|
SCUTTLEBUTT 2120 - June 21, 2006Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.IT BEGINS AGAIN ON THURSDAY The Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 12 begins on Thursday and this is the final competition for the year. It will also be the final time Alinghi will compete against the challengers in a match race before the America’s Cup Match. When racing resumes in April 2007 with Act 13, the 12 teams will battle in a final fleet racing regatta. After that, Alinghi is on its own for over two months of in-house testing and training while the challengers fight for the Louis Vuitton Cup, and the right to face the Defender in the 32nd America’s Cup Match. Louis Vuitton Act 12 has plenty of significance in its own right. The winner of the ACC Season Championship will be determined over the next two weeks. Luna Rossa Challenge currently holds the inside track with a one point lead built on the strength of its performance in May. But Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing are just one point back. The challengers are also fighting for Louis Vuitton Ranking points, which are used to form a final challenger ranking ahead of the Louis Vuitton Cup. Based on their position on the final challenger ranking table, the challengers will collect bonus points that can be cashed in during the Louis Vuitton Cup. BMW Oracle Racing and Emirates Team New Zealand are currently tied at the top of this table. One team has announced it will sail a different boat in Louis Vuitton Act 12 compared to what we say in Acts 10 & 11 – the home side Desafío Español 2007 will race ESP 88. The other new boats in the harbour, Alinghi’s SUI 91 and Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team’s ITA 90, are expected to stay ashore – although teams have until 24 hours before the first race to make a substitution. In the case of the Italians, this is unlikely. The weather in Valencia has been very difficult for the teams since the conclusion of Louis Vuitton Act 11 nearly one month ago, with a handful of classic summer sea breeze days scattered amongst lighter and heavier conditions. Racing is scheduled to begin on Thursday afternoon, when the weather forecast calls for a warm sunny day with 7 to 10 knot Easterlies. -- America’s Cup website, full story: http://tinyurl.com/gaso3 WHAT ABOUT THE NEXT TIME? (In a story posted on the CupInfo website, Marcus Hutchinson, ACM Director of Media and Communications, was asked is the entire program for AC32 could be replicated next time. His answer might surprise you. Here’s an excerpt.) The fundamental of the Cup is if you win it you make the rules for the next one … that’s a very loose way of putting it. You have to find common accord with the Challenger of Record and things like that, but the bottom line is you get to stamp your vision of things - not your authority, but your vision of how it should be. We have all been waiting for the Cup to come to Europe for a long time. We know what we would like and we know the constraints of the European situation, why it’s different from New Zealand or San Diego, so that's the reason we have been doing this, to build it up and make some presence, because otherwise it would just be missed. But if Alinghi were to win again, yes, I’m sure they’ll make a lot of modifications. But, I think it would just be the next stage. Maybe the boats would be changed, maybe we’d do more Acts, maybe the bases would be restricted, maybe the match would be in two years time not four years time, many things like that. But if New Zealand won the next America’s Cup, they could do anything. They could make it a 100% born-in-the-country nationals only onboard each team - in which case half of these teams would really have to scratch their heads and train up their own nationals to sail onboard. They could sail it in Dubai if they chose to, they could sail it in two years or four years - they can do anything they want. I’m just using this as an example. If the German team wins maybe they would say "wow, those guys organized the last Cup and they really know what they’re doing. Let’s just buy that company and make them do it for us." Off we go and take 10% of everything they earn. Just let the management company organize the event. There is a trust for the Cup, so when you win the Cup you become the current trustee and you have no right to impose upon the future of the Cup, but you can steer the direction by making your tenure with it a good example of how you think it should be. If Larry Ellison won it and took it to San Francisco, then he would put a little more of an American stamp on it and maybe some of the values that we have here, that we like in Europe, would be lost, and maybe some of the values they like in America would be added. We already have quite a lot of value that New Zealanders thought was important. -- Marcus Hutchinson, complete story: http://www.cupinfo.com/ HOW’S COME? When Cameron Dunn of the Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team was asked why the team is not using their new boat for Act 12, he responded: “The reason for us using ITA 77 and not ITA 90 for this Act is quite clear: we’ve basically had ITA 90 in the water sailing doing a lot of structural testing and a little boat speed testing against ITA 77. Everything has been very, very positive so far. We did have a small issue with ITA 90 around the traveler area and its taking some time to fix. For that reason we didn’t think it was prudent to pull her straight back out before Act 12 and race straight away with her, as we just haven’t had enough time to feel confident in the boat, yet. Right now we’re in a very good frame of mind (comfortable) with 77. We’ve made various improvements to her in reliability and speed, especially. So right now it was a pretty easy decision. We would feel pretty silly going into an act with a boat that we haven’t really fully tested throughout the whole range of conditions. I think everybody’s nightmare is to enter a new boat that you haven’t sailed, for example, in 20 plus knots and all of a sudden Act 12 is all windy with big waves. If we break stuff or things don’t work- things that we haven’t encountered before…then it’s not so clever. Look at Team New Zealand in the last America’s Cup: the issues they had with their boat once it came racing hard in the wind, they started breaking things. It doesn’t look so good from the outside, even though you’ve got a lot of good people in the team. TRIVIA QUESTION June 21st is the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. True or False: On this day, the sunset is the latest for any time in 2006. (Answer below) MAKING THE RIGHT DECISION Sail California - San Diego & JK3 Nautical Enterprises invites you to check out our latest listings and new boat models. Looking for something new or used? Let our expert team give you the guidance and assistance you need to make the right decision. In the market for a J/105 or J/120? Come take a look at the four J/105's and two J/120's that we have listed. Visit our website to see the latest J/Boats, Renzo Yachts, Delphia Yachts, Raider Boats, and Salona Yachts as well as all of our brokerage boats. Stop by or visit us at http://www.jk3yachts.com LINE HONORS FOR BELLA MENTE Hamilton, Bermuda: Bella Mente, the JV66 owned by Hap Fauth of Newport RI, did a horizon job on the 264 boat fleet and crossed the finish line off St David's Lighthouse at 15:12:18 EDT today. The spectacular performance upset all predictions of a Maximus line honors victory in the Centennial Bermuda Race. Bella Mente led the light air contest much of the the 635 mile course that started from Newport RI on last Friday afternoon June 16th. The yacht chose to go down the west side of the rhumb line and found favorable current and better wind to carry them into Bermuda well ahead of Alchemy and Kodiak II, their nearest class rivals. Belle Menta is first to finish, but the skipper and crew must now wait to see how the other competitors in the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Division correct their time against Belle Menta's finish.. -- Talbot Wilson Bermuda Race First Ten Finishers: 1. Bella Mente, /JV 66, Hap Fauth, 4 days, 16:12:18 2. Alchemy, Andrews 77, John Thompson Jr., 4 days, 16:54:50 3. Captivity, Langan Custom, Samuel T. Byrne, 4 days, 16:55:51 4. Maximus, Ctm 98, Chas. Brown & Bill Buckley 4 days, 17:23:11 5. Zaraffa, Ctm 65, Huntington Sheldon, 4 days, 17:54:24 6. Titan 12, RP 75 Robert S. Bradford, 4 days, 18:13:28 7. Blue Yankee, Ctm 66, Bob & Farley Towse, 4 days, 18:14:26 8. Kodiak II/Sagamore, Llwyd Ecclestone, Jr., 4 days, 18:36:03 9. Hercules, ILC Maxi, USMMA Riker/Rego, 4 days,18:42:43 10. Running Tide, Ctm 81, Albert G. Van Metre Jr., 4 days, 18:58:29 Race progress can be followed on iBoat Track: http://www.bermudarace.com QUOTES FROM THE BOATS I think it's still day 4. It says so on the food bag. At 4.00pm we will change to Day 5 food bag - so then it must be day 5. Life seems to be measured by all things to do with food. I hadn't realized it such a long way to Bermuda....! Everyone is beginning to break out the one set of clean underwear they'd saved for arrival in Bermuda - but we are confident now that our personal belongings will have arrived a few days before us - so it's worth taking the risk! The daily diet of freeze dried is beginning to take it's toll as it works its way through all 15 of us! Every now and then there's a mass exodus onto the decks when one of the guys is having a not necessarily so quiet a moment on the heads. -- Liz Rushall on board Pindar AlphaGraphics PRIZE GIVING One thousand people congregated Tuesday evening at the Swedish Exhibition Centre, Svenska Mässan de Göteborg, to congratulate overall race winners ABN Amro One and to recognize the achievements of the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 crews. A special award was presented by movistar skipper Bouwe Bekking and General Manager Pedro Campos to ABN Amro Two in special recognition for the support they provided in rescuing movistar during leg seven of the race. After dinner, Leif Johansson, President of AB Volvo and CEO of Volvo Group, and Fredrik Arp, President and CEO Volvo Car Corporation took to the stage to present the trophies for the overall positions from seventh to second in the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06. New Zealander Mark Christensen won a special award for being the first person to win the race three times – onboard EF Language, Illbruck and ABN Amro One. Additionally, the crew of ABN Amro Two all got Gant watches for their record-smashing 24-hour run of 562.96 nautical miles -- http://www.volvooceanrace.org THE VIEWS OF GRANT WHARINGTON (Brunel skipper Grant Wharington looks at what might be done to the VO70 and the race for next time in an interview posted on thedailysail website. Here are a few excerpts.) "My impression of the Volvo 70? I think they are fantastic boats," he kicks off. "They are very exiting to sail, very powerful, very fast. It is a good recipe and we should stick with it. There should a few little adjustments. I think there are too many sails for the number of people that are crewing the boats. You’d take the two reachers off, because you can overlap them with the jibs. These boats are so fast and powerful you need really flat sails so the deep reaching jibs are a bit redundant. You can do without them. "To me the stacking rule is a pain in the bum," says Wharington. "I would far prefer to have no stacking at all. I think with the cameras we have on the boat we could police it quite easily and say random photos are going to be taken and if you’ve got more than two sails on the deck then you’ll get penalized. But I don’t think that suggestion has gone down too well. However there has been the request to have one powered winch on board so that it is easier to move sails around. I think that is a good idea." Wharington is very in favour of the canting keel arrangement seen on the 70s. “I think there is no doubt they’ll have a maximum bulb weight next time instead of a minimum one and that will do a majority of the work in aligning the boats and making them closer.” -- http://www.thedailysail.com NOW THERE ARE 2 MOB ON-LINE VIDEOS First there was the downwind Crash-Stop MOB Recovery, and now we’ve added an Upwind MOB Recovery. Both can be seen on UK-Halsey’s website at no cost (yes, you have to log-in). Both are very good at showing what to do, who should it, and how that works. These streaming videos are the perfect teaching tool, before you go out and practice. Plus, send your crew to our site so they, too, can prepare. Because, when you need to perform the real thing, you have to succeed: the life of a crewmember could be at stake. Just go to http://www.ukhalsey.com SAILING SHORTS * News Leak - A posting on the Valencia Sailing website states, “ … it will be officially announced tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, the Valencian coastal city of Alicante will be the port from where the 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race will depart.” -- http://valenciasailing.blogspot.com/ * On Monday, after 229 days at sea, Adrian Flanagan and his the 38-foot Barrabas had logged 21,600 miles - the distance around the circumference of the earth - on their ‘North-South’ solo circumnavigation record attempt. “So while I have not yet completed a circumnavigation route, I have now covered the minimum distance,” he said. “I am about 70 miles from the antipodal point - should get there tomorrow am my time, then make my turn for the ice!" -- http://www.alphaglobalex.com/ * Eighty of the top youth sailors in the U.S. gathered at Sail Newport for the Fifth Annual Brooke Gonzalez Advanced Racing Clinic this past weekend. The participants came from 14 states and ranged in age from fourteen to eighteen years. The coaching staff included Olympians, All-Americans, and national and world champion sailors, including Zack Leonard; Bern Noack; Isabelle Kinsolving; Meg Gaillard, Matt Lindblad and Mike Kalin. At the Sunday Regatta Club 420 class was won by Evan Eras and Joe Morris, Annapolis and Sherwood Forest, MD, while the Laser Radial class was won by Alex Weiksnar of Old Greenwich, CT. -- http://tinyurl.com/qfr3a * Qualifying regattas to select the sailors who will represent the United States at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have been announced. US Sailing has determined nine trial events, beginning in September 2006 and continuing through March 2007. The sailing competition of the 2007 Pan American Games will feature nine events, including three Olympic classes -- Laser (Men), Laser Radial (Women) and RS:X (Men and Women) -- and five non-Olympic, open classes -- Hobie 16, J/24, Lightning, Snipe and Sunfish. For a complete overview of the athlete selection procedures and schedule of the Trial events: www.ussailing.org/olympics/PanAm * The SimmonsCooper Vindicator racing team that just completed an amazing fourth Leukemia Cup Regatta in as many weeks. This extremely unique fund raising/ racing team is based out of Carlyle Lake outside of St. Louis and is co-owned and skippered by Rick Bernstein, and co-owned by Marcus Raichle. Their J-105 just completed regattas in St. Louis, Seattle, New Jersey and Annapolis -- regattas that raised over $350,000 in four weeks. The team itself donated over $30,000, and they next will compete in the Chicago and Savannah LCR’s in the coming months. To donate and check out the team’s website: http://www.vindicatorracing.com * BMW Oracle Racing (USA), Team Shosholoza (South Africa) and United Internet Team Germany will line up at the start of four racing days, three AC teams, two race formats, one high class sailing event: the German Sailing Grand Prix. Staged from the 3rd to 6th of August 2006 in Kiel, the America’s Cup teams will compete in fleet races and match races. For the first time in the 155-year-old Cup history, three challengers will meet in Germany to compete against each other in a regatta. BMW Oracle Racing will ship its USA 71 to Kiel. -- BYM News, full story: http://tinyurl.com/grayr * This weekend the Gipsy Moth IV, the vessel used in the first true solo circumnavigation of the globe, will be ready to leave Auckland for the next leg of its second circumnavigation. The vessel is now fully repaired thanks to the help of many Auckland organizations that made repairs in a record three and a half weeks after the vessel ran aground on a reef in the South Pacific in April. Spectators can view the festivities on the Waitemata Harbour from areas along the waterfront. -- Sail-World website, full story: http://tinyurl.com/h72ad * 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 Toronto NOOD Regatta from June 23-25, 2006. Sailors can sign up to receive the forecasts via email by logging on to the North Sails Weather Center at: http://na.northsails.com/ew/ew_main.taf TRIVIA ANSWER On the day of the summer solstice, it is not necessarily the day wherein the sunset is the latest for the year, and in 2006, it looks to be a week or so later in many places (but by only a minute). It is, however, the day of the year with the longest daylight period and hence the shortest night, but that is controlled as much by sunrise as sunset. The summer solstice is an astronomical term regarding the position of the sun in relation to the celestial equator. At the time of the summer solstice (June 21st), Earth is at a point in its orbit where the Northern Hemisphere is most tilted towards the sun, causing the sun to appear at 23.45 degrees above the celestial equator (Tropic of Cancer), thus making its highest path across the sky. - Details and illustration at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_solstice 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 thought at the Scuttlebutt website: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi) * From Brian Hancock: Paul Cayard is a class act. This sport needs more like him. * From Doug Rastello: I whole heartedly agree with Paul Cayard - experiences and friendships are the most important things in life, and as sailors we get the opportunity that others only dream about. * From Tim Patterson: Thank you for the Paul Cayard piece. Once again, Paul shows what it means to be not only a great sailor, but a humble and gracious winner (who happens to have a way with words as well as boats). You and he are the kind of people who make me proud to be a member of the human race. * From: Kurt Renker: It is a great idea to sail the Volvo race every two years. and it would be really nice to alternate the courses between the classic southern ocean route and than the middle east / Asia / west coast route. This would make a nice contrast and cover a lot of places. Different courses should add life to the race. * From Richard Hazelton: Plans being considered to alter the Volvo Ocean Race remind me of the old joke: The socialite was asked what they were going to do for this year's trip. "Last year we took a cruise around the world. This year we're going someplace else." CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION If you have to vacuum the bed, it is time to change the sheets. -- Phyllis Dunitz Special thanks to JK3 Enterprises and UK-Halsey Sailmakers. |
