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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 665 - October 11, 2000PARALYMPICS(Sailor Paul Callahan is out for more than a gold medal at the Paralympic Regatta; the chairman of Shake-A-Leg also aims to change the life of everyone he touches: including his crew, disabled schoolchildren and corporate executives. Cynthia Goss interviewed Callahan for the Quokka Sailing website. Here's an excerpt from her story.) "The first time I sailed a Sonar, I came back to the dock and I didn't think I could sail the boat," he said. "I didn't have the strength to push the tiller away, and I thought the boat had too much weather helm ... I was baffled as to how I could do it. But something propelled me to keep going and to figure it out - and it took several years." During those years, he worked the problem with crewmembers Keith Burhans and Corky Aucreman - two disabled sailors whom Callahan raves about, both for their sailing skill and for their spirit. He also started racing Sonars against able-bodied sailors in the Marblehead, Mass., fleet, one of the toughest Sonar fleets in the U.S. The crew needed to establish their own method of making a boat go fast, particularly because their skipper stays on one side of the boat at all times and sail trim is key. "That is one of those things you have to figure out, how do you not be compromised on one tack?" said Callahan. "We trim our sails differently on one tack, compared to how we trim them on the other tack, especially in heavy air. And you're not going to find our method in any Sonar tuning guide." By April 2000, Callahan, Burhans and Aucreman had done more than work out the kinks. With the help of former world match-race champion Ed Baird as coach, they became the top disabled Sonar crew in the U.S. when they won their class at the Paralympic Trials. - Cynthia Goss, for Quokka Sports Full story: http://www.quokkasailing.com/stories/10/SLQ_1009_paralympic_WFC.html WEBCAST WeMedia plans bringing the world the most ambitious Webcast ever - the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney. 4000 athletes from 128 nations. Live streaming video coverage encompassing the opening and closing ceremonies in addition to exciting action in track and field, track cycling, swimming, sailing, wheelchair basketball, and the wheelchair marathon will "air" from October 18-29. The action will begin with the Opening Ceremony at 7:30 p.m. October 18 in Sydney, which is 4:30 a.m. ET October 18 in the United States. Live video will be supplemented by taped coverage, and highlights as well as the live video will be archived for viewing at any time by users. Wemedia.com will also be providing full print coverage on the Webcast. Also, WeMedia's coverage can also be found on television at various times during the Games. Fox Sports Net will present a half-hour recap each morning at 11.30 a.m. from October 18-20, and from October 23-27, highlighting each day's competition. WeMedia's production for Pax TV will be a feature-oriented half hour shown at midnight Eastern and Pacific time, 11 p.m. Central and Mountain time, from October 18-29. - Lori Frisher Register to be part of the Paralympic experience: http://www.wemedia.com COLD WATER SAILING It is time for small boat sailors to get ready for the cold sailing.Topping your list should be Camet 2001 neoprene hiking pants. The Heavy Cordura padding covers the reinforced battens that have been designed for effective hiking. Available in the suspender style with the adjustable elastic shoulder straps or the high waist style with an adjustable waist belt. Also check out the Kiwi ? length Hiking pants, they protect your knees and keep you warm. Either will help you hike longer and harder ... keeping your little buns warm. http://www.camet.com THE RACE * Code One is ready! The maxi-catamaran to be skippered by Loick Peyron in The Race / La Course du Millenaire, will be launched on Thursday October 12th at 1700 from the Multiplast Composite Yachts yard in Vannes (Brittany, France). Benefiting from the experience of Club Med, launched on May 8th and current holder of the world 24 hour speed record, her sister ship CODE ONE has been optimised throughout her 9 months in the yard. Maximum reliability for this new generation catamaran for which the crew to be skippered by Loick Peyron is being recruited. * The maxi-catamaran Club Med arrived in Vilamoura (Portugal) after a record delivery of a little more than 3 days. After leaving London on Friday evening (at 2100) in head winds and a fairly choppy seaway, Club Med soon found fair winds allowing her to set full sail and avoid the deep low that was forecast in the Bay of Biscay. In Vilamoura, Grant Dalton and his crew will be using this week to set up their new base, check over the boat and perfect their physical training. The boat will be sailing again from October 22nd for 6 weeks of intensive training in the Atlantic. Club Med will then head into the Mediterranean to compete in the prologue of The Race in Monaco on 16th and 17th December. Club Med website: http://www.therace.clubmed.com/ * 10 October, 2000 - Engineers continue to examine Team Philips' 135ft masts in Totnes, Devon, UK. Initial inspections show that the damage is much less serious than originally thought and does not effect the structural integrity of the mast. The repair should be relatively straightforward. - Team Philips website, http://www.teamphilips.com/index.cfm?ArticleID=281 * Every day there are 30 people working on Cam Lewis' Team Adventure 110-foot catamaran. Scaffolds have been erected and a tent put around the whole structure inside the huge hanger to keep it warm for gluing and painting. Our sail makers are finishing the sails and all of our suppliers and gear sponsors are preparing the final details and shipping their products to Cherbourg for final installation and assembly. The launch will be before the end of this month! The workers at JMV are doing their best to have the boat ready on time. The biggest part of the job consists of completing all the laminations between the beams and the hulls, a very long process that requires a lot of attention and will determine the integrity of the platforms structure. Lionel Lemonchois, one of the French sailors on the crew, is in Cherbourg working with the team there: This is quite a crucial operation, as the shafts must be perfectly aligned if the system is to work properly. All of the deck hardware and winches needed for our big cat are being supplied by Harken. Inside, the electricians have started pulling their wires through the boat and will be installing the electronics in the navigation and communication area shortly. Rob Myles, the Rigger, has been hard at work with Yale Cordage completing the rigging. Yale has donated all of the rope needed for the running and standing rigging and will be finishing up a few of the last items this week. This is an enormous job, considering the height of our mast at nearly 150 feet. Rob has already built most of the halyards, jib sheets and traveler control lines. All of this rope, 1500 lb. worth, will be loaded into a container in Rhode Island along with safety equipment donated by ACR, lubrication products donated by McLube and the Kevlar shrouds and forestay from Aramid Rigging to hold up the mast. Another big operation that is taking place at the moment is the modification of both bows. Following what happened to Club Med a few weeks ago when she lost her port bow crash box, the design team has decided to modify the design of the bows. The true bows are being reinforced, adding some material and reducing the forefoot. This will also help the ease of steering in waves. National Geographic has come onboard as an online education partner with Team Adventure. Keith Koppelman, Team Adventure's Education Director, is working with the production staff at National Geographic to launch a comprehensive online presence about Team Adventure as we circle the globe. Coverage will start on December 6. The giant Gilles Ollier catamaran will be launched in Cherbourg, France in late October. During November, the schedule is somewhat dependant on the weather so approximate dates are given. - Keith Taylor - Late October Launch and final outfitting - Early-Mid Nov Sea trials - Mid November Qualifying voyage to the Mediterranean, one week - Late Nov-Dec 14 Training - December 15-17 Monaco Invitational Regatta - December 18-19 Monaco - Barcelona Race - December 19-30 Barcelona (training, celebrations and final preparations) - December 31 Start of The Race Team Adventure website: http://www.TeamAdventure.org The Race website : http://www.therace.org LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net) Letters selected to be printed are 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 Don Durant, Chairman, General Services Committee US SAILING: The Curmudgeon's observation - "For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism" - seems to have appropriately described Jan Visser's criticism of US SAILING. In my short (6 years) experience with US SAILING, I have observed dozens to maybe hundreds of volunteers spending untold hours of their time and thousands of dollars of their personal money in the service of sailing. What they get for it is lots of criticism and very little thanks. I can't begin to cover within the 250 word limit what these people do for sailing. I am reminded of Pogo's comment, "We have met the enemy and it is us." US SAILING is volunteers and under-paid staffers working their "Butts" off for the sport. US SAILING's Annual General Meeting begins Thursday in New Orleans. There are plenty of openings on committees and working parties for people with good ideas who care enough to go beyond criticism and help put their ideas to work for the good of sailing. All sailors are invited. BT GLOBAL CHALLENGE Andy Dare, skipper of TeamSpirIT, has announced his resignation from the BT Global Challenge 2000/01, saying, "There's the Race, and there's the adventure of it all. And I figure I'm more of an adventurer than a racer." Dare has bowed out of his role as skipper for the remaining 27,000 miles of the round-the-world race, and will hand the helm over to reserve skipper John Read, a three-year employee of Challenge Business. The announcement was made Monday morning, leaving the few on-hand crew and the yachting community "shocked" - particularly after a team debrief last week had quashed allegations of "mutiny" and presented a team unified in efforts to sort out their problems. "It's quite a shock," said TeamSpirIT member Mark Bailey, one of the 17 crew members who stood watch on the boat while many of his mates - unaware of the development - took a brief holiday. Bailey said he didn't get the impression during the 3,200-mile Southampton, UK to Boston, U.S. leg that Dare was unhappy. "It didn't come across at all. It just was a bad leg." During the race, "we were unhappy with our position," Bailey said. "It was especially hard leaving home, and then being in the back of the fleet. We had a tactical team who made the decisions, and they didn't always pay off. But there's been no real finger-pointing as such." Yet Dare apparently had something niggling at him. "Basically I haven't enjoyed it," he announced. "It's not what I thought it would be. I wasn't happy on the leg and I haven't been myself. The crew has said, 'we want the old Andy back'." "I've thoroughly enjoyed training the crew and getting the boat ready and getting up to the start," Dare added. "But the race was different from how I'd imagined it to be. I figure I'm more of an adventurer than a racer. I didn't really enjoy it like I thought I would." Betsy Crowfoot, Quokka Sports Full story: http://www.btchallenge.com/news/2000/10/News_550.html
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