to perfecting tacks, jibes, and acceleration. These concepts are best taught in a straight-line, speed-tuning environment where experimentation yields immediate results. And once a sailor understands and feels these forces in the boat, the process of learning to squeeze maximum potential out of tacks and jibes is much easier. When you are just learning to sail, or learning a new boat, that's when this principle is most important. When I coach or teach, I recommend beginning with a lot of straight-line sailing so that you get the feel of your new boat. You'll gradually learn how quickly the apparent wind accelerates and decelerates in the puffs, and you'll get to know how the helm reacts to heal and crew position, and how sail trim affects the helm. As you become confident in your basic sail setup and helming skills, then you'll be ready to move on to refining your boat handling. If you ever have the chance to witness your local collegiate sailing team's practice sessions, you will probably see the team executing tacks in rapid succession with the coach urging the sailors on between his whistle blasts. While drills that emphasize the repetition of boat-handling skills are great for sailors who have mastered all the mechanics of these skills, they are often detrimental to sailors who are just learning the proper mechanics. - Zack Leonard, SailNet website Full story: http://www.sailnet.com/collections/articles/index.cfm?articleid=leonar0022 CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS * November 18: America's Olympic sailors will be celebrated in their home region as the US Sailing Center in Long Beach, California, holds a reception for the West Coast members of the 2000 US Olympic Sailing Team. The event is co-sponsored by the Pacific Coast Sailing Foundation and the California International Sailing Association. Fully half of the 2000 US Olympic Sailing Team hails from California, and all have been invited to attend, as well as teammates from Oregon, Washington and Hawaii. Among invitees are Mark Reynolds of San Diego, who took the team's only gold medal in Star with Magnus Liljedahl of Miami, FL (These two were also recently honored as the International Sailing Federation 2000 World Male Sailors of the Year); J.J. Isler of San Diego and Pease Glaser of Long Beach, who earned a silver medal in the Women's 470; brothers Jonathan and Charlie McKee of Seattle, who earned a bronze medal in the 49er; Lanee Butler of Aliso Viejo, who sailed in the Woman's Mistral competition; Courtney Becker Dey of The Dalles, OR, who sailed her Europe dinghy; the Soling team of Jeff Madrigali of Novato, CA, Craig Healy of Tiburon, CA and Hartwell Jordan of Discovery Bay, CA; John Myrdal of Kailua, Hawaii, representative in the Laser; Charlie Ogletree of Newport Beach, CA, who with John Lovell of New Orleans, LA, competed in Tornado catamaran; and Russ Silvestri of San Francisco, who sailed in the Finn dinghy. Also invited are members of the support team in Sydney, including Team Leader Hal Haenel of Los Angeles; Boatwright Carl Eichenlaub of San Diego; and coaches Jim Dey of The Dalles, OR, and Jay Glaser of Long Beach. The reception is open to the public at no charge and begins at 7:30 pm at the US Sailing Center, 5489 E. Ocean Boulevard, in Long Beach.
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