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SCUTTLEBUTT 3462 - Thursday, November 3, 2011Scuttlebutt 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. Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: Ullman Sails and Point Loma Outfitting. IT'S OFFICIAL Milan, Italy (November 2, 2011) - The Circolo della Vela Sicilia of Palermo and the team Luna Rossa Challenge 2013 today announced that their Notice of Challenge for the 34th America's Cup, which will be held at San Francisco in September 2013, has been accepted by the Golden Gate Yacht Club. Luna Rossa Challenge 2013 and Emirates Team New Zealand have signed a cooperation agreement until 31st December 2012 which includes full access to all ETNZ design and performance data for this period. The hulls for the Luna Rossa AC72 will be built in Italy and all other elements will be built in New Zealand in close cooperation with Emirates Team New Zealand. Luna Rossa's 2012 programme includes the opening of a base in Auckland (New Zealand) for the joint training, the participation in all events of the America's Cup World Series (ACWS) with the AC 45 wing catamarans and the launch of the AC 72' wing catamaran for the America's Cup. From March 2013 the team Luna Rossa will continue its sporting preparation and technical development of the AC 72' in San Francisco and will participate to all events scheduled for the 34th America's Cup. Patrizio Bertelli, Team Principal of Luna Rossa Challenge 2013, said: "I am certain that the co-operation of Luna Rossa with Emirates Team New Zealand will produce excellent results, giving to both teams a faster and more effective development both in the technical and in the sporting fields. The choice of the Circolo della Vela Sicilia as challenging yacht club is also significant: I think it is important, in a moment like this, to underline the unity of our country also in the field of culture and sports." The team Luna Rossa was established in 1997 by Patrizio Bertelli with the original name of "Prada Challenge for the America's Cup 2000". At its first attempt the team won the Louis Vuitton Cup - the challengers' selection series - in 2000, with a record of 38 victories over 49 races. Luna Rossa participated also in 2003, and in 2007 it reached the Louis Vuitton Cup final. Luna Rossa is currently participating in the Extreme Sailing Series, the Extreme 40' catamaran circuit, where it is leading the overall standings. -- Full story: http://media.americascup.com/pressreleases/?id=393 WATCH FOR MORE TEAMS TO FOLLOW SailBlast followed today's announcement in a media call with America's Cup Regatta Director Iain Murray and CEO Craig Thompson who commented on the exciting confirmation that indeed, long time Cup favorite Prada/Luna Rossa is back in the Cup, this time collaborating on boats and such with Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ). --------------------------------------------------------------------- Murray said, "For those with a keen eye who spotted Luna Rossa in and out of the ETNZ team base in Plymouth and who have been adding two and two to get four, the answer is obvious today and presents a very strong group of people who I think will have enhanced chances in the America's Cup going forward. It seems like a positive, strong move for the America's Cup. Luna Rossa will take delivery of their AC45 in early December subject to branding and hull painting etc. The destination of it is unknown at this stage and where they'll actually sail it the first time. They will be competing in events for 2012 and sure, they won't be scored for the AC World Series round 1 which concludes in Newport, RI, next June but I don't think that's their highest priority. I think they're keen to get their boat and get out there and start to learn about sailing wing-sailed catamarans." Murray also confirmed that there're no limits on where Prada can take its AC45 to train, however the team will be seriously considering where it'll get the best bang for buck, "Probably the biggest thing with taking an AC45 for any AC team anywhere is generally in most countries you will incur taxes. NZ presents an opportunity for them but there's taxes to pay when you go to train for certain periods of time which is a discussion Luna Rossa will have to have with the various authorities of that country. Other than the taxes, they can go wherever they like until the first event." Thompson added that today's news from Italy may not be the last with regards to more teams joining. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/3p5uycj NOT JUST RACING Ullman Sails has over 40 years of expertise in sailmaking and we don't just specialize in racing sails. Our cruising series are the first choice for day sailors and offshore cruisers worldwide. The Ullman Sails Endurance Line offers options for the coastal and adventurous cruiser including cloth selection, finishing and reinforcement. Interested in sailing on the bay?! Check out the Ullman Sails Navigator Series. Ullman Sails experts are also available to answer questions about furling systems, inventory options and UV protection. There are no cookie-cutter sails here. You'll always get a high-quality, well-made custom sail. Invest in your performance. http://www.ullmansails.com TIME TO PACK - BUT LEAVE THOSE HAWAIIAN SHIRTS BEHIND In his blog, Mark Covell, Olympic medalist and round-the-world yachtsman comments on the action from the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12. With only a few days to go until the start it's time to pack the boats ready for Leg one. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The teams have had some downtime since the in-port racing at the weekend, but now it's time to regain focus. All the training and major preparation is over - it's all about ocean racing now. Teams ideally want their boats packed and loaded 24 hours before the start day. Some skippers even put the boats on lockdown, saying if it's not on before then it's not coming. Team Base An area is laid out in the team's base. They then pile up everything going on the boat, as if packing for a summer holiday. But for these holiday makers there'll be no Hawaiian shirts and glossy magazines to read by the pool, just three sets of underwear, a base layer and a fleece or two. Weight is the major concern. The lighter a team can pack, the faster the boat will sail. Stacked and Racked There is a sail limitation too, so the navigators are busily looking at the wind predictions for the leg. A quiver of sails will then be carefully packed, stacked and racked ready to set in a second. The teams set sail on 5 November and are expected to arrive in Cape Town on 25 November. So, 20 bags of dehydrated food have been prepared and sealed ready for loading. An advanced first aid kit has been expertly packed by the medics into a large yellow Peli case, ready for the unexpected. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/3ebdrah VIEWING: The start on November 5th of the 6,500 nm Leg 1 from Spain to Cape Town, South Africa will be shown live online. Broadcast begins 1345 CET (Spanish time). Note recent changes from daylight savings time when determining the time in your local area. -- http://www.volvooceanrace.com GAMERS: The official briefing for LEG 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race Game is now online. Leg 1 starts November 5 at 14:00 CET and will close December 7 at 14:00 CET. Courses can be set 24 hours in advance of the start. Are you ready to take on the elements of the Atlantic Ocean from your couch, enduring sleepless nights, fast food, and computer blindness? The Volvo Ocean Race Game is hosted on the Scuttlebutt website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/GAMES/VOR2011-12/ TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE FLEET OFF AND AWAY Le Havre, France (November 2, 2011) - After being held in the docks of Le Havre's Paul Vatine Basin for an extra three days or so, at 1500hrs today the 35 duos of the Transat Jacques Vabre transatlantic race to Puerto Limon, Costa Rica were unleashed for a fast and furious ride west out of the Channel, ready to encounter the remainder of the malicious low pressure system which delayed Sunday's schedule start. With nearly 30kts of SE'ly wind blowing on the start line, memories of the bonus rest period in Le Havre - or at home for some - were blown immediately away. A notable change to the weather had the chill of winter's onset in the air but the heat of competition was ignited by the start gun. A rapid transit of the Channel is expected after a fast, wet first night at sea. Indeed the sun was already low as the fleet passed the General Metzinger mark, four miles offshore, downwind from the start line and the excitement of the start was all but gone. It promises to be a long, dark night as the weeks and months of anticipation and preparation give way to the intensity of keeping tabs on the competition in each of the classes on the drag race speed test which will offer little in the way of big strategic choices before the weekend. Tonight passing the Cherbourg peninsula there will be a front to deal with giving winds of around 35/40 knots, heavy rain and big seas, when the challenge really comes to maintain maximum speed without jeopardising craft or equipment. "It will be just a straight boat speed race for the first bit, the first 36 hours, then a light winds patch, so it will be important to be near the front," said Alex Thomson, Hugo Boss skipper. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/3douw5k PREVIEW - COLLEGE NATIONALS The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) hosts six major championships in each school year. The Coed Dinghy National Championship, Team Race National Championship, and Women's Dinghy National Championship are held in the spring, and the Men's and Women's Singlehanded National Championship and the Match Race National Championship are held in the fall. Here is the list of sailors from each of the seven districts who have qualified to compete in the ICSA/Laser Performance Singlehanded National Championship at Chicago Yacht Club on November 4-6: Women's Nationals (Laser Radial) - Middle Atlantic Arielle DeLisser '14, Hobart & William Smith Marissa Lihan '14, U.S. Naval Academy Giuditta Di Laghi '16, Hampton University Mary Hall '15, U.S. Naval Academy Midwest Lauren-Alyssa Knoles '11, Michigan State University Ellen Dubois '14, University of Michigan Natalie Sinn '12, University of Minnesota New England Anne Hager '12, Boston College Claire Dennis '13, Yale University Emily Billings '13, Yale University Sky Adams '14, Brown University Jessica Claflin '13, Brown University Northwest Erika Vranizan '12, Western Washington University Pacific Coast Molly McKinney '14, Stanford University Kaitlyn Baab '15, Stanford University South Atlantic Corey Hall '12, College of Charleston Dominique Wright '15, University of South Florida Southeastern Rebekka Urbina '12, Texas A&M University Galveston Men's Nationals (Laser Full Rig) - Middle Atlantic John Wallace '14, St. Mary's College of Maryland Chris Barnard '13, Georgetown University Samuel Blouin '12, Hobart & Williams Smith Philip Alley '12, Cornell University Midwest Andrew Fox '13, University of Wisconsin Joseph Kutschenreuter '12, University of Wisconsin Harrison Burton '14, University of Minnesota New England Cam Cullman '13, Yale University Colin Smith '13, Brown University Lucas Adams '15, Brown University Michael Zonnenberg '15, University of Vermont Northwest Elliot Drake '12, University of Oregon Pacific Coast Mateo Vargas '14, Stanford University Kieran Chung '15, Stanford University South Atlantic Zeke Horowitz '12, College of Charleston Christopher Stocke '15, University of South Florida David Hernandez '12, University of Miami Southeastern Trey Hartman '15, Texas A&M Galveston Event website: http://2011singlehanded.collegesailing.info/ TESTING CONDITIONS FOR MACLAREN PRO-AM Virgin Gorda, BVI (November 2, 2011) - The normally reliable North Sound trade winds took the day off on Tuesday for the first eight races of the Maclaren Pro-Am Regatta at the Bitter End Yacht Club - replaced by "lake-sailing" conditions with 40, 50, and 60 degree wind shifts. "We quickly learned how to execute a smooth auto-tack," explained BEYC guest Robin Stout who crewed for Ed Baird on his IC24 for several of those races. Auto-tacking wind shifts was obviously a successful strategy - Baird won four of the eight races to take a four point lead over Andrew Campbell, a Pro-Am first timer. Campbell seemed very patient and completely comfortable in the fluky conditions, taking two bullets and top three finishes in half of the races. Olympic medallists Zach Railey and Anna Tunnicliffe, in third and fourth place respectively, are also very much in the hunt. Event participants on Wednesday enjoyed a layday trip to Anegada to do a little beachcombing and snorkeling, but will return to the race course on Thursday for more fleet racing before the match racing championship on Friday. 1. Ed Baird, 20 2. Andrew Campbell, 24 3. Zach Railey, 32 4. Anna Tunnicliffe, 34 5. David Ullman, 42 6. Peter Holmberg, 43 7. Matt Burge, 43 8. Tom Lee, 50 Daily reports: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=12838 SO LIGHT-SO WARM: INTRODUCING THE BLOW JACKET BY SLAM We are proud to introduce the Blow jacket by SLAM to North America. This jacket is incredibly soft and lightweight, water and wind resistant, breathable, and dries faster than a down jacket would. The jacket has a durable rip-stop nylon shell; but the secret is what's on the inside! SLAM chose to fill the jacket with Primaloft one, the ultimate microfiber insulation. Primaloft one absorbs 3 times less water; is 14% warmer when dry and is 24% warmer when wet than the competitive insulation. Just in time for the Fall sailing season. http://www.slam-shops.com/scuttle.php SAILING SHORTS * (November 2, 2011) - After 38 days and 6,000 miles, the double-handed, Class40 Global Ocean Race teams are on the final push for the Leg 1 finish. Leg 1 winners, Ross and Campbell Field with BSL and second placed Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron with Campagne de France have arrived in Cape Town while the four Class40s in the fleet's main pack are hammering across the final 1,000 miles of the South Atlantic. At 09:00 GMT on Wednesday, the four boats were spread over 240 miles with the pack compressing to 100 miles north-south. -- Read on: http://globaloceanrace.com/?page=news&news_id=556&lang=en * Palermo, Italy (November 2, 2011) - After 31 years an Italian team is back in another Cup game. Today Challenge Italia unveiled the details of its challenge for the prestigious International C Class Catamaran Trophy also known as the "Little America's Cup" that will be held in August 2013 in Falmouth, UK. Challenge Italia will compete for Club Canottieri "Roggero di Lauria", the prestigious Palermo-based sailing club. -- Read on: http://www.challengeitalia.it/ * The Walter Cronkite Collection is available at the Tom Morris Library which is now officially online as a Virtual Library. The Library will exist in physical form at the National Sailing Center & Hall of Fame Building when it is built on the Annapolis waterfront adjacent to the U.S. Naval Academy. Made possible through generous donations by family and friends of Tom Morris, the founder of Morris Yachts, on the electronic shelves of the Virtual Library are references to books on sailing and related subjects donated to NSHOF. -- Info at: http://tinyurl.com/3tnxhz5 CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Is your event listed on the Scuttlebutt Event Calendar? This free, self-serve tool is the easiest way to communicate to both sailors and sailing media. These are some of the events listed on the calendar for this weekend: Nov 5-6 - J/22 Miss Piggy Regatta - Flowery Branch, GA, USA Nov 9-12 - Nassau Cup Ocean Race - Miami, FL, USA Nov 9-13 - New Zealand Match Racing Championships - Auckland, New Zealand Nov 10-13 - Heineken Regatta Curacao - Willemstad, Curacao, NA View all the events at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar INDUSTRY NEWS UPDATES The Industry News category of the Scuttlebutt Forum provides an opportunity for companies to announce new products and services. Here are some of recent postings: * Yachting Photographer Nicole Scott's new book: '200 Bowmen' * InfiniLube introduces new products * Mackay Boats now building the International 420 * Psi Bands - For the relief of motion sickness * Ultimate Sailing celebrates 30th year * Kaenon Polarized Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary View updates here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/industry_news GUEST COMMENTARY Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community. Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted comments chosen to be published in the newsletter may be limited to 250 words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Dave Ellis: Concerning Craig's comments in Scuttlebutt 3461, any course sailed will test the skill of skipper and crew. I think sailors may become one dimensional with a steady diet of W/L courses. It lacks navigation skill, has less chance of various tidal effect, and is the same every time. Snipes, Windmills, Contenders, Raiders, Albacores and others love reaches, especially in a breeze. But the only time we get to do it is on the way back to the club. * From Chris Welsh, Ragtime: Regarding the report findings surrounding the capsize of Rambler 100 (in Scuttlebutt 3459), I am wary of statements like "all vessels, especially canting keeled, should have access to life rafts in an inverted position". Let's be real about this - the features that make a life raft accessible when inverted also make it difficult to keep secure in most other conditions, and likely will lead to some really silly design constraints like life rafts only in compartments that open through the stern. Let's step back one step and analyze a different thought - canting keels. I think they are great, but I can think of a very small handful of fixed keels that have been lost in the last 30 years. And maybe triple that number of canters lost? Do whatever you want with rules for canters, but recognize they are different beasts. And in the spirit of being objective, the implicit endorsement of life jackets in the discussion of Olivia's accident overlooks the question - had she not been wearing a life jacket, would escape have been easier? There is a rote belief that life jacket = safety and I don't think that is a given. In my sailing experience, I am not aware of a drowning in any junior sailing event from my youth when life jackets were aboard but not worn, although I am sure there is one out there. There are two harness entanglement deaths that come to mind right away for juniors, and I question the role of life jackets in each. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Once you get on a boat, some of the societal expectations change. For example, nobody expects you to sail with the same partner for the rest of your life. SPONSORS THIS WEEK APS - Interlux - West Marine - Morris Yachts - Lewmar North Sails - Melges Performance Sailboats - Southern Spars Ullman Sails - Point Loma Outfitting - Quantum Sails - Ultimate Sailing Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
