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SCUTTLEBUTT 3111 - Friday, June 11, 2010Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors,providing a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. WEBSITE: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com TWITTER: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt KINDLE: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/kindle RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: Quantum Sails, Racer's Edge, and Premiere Racing. ABBY SUNDERLAND BELIEVED TO BE ALIVE (June 10, 2010) - The engineer behind Abby Sunderland's solo trip around the world says he believes the 16-year-old Thousand Oaks sailor is "alive" and "most likely floating" in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Speaking to a throng of reporters outside the family's home, Jeff Casher said he spoke to her at 3:45 a.m. Thursday, then lost contact after she went to check on some equipment on her boat. About an hour later, she apparently activated her emergency beacons - devices that sent automatic alerts to the Coast Guard and her family. Casher said the family is looking at three possible scenarios. Either the boat's mast came down, giving her no ability to sail the vessel; the keel hit something and possibly flipped the boat upside down; or she may have broken an arm or leg while being whipsawed about in violent waters. "She set this off not because she lost communication, but because something else was wrong," Casher said. They had set very clear guidelines for when to activate emergency beacons and losing communication alone was not enough, he said. The family is hopeful that a Qantas Airbus, commissioned by the Australian government, will be able to spot her at daylight - about 10 or 11 p.m. Pacific time. Water temperatures are about 54 or 55 degrees, Cash said, describing it as cold, but survivable. Sunderland had equipment on board to survive a crisis, including a dry suit and life boat. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/345vf28 BETTER POLARS LEADS TO BETTER ROUTING By Peter Isler, professional navigator Garbage in - Garbage out. That saying certainly applicable in the world of weather routing, where software takes precious few inputs as "givens" and then produces an optimum route that appears so nice and tidy on the computer. But the whole process is fraught with peril. The boat's polars, the weather "GRIB" files, and even the settings of various dials on the software itself all affect the end result. When coming up with a strategy for the crew on deck, the ocean racing navigator must consider the multiple variables that affect the calculation of this so called 'optimum route', tweak them to the best of his ability and then interpret the result with careful analysis. A good place to start is the boat's polars. These usually start their life as the output of a computer program in the designer's or handicapper's office and on most boats that's how they stay. But before you do any weather routing (or polar editing) you need to know to what wind speed the polars are referenced. Most designers work with polars that are referenced to the meteorological standard of wind speed at a height of 10 meters. But wind speed varies with height and if your wind instruments are located at the top of your mast, you (or your designer) will need to convert the '10m polars' to 'masthead polars'. The process involves using a conversion formula which unfortunately is not always 'perfect'. In fact nothing in the whole routing process is perfect, so one should not expect perfection in the outcome. But careful preparation and a thorough understanding of the common routing pitfalls can greatly improve the results. -- Scuttleblog, http://sailingscuttlebutt.blogspot.com/2010/06/polars-and-routing.html MORE INFO: On June 16, in Newport, RI, America's Cup winning navigator, Peter Isler is giving a seminar on using Expedition software in the Newport to Bermuda Race. Details at: http://www.customoffshore.com BETTER THAN A WIND TUNNEL The Quantum Racing objectives are two-fold: to win races and just as importantly, to conduct on-the-water evaluations of the company's Fusion M sails. This year, Quantum is expanding its validation testing to include a new line of technical apparel and footwear from Sebago the international marine footwear company. Quantum President Ed Reynolds says, "Everything matters on a race boat; even the smallest things can make the difference between winning and losing. We expect nothing but the best equipment from Sebago and will work with them to make it even better." The products will be made available at over 2,000 Sebago and Quantum locations. -- http://www.quantumsails.com SUCCESSFUL DAY FOR NORTH AMERICANS AT STAR EUROPEANS (June 10, 2010) - Thursday fielded excellent results from both the Canadian team of Richard Clarke and Tyler Bjorn, currently sitting in second at the Star Europeans underway at Viareggio, Italy, and the American team of Mark Mendleblatt and John von Schwarz, who sit in third place overall. Americans George Szabo and Mark Strube are in 6th overall, and in 8th place is the American team of Andrew Campbell and Brad Nichol. Tyler Bjorn reports from Viareggio: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sitting here in our rented attic apartment, just finished a large feed of spaghetti Bolognese and enjoying my second glass of Tuscan red wine. I am tired, feels like it was a very long day. We leave our place here at 10:30 every morning, head to the yacht club and every day either Tyler or I dive into the somewhat unclean harbor water to clean the boat that by the regatta rules stays in the water all event. On to the race and you might have guessed it by the subject line but today we had an 8th. I wish I could entertain you with tall tales from the ocean but frankly we've found a recipe that works - start conservatively, use our superior speed to get us into the front group and try our best to hold on. We held true to this formula in today's race by barely getting off the start line in a thin lane down towards the favored end only to watch the boats that started at the pin easily cross us by a few lengths. We passed a few and lost one on the run to round 8th, worked hard to get back left on the second beat and soon found ourselves in a battle for 4th. That's when the moment came, the moment in every race that you reflect back on and say "I could have done it better". We had gained some spots by being left, the first boats were coming across from the middle and we were crossing a few boat that were digging left. Do we tack and protect the left? Do we keep going as we were only 20-30 lengths from the port layline? We chose to keep going and unfortunately that was wrong and we lost those 3 places to round the last windward 7th. Lost the one boat on the run to finish up 8th. We have 2 races to go and are one point out of 1st overall. Things will get a bit shuffled after tomorrow's race when the drop kicks in but for now we are going to stick with the recipe. Thanks for all the wishes. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/28xvcey Mark Mendelblatt reports: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- "It was a great finish for us but we still have two critical races to go. We had a decent start near the pin end, which was favored and managed to avoid a black flag. We tacked fairly early onto port, which was three to one the long tack and got our nose out. At the top, we got a little shift right and crossed everyone to round in the lead. We held on downwind but chose the left gate mark while Robert [Scheidt] chose the right. Even though our gate was favored, it was a worse exit with the rest of the fleet coming downwind, so after splitting for about five minutes, he came out slightly ahead. And that was the race." -- Full story: http://sailingteams.ussailing.org/News/2010/Star_Europeans_Day_4.htm Follow Andrew Campbell & Brad Nichols report at: http://campbellsailing.com/ Event web site: http://www.stareuropean2010.it/ CAMPBELL CONSOLIDATES LEAD AT 2010 ETCHELLS NORTH AMERICANS San Diego, CA (June 10, 2010) - On Day 2 of the 2010 Etchells North Americans, Race 3 started in light and fluky conditions, and didn't finish much easier. San Francisco Yacht Club team of Craig Healy, Dave Gruver and Kieth Stahnke took race 3 after holding on to their lead at each mark rounding. The 2nd race for the day began with 6 boats over early (OCS). The wind lightened up and warranted another round of course changes with a shorten course notice displayed at the first leeward mark. First place for race 4 went to San Diego Yacht Club sailor Will Stout with team Artie Means and Chuck Skewes, holding on to an increasingly more generous lead throughout the race. Argyle Campbell solidified his lead today with a 6 and a 3, giving him a significant lead on the regatta, 20 points ahead of his next closest competitor. With only 10 points between the next 8 boats in the current standings, and 2 more days of racing to go, the regatta is far from over! -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/2fj4ec2 For up to the minute race course action, follow the 2010 Etchells NA Championship on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/EtchellsSD Regatta Website: http://etchellsna2010.com/ Event Video: http://www.sailgroove.org/videos/coverage/view/237183 Event Photographs: http://etchellsna2010.com/ Event Results: http://etchellsna2010.com/results.htm WORLD FIRST FOR TV UMPIRE AT KOREA MATCH CUP Gyeonggi, Korea (June 10, 2010) - Day 2 of Korea Match Cup displayed the world's first global sailing and international TV umpiring. The ISAF World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) has introduced a new innovation as the TV umpire to match racing - 'The TV umpire' for decisions on race incidents. The 'TV flag' proved to be very useful today during the race between the two Italians skippers; Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Italia and Francesco Bruni (ITA) Azzurra. Currently on the water umpires have two sources of information, the wing boat and on board observers who ride with them. 'The TV umpire' offers an additional source of information in order for them to make an overall decision. If an umpire is not certain of the outcome after an incident they have the option of raising a 'TV flag'. This roles straight over to the 'TV umpire' who sits on-shore at World Match Racing Tour Head Quarters for clarification on the incident. This is a natural progression for the sport of match racing following in the footsteps of mass participation sporting events such as football, rugby, cricket and baseball. The Tour is using LIVE TV operations now extensively available on this 10 event world series in order to enhance the quality of umpire decisions on issuing penalties. Meanwhile, on the water, Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team has remained the leader in the light winds and will start day 3 with a win of 5-2. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/274kvdn Current Standings: Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team 5-2 Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team 4-3 Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team 4-3 Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing 4-1 Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar 4-1 Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Gill Global Team 3-2 Francesco Bruni (ITA) Azzurra 3-4 Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Italia 3-4 Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing 2-3 Bertrand Pacé (FRA) Aleph Sailing Team 2-3 Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing Team 1-4 Park GunWoo (KOR) Busan Match 1-6 Live coverage of Korea Match Cup will be available daily 9 to 13 June at event website: http://www.wmrt.com BACKGROUND: The World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) is the leading professional sailing series featuring 10 World Championship events across the globe, sanctioned by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). 2010 ISAF World Match Racing Tour Standings (After Stage 2 of 10): Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team 40 pts Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing 33 pts Jesper Radich (SWE) Radich Racing Team 20 pts Ben Ainslie (GBR) TEAMORIGIN 20 pts Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Italia 16 pts Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team 16 pts Francesco Bruni (ITA) Azzura 15 pts Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar 10 pts Sebastian Col (FRA) ALL4ONE 10 pts 2010 BUTLER SERIES: NEW PLAYERS JOIN SECOND ROUND Long Beach, Calif. (June 10, 2010) - Heading into the second and final weekend of the 2010 Butler Cup Series Saturday and Sunday, defending champion Chris Nesbitt of Balboa Yacht Club currently leads the series. But he may have his work cut out for him with the addition of two new skippers in this Grade 5 ISAF match race event hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club. David Storrs, representing the Pequot Yacht Club of Southport, Conn., was encouraged by fellow club member Dave Perry - two-time Congressional Cup winner (1983, 1984) - to fly out and develop his match racing skills on the waters of Long Beach in the same Catalina 37s used in the Congressional Cup. "Dave has been talking to me," said Storrs, "mentoring me on my match racing. I hope to compete in the [US Match Race Championship] Prince of Wales in September." His tactician will be Sally Barkow, Nashotah, Wis., who skippered the 2008 US Sailing Alphagraphics, Team 7 Sailing's Yngling campaign in Qingdao, China. Barkow also was the first woman to sail her way into the Congressional Cup in 2009 when she won the Ficker Cup and received an invitation to compete in that Grade 1 premier event. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/2b5a6mc WORLD'S MOST ADVANCED LASER WIND SENSING SYSTEM During their successful campaign to claim the 33rd America's Cup in Valencia, Spain, the BMW ORACLE Racing team employed the latest state-of-the-art high-tech tools to obtain a competitive edge, including the world's most advanced laser wind sensing system. Outfitted with the Racer's Edge laser wind sensor (LWS) from Virginia-based Catch the Wind, Inc., the BMW ORACLE Racing team was able to take precise wind measurements at multiple ranges out to 1,000m. The Racer's Edge LWS is the world's first water-proof, portable device capable of providing accurate, real-time wind speed and direction data measurements in any environment, making it ideally suited for both competitive racing and recreational sailing. -- http://www.catchthewindinc.com/ CORRECTION: The link to John Bonds' obituary in Scuttlebutt 3110 was broken, here's the correct link: http://tinyurl.com/2catfww CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Is your event listed on the Scuttlebutt Event Calendar? This free, self-serve tool is the easiest way to communicate to both sailors and sailing media. These are some of the events listed on the calendar for this weekend: Jun 11-13 - Chicago Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta - Chicago, IL, USA Jun 11-13 - Invitational Regatta for the Hoag Cup - Newport Beach, CA, USA Jun 11-13 - NYYC Annual Regatta presented by Rolex - Newport, RI, USA Jun 12-19 - Sunfish World Championship - Punta Ala, Grosseto, Italy Jun 12-13 - Charles River Open Team Race - Cambridge, MA, USA View all the events at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar SAILING SHORTS * Newport, RI (June 10, 2010) - The longest-running regatta in America - New York Yacht Club's 156th Annual Regatta presented by Rolex - heads to the starting line in Newport, RI, at Noon Friday, June 11, with the Around the Island (Conanicut) Race, and continues with buoy racing Saturday, June 12, through Sunday, June 13. To date, 111 boats are entered across divisions for PHRF, Classic, 6 Metre, 12 Metre, IRC-rated entries and Swan 42 and J/105s one-design classes. -- Read on: http://www.nyyc.org/156annual/ * (June 9, 2010) - The Canadian Yachting Association is pleased to announce the appointment of two Coach/Managers to the High Performance Management Team. Steve Mitchell and Erik Stibbe will take up their roles on July 1st, joining Brian Todd to form a triumvirate of Coach/Managers reporting to High Performance Director Ken Dool. Each Coach/Manager will work closely with members of the Canadian Sailing Team with the initial goal of improving performance to deliver podium positions at the 2012 Olympic/Paralympic Games. -- Read on: http://www.sailing.ca/features/world_class_coaches_join_cya/ * Lake Hopatcong, NJ (June 7, 2010) - Andy Ivey and Mike Nichol of Lake Sunapee won the 52nd Annual Tomahawk Regatta on Lake Hopatcong last weekend. In a regatta that featured some close finishes, Ivey edged out Olympic gold medalist Magnus Liljedahl, who sailed with local sailor Brian Kitchin and finished in second with 13 points. Two-time Olympic gold medalist and four-time Bacardi Cup winner Mark Reynolds was leading going into Sunday's racing with third, first, and second place finishes on Saturday when his mast broke. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/2d82v66 * Tallinn, Estonia (June 10, 2010) - Laser Radial races were abandoned for lack of wind on Thursday for the Laser Standard and Laser Radial European Championships & Trophy 2010 in Tallinn, Estonia. The starts were postponed for three hours, and while the Laser Standard athletes managed to sail two races, Laser Radial will have to make up for the postponed races tomorrow. -- http://tinyurl.com/24shcra KEY WEST RACE WEEK - EXCITING NEWS ON SAVINGS FOR 2011 Start making your plans for a winter escape to beautiful Key West. Updates on expense savings and simplified logistics initiatives are posted on the event web site. Class news and early entry plans will be updated throughout the summer. Don't miss North America's number one regatta. http://www.Premiere-Racing.com LETTERS AND FORUM Please email your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, 'The Curmudgeon'). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). One letter per subject, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- To submit a Letter: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- To post on the Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Dick Thursby (re, Scuttlebutt 3110): Re: John Bonds passing. A shock. A robust and altogether extraordinary man, who defined command presence. The best shipmate one could hope for. I trust there will be lots of hot sauce in heaven. * From David Searle (re, Scuttlebutt 3110): I had the honour of working on John's RC team at Charleston Race Week several years back. To say that was a learning experience would be an understatement of epic proportions! In the reference letter he sent to CYA in support of my National Race Officer certification, with his typical supportive style he said he would be happy to work under me in the future. I will always regret that never happened. He was one of the good ones. * From Cameron McIntyre (re, Scuttlebutt 3110): Wow a one design event in southern California with more than eight boats! San Diego rocks the Etchells fleet, San Fran represents, but Los Angeles seems too cool. Why is it that L.A. doesn't sail that game? Is it because L.A. is all about the stars? CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Information travels more surely to those with a lesser need to know. Special thanks to Quantum Sails, Racer's Edge, and Premiere Racing. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
