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SCUTTLEBUTT 2003 - January 6, 2006Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.ABN AMRO ONE SURFS INTO THE LEAD With the remaining boats in the Volvo Ocean Race now blazing downwind at a frantic speeds, ABN Amro One (Mike Sanderson) has taken the lead from movistar (Bouwe Bekking). "The wind has now increased to around 28 knots and our priority now is to keep the boat in one piece, as we are reaching speeds of 26/27 knots again downwind," Sanderson, said. "We are playing a reasonably conservative game. I am very conscious of this leg as I promised the boys and myself that we would tone it back. Looks like we are in for some fast and extremely wet sailing between here and the first waypoint. It will be back out with the helmets to protect ourselves from the icy waters." Bekking said Wednesday night that he knew the rest of the fleet would catch them up in the next few days as a depression that was forming behind the whole fleet to the west of them would start moving quickly to the east. He was resigned to this but was more worried about his own keel rams after the misfortune of Ericsson and with the memory of having to retire from the first leg still fresh in his mind. "We are blasting along with the masthead spinnaker up doing 25 knots in 30 knots of wind," said Pirates of the Caribbean skipper Paul Cayard. "The boat is already difficult to sail and very highly loaded as we dig the bow in to a wave every minutes or so and 50 cm of water comes down the deck and the boat does a huge deceleration. Whoever designed these bow sprits did a good job ... so far. I don't know how that thing is still on there. I think we will have to downshift again tonight if the wind stays up around 30. I am thinking that winning this leg could be all about not breaking down." The Ericsson Racing Team has completed a temporary fix on the broken hydraulic ram that moves the keel. "We removed the broken titanium ram, and swapped it for a spare stainless steel ram," skipper Neal McDonald commented. "But we soon realized that this would only be a short term solution and the decision has been taken to ship the boat to Melbourne by boat from Port Elizabeth." The team is in close discussion with his designers at Farr Yacht Design, together with engineering consultants Semcon. Greg Waters, a hydraulic expert based in Australia, has also been consulted and has brought valuable help to the team. Brasil 1 (Torben Grael), also with damage, suspended racing and motored into Port Elizabeth in South Africa where the shore crew is assessing the damage and the options. Volvo Ocean Race Positions at 2200 GMT Thursday 1. Team ABN Amro One, Mike Sanderson, 5422 miles to finish 2. Pirates of the Caribbean, Paul Cayard, +10 miles 3. Team ABN Amro Two, Sebastien Josse, +15 miles 4. Movistar, Bouwe Bekking, +56 miles 5. ING Real Estate Brunel, Grant Wharington, +187 miles - Brasil 1, Torben Grael, retired - Ericsson Racing Team Neal McDonald, retired Event website: http://www.volvooceanrace.org/ DEVASTATED, FRUSTRATED AND EMPTY (Ericsson skipper Neal McDonald reveals how everyone aboard felt when mechanical failure meant the boat could not continue in leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race. Here are some excerpts.) I'm devastated. There's no really another word for it. And even that doesn't convey the true depth of the frustration and emptiness all of us feel. A major problem with the keel on Ericsson means that for second leg in a row we can't compete with the other boats in a race to which we devoted months of toil to have a chance of winning. On the first leg, the control mechanism failed with 1,000 miles to go to Cape Town. We limped home for a fourth place finish. Then on Wednesday morning, less than 48 hours out of Cape Town, one of the rams broke with a bang. Down with the sails boys, we're going back, I told the crew. For about 35 minutes afterwards nobody really said anything. What was there to say? Our morale's been hit much harder this time, largely because of the simple 'oh no not again' factor and because this time it is much harder to rationalize. Yesterday it was apparent that even if we replaced the ram rod we would still have been left with two troubling questions. Why did it fail? How do we know it won't happen again? We were fortunate that the rod end broke close to land and not deep in the Southern Ocean. We need our designers and engineers to understand what went wrong. -The Telegraph, UK, full story: http://tinyurl.com/bzk3f BRING BACK THE HORSES In Issue 2002, a letter from Magnus Wheatley made a plea for the Volvo Ocean Race to abandon Leg 2. With two boats having dropped out due to failures, he asked that Glenn Bourke call back the remaining fleet to do a major seaworthy assessment before they head out on arguably the most dangerous leg of the event. Scuttlebutt initiated a poll to find out if there was support for Magnus' contention, and have found the poll results and ensuing comments to be very interesting. View the final tally at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/06/0104 PRODUCTION ARTIST WANTED A leading company in the marine industry is looking for a production artist to work directly with the Creative Director. Candidate must be familiar with sailing, have a minimum of 2 years experience in layout & production for advertising, print, and web. Working knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign) on Mac is preferred. Applicant would work either in Annapolis, MD or Southern Connecticut. Please send resume to mailto:jfa317@comcast.net KIWIS BACK ON TRACK For Emirates Team New Zealand, the year 2005 is another step on the road to recovery following the disastrous 2003 campaign that saw the team lose the America's Cup to Alinghi. The new Kiwi team, under the leadership of Grant Dalton, has firmly put that disappointment behind it, and appears to be moving forward at full speed. Emirates Team New Zealand burst from the gate in winning the 2004 America's Cup Class season championship. The 2005 season wasn't as successful on paper, but the team managed to hang on to second place on the season championship board, behind Alinghi, and sits second on the Louis Vuitton Ranking behind BMW Oracle Racing. Tactician Terry Hutchinson is one of the men who can take a large part of the credit for the turn-around in attitude on the squad. From a team hanging its head after defeat in Auckland in 2003, the Kiwis have regained a little bit of swagger and each good result sees them put a little more confidence in the bank. Hutchinson, along with Dalton, wasn't with the team in the last Cup and so they don't have any demons lingering from that experience. Hutchinson's relationship with helmsman Dean Barker appears to be blossoming with each event, to the point that a good level of trust and understanding now exists between the two stalwarts of the afterguard. "Probably the best thing that happened was that we won the Louis Vuitton Acts in 2004 (the season championship). Whether we liked each other or not, we gained instant respect for each other's ability," Hutchinson recalled. "It is a relationship that has to work for the team to be successful. You just don't want to screw it up because we have such a good opportunity here." "We're looking forward to our new boat, we're looking forward to sailing it early next year and putting through its paces against 82," confirmed skipper Dean Barker. The Kiwis will take advantage of the Southern hemisphere summer to sail through the European winter. On the other hand, "NZL 82 has done a lot for us," Hutchinson says. "Ironically the accident in the storm after the Marseille regatta in 2004 turned out good for us in that the designers and technicians discovered things about this boat. I think the guys who were on the boat last time were pretty disappointed in how the boat worked for them then and the Kiwis who were on the team then are pretty much happy to be done with it. - Excerpts from a story on the America's Cup website, complete story: http://tinyurl.com/bujgh NO. 89 ALLOCATED The America's Cup Technical Director reported that sail number 89 has now been allocated. Following is an updated summary of the AC number allocations: 83 -- Shosholoza (RSA), raced in 2005. 84 -- Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), sailed in Auckland before Christmas. 85 -- +39 (ITA), under construction. 86 -- Luna Rossa (ITA), under construction. 87 -- undisclosed. 88 -- Desafio Espanol (ESP), under construction. 89 -- undisclosed. Reported to have a new boat soon if not already under construction are Alinghi (SUI), BMW Oracle Racing (USA), Mascalzone Latino (ITA) and United Internet Team Germany (GER). China Team (CHN), K-Challenge (FRA), and Victory Challenge (SWE) have not announced plans to build new boats for 2006. Including RSA-83 it appears there will be at least nine "new" (built since the end of AC 31 in March 2003) ACC yachts sailing, if not racing, in Valencia at some point in 2006. - Challenger Commission website: http://www.challengercommission.com/ SCUTTLEBLOG Scuttlebutt has joined the blog world with the release of Scuttleblog, which can be found on the Scuttlebutt website navigation. Blogs are used in many ways, but look for Scuttleblog to be the place for commentary that had previously not been included in the newsletter. Maybe the inside scoop on something, maybe opinions from the Scuttlebutt editors, and maybe … who knows. Next week Scuttleblog will be in the BVI, where Team One Newport's Martha Parker will be posting her observations from the 14th Annual Women on the Water Week. The following week Scuttleblog goes to Florida to provide the dockside scoop at the Acura Key West regatta. We encourage you to add Scuttleblog to your daily list of favorites, and welcome your comments. View Scuttleblog at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog NEWS BRIEFS * The light winds to the north west of Australia have started to take hold now for the ten identical 68ft ocean-racing yachts in the Clipper 05-06 Round the World Yacht Race. The boats' twelve hour runs dropping from 110 miles plus to less than 80. Leaders: 1. Durban, 1587miles to finish; 2. Westernaustralia.com, + 6 miles; 3. Liverpool 08, +30 miles; 4. Qingdao, +32 miles; 5. New York, +33 miles; 6. Victoria, +40 miles. -- http://www.clipper-ventures.co.uk/2006/ * ABN Amro Mortgage Group, Inc. has agreed to a settlement with the United States valued at more than $41 million, including a payment of $16.85 million in cash and an estimated $24.35 million in waived government insurance claims for 783 defaulted mortgages, arising out of a False Claims Act case concerning over 28,000 federally insured mortgages, United States Attorney Stephen J. Murphy and the Department of Justice announced. The payment by ABN is one of the largest ever obtained in a civil settlement by the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of Michigan under the False Claims Act. -- http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=58825 * In an interview with the Argentinean sailing and water sports magazine Bab, yacht designer Juan Kouyoumdjian says that Argentina should have its own America's Cup entry. 34 year old Kouyoumdjian told Bab that he was convinced that Argentina had all that was needed to not only build an America's Cup yacht, but to win the event. Those words could seem like wishful thinking, if uttered by most people, but when a designer like Kouyoumdjian says it, people have to listen -- this is the man who designed the America's Cup challenger BMW Oracle and the ABN Amro Volvo Ocean Race yachts.-- http://www.bymnews.com/new/content/view/23042/57/ FORUMS UPDATE This week the Forums have been open to Guest usage, which has allowed for participation without needing a Username. As we expected, the turnout has been tremendous, with plenty of posts to consider. Topics like abandoning the Volvo Ocean Race, comments about the new Annapolis 30, or why the US national authority should be called US sAiling. Let's keep up the heat, and take a moment to sign-up for a Username once the Guest usage sign is turned off on Sunday. The easy sign-up form can be found at http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=user_signup TEAM ONE NEWPORT IS EXPANDING Team One Newport will be closing its store in Newport on January 16th for expansion. The construction will take 6 weeks but we will be back with a bigger and brighter store to serve all of our customers. Our mail order and webstore operations are going strong, so be sure to check out the latest from Henri-Lloyd, Musto, Gill, Patagonia, Railriders, Camet, Harken, Slam, Ronstan, Kaenon, Native Eye and many more at the website or call 800-VIP-GEAR (800-847-4327) and talk to one of our experts who will get you suited up for any and all of your activities! http://www.team1newport.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 Peter Commette: Sounds to me like Paul Elvstöm is once again ahead of the curve, except the wheel does not need to be reinvented. We already have a readily adaptable format to his outline for Olympic viewing success: 3 on 3 team racing. Simple combinations. Easy to understand. Fun tactics. Reasonably short races. Extra benefit: Many venues are readily adaptable to on shore viewing, so it's not just a TV viewing experience. Most importantly for our ISF Olympic Committee types: The winner of the last event wins. Team Racing's entry into the Olympics is long overdue. If you have ever heard Ken Legler announce team racing watching from shore, you would know first hand how interesting and readily understandable team racing can be. Why, I can see it now, Ken could do for sailing what Dick Buttons did for figure skating at the Olympics ... without the swish. "Oh, my God, I don't believe it; it looks like Brad Funk is setting up to do something never before attempted in competition: a Triple Sow Kow ... er ... I mean Triple Trap." It would be a thing of beauty! * From Alexander Williams: Call off the Volvo Race? You've got to be kidding. The two Juan Kouyoumdjian-designed ABN boats by are thriving in the tough going and have convincingly shown that they are ready for the challenge. * From Lowell North: Nobody on any of the remaining boats would even think about turning back. If the race headquarters decided to call off the race they would be killed by someone. This is truly a survival race, but to survive all you have to do is pull back on your speed. The one who does that best will win. I think the skippers will stay in the same latitudes with one or two other boats in case a rescue is needed. * Jef d'Etiveaud (re Volvo Race): This is racing the boats are pushed to the limit and this is always going to take its token. The game has changed over the last few years and more importantly the speeds achieved today on monohulls put in light new challenge to resolve. The accelerations involved are enormous nowadays. Should Volvo stop the race? Absolutely not! The boys have the responsibility to slow down in rough weather. Lets not forget that we are responsible and that the choice of going or not is 100% ours. The reasons we go at sea are numerous. Romance is one of them and when I sail a boat in light air in the Long Island Sound it is probably the main one. Going to race in the southern ocean requires a different approach more like going to battle. I hope no one gets hurt badly and that all our dear friends come home safely. In the meantime let them live their dream (or nightmare!) and shine on the water, No pain no glory. * From Peter W. Grimm, Sparkman & Stephens: I firmly believe that the fleet should be recalled ASAP! As a veteran of 18 Newport-Bermuda Races in wholesome boats, and two Trans -Atlantic Races, the madness of this unproven hi-tech stuff in the Southern Ocean is just that madness! * From Tinker Myles: I agree with Magnus. These new Volvo 70's are great boats but they haven't been properly tested for a race of this magnitude. How about a 12 month postponement so that the crews can do further testing and then sail into the southern ocean (next January when it is again summer down there) confident that they will get to Melbourne without the loss of life. * From Andy Wardle (re Volvo Ocean Race) Call them back! They will not return on their own unless they have to and when they get out of range, it will be too late. This is not the sailing equivalent of Formula one racing. They have very sophisticated Medical services immediately available on site, and do not even have to get themselves out of the car if they crash. Every sailor who has ever been offshore must be shaking his/her head and saying .Are they really going to wait until one or more of these fine young men is dead, leaving a grieving family behind ? For what ? * From George Bailey (re the Scuttlebutt poll as to whether the Volvo Racers should be called back): That's to endorse the news media's practice of pretending the opinions of the ignorant should be given weight. Polls are not sources of reasoned evidence for or against this or that. This aside, the only people who's opinions matter are those doing the racing. If they want to place their lives at greater than the normal risk of sailing where they are going, that is entirely their business. If racing means more to them than family, that also is entirely their and their family's business. It's their choice, not ours. * From John Longley, Fremantle Chamber of Commerce Inc: Bruno Troublé was dead right when he said that the NYYC signed its death warrant when in 1970 they allowed multiple challenges. To emphasize the point 1983, the year they lost the Cup to Australia II, was the first time that there were more Challengers than Defenders. Prior to that the advantage was always with the Defender. I would argue that the situation has now reversed in that it is harder to Defend the cup than Challenge for it. The record since and including 1983 underscores this point. Since 1983 there have been four successful Challenges and only two successful Defenses. * From Fietje Judel: The only European countries which are using IRC on a broader base are the countries which are close to the British Channel. There is no IRC racing at all in the Baltic Sea and the eastern North Sea. For all races above Club Level IMS and ORC-Club are used. In Denmark Danish Handicap with more than 5000 certificates is a very popular local system. In the Mediterannean IRC is used on Club level, all major events are using IMS or ORC Club. Several tries to import IRC into the Baltic have been failed, just because the sailors have realized that a single rating system is unfair in most cases and that a VPP-driven system with flexible handicaps usually does give much fairer results. IMS and ORC Club are flexible enough to be used as well for time on time and time on distance scoring, for example in Germany time on time is mostly been used in the North Sea, where the strong tides make it difficult to find the correct course length, while in the Baltic Sea time on distance is the way to go. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION A pat on the back, though only a few vertebrae removed from a kick in the pants, is miles ahead in results. Special thanks to our Job Posting advertiser and Team One Newport |
