|
SCUTTLEBUTT 1745 - January 3, 2005Powered 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, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere. GUEST EDITORIAL There is something seriously wrong when multi-million dollar maxi's are literally breaking up at sea under difficult but hardly hurricane conditions. As one who has previously designed and built a racing 40 footer, and has designed and is currently building a custom 7777 mm sloop, the heart of the problem lies with an item known in engineering as the relevant "safety factor". One can reasonably accurately determine static loads. From these, one can then establish relevant local stresses, and then determine, based upon the choice of materials, how much "stuff" is needed to withstand those stresses. However, these are what might be termed the "static stresses". Dynamic stresses, such as the loads imposed when a sailboat "falls off a wave" are much more difficult to quantify. Consequently, prudent design calls for an appropriate "factor of safety" to account for the finite...and all too real... possibility that "sooner or later" a substantial dynamic stress will be encountered. Ah...as Shakespeare might say "there's the rub". Make the factor of safety too large, the boat gets too heavy and is not competitive. Make the factor of safety too small and we see what happens in the latest Sydney-Hobart race, or even to some recent IACC boats. Simply stated, the new materials ... Kevlar, carbon fiber, Vectran, etc. are remarkable and have some truly amazing properties, especially tensile strength, tensile modulus, and creep resistance. Unfortunately, they are NOT especially terrific with respect to shear strength and fatigue resistance...in fact...regarding the latter they are not even close to that ancient boat building material known as wood! A paper clip will not break if you bend it once. But bend it back and forth a dozen times and you will have two halves of a paper clip. How many bending cycles does a racing sailboat encounter over a long distance ocean race? If you want to have fun the next time you encounter a yacht designer, spar designer, yacht builder or spar builder ask them two questions: "What factor of safety did you use"? And then "why did you pick that value"? Not only will you likely learn something, you will also begin to understand the amount of "quesstimation" that is involved in what many people naively believe is a precise and scientifically based business. - Dr. Paul F. Jacobs, Saunderstown, RI RESCUE AT SEA In the Global Challenge Race, John Masters has been successfully airlifted off Imagine It Done and is in hospital in Wellington. His condition is said to be stable, as he undergoes a number of tests to ascertain his exact medical problems, currently only known as internal abdominal injuries. This was the third longest rescue mission ever undertaken by the Wellington Westpac Rescue Helicopter, involving more than 100 people. Because it was to impossible to mount this operation without additional fuel, the NZ Rescue Co-ordination Centre was able to get Air Chatham to fly their Convair plane to Wellington and shuttle 1800 litres of aviation fuel, in barrels, back to the Chatham's on New Years Day. This brought the total number of aircraft involved in this rescue to four - a Westpac Rescue Helicopter BK117, a Vincent Aviation Spotter plane Reims, the Air Ambulance Metroliner and the refuel plane. Back out on the race course, the three front yachts, BG Spirit, Spirit of Sark and BP Explorer, are only 23 miles apart less than 130 miles from the finish line in Wellington. Imagine It Done has retired from this leg. - www.globalchallenge2004.com KEY WEST Entries are approaching 300 for Key West 2005 presented by Nautica. The boats are from 14 foreign countries and a record 36 states, including Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, led by New York, 31; Illinois, 23; Florida, 22; California, 19, and Maryland and Michigan with 18 each. New boats making their debut include Dooie Isdale's Diode 36, Rampant; a Melges 32, and the McAllister/ Silver JS 9000, A Lil' Tipsy, from Colington Harbor, N.C. Also, Ian Maclean's Ker 11.3, Blue Belle, from The Hamble, UK is making its Key West debut. The event has attracted more than a dozen Olympic medal winners, past and present, and an even larger dose of America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race. San Diego's Peter and JJ Isler will face off in a clash of Transpac 52s and assorted big boats in PHRF 1. JJ will drive Roger Sturgeon's TP52, Rosebud; Peter will call tactics on Marco Birch's B/C 58, Talisman. JJ Isler---bronze in 1992 and silver in 2000---also is one of the Olympic notables, along with Kevin Burnham and Charlie Ogletree, gold and silver, respectively, at Athens last summer. Others are Kostecki, Mark Reynolds, Jonathan and Charlie McKee, Jeff Madrigali, Randy Smyth, Robbie Haines and John Bertrand, plus Canada's Ross Macdonald and New Zealand's John Cutler. Burnham will park his 470 and Ogletree his Tornado catamaran to compete as rivals on Philippe Kahn's and Alex Ascencios' Melges 24s, respectively. Australia's James Spithill, the new helmsman for Italy's Luna Rossa challenge, will drive a Melges 24 entered by teammates Jonathan and Charlie McKee. Alinghi's Brad Butterworth, Warwick Fleury, Dean Phipps and Simon Daubney will carry on without their former skipper, Russell Coutts, on Dan Meyers' CM 60, Numbers, from Newport, R.I. Nine races are scheduled over five days, Monday-Friday, Jan. 17-21. Preliminary class splits, Sailing Instructions, Notice and Conditions of Race, schedule of events and much more are now posted online. - Rich Roberts, www.Premiere-Racing.com WEST MARINE RIGGING SPECIAL Just in time for Key West Race Week, West Marine is discounting 10% off all running rigging purchases from December 13 - January 14, 2005 (labor attached orders only). Call 888-447-7444 and mention this ad. Don't forget to visit West Marine while in Key West at 725 Caroline Street (305-295-0999). On-site rigging available with all the latest, greatest gear from Harken, Lewmar, Ronstan, Samson Rope, New England Rope, Suunto, Raymarine, Gill, Tylaska and more. While there pick up a free tide chart (dates 1/15-1/21, 2005). RECORD PACE Ellen MacArthur's 75-foot trimaran B&Q has been sustaining speeds in excess of 20 knots in a good S-SW 20-26 knot breeze and has now sailed 14,640 miles at an average speed of 17.4 knots as she heads into day 35 of her solo, non-stop round the world record attempt. On Saturday she set a new personal best 24-hour run of 484.5 miles for this record attempt [previous best 481 miles]. On Sunday Morning, she reported that she had spotted two large 50 metre+ icebergs just two miles to her north. Sleep expert, Dr Claudio Stampi, who has worked with Ellen for the past five years, said: "For now I can say that over the past five days, Ellen has been doing a good and judicious job in terms of sleep management." Ellen wears a bio-monitor that records the time she is resting, calorie expenditure and stress levels and this data is sent back to Dr Stampi for analysis. Ellen has averaged over 6 hours sleep in every 24 hours in the last five days - her lowest amount of sleep, just 1h 32m was on the 28th December as B&Q suffered gale-force conditions for the third time. The sleep is taken in short 'cat-naps' of 10, 20, 30 or sometimes 40 minutes. Undoubtedly, sleep will be difficult in the current environment combined with the squally conditions that are passing through with each cold front bringing unstable winds, both in speed and direction, with strong gusts for the next 48 hours. B&Q is now more than 60 hours ahead of the round the world solo record set by Francis Joyon.- www.teamellen.com IT'S OFFICIAL The British yacht Aera became the third British and twelfth international Overall handicap winner of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in the 60 year history of the ocean classic. Aera, a Jason Ker-designed 55-footer, races under the burgee of the Royal Yacht Squadron in England was skippered by prominent English yachtsman Jez Fanstone. "This is my fourth Sydney Hobart," Fanstone said. "The last three races have all been pretty uncomfortable. It's a love-hate relationship, but you do it because you're competitive and because you love yacht racing, and the build-up to it, the preparation and getting the crew together. But there are times out there when it's not a very pleasant place to be. There's no point in getting upset about it, though. If you've got a good boat with a good chance of winning then you want to get out there and give it a good crack." Of the 116 starters, 57 boats retired, many of them voluntarily taking refuge in Twofold Bay on the New South Wales South Coast, described by prominent yachtsmen as "courageous decisions that showed prudent seamanship" in the light of the continuous strong to gale force headwinds and rough seas in Bass Strait and down the Tasmanian coast. Class winners: - Overall and 1st Division A: Aera, Owner Nicholas Lykiardopulo, Skipper Jez Fanstone - IRC Division B: Loki, Owner/Skipper Stephen Ainsworth - IRC Division D: Courtesan, Owner/Skipper Philip Childs - IRC Division E and 30-Year Veteran Division: Love & War, Owner Peter Kurts, Skipper Simon Kurts - Sydney 38 Division: Chutzpah, Owner/Skipper Bruce Taylor - PHS Division: Seriously Ten, Owner/Skipper John Woodruff & Eric Robinson Complete results: http://rolexsydneyhobart.com/ SKANDIA (In a story posted on The Daily Sail subscription website, the navigator of the Aussie maxi Skandia Will Oxley recounts exactly how their keel came to fall out in the Rolex Sydney Hobart. Here's an excerpt.) At 01:49 it happened. "I was sitting at the nav station trying to download the latest positions and we just launched off this enormous wave and were mid-air. I got hit by someone who that came flying out of the top bunk and we both ended up by the leeward hull. And when we came down there was this terrible crunching sound of carbon." Skandia has a canting keel driven by two rams. Unusually (compared to Open 60 configurations) these are both mounted on the port side. "On port tack the rams are extended pushing the top of the keel over to the starboard side and what appears to have happened is that both rams snapped and the keel went immediately to its normal position which is to leeward and it was driven forward at the same time - presumably as we bounced off the wave - and it lodged in the forward side of the little bulkhead ahead of it which meant it went forward and it stopped even though the rams had broken." Oxley says this all happened, including the keel dropping, in a split second. "The speed with which the keel went to that side of the boat. Of course we were immediately over on our ear and we knew our race was over and our first job was to keep the crew and the boat safe. We dropped the sails which was fun with the foredeck leaning over so much. - The Daily Sail, www.thedailysail.com YALE'S PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE FOR SUCCESS AT KEY WEST Consistent, no compromise engineering and manufacturing gives you outstanding performance on the racecourse. Light air in the forecast? Ask for the U.S. Sailing Team's favorite YaleLight or Conception, both easy to grip and lightweight. Heavy air? Come in and grab onto some Crystalyne or Aratech - always low stretch and durable. Whatever the conditions or whatever your boat, Yale has a line to fit. Florida Rigging and Southern Spars, among others, will represent Yale at Key West. When there's a lot on the line, stop by and ask for Yale. We'll see you there. http://www.yalecordage.com INTO THE ATLANTIC OCEAN It's a case of New Year, new ocean for the Vendée Globe leaders today. The leading breakaway trio of Jean le Cam, Vincent Riou and Mike Golding are due to round Cape Horn today or early tomorrow, leaving the Southern Ocean behind and turning north into the Atlantic for the home run to France. Le Cam's Bonduelle remains a full five days up on Michel Desjoyeaux's record winning time in this single-handed round-the-world event, set in the same PRB that Riou has in second place. Desjoyeaux reached the Horn in 62days 2hours in the 2000-01 race, while yesterday marked the 56th day of the current event. If le Cam maintains his current average speed, his projected finish time is an impressive Jan 29 and all of the leading trio are capable of shattering Desjoyeaux's 93-day 3hr winning time. France's Patrice Carpentier, who turned his VM Materiaux towards New Zealand, yesterday became the sixth retirement from 20 starters. (Marc Thiercelin on Pro Form retired on Friday.) He had previously stopped in Tasmania to mend his broken boom with a sleeve and sail battens, but it has snapped again and Carpentier has used up his repair materials. - Tim Jeffery. The Telegraph, full story: http://tinyurl.com/5al58 Leaders at 1900 GMT January 2: 1. Bonduelle, Jean Le Cam, 7157 miles to finish 2. PRB, Vincent Riou, 229 miles to leader 3. Ecover, Mike Golding, 293 mtl 4. VMI, Sébastien Josse, 1190 mtl 5. Temenos, Dominique Wavre, 1579 mtl 6. Virbac-Paprec, Jean-Pierre Dick 2124 mtl 7. Skandia, Nick Moloney, 2917 mtl 8. Arcelor Dunkerque, Joé Seeten, 3596 mtl 9. Ocean Planet, Bruce Schwab, 3962 mtl 10. Hellomoto, Conrad Humphreys, 3988 mtl Complete standings: www.vendeeglobe.fr/uk/ NEWS BRIEFS * The US Sailing Center of Martin County (USSCMC) is bouncing back with a full range of activities after rebuilding docks and making other repairs following Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne. Last weekend the Vanguard 15 Midwinters will be at the Jensen Beach facility and many of the same skippers will remain for the U.S. Team Racing Association Midwinters to be held January 3- 5 at the Sailing Center. - www.usscmc.org/regattas/ * Recognizing the importance of multihulls in today's cruising community, the biennial Marion Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race has added a cruising Multihull class to the 2005 event. Registration is now open: www.marionbermuda.com * The Hobie 17 and 18 World Championships, the Hobie Tiger Australian Championship and Australian Hobie 16 Championships finished at Port Melbourne Yacht Club. Final results: Hobie 17: 1. Aaron Worrall, AUS, 28; 2. Dan Kulkoski, USA, 37; 3. Greg Raybon, USA, 47;Hobie 18: 1. Brad Sumner/ Belinda Walkom, AUS, 12; 2. Andrew Nelson/ Don McPhee, AUS, 69; 3. Richard Quinn/.Michael Quinn, AUS, 70; Hobie 16 Womens: 1. Pamela Noriega/ Andrea Mier Y Teran MEX, 19; 2. Belinda Zanesco/ Karen Todd, AUS, 24; 3 Naomi Angwin/ Fiona Douglas, AUS, 41. www.sailmelbourne.com.au/news/newsitem_hp.html * Registrations are starting to come in for the Rolex Miami OCR, which will be held January 23-28. The list of those already registered is posted online: www.ussailing.org/olympics/RolexMiamiOCR. * From our 'better late than never' file: http://web.icq.com/friendship/swf/0,,16961_rs,00.swf WEATHERPROOF YOUR TEAM Sailing Weather Services is ready with proven experience to help your team succeed. We can supply race weather support packages for all major US and European events in 2005. Exclusive high-resolution GRIB data available. Sailing Weather Services -- complete meteorological support for competitive sailors worldwide. mailto:info@sailwx.com or http://www.sailwx.com 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 Scott Fox (In regards to Todd Jones - 'Butt 1744): Having just spent four days in windy Miami and watching 112 Laser Radials, 43 Lasers and 210 Optimist all sailed by singlehanded Juniors I would say our sport is in pretty good shape for the future. My daughter competes in the Radial Fleet I would say close to 100% of those kids all know each other, socialize with each other at events around the country and all have terrific memories from this past week. If its not broke don't try to fix it. * From Ralph Taylor: Much of the argument over empirical handicapping (to use ISAF's term) seems to be about how wide or narrow the box we call sailboat racing should be. A wide box allows "duffers" & recreational sailors to enjoy the sport and gain occasional small glory. A narrow box glorifies those who devote most of their lives to the sport and have immense talent. There should be room in the box for both types. There will always be more media interest in the narrow part at the top, but the sport's survival rests on the wide part at the bottom. It isn't a huge conceptual step from handicapping boats to handicapping sailors. In some sports, such as golf & bowling, the players are handicapped, not the equipment. These handicaps are based on demonstrated performance as opposed to potential. For example, NASTAR (North American Standard Racing) allows recreational skiers to try their skills on a race course, compare their performance against the best, and possibly win medals. It's been good for widening ski racing's box; within NASTAR's reach, skiers (much as golfers do) brag about lowering their handicaps. Where ISAF might make its best contribution is in developing &/or promoting methods for local handicapping, rather than by establishing international handicaps. The latter would require registration & centralized record-keeping and be expensive, thus more likely to fail. * From Stephen Orosz: While Ryan Helling (Scuttlebutt 1726) has a very good point about the accessibility of sailing for kids he doesn't consider (what should be) a large part of the sailing experience -- Community Sailing. As program director for a community sailing program I think yacht club programs do an excellent job at the top end with their focus on racing while the community sailing programs focus more on learn-to-sail and access for as many youth as possible. It's not so much a trade-off of quality versus quantity as a different focus (and the two shouldn't be mutually exclusive anyway). Most Community Sailing programs provide the equipment which makes sailing much more affordable. The trick is of course, funding. As I am currently involved in seeking funding for disadvantaged youth for my own program I can attest that it's not easy but there are sources out there. For those who feel strongly about improving access to sailing, consider supporting your local community sailing program or outreach programs at your own yacht club. Local or regional grants or scholarships can go a very long way to making sure "great little sailors" don't get turned away. It can start with just one person donating a full or partial scholarship for a deserving child at their local program (there's even still time to get a 2004 tax write off for it!). It's not just an investment in future yacht club members; it's an investment in sailing. CURMUDGEON'S COUNSEL You should probably think twice before getting engaged to someone who missed his 5th grade graduation because he had jury duty. |
