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SCUTTLEBUTT 2486 – November 30, 2007Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, featuresand dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors. WORRYING ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE CUP by Bruno Troublé Since July, I remained silent, speechless after the America’s Cup we all love so much, was hijacked. I am shocked to see the defender sailing WITH the challengers (no more of this great mystery at the start of the first final race) and at ACM naming the judges, umpires, and committees with no reference to ISAF. I am sad to see the America’s Cup slowly but surely drifting to become just another sporting event with no class, no respect for tradition, and where money - lots of money - is the only word used by the organizers. I am furious to see the 90-foot box rule. Anyone involved in the America’s Cup knows that the best match racing boats do NOT accelerate from 10 to 20 knots when luffing 10 degrees downwind. They are STUCK in the water the same way the 12s and the IACC were. Do not confuse these fast-accelerating sleds with the impressive looking J’s boats, as the defender has stated. These new boats might be great racers if you have 30+ boats on the starting line, but they will be hopeless for match racing. You will need two TV sets to watch the race once they round the weather mark! We know this in France, as the 60 feet multihull racing circuit died because of the differences in speed between the boats. Looking at those races was so boring! The America’s Cup is the passion of my life after spending 30 years living with her (skipper in ‘77 to ‘83 and then with Louis Vuitton from ‘83 until today). But now Louis Vuitton is out, for the time being. It is sad and the Cup will miss this great partner. Being the ONLY permanent body around the Cup for 25 years, LV brought a lot to the event by making it bigger over the years, yet doing it with class and respect. (Remember the A’s Cup Jubilee in Cowes!) They wait and see, hoping that the Old Lady will realize where some people want to take her. The court decision will force the defender to go back to a more realistic and balanced event. The Challengers will be listened to - hopefully they will gain some more freedom - and ACM might come up with some good ideas without taking over the whole event. This would be a trail in the right direction, if only those that are on it will walk. * This weekend, there is a Melges 32 class event in Ft Lauderdale, FL, and a component of the event is for entrants to have a junior sailor on their crew, exposing the youth to both the excitement of the boat, and the extremely talented sailors in attendance. I had a similar opportunity thirty years ago as a young teen, when I was able to sail in the famous Congressional Cup match race event with… Bruno Troublé. It was an experience I have never forgotten. -- Craig Leweck, Scuttleblog, read on: http://tinyurl.com/ypv4eq KIWIS DEMAND COMPENSATION Team New Zealand chief Grant Dalton has sent a compensation demand to Alinghi owner Ernesto Bertarelli for the postponement of the America's Cup in 2009. The demand came just 24 hours before Justice Herman Cahn, of the New York Supreme Court, found against the Swiss businessman and in favour of Larry Ellison's Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Francisco. Dalton's estimate of losses to his Kiwi team of £12 million if the America's Cup is put back to 2010, and €19 million if it is 2011, is graphic illustration of the disastrous commercial complications caused by the summer-long stand-off between the Swiss and the Americans. Dalton's compensation demand was based on a secondary deal struck with the Swiss when the Kiwis challenged at the end of July 2007. The Swiss undertook to hold the America's Cup in 2009, to give Team New Zealand a payment holiday on their entry fee, and offer first right of refusal on Ellison's team base. Other challengers are known to have side deals, put in place so that they felt able to challenge. -- Tim Jeffery, Telegraph, complete story: http://tinyurl.com/2hfrbt TLE AND A Z-FLAG … BUT STILL CHAMPIONS It wasn’t the best way to start the J/80 North American Championships, but Kerry Klingler again proved the value of great sails and great crew, especially facing two past World Champions in the 33-boat fleet. The final race brought Kerry his third NA Championship, each accomplished with UK-Halsey sails. Key West and Spring are coming: it’s time to decide how your boat will be powered for 2008. Racing with inferior sails is worse than starting with a Z-flag; you can’t sail yourself back into competition. So, call UK-Halsey 800-253-2002 to reach your nearest loft or go to http://www.ukhalsey.com BARCELONA WORLD RACE Open 60 doublehanded round the world race (started Nov 11; 25,000-miles) (November 29, 2007) Although the Barcelona World Race is a 25,000 nautical marathon around the world, you might not know that from the position reports today. There are three very close ‘races within the race’ happening on the south Atlantic as the fleet sprints south towards the ‘Roaring Forties’. A lead change now has Paprec-Virbac 2 now in front of PRB, while Hugo Boss has leaped past close foe Delta Dore during the daily sked. Problems persist for Estrella Damm, where a navigational error had them sailing too far east of the scoring gate off the Brazilian coast, forcing them to doubleback to cross through, costing them a couple extra hours that they could ill afford. While admitting that they have sailed a rather bad race so far, Jonathan McKee now laments how the boats ahead are likely to jump ahead a weather system, which could mean that they have lost complete touch, not just with the leaders, but with the group directly in front of them as well. The daily mileage over the past 24 hours supports McKee’s contention, as the compression seen on the previous day has reversed, with the theme now being that the rich are getting richer. -- http://www.barcelonaworldrace.com Day 19 Positions - November 29, 2007 - 18:00 (GMT) 1. Paprec-Virbac 2 - Jean-Pierre Dick (FRA)/Damian Foxall (IRE), 20,677 DTF 2. PRB - Vincent Riou (FRA)/Sébastien Josse (FRA), 7 miles DTL 3. Veolia Environnement - Roland Jourdain (FRA)/Jean-Luc Nélias (FRA), 140 4. Hugo Boss - Alex Thomson (GBR)/Andrew Cape (AUS), 261 5. Delta Dore - Jérémie Beyou (FRA)/Sidney Gavignet (FRA), 265 6. Temenos II - Dominique Wavre (SUI)/Michéle Paret (FRA), 340 7. Mutua Madrilena - Javier Sanso Windmann (ESP)/Pachi Rivero (ESP), 362 8. Estrella Damm - Guillermo Altadill (ESP)/Jonathan McKee (USA), 508 9. Educación sin Fronteras -Albert Bargués (ESP)/Servanne Escoffier (FRA),766 * (November 29, 2007) Six days after his departure from Brest, France, Francis Joyon’s blistering pace has dropped off as he now nears the fickle winds at the equator. After having had three consecutive 500+ mile days, the speed of the 29.7m maxi-trimaran IDEC was between 8-16 knots for most of the day, pulling his latest 24hr distance down to 407 miles. By early Thursday morning, his advance over current record holder Ellen Macarthur was 677 miles, but by 1700 UTC had dropped down to 592 miles. -- http://www.trimaran-idec.com * (November 29, 2007) Fifteen Open 60 's started the Transat ECOVER BtoB that will take the fleet 4200 miles from Salvador de Bahia, Brasil to Port-La-Forêt, France. Lead boats are expected to finish in 16 to 18 days, with the event being an important qualifying event for the most prestigious solo sailing event: the 2008-2009 Vendée Globe. – http://www.transatecoverbtob.com WORLD TOUR: MONSOON CUP Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia (November 29, 2007) Dato’s Peter Gilmour and the PST team continued their impressive start into the second day of the Monsoon Cup 2007, taking a total of seven points at the world’s first purpose-built sailing venue in Pulau Duyong, Terengganu. Gilmour who is also the Monsoon Cup race advisor, beat a host of top-ranked sailors comprehensively after 11 flights. One flight is made up of four matches. The World Match Racing Tour champion will also be crowned at Pulau Duyong, Terengganu, which makes the Monsoon Cup a very significant event on the world circuit. Gilmour said strong winds aided the participants and there were several hard-fought duels in the water. “It was a good day for my team. We were a little behind on a couple of races but we managed to pull through,” he added at the skipper media briefing. World number one and two, Mathieu Richard and Ian Williams are trailing Gilmour by two points to Gilmour’s seven. -- Event site: http://www.monsooncup.com.my At the end of eleven flights, the records are: Dato’ Peter Gilmour (AUS) PST: 6.5-1 Jesper Radich (DEN) Radich Racing 5-2 Mathieu Richard (FRA) Saba Sailing Team: 5-2 Ian Williams (GBR) Team Pindar: 5-2 Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team: 5-3 Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Team Apport.Net: 4-3 Adam Minoprio (NZL) BlackMatch Racing 4-3 Paolo Cian (ITA) Shosholoza 4-3 Staffan Lindberg (FIN) Alandia Sailing Team: 3-5 Sebastien Col (FRA) Areva Challenge: 2-5 Tiffany Koo (MAS) UK Halsey Gapurna Team: 0-7 Katie Spithill (AUS) Team Acuity: 0-8 SAILING SHORTS * This week’s Volvo Saling Podcast looks at the fallout from the decision to delay the America's Cup after the New York Supreme Court rules in favour of BMW Oracle in their battle with holders Alinghi. Hear from the Guardian newspaper's sailing correspondent Bob Fisher, Marcus Hutchinson from British challenger Team Origin, and the CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race, Glenn Bourke. Audio file will be available Thurs eve/Fri morning (UK time). -- http://www.volvooceanrace.org/podcast/ * By August 31st, IRC has announced that 6742 boats held current IRC certificates, 20% up on a year earlier and already more than in the whole of 2006. Growth was not confined to ‘new’ IRC countries such as Argentina, Germany, Greece, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand and Uruguay, but also seen in a number of well established IRC countries, especially Australia and the United Kingdom. At the Annual meeting of the IRC Congress last month, it was decide to formalise the arrangements for holding national, continental, and international regional championships. --http://www.rorcrating.com/ * Global Ocean Sailing Ventures (GOSV) announced that the official Notice of Race for the 2008/09 Portimão Global Ocean Race has been published, with the first of the five legs beginning on October 12, 2008 from Portimão to South Africa. The Portimão Global Ocean Race 2008/09 (PGOR) is the first ever solo-double global ocean race. Details at http://www.portimaoglobaloceanrace.com/?q=en/2277 * Three-time Olympic medallist Mark Reynolds has joined the ISAF Athletes’ Commission as the Star representative. Reynolds replaces Torben Grael (BRA) as the Star representative on the ISAF Athletes’ Commission. Grael stepped down from his position because of his commitments with the Volvo Ocean Race. The ISAF Athletes' Commission represents the voice of the Olympic sailors direct to ISAF and the ISAF Executive Committee. The elected members were nominated by their fellow sailors at the 2007 ISAF Sailing World Championships in Cascais, Portugal. -- http://www.sailing.org/21557.php IT’S JUST AROUND THE “BOUY”………. The Holidays are approaching so when you’re looking for a special gift for a sailor, the perfect choice is Mount Gay Rum gear and accessories. All your shopping needs for any sailor can be done at The Pirate’s Lair, the official Mount Gay Rum gear supplier. Holiday choices of sailing apparel, bags, flasks and glassware with new line items - softshell jacket and the DryShirt/ProWik line of technical shirts all with the legendary Mount Gay Rum logo. For info on the Mount Gay Rum brand, go to mountgay.com - to purchase gear go to The Pirate’s Lair http://www.pirateslair.com/store PHOTOS OF THE WEEK Some of the random photos from the sport received this week at Scuttlebutt include photog Daniel Forster arranging a meeting with Larry Ellison and Ernesto Berterelli, Ralph Richardson as the first black commodore in the 162-year-old history of Royal Bermuda YC, Formula Windsurfing World Championship, Transatlantic Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Flying Junior World Championship, UK sailing, and Francis Joyon’s world record attempt. Here are this week’s photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/07/1130 * Curmudgeon’s Comment: If you have images you would like to share, please email them to us as our traffic reports are saying that this is a very popular weekly feature. Just for fun, we Googled “sailing photos” and found that Scuttlebutt website was ranked #1 among 1.7 million entries. Nice! WHAT IF YOU THREW A PARTY AND NO ONE CAME? If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? No!, and neither does an event occur unless it is on the Scuttlebutt Event Calendar (sponsored by West Marine). Contact us if you have a database that you want us to load, or use our self-serve features to input your event information. View all the events at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or simplicity (letters shall be no longer than 250 words). You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot, don't whine if others disagree, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From John Rousmaniere: Some language is so plain that only a lawyer can make it seem complicated. If the words of the by now amazingly notorious "having" clause in the America’s Cup’s third (1887) deed of gift don’t ease your mind, reflect on the original intent of the cup’s wise founders as they laid it out in the first (1852) deed. If the defender and challenger can't reach mutual consent about the terms, "the match shall be sailed over the usual course for the annual regatta of the yacht club in possession of the cup, and subject to its rules and sailing regulations." If that doesn't presume - require! - that the defender and the potential defender (meaning the challenger) have an organized regatta held every year, what does it mean? The course for a default “deed of gift” match was later redefined, but as the judge pointed out, the presumption remains clear for the challenger. As for Mr Doane’s letter in Issue 2485, to be charitable to Alinghi, they were making their best possible case but would have done better sticking with their Opti regatta and claiming it met the requirement. When Alinghi's lawyer said in court that the “annual” regatta would be held in November -- dropping every reference to the Opti event -- all were amazed (Hamish Ross included, I bet). Lost in all the legal debate has been the original intent of the founders, who had worked very hard to create an active, well-organized yacht club, and they felt challengers should meet that standard if the cup was to endure. The deed of gift reflects their vision. * From Brendan Hanna: I have enjoyed reading Scuttlebutt for years. There are many articles, say, the international outrigger regatta being held in East Who-the-hell-knows, that do not capture my interest. I don't object to their inclusion because I know someone enjoys them, as I do coverage of events and persons with whom I am familiar. I also like being kept abreast of the "court BS" regarding the America's Cup. I've followed the shenanigans surrounding the event for over 40 years, and Scuttlebutt is a very timely and concise source for the latest information. I'd like to thank "Curmudgeon" for the updates, and would suggest Mr. Snyders (re, letter in Issue 2484) and others to utilize the scroll feature when needed. * From Pedro Bello Vozone: In the article, ‘The AC90 Rule: Survivor or Casualty?’ (in Issue 2485), a doubt is cast on whether faster downwind speed is a plus on the America’s Cup as a spectator sport. As the article correctly points out, the boats will be “pressure-chasers” and “a tiny bit more wind pressure will increase the boat speed enormously”. The point I contest is whether this will rule out defensive sailing. I am a long time 49er weekend warrior and currently race in SB3’s, two boats in which a small increase in pressure makes a big difference in speed. I sail the SB3 with a former UK Junior Laser sailor, Peter Stratton, who in my modest opinion, is one of the best defensive sailors I have ever met. His defensive work in defending a downwind position is impressively aggressive: He will gybe at the site of a gybe be the boat behind, but will also risk going a bit more on a limb to find some wind of his own. The results are usually good unless there is more than one chaser boat. The point is, there still are defensive tactics employed with fast downwind boats, but also more to it than what we see in the V5 IACC, which would make the outcome a bit more unpredictable. The risk of continuing with heavier, slower boats is that the path is similar to current F1 auto racing. There are no overtakes, no risk is taken, making it utterly boring to watch. Yeah, maybe it prizes the very good defensive sailor, but is that all sailing has to offer? * From Zane Murdoch: In the excerpt from the AC Deed of Gift that you published in issue #2485, it is quite clear that the 'organized yacht club' must have an annual regatta since the 'ocean water course' - which the word 'having' does indeed refer to - is explicitly for the annual regatta. * From Chris Ericksen: From 1378 to 1417, the Roman Catholic Church had two papacies, one centered in Avignon in France and the other centered in the Vatican in Rome. That was the first thing that came to my mind when I read that there will be a "King (or Queen) of the Masters" in the Laser class based on four regattas, none of which will take place west of I-95 (in 'Butt 2485). Might Laser sailors not in the Eastern Time Zone come up with a similar circuit west of I-5 and crown their own monarch, thereby creating a new Western Schism? * From John Fox: Scuttlebutt 2485 lists the incorrect URL for information about the Laser Masters Midwinter's East being hosted by Melbourne Yacht Club. The correct site is http://www.sail-race.com with http://www.sail-race.com/dinghy/2008LaserMastersMidwinters.htm assigned to all information on the regatta itself. The yacht clubs in Brevard County decided some time back that it would be best if all racing information was consolidated on one website and the sail-race website was formed to do that. * From Nathaniel Berkowitz, Sausalito, CA: We now have a reason to reassess the Sailing Olympic Programs. There are many water sports (excluding swimming/diving) that need the special environments and timing that are not afforded by tagging on to the Summer Olympics. Just as Skiing, Boarding, Sledding were placed in a Winter Olympics, I suggest that a Water Olympics be spun off into a new program. Do I hear any other views? * From Frederic Berg, US Sailing Member: (Regarding Mason Chrisman's comment on logic in Issue 2484) It's passion that wins races, makes men (and women) wealthy and the Olympics grand, making the Olympics important beyond logical explanation. If US Sailing instilled more passion in the sailing public (and the Chairs of its committees), there would be less outcry from one miserable mistake. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. Special thanks to UK-Halsey Sailmakers and Mount Gay Rum gear. |
