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SCUTTLEBUTT 2149 - August 1, 2006Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.STORM TRYSAIL 65 GETS "TRANSPAC" MAKEOVER In the quest to develop its Storm Trysail 65 for the best possible performance and fleet participation, the Storm Trysail Club, based in Larchmont, N.Y., has partnered with Transpacific Yacht Club. The Transpacific Yacht Club, based in Los Angeles, developed its successful Transpac 52 and has been working with the Storm Trysail Technical Committee and Board, prospective owners, designers and industry types to further shape the Storm Trysail 65 "box" rule, which was originally introduced last summer and - as modified - has become the Storm Trysail Transpac 65 (STP65) Rule. The STP65 rule promotes a high-performance boat for both inshore and offshore sailing, with tight enough parameters to minimize obsolescence. The STP65 is a high-performance 65-footer with all the modern racing amenities and a standard underwater package, meaning no canting keel, just a "lifting" keel and standard rudder configuration. The keel accommodates a draft of approximately 4.8 meters in its down position and three meters when fully retracted, facilitating entry into shallow harbors or marinas as part of the class rule. (The lifting feature is not allowed while racing.) "The boat should begin planing slightly earlier than the TP52 yet have very similar upwind stability numbers," said Transpacific Yacht Club director and 2007 Transpac race entry chairman Bill Lee, who has helped in streamlining the original Storm Trysail 65 Rule. Storm Trysail members Ken Read and yacht designer Bill Tripp also have been instrumental in this project since its inception as has the design community in general - most notably Bruce Nelson, who helped launch the original concept along with Jim Schmicker, Alan Andrews, Mark Mills, John Reichel, Jim Pugh and others. Malcolm Park, project director for the highly successful Rosebud TP52 racing program, has also played a key role and has confirmed that the new Rosebud is being built to the STP65 rule and will start within weeks. -- Media Pro Int'l, The STP65 Rule and supporting information is accessible at http://www.stormtrysail.org BEST SAILING WATCH From the Scuttlebutt Forums, there was a discussion about what is the best sailing watch, so we put the suggestions to a vote. As the price range and features varied amongst the watches discussed, we asked the voters what they felt was the best watch for the weekend sailboat racer, regardless of cost? Here are the results: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/06/0727 WHEN RULES AREN'T FOLLOWED (This story comes from the Scuttlebutt Forums, where the author is eager for advice on how to handle an ugly situation) During a winter series club race on Saturday (we were the series leader at the time) and going upwind on starboard tack for second final beat, we realized we were being headed and decided to put in a tack onto port. A bigger boat was approaching on starboard, so we decided to bear off early and duck the starboard tacker (let's call this boat SP) as we wanted to be sure to get onto the starboard layline for the final bit to the weather mark. As soon as we were above the starboard layline, we tacked back onto starboard. SP tacked on the port layline to the mark as we were coming in on the starboard layline. We started calling "starboard" several times very loudly but had no acknowledgement from their skipper, despite him making eye contact with me. Just before an obvious T-bone type impact (both boats doing above 6 knots), I crash tacked onto port to avoid a collision, missing SP by about 6 inches. We were on port tack (stalled) whilst SP had not yet completed their tack onto starboard. This happened within the 2-boat length circle of the weather mark. We lost more than a minute as we sheeted in and tacked back onto starboard and rounded the mark. I was livid (to put it mildly) and if I could have walked on water, I surely would have decked their skipper. Instead I yelled a lot and shouted 'protest' about 10 times - yanked the protest flag so hard on the backstay that I tore it in two and constantly yelled at SP to execute their penalty turns. They ignored me. Instead they put their kite up and broached which made me feel a little better, but I was still fuming at the absolute lack of responsibility, blatant disregard of rules and the worst one: I have a bigger boat than yours, so the rules don't count. Back at the club, I filled in and lodged a protest against SP. It has not been heard yet, but I don't protest unless I am sure I will win. We did win the series by a slender single point and collected the silverware at the prizegiving an hour later. I had a few beers with my crew and as I was walking out the club, a crew member of SP stood up and asked me: "Have you calmed down yet? It was not necessary for you to shout at us like that. You could have taken other options." Huh???? So I said sarcastically: "What is it about port/starboard that you have difficulty understanding?" (and later probably something else not printable here and probably well beyond the boundaries of yacht club etiquette). The truth was that no, I had not calmed down yet. After having sailed competitively for 40 years, I have found that 99% of the people, after realizing they are wrong, will walk over in the pub and offer to buy one a beer or just say sorry and that's the end of the story. This one was brutally ugly and I am not quite sure how to handle it from here. Any advice? Post your comments here: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/2006/dilemma FARR 40 WORLDS 2006 SERVICE REMINDER Racing will be intense and rigorous at the Farr 40 Worlds in September. With upwards of 30 yachts racing and all identical in design, only a few aspects will separate the winners out; a perfectly tuned and serviced yacht is one of them. The experienced service team at Rig Pro will help ensure your mast, rigging, and all sail handling systems are ready for hard racing. Rig and rigging inspections, cordage and hardware supplies, complete hydraulic system inspections, and halyard locking systems are just some of the items we can help with. Location: Portsmouth RI, 401-683-6966, http://www.southernspars.com/rigpro TUNNICLIFFE RETAINS LEAD Marina del Rey, Calif.-There were two big winners Monday in the women's corner of the 2006 Laser Radial World Championships at the California Yacht Club, and they came from different worlds. Jo Aleh, 20, of New Zealand, a near novice at this level despite her No. 6 ranking, won both races in the Blue fleet while three-time world champion Katarzyna Szotynska, 26, of Poland may have launched her career comeback with a 1-2 in the Yellow fleet. With eight of 12 races still remaining through Friday, Szotynska is now in third place, while Aleh jumped from 21st to eighth. Anna Tunnicliffe, the class's No. 2-ranked competitor from Florida, sailed a quiet 3-7 day that was enough to break out of a first-place tie into a one-point lead over France's Solenne Brain (No. 16), who was 2-3 on the day. No. 1-ranked and defending champion Paige Railey, 19, of Florida sailed a 10th and a ninth Monday---not yet dominant but good enough to keep her solidly among the leaders. Brazil's Fabio Pillar moved into the men's lead by winning the last race as first-day leader Steven Krol of The Netherlands suffered 20th and 15th places. Of course, all eyes are on Railey. "It's pretty tricky out there," she said. "The wind fills in but sometimes at the wrong time in the wrong place. It changes very upwind leg. You think you have it figured out and then you don't. "So far I've been conservative . . . just gotta get my scores better, maybe sail a bit more aggressively. I've got to step it up." -- Rich Roberts Class leaders (after 4 of 12 races) -- Women's Radial Worlds: 1. Anna Tunnicliffe, Florida (3-1-3-7), 14 2. Solenne Brain, France (6-2-2-5), 15 3. Katarzyna Szotynska, Poland (12-7-1-2), 22 4. Paige Railey, Florida (2-5-10-8), 25 5. Karin Soderstrom, Sweden (7-6-9-4), 26 Men's Radial Worlds" 1. Fabio Pillar, Brazil (15-12-5-1), 33 2. Steven Krol, The Netherlands (2-1-20-15), 38 3. Jesse Kirkland, Bermuda (1-19-27-3), 50 4. Steven Le Fevre, The Netherlands (4-4-1-41), 50 5. Colin Cheng, Singapore (25-13-11-4), 53. Event website: http://www.calyachtclub.com DAY THREE -- SKANDIA COWES WEEK This morning yachts short-tacked up the Green, fighting for favourable tide and clear air after their starts on a day that saw gusts above 25 knots as rain clouds brought increased pressure from the south-west. Tales of wild broaches, prolonged surfs, broken masts, near sinkings and man overboard incidents dominated the bar talk throughout the evening as the gusty conditions proved to be a real test of boat handling ability across the 935 competing yachts. After yesterday's abandonment for the 89-strong Laser SB3's, it was an early 10.05 am start for this, the biggest fleet at Skandia Cowes Week as the race officers hammered out a compromise solution to ensure that not only could the hard-charging fleet get away but that any general recalls would not disrupt the schedule for the rest of the inshore fleets. Somewhat surprisingly, when the Royal Yacht Squadron canon fired for the SB3 start there were cheers from the platform as every boat got away cleanly for a 14.74 nautical mile course around the central Solent. -- Yachting World, full story: http://tinyurl.com/qvh7s AOL SUBSCRIBERS The largest segment of subscribers to the Scuttlebutt e-Newsletter have AOL accounts, and it is this segment that is frequently hampered by AOL's spam features. If you find that the delivery of the Scuttlebutt e-Newsletter no longer comes to your AOL email address, it is likely due to Scuttlebutt inadvertently getting tagged as spam, either by yourself or by AOL. To reestablish your account, the only recourse is for you to contact us, wherein we can get the approval needed to get you back on the distribution list. While this problem is not limited to AOL users, it is the ISP that presents the most problems. Additional information regarding spam filters can be found here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/filter.asp SAILING SHORTS * Sandy Point, Hayling Island, Hampshire, England -- All racing on day three of the 505 Worlds taking place at HISC was cancelled. After a long postponment to see if there was any improvement in the weather the decision was taken to abandon for the day. This means there will be no racing for the 112 entrants until Wednesday - Tuesday is a lay-day for the fleet. -- http://hisc.co.uk/nupdate.asp * The America's Cup website has posted a really hot time-lapse photo feature of the works in progress in Port America's Cup! You can see the creation of the best sailing stadium in the world, including the 12 team bases, the Veles e Vents building and the new canal to access the race course. -- http://tinyurl.com/ozlew * All roads this week point to Lake Erie in Ohio, where the West Marine I-LYA Bay Week is being held on South Bass Island. Scuttlebutt will be receiving daily reports from Skip Dieball of Quantum Sails, with the first one following the racing from Monday. With races starting at 9:30am and finishing by 1:00pm, sailors are off the water and tapping into the local flavor of the "town" of Put-In-Bay. Monday's West Marine Boat of the Day was the J/120 Capers out of Mentor, Ohio, with their impressive win in PHRF A Division. Read on for Skip's full report: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/06/pib * The TP52 Siemens, with Ian Walker steering and Vince Brun, calling tactics won the first race of the Copa del Rey in 6-9 knots on the Bay of Palma. John Cook's British flagged boat Cristabella - with Dee Smith as tactician - finished second and the Roberto Bermudez de Castro skippered Caixa Galicia took third with five times Olympic medallist Torben Grael sailing as tactician. Read the whole report of this 21-boat TP52 event: http://valenciasailing.blogspot.com/ * After four days of yacht racing off Oahu completing seven races, Doug Taylor's X35 Zamboni is first in the ORR fleet overall and wins the Waikiki Offshore Series and the King Kamehameha Trophy. Gary Fanger's 1D35 Sensation is second and Todd Wyrick's Sydney 36 FINS takes third. In the PHRF fleet Gil Budar's Farr 43 Gerontius wins first overall. Sensation is second and John Myrhe's Farr 43 Flash Gordon Turbo is third. -- http://www.waikikioffshores.com NEWS & EXTRAS The section of the Scuttlebutt website called "News & Extras" is where we park a lot of the items featured in the Scuttlebutt newsletter. Here you will find the headline stories, interviews, video clips, and polls, but don't forget the time wasting and mind-numbing list of Games too. Get to know your Scuttlebutt website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news 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. You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. And please save your bashing, and personal attacks for elsewhere. For those that prefer a Forum, you can post your thought at the Scuttlebutt website: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi) * From Winn Story: How sad. The Cowes race committee sets up a "heavily biased, relatively short line" and after two attempts to get a start, cancel racing for 89 competitors. Another example of poor race management showing those upstart competitors who is the boss. Race management is there to serve the racers not the other way around. As a lake sailor and sometime race manager, I am aware of how difficult it can be to get a square line in shifting conditions. Our anchors are often in 100 feet of water, and shifting marks or barge takes effort and patience. But in my limited experience, general recalls are often a message to the race committee that something is wrong with the start line. In my opinion the black flag is a tool of last resort, but I can't imagine attending a regatta where races were cancelled after two general recalls. Wonder how many of those laser sailors will return next year? * From Cole Price: In your article yesterday entitled, "Tough Love", it stated that the Royal Yacht Squadron had set up a "heavily biased, relatively short line" which resulted in two General Recalls. That's right, I said that the conditions that the Royal Yacht Squadron created resulted (or certainly contributed) in the two General Recalls. The Race Committee is just as responsible for those General Recalls as the competitors (who also share responsibility for the general recalls). But with 89 boats on the line at a major regatta, a poor starting line makes such behavior by the competitors quite anticipateable. Given that the Royal Yacht Squadron didn't adjust the starting line to lengthen it and square it to the wind, their decision to suspend racing for the day seems inappropriate if not a little draconian. Yacht Clubs should assign their "A" teams to work major regattas like Skandia Cowes Week which doesn't seem to be the case here if the facts of your article are complete. * From Kim Kymlicka (The Real Gates of Hell - edited to our 250-word limit): I am so glad the RC reversed the score for the sailor. Cannot imagine to have RC get so officious about a 'fun' race when it did not see fit to have NOR or SI's prepared. When you think of it, the sailor actually sailed some extra distance, just for 'fun'. When clubs run 'fun races', treat them as 'fun'.. If you want to make it with all the protest stuff thrown into it, get a rule book, read it and follow it. Part 7 Race Organization R 85: The organizing authority, race committee and protest committee shall be governed by the rules in the conduct and judging of races. R 88.1.(c) lets a club run a race under RRS and makes the club the OA. R 88.2 says that OA shall publish the NOR (per RJ1) and appoints RC.. R 89.1 says that the RC runs it as the OA tells it to and by the RRS. R 89.2 (a) says that the RC shall publish SI (per R J2). R 25 says that: The notice of race and sailing instructions shall be made available to each boat before a race begins. R 90 says that the PC is appointed by the OA or by the RC. Regarding comments by Mr. Ritter about string rule, etc.; it may be of interest to read the definitions of starting and finishing. For those believing that DNF was appropriate, look up R 63.1. It always applies. * From Mark Lammens (Re: David Barrows insinuations about "Mr. Childerly". Special boat, secret and special information, stiff tiller extension): Come on, Stuart is a very accomplished Finn sailor (4th in 2 Olympics) who if he sailed say a Star, he would be one of the top ex-Finn sailors in that class as well. He would use 'off the shelf' kit in the Finn and go fast and race very well, one of the tough guys. He is a very good sailor who enjoys racing with the guys, he even gets wet and cleans his own boat bottom. Regarding the carbon hiking stick, I am sure if he knew there was a problem with it he would have used a cricket bat instead. This story is embarrassing on a few levels. * From Jim Champ (re the Etchells Class Rules): I understand that the use of carbon fibre tiller extensions is widespread in your fleet. Do you have one? What, in those rules, allows the material for tiller extensions and not for tillers? One thing is crystal clear: if the rule does ban carbon for tillers, it bans it for tiller extensions. However I would say that if both components are "not controlled, except as specified" then as they are not specified in the materials paragraph then it applies to neither tiller nor extension and carbon tillers and tiller extensions are both permitted. Presumably everyone in the fleet with a carbon tiller extension agrees with this interpretation as they have used such a component. You could of course frame a rule to change that and vote on it, and if passed throw away all your carbon tiller extensions... * From Stevan Johnson: The name Marconi has nothing to do with the shape of the sail hoisted. They are called Marconi rigs after the Italian inventor of the radio because the stays holding up the mast looks like an old radio tower, which allowed masts to be much taller, lighter and faster. Getting rid of the gaff got rid of a lot of barely manageable weight aloft, made the sail easier to trim for upwind performance and much, much easier to jibe. The new sails have been called "fat heads" in the multi world for years. A perfectly good name. And Marchaj was right (as usual), but it took contemporary high tensile materials to make his theoretical predictions operate on the race course. Now can anybody confirm what I've read: That the Spitfire oval wing is the best low speed airfoil shape? How does one get that shape up in the air? * From Mark Weinheimer, Doyle - Inner Banks: : We already have a name for these sails - it's called a "square-top". It's a "fat-head" if it's curved rather than a true quadrilateral. Curmudgeon's Comment: And that will be the final word on this thread which now officially dead. * From From By Baldridge: With regard to Sabot Blade remeasurement. When Optimist Class blades and other parts are measured at a USODA event, they are stamped and may be used without new measurement at subsequent regattas. The blade dimensions were changed two years ago yet older blades with measurement stamps are grandfathered. This is part of the reason the Opti class is so big worldwide. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS Life is not the amount of breaths you take -- it's the moments that take your breath away. This issue of Scuttlebutt presented by Southern Spars. |
