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SCUTTLEBUTT 3350 - Thursday, May 26, 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 Hall Spars & Rigging. MERGING BUSINESS AND PLEASURE When the 2011 Rolex Farr 40 North American Championship commences this Saturday through Monday in Long Beach, CA, it will be the first time that this grand prix class hosted its continental title event on the West Coast since the series was launched in 1998, a year after the boat was introduced to the world. The class has global popularity with 152 boats in 17 countries and, locally, the Southern California group is seen as "the fastest growing Farr 40 fleet in the world," according to David Voss, president of the West Coast flotilla. While Long Beach Yacht Club is the event host, facility upgrades required a location change, so now the boats will be based and hosted by Gladstone's restaurant at nearby Rainbow Harbor downtown. The partnership between Gladstone's and local sporting events is not new. John Sangmeister, operator of Gladstone's, was successful in attracting the Los Angeles to Hawaii Transpac race fleet to Rainbow Harbor for their pre race staging. His restaurant was also the backdrop for two recent Red Bull events: New Year - No Limits and Flugtag. In one event, Travis Pastrana successfully jumped his Subaru Impreza 269 feet from the adjacent pier to a barge. In the other event, homemade, human-powered flying machines were piloted off the pier... with much less success. "Having been fortunate to participate in two America's Cup campaigns (Fremantle and San Diego), I've witnessed firsthand the positive transformations that came about as a direct result of prominent sporting events," said Sangmeister. "Gladstone's Long Beach aspires to be a quintessential California waterfront restaurant experience and we rely on the promise of an attractive and vibrant destination. Sailing, sailboats and activity enhance our aesthetic." When offering advice on how events and businesses can have a mutually beneficial sponsor arrangement, he explains how it's important that roles and responsibilities are well defined. "Where we've experienced challenges are in assumptions or third party communications that were inconsistent and unexpected," said Sangmeister. "At these times flexibility and cooperation are essential. Finally, as marketing budgets receive closer scrutiny, organizers would improve their ability to attract and retain sponsors with greater preparation of the benefits and reach of each event." Ten teams will begin racing on Saturday at 1:00 pm PT. Full details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=11917 WHY AUSTRALIA NEEDS TO WIN THE AMERICA'S CUP By MySailing.com editor As I sat having a quiet beer at one of the dozens of bars in Auckland's viaduct complex recently, I couldn't help but reflect on the benefits that accrue from hosting an America's Cup challenge. When I left Perth to wander the world in 1976, Fremantle was a grotty port city that you didn't venture into after dark. In fact, I had survived a severe bashing there one Sunday night only because I could run faster than my five attackers. When I returned for the America's Cup defence in 1986, I was staggered at the change. All the old pubs and other colonial buildings had been given a total make-over. There were new pedestrian malls with dozens of cafes and restaurants, and of course the new Challenger Boat Harbour had been built, where all the teams had their bases. Perth 2011, the major qualifier for next year's Olympics, would never have been allocated to Fremantle had Australia not hosted the Cup. The benefits are lasting, with all the Cup infrastructure still in place, along with the purpose-built marine business area of Henderson, just down the road, which continues to build large commercial vessels as well as servicing the oil and gas industry and the booming recreational boating market in WA. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/MySailing-052511 ULLMAN SAILS - DELIVERING THE SERVICE YOU DESERVE Are you debating between performance sails for the racecourse or durable sails for weekend cruising with the family? Or you maybe you only have the budget for one new sail this year? At Ullman Sails, we're dedicated to personally working with each customer to determine the best sails for their sailing goals and budget. And it doesn't matter whether you're investing in a Blue Line Cruising spinnaker or buying a FiberPath GP Race genoa for your race inventory, our sail consultants will go the extra mile to make sure every customer is satisfied. Invest in your performance. http://www.ullmansails.com GREAT PORTS MAKE GREAT CITIES By Michelle Slade, SailBlast As I've alluded to more than once, the City of San Francisco is not losing time in checking off the boxes when it comes to the infrastructure work that's required to put on an America's Cup event in 2013. It's well recorded by former AC cities (Perth, Auckland, Valencia) that the Cup leaves behind a legacy that continues to be enjoyed - and continues to provide financial benefit - for everyone. The City is proving to be the rock amongst the ever changing tides of Cup chaos (who really knows how many teams will show come Judgment Day?) but then it's really never been any different. And, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that there's still two years to go. At the Port of San Francisco, Jonathan Stern, Asst. Deputy Director, Waterfront Development, filled SailBlast in on what's happening in his domain. Most of that which he and his team are focusing on right now is related to the entitlement process (the People Plan is the public part of that) and working on drafting the EIR to get the environmental clearance. Stern says there's a lot of technical analysis that has to be done about the event and understanding better what the event is. He's also working with the America's Cup Environmental Coalition - a local stakeholder group which has been following the Cup and generally has a stake in the waterfront, being concerned with waterfront development and other related issues. -- Read on: http://sailblast.blogspot.com/2011/05/great-ports-make-great-cities.html FRENCH MATCH RACING TEAM ON A ROLL Langenargen, Germany (May 25, 2011) - At the opening event of the 2011 World Match Racing Tour, for Damien Iehl (FRA) and his French Match Racing Team lost only 5 of his 21 races to take the Match Race French event title. Two weeks later, Iehl has continued his imperious form at second event on the tour - Match Race Germany - where he is joined by Francesco Bruni and Phil Robertson at the top of the standings after each team posted unbeaten records in the first Qualifying Session on Lake Constance. The Frenchman didn't have it all his own way though having to come from behind in his opening match against Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing. He then benefited from a mistake by Eugeny Neugodnikov (RUS) Team Synergy to claim his next scalp. Iehl's wins against William Tiller (NZL), Bjorn Hansen (SWE), and Jesper Radich (DEN) were easier to come by, with the perfect performance mirroring his opening day in France. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/WMRT-052511 Standings After the First Qualifying Session: Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team, 5-0 Francesco Bruni (ITA) Mascalzone Latino, 3-0 Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing Team, 3-0 Eugeney Neugodnikov (RUS) Team Synergy, 3-2 Jesper Radich (DEN) Adrian Lee & Partners, 3-2 Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team, 2-1 Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing, 2-3 Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Mekonomen Sailing Team, 2-3 Eric Monnin (SUI) Team Ocalys Corum, 1-2 Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team, 0-4 Stefan Meister (GER), 0-4 William Tiller (NZL) Full Metal Jacket Racing, 0-5 UPDATES: A live blog will run on the tour website throughout the day to give flight by flight updates, plus video programming before and after the racing: http://www.wmrt.com/live-blog.html BACKGROUND: The World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) is the leading professional sailing series, featuring 9 events across the globe, sanctioned by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) with "Special Event" status. Prize money is awarded for each event, with event points culminating in the crowning of the "ISAF Match Racing World Champion". -- http://www.wmrt.com FIREFIGHTING (May 25, 2011) - The first day of the Extreme Sailing Series Act 3 in Istanbul, Turkey has attracted 11 international teams to compete in the Extreme 40 event, with several aspiring America's Cup teams amid the field. American skipper Terry Hutchinson led Artemis Racing to the top spot with 52 points, only a single point ahead of Act 2 winners Luna Rossa and Alinghi on 47. For six out of seven races today a different team crossed the finish line first, only Luna Rossa scored two bullets. "The venue itself is tricky," explained Hutchinson. "It's one of those places where you are never really out of it until the race is over. You fight for every point because you know they are so valuable. We had seven races between 1400 and 1700 hours and I can tell you I am completely knackered and I have the somewhat easy job on the boat. "With me for this event are Rodney Ardern, Julien Cressant and Morgan Trubovich, and at any given moment they are running around the boat furling, unfurling, kite up. You get the point.....it's a fire storm pretty much all the time. We ended the day at the top of the leader-board and really that is about as good as the paper it is written on; 28 more races and plenty of opportunity." Daily report: http://tinyurl.com/ESS-052511 HALL SPARS' 1-2 PUNCH Congratulations to the Hall-rigged TP52s Quantum Racing and Container for their 1-2 finish at the first MedCup event of 2011. Quantum won five of the nine races for a convincing win. Synergy, also rigged by Hall, finished fourth overall after winning the first race. For all three new boats, this was their first regatta. If you want to win right out of the box, too, contact Hall. We can build you a spectacular new carbon mast or refit your current rig with our extraordinary SCR Airfoil rigging. Or choose both for a 1-2 punch. http://www.hallspars.com TRAINING THE NEXT GENERATION In the fall of 2007, the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) decided that they wanted to raise the level of officiating at their top level events. They turned to Peter Johns (Osterville, Mass.) to make it happen. As the NEISA Jury Coordinator, Peter was tasked with finding protest committee members and umpires for the numerous weekly events held between Connecticut and Maine during the fall and spring, including the NEISA Conference Championships and Intersectionals. One of Peter's first steps was to seek out seniors graduating from NEISA schools and ask them to participate in US SAILING certification programs for race management, umpiring and judging. Over a three year period, Peter has significantly grown this group of certified judges and umpires. "We have successfully added several sailors after their college careers to the ranks of US SAILING certified judges and umpires," said Peter. "I will continue asking our former college sailors to learn more about their sport by participating in these programs, it simply makes them a better sailor." Peter also believes that the level of competition has improved in the NEISA by raising the level of quality officiating. During his tenure he not only introduced many sailors to a new side of the sport, but he has led the charge in getting umpire seminars and examinations conducted for a large group of sailors under the age of 30. Peter's last event in this role was the NEISA Team Racing Championship two weeks ago. He started the weekend with another US SAILING Umpire Seminar and then assembled a team of 16 umpires, more than half of whom were recent college graduates. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/USSAILING-052511 COLLEGE NATIONALS UPDATE: Cascade Locks, OR (May 25, 2011) - Today was the third day of the Sperry Top-Sider/ICSA Women's National Championship hosted by the Columbia Gorge Racing Association and the Northwest Intercollegiate Sailing Association. Light winds forced several postponements during the day, in part due to the six knot current that the fleet must sail against on the downwind legs. At press time it appeared that both A and B division would complete six races going into the final day of the Women's Nationals on Thursday. -- Event website: http://2011nationals.collegesailing.info/ SAILING SHORTS * Medemblik, Holland (May 25, 2011) - After a windy opening day, the Delta Lloyd regatta provided sailors with challenging conditions with shifty winds on day two of the fifth ISAF Sailing World Cup event. Thursday will be the last chances for classes racing in groups to qualify for the Gold fleet. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/DL-052511 * (May 25, 2011; Day 12) - VELUX 5 OCEANS overall leader Brad Van Liew (USA) is just days away from a clean sweep of the race's five leg. Holding a 76nm lead over Zbigniew 'Gutek' Gutkowski (POL), Brad is now 679 nm from the finish in La Rochelle, France, with his arrival time estimated to be afternoon on Friday, May 27. -- Race website: http://www.velux5oceans.com * The Eco 60 Class, for Open 60s built before 2003, was devised as an affordable, more sustainable alternative to the high-end campaigns of late which have seen solo ocean racing become accessible only to those with multi-million pound budgets. Following the completion of the VELUX 5 OCEANS 2010-11, the Class is hosting an inaugural discussion forum on Friday June 3rd in La Rochelle (France) to formalise an independent Class and define the future development of the Eco 60 racing circuit. Details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=11916 * CORRECTION: The lead story in Scuttlebutt 3349 mistakenly made reference to the 1988 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. The venue was actually Pusan, South Korea. Australia hosted the 2000 Games. DOES YOUR EVENT NEED RAFFLE PRIZES? Scuttlebutt has special ordered t-shirts to provide for raffles to any of the championship events occurring this season in North America. Are you an event organizer in need of raffle prizes? Post your event details in the Forum. A random drawing will be held May 27th. Here is the link: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=11875 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: May 27 - Storm Trysail Club Block Island Race - Stamford, CT, USA May 27-29 - Puerto Rice Vela Cup - Humacao, Puerto Rico, USA May 27-29 - Swiftsure International Yacht Race - Victoria, BC, Canada May 28-29 - Around Catalina Race - Cabrillo Beach/Dana Point, CA, USA May 28-30 - Rolex Farr 40 North American Champs - Long Beach, CA, USA 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: * Meetings Afloat! * Yacht Broker Paul Buttrose Joins Sparkman & Stephens * NEW! RIB designed specially for coaching/ sailor support View and/or post Industry News 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 Roger McBride (re, Scuttlebutt 3348): Yes Tim, you and those saying what you said miss the point. The Professionals are getting financially rewarded indirectly much of the time. That is why the ISAF code is complicated. Note that ISAF restricts no one from racing on a boat. The classes do that. The classes do it because that is what the owners want, mainly for cost control. The number of classes with restrictions are relatively small. And Steve, Group 2 was eliminated because the classes were lumping 2 & 3 anyway. I don't have the stats, but my impression is that the classification system has actually increased the demand for the true pros. The pros by classification only are losers in this by getting shut out of some classes. Would they really be able to get on that Farr 40 or Melges 32 anyway? * From Lynn Fitzpatrick (re, "The Flintstones are back", SBUTT 3349): As the former Executive Director of a Defense Aspirant, I have been saying all along that the format is wrong for this 'New Zealand Cup'. It is completely unsustainable, yet reversible and I do have recommendations for a very viable America's Cup to be held in the United States of America, where the Cup resided for over 130 years. When the Flintstones run out of options, maybe they'll take interest. * From Peter Commette: I agree with Andrew Campbell (Butt 3348) that the missing component for junior sailing seems to be the lack of exposure to classes of boats with older sailors. However, there are exceptions. The Snipe (one example) provides all of the opportunities that Andrew bemoans have been lost to youth sailors. Andrew felt lucky for the Laser providing his entree at a young age into the world of sailing with adults, but the Laser also ushered in the rise of the dumbed-down, simplified boats. Unfortunately, the rise of the dumbed-down boats also has paralleled the high school/college sailing explosion. Those strictly controlled one-design boats, together with the high school/college sailing format, have combined to turn out great tactical sailors and team racers, with great feel for evenly rigged boats. However, when those sailors tackle international competition in Olympic class boats (except the Laser), they finish in the back, because they are dog meat slow. By the time they catch on with all the tuning, building and rigging tricks, it's time to get a real job. I've spoken about this problem with US Olympic Team leaders Dean Brenner and Leandro Spina; they absolutely "get it" and have lots of pokers in the fire to turn things around. Until then, those young sailors, parents and coaches who catch on and get the kids "cross-training" in the age integrated, open one design classes will be the ones with the best chance of succeeding. * From csewing (re, youth sailing of technical boats in the U.S.): I, too, think the 29er is on the way up in the U.S. So much so that we bought our son a used boat, he's going to CORK this summer to race and I talked the race committee chairman at Coconut Grove Sailing Club into giving the 29ers and XX's a start in their December Orange Bowl event. We are going to work on getting other regattas here in Miami or on the East Coast during the winter to try to build some interest on this side (California already hosts a lot of regattas), so stay tuned. I think there are good things to come with this class, especially with Melges on board as a builder. -- Forum, http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=11898#11898 * From Holly O'Hare: Parents are spread thin these days with all the different activities kids are involved in and we can all agree sailing is not an inexpensive sport. If a family chooses to buy their own boat for their son or daughter, than factors like cost, size of local fleet, resale value, and classes sailed in junior programs, high school and college will be considered. The 29er is high in cost, small or no local fleets, low resale value, and not sailed in junior programs, high school, or college. Would you buy your kid a Corvette or a Camry? If NASCAR is in their future - or the Olympics in the case of sailing - then it seems pretty logical why the class has not taken off. We have seen a lot of great double handed boats for juniors hit the market over the years but the FJ and 420 seem to hang in there as durable training boats with competitive classes. The 29er is certainly a great stepping stone to the Olympics but the reality is that only a handful of kids have the talent, drive, and resources to reach that level. Guessing about 15 boats worth... CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Is "tired old cliche" one? SPONSORS THIS WEEK Summit Yachts - Harken - North Sails - North U - Gowrie Group Team One Newport - New England Rope - Ullman Sails Hall Spars & Rigging - LaserPerformance - BIC Sport - Doyle Sails Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
