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SCUTTLEBUTT 3181 - Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Scuttlebutt 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.
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Today's sponsors: O'Pen BIC, Summit Yachts, and Dinghy Locker
THE COOLEST FEELING IN SPORT
Last Saturday night, the Bristol, R.I.-based America's Cup Hall of Fame
received its 2010 inductees, who were honored in front of a packed house at
the New York YC's Harbour Court station in Newport, RI. Among the honorees
was headsail trimmer Simon Daubney, a member of the group referred to as the
Tight Five - Russell Coutts' key group of lieutenants that sailed with him
on the successful Team New Zealand campaigns in 1995 and 2000 and with
Alinghi in 2003 (and w/o RC in 2007). Here is Simon's acceptance speech
(courtesy of Sailing World magazine):
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It's absolutely an honor for me to be here because for me, the America's
Cup has been my life. As a kid growing up, it was an absolute dream. I'm
sure like all the sailors in the room, it's always been the pinnacle.
I remember the first time I came to Newport, I was just a kid, I think it
was 1980. I remember Courageous and another boat were stored in a shed, I
remember looking through the nail holes in the shed, just thinking, "That's
Courageous," I just couldn't believe it.
It's important to remember how absolutely cool [the 12 meters were]. One
thing I said long, long time ago, or some friends reminded me I said, while
being bored by some old 12-meter sailor telling some old stories, if I ever,
ever start going on like that just make a quick chop to the back of the
neck.
The reality is, there's no way you could talk to this crowd without having
some 12-Metre stories and just talking about it, [I realize] how lucky that
I was around just right at the very end and I got to sail with wire sheets
and bolt cutters. Kids today, they just don't get to do that stuff. I love
the boats, I love the Jubilee [in Cowes, in 2001], I loved sailing with
Russell, these guys. It was pretty special.
The good thing about sailing the America's Cup for someone like me, who's
basically uneducated, is you get to sail and work with a lot of really,
really smart people. And it's true, I made a career out of pulling the jib
onto the top spreader and just watching it.
[Peter Montgomery] attributed me with the flippers to support the [roach on
the fat-head jibs]. Coutts told me that would be a good idea. I spent my
whole career looking up at the thing, and it was like, "Why didn't I think
of that."
We'd sit around in our offices, meeting with people who'd come from all
fields, motor racing, Formula 1, scientists, people who paid attention in
school, and they'd say: "Talk to us Simon, what do you think?" I'd say,
"What you mean, what do I think?" What do you think [Tom Schnackenberg]?
Who cares what I think.
To work with these guys when we were sailing with the New Zealand team to
working with the fantastic group we had with Alinghi; let me tell you, the
feeling that you have when you'd be going into any race, anyone who raced
in those four Cups, no matter what country they were from, to have that
support, to get that eye contact before the race and just know that you can
power ahead and do anything because you've got the support of everyone
around you. It's just the coolest feeling in sport. I love that part of the
Cup.
Complete story: http://tinyurl.com/SW-092010
FROM WHERE HE CAME
At 49 years now, Ken Read has over 40 World, North American, and National
Championships to his credit, and has been recognized as the College Sailor
of the Year in 1982 and the United States Rolex Yachtsman of the Year twice
(1985, 1995). Now amid his preparation as skipper of the PUMA Ocean Racing
team for the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race, Read provides some details on his
past during an interview with T2PTV - the online network for Sailing On
Demand coverage:
The Northeast:
"I think the advantage to living in the Northeast is we had the ocean in
the summer but then we had other things to do in the winter. My brother
(Brad) and I played hockey all winter. So sailing was really exciting for
us. Whereas, you can see with the kids from Southern California that by the
time they got to college (sailing) wasn't such a big thing."
The '80s:
"I grew up in a little bit different era. There wasn't much of a
professional sailing circuit. When I got out of college, it was the spar
makers, the boat builders, and the sail makers that were grabbing the better
college sailors right out of school, and saying 'here's a J/24, go win'
or 'here's a lightning, go win'. It was the ultimate job."
Complete interview: http://www.t2p.tv/guide/freeviewers/read10b.php
FACEBOOK OR FLINTSTONES?
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Flintstone generation. Meanwhile the O'Pen BIC nails the bullseye... a
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Capsizing is now fun! Bottom line? Kids can't wait to sail O'pen BICs.
Contact info@bicsportna.com for special fall offers on 2011 junior program
packages. http://www.OpenBIC.com
PARALYMPIC TEST
The 2010 2.4mR World Championship, which commences racing on Tuesday,
presents a great opportunity for the singlehanded Paralympic sailors to
measure themselves against the best in the world. After a couple of days
training on the choppy waters of Hoorn (The Netherlands), Canadian Sailing
Team members Bruce Millar and 2008 Gold Medalist Paul Tingley are ready to
start racing.
They spent most of Sunday measuring the boats. Paul had to replace a boom
which was a bit damaged but other than that everything went through
measurement without any problems. Due to the wet conditions they had to wax
and clean the boats in the morning before craning them in the water. The
boats have to stay in the water till after the last race next Saturday.
For the practice race Monday afternoon, Canadian meteorologist Eric Holden's
forecast of strong winds gusting to 22 knots was bang on. It was a good
showing for Bruce and Paul playing up at the front of the fleet. Forecast
for Tuesday and the rest of the week is lighter winds with the arrival of a
high pressure system. -- Full report:
http://www.sailing.ca/features/2010_24_world_championships/
HURRICANE UPDATE
Hurricane Igor's pounding of Bermuda is history. Igor will now clip
southeast Newfoundland and a tropical storm warning is in effect from Stones
Cove northward and westward to Jones Harbour. Along with the strong winds,
rainfall could locally near 8 to 10 inches in a few locations.
As of 5 p.m. Eastern Time Monday, the center of Igor was located about 725
miles southwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland. Top winds with Igor are 75 miles
per hour, making Igor a minimal hurricane. However, since Igor is a rather
large system, hurricane force winds extend up to 85 miles from the center
and tropical storm force winds extend up to 380 miles away from the center.
Igor is not expected to change much in strength as it transitions into an
extratropical system over the next couple of days. Igor is moving to the
northeast around 28 miles per hour. Complete report:
http://www.weather.com/newscenter/tropical/
TRACKING IGOR: Sailing Weather Service (SWS), which recently helped Ericsson
4 win the 2008-9 Volvo Ocean Race and BMW Oracle Racing win the 33rd
America's Cup, has made available their proprietary model forecast that
provides 1-hour time step images for up to 5 days. Curious where Igor is
going? The Sailing Weather Service Model Data can be viewed here:
http://www.sailwx.com/HURRICANE/
PELIGROSO, SI. DANGER, NO
By Kimball Livingston, yachting journalist
There's this boat that was born of a concept, not to be "just a boat" but
a spark to reignite interest in building new 70-footers for the West Coast,
where "70" is magic. At that level, it didn't quite take, but Peligroso
looks good on the water, and the boat has gone on to a brilliant second life
as a queen of Mexico's sailing fleet. When he found her, new owner Lorenzo
Berho didn't want "just a boat." He wanted a vehicle to inspire young
sailors; train them; give them an experience of the other.
I think it's working. Lorenzo tells it this way:
"I wanted this for family, and I wanted to keep it family. Some people lose
that as they become more competitive. And I wanted to recruit these other
young sailors too, kids who are campaigning for the Olympics and the like,
and give them an opportunity to participate in racing a bigger boat. With
young people it is easy to see the analogies between sailing and life, the
importance of learning your limits, learning to solve problems, learning to
work together, learning respect. You embark upon something like this, and
you never know how many lives you will touch."
Berho, who lives in Mexico City, has gone step by step to get this far, and
he has a plan. Step one, in 2005, was to buy a J/145, Raincloud. "It was a
good boat to take the family to the next level," he says. "We had no idea
how to do the basics, so we trained hard, and we had the goals of racing San
Diego-Vallarta, Transpac 2007, and the Big Boat Series, 2008. It was here
(at the BBS) in 2008 that I was having a glass of wine with my tactician,
Nigel Cochrane, in the St. Francis Yacht Club. They have a large model
collection . . .
. . . and Nigel said, "Come over here and look. This is a model of
Peligroso. She's for sale." I stood there looking into the glass case, and
it came to me that, if we had a competitive boat of a size that no one else
in Mexico has, we could make a difference."
Peligroso - the word means danger - had been commissioned from Tim Kernan by
boat partners Mike Campbell and Dale Williams. They had raced the boat hard
and well, but failed to inspire the new fleet of 70-footers they hoped for.
When Campbell died of a persistent illness, the boat became available.
"Some boats have a legacy," Berho says. "ike and Dale put heart and
spirit into Peligroso, and the boat still has something special about it,
something that makes it important to me to keep our focus on the amateurs,
with the professionals secondary to the passion of the younger sailors."--
Read on: http://kimballlivingston.com/?p=4810
SUMMIT YACHTS UNDERSCORES WINNING RECORD ON BOTH COASTS
Congratulations to Dan Galyon and the crew of the Summit 40 "American
Girl" for their stunning victory in IRC 2, at the Long Island Sound IRC
Championship this past weekend. Dan's team scored a 1-1-2-3-3. In IRC 3,
Dominic Porco's Summit 35 "Alliance" sailed to a convincing third place
finish. On the west coast, Dan Woolery earned a first place finish in Class
B, in his Summit 40 "Soozal" in the San Francisco Big Boat Series. Another
great weekend for Summit Yachts. Check out these great boats at
http://www.summit-yachts.com
WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN 2011?
Since its launch in 2005, the TP52 MedCup circuit has presented a legitimate
summer racing tour for professional teams. But with the cost to compete
rising in a faltering economy, tour attendance peaked in 2008. Participation
has been propped up over the past two seasons by America's Cup interests
needing to remain active during the legal delays that followed the 2007
Match. Now that it's known a catamaran will be in the 2013 America's Cup,
the next question is what will happen in 2011 to the MedCup circuit and
class. Here is an update:
* The fifth and final event of the 2010 Audi MedCup begins Tuesday in
Cagliari, Italy (Sept. 20-25). As long as there are no catastrophic events
for Emirates Team New Zealand, they will assuredly capture their second
season title in a row - a fitting end for a team that has already sold its
boat. However, the remaining podium steps remain open. Quantum Racing holds
second, but they are followed by three teams that are nearly locked on
points, with the light to moderate forecasted winds able to shuffle the deck
by Saturday. -- Full report: http://www.medcup.org/news/?id=3967
* Ten TP52s from nine different nations have already registered their entry
to the 2010 TP52 World Championship that will be held on the renowned waters
off Valencia, Spain, October 4-9. Alberto Roemmers' crew on Matador (ARG)
will seek to defend the world title that they won last year in Palma,
Mallorca, with tough competition coming from past world championship teams
Quantum Racing (USA) and Artemis (SWE). Noted TP52 Class Manager Rob Weiland
(NED), "Considering the economic climate and what has been happening in
other elite areas of the sport, it is great to be looking forward to
welcoming the same number of TP52’s to Valencia as we had in Palma." --
Full report: http://www.tp52worldchampionship.org/2010/news/?id=1336
* 2008 Audi MedCup Circuit and World Champion Quantum Racing announced they
will campaign a new build boat for the 2011 season. The new Quantum Racing
will follow a very similar established winning recipe, being designed by
Botin Carkeek and built in Spain by Chimo Lopez Longtitude Zero in Burriana,
ready for launching and work up in the Mediterranean early next season. "We
want to support the Audi MedCup," said Project manager Ed Reynolds,
President of Quantum Sail Design Group. "I've watched for years when a new
one design class or a new boat comes out and it's always like "well if you
sell six boats we'll buy one". Somebody just has to stand up first and say
"we believe the direction, we believe the new concept and we like the new
boats." -- Full report:
http://www.medcup.org/media/mailing/index.php?id=465
SAILING SHORTS
* Marblehead, MA (September 19, 2010) - The three day J/24 U.S. National
Championship was hosted by Corinthian Yacht Club, with 48 boats competing in
eight races. After the seventh race, the teams led by Jens Hookanson and
Will Welles were the only boats to still hold all top ten scores, and
fittingly were tied on points with one race to go. But it was Welles who had
the hot hand on the final day, rolling a 2-3 to take the title with
Hookanson finishing second and Carter White winning the final race to move
into third. Final results:
http://www.regattapromotions.com/results/overall-final-results.htm
* Ventura, CA (September 19, 2010) - The death of a contestant in the Santa
Barbara Channel Challenge and Ventura Cup prompted organizers to cancel the
two-day event Sunday afternoon. According to reports from the Ventura County
Medical Examiner-Coroner's Office and the Ventura County Fire Department,
Dan Chepley, 65, died of what appeared to be natural causes right before one
of the races began in Ventura Harbor. "It seems to be a cardiac-related
incident," said Chief Deputy Medical Examiner James Baroni. Chepley was on
his boat, a Tripp 40 named Colt 45, preparing to race when he collapsed at
the wheel. Read more: http://tinyurl.com/VCStar-092010
* KVH Industries said it has completed the acquisition of Virtek
Communications. The Rhode Island-based marine electronics firm said in a
statement that the all-cash acquisition was for US$6.5m. Norway-based Virtek
specializes in "middleware" software that helps vessel owners manage date to
and from their yachts over different satellite communications services. The
statement noted it will be used with KVH's mini-VSAT Broadbands or Inmarsat
Fleet Broadband. -- IBI Magazine, full report:
http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20100820110033ibinews.html
* BP PLC said it was ending its Vessels of Opportunity programme in Alabama,
Mississippi and Florida. The three US states bordering the Gulf of Mexico
had seen thousands of boaters work in the oil spill and recovery effort
launched after the collapse of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April. BP
spokesperson Justin Saia told the Associated Press (AP) that more than 3,500
vessels were employed over the summer in the cleanup effort. Many vessels
were local charter captains who were displaced from work because large areas
of the Gulf were closed to fishing and shrimping. -- IBI Magazine, full
report: http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20100817110531ibinews.html
LOCAL WEBSITES
While Scuttlebutt seeks to provide sailing news and information for the
North American sailor, there are still plenty of services that a local area
website can provide. An example is the recent re-launch of
SanDiegoSailing.com, with its goal of being a comprehensive resource for
sailing related weather, charters, instruction, yacht sales, photos, videos,
crew listings, racing, supplies and services in San Diego, CA.
On the Scuttlebutt website there is a section called 'Suppliers &
Resources', where a new category called 'Sailing Resources - Local' now
includes this San Diego website. Are there other websites that provide
similar services for specific sailing areas? Contact Scuttlebutt for a free
listing at info@sailingscuttlebutt.com
Suppliers & Resources: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers/
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GUEST COMMENTARY
Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community.
Either submit your comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted
comments chosen to be published in the newsletter are limited to 250 words.
One published submission per subject, and save your bashing and personal
attacks for elsewhere.
Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com
Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum
* From Brian Hancock:
Sad to see that Dodge Morgan has sailed his last passage. He was a pioneer
in many ways. I admired his honesty and frankness and the tenacity it took
to get around the world solo. I was just behind him at Cape Horn doing a
Whitbread on Drum and chatted to him the day he rounded. It's a great memory
of a great man.
* From Alan Veenstra, Chicago:
I view the Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) selection of catamarans for AC
competition as nothing more than a continued mockery of the world's oldest
sporting event. While the technology associated with catamarans was vital in
rescuing the AC from Ernesto, must we continue down a path that limits
competition to billionaires from a handful of technologically advanced
countries? Must we cheapen the image of our sport in order to attract an
audience better suited to the momentary shallowness of the latest reality
show? Catamarans are marvelous, but such large platforms are more akin to
drag racing than to yacht racing.
Technology is a marvelous benefit of AC competition, but now it seems to be
the only one. Not only is it prohibitively expensive (thereby limiting
competition), it diminishes the role of sailors and tactics in the joy of
competition. If allowed to continue we can dispense with the sailors all
together. Radio-control boats anyone? How about computer simulation by
Pixar? Instead of starting lines, will we see AC boats revving their winged
masts as vertical lights countdown from red to green? And to attract an even
larger audience, perhaps we can rename the event to 'AC: Smack Down on the
Bay'.
I suggest that GGYC designate an AC vessel between 50'-80' that conforms to
an international rating rule for offshore yachts. Not only would this
encourage a broad field of international competitors, the afterlife of such
boats would bolster offshore fleets worldwide. And more important, we would
put real sailors and tactics back into the world's oldest competition.
CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION
Some people hear voices. Some see invisible people. Others have no
imagination whatsoever.
Special thanks to O'Pen BIC, Summit Yachts, and Dinghy Locker.
Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers
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