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SCUTTLEBUTT 2794 - Thursday, March 5, 2009Scuttlebutt 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. Today's sponsors are Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week and Ullman Sails. SHOULD THE RACING RULES OF SAILING PROVIDE FOR REDRESS? The Racing Rules of Sailing currently provide for Redress (Rule 62), the sport’s tool to provide support to competitors whose boat’s score in a race or series has been made significantly worse through no fault of their own. Some of the ‘buttheads had questioned why sailing needs this provision when other sports accept that adverse situations may result in adverse outcomes. This week’s Scuttlebutt Survey asked the question, and while the result was strongly in favor of the rule (72.6% in support of the rule), there was concern that some of the qualifying situations for Redress needed to be revised. Here are the four listed in the rules: 62.1 (a) an improper action or omission of the race committee, protest committee or organizing authority, but not by a protest committee decision when the boat was a party to the hearing; 62.1 (b) injury or physical damage because of the action of a boat that was breaking a rule of Part 2 or of a vessel not racing that was required to keep clear; 62.1 (c) giving help (except to herself or her crew) in compliance with rule 1.1; or 62.1 (d) a boat against which a penalty has been imposed under rule 2 or disciplinary action has been taken under rule 69.1(b). In the comments section, there was general agreement that giving help to others must be encouraged, so 62.1 (c) was needed. However, after that, there was less agreement. Most believed that race official mistakes should be corrected, but not everyone. The greatest concern had to do with 62.1 (b) and 62.1 (d). If a boat is adversely affected by one of his competitors, should Redress come to the rescue? What adds to this dilemma is the challenge for a protest committee to make as fair an arrangement as possible for all boats affected. The question may have to do with how we want to play the game. As a hypothetical question, what if the event leader was crashed into on purpose by one boat so that another boat could gain advantage? Or in the incident that did occur at the 1984 U.S. Olympic Finn Trials, the event leader purposely started to windward of the line so as to impede the progress of his closest rival, knowing that the only way he could lose the trials was if his rival won the race. Without Redress, would sailing become like certain other sports where contact is often sought out rather than avoided? => Post your comments here: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=7126 RANDOM LEG: RACING BEYOND THE BUOYS AT ACURA/ULLMAN LBRW Is buoy racing getting boring? Want a final offshore shakedown for Transpac? Race in Random Leg PHRF class at Acura presents Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week June 26-28. Long a popular feature of the West Coast's largest keelboat regatta, Random Leg offers one approximately three-hour race a day around San Pedro Bay. Races run from 13.1 to 23 nautical miles in length, adjusted for conditions and using navigational points with a variety of beating, reaching and running. For details and charts, see Race Documents/Sailing Instructions at http://www.lbrw.org. Sign up early online and save $50. WEATHER MODELS DIVIDE FLEET (Mar. 4, 2009; Day 19) - As the Volvo Open 70 fleet drag raced towards the scoring gate at 36 degrees S, it was all to play for, up to the very end. With the eventual winner of the first points of leg five being Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA), yet it was Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE) who received all the interest after their crossing. Grael and his International crew picked up four points at 00:21 GMT as they crossed the gate and were closely followed by their stable-mate Ericsson 3 at 00:53 GMT. The Nordic crew then decided to make their brave move and immediately tacked to the north-east, away from all the fleet. Olsson has officially put all his trust in his young navigator Aksel Magdahl, who believes that the best course is to the north of the high pressure between them and Cape Horn and not the south. We will all have to see if this pays off for the crew or makes them lose precious miles. Despite PUMA’s (Ken Read/USA) crew pushing flat out towards the gate, they finally crossed the line a mere 10 minutes after the Nordic crew. Next came Telefonica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) followed by the Green Dragon just over an hour behind them at 04:31 GMT. Read described his disappointment this morning, “Sadly. In the end it was not to be and they [Ericsson 4] beat us to the gate by about 5 miles with E3 sneaking into second two miles ahead of us. On top of this the conditions last night and today have been nothing short of horrible: blast reaching in 25 to 30 knots is the most uncomfortable angle on these boats - wet, really wet!” -- Event website: http://www.volvooceanrace.org Crewed around the world race in VO 70’s, with ten distance legs and seven In-Port races. Leg Five from Qingdao, China to Rio de Janiero, Brazil is 12,300 nm, with the finish estimated on March 20th. Current positions (as of Mar. 5, 1:00 am GMT): 1. PUMA (USA), Ken Read/USA, 6,786 nm Distance to Finish 2. Ericsson 4 (SWE), Torben Grael/BRA, 26 nm Distance to Leader 3. Telefónica Blue (ESP), Bouwe Bekking/NED, 40 nm DTL 4. Ericsson 3 (SWE), Magnus Olsson/SWE, 58 nm DTL 5. Green Dragon (IRL/CHN), Ian Walker/GBR, 62 nm DTL Telefonica Black (ESP), Fernando Echavarri/ESP, Did Not Start Delta Lloyd (IRL), Roberto Bermudez/ESP, DNS Team Russia (RUS), Andreas Hanakamp/AUT, DNS Overall scores: http://www.volvooceanrace.org/rdc/#tab4 Race tracking: http://volvooceanrace.geovoile.com QUOTE / UNQUOTE Ericsson Racing Team Meteorologist Chris Bedford on the position of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet: "Now the hard part starts. They have some very tough days ahead. On the numbers the leg is about half over. But physically, I'd say it's only about one-third complete." -- http://www.ericssonracingteam.com FINAL WEEK FOR WILSON (Mar. 4, 2009; Day 115) - In ninth place, American Rich Wilson should reach the finish in Les Sables d’Olonne, France by Sunday or Monday. After racing for four months, it is interesting to note how Rich alternates using the first-person singular (I) and plural (we) personal pronoun: “Last night we sailed with solent and 2 reefs in the mainsail, and we were going fast, averaging 12.5 knots, in the middle of the night, it seemed as if things were getting a bit more active, and I went to the 3rd reef, and just when I was doing it, it got really windy, so when I finished there, I rolled up the solent and rolled out the staysail. I didn't understand what was going on, so when it got even more active, i.e., the boat taking off on 18 knot surfs, I rolled the staysail back up and just went with the 3rd reef in the main, fired up the computer, to look at the weather situation to try to understand what was going on. “What had happened was immediately apparent, we were making such good time, that we had sailed across the top of the curved isobars, had caught up with the northwesterlies, and were getting a heading wind shift which would make the boat go faster from its deep broad reaching. Once we slowed a bit, in a few hours, we settled back into the top part of the high. I, however, was so tired that I just fell hard asleep at the chart table, and every time I woke up, I thought about rolling out the staysail, but found some reason that it would be better to wait, for daylight, for another weather forecast, for the seas to go down, for the wind to go down, any reason at all.” Event website: http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en Complete standings: http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/ranking.html Race tracking: http://tracking.vendeeglobe.org/en TREATING HYPOTHERMIA Championship cold-water swimmer Lynne Cox can freestyle and breaststroke for as long as two hours in the Bering Strait, where the water temperature can hover around the mid-30-degree Fahrenheit mark. Boaters who fall overboard into 60-degree seas and drown within minutes are often said to have succumbed to hypothermia. How can both of these statements be true? "The reality for boaters is that you can last a lot longer than you think if you get thrown into the drink, even in cold-water cruising places like Maine and the Pacific Northwest," says Dr. Eric Johnson, a Staff Physician at Teton Valley Hospital, in Driggs, Idaho; past president of the Wilderness Medical Society; a NAUI diving instructor; and a Mount Everest base camp physician.. The more you remain calm, the better your chances for surviving an overboard situation. A lot of deaths following sudden cold water immersion are incorrectly classified as drowning due to hypothermia, according to Johnson and other experts. Often, these victims drown because of effects of the initial Cold-shock Response. -- Mad Mariner, read on: http://linkbee.com/H702 AUSTRALIANS CLINCH ETCHELLS PRE-WORLDS Ullman Sails customers David Clark, Andrew “Spot” Smith, and Sean Leonard took first place at the Entire Port Philip Championships in Melbourne last weekend, showing consistency and speed in the final event before the 2009 Audi Etchells World Championship, March 9-14. The team, powered by Ullman Sails upwind inventory, completed the regatta with 21 points out of four races, never finishing worse than 7th in the 44-boat fleet. The team’s win completed a strong buildup to the Worlds event after dominating the qualification series in Sydney earlier in the season. Ullman Sails – Invest in your performance. Visit http://www.ullmansails.com SAILING SHORTS * Miami, FL (Mar. 4, 2009) - Warm Sunshine and Ocean Breezes Welcome an International Fleet at the Acura Miami Grand Prix which begins four days of racing on March 5th. Sailors from seven countries and 14 states will compete in IRC, Farr 40, and Melges 32 classes. This is also the final event of the 2009 Acura Grand Prix Championship. -- Details: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/0304/ * Fifty-nine teams from 27 countries have registered for the Star class Bacardi Cup, to be held in Miami on March 8-13, 2009. The fleet is peppered with 11 Olympians, several Gold and Silver medalists, two Star World Champions, and three BACARDI Cup champions. This six-day series is co-hosted by the Coral Reef Yacht Club and the U.S. Sailing Center, both based in Coconut Grove, and sponsored in full by Bacardi U.S.A., Inc. Daily photos, video, articles and results will be posted here: http://www.BacardiCup.com * Over 250 sailors aboard 28 entrants are gearing up for the 15th edition of the Newport Beach to Cabo San Lucas International Yacht Race '09, set to start on Friday, March 6, and Saturday, March 7, where GPS tracking devices will display racers’ progress during the 792 nm race. The current course record of 2 days, 13 hours, 25 minutes and 58 seconds is held by Doug Baker’s Magnitude 80, set in 2005. Baker is returning to defend the record. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=7125#7125 * Great Britain's Ben Ainslie, honored with an unprecedented third Rolex World Sailor of the Year award following his third consecutive Olympic gold medal in 2008, has been added to the entry list for the 45th Congressional Cup, the March 24-28 match racing classic hosted by the Long Beach Yacht Club. Ainslie, 32, skipper/helmsman of the UK's Team Origin challenge for the 33rd America's Cup, will have a Team Origin crew except for tactician Iain Percy, who had another commitment. Ainslie will be replacing Ian Williams, 2-time Match Racing World Champion, who reluctantly withdrew because of business reasons. -- Event website: http://www.lbyc.org/html/content.cfm?CID=1170 * (Mar. 4, 2009) - American syndicate BMW Oracle Racing concluded the third testing session with its giant trimaran on Tuesday afternoon and plans significant modifications while waiting to find out if the boat will ever sail for the America's Cup. BMW Oracle Racing, which has been testing the boat off and on in San Diego since last fall, plans to pull the boat out of the water on Wednesday. The New York State Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on Feb. 10 and a decision is expected sometime before Easter. -- ESPN, full story: http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=3949792 * Following Loïck Peyron’s (FRA) dismasting of Gitana Eighty on Dec. 15. 2008 during the Vendee Globe, he learned on Feb. 17 that his team sponsor, Baron Benjamin de Rothschild's Gitana Team, would not be renewing his contract. Peyron has now joined the Oman Sail Extreme 40 campaign for this summer's iShares Cup Sailing Series. -- http://www.omansail.com * The first major boat show to be held in Mexico in five years will take place in Puerto Vallarta March 12-16. The inaugural Boat Show Latin America 2009 will target both Mexican buyers and Americans and Canadians who own second homes along the Baja peninsula on Mexico's west coast. -- IBI Magazine, read on: http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20090204155759ibinews.html * Sébastien Col and Claire Leroy maintain the French domination at the top in the ISAF World Match Race Rankings released on 4 March 2009. -- Read on: http://www.sailing.org/27469.php?PHPSESSID=2c44eb3bf49ab61de275e3f3a20b0db0 * (Mar. 4, 2009) - The America’s Cup team Luna Rossa, which was trialing its new STP-65 yacht against the German team Container in Valencia, broke its mast today in more than 25 knots of wind. It is still unclear what the extent of the damage is. -- Valencia Sailing, full story: http://linkbee.com/H703 * The National Marine Manufacturers Association recently closed its San Diego office to reduce expenses but has no plans to do away with the San Diego Boat Show. -- Soundings Trade Only, read on: http://linkbee.com/H705 CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Here are a few of the events that are coming up: Mar 5-7 - Force 5 Midwinter Championship - Key Largo, FL, USA Mar 5-8 - Sint Maarten Heineken Regatta - Philipsburg, Sint Maarten, N.A. Mar 5-14 - Audi Etchells World Championship - Melbourne, Australia View all the events at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Reader commentary is encouraged, with letters to be submitted to the Scuttlebutt editor, aka, ‘The Curmudgeon’. Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). You only get 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 Jim Mahaffy: All this talk about the Racing Rules of Sailing needing to be simplified has gone around several times before. I remember a thread about being as simple as the golf rules! Has anyone ever read the golf rules? At one time I belonged to the So Cal Golf Assn. and got a rule book. Talk about your eyes glazing over! Then there are the baseball rules! You want to see pre-teens eyes glaze over thru explaining the infield fly rule to them? Besides what pre-teen doesn’t get squirmy listing to an adult tell them about any rule? * From John Rumsey: (re, Mark Reynolds interview in #2793) I think the coaches should do their coaching on training days and just observe the races and stay out of the way. Perhaps they could volunteer as safety boats. * From Stephen Thomas: Hats off to Mark Reynolds for saying what I have been thinking about the coaching restrictions that the Star (and Etchells) class have initiated. While they look good on paper, and may appease those that want to see change, I can’t see anything changing unless the coaches must keep their feet on hard soil during regattas. The top teams will still have coaches and coach boats, and regatta hosts will still be dealing with the additional hassles that they bring. So much talk about change, but still so little real change occurring…. CREDIBLE, RELIABLE, RESPONSIBLE. Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors, all of whom are facing the same economic concerns as the rest of us. And while every company is taking a close look at how they spend their money, eliminating marketing altogether is paramount to throwing in the towel. With cash in short supply, Scuttlebutt is extremely pleased with the strong ad sales in 2009, with several months already sold out (including December). If you need to spend your ad dollars wisely, align your company with the publication that has been serving the sport since 1997…Scuttlebutt. Inquire at mailto:advertising@sailingscuttlebutt.com CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION If you've got melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it too slowly. Special thanks to Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week and Ullman Sails. A complete list of preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
