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SCUTTLEBUTT 1964 -- November 10, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.THE OLYMPICS Wednesday in Singapore the ISAF Events Committee launched into the debate surrounding the 2008 Olympic Sailing Competition Format with ISAF President Göran Petersson (SWE) joining the start of the meeting. Lively debate followed as one of ISAF's top level Committees got their hands on the big issue of this year's ISAF Annual Conference. The debate cent red around late submission 025 and in particular the issue of discards and the weighting of race results. Chairman of the ISAF Classes Committee Jeff Martin (GBR) joined the debate to give the view of the Olympic classes, whilst Olympic gold medallist and two-time ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Sofia Bekatorou (GRE) gave a sailor's opinion on the proposals. Olympic Format Working Party chair Kim Andersen (DEN) also gave the benefit of the research undertaken, whilst supporting submission 025. As expected the debate was in depth and lengthy, with the Committee deciding to support submission 025, but with votes on two provisos. First they approved an amendment to change the range of races for which the discard can be applied from 1-5 to 1-10 (1-15 for the 49er). There then followed a motion based around the proposed results weighting to provide a decisive final race in which the medals will be decided. There was divided opinion on the issue and a proposal to support submission 025, but a second amendment stating there will be no weighted races, was tabled. Responding to some of the doubters in the room, chairman Bjorn Unger was clear that, 'Change is difficult, but we have to move forward.' It seemed that his words correlated with the views of the majority, as the second amendment was rejected. The Committee will now report to the ISAF Council on the submission, who will make the final decision on the 2008 Olympic Sailing Competition Format in their meetings from 10-12 November. -- http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j1/Fh06/l FOR SALE Ernesto Bertarelli, the sailing enthusiast who controls Europe's largest biotech company, has put the group up for sale with a price tag of more than £7bn. The chief executive of the Switzerland-based Serono could net more than £5bn for his family's stake if the company generates an auction among the world's pharmaceuticals giants. Serono shares surged on the Swiss stock exchange yesterday, but analysts warned the company may not have the growth prospects to generate much interest and a merger of equals could be more likely. Mr Bertarelli is believed to be looking for an exit as he prepares to defend the America's Cup, which he won as president of the Alinghi team in 2003. He served as navigator in all its races, and plans to do so again. The company was forced yesterday to address speculation that it was up for sale. In a terse statement, it said: "The company confirms Goldman Sachs has been retained to explore various strategic alternatives for the company. There can be no assurances that any transaction will be consummated." -- Stephen Foley, The Independent, full story: http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article325806.ece LITIGATION Genesis International A/S of Aabenraa, Denmark, worldwide manufacturer of the Elvström Sobstad Genesis sails, herein announces its approval of a Settlement Agreement with UK International LLC, one of several defendants named in patent infringement actions brought by Genesis International, A/S in the Federal District Courts in New York City, Detroit, Chicago, and San Diego relative to Genesis International's United States Patent 4, 708,080. These legal actions relate to the defendants' manufacturing, selling, offering for sale and advertising the Ultra sail. UK International has agreed to cease such practice as of September 28, 2005. UK International has also agreed to compensate Genesis International in an unspecified amount for damages allegedly incurred by Genesis International from UK International's manufacture and sale of the Ultra sail. Genesis International A/S chooses not to disclose the specific terms of the Settlement Agreement at this time. -- www.elvstromsobstad.com QUOTE / UNQUOTE "I must have had 50-60 people knocking on my door wanting to join the Ericsson Racing Team. They've included an incredible number of America's Cup sailors. Most of them started their e-mails with something like: This should stay between you and me, but if there's an opportunity to sail in the Volvo Ocean Race I'd like to take it. There have been an awful lot of offshore sailors, too. It's flattering I suppose, but I think the attraction is the boats. These new Volvo 70s are extraordinarily exciting. People want to get involved." -- Neal McDonald, Ericsson Racing Team skipper, the Daily Telegraph, full story: http://tinyurl.com/d8pl6 WHO'S YOUR SANTA? Do you want new rigging for Christmas but your "Santa" can't tell jib sheets from flannel sheets? Hall Spars & Rigging is here to help. We've posted a Holiday Wish List on our website - simply fill it out and hand it to Santa (or leave it conveniently posted on the front of the refrigerator). Ordering is just as easy - Santa faxes or emails the form to Hall Spars & Rigging, and we do the rest. The first 20 orders get a bonus gift - a free 2006 Harken Ultimate Sailing Calendar by Sharon Green. http://www.hallspars.com TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE After the survival conditions of yesterday it's all change as the race really starts now in the new North Easterly breeze off the Portuguese coastline. Both ORMA and IMOCA fleets are converging today, hurtling south towards the Canaries, all the crews finally able to set their spinnakers and full mains, and also get repairs done to equipment and material which broke or disconnected during the violent slamming the boats endured during the front. With this wind shift to the North East, everyone in the fleet has at some point gybed onto starboard today and the speedometer has risen to between 20 25 knots for the 60ft trimarans, and 15 17 knots for the 60ft monohulls. Leaders at 18:44 GMT Wednesday: Virbac-Paprec (IMOCA 60), Groupama-2 (ORMA 60), Gryphon Solo (Open 50 Monohull), Crepes Whaou ! (Open 50 Multihull). Stops & Restarts: With 4 abandons in the ORMA multihull fleet (Brossard, Sodebo, Orange Project, Foncia), now Adecco-Etoile Horizon, Open 50 monohull retires into Lorient; Artforms rejoined the race from Lorient at midnight after replacing their ripped mainsail with their old one; Galileo Open 60 reaches Vigo with broken boom at the goose-neck, which Walter Antunes hopes to repair and then restart tomorrow; Cheminées-Poujoulat en route to Vigo 70 miles still to go, with not only broken Fleet 77 dome but also a problem with their steering system. Victorinox 50ft catamaran left Roscoff this morning after successfully repairing their bow sprit. Défi Vendéen, Open 50 monohull, left Brest on Tuesday afternoon and is back into 4th place in Class 2 Monohull fleet. Branec IV is still heading slowly towards Le Havre with broken port hull. On Wednesday morning, the shore crew from the capsized trimaran Foncia set out from Loctudy on a 70 ft long trawler "Damoclès" with a view to recovering the trimaran. It'll take them about 36 hours to make it to the incident zone. The distress beacon is still emitting will enable them to pinpoint the boat's position. They will try and right her in situ by filling a float with water and pulling hard on the other side. That should mean that the boat will suffer less when she is under tow. They should be returning to Lorient, at the end of next week. -- www.trimaran-foncia.com English language website: http://www.jacques-vabre.com/pages_uk/accueil_uk2005.htm THE AUSSIES WILL MAKE THE START The skipper of the Australian entry in the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-2006, Grant Wharington, has named the crew that will embark with him on the 31,250 nautical mile, eight-month round-the-world yacht race that will stop over in Melbourne in January next year. The team is frantically preparing for the start of the race in Vigo, Spain, on Saturday, after receiving an eleventh-hour rescue package from a mystery sponsor last week. The crew includes Volvo Ocean Race veteran Ian 'Barney' Walker, from Melbourne, as sailing master and watch captain, Graeme Taylor and Adam Hawkins, from Mornington, Victoria, New Zealanders Fraser Brown, Jeff Scott and Campbell Field as navigator, plus Guy Salter and Mark Bartlett from Great Britain. -- Kirsty Nicholls, Sail-World website, full story: http://www.sail-world.com/ CONTEST: MOST FUN EVENT We saw this thread get started in the Scuttlebutt Forums, and it seemed perfect for a contest. Posted by John Tormey, he stated how in Issue 1962, the Curmudgeon talked about the Pro-Am event hosted last week at the Bitter End YC, and how low-key fun events do great things for growing the sport in a very healthy direction. John was curious what other low-key fun events existed that did well to represent the sport. Scuttlebutt is curious too, and will award Scuttlebutt caps to the best three submissions. Here is the link, but you will need to first log-in or register (very easy) in the upper right corner: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=826#826 TRULY A MANLY MAN Mark Christensen, Watch Captain onboard ABN Amro One, continues his race for full fitness today, having fractured his arm and wrist two weeks ago in Sanxenxo, Spain. Mark, known as "Crusty" by his crew mates, sustained the injury during a docking procedure and is now hoping to make a full recovery in time for the start of the race on Saturday 12 November. Mark, 36, from New Zealand said, "Unfortunately the hospital x-ray didn't pick up the fracture at first but as the pain got worse we went back for a second opinion - that's when we found out there was a break in the wrist, arm and two ribs." Despite the injury, Mark competed in the in-port race last Saturday and said, "Leading up to the race I tried some grinding but it was quite painful so that limited the amount I could do in training. During the race it wasn't too much of a problem because I'm mostly involved in tactics and working the runners which didn't cause any pain." Crusty, who is one of the most experienced sailors onboard ABN Amro One, having finished in first place in the last two editions of the Volvo/Whitbread Race, was in confident mood with just three days to go to race start. "I'll be fine for Saturday", he said, "I've got it well strapped up and the pain has improved this week."-- www.abnamro.com/team COOL BOAT RIDE One of the perks of Scuttlebutt is that we occasionally get nice offers to go sailing, and on Wednesday Scuttlebutt's Craig Leweck was invited for a sail on the 111-foot multihull Geronimo while she was in San Diego, CA. Launched in 2001, the giant trimaran Geronimo has held around the world records, established the Around Australia record in July, continued on to set the Sydney (AUS) to Tahiti (Papeete) record in August, and is now preparing for an attempt on the Los Angeles to Honolulu record. What is most striking about Geronimo is that the speed comes so easily. We didn't have much wind, but it didn't seem to matter as we quickly got up to 17+ knots of boat speed. It was also a smooth seventeen, and if you didn't see the nearby tender leaping from the water to keep up, you might not notice just how fast Geronimo was going. Having arrived in San Diego last weekend, the Geronimo team foresees a viable weather window this coming weekend for the attempt. Check out the photos on the Scuttlebutt website to follow Craig through his day on Geronimo: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/geronimo NEWS BRIEFS * World match racing Champion Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.) and Betsy Alison (Newport, R.I.), and six other teams, prepare to battle it out on J/22s next week (November 16-19) at US Sailing's U.S. Women's Match Racing Championship held at Fort Worth Boat Club (Fort Worth, TX). Other entries include. Gretchen Douglas, Elizabeth Baylis, Katy Pilley--Lovell, Arabella Denvir, Charlie Arms, Louise Bienvenu, -- www.ussailing.org/championships/adult/women/uswmrc. * St. Petersburg, Fla. - Nearly $16,000 was raised for the Children's Hospital building fund in the inaugural Masters Under Sail Regatta, Sponsored by the Southeastern Sailing Industries Association and Sail America. Sailed in Sonars provided by the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, Frank Butler, the founder of Catalina Yachts, won the event that included Mark Ploch, Ted Irwin, John Jennings, Olaf Harken, Ted Hood, Allison Jolly and Charley Morgan. Their crews were comprised of patrons who made a charitable donation for a spot on each entry. * Sanxenxo. Spain -- After the see breeze kicked in today the racing in the Volvo Extreme 40's got underway. The race committee decided on a triangle course today. Six races were sailed in tricky conditions with the wind constantly moving to the right. The course was always close to the shore and in sight of the spectators and round the world sailors in and around the Real Club Nautico de Sanxenxo. Team Volvo Ocean Race is still in the lead with a margin of four points over Holmatro, skippers by Mitch Booth. In third place is Hilfiger only one point behind Booth. -- www.volvoextreme40.org FASTEST SAILS ON THE PLANET JUST GOT FASTER Ullman Sail's New FiberPath Sails are arguably the lightest, strongest load-bearing fiber sail construction process available. Stronger for its weight than alternatives, superior longevity, and priced with our customers in mind. FiberPath Sail's use high quality aramid fibers, oriented along both primary and secondary load lines, structurally bonded under high heat and pressure, thereby eliminating cloth delamitation. FiberPath customers enjoy sailing their new sails, not waiting months for new sails. Are you ready for the "Fastest Sails on the Planet?" To learn more about Fiber Path Sails, visit http://www.ullmansails.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 John Rousmaniere: Anyone interested in alarm systems (aka crew-monitoring devices) and other equipment that helps the on-board crew regain contact with someone in the water should look at recent or upcoming issues of Practical Sailor, Blue Water Sailing, Sailing World, Yachting, Soundings, and other magazines. They report on the 2005 Crewoverboard Retrieval Symposium that was held on San Francisco Bay in August. In what I believe is the largest study of the rescue problem, 400 tests of maneuvers, contact gear, lights, and retrieval gear were conducted on a J-105, a cruising catamaran, three trimarans, several keel cruisers, and a trawler. The final report should be available by the New Year, as will a DVD. * From William Cook: To find out why professional sailing isn't popular as a spectator sport, one only needs to look at the web sites supporting the two biggest events, the America's Cup and the Volvo Ocean Race. Try this: go to the Volvo site and try to find some basic information such as the date of the start of leg one - there should be a countdown on the front page, but I bet it takes you a while to find it, if you can at all. The same goes for the America's Cup web site, where in addition to poor organization they have replaced the excellent Virtual Spectator technology with something so awful that it defies description. Sailing marketers seem to think that their informational materials should consist solely of articles with titles like "Match Racing 101" or "What is a Spinnaker?". This sort of thing has minimal appeal to those who know little about the sport, and it diminishes the enthusiasm of those who would normally be riveted. Most sporting web sites have easy-to-find links with titles such as "schedule", "scoring", etc. Sailing sites should at least appeal to people who actually like sailing. They should introduce it to newbies and not patronize the fans. Dumbing down the official site of your race only makes your race look dumb, both to enthusiasts and the uninitiated. * From: Jay Sharkey (edited to our 250-word limt): While I agree that Mr. Penny is right on about the Decathlon being the biggest test of skill in the Olympic games (I mean really, who among us could run a marathon, throw a javelin and a shot put, pole vault, run hurdles, etc.). And as much fun as it would be to make every sailor in the Games sail every class and then judge the scores, its impossible (although it would make for some interesting T.V. to watch a Star crew sail a Neil Pryde RS:X together), it just can't happen. If you think about some of the most exciting sailing footage you've ever seen, one would have to go as far back as the '87 America's Cup, the ENZA video, footage from the Around Alone, the Ronstan 18' skiff footage, and so on. What the non-sailing public (and sponsors for that matter) are looking for is excitement with a bit of carnage thrown in. Why is NASCAR one of the most watched and most well sponsored sports in North America? There's a drama that the NASCAR people have figured out how to sell. How about putting minature cameras on boats like the Olympic classes to show what incredible athletes Olympic sailors are. Most of the non-sailors in the world would agree with this quote from George Carlin: "Sailing isn't a sport. Sailing is a way to get somewhere. Riding the bus isn't a sport, why the F*%K should sailing be a sport?" * From Ralph Taylor: I've been pondering Malcolm McKeag's question, "Why increase participation in sailing?" Let me suggest some reasons: 1. Respect: As practitioners of the sport, public appreciation of what we do is valuable to us. 2. Generosity: Sailing is too good to keep to ourselves. 3. Preservation: A body of sailors is needed for the sport to survive. "Grow or die" is the law of nature. Sailing is no longer a required form of transport; it's become recreation in danger of becoming extinct. 4. Posterity: Sailing teaches life lessons to the young. Do we want our great-grandchildren to wonder what that strange acthvity was like or to know for themselves? 5. Society: Sailing teaches us things about nature & ourselves that members of civilized societies need. This is not an exhaustive list and each theme could be greatly expanded upon & debated, but there's a first attempt. I empathize with Mr. McKeag's crowded conditions on the Solent and appreciate his asking thought-provoking questions. * From Marc Hollerbach: Perhaps I'm just another curmudgeon but, with all due respect to Mr. Hubbell and the organization he represents (US Sailing), he fails to answer the question about why we should expand the sport. Asking "Don't we want to....?" begs the question and impells me to jump to the simple answer: No, I don't. No, I don't need a larger cadre to buy my boat when I get old. No, I don't feel compelled to share the magic by force feeding it to a reluctant tv audience. No, I don't worry about the ratio of sailboats to powerboats. If you want to understand the rationale for why we need to expand sailing, just apply the old adage: "Follow the money." Pro's need to expand the cadre of owners willing to pay them. US Sailing & ISAF need to expand the sport to justify their existence and power. Suppliers and retailers, well that seems really obvious. There is a young man (12 years old) from Norfolk who sails on the same Optimist team as my son. His parents don't sail. All his life he has dreamed about sailboats. He finally talked his parents into letting him sail. Now he races sailboats because something inside him told him that this was something he would love. Our sport was created by people like him. It will continue to thrive because of people like him. And it will naturally right-size itself based on people like him. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Ever wonder about those people who spend $2.00 a piece on those little bottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backwards: NAIVE |
