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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 962 - December 11, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
GUEST EDITORIAL - Garry Hoyt The problem with the present America's Cup set up is that the races too frequently become a predictable parade that takes 3 to 4 hours to reach a foregone conclusion, steadily losing audience along the way. My solution proposes to replace one long, daily, boring race with 2 or 4 daily, shorter, more exciting races. Do this by making the first race consist of a single 10 mile, windward leg with a windward start and finish. 10 minutes after the finish of the second place boat there is another start--this time downwind for a 10 mile downwind leg with a downwind finish. Repeat the same sequence for race 3 and 4. This new, daily format would accomplish the following: 1. Maximize exposure of the most exciting part--the start. 2. Introduce a new element--the downwind start. 3. Make downwind performance as important as windward performance. (In the present windward/leeward courses 2/3 of the time is spent to windward--which disproportionately rewards windward performance.) 4. Multiply and hold daily viewer interest with the lure of fresh starts and the chance to recoup a bad race. Add the appeal of a bigger score. I realize that any new idea has very little chance of penetrating the turgid layers of America's Cup bureaucracy, but new innovations can stimulate new excitement--and something needs to be done to give this premier event the kind of video interest that its intense and expensive preparation warrants.
SWEDISH AC CHALLENGE Onboard during this premier of Örn (SWE 63) included the boat designer German Frers Jr. and the boat building manager Chris Mellow. Just like the launch the night to Thursday 6 December, the first training was at twilight, in order to conceal all secrets on the boat for as long as possible. According to the plan the premier outing was limited to one hour of sailing. "The 17 persons onboard were the persons that have worked the most with the new boat", Mats Johansson told, and he continued: "We focused entirely on structural tests. Therefore we couldn't sheet home the sails completely." The tests so far show, however, that Örn has become the boat that everybody in the project has wished for. Now follows 24 hours of minor adjustments before it's time for the second training, this time with another key person onboard; Magnus Holmberg, who is currently ranked number one in the world of match racing. Since the arrival a month ago in Auckland by an Antonov, a gigantic Russian transportation plane, the rudder, keel and mast have been assembled together, among other things. Now comes one week's training and tests with Örn, before the Victory Challenge-syndicate breaks up for the Christmas holiday. Strenuous training with the Swedish America's Cup Boat begins directly after New Year. - Bert Willborg, Victory Challenge Sweden AB
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SYDNEY - HOBART RACE Commodore Hans Sommer said today the drop-out between applications to enter the race and final entries was quite normal and had not effected the high quality of the racing fleet which included international Volvo Ocean Race entries from Sweden, Norway, Germany, Bermuda and Italy, individual overseas entries from Poland, USA, New Zealand and Sweden, as well as boats from all Australian States except Western Australia. "It is a fleet of exceptional quality that will provide a spectacular start from Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day, 26 December, and maintain intense ocean racing competition until the first and last boats finish on the River Derwent between two and six days later," Commodore Sommer said. - Peter Campbell, http://s2h.tas.gov.au/
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From David Redfern, Bristol UK. (Re awareness and acceptance of sailing as a sport in the public): In your recent letters thread, you may like to know that on Sunday night on British national television, in a telephone poll of viewers, Ellen MacArthur came second in the nation's poll. The spin-off from the award in media follow-ups will be substantial. Third in the poll was tennis player Goran Ivanisevic, as overseas sports personality of the year. The winner, and it is no surprise in a nation obsessed with football (soccer) was David Beckham, recently nominated as the greatest football player in the world. That Ellen should come second to a man of the stature of Beckham shows that sailing can be recognised by the general public. On a personal note, I would praise the Kingfisher publicity team who have always made sure that the reporting of Ellen's achievements have been in a readable way that someone who has never seen the sea in his or her lives could understand. I feel strongly that their efforts should be praised and should be a lesson to others seeking a profile. I am a professional sailing publicist and have no link whatsoever to Kingfisher or Ellen, but recognise good stuff when I see it. * From Evans Gareth: Ellen MacArthur won second prize in last night's BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards Show. These sports awards are amongst the most prestigious in Britain. A shortlist of six sportsmen and women was compiled by a jury. The final outcome was decided by television viewers voting on the night. In a nation dominated by soccer, that Ellen should come second in between two soccer players is testament to the way that her exploits have captured the hearts of the British public. Bear in mind that the 750,000 people voting on the night are predominately non-sailors. Ellen also picked up the special Helen Rollason Award for sports achievement in the same ceremony, in recognition of her efforts in the Vendee Globe race. * From Ray Tappett: Anyone who thinks Peter Bentley got it wrong when he questioned whether the women on Amer Sports Too were pushing as hard as they could on leg 2 should read the interview with Emma Westmacott, published this weekend on the VOR website: "Surprisingly Westmacott believes that their steed from four years ago, EF Language, was faster on this leg. "I think we pushed the boat [EF] harder. I'm quite a pushy person and Lisa often says chill" ...Westmacott says that she would have liked to have seen them pushing harder down south." - www.volvooceanrace.org/news/leg_2/n2_011207_amertoo.html You won't be seeing any more of Peter's writing on the VOR website, Volvo had him removed from the editorial team. Volvo contracted madforsailing.com to provide content on volvooceanrace.org. (Peter writes for MFS). Reports from Sydney are that Amer Sports Too's Lisa McDonald was so incensed about the article that she spent considerable time and effort (while sailing) getting Peter sacked, complaining vigorously to Volvo's PR department personally and through Nautor's press agent. But here's the rub: his piece appeared not on the VOR site, but on madforsailing.com. Peter's credentials as a nautical journalist are beyond reproach. Obviously Volvo threatened MFS with the loss of their contract unless Peter was removed. For an opinion that was the truth. If Volvo Ocean Race management thinks that sailors want sanitized, smiley-face press releases, and not any real journalism in covering this race, it is sadly deluded. And didn't Ms. McDonald have anything better to do with her time during leg 2? Race, perhaps? * From Paul Henderson, ISAF President: What Rod Davis says is what is happening and is very healthy for Sailing. I endeavored to say that in Lisbon in my President's address.. "Overview: In my travels it is apparent that the broad base of Sailing is becoming more regional with the majority of competitive sailing taking place around responsible Yacht Clubs. Sailors are traveling less and enjoying the sport more which is a result of two family wage earners and the need for rationing their time and ensuring what they do is quality in nature. International Sailing is mostly done in the Olympic Classes, a few ISAF Classes and the Special Events such as the Volvo Ocean Race and the America's Cup. ISAF must continue its focus on providing services so sailors can go to sea to race fairly as required in this evolving world." The only other observation is that ISAF is not a control organization. ISAF does set the Racing Rules but racers can use whatever starting system or racecourse they want in whatever boat they want. Any restrictions on this are caused by National Authorities or local groups. * From Mark Dolan: Cheers to Rod Davis and his grass roots yachting model. Here is a man who practices what he preaches. Many of sailing's top guns showed for the Bacardi Cup last March as it was transition time for the AC programs. The boat I crew was borrowed by Rod for the regatta and I went with it. I welcomed the opportunity to elevate my game and crew for him, bear in mind I'm not at the level of a Liljedahl, Trinter, or Cowie. No matter, what I received was a lesson from the top level of competition, he got a grass roots sailors perspective of it all. Dinners were spent discussing the sailing profession, families, and politics. When a crew's perspective was needed all I had to do was ask one of the top crews and boat handling got easier. I would like to add to Rod's column and put the onus on the Grass Roots sailors: take the opportunity, introduce yourself, talk to the pros and top sailors, get their tips and advice. Don't just sit back and wait for them, beer or coffee can go a long way. Aren't most sailors friendly and interesting people? * From Alan Johnson: If OLN can do for the Louis Vuitton coverage what it did for the the Tour de France Bike Race, it will be a fantastic show. They took that program from a big network, 1 hour, ho-hum to a 4 hour live, in-depth coverage, with repeats several times a day major event. ESPN probably wanted too much money for not enough coverage. If it is not football, basketball, baseball, hockey or skateboarding off the roof of the Empire State Building, ESPN is not interested unless you throw a lot of money at them. * From Geoff Brieden: People complaining about ESPN not having the Louis Vuitton and America's Cup have very short memories. If you recall in 2000, the was ZERO early round coverage of the Louis Vuitton Challenger series. Not one race was broadcast in the US before Christmas. To watch a race, we had to go online and watch it via Virtual Spectator. OLN is now going to provide coverage of those earlier rounds, allowing us all to follow very closely all of the action from the get go. They are going to give sailors a venue to see what they want: races. The total volume of coverage hours will be what we have always wanted (we all complained in 2000 about little coverage, remember?). Now we are going to cry that OLN is not currently as available as ESPN? ESPN cannot cover the sport in a proper fashion. They have far too many other sports vying for their time. OLN will give you the coverage that you are looking for, just keep lobbying your cable company now to add OLN - you have almost a year 'til the racing starts. BTW, with all due respect to Gary Jobson, the current sailing programming provided on ESPN is all retrospective recaps of events, and not what the sailing public is looking for, which is "live" (or at least tape delayed) racing. Jobson programming should maybe on ESPN "Classic"? No, that wouldn't work, people would only complain that they don't get that channel! * From Geoff Newbury: The Rules Committee has forgotten that rules must be clear and understandable, as to inclusions, exclusions and limits. The new rules utterly fail this test. The old rules weren't broken but got fixed anyway. "Tacking keeps clear" is easy to say, but tacking is not instantaneous. It has a beginning and an end. There used to be a separate definition but it is now included in the body of Rule. Conversely the definition of 'gybing' disappeared. You now cannot determine *from the rules alone* when a gybe commences or ends. Your 'tack' depends on the 'leeward side' which is the one 'away from the wind' *or* 'on which her main lies' if by the lee. So what determines 'leeward side' as a yacht gybes? Course relative to the wind? Or 'lie of the main'? And when does that change? The boom crossing? The sail crossing? Or (old rule) the sail filling? The old definition was precise and determinable by all observers at the time. And 'gybing' was not an instantaneous change of tack. The new non-definition is ....subject to discussion..... The present rules are fatally flawed. We must know the latest appeals to decide that which the prior rules defined. And also to argue about if the rule change was an intended change or an artifact of the drafting process. With 'gybing' I think it was the latter, but others argue otherwise. The many and constant changes are evidence that these rules are not yet ready for prime time.
AMERICA'S CUP Riley has sailed in the America's Cup regatta three times and twice in the round-the-world race. With the 32nd cup as a target, Riley and K-Yachting hope to develop a generation of talented crew members who are able to meet the demands of America's Cup sailing. Riley, who said, and proved, that "if you can dream it, you can do it," will manage the sailing program, which will begin as soon as next year. * Several members of the Great Britain Challenge syndicate put their running shoes on and took to the streets in the Manakau half-marathon. For the last few weeks, those who entered have exchanged gym workouts for sessions on the streets to practice before a full day's sailing in the Hauraki Gulf. And it seems the training was worth it. The first three GBR Challenge members home - Ian Weighell, Jules Salter and Toby Iles - won the Corporate Team trophy. Weighell finished in 1h 33m 33s, Salter 1h 34m 36s and Iles 1h 34m 48s. Greg Searle was not far behind, in 1h 36m 02s. - Julie Ash, NZ Herald Full story: www.nzherald.co.nz/sports/
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ANOTHER RECORD The decision to "give it a try" was made on Sunday night after Steve and crew returned from Saturday night's UNCL awards dinner in Paris. On board were: Steve Fossett (USA) Skipper Chris Tibbs (UK) Navigator Dave Scully (USA) Shaun Biddulph (UK) Pete Melvin (USA) Peter Hogg (NZ) Gino Morrelli (USA) Helena Darvelid (SWE/UK) Paul Van Dyke (USA) Andy Elson (UK) Brian Thompson (UK) Nick Moloney (AUS) Pete Berry (UK) Steve Fossett: "The weather wasn't quite ideal. Especially at the start when we had a 10 kt NE wind that meant we were slow out of the Solent gybing 8 times. We only averaged 16 kts for the first hour and so spent the rest of the trip catching up to the record. But the mild sea state and average winds of 18 knots meant it worked out well in the end." The 21.69 average speed means that Steve and PlayStation now hold the 3 fastest records in the WSSRC book (24 Hour record, The W-E TransAt, The Channel record). Unless somebody else breaks the Channel record before 31 December, they will also become the first holders of the new 'Channel Record Trophy'. This is awarded annually for the fastest Cowes-St Malo course. - www.fossettchallenge.com
TEAM TYCO Back at the Team Tyco base on Wharf 7, the boat will be hauled out for repairs. The shore crew will be at the ready to install a new rudder and rudder bearing to get the boat back in the water as quickly as possible. Team Tyco will re-launch the boat on Friday. The team will resume sail testing and on-the-water training Monday 17th and carry on Four days into the Cape Town to Sydney leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, Team Tyco sustained major damage to their steering gear 650 miles into the Southern Ocean. The team returned to South Africa where they assessed the degree of the damage and subsequently retired from leg two of the nine-stage race. www.teamtyco.com/teamtyco/index.jsp
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