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SCUTTLEBUTT 1859 - June 14, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere. DOMINANCE WITHOUT RECOGNITION College sailing closed out its season last week with the completion of their spring North American Championships, where qualifying schools competed in the Women's, Team Racing and Coed Dinghy events. The highlight of each season is the final event, the Coed Dinghy Championship, where winning sailors frequently progress from the college ranks to compete at the highest levels of the sport. This year's event concluded with what has become a typical occurrence, but also an unusual one. For the third year in their four years of college sailing, University of Hawaii sailors Bryan Lake and Jennifer Warnock won the A Division at the Coed Dinghy Champs. Viewed as the premier division, these two continued a streak that has helped keep their team at the forefront of college sailing. However, following the event, neither sailor was elected to the 2005 All-American teams. The All-American Selection Committee consists of one representative from each of the seven Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Districts. The criteria for selection includes not only the quality of an individual's results, but also the quantity. For Bryan and Jennifer, it turns out that their quality was fine…just not their quantity. To attend the North Americans, schools have to place highly enough in their district championship. For Lake/Warnock, this was the only event they sailed prior to the NA's, which they won. With the U of H team qualifying for the NA's, Lake/Warnock were able to keep their A Division streak alive, beating in the process eventual 2005 College Sailor of the Year Mikee Anderson-Mitterling of USC in both events. The only other previous 3-time winning skipper of A Division was Robert Monetti, Yale ('47, '48, '50). 2-time winners are Henry Schofield, CSULB ('65, '67), Morgan Reeser, USMMA ('82, '84), and Brad Rodi, USNA ('91, '93). Records for All-American team selections begin in 1967, wherein all of the previous multi-year winners were included on the team during their championship years. Photos of the 2005 Coed-Dinghy Champs are at: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/icsa-dw/ EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND The next America's Cup acts, which start in Valencia next week, will be of critical importance for Emirates Team New Zealand as they build towards the 2007 event. For me there are three points of interest - the venue, NZL82, and the sailing team, in particular the afterguard. While you will probably see a bit of crew rotation in the physical jobs, you would expect people to be locked in when it comes to the afterguard and key trimming roles. The performance of the afterguard - Dean Barker, Kevin Hall and Terry Hutchinson - will really be scrutinized. If this mix works, they may well lock them in for the Louis Vuitton Cup. If it doesn't, it will put them under pressure and possibly force them to rethink the role of top British sailor Ben Ainslie and others. The rebuild of NZL82 has impressed me. The boat was virtually written off when it was hit by a storm in France last year so they took the opportunity to chop the bow and stern off and reconfigure it more along the lines of Alinghi in terms of sectional shape. The original NZL82 sectional shape through the bow section was V-shaped, quite wide on the deck and quite narrow on the water line. If you look at the boats now they are very U-shaped in section - very slab-sided, quite flat along the bottom, quite full in the bow. With the reconfiguration of NZL82 they have gone for those U-shaped sections with the aim, I think, of making the boat a bit stronger for the moderate conditions in Valencia. The bow is now fuller and has more volume which is possibly the hand of new designer Marcelino Botin, as that is very much his style. So New Zealand have not only repaired the boat but they have taken the opportunity to test a new hull shape and the results of that will be reflected in their new boat. - Excerpts from a story by Peter Lester in the NZ Herald, full story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=4&ObjectID=10330166 BIG ANGRY BOAT (ABN AMRO II's Volvo Ocean Race navigator Simon Fisher updates on progress with the 'youth' team in a story posted on the Daily Sail subscription website. Here's an excerpt) It has been a pretty interesting and varied few months since joining ABN AMRO in February in Rotterdam. We got the core of our team together and starting sailing with the crew of the other boat. This began with a trip aboard the ABN AMRO Volvo Open 70 from Rotterdam to our base in Portugal which gave us a little taster of what was to come: for sure these boats are going to be a handful, not to mention still a fairly unknown quantity at this stage with a lot to be learnt about getting the most efficient sail inventory, optimizing yourself in the right corner of the rule and working out what is the best way for 10 blokes to haul a big angry boat around the race course. Training in our base in Portimao, POR, gave the core of our Team - myself (Navigator), Seb Josse (Skipper), Scott Beavis and Nick Bice (Watch Captains) time to lay some plans down for our training schedule for the period before we get our hands on our own 70 in July plus work with ABN AMRO's other crew learning the boat's systems and issues that surround getting a new race boat up to speed. We also had the benefit of overseeing the final part of the trials for the remainder of our crew and get an idea of who we were going to be spending the next 18 months working with. - www.thedailysail.com SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM When you start getting your gear together for a regatta, the first thing on your mind will be your Camet padded sailing shorts. You may already own some, but now's the time to get on the Camet website to look at the different models and colors available. The 3000, Bermuda, Aruba, Cargo, Women's 3000, and Ocean shorts are all made out of the fast drying breathable Supplex (UV 40+) and the Cordura seat patch to hold the foam pad to help you get through those long hours on the rail. Coolmax shirts, Mylar bags, Rashguards, Canvas shorts, etc. http://www.camet.com LOUIS VUITTON RACING FORMAT There will be TV camera operators on the back ends of the AC boats during the match race segments of Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 4 - assuming both of the sparring boats agree. The video recorded by the camera operators will be used by ACM for the nightly highlights package distributed to rights holders around the world, and for other broadcasting and promotional purposes. The teams will also have access to the footage. The challengers also agreed to allow ACM to provide the Virtual Eye (formerly Go Virtual and, before that, Virtual Spectator) race data to all teams immediately following each day's racing was unanimously approved. This will permit the teams to have timely graphical presentations for use in sailing and technical debriefs, as well as for hospitality and other internal purposes. Tests with a prototype windward mark, large enough to accommodate several onboard cameramen, have not been successful due to problems in towing, anchoring and quickly relocating the buoy. The idea will either be considerably re-worked or dropped. - Challenger's Commission website, full report: http://www.challengercommission.com/ SCUTTLEBUTT AND RSS There are now three ways to receive your daily fix of Scuttlebutt. You can subscribe to receive the email version, you can go to the Scuttlebutt website direct, or you can use your RSS program to have the website version of Scuttlebutt delivered to you. What is RSS? It stands for "really simple syndication," and it allows you to subscribe to your favorite websites, and have updates delivered to you rather than you having to go to those sites to check for new information. Using a program called an RSS Aggregators, the functionality is very similar to email programs, wherein updates arrive like new mail in your inbox. Best of all, it's free. Additional information on RSS, where to download an aggregator, and how to obtain the Scuttlebutt RSS link is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss FOCUS ON YOUTH Connect to Sailing is a global initiative led by ISAF to increase participation in sailing. It is based upon grass roots activities with a focus on youth with the aim of building strong and lasting foundations for community sailing programmes. It aims to expand and develop participation in sailing by attracting newcomers to the sport and retaining both newcomers and existing participants. Connect To Sailing aims to bring together the organizations involved in and supporting the sport of sailing in a country, such as the member national authority, the sailing industry, sports council, boat show organizers, commercial sailing schools, media, government and non-government organizations. - http://tinyurl.com/9xcjs MISSING MOJO FOUND IN MIDWEST They found their mojo at the Chicago West Marine Regatta: 1st and 3rd in J/105's; 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in Beneteau 36.7's; 3rd in Farr 40's; 2nd in Beneteau 40.7's. And they found their mojo at the Detroit NOOD: 1st and 3rd in Mumm 30's; 2nd in Level 123 (J/27); 2nd in Ultimate 20's. Happy owners, powered by Doyle sails from the Chicago, IL (John Baxter, tel. 312-421-9900) and Holland, MI (Tac Boston, tel. 616-396-3030) Doyle lofts. Have you misplaced your mojo? Call John or Tac or this number to get reconnected with winning speed and service: 1-800-94-DOYLE; http://www.doylesails.com NEWS BRIEFS *DaimlerChrysler has announced that its luxury car division, Mercedes-Benz, will act as an official supplier to the Swiss sailing team in preparation for the America's Cup in 2007. As an official supplier, Mercedes will provide vehicles for the entire Swiss team, which is being led by German sports director, Jochen Schümann. - Sail-World website, Full story: http://tinyurl.com/7vvn8 * Consistent southwesterly breezes have brought a large number of competitors through the Annapolis to Newport finish line under spinnaker, including the entire IRC I Class. Despite strong breezes through the evening and morning hours, Sjambok's evening finish on June 12 has proven strong enough to declare her winner of the IRC I Class. Full fleet race tracking is available online at www.annapolisyc.org/newport05 * TAG Heuer has become official chronograph, timekeeper and sunglasses partner of the China Team Challenge for the America's Cup 2007. The Swiss watchmaker and the People's Republic of China's first-ever America's Cup Challenger have signed a long-term agreement under which TAG Heuer will supply China Team members with wrist chronographs specially developed for the America's Cup, and sunglasses from its Golden Silmo and Reddot Sport Vision collection. TAG Heuer's shield and logo will be featured on the boom and afterdeck of China Team boats as well as on the team uniforms and the Valencia and Qingdao sailing bases. * The Valencian Government has presented a plan of action for the Americas Cup which should be approved by the VLC Gvt. Included in the Plan are 350 million Euros for the improvement of communications and access to Valencia City; 59 million for improving the ports of the VLC community, 19 million to promote tourism and the construction of central tourist offices in Denia, Castellon and Torrevieja. - Valencia Life Network * More than over 60 youth sailors from seven states raced on Narragansett Bay last weekend in the 2005 Optimist Challenge. The weather conditions were spectacular with temperatures hovered in the 60s and 70s with steady sea breezes in the 10-15 knot range. Marlena Fauer from Southampton Yacht Club won not only her Red Fleet Division but the overall first place trophy as well as top sailor in the event. Mitchell Kiss the top competitor in the White Fleet, joined Christopher Price from Centerport Yacht Club as the Blue Fleet victor on the podium with Fauer. Complete results: http://www.sailnewport.org/npt/m/_general/optichallenge.asp * With 11 points each, Leigh McMillian/ Wm Howden (GBR) are tied for the lead with Johannes Polgar/ Florian Spalteholz. (GER) in the 62 boat Tornado World Championship in La Rochelle, France. Robert Daniel/ Mike Hoey (USA) are the top North Americans in 16th place with a 6-30 series. With finishes of 35-26, American Olympic medallists Johnny Lovell/ Charlie Ogletree are running 35th. 21 countries are represented. - http://tinyurl.com/86fv8 * In listing the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association is yesterday's issue we unfortunately overlooked the Robert H. Hobbs Trophy for Sportsman of the Year which was won by MIT's JM Modisette. - http://www.collegesailing.org/ * For this year's Snipe Colonial Cup in Annapolis, Maryland crews showed up from Miami to St. Louis to Boston and just about every Snipe fleet in between. However only three races could be completed because of extremely light and fluky wind. Nonetheless, Hal Gilreath and James Liebl put together a 3-4-2 series to score 3.75 point win over John MacRae/ Epstein, Linda with the team of Nicolas Granucci/ Patricia Fonovich just another ¼ point behind. http://www.snipeus.org/tab.aspx?tabid=634 * North Sails has partnered with expert meteorologist Chris Bedford of Sailing Weather Services to provide FREE weather forecasts for the Lands' End Chicago NOOD Regatta from June 17-19. Detailed forecasts will be emailed to subscribers each morning by 0730 local time. Sailors can sign up to receive forecasts via email by logging on to North Sails' Weather Center at http://na.northsails.com/ew/ew_main.taf NEW PROJECT UPDATE FROM J BOATS J Boats' newest and largest addition to the fleet, the J/65, is nearing completion at Pearson Composites in Warren, RI. Hull #1 will commission in San Diego before cruising to Hawaii and the South Pacific. Hull #2 is slated for an East Coast launching. http://www.jboats.com/j65 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. This is not a chat room nor a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Michael Panosh (Regarding the Acts format): Having the America's Cup Defender compete in the pre-Cup races is something I disagree with. I know they will not compete in the LV series and that a lot can happen between the Acts and the Cup Finals, but I just don't see how it adds to the excitement of the event. Much like two boxers sparring before a title fight, isn't a large part of the excitement of the Cup Final trying to predict the outcome sight unseen? Think of all the Hula talk before the last Cup, and the anticipation before the first race. That mystique is now compromised and could potentially diminish the event--should the outcome be expected. * From Kim Roberts: The game under the "Acts" format is not different. Racing the trial horse SUI75 instead of the America's Cup winner SUI64 is the same old secretive game. The challengers will learn nothing and Alinghi will learn everything. Only Alinghi knows the speed difference between her two boats. If someone beats SUI75 they won't actually know if they are fast or not. Alinghi retains all the secrets and remains in command of everyone's learning curve. The "Acts" will not be a real accounting unless all the boats competing will be used at the end. New boats being built will falsify all claims of speed and potential derived from the "Acts". It is a marketing ploy only, so sailors won't forget the Cup is coming, so journalists have something to write about during the "blank years", and so that the world forgets that a race every five years is completely irrelevant. The Cup should be every two years. One year to change venue and one to compete. It would save a lot of money and bring urgency back into it. Everyone employed with Cup activity wants a year round full time job, not a job where you are laid off for two years, never to return. The designers would have little or no time to dream up something better. Teams might actually decide to reuse a boat, which hasn't happened since, what… Courageous. Without time, a town like Valencia couldn't spend millions of dollars for something they will never use again. * From Jesse Andrews: Congrats to the University of Hawaii's Bryan Lake and Jennifer Warnock who have sailed every race together over the past four ICSA N.A. Dinghy Championships. They have won A division three of the last four years by an average margin of over 18 points. I don't think that this has ever been accomplished by any other skipper/crew combination in the history of college sailing. * From Edward E.L. Mitchell: I'm the author of RaceSail and would like to respond to Chris Ericksen's comments about the Alamitos Bay YC Scoring program ('Butt 1855). When I started, I also thought that the ideal system would let the regatta organizers maintain a database of skippers and boats, first so that the addresses could be used for marketing next year and then the information could be rapidly incorporated into the scoring program when the registration sheets had been processed. Simply entering a sail number was enough to bring in all the information from last year. In practice this is not really what the Race Management organizers want. They don't want to handle paper and they certainly don't want to type in 300 sail numbers to recall information from last year that has probably changed. A web based system works where the individual sailor does all the typing. It's constructed of web services, with each one optimized for it's own job. There is no incentive to create a data base system when one can get Microsoft SQL Server or free MySQL. The Web Service Description Language (WSDL) allows the specification of routines that are provided on a remote server. The RC wants to know who's paid. If they are providing lunches, who's a vegetarian. The scoring program wants sail numbers, skippers and handicap values. A web service GetClass() and GetBoats() will suffice for the backend and the scoring program is in business as soon as registration cutoff is complete. The following link shows web services that we use at Hyannis: http://205.237.107.19/RegInfo.asmx. * From Liz Walker, US Sailing Championship Manager: US Sailing does not "tax" clubs for hosting championships. Sailing is dependent on clubs and other local sailing organizations to make our sport work. Many clubs raise considerable sums to host events, but it doesn't go to US Sailing. If a club raises funds for a US Sailing championship, those funds are used directly for the regatta. * From Jim Mahaffy (Re: Ellie Doyle's letter that called AOPA the Airline Owners and Pilot Assoc): It's the AirPLANE owners and Pilots Association. Small grammatical change but a big meaning change. AOPA has some 400.000, I think, members. It is the 400 pound gorilla in this Weather Service argument. * From John Williams: The government has no liability if a ship goes down because of the weather. That is the responsibility of the ship's master. Weather broadcasts are not an entitlement. If privatization of the weather service means I have to listen to a West Marine commercial on the weather radio then that's fine as long as a) whoever is using the infrastructure helps foot the bill (and the taxpayer gets relieved of that burden) and, b) I end up with the ability to choose where I get my weather from thus forcing weather providers to compete and, hopefully, develop better technologies. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS A hangover is the wrath of grapes. |
