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SCUTTLEBUTT 2068 - April 7, 2006Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.EIGHT BELLS William "Bill" Lapworth -- perhaps the foremost West Coast Naval Architect in the post World War II period -- has passed away. Born December 12, 1919 in Detroit, Michigan, he attended and graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in marine engineering and naval architecture. At the end of World War II, after serving as a United States naval officer, he decided to make his home on the West Coast and began a design business. Work flowed to him readily and he was responsible for the design of some major changes to well known West Coast yachts that required new rigs to keep them competitive-the 82' sloop Patolita, later Sirius II, the conversion of the 98' schooner Morningstar to a modern Ketch rig; and the 77-foot Herreshoff Schooner Queen Mab with a new staysail schooner rig. Soon he was designing a series of light displacement racing sailboats that began to win or place highly on the East and West Coasts, beginning with Flying Scotsman and Nalu II, 46' -- a four time Class C Transpac race winner and first overall in 1959. Next came the 50' sloop Ichiban, second overall in the 1961 Transpac. By 1958, more than 70 of the wooden L-36' sloops had been built; but, by then fiberglass was becoming the material of choice. With Bill recognizing fiberglass properties as an ideal and readily available material for sailboats embodying both strong and light construction properties he began designing fiberglass hulls. He had phenomenal success in the major races on the West Coast. He designed Cal boats in all sizes from 20-48 feet and of course the famous Cal 40. That design proved itself over and over, winning many races including the Bermuda Race in 1966 and the TransPac in 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1985. The Cal 40 was so successful that it was inducted into the American Sailboat Hall of Fame, and led Bill Schanen, the editor of Sailing magazine to hail Lapworth as one of the sport's greatest designers. In cruising designs his Cal 46 was also produced in great numbers and continues to be enjoyed by the cruising set. As a shipmate Bill was absolutely tops to sail with; a consummate helmsman and extremely valuably tactician; always sought as a crew on major races. He also sailed on boats not of his own design, providing these most useful characteristics to their owners. His designs gave him a primacy never before achieved by a naval architect as yet on the West Coast. His calm demeanor was a most recognized characteristic and his evenhanded nature fostered only the best in his fellow sailors. Bill is survived by his wife of 40 years Peggy Lapworth. His children Barbara Burman Rolph, Charles William Lapworth III, Robert Lapworth, Jr., Susan Cohl and Kim Sorenson. A private burial at sea will be held on Friday, April 7, 2006. A reception will follow at 3:00 P.M. at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, Balboa, CA. In lieu of flowers, a donation to the Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation would be appreciated. -- Excerpts from the LA Times and Latitude 38 BY DESIGN Harry Dunning is the principal designer for the Mascalzone Latino – Capitalia Team. He has been a professional yacht designer for over 20 years, including long stints at Farr Yacht Design and the Reichel & Pugh design office. As a sailor he has competed in many of the world’s top events, including Fastnet and Sydney-Hobart races, among many others. He played a lead role in the design of the two Stars & Stripes boats from the last Cup, USA 66 and USA 77, both of which have been acquired by the Mascalzone team for training. The following are some of his quotes from an interesting interview with him posted on the official website of the 32nd America’s Cup. “The biggest change is that the size of the ‘box’ for the boats has become extremely small for the 2007 series. This has narrowed the playing field considerably and decreased the range of basic design parameters which need to be explored. The weather is of course critical. Our weather analysis has all been coordinated by our team meteorologist. Our approach, as far as the design work is concerned, is to augment the data available to all teams with data and analysis of our own. This data is then statistically reduced and worked into the VPP analysis. Major design decisions are based on this analysis. I think that we will see considerable innovation and refinement with small and moderate details of the new boats. But I do not expect big differences in shape and configuration with respect to the boats we saw during the 2005 Louis Vuitton Acts.” When Dunning was asked, how relevant money is to the America's Cup, he responded, “It cannot be argued that it is very, very important. Money buys more research, equipment, and the best people. But Alinghi showed in the last Cup that it is possible to dominate the event without necessarily having the biggest budget. The bottom line is that money is critical, but past a certain threshold the most important ingredient is talent.” -- Full interview: http://tinyurl.com/j5lal RAW SPEED The Volvo Ocean Race fleet has broken into the south easterly trade winds and the true performance of the Volvo Open 70 is on display once more, performance that in the past had been the sole province of the racing multihull, not the world girdling monohull. Currently the Volvo Open 70s are all sailing two knots faster than the true wind in which they sail. Thursday night, there is a mere 335 nautical miles separating Bouwe Bekking’s boys on movistar from the long awaited Island, Fernando de Noronha and potentially first place at the scoring gate. They have managed to pull out a further four miles in the past six hours, now 29 nautical miles in front of second place. Their sailing configuration seems entirely suited to the conditions and, bearing in mind some of their performances in the rough stuff of the Southern Ocean, you have to wonder what would have been the leaderboard situation had they managed to avoid the damages that have beset them on previous legs. Pirates have slipped back into the clutches of ABN Amro One courtesy of a hole in the wind at about 1335GMT. It affected Brasil 1 also, but the greatest sufferer was Pirates who saw ABN Amro One come over the horizon and draw alongside. An understandably miffed Paul Cayard explained his frustrations to our radio reporter Guy Swindell’s in an interview which is on the website’s Latest Audio page. Suffice to say, Cayard says that it is inevitable that ABN Amro One will come by even if they make mistakes as they have such raw speed. Despite his pleasure in his own boat’s performance, Cayard says that it has been hard to get his head around the concept that there is one boat which is so much faster then the rest. He puts the speed difference down to One’s second generation status. They had the time to build their second boat with the knowledge from the first, optimising the strength and the weight and making the build as heavy as possible. This, coupled with greater overall beam, makes for a much more powerful boat with the possibility of a wider sheeting angle, something very useful at the moment with a lot of reaching on the menu. -- http://www.volvooceanrace.org Volvo Ocean Race Positions at 2200 GMT Thursday 1. movistar, Bouwe Bekking, 3927 miles to finish 2. Team ABN Amro One, Mike Sanderson, +29 miles 3. Pirates of the Caribbean, Paul Cayard, +32 miles 4. Ericsson Racing Team, John Kostecki, +41 miles 5. Brasil 1, Torben Grael, +45 miles 6. Team ABN Amro Two, Sebastien Josse, +66 miles LIGHTEN UP BERMUDA RACERS Euro Marine Trading has recently announced that the innovative and award-winning Lopolight LED navigational lights are now available in Carbon, significantly reducing weight aloft. The carbon lights can be seen aboard Ericsson Racing in the Volvo Ocean Race, and the Aluminum Lopolights were chosen by all other VOR campaigns. Lopolight Nav lights are virtually indestructible, draw 90% less power than incandescent lights, and can withstand the toughest ocean conditions. Light your way to Bermuda with innovative marine lighting from Lopolight. To order, and for more information, visit us at http://euromarinetrading.com SPECIAL BREED “Life of being a navigator isn't always as easy as it looks. On this leg nobody is jealous of Capey (Andrew Cape), when he is spending long hours downstairs in the navstation, sweat pouring down and looking over his maps and all the route options. Sometimes I am not even sure what he is doing, but it seems that he is always programming to optimize all the aspects of his job. I love to peek out of my bunk when he is at work. Sometimes he goes without any sleep for 24 hours. “Like tonight for example, the hammer hit him. He was working on some programme, his headset on (music on full tilt) tapping continuously on the keyboard. But then all of sudden the sleep was on the winning hand. His head started rolling and rocking a couple of times, but he kept pushing the key tabs. Then all of a sudden his head rocked forward and crashed with a loud bang on the navstation. I nearly rolled out of my bunk with laughter, but also a bit concerned that he might have hurt himself. But none of that, he was sound asleep and lying in an impossible position, something only he is able to do.” -- Bouwe Bekking, movistar skipper NEWS BRIEFS * Three newly built TP52 boats have arrived Spain in the last week to begin preparing for the Breitling MedCup six-event Circuit. Platoon (GER) and Fram (NOR) have arrived in Palma de Mallorca, while the Spanish boat Mutua Madrileña, has made Valencia its temporary home. Six TP52’s will be competing in PalmaVela (21-23 April) – Mutua Madrileña, Platoon, Santa Ana (ESP), Bribón (ESP) and AIFOS (ESP). While Caixa Galicia (ESP), Tau Ceramica Andalucia (ESP), Ono (ESP) and Siemens (IRE) will be racing at the Regata Ciudad de Malaga on Spain’s Costa del Sol, over the same period. -- http://www.medcup.org * The Musto Seamanship Trophy for Leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race was presented to Chris Nicholson, Watch Captain on the Spanish entry movistar by skipper Bouwe Bekking. When water came flooding into the hull, threatening to sink the yacht west of Cape Horn, Nicholson bravely dived under the water to connect two emergency pumps direct to the vessel’s batteries. He suffered a series of electric shocks, as he made the connection, but his achievement in doing so enabled the crew to fire up the pumps and drain tonnes of seawater back into the ocean. * In an effort to have its Suddenly Alone Seminar reach a wider audience, the Cruising Club of America's (CCA) has transferred the seminar’s administration to North U. -- http://www.northu.com * In a story posted on SFGate.com website, Raymond Freymann, managing director of BMW's research and technology group, said BMW Oracle America’s Cup syndicate crew members have sunglasses equipped with displays that allow them to monitor different sailing conditions, such as wind speed. -- http://tinyurl.com/jss3u * Faye Bennet was added to the list of Medalist Donors as US Sailing’s Sailor of the Week. She was the first female sailing judge in the US, the first woman to compete in the U.S. Men’s Championship (Mallory Cup), the first woman to chair the U.S. Jr. Championship Committee, to sit on US SAILING’s Board of Directors and to be elected President of her regional sailing association (North Jersey YRA). Faye has committed her time, talent, and resources to this sport from the time she developed and taught the first Junior Program at the Spray Beach Yacht Club in 1950. -- http://tinyurl.com/g9wwj * The Bitter End YC on Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands, has announced the ten skippers for their 20th Annual Pro Am Regatta Week (October 28 - November 5) where the guests of the resort make up the crews for the world class skipper. This year the ‘junior’ skippers are Russell Coutts, Paul Cayard, Ken Read, Dawn Riley and Robbie Haines, while the ‘seniors’ are Lowell North, Keith Musto, Bruce Kirby, Butch Ulmer and Rod Johnstone. The Scuttlebutt Sailing Club Championship Regatta will be held concurrently, and the Curmudgeon will be there. What a week! -- http://www.beyc.com * Exhibitors from five countries will showcase an extensive fleet of boats -- from small dinghies that can be car-topped to a 92-foot cruising yacht with more luxury per square inch than most homes -- at Strictly Sail Pacific, a five-day sailboat show that opens at Jack London Square on April 19. Strictly Sail will feature over 300 exhibitors, free seminars with experts, and special events for all ages. Newcomers can Discover Sailing on half-hour sailing excursions with expert skippers. The try-sailing opportunities are free with the price of admission. -- http:// www.strictlysail.com * The painting of the hull of CHN-79 is almost finished with only a few final touches left. The red dragon has reached his final length, while the stern is now completely red. The deck of the boat is also covered with a strong red color and without any doubt the result will be very impressive. The Valencia Sailing blog has posted some impressive photos of the emerging form. -- http://valenciasailing.blogspot.com/ MAN VS. MACHINE - WHO WINS? When you buy a sail, you buy technology. But you also make an investment in people - that’s why you need real sailmakers, not boat-hopping salesmen. Every Doyle loft is staffed by sailmakers with more skill and sailmaking knowledge than other brands (Doyle loft managers have been at it, on average, for 35 years). Technology alone won’t make you win -- if your sailmaker won’t invest the time to get to know you, your boat, and local conditions, you lose. Ready for a real sailmaker? Call us at 1-800-94-DOYLE; http://www.doylesails.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. 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 thoughts at the Scuttlebutt website: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi) * From Hank Evans (re story in ‘Butt 2067): Coverless books, short handled toothbrushes and one pair of boxer shots worn 4 ways to save weight. Give me a break! I'm afraid our sport has reached the epitome of ridiculous. * From Peter Huston (re the resolution of the TSA Problem): I'm reminded of something I learned from John Bonds when he was Executive Director of US Sailing. A member of a committee had gone and done something on behalf of the organization that wasn't perhaps perfectly presented, but the results were outstanding. When a group of senior US Sailing officials were considering what to say to this gentleman, some actually suggested scolding him even though he had gotten results as yet not achieved, John simply said "There are only two words you can ever say to a volunteer - Thank You". * From Jim Stone: The TSA supervisor at Miami International in December took the CO2 Cartridge from my life jacket that was in my carry-on. Interestingly, the same life jacket with cartridge was in my checked baggage on the way down to assist the Jury for the Etchells Jaguar Cup Series, and was not touched or removed. Thanks for the update on this issue. Next time I’ll have the printed policy with me. * From Chris Doutre (re flying with CO2 cartridges): Sailors flying to Mexico to meet their boat must face this issue. You have stated the TSA and FAA rules, which basically avoid answering the question. Now, what would be truly useful information would be a list of airlines that actually allow CO2 cartridges onboard. I haven't found one yet. What's doubly frustrating is that the US Sailing website reports that American Airlines (for example) allows them in checked baggage (as of 4/18/03), but if you phone them today, they say no. In the end, I expect that the list will be so short as to be useless. Here is some more info from http://www.southwest.com: - Life rafts may be transported and will count as one of the three, free checked bags allowed. If the life raft meets the carryon sizing criteria it may be carried onboard, but will count as a carryon bag. Cartridges associated with a self-inflating life raft must be removed and are not allowed on Southwest. - Self-inflating life vests with two small gas cylinders (cartridges) and two small spare cylinders are allowed in checked baggage. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) prohibits them from being carried onboard in carryon baggage. We recommend Customers pack self-inflating life vests in checked luggage to avoid complications at the security checkpoint. * From Doug Bailey (Regarding Chris Mc Kesson’s comments on Hybrid Power in Butt 2067): HaveBlue has a concept, a website and not much else. Catalina Yachts has taken back the boat, the power system was never completed and the investors would like to find and have a meeting with the founder. Someone looking for information from a builder with up and running systems should contact John at consercatamaran.com. At least 2 of his 47’ cats are electric powered. In the early 1970s Stan Gibbs Sr. put a small gas engine up in the forepeak of his Cal 28’, hooked up an industrial electric motor and went out on “Wet Wednesdays” and cruising. Also in the early 70’s in Sacramento Delta Area I was on a Cal cruising 48’ that had been modified to twin screw electric with 3 gensets of various sizes under the salon. * From Robie Pierce: Dan Strohmier is one of the few remaining US legends of sailing. Along with Olin Stephens, also 95, they are gifts to our yachting heritage. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION Why do bars advertise “live bands?” Are there any dead bands performing? Special thanks to Euro Marine Trading and Doyle Sailmakers. |
