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SCUTTLEBUTT 1536 - March 10, 2004Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is adigest 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 and personal attacks for elsewhere. NEW WORLD RECORD After 122 days 14 hours 3 minutes and 49 seconds at sea, Jean Luc Van den Heede's 84-foot aluminum Adrien crossed the finishing line off the Island of Ushant in NW Brittany to complete his East to West (backwards) circumnavigation. This broke the previous single-handed, non-stop, round the world against the winds and currents record set on the November 7, 2003 by Phillippe Monnet by 29 days, 5 hours, 50 minutes and 47 seconds - subject to ratification by the World Speed Sailing Record Council. This was Van Den Heede's fourth attempt at this record. VDH is now sailing to his home port of Les Sables d'Olonne in Western France, and plans to arrive on Thursday 11 March at 5 p.m. CET. - http://www.vdh.fr/gb/ AMERICA'S CUP The South African Challenge has as one of its goals the expression of that nation's ethnic diversity in its make-up and there are hopes that five or six of its race crew will be black sailors. The syndicate enjoys official backing from the South African government in the form of Ngconde Balfour, the minister of sport, and it is actively recruiting young black sailors through a youth foundation in Cape Town sponsored by one of the team's founders, Salvatore Sarno. Sarno, an Italian-born South African resident of 14 years standing, is the chairman of the Mediterranean Shipping Company in South Africa and is the Managing Director of the challenge. He will work alongside Cape Town yachtsman Geoff Meek who will lead the sailing team and Britain's Paul Standbridge who is sailing manager, a role he fulfilled in the last Cup for the GBR Challenge. Another key player is the talented young British designer, Jason Ker, who is de-camping from Southampton to Cape Town next week to begin work on the lines of his first attempt at an America's Cup Class. The syndicate has money for its first year and is aiming for a total budget ranging at the bottom end of around E25 million and E100 million at the top. Meek believes the money will be found in the resurgent South African economy and says the early indications are encouraging. * While no one is expecting anything spectacular, there is serious intent as evidenced by the team's purchase of one of Prada's 2000 generation Luna Rossa yachts, ITA48. - Excerpts from a major story by Ed Gorman on The Daily Sail website, full story: http://www.thedailysail.com QUOTE / UNQUOTE "People won't take us very seriously overseas, but I think we have a great chance." - Geoff Meeks, who will skipper the South African America's Cup entry. - BBC Sport, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/3544057.stm FOR THE RECORD * Yesterday's 557-mile entry in the log marked a seventh consecutive day's run of more than 500nm for skipper Steve Fossett and the 125ft maxi-catamaran Cheyenne on their Round The World record attempt. Yesterday they continued their streak across the south-west Pacific Ocean - and extended their lead over the 2002 RTW record holder's position to 2,222 miles - an advantage of five days. They are currently 3,139 nm west of Cape Horn. With threatening weather building to the south later this week, Fossett and navigator Adrienne Cahalan plotted a course slightly to the north-east, sacrificing a little of the advantage of a shorter, more southerly passage east for the potential option of being able to quickly move back to the 'roaring forties' from the 'furious fifties'. In addition to being over 2,200 miles ahead of Orange's 2002 record track, Cheyenne and crew are also over 1,100 miles ahead of the 2003 RTW position of Geronimo after 31 days - at the time considered a very fast passage. - Excerpt from the Yachting World website, http://www.yachting-world.com/ Cheyenne website: http://www.fossettchallenge.com * The Cap Gemini and Schneider Electric trimaran completed Day 12 with 517 nautical miles on the clock after averaging 21.55 knots, making this the second day of covering over 500 miles on her dash to the Southern Ocean. This performance put the 11-man crew around 90 nautical miles ahead of the current record at 23:18 last night. The unusual weather configuration in the south Atlantic is still proving very costly in terms of distance to be covered by giving the French crew no choice but to skirt a very large high pressure region around its western edge. There is also the threat of a new unusual weather pattern in the shape of a depression centered over Madagascar. This is forecast to move southwards, seriously disrupting weather systems that have been well-established until now and - worse still - threatening Geronimo with poorer sea conditions. - www.trimaran-geronimo.com * From the Polish VO 60 Bank BPH attempting a fully-crewed monohull round the world record (there is no existing record): The wind is slowly beginning to weaken, but that doesn't change the fact that that we only sailed 246 nautical miles today. This is driving us crazy. We have one or two days of light winds in front of us, so we will take the opportunity to inspect the yacht, especially the mast, since it hasn't worked right since the very start. After these two days, according to what our routier tells us, we will beging our attack on the "forties." The weather remains nice, but these are surely the last days we will enjoy for a while to come. Daily progress: 246 miles - www.race2000.pl/index.php?section=news&action=detail&id=79 WIND STRIPCHARTS WITHOUT A COMPUTER Prior to the introduction of Ockam's 007 Matryx display, "trend" information was restricted to systems running outboard computer programs. Stripchart data is a powerful tool on the racecourse - the Matryx display provides wind and current speed/direction graphs at the push of a button. Ockam's new wireless PDA software package "EYE" provides stripcharting of multiple functions across a wide range of time periods. Predict the future (more) accurately with EYE and Matryx - Contact Tom Davis (tom@ockam.com) or visit http://www.ockam.com; contact Campbell Field (cmf@ockameurope.com) or visit http://www.ockameurope.com BACARDI CUP Miami, FL - It didn't look or feel like a sailing regatta today as the 93- boat Bacardi Cup fleet went searching for wind on Biscayne Bay. Despite the shifty light breeze, the race was won with a long lead by the Portuguese duo of Alfonso Domingos and crew Bernardo Santos. With half the races completed, they are now in first place overall at the Bacardi Cup. Second place went to Austrians Hans Spitzauer and crew Andreas Hanakamp, followed by Americans George Szabo and crew Mark Staube in third place. Most of yesterday's leaders were caught in the back of the pack with no wind. The Austrians were in ninth position after the first and second marks and as crew Hanakamp put it, "we were on a good tack after rounding the second mark and just kept going. We had more luck today." It was a big disappointment for six-time Bacardi Cup Champion Mark Reynolds who was among the four teams disqualified for an early start after waiting more than an hour to start the race. The Irish team of Maxwell Treacy and crew Anthony Shanks were also disqualified for an early start for the second day in a row, thus ending the race for them. Americans Howie Shiebler and crew Will Stout finished in fourth place and move up to fourth place overall behind Bermudans Peter Bromby and crew Lee White who finished in 13th place and are now third overall. Canadian Olympian Ross Macdonald and crew Mike Wolfs finished in fifth place today and move up to second overall. "It was a tough race today with incredibly shifty wind, so shifty that nothing was for certain. We were extremely conservative as anything could get thrown at you and holding to a fifth place through the race was the best part of the day," said Macdonald. Marc Pickel the skipper of the German team best expressed the day. "It was very shifty wind and basically we didn't get it right. We went right up the middle and passed a few boats and then got stuck there," he said. Pickel and crew Ingo Borkowski placed 61st today. - Janet Maizner 1. Afonso Domingos & Bernardo Santos, POR, 15 2. Ross Macdonald & Mike Wolfs, CAN, 21 3. Peter Bromby & Lee White, BER, 32 4. Howie Shiebler & Will Stout, USA, 35 5. Flavio Marazzi & Enrico De Maria, SUI, 37 6. Colin Beashel & David Giles, AUS, 41 7. Marko Dahlberg & Ville Kurki, FIN, 57 8. Andy Lovell & Magnus Liljedahl, USA, 60 9. Hans Spitzauer & Andreas Hanakamp, AUT, 61 10. John Dane III & Henry Sprague, USA, 64 Full results: http://www.starclass.org/search.cgi?Action=view&Event_id=428 FROM THE BACARDI CUP RACECOURSE - Paul Cayard The wind finally filled in around 1300 from 130 at 7-8 knots. It looked promising. In this wind direction the left side is usually favored. We started near the middle of the line and headed left. Unfortunately as we got towards the port layline, the wind kept lifting us. Our port tack heading was terrible and the boats in the middle of the course had a great shift. We rounded the first mark about 80th. There were not many people behind us. * For the final run to the finish the race committee changed the course with code flag "C" and indicated a heading of 310. However they actually positioned the finish line at 280…off by 30 degrees. That caught a few people by surprise like Vince Brun and Rick Merriman who had expected the finish line to be where it was indicated and headed down the right side of the run only to over stand and come back to the "downwind" finish with pole down and on a tight reach. Freddy Loof got so fed up with the race he just quit. * Tomorrow will be our last day of training for this week. I am going home to San Francisco to visit my family and Phil is going to New York to see his wife. We are back next week for a couple days of practice before the Olympic Trials start on Saturday the 20th. - http://cayardsailing.com/ NEWS BRIEFS * The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) will support the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) on marine equipment recently signed between the United States and the European Union. The agreement will allow for standards-qualifying equipment from one market to be sold in the other without additional testing or certification. It includes 30 types of marine equipment such as navigational, fire protection, and life saving devices, the NMMA said. The agreement is expected to provide an economic boost in the marine equipment sector while minimizing regulatory constraints and facilitate better marine safety on both sides of the Atlantic. - Boating Industry, www.boating-industry.com/output.cfm?id=785539 * Challenge Business announced that it would further its commitment to the official race charity - Save the Children - by assembling a consortium of eight leading organizations to support a "Team Save the Children" yacht in the Global Challenge 2004/05 round-the-world yacht race. Basilica Computing - a leading UK based IT solutions provider, is to be the first consortium member and will take a lead in attracting other companies to join. - www.challengebusiness.com/global * Loved for her exuberance, loving and wonderful spirit, Kelly O'Neil Henson was memorialized last weekend at the Seattle Yacht Club and their Opening Day race where sailors threw daffodils (Kelly's favorite flower) into her photo boat "Smile". A celebration of her life will also take place at Santa Barbara Yacht Club on this Saturday at 5 pm. All friends are encouraged to attend. Wear a Hawaiian shirt and a smile. - Jane Watkins * Twenty-four - That's the number of new books that have been added to Scuttlebutt's Club Library this month, including (finally) the 20 volumes of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin Series from which the movie 'Master and Commander' was made. Enjoy these new additions and the other 100+ titles at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/books WHAT BECOMES A SINGULAR SAILING LEGEND MOST? By winning his third consecutive Finn Gold Cup on top of two Laser world championships and two Olympic medals (1996 silver, 2000 gold), Ben Ainslie is becoming a single-handed sailing legend. At Henri Lloyd we're proud that Ben races with Henri Lloyd's TP2 One-Design wear. Ben was instrumental in developing our next-generation technical One-Design wear. Ben's invaluable input has also helped us develop the reduced weight and profile fit of the new HL Innovations range, which we'll unveil this month. See our technical One-Design wear at: http://www.henrilloydonline.com/productmgmt/subcat.asp?nCatID=24 LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com) 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 Peter Huston: Carl Eichenlaub is one of the living legends of the sport. While a great sailor, boatbuilder, and story teller, he's better defined by all the people he has helped to become better sailors, and human beings. The boat that he is building for his daughter is so much more than that, it's really a statement about what makes this sport so wonderful: family, and respect for tradition. Sailing World should honor the man who has done so much for so many without ever asking for anything but friendship in return by putting him in the Hall of Fame this year. * From Janet Baxter, President, US Sailing: What a delightful story about our friend Carl Eichenlaub! I can't think of that fellow without smiling and without deep appreciation for all he's done for sailing. * From Doug Schickler: Mr. Browning, makes the tacit implication on sailtexas.com that IRC is a box rule. Not so! IRC is subjective rating, in my opinion not suited to Grand Prix events. Box rules have their place, as do VPP based rules. The true core of a VPP rule is the attempt to account for varying wind speeds in predicting performance, where previous methods simply used boat/rig/sail dimensions. Designers working in any future racing (handicap) systems will be using VPP's to get an edge. Will, as was the case with IMS, the designers' ingenuity, political savvy, and in-house VPP's outpace the rule's development? * Ralph Taylor: Let's keep sailing a participation sport and not let the spectator tail wag the participation dog. When someone starts saying everyone else should spend big bucks (bucks that many community, college & youth sailing programs don't have) for the sake of a few Olympic medals, we've lost sight of what attracts young & old to sailing. * From Fred Schroth: Over the last 45 years, my racing weight has ranged from under 100 pounds to over 225 pounds. I have been the right size for everything from Optimist prams to the Finn. I am not yet a Star Crew, but I have been warned about turning into one. Star crews are the only big competitive guys left in the small boat sailing world. It is one thing to be forced to leave my friends in a class behind because I fed myself to an uncompetitive size. It is unacceptable to be forced out by a newly imposed and arbitrary weight limit. The imposition of legislated weight limits serves only to eliminate sailors and further shrink the sport. In basketball, guards find centers and build a team. Football linemen find scrappy guys to play defensive back. Rather than befriend different sized sailors and assemble a true team, the smaller majority has decided to eliminate "Star Crew" from the sailing dictionary. Look out Finn sailors. You are next! * From Clark Chapin: Regarding Allan Terhune Jr.'s comments in #1531, the Interlake Sailing Class Association faced a similar dilemma in the early seventies and considered changing from a crew limit of two or three to add an additional requirement for sanctioned events (then as now, only the Nationals). Rather than require that the same people be aboard for each race, the ISCA requires that the crew for each race be named prior to the close of registration with exceptions for "illness or other unforeseen circumstances" with the written approval of the Race Committee prior to any race where a substitute is used. Basically, we figure that if you can successfully predict the weather in the Midwest three days in advance, you're welcome to try. This allows families to rotate between kids as crew or someone who doesn't have enough vacation for the entire event to participate. It seemed more user-friendly than the alternatives. * From Kim Couranz:-While the Star class is a large, international class with a strong class management and a long history, it is not the "only" such class, as Harrison Hine wrote in Scuttlebutt 1534. Classes including the Snipe, Lightning, Etchells, and yes, Stars, are older designs that have lasted with great success - in large part thanks to strong class organizations. I primarily sail Snipes, so I write from that perspective. The Snipe was designed in 1931 - 73 years ago - and the Snipe class was incorporated with a constitution and by-laws in 1932. The first Snipe World Championship was held in 1934. The Snipe Class International Racing Association (SCIRA) includes 872 fleets in 27 countries. There are now 30,300 Snipes floating about - in a non-manufacturer's class. The Snipe class's motto is "Serious Sailing, Serious Fun" - so you know there's as much fun ashore during regattas as there is during the great racing! That "classic" boats including Snipes, Stars, Lightnings, and Etchells continue to be sailed at incredibly competitive levels around the world today (just take a peek at the lists of these classes' national and world champions - they are impressive!) is a testament not only to the boats' timeless and beautiful designs, but also to strong class organizations - a characteristic not unique to the Star class. CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUM Isn't having a smoking section in a restaurant like having a peeing in a swimming pool? |
