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SCUTTLEBUTT 2433 - September 17, 2007Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is distributed each weekday with the support of its sponsors. DESIGN OF NEW RULE UNDERWAY America’s Cup designers from Alinghi and the five challengers attended the first design consultation meeting on Saturday 15 September at the AC Management offices in Valencia. Tom Schnackenberg, the class rule and competition regulations consultant, on behalf of ACM, submitted the general summary of the rule status and invited comments from the challengers. The key dimensions were confirmed as 90ft waterline length and 6.5m draft with a retractable keel to 4.1m, while other key dimensions, including beam, weight and consequently the sail area have been decided based on the infrastructure constraints in Valencia (bases, pontoons, etc). These and the key structural rules will remain confidential to the teams participating in the meetings until the 31 October when the new class rule will be made public. The next meeting is scheduled for the 15 October where the design group will discuss the 1st draft of the rule. And meanwhile Schnackenberg will continue to receive input and develop a dialogue with the challengers and Alinghi as part of the design process. -- Complete announcement: http://33rd.americascup.com/en/index.php?idContent=16&idPage=1 DIVIDING THE PIE – AMERICA’S CUP STYLE AC Management (ACM), organiser of the 32nd America’s Cup, announced that they would be distributing 90% of the EUR 66.5 millions net surplus the event generated over the past four years to participating teams. This EUR 66.5 million surplus comes from a total revenue of EUR 240 million, generated largely through the city bid and the four year sponsorship program, but also through TV rights, the hospitality program and the concessions and marinas of Port America’s Cup. To provide a little clarity as to exactly what this means, the Protocol for the 32nd event stated that for any surplus remaining after the event, the Defender gets 45%, the Challengers (as a group) get 45%, and ACM receives 10% as a management fee. We assume that the EUR 240m is the gross revenue, and that after expenses, there was about 30% remaining, or approximately EUR 73.9m. After ACM took their 10% cut of about EUR 7.4m (approx USD 10.3M), we get to the EUR 66.5m amount mentioned in their announcement, of which Alinghi gets half (EUR 33.25m). The remaining EUR 33.25M (approx USD 46.1m) get divided amongst the 11 challengers. -- Here is the complete ACM announcement: http://33rd.americascup.com/en/index.php?idcontent=15&idpage=1 BRITISH IN A BIG WAY (September 14, 2007) If you thought that TEAMORIGIN, Britain’s challenge for the 33rd America’s Cup, was sitting on their hands and holding onto their money until the billionaire battle was completed in the NY Supreme Court, you would have been among those that have underestimated this new campaign. At the Southampton International Boat Show, TEAMORIGIN’s Sir Keith Mills and Mike Sanderson, Team Principal and Team Director respectively, announced a roll call of sailing, design, boatbuilding, and management talent that has not only tremendous experience, but also significant numbers from the challenging country. “This is a British challenge. At least 50% of our team is British. The funding is British, the flag is British, the race boats will be built in Britain, GBR will appear on the mainsail of every one of our racing yachts,” said Sir Keith. -- Complete announcement: http://www.teamorigin.com/da/60850 Among the notables onboard are: Juan Kouyoumdjian - Principal Designer Ben Ainslie - Helmsman Iain Percy - Tactician Rob Greenhalgh - Strategist & Traveller Ian Moore - Navigator Stan Honey - Technical Director & Navigator Andrew Simpson - Aft Grinder & Strategist Neal McDonald - Mainsheet trimmer Justin Slattery - Bowman Current roster: http://tinyurl.com/2umo4c MORRIS YACHTS’ WORLDWIDE BOAT SHOW SEASON! Having wrapped up the Newport International Boat Show last weekend and the Netherlands’ HISWA boat the week before, Team Morris heads to Annapolis for the United States Sailboat Show October 4-8. Cuyler Morris is moving the new Morris 45 Next Boat south and the Morris M42 Revelation and her crew will be following. Both these boats will be dockside in the show. The M36 will be flirting outside the show. With the show season in full swing, the team is basking in the glow of their fabulous 35th Anniversary Owner’s Rendezvous with no intentions of stopping the celebration. -- http://www.MorrisYachts.com A GOOD SIDE STORY Tragedy is no basis for sports spectating, but it happens in most sports, and the possibility of it is one of many features that attract the avid fan. A good side story works well too, like doping to gain an athletic advantage, or the revelation last week of the storied New England Patriots football team and their propensity of illegally video taping the opposing coach’s player signals. Sailing seems to be getting into the act too, as the Chinese government and the British sailing team have gotten into a bit of scrap regarding some surveillance equipment. With recent press releases announcing how the mayors of Miami and Qingdao were getting together this Tuesday at Coral Reef Yacht Club (Miami, FL) for some breakfast and to reaffirm their brotherly relationship as great sailing cities, ‘butthead John Browning wonders if the American mayor might also discuss the problems of the Brits. In a letter to Miami’s Mayor Diaz, he says, “I hope that you will mention to your Chinese guests on September 18, that abuse of power gets wide publicity in the West, and if they expect to create any 'respect for their City' from sailors, they need to change, and to do it now. “I refer to: The British Olympic sailors gear that was taken, when their police officers raided the team's flat, removing two 5ft tall weather stations, worth US$16,000 [£8,000], from the apartment in March 2006. The U.K., team was in China preparing for the 2008 Olympics, and had been using the equipment to download data on temperatures and wave and wind directions. -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2007/09/good-side-story.html WORLD TOUR – LATIUM MATCH CUP Rome, Italy (September 16 2007) -- In a performance not seen at any recent World Tour event, James Spithill (AUS) went undefeated in fourteen matches, including all three of his matches in the Final Round, to capture the inaugural Latium Match Cup. Spithill’s Luna Rossa team of Joe Newton, Michele Ivaldi, Magnus Augustson, and Andy Fethers bested Sebastien Col (FRA) and his team from Areva Challenge to earn the top prize of €55,000 and 25 points added to his score on the World Tour leader board. “We obviously came here to win, and we enjoy sailing here in Italy, but to go through undefeated – we didn’t expect that!” said Spithill. “It’s a real testament to the guys on my team.” It was a good collection of circuit veterans that had worked their way though the round robin to qualify for the quarterfinals: Ian Ainslie, Paolo Cian, Sébastien Col, Peter Gilmour, Magnus Holmberg, Sten Mohr, James Spithill, and Ian Williams. Of those that made it to the semi-finals, Spithill beat Mohr 3-0 and Col beat Holmberg 3-2. In the Petit Final action, Sten Mohr (DEN) capitalized on mistakes made by rival Magnus Holmberg (SWE), winning the first-to-two point round in two matches. -- Final report: http://www.worldmatchracingtour.com/default.asp?m=da&id=60933 Final Results 1. James Spithill (AUS) Luna Rosa Challenge - €55,000.00 (approx USD 76K) 2. Sébastien Col (FRA) Areva Challenge - €35,000.00 3. Sten Mohr (DEN) Rudy Project Sailing Team - €30,000.00 4. Magnus Holmberg (SWE) Victory Challenge - €20,000.00 5. Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Shosholoza - €18,000.00 6. Ian Williams (GBR) Team Pindar - €16,000.00 7. Peter Gilmour (AUS) PST - €14,000.00 8. Ian Ainslie (RSA) Team Shosholoza - €12,000.00 9. Mathieu Richard (FRA) Saba Sailing Team 10. Jure Orel (SLO) Team Eagles 11. Victor Lanier (FRA) Equipe de France Militaire 12. Michael Hestbaek (DEN) United Internet Team Germany DIRTY DOES IT Hyeres, France (September 15, 2007) -- It was neither particularly pretty nor was it winning ugly, but Russell Coutts, skippering the crew of owner-helm Torbjorn Tornqvist’s Artemis, lifts the Breitling MedCup trophy on the final day of his third season competing on the TP52 racing circuit. With Swedish businessman Tornqvist driving the 2007 Judel Vrolijk design, and at least six present or past America’s Cup winners among the afterguard and crew, Artemis won the 2007 title by just eight points after 32 windward leeward races and six coastal races over the five series regattas this season. Winning the Hyères Trophy, Artemis became the fifth different boat to win a regatta overall this season after Bribon in Alicante, CxG Caixa Galicia in at Breitling Regatta, Siemens Matador in Copa del Rey, Palma and the outgoing 2006 champions Valle Romano Mean Machine in Portimao, Poretugal. It is the second consecutive year of the three year old circuit that the winning boat has been steered by an owner-driver, Tornqvist also winning the Corinthian Trophy for the season and for the Hyères Trophy regatta. -- Complete report: http://2007.medcup.org/news/?idioma=2 * Hyeres Trophy results: http://tinyurl.com/2rjkyp * Overall Circuit results: http://tinyurl.com/3c95lc * Great images from Thierry Martinez and Max Ranchi: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/07/0915 TP52 2007 MEDCUP CHAMPIONS: WELL DONE ARTEMIS Southern Spars would like to congratulate the TP52 crew on board Artemis in winning the overall Breitling Med cup along with the four other regatta winners during the season. If you’d like to know more about the design innovations, or even dig deeper into the aerodynamic study or the sail-rig flow study that has gone into developing the TP52 rigs, go online at the Southern Spars website where 4 of the 5 winning yachts in the season’s regattas were rigged by Southern Spars. -- http://www.southernspars.com BIG BOAT SERIES San Francisco, Calif., USA (September 16, 2007) -- Sunday’s final race at the Rolex Big Boat Series, called the Bay Tour, set the 112 competing boats on a two-hour pursuit around the Bay ranging in distance from 15.44 nautical miles for the larger IRC handicapped boats to 9.05 miles for the one-design classes. In the end, six skippers were awarded the St. Francis Yacht Club’s six Perpetual Trophies and also presented with Rolex Steel Submariner timepieces in recognition of their achievements. The St. Francis Perpetual Trophy, dedicated in 1964, is the only one that does not rotate among the classes each year. It was deeded to the premier handicap division, the IRC A class in this 43rd annual regatta. Samba Pa Ti, the new TP52 owned by John Kilroy (Lost Angeles, Calif.) won the five-boat division. Roger Sturgeon’s (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) Rosebud, the STP65 which made its debut here this week, took line honors in today’s race and finished second overall. “Big Boat in 1965 was my first one and since Rolex has been here it has gotten better and better,” said Kilroy, moments before giving his Rolex to crew member Justin Smart, who has sailed with him for the past 31 years. -- Complete report and results: http://www.regattanews.com/pressrelease.asp?pid=1731&lang=1 COMING TO AMERICA The Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race, which begins this Sunday for the ten 68-foot yachts, has just announced that there will be a leg from Hawaii, HI to Santa Cruz, CA that’s due to arrive on April 8, 2008. Comments local Bill Lee, “To our knowledge this will be the first time any Round the World Yacht Race has visited the West Coast of the USA.” The yachts will remain in Santa Cruz for ten days and then race the 3300 miles down through the Pacific Ocean towards Panama. The complete route for this year's race is: Liverpool, UK - La Rochelle, France Salvador, Brazil Durban, South Africa Fremantle, Australia Singapore Qingdao, China Hawaii, USA Santa Cruz, USA Panama Jamaica New York, USA Nova Scotia, Canada Cork, Ireland Liverpool. -- http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar SAILING SHORTS * San Diego, CA. (September 16, 2007) -- After four days of racing in evenly matched Etchells, winners were crowned at US Sailing’s U.S. Men's and Women’ s Sailing Championship, hosted September 11-15 by the Southwestern Yacht Club. Topping the list for the men was local sailors Brian Camet, Daniel Camet, and Alex Camet. The women’s winner was the Lake Michigan team of Elizabeth Altman (Chicago, IL), Nancy Heffernan (St. Louis, MO), Vickie Matthews (Chicago, IL), and Marie Hansson (Chicago, IL). -- http://www.ssop.org/RaceCommittee/Mallory-Adams.htm * The 16th Mini Transat has been postponed from their scheduled start on September 16th due to strong winds. Eighty-four solo Mini 6.5’s will be on standby until Tuesday or Wednesday to begin the 4,240-mile ocean race from France to Brazil. American Clay Burkhalter is the sole North American entrant. -- http://www.teamacadia.org * Leixões, Portugal (September 15, 2007) -- Dealing with extreme light winds that only allowed for three races, Tomas Hornos/ Enrique Quintero (USA) beat out 56 teams representing 18 countries to win the TMN Snipe World Championship. Of the five race days, two were abandoned due to too much fog or too little wind, and the other three days allowed for only one race each. In second was Kenji Abe/ Hiroshi Yamachica (JPN), third was Peter Commette/ Sheehan Commette (USA), with defending champion Augie Diaz/ Mark Ivey (USA) in fourth. -- http://www.worldsnipe2007.org * Rochester, NY (September 15, 2007) – Ninety entrants competed in the IFDS Disabled Sailing World Championship, hosted by Rochester Yacht Club, USA. In the 45-boat 2.4mR class, Damien Sequin (FRA) beat out Heiko Kroeger (GER) to win, while Karen Mitchell/ J.P. Creignou (USA) won the SKUD 18 class, with Nick Scandone/ Maureen McKinnon-Tucker (USA) capturing the silver medal in the 18-boat fleet. The team of Rick Doerr, Bill Donohue, and Tim Angle (USA) captured gold in a 27-boat Sonar class, just 2 points ahead of Paul Callahan, Tom Brown, and Roger Cleworth (USA) in second. -- http://www.2007ifdsworlds.com/results.html * Newport, RI (September 16, 2007 -- Alex Jackson (New York, NY), sailing Amelia, beat out 17 other entrants to win the first U.S. Swan 42 Class National Championship, hosted by the New York Yacht Club in Newport, RI, September 14-16. In second was Mustang, co-skippered by Gary Jobson, Norwood Davis and Whitey Lipscomb, and third was Mark Watson onboard Tiburon. The wind was light to moderate from the south on Friday, but a cold front whipped up Narragansett Bay on Saturday with winds over 30 knots. Sunday it was a northerly breeze that lost its way throughout the day. -- Results: http://nyyc.org/gui/nyyc1/sailingevents/153/Preliminary%20Results.pdf SEAMARSHALL LEADS THE WAY “It was a dark and stormy night.” We all know the rest of this story. Always be prepared for the worst. Only SeaMarshall’s water-activated beacons mated to our new, affordable, direction-finding receiver offer the world’s best system for locating a man-overboard victim… even in severe conditions. Contact Chip Barber: mailto:admin@chabrber.com or http://www.chbarber.com/seamarshall.html EIGHT BELLS Bill Waggoner passed away on September 6, 2007 at the age of 71 years after a long battle with cancer. Bill attended graduate school at Michigan State University obtaining both masters and doctoral degrees in physiology, but his passion was for yacht racing and flying. He garnered many yacht racing awards in the United States and in the Mediterranean, and as a member of the New York Yacht Club, he served on the Race Committee for a continuous 19 years. Bill was also a trustee of the International Yacht Restoration School, where he served a chairman of the Education Committee, The Midland School, and the United States Sailing Foundation, where he served as president. Over the past 10+ years, many of the sailors who have competed at the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta got to know Bill during his time as the volunteer scorer. There will be a Memorial Service on Sunday, September 23rd at the Kirkpatrick Chapel at 1:00pm in New Brunswick, NJ. In lieu of flowers, please make memorial donations to; Angel Flight (Andover, MA.), International Yacht Restoration School (Newport, RI.) or The Midland School (North Branch, NJ.). For online condolences or for more information, please visit http://www.martinfh.com/?p=obituary_view&id=44726 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 Steve Adkins, Madison, CT: In the Etchells New England's this past weekend in Burlington, Vermont, racing was cancelled Friday due to very high winds. Saturday started windless and postponed at the dock to one race started in 10-12 and finished in 20+ by early afternoon. One boat had lost a rig with the judge boat was attending. While the race committee continued to change the set up, the breeze built to 25+ and another boat lost a rig while another was disabled. The RC had to either call the Coast Guard (as was discussed over the radio) or abandon further racing. They abandoned. Sunday had one race in extremely light conditions. The breeze never returned and time ran out before a third race could be started. The very difficult wind conditions aside, the race committee’s decision NOT to provide crash boats, will prove to be the reason this regatta failed to complete the minimum of three races required by the sailing instruction to constitute a series. What were they thinking? * From Ken Guyer: Thanks to Charlie Doane (Butt 2432) for reminding me of the Hobie 10, Mono-Cat. While I think it did come out after the 14 and 16 foot cat models, it was a blast. I had so much fun on it sailing around Mission Bay (CA) I took it with me when I moved to Kona, Hawaii. Used to keep it on the little beach near the Queen's Palace in Kona and sailed every day I could. Great fun. Thanks Hobie! * From Bruce Thompson: The Hobie 33 video in Issue 2431 provides a useful gauge of the dynamic loading on the keel of a high performance boat. Remember those stories of the Volvo racers dropping two meters? A rough estimate of the average G loading can be derived by scaling the distance the boat is dropped versus the distance in which it's fall is retarded. It seems to about about a 3 to 1 ratio, so the average impact laoding is about 3 Gs for the Hobie's two meter fall. and that is an average, not the peak impact load. This raises the question of whether the ABS guideline of a Factor of Safety of 2.0 minimum is adequate for high performance boats. Loss of keel accidents are far too common. The British Marine Accident Investigation Branch report on the loss of Hooligan V details one such case and provides an insight into how marginal the ABS guidelines really are for the dynamic loading on today's high performance boats. Hobie video: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/07/0910 MAIB report: http://tinyurl.com/2jolgc * From Jack Attridge, Marblehead, MA: (regarding story in Issue 2432) Bravo to Gary Jobson for his story that included the absence of an American Flag anywhere on BMW Oracle’s compound or boats. Ever since I heard Gary tell the story last month it has gnawed at me. To think that most of our country’s freedom comes as a result of hard fought ocean battles and Larry Ellison snubs not only our flag and country but our Ambassador as well is appalling. I guess all the money in the world can’t buy patriotism. * From Matthew Reid: I so agree with Gary's comments regarding flying the U.S.A. colors. I think it is arrogant/ egocentric of Larry to not display them, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Obviously, he is trying to win for the corporate country of Oracle. It reminds me of a saying I’ll try and paraphrase, "Oh, he's always been an a-hole, money just gave him a chance to prove it." * From Tej Trevor Parekh: Jobson is darn right that nationality needs to become a part of the AC game again. Think back to '83 and '87 when it was USA against Australia (not BMW against Emirates or whatever). That was when the AC was the most visible in the American media. The average American had a vested interest in the match because it was their national pride against the Australians'. President Reagan's bet also helped! I believe that it is very important to get the world's biggest consumer market back into the sport. I can't say that teams should be 100% home nationals, but 60 or 75% might do some good to establish that nationalistic pride again. Look to the Olympics: displaying large flags on the sails made things more exciting. The World Cup of soccer is another good example. So, the 33rd Cup should have a 30% nationality rule, then a 60% nationality rule for the 34th. Alinghi might have to do some recruiting locally and even give up their five guys. I believe Peter Isler even said on Versus during the Cup that there are three Kiwi teams: the American Kiwi team, the Swiss Kiwi team, and the Kiwi Kiwi team! That should definitely change! CURMUDGEON’S CONUNDRUM Why do British people never sound British when they sing? Special thanks to Morris Yachts, Southern Spars, and CH Barber. |
