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SCUTTLEBUTT #755 - February 19, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk... with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome. Send to scuttlebutt@boats.com. EDITORIAL - by Peter BentleyExcerpted from the February 14 Issue of Making Waves, the ISAF Newsletter: The Racing Rules of Sailing have never stopped crew from moving their weight around the boat. Every dinghy ever built has relied to a greater or lesser extent on the positioning of the crew to provide stability. Though the effects are much less obvious, there is no doubt that even more heavily ballasted keel boats go faster with weight on the rail. Star crews have always been big, Soling middle men are always at the larger size of the spectrum; this is no coincidence. The fact is that virtually every competitive keel boat goes faster upwind with more weight on the rail. In light winds the gains downwind may negate the advantage upwind, but over the course of series the big guys nearly always win. With the introduction of the Yngling as the Women's Olympic Keelboat there will no doubt be much debate on the necessity and magnitude of a weight limit. Once again things are not so simple as they seem. Ideally the women would like to race on equal terms with the men so the obvious and logical solution would be a single weight limit for the Class. This seems unlikely, given the men currently racing in the fleet are mostly considerably bigger than any sensible weight limit for the women. If ISAF introduced a weight limit at the Olympics, would it apply only to that event, or should individual regatta organisers such as Hyeres, Spa and Miami include a limit in their own sailing instructions? For the major Yngling events, the women would still have to make a decision to either sail at the women's weight (and therefore at a disadvantage to the men), sail as part of a mixed crew or recruit some pretty large ladies to be competitive with the men. Those intent on a serious Olympic campaign will have some difficult choices to make. The alternative, to have no weight limit for the Women's event seems even less tenable. So where should the limit be? This is another of those not so easy questions. Simple demographics play a role, but to just pick a number based on the size of an average population will not yield the right result. What is needed is not three averaged sized women. But three average sized women athletes. There is simply no point in setting a limit so low that the three people in the boat can not be big enough to be strong enough. A tricky problem. Even having decided on a weight, the problems are not yet quite over. There remains the vexed issue of how to enforce it. The Star Class has sensibly elected to use a "weight at any time" rule that ensures the helm and crew stay below the required weight for the duration of the event. Compared to the "weigh once before the regatta" rule used by the majority of offshore classes this seems much more sensible. The risks of dehydration and other medical complications are eliminated and the competition becomes fairer as crews are constrained to a set weight throughout the regatta. Which only begs the question, why does the "weigh once" rule with all its inherent dangers persist in any kind of yacht racing. Perhaps it is time to look at the whole issue of crew weight and the way it is measured, not just the narrow issue of the Olympic Yngling Class. Full story: http://sailing.org/makingwaves/makingwaves72/ THE RACE *Three crewmen - Frenchmen Armand Coursodon and Olivier Cusin, together with Bristol-based radio journalist Rob Salvidge have stepped off Team Legato for medical reasons. Coursodon requires treatment to his back and Cusin is in need of extended dentistry to repair teeth he chipped when thrown forward as the boat came to an abrupt halt. Rob Salvidge has chose to step ashore for personal medical reasons. Race rules do not allow crew replacement, so the team took a democratic vote this morning and decided to take a 60 hour break in the port to check over the boat and make one or two small repairs including servicing one of the generators. "we are going to be sailing the last 12,000 miles with seven crew instead of ten, so we decided to take time out and give the boat a really good check over." Bullimore explained. * Team Adventure and Team Legato crossed paths in Wellington, the former leaving port as the latter was sailing in. Now headed for Cape Horn, Team Adventure is down one crew member. Yann Elies has left the boat due to a slipped disk. Ranking of 19 Feb 2001 15:00:00 GMT: 1.Club Med / distance to finish 4084.3 miles 2.Innovation Explorer / distance to leader 926.7 miles 3.Warta Polpharma / dtl 6615.9 miles 4.TeamAdventure / dtl 7007.3 miles 5.Team Legato / dtl 7232.9 miles VENDEE GLOBE Marc Thiercelin finds himself handicapped greatly by his cumbersome genoa stuck up front, which he cannot furl, and is thus prevented from sailing close to the wind in order to get nearer home. In the variable wind strength he can only play with his mainsail. He hopes to cross the line at around 1100hrs on Tuesday 20th in the morning, a whole week after his main rival in the race, Roland Jourdain (Sill Matines La Potagere). Things aren't any rosier for Dominique Wavre (Union Bancaire Privee) & Thomas Coville (Sodebo), who are both at the same latitude as Les Sables d'Olonne, but way offshore in the Bay of Biscay in the same situation. Near disaster struck for Josh Hall (EBP/Gartmore) yesterday, when the British skipper had no choice but to climb his mast to force the main sail down in a strengthening breeze when he needed to rapidly depower the boat. Open 60's can be dangerous without the ability to reef quickly in a freshening wind. Hall has lost valuable miles on rival British skipper Mike Golding (Team
Group 4), and is now stuck in the calms with Bernard Gallay (Voila.fr)
creeping along at less than 3 knots, while Golding himself is gallivanting
on at 12. -- Philippe Jeantot TEAM NEW ZEALAND 2003 CLOTHING TORNADO WORLDS GUEST EDITOR SPEAKS In the 5 years that I ran the ISAF website, I found the lack of interest in media exposure shown by sailing event organizers both widespread and appalling. My friend Peter Bentley, who now handles the nightly news for ISAF, still experiences this on a weekly basis. Countless times, after repeated calls to the event, I had to hand type results that were faxed to me scrawled on what appeared to be cocktail napkins. Or printed in unreadable 6 point font from some horrible scoring program. Most events have volunteer webmasters, that's all well and good, but if the webmaster joins the post-race celebration, gets drunk, and doesn't post final results for 2-3 days (this happens ALL the time), it's time to rethink priorities. I'm not talking about Wednesday night beer can races; this happens at world level events in Olympic classes. The ISAF should look hard at the level of media professionalism demonstrated by classes and factor that into their Olympic status. Several Olympic classes do a fantastic job, others are consistently inept and should be shaken up a bit. Regattas need sponsors. Sponsors want one thing: exposure for their brand. Organizers go hat in hand to any sponsor they can find. I could never figure out if some organizers lied to sponsors about what kind or exposure they would get, or if the sponsors were too stupid to ask or care. Eventually sponsors will smarten up and insist on a certain level of professionalism in getting event results out to the world. This is not rocket science. It really does not take much effort to create and maintain a credible event website. This is all it takes: notice of race, entry list, a few pictures (digital cameras are cheap), a daily report (what was the wind speed, did it rain or shine, what were the surprises, upsets and penalties) and results posted the same day. If protests are going on late at night, post provisional results and call them provisional, don't let some Luddite jury chair keep them hidden away until the last T is crossed. At the very least, email the results in a usable form to the major sailing news websites. They'll do all the work for free. This sport is never going to get major media coverage if we cannot get our own house in order. Is it any wonder that sailing can't manage to keep sponsors for long? -- David McCreary EASIER SAIL HANDLING BOATS.COM LAUNCHES BOATSBANK AND BOATSINSURANCE "Boatsbank and boatsinsurance have the potential to increase the flow of qualified, pre-approved prospects through the doors of boat dealers, and to simplify the entire process for both dealers and consumers, said Phil Keeter, president of the Marine Retailers Association of America. "Additionally, these products have been built with our dealers' interests in mind - they enhance the opportunity for the dealer to participate in the deal." "There is nothing else like it - not on the Internet, not at the bank on
Main Street, not anywhere - for finding the best financing solution for boat
buyers," said Ken Landon senior vice president of KeyBank USA and president
of Key Recreation Lending. 2001 INTERCLUB MIDWINTERS REGATTA For the second year running, the Newport, RI team of Ed Adams, Carol Newman-Cronin, Andy Pimental, and Monique Gaylor won the event. Mr. Adams is ubiquitous in the sailing world, having recently coached Mark Reynolds and Magnus Liljedahl to their Olympic Gold in Australia. Ms. Cronin is an active Snipe sailor and match racer, and was recently recognized as a nominee for the Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year. Professional sailors from Annapolis Andy Horton and Terry Hutchinson took a break from their busy schedules to compete, finishing 6th and 7th respectively in B division showing the depth of talent in the IC fleet. -- Alex Pline Complete results at www.interclub.org LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Ned Hall <nedhall63@yahoo.com> * From Geoffrey Emanuel <GESAIL@aol.com> Thanks for the free membership in [Scuttlebutt Sailing Club], 'cause I think I'm resigning my membership [in US Sailing]. Since when has sailboat racing become so serious that everyone universally is required to maintain membership in a sailing organization and since when have sailors had to start races using a new system when the old one works just fine. This sport has enough trouble retaining existing participants let alone attracting new ones. US Sailing is not looking out for the best interests of sailors. If they were, they'd focus their efforts on increasing participation, improving handicap systems, standing up to ISAF dictates like no more Solings and no more match racing and generally support the sport. You know, if they need the money so bad, why not earn it with productive and supportive programs. THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION |
