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SCUTTLEBUTT 2373 - June 26, 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 support provided by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, Defender of the 32nd America's Cup (http://www.ubs.com/sailing). TEAM SPIRIT VS. BOATSPEED If Emirates Team New Zealand fail to win this America’s Cup, it won’t be through lack of team spirit. One of the advantages of coming through the challenger series is that they have had to take a few knocks along the way. Provided you can take those knocks then you’ll be the better for it – you know, the ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ theory. Alinghi have had not had the same ‘luxury’ of the LVC rollercoaster ride. So when the Defender suffers a setback like Sunday’s extraordinary example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, they’re in new territory. It asks much tougher questions about team spirit. According to a friend who watched the race from the Alinghi base Sunday afternoon, the atmosphere turned ‘funereal’ the moment that NZL 92 nudged into the lead. Word is that Brad got out of the wrong side of bed that morning, and that the goings-on out on the race course only exacerbated an already bad mood. -- SailJuice, full story: http://sailjuice.blogspot.com/2007/06/team-spirit-v-boatspeed.html AMERICA’S CUP MATCH First team to win 5 races in the 9 race series Challenger: Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) 0-1-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ = 1 Defender: Alinghi (SUI) 1-0-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ = 1 * Race schedule: After Monday’s rest day, racing resumes Tuesday and Wednesday before the next rest day on Thursday. -- Complete schedule: http://www.americascup.com/en/americascup/program/calendrier.php * Weather report: Temperatures got up to 100 degrees F in some parts of Valencia on Monday, but will cool to the mid 70’s F for the third race on Tuesday, with an 8-10 knot southeasterly sea breeze expected. * TV schedule: VERSUS (USA) and TSN (Canada) will provide live coverage of the Finals from 8:30 a.m.–11 a.m. ET. VERSUS will also have a replay from 6-8 p.m. ET. -- http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar/shows/#6 * Sunday evening was the induction ceremony for the America's Cup Hall of Fame, wherein new inductees Laurie Davidson (NZL) and Bruno Trouble (NZL) were celebrated. CBS anchor Katie Couric provided the opening remarks. Full report: http://sailmagazine.blogspot.com/2007/06/sailors-are-hot.html QUOTE / UNQUOTE On cussing into the television microphone about the spectators getting too close during Sunday's race, Alinghi tactician Brad Butterworth commented, “There's no other vehicle for me to give my impressions across but on that microphone, so it's good to use it because I figured you're listening and you can put some pressure on these wallies to get them off the course." -- NZ Herald: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=106&objectid=10447714 BARKER'S MIND OVER MATTER MAN When Dean Barker has a problem he turns to Team New Zealand father-figure and afterguard coach Rod Davis, who says Alinghi are playing a game of mental "intimidation" in the early phase of the America's Cup. He should know. Thirty years of sailing in the regatta teaches you a thing or two. And in that time Davis has either learned, or invented, every trick in the book. Weeks ago he counselled Team New Zealand on Alinghi's posturing on pre-start tactics - the idea that the boat that consistently hares off the start line and wins the regatta's first cross will have all but etched their name on the auld mug, and that that boat would be the superfast Alinghi. The rationale behind suggesting Alinghi will start faster is simple, they want Team New Zealand to freak out and lose confidence at Alinghi's first show of speed. "They want us to look up and say, `God, look at how fast they are going ... they are that fast'. "One of the reasons (Alinghi has been telling everyone) they have a fast boat is they want us to write our boat off the first time something goes wrong. It's not a new trick." Davis should know. -- Sunday Star Times, read on: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4106349a21895.html AMERICAN MINI'S RACING ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE POND American Mini skippers Clay Burkhalter and Ryan Finn are at it again. Burkhalter crossed the line 13th out of 71 in the Marie Agnes Peron recently, while Finn finished 6th overall and won his class by 10 hours in the Bermuda 1-2 race. Regarding his lines, Burkhalter says, "My favorite stuff is the new Samson AS-78 line, which I use as running backstays and checkstays...extremely lightweight and no stretch - fantastic stuff." For his running rigging, Finn raved, "My Apex mainsheet and WarpSpeed halyards worked flawlessly." Consider Samson for all your running rigging needs. Get info at http://www.samsonrope.com MONDAY MORNING TACTICIAN (American Laser sailor Andrew Campbell shares a training incident while preparing for the ISAF Worlds, which are to begin next week.) Running races in training always seems to produce plenty of incidents worth analysis. However, it is rare that you get a situation that stumps six full-time Laser sailors as well as a coach, even with the rulebook in hand. We had exactly that this week while sailing out of the Oeiras Marina some 10 kilometers east of Cascais, Portugal. One particularly current-affected, windward mark rounding sent us back to the rulebook searching for answers, and then off to our computers where a flurry of emails went out to try and get a definite answer to our querries. Our discussion came to a logical conclusion, but the rules turned out to be lacking the clarity that simple Laser sailors desire. Situation: Boat A(ndrew) enters the two boatlength circle at the windward mark overlapped with Boat B(ernard), having tacked into the overlap (therefore Andrew has luffing rights). The current is running at more than a knot across the racecourse from right to left, sweeping the boats at a deceiving rate towards the mark. Andrew, in the process of rounding the mark drifts into it, hitting the soft bouy amidships. As he hits the mark he shoots head to wind in a last-ditch effort to get around cleanly. Bernard meanwhile has been sailing around the outside of the Andrew’s unfortunate situation maintaining a meter of distance until Andrew’s fateful shoot to windward. Unable to avoid Andrew’s turn, Bernard is mercilessly speared by Andrew. Both boats hail protest, and sail on down the run. Andrew spins a 360 for hitting the mark, but would continue with a protest had it been formal racing. -- Read on for the answer: http://tinyurl.com/2eu2o2 MOMMY BOATS It seems to me that at every major Laser regatta these days the race course is infested with Mommy Boats. Little and big motor boats buzzing in and out of the fleet of Lasers between every race, swarming around the course area during the race. To be fair it's more often Daddy than Mommy driving the Mommy Boat. Daddy likes to drive the Mommy Boat, especially if it has twin 60hp engines. And even more common it's not Daddy or Mommy driving the Mommy boat, it's a guy (or gal) who goes by the name of Coach who is paid by Mommy and Daddy to drive the Mommy Boat. He gets paid even more if he has a New Zealand accent. Oh yes, Coach is an excellent sailor. He was competitive in the class himself back in the day. But now he earns his living working as a sailing coach. And part of the duties is driving the Mommy Boat at regattas. Back home Coach teaches the kids how to sail better. He runs lots of drills and blows a whistle a lot. But at regattas Coach is really just a surrogate Mommy and he gets to drive the Mommy Boat. So if you're sailing in the regatta and you have a Mommy Boat what does it do for you? -- Proper Course blog, read on: http://propercourse.blogspot.com/2007/06/mommy-boats.html US YOUTH SAILING CHAMPIONSHIP New Orleans, LA (June 25, 2007) For the 99 entrants at the US Youth Sailing Championship, Day 2 saw typical summer weather for the region, where light wind, rain, and thunder disrupted the schedule. A postponement in the morning was required before the first race of the day could get underway shortly after noon, and once completed a threatening storm system had all the boats sent to shore to wait it out. By 2pm the rain had lightened considerably, the sun was starting to come out again, but the winds never returned, allowing for only 1 race to be completed on Lake Pontchartrain. 4 races have now been completed, with racing scheduled through Wednesday. Daily commentary is available at http://www.usyouthchamps.com/main.asp?m=2&s=3&d=2 29er (19 boats) 1. Oliver Toole/ Willie Mcbride, 9 points 2. Emily Dellenbaugh/ Briana Provancha, 9 3. Judge Ryan/ Hans Henken, 10 Club 420 (32 boats) 1. Halsey Richartz/ Eliza Richartz, 19 points 2. Tyler Sinks/ Morgane Renoir, 21 3. Stephanie Hudson/ Laura Mckenna, 35 Laser (26 boats) 1. David Hernandez, 8 points 2. Colin Smith, 14 3. Fred Strammer, 29 Laser Radial (22 boats) 1. Sam Padnos, 18 points 2. Justin Doane, 19 3. Ian Heausler, 26 Complete results: http://www.usyouthchamps.com/main.asp?m=4 THE MELGES 24 AND MELGES 32 The Melges 32 and Melges 24 National Championship are both coming up! The Melges 32 Nationals are in Newport, Rhode Island attracting over 20 boats. The Melges 24 National Championship is in Detroit with over 60 boats slated to challenge for this famous title. New boats are available for both the Melges 32 and Melges 24 classes. The famous Winter Series is not far away. Easy to trailer, fun to sail! Please review Melges32.com, Melges 24.com, and http://www.Melges.com FIELD TRIP TO GERMANY (American Star sailor Rick Peters shares his story from last week where he was attending the 125th anniversary of Kiel Week in Kiel, Germany.) As expected when sailing Kiel Week, a variety of conditions were encountered by the sailors this year, although lighter winds prevailed for the Olympic Classes portion of the regatta. Usually run after the International classes, that’s any one-design from an Optimist to an X-35 and everything in between, they sailed the Olympic classes first this year to make the tight logistics easier for sailors going to Portugal for the ISAF Worlds afterwards. If you have never been here, it is much more than a multi-class sailing event. It is a sailing celebration, this year being the 125 anniversary of the event. They have a carnival type set-up in downtown Kiel with food, rides and of course, lots of beer gardens! There are nightly concerts on 5 stages with live music for every taste, including some of Germany’s most popular acts. Tall ships and dinner cruise boats are berthed along the waterfront at night. BMW has a spectacular promotional set-up around a large water fountain where they match race 22’ sport boats outfitted with shallow draft keels on a 100-meter windward leeward course! -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/kw/ SAILING SHORTS * (Cambridge, MA) 490 races, 42 teams, 36 FJs, and 18 420s were the foundation for the fun and excitement last weekend for the 11th Annual Charles River Open Team Race, sponsored by Atlantis Weather Gear. Each team sailed at least 20 races over the course of one evening and 2 full days. The event had junior teams, master’s teams, some international flavor, plus live music Friday evening at the host site, the MIT Sailing Pavilion. Winners were the Silver Panda team of Pete Levesque/ Aimee Kelleher, Mike Buckley/ Alexis Rubin, and Clay Bischoff/ Lisa Keith. Complete team rosters, photos, and results are at http://sailing.mit.edu/Calendar/Events/CROTR07 * (June 25, 2007) With winds regularly gusting over 30 knots and gales forecast for later in the day, the Race Committee at the Etchells World Championhip in Cowes, UK was forced to abandon all races on day one of the championship. Initially the boats were held ashore while the Committee assessed the situation but by noon it became clear that conditions were not going to improve and the decision was made. The first race of the championship is now scheduled for Tuesday 26 June, with the forecast showing a slight improvement in the weather with less rain and fewer squalls. -- http://www.etchellsworlds2007.org * 133 boats competed in 15 classes last weekend at the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta in Toronto, with Kendra Delicaet beating 17 Sharks in the event’s largest fleet, and James Rathbun winning the 16-boat J/105 class as well as the event's overall title. -- Results: http://tinyurl.com/yvpj5p * St. Thomas, USVI (June 24, 2007)--Great starts and "covering the fleet" were the tactics that paid off for Puerto Rico’s Fernando Monllor, who won the 15th annual Scotiabank Caribbean International Optimist Regatta, sailed out of St. Thomas Yacht Club, U.S. Virgin Islands, June 23-25. Monllor was one of a record 95 junior sailors (age 8-15) representing Germany, Canada, the U.S. mainland (Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New York, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington), Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, all three U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Barbados and Curacao, making this the largest regatta of its kind in the Caribbean. -- Results: http://tinyurl.com/242lev * The Canada’s Cup Committee has announced that the defender of the Cup, Royal Canadian Yacht Club (RCYC), will host the match on October 12-15 against the challenger, Macatawa Bay Yacht Club (Macatawa, MI, USA). Team RCYC, will be lead by Alek Krstajic and Paul Phelan, with the Farr 40 being the class of boat agreed upon between the two clubs. * The 63 entrants at the Moth Worlds in Lake Garda, Italy began their racing on Monday, where they saw 2005 World Champion Rohan Veal (AUS) gather a couple of bullets to begin his campaign to regain the title. Racing contunes through Saturday. To view the results and competitor equipment, go to http://www.moth-sailing.org/worlds/2007_italy.xml#results BUY & SELL ONE-DESIGN: INTRODUCING SAIL1DESIGN.COM Sail1Design is an online, one-stop classified marketplace for all things one-design! Ads are free, and since we are now the official classified site of the Intercollegiate Sailing Association, the ads are sure to get exposure! We also market our site aggressively to the sailing community and at regattas. http://www.sail1design.com 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 Neil Fraser: The summary you printed in Issue 2372 regarding the "shut-outs" in America's Cup Finals is incorrect. In 1992, Il Moro won a race. I believe it was the second race of the Cup Series, before ultimately losing to America 3 [cubed]. => Curmudgeon’s Comment: Neil is right. In Issue 2372 it was incorrectly stated that with ETNZ’s win in Race 2, they had halted a streak dating back to 1987 and 6 Cups where one of the finalists got shut out of the win column. We had gotten this information from the official event website, so if anyone is listening, they might want to fix it. So with the new facts found, it has been in the last 3 Cups (’95, ’00, and ’03) where one of the finalists had posted goose eggs. * From Lou Morgan: Many thanks to Versus for the spectacular coverage and camera shots in this series! No kudos to the producers, however; in each race so far, they have cut away to commercials during the most crucial part of the first leg, with the Kiwis leading slightly, and returned with Alinghi in the lead, with very little coverage of the transition. How about having a sailor work with the producer to avoid this? * From Arabella Denvir, Irvington, VA: Is it too late to ask the Versus team to give us an unbiased commentary on these America’s Cup races that we have waited four years to see? Saturday they barely acknowledged Alinghi’s win as they crossed the line 35 mins ahead of TNZ, and certainly did not acknowledge Ed Baird. Sunday they whooped with delight as TNZ got into the lead, and then congratulated them as they crossed the line. Do they hold a grudge? They refer to Ernesto Bertarelli as the Billionaire instead of reminding us that he is an Olympic sailor in his own right. We are starting to press the mute button during our AC viewing parties. We, all us sailors out here, know that we are watching two great teams race each other for the cup. Versus team – please don’t spoil it for us all with dumb and unprofessional commentary. * From T.J. Perrotti: In regards to Adrian Flanagan's Russian Northern Sea Route attempt (from Issue 2372), I'm not sure which is more courageous ... sailing single-handed amongst the frozen Arctic, or having your ex-wife manage the expedition! Either way, I hope he successfully survives the chilly waters on both fronts! * From Tom Duggan, Hyannis Yacht Club, PRO Laser NA’s: (in response to John Payne’s letter regarding Laser NA’s in Issue 2372) It is due to the interest of volunteers, coaches and parents like Mr. Payne that regattas like the 225 boat Laser NA’s are able to be run safely. So I would like to thank all involved, including Mr. Payne, for their presence on the racecourse. Mr. Payne quite correctly states that many were having a difficult time on Saturday with the knot and a half current running upwind, leading to many recalls and postponements. Mix in shifty winds and 200 boats on a trapezoid course and- you get the picture- it was a long day for everyone. Mr. Payne’s photos are excellent, but I fear he has misinterpreted the data provided by his start line photo. I don’t recall the particular start, but in the start line photo I can see that at the time the photo was taken the smoke had already drifted aft 15+ feet from where and when the shotgun was actually fired. The photo is very good- it shows a competitive start- but it was taken at some point after the start was signaled. Mr. Payne is correct- at several points during the day the temptation was high to say “What the….” for both race committee and, I’m sure, competitors. But to the credit of all, including competitors, everyone hung in under difficult conditions- and to quote the jury- “pulled a rabbit out of a hat” getting in some nice races. * From Bill Sandberg: Anyone who has sailed more than 10 minutes knows the term jury rig. I've seen a lot of them, but I have now seen a new one. I was sailing on the just completed Marion-Bermuda race on a Jeanneau 40 called Wild Goose II. The first night out we tore the luff on our spinnaker. You're only allowed one chute on the race. A far cry from the 8 Newport-Bermudas I've done. Without a proper sail repair kit, under the watchful eyes of our skipper Dan Walsh, the crew set out to repair it. The first step was to use white duct tape on both sides of the sail. Fearing that would not be enough, Dan decided we should sew it, but we had neither a needle nor thread aboard. Not to worry. He dug out a cotter pin and asked us all to go to our shaving kits for any dental floss we had. That did the trick and held better than the tape. Perhaps we will patent it and sell it to North, or at least get an endorsement deal from J&J. Who said sailors have no imagination. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION Teach children to be polite and courteous in the home, and when they grow up, they’ll never be able to merge their car onto the freeway. Special thanks to Samson, Melges Performance Sailboats, and Sail1Design. Scuttlebutt is also supported by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, the Defender of the 32nd America's Cup. |
