|
SCUTTLEBUTT 3062 - Friday, April 2, 2010Scuttlebutt 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. Scuttlebutt on Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Scuttlebutt on Facebook: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/facebook Today's sponsors: Flexofold and The Pirates Lair. FOR A RETURN TO THE PODIUM Since 2003, the top tier professionals have flocked to the Mediterranean for a summer circuit of grand prix racing in the TP52 class. The TP52 Audi MedCup Circuit begins again in May (Cascais, Portugal), where pending America's Cup challenger Team Origin will compete with their new Juan K design, and 2009 circuit champion Emirates Team New Zealand will be seeking to defend. Also in the fray will be 2008 overall winner, the Botin Carkeek design Quantum Racing, which after getting second in 2009, will be relying on their three year old hull for a return to the podium. The boat has been in Valencia undergoing modifications, and skipper Terry Hutchinson (USA) provides an update on the progress: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- We will be there (next week) putting it through sea trials and getting it ready to go racing. We got a little bit unlucky back in December when a shipment of carbon that was to build news bits and pieces for the boat got held up in England, and that has, unfortunately, put us behind by about three weeks. I know we were hoping to be a little bit further along and be in Valencia right now sailing. (Regarding the changes for the 2010 season), in its simplest form, the boat has a new deck put on it. We copied the (Botin Carkeek) 2009 boat, and the primary reason was to improve the structural integrity of the boat. The new deck shape, and how that was designed, is quite a bit stronger. We hope through that point alone that we gain some performance. If the boat is 10% stiffer than what is was last year, that'll be a marked improvement. The sails have changed (due to the new rule) - we have gone to square topped mainsails. There is no more spinnaker pole; there is a prod, so it is a little bit more like the Melges 24 that we have been sailing, which will definitely change the way the boat performs downwind but it also presents a unique challenge to Quantum and the sail designers in that picking the right size spinnakers and the right flying shapes - there'll probably be a big difference in what we see through the fleet there, which will be a big area for us to be able to gain in. The boat has a new bulb that follows more in line with the changes in the rules more than anything, but it gave Botin and Carkeek an opportunity to refine what was there. And from that, we have scaled down the crew as the weight limit in the class has changed. So we have gone from sailing with 15 to now sailing with 12. It will put a higher premium on solid boat handling and how we do things in and out of the corners. You can't underestimate that side of it. The better we sail the boat as a team, you are going to see boat lengths won and lost on that. I think the boat will be easier to sail, but faster, that is to be determined. We still have to be mindful of that it is a three-year old hull, and unless you completely replace underwater what the water sees, you can only do so much. -- Complete audio: http://soundcloud.com/mattcarkeek/terry-hutchinson-podcast-1 AMERICA'S CUP OF LAND SAILING America's premier landsailing event is the America's Cup, which was held last week (March 20-27) at Ivanpah Dry Lake in Primm, Nevada. Dennis Bassano, president of the North American Land Sailing Association, provides the report: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The event this year was a classic, with all types of wind and close racing. We also had a visit by some Las Vegas bikini models, and "Happy Birthday" was sung by Marilyn Monroe to a special guest from Germany. There were daily first prize giving parties every night, including fresh fish tacos, tequila tasting, elk burritos, Moose Drool beer, and bacon wrapped hot dogs. We had one day of no wind, one day of light air (5 to 10 knots), two days of perfect breeze (10 to 20 knots) and two days of big air (25 to 35 knots). There were 42 separate starts, or 75 races in 9 classes. There were a total of 62 pilots, from 9 states and Germany, with 81 different boats competing in the event. The two one-design classes, Manta Twin and Manta Single, were decided by two points or less after 8 races. A new class has formed, called the ST49. It's a 49 sq. ft. wing boat with some other build restrictions. The class was won by the designer/ builder John Eisenlohr, after a close battle in this four boat fleet. You can buy plans from John and build this boat for less than $1500. The big showdown was in the open divisions, NALSA Classes 3 and 4. These classes are only governed by maximum sail area 79 sq. ft. and 59 sq. ft. respectively. Solid Wing versus Wing Mast Soft Sail Alan Wirtanen (US25) and his wing mast soft sail, raced against Phil Rothrock (US 92) and his solid wing. They traded victories early in the week, but when the wind got big, the versatility and ease of handling of the wing mast and soft sail was victorious. This battle between sail and wing has been going on for 30 years in land sailing / dirt boating. In the 1980's, the wings had trouble in the light air creating enough power and were mostly able to handle the heavy stuff (although scary at times). Now times have changed and the wings are killers when it's light to medium. Now when the wind comes up they have lots of power, but have a hard time keeping the boats on the ground (literally). One problem is stopping the wing from fluttering in a big puff/ shift, when you are trying to de-power. When the wing flutters, it picks up the front wheel into the air, the boat then slides along on its transom, and then it all comes crashing back down, usually breaking the wing or the body. -- Forum, read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9559 SAIL MORE, MOTOR LESS! Are you dragging a fixed prop around under your boat? If so, you might as well be dragging a bucket while you're sailing; it's nearly 100 pounds of drag! A low-drag Flexofold propeller will allow you to keep sailing more, increasing your boatspeed, particularly while the winds lighten. With only 5% of the drag of a fixed prop under sail, and equivalent or better performance under power, you can have the best of both worlds. When performance matters, the choice is clear. Flexofold Sailboat Propellers. To learn more and spec a prop for your boat, click now: http://www.flexofold.com/Spec_A_Prop.php THREE U.S TEAMS QUALIFY FOR MEDAL RACE AT PRINCESS SOFIA Palma, Spain (April 1, 2010) - It was another tough day of fleet racing for the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) in Palma, but three USSTAG boats qualified for tomorrow's top-ten medal races. The weather conditions were similar to yesterday's unpredictable, varying shifts. The Olympic class fleets were able to squeeze in at least one race in a good breeze from the Northwest before the wind died. Lasers, Laser Radials, Finns and 49ers had two races, and the Women's Match Racers were able to complete their semi-finals uninterrupted. In the 470 classes, 2008 Olympians Amanda Clark/Sarah Chin and Stu McNay/ Graham Biehl both sit in seventh place going into tomorrow's medal race. Olympic Silver Medalist Zach Railey finished seventh and 14th in the Finn today, which moved him up to 10th place and qualified him to compete tomorrow. USA's Sally Barkow, who skippered an Yngling in the 2008 Olympic Games, and her crew, Katie Pettibone and Suzy Leech will battle it out for bronze tomorrow in the Women's Match Racing petit-finals. "One of our focuses for this event, and for future events, is working on our consistency. We're extremely pleased with our level of consistency and hope to bring those numbers a little lower tomorrow," stated Graham Biehl. Zach Railey, who felt fortunate to get into the top ten, said, "I've not had the best week in the world. I definitely had to fight back in all my races. I haven't been rounding the first weather mark very well, so it's nice to see I've made some improvements as the week went on. Overall, I found some weaknesses in my game, and I have to work on those and move forward. [I'm making] progress but I'm not there yet." Video interview with Zach after racing today: http://www.youtube.com/user/USSTAG?feature=mhw5 Results: http://www.trofeoprincesasofia.org/result.php?miclase=470%20Men Photos: http://sailingteams.ussailing.org/Multimedia/Photos/PS2010.htm Event web site: http://www.trofeoprincesasofia.org/portada.php DISAPPOINTMENT AT PRINCESS SOFIA REGATTA 470 Team USA is the partnership of Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar, campaigning to represent the United States at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. They first joined forces in 2006, and have won three medals at World Cup events over the last two years, Gold at 2008 World Championships, and a first place ranking on the US Sailing Team Alphagraphics two years in a row. Here they discuss their experience at the Princess Sofia Regatta, where the women's 470 fleet was some 44 boats strong: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- We had a very long day on the water on Wednesday with three races, and we placed 33, 21 and 12th. At the end of the day we had slipped to 21st overall. We had problems with both our boat and our sail which we were able to fix before racing today. Today we had one race and placed 6th! That moved us up to 17th overall, and is how we will end the regatta. Tomorrow we will have a full day of practice, and cheer on the other American teams that will be competing in the medal races. On Wednesday, we launched in a windy 16-18 knot northwesterly wind. We sailed the first race in that, and then the second two races were in a shifty southwesterly wind. In the first race yesterday we were appallingly slow, stuck on the wrong side of two big shifts, and crossed the line in 33rd. After the race, the wind died, and as we were training to set up for the next race Erin heard an unusual tapping noise in the boat. We flipped our sailboat onto the coach boat to inspect the bottom of the boat and, sure enough, saw that one of our gaskets had come loose. Gaskets are two thin strips of material that are glued onto the bottom of the boat on either side of the centerboard to keep extra water out of the centerboard trunk. When they come off it is VERY slow. Not only does a loose gasket create a lot of drag, but extra water also comes into the centerboard trunk. To do a temporary fix, we turtled our boat, sat on the bottom, and duct-taped the gasket back on. With our gaskets back on, we were a little bit faster, but still lacked our usual speed and the speed of the top teams. We placed 21 in the second race, and then placed 12 in the third race. We did not get back onto land until 7pm, and then spent over an hour fixing our gaskets. After discussing our sailing with our coach Skip Whyte at the end of the day yesterday, we realized that our new mainsail had a big problem. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/yabyy78 SAILING SHORTS * Coronado del Mar, CA. (March 31, 2010) - The 2010 Corona del Mar to Cabo Race started on March 26 with a fleet of thirty six boats. Competitors were focused on the extremely competitive Class D fleet with four J/125's and three Farr 40's racing one-design as well as for class and overall corrected time. In Class D, J/125s Warrior, Resolute, Derivative and Reinrag2 finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th in class, and 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th overall. Warrior, skippered by Dr. Laura Schlessinge crossed in a corrected time of 82 hours, 17 minutes, and 51 seconds. -- Results: http://www.balboayachtclub.com/files/Cabo2010_April1results.pdf * The Clipper Cup boats will be open to public viewing on April 5 at San Francisco Marina from 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm. Already in port is Cape Breton Island, one of ten entries competing in the Clipper 0-10 Round the World Yacht Race. The Chinese entry, Qingdao, is expected to arrive at San Francisco on Thursday night. Jamaica Lightning Bolt is due to arrive Friday morning. The jury rigged California along with Spirit of Australia and Hull & Humber, who have provided escort duties and fuel to the US entry, are expected to arrive some time on April 6. -- Event website: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/ *One hundred four Lasers, both standard and radial, descended on the Richmond Yacht Club last weekend for the class Midwinters West regatta. After seven races over the three-day regatta, Cal Maritime intercollegiate sailor Sean Kelly took the 54-boat full-rig division when he recovered from 26th in race five, his throw-out, to finish with a 1-4 for a 16-point total, four points clear of Long Beach sailor Kevin Taugher. Newport Harbor YC sailor Kieran Chung took the radial division with no score lower than a seventh, finishing one-point clear of Mitchell Kiss from Holland, MI. -- Complete results: http://tinyurl.com/y9kcrhh MOUNT GAY RUM, NEWPORT-ENSENADA AND BORDER RUN GEAR Check out The Pirates Lair right now for the new Mount Gay Rum red burgee as well as scoring official gear for Newport to Ensenada and The Border Run. Don't forget if you have a regatta to outfit, call or email us for your free quote of what's hot in sales and fantastic in sailing graphics. http://www.pirateslair.com or (888)724-5286. PHOTOS OF THE WEEK Some of the random photos from the sport received this week at Scuttlebutt include sweet engines, shark glasses, Quantum kicks, flight path sailing, Caribbean frostbiting, 'rear rash' recovery, your April computer monitor background. Here are this week's photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/10/0402/ SEND US YOUR PHOTOS: If you have images to share for the Photos of the Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com VIDEO OF THE WEEK When the 29er and 49er classes went to Freeport, Grand Bahama in January for their World Championship, their high performance boats were a perfect fit for the waters of this island paradise. To insure that the event was recorded, the class brought in photographer Fried Elliott and videographer Chris Love to capture the action. After chasing the fleet around on the water for a few days, this pair decided to rent a seaplane...and video tape the outing. It was from this aerial adventure that brought Fried's shots to grace the recent covers of both Sailing World and Seahorse magazines. This week's video follows these titans of imagery as they go aloft: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/10/0402/ SEND US YOUR VIDEOS: If you have clips to share for the Video of the Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com LETTERS AND FORUM Please email your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, 'The Curmudgeon'). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). 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 Barry Demak, J World: (re, Scuttlebutt 3061) I would likely never remember that April Fools Day was coming, if not for the annual early warning provided by Scuttlebutt. It's a very necessary public service, warning each of us not to take much of anything too seriously on the day that follows. (Or any other day for that matter!) Now, how long before the four adults I take out in a 30-yr old Opti tomorrow figure it out? * From David Munge: (re, Scuttlebutt 3061) I was so incensed to read the nonsense in Scuttlebutt 3061. I normally skim through the "butt" picking up the trivia that is scattered in the articles and then get straight to work, however I was so annoyed at the junk in 3061 that I read every word, and was forced to check out the European version as well. Almost the same junk there. * From Andy Vare, San Francisco, CA: (re, Scuttlebutt 3061) '(ISAF board of Enquiry) Chairman Charley Cook commented, "We found the members of SNG demonstrated bad judgment, but could still be reformed. Each individual was sentenced to 30 days of submissive training with Peter 'PRO to the Stars' Reggio, where they will light his cigarettes, accept his foul language, and hear stories of how Ernesto Bertarelli also tried to influence the races during the 32nd America's Cup." ' Bravo! No better salve than humor. (We'll need pictures, of course...) * From Michael Hughes: A question - when is the Melges team going to do some lines for an O/D 40-45? With a little ORC and IRC included in the design brief, it could possibly be a replacement for the F40 class (which has been, and still is, a fantastic class). I think the 32 has the potential to replace the Farr 30. After watching some of the 32's in Sydney a few weeks ago, I would think a 40-45 version would be a lot of fun. * From Don Bedford (re, story in Scuttlebutt 3059) When Peter Lane was describing his new found class, I swear he was describing the Snipe Fleet in San Diego (except for the catered lunches of course...) * From David Redfern: (re, Troy Sears letter in Scuttlebutt 3060) He is right about Scotland and Ireland, which should be given credit for reaching the finals of the America's Cup, but wrong that it should these entries be classed as United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland). The Royal Findhorn YC challenged in 1989 for Scotland, at the same time as Pendennis Yacht Club challenged for England - ie two separate entries. We have football (soccer teams) for England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales and no Great Britain team. We do however have teams in the Olympics for Great Britain. And in Rugby, the Ireland team is a combined team from Eire (Ireland) and Ulster (Northern Ireland) Confused enough? Whew. * From Michael Corman: (edited to the 250 word limit) I am disappointed in many of the proposals I have heard for limiting the design options in the next Cup, on the basis that a technology race would be uninteresting to sail. The truth, as the litigation-marred AC33 pointed out, is that we have set the bar far too low for speed in racing. Both Oracle and Alinghi came up with boats that were nearly too much for their crews to handle. How many iterations would it take of building the best possible sailboat before the designs, or at least the performance of the designs, once again converged and the winner would be the crew that best understood their boat? Two? Three? A small price to pay for the phenomenal increases in performance that would be generated in the meantime. It might be necessary to institute some freedom of technology transfer - any new technology used in a Cup boat must be freely licensable by any America's Cup syndicate for the next America's Cup, for example. But, it's time to encourage designers to build faster, better, edgier boats. Parallel evolution and competition will eventually determine a new standard of racing craft, and when they do, it will be up to the crews to get as much out of the boat as they can. And get rid of the engines again. Leverage is one thing, but any power used to drive the boat should be stored in human muscle or in the wind and sea, not in batteries or fuel. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION The word 'POLITICS' is derived from 'poly' meaning many and 'ticks' which are blood sucking creatures. Special thanks to Flexofold and The Pirates Lair. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
