SCUTTLEBUTT No. 648 - September 18, 2000
OLYMPIC RACING
Sydney, Australia (September 18, 2000) - A second day of frustrating light
air plagued the Olympic sailing regatta, but again, all classes managed to
complete at least one race. Solings and Tornados sailed offshore, while the
Mistrals and 49ers - high performance dinghies making their Olympic debut -
sailed harbor courses. For the harbor course areas, winds of only three to
four knots were forecast for the official start times of 12 noon, and the
forecast held true.
Jonathan and Charlie McKee (Seattle, Wash.) worked the fickle winds to
their advantage and finishes of 6-3 today in the 49er fleet's two races.
Their overall fourth position is shared, however, with two other teams:
Spain and Finland. With a total of nine points, the McKees are only three
points away from the leader (Germany) and one point out of second (Japan).
"It goes to show how tight the fleet is," said Jonathan. "The first race
today was tricky, with a full 180 degree wind change on the second downwind
leg. Some people got devastated by it, but we came out of it about the same
as we were before it. The second race was challenging but a little more
normal. It's nice to start off the series this way."
Turning in a 5-8 today, Tornado sailors John Lovell (New Orleans, La.) and
Charlie Ogletree (Newport Beach, Calif.) are in fourth overall, up two
places on the scoreboard from yesterday, but they are now in a three-way
tie with France and Germany. Seven points stand between USA and third-place
Great Britain, with yesterday's leaders, Roman Hagara and Hans Peter
Steinacher of Austria, maintaining their lead. "Austria's leggin' out in
the light air," said Lovell. "It's too bad, because it has been windy for a
month and then all of a sudden it's the Olympic Regatta and it's like this.
The key is getting good first beats. We got a good start the second race
but the wind went right and we couldn't get in the lead pack." Lovell and
Ogletree rounded the first mark 12th in that race.
Posting a 10th today, Mike Gebhardt (Ft. Pierce, Fla.) remains in eighth
overall in Mistral Men's class, tied with Poland. Austria's Christoph
Sieber won today's single race to keep his lead after two races yesterday.
After being disqualified in yesterday's lead race of the Mistral series,
Lanee Butler (Aliso Viejo, Calif.) fell from fourth to 16th overall going
into today's racing. She finished 12th in today's single race, raising her
fleet position by a notch. "I can't really worry about it that much,"
Butler said about the protest, which ruled she failed to give Hong Kong's
'96 Gold Medalist Lai Shan Lee room enough to keep clear in a close racing
situation. "There's a long way to go. We're scheduled for 11 races, so it
will be interesting." About today's finish, she added, "No one gives an
inch; the wind is not steady; and we're doing trapezoid courses, so
everyone's pretty vulnerable at all times."
The Solings and Tornados also are due to attempt completing 11 races. The
49ers have 16 races on their docket, while Solings will sail only six fleet
races before moving into a match racing series for the top 12 boats. After
a single race on the Soling course, USA's Jeff Madrigali (Novato, Calif.),
Craig Healy (Tiburon, Calif.) and Hartwell Jordan (Discovery Bay, Calif.)
stand in seventh position overall. Their finish of 14th today came after
racing was delayed to allow the wind to settle. The sea breeze never
exceeded 10 knots, and the shifty conditions continued to confound many of
the fleet's stars, including Germany's two-time Soling Gold Medalist Jochen
Schuemann, who finds himself in a disappointing 15th position overall. New
Zealand's Rod Davis moved into a tie on top of the leaderboard with Roy
Heiner (NED). Davis was among a small group of boats to capitalize on a
20-degree wind shift moments after the start and move to the front of the
fleet.
Acknowledging that no one has control over the weather, USA's Team Leader
Hal Haenel said: "You have to look at it as a series and not individual
races. Whether it's good or bad, you keep slugging forward." Indeed, there
is a long way to go in this Olympic Regatta, which continues for another 12
days.
Racing continues for Solings, Tornados and Mistrals today. Amending the
original competition schedule for the 49ers, the Olympic Regatta's
Organizing Authority announced that there will be no racing for this class
tomorrow due to possible faults in the 49er gennakers supplied by the
International 49er Class Association. It is intended that the Organizing
Authority will replace all gennakers by September 20, when racing will
resume. Competition Manager Glenn Bourke explained that a solution used to
adhere each country's national flag to the gennaker's silicon sailcloth
reduced tear strength of the material. "Since the forecast was poor again
for tomorrow, we felt it was in the best interest to procure new
gennakers," said Bourke. The new gennakers will have no national emblems
applied, taking much of the luster out of the looks of the crowd-pleasing
49ers as they scream by on off-wind legs. "The boats are still the boats,
nevertheless," said Bourke, referring to the high-speed thrills this new
Olympic class provides. - Barby MacGowan, USOC Press Officer,
http://www.ussailing.org/pressreleases/2000/Olyracingday2.htm
STANDINGS:
49er (after two races): 1. GER, 2. JPN, 3. ESP, 4(t) USA
Mistral Men's (after two races): 1. AUT, 2. ARG, 3. GER, 8(t). USA
Mistral Women's (after three races): 1. GER, 2(t). ITA, 2(t). NZL, 15. USA
Soling (after two races): 1(t). NED, 1(t). NZL, 3. NOR, 7. USA
Tornado (after four races): 1. AUT, 2. AUS, 3. GBR, 4(t). USA
THE RACE
At a meeting in Southampton Friday, the skippers of eight of the biggest,
fastest yachts in sailing history confirmed that they will be on the start
line of THE RACE the no limits race around the world at 1200 Hrs 31
December 2000 at Barcelona.
With 107 days to the start, the international competitors, representing
some of the world1s most experienced yachtsman, with 19 circumnavigations
between them, re-affirmed their commitment to this pioneering event and
briefed their fellow adventurers on the state of their campaigns. At this
meeting they agreed the event programme and finalised all details relating
to their participation in this landmark event.
Competitors heard details of a major promotional campaign for THE RACE that
commences on 23 September (Start - 100 days), including the first major
national TV distribution agreements, and agreed the most comprehensive
safety charter yet seen in a round the world sailing event.
The 8 competitors are:
- PlayStation skippered by Steve Fossett (USA)
- Team Philips skippered by Pete Goss (GB)
- Club Med skippered by Grant Dalton (New Zealand)
- Code 1 co-skippered by Loick Peyron (France) and Skip Novak (USA)
- Team Adventure skippered by Cam Lewis (USA)
- Millennium Challenge skippered by Tony Bullimore (GB)
- Polpharma Warta skippered by Roman Paske (Poland)
- Bayer en France skippered by Yvan Bourgnon (France)
Event website: http://www.therace.org
THE BIG TIME
You need a lot of things to win a world championship, and boatspeed is at
the top of that list. Boatspeed was not a problem for Giorgio Zuccoli when
he won the recently completed Melges 24 World Championship - he used Ullman
Sails. Of course he did - Giorgio is a licensee of Ullman Sails
International and has been with Dave Ullman for years. But more importantly
for Ullman customers, Giorgio is also a major player on the sail design
team that Dave anchors. Wouldn't you like to have this design team working
for you? You can:
http://www.ullmansails.com/
CANADIAN OLYMPIC TEAM
A last minute decision by the IOC on the day of the Olympic Opening
Ceremonies confirmed that Canadian sailors, Trevor and Tina Baylis will not
compete in the Games. The husband and wife team has had a true roller
coaster ride in their efforts to represent Canada in Sydney. Husband Trevor
attained Canadian citizenship 4 days before their Olympic qualification
event last March. That meant that he and Tina, his Canadian wife, could
qualify to compete together as a team for Canada. Next, personal tragedy
struck the team. Days before their qualifier Tina's parents were both
killed in a light aircraft accident. In spite of their immense personal
loss, the team went on to meet the world Olympic qualifying standards at
their trials in Mexico. Unfortunately, the team just missed their more
demanding, Canadian National Team standards. Next, lengthy appeals process
saw the Canadian Olympic Association grant Trevor and Tina Canadian Team
status on compassionate grounds . Tina and Trevor were on their way.
In the next bizarre twist, the team was ruled ineligible to compete for
Canada by the sport's international body, the ISAF: Trevor had not been a
Canadian citizen long enough before their qualifier to get the required
paperwork in place to be eligible to represent Canada at the trials,
therefore they did not qualify. The last avenue open to the Baylis's was
to apply for one of the few "wild card" team positions open in Sailing.
Since the ISAF had already listed the team as having qualified, they failed
to apply in time for a wild card berth. The roller coaster was not yet over.
International Federation President, Paul Henderson, went to bat for the
Canadians in an appeal to the IOC. He requested an increase in the
competitor quota for Sailing. The IOC denied his request since the number
of Sailing athletes approved by the IOC had already bulged over the Sailing
quota of 400 to 404.
With this news Trevor and Tina stopped their training program in Sydney and
flew home to North America. However, the story was not finished. The day
before the opening ceremonies, two sailors from China withdrew from the
Sailing competition. Sailing had lost two competitors but they were still
over the IOC imposed quota of 400. IOC allowed sailing 404 athletes
already, would they allow sailing to stay at 404 so team Baylis could
compete or would they look to the original quota number of 400?
Next, in a late night last minute effort, ISAF president and newly elected
IOC executive member, Paul Henderson struggled to have the IOC allow
Sailing to stay at 404 in spite of their quota of 400. The IOC was
unrelenting, even though they had originally allowed sailing to bulge up to
404 competitors, when the two Chinese sailors withdrew, the IOC was firm
that the quota for sailing was now rigid at 400. No word has been given as
to the fate of the other two sailors who are beyond the quota limit but it
is clear that the Canadian Baylis team will not be competing in Sydney. -
Don Martin, Vice President CYA, Team Leader, Sailing
CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION: While this Olympiad has been limited to only 404
sailors and less than 11,000 athletes, the IOC has credentialed 21,000
journalists.
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net)
Letters selected to be printed are edited for clarity, space (250 words
max) or to exclude unfounded speculation or personal attacks. This is not a
chat room - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot
and don't whine if others disagree.
-- From Peter Huston - Would the Farr 40, J105, J120 and 1D35 classes be
thriving as they are if there was no limit on participation by pro's? Is
the current US SAILING Group 2 & 3 classification system as good as it
could be? Not by a long shot.
Fact is that system evolved out of the need to "cleanse" the earnings of
potential Olympians - not to categorize ability. Clearly, it is a
distorted and tortured system that needs a complete overhaul. Reality is
that the sport would probably enjoy a growth spurt at the
introductory/casual racing level if there was an ability based handicap
system, like in golf.
But this factor is less important than is the fact that far too many
regattas seem to be run for the pleasure of the organizer and/or race
committee, than for the pleasure of the sailor.
It is equally amusing that many pro sailors continue to tell the market
what is best of them. Maybe the pro's will have broader choice in paydays
when they start asking the market what it wants, and then servicing that need.
The market for "fun" is far larger than is the market for "winning".
-- From Craig Fletcher - Peter Isler seems to be advocating communism at
its best. He wants to tell the owners what boats to buy and who sails them.
Remember amateurs are not going to beat the pro's.
Sounds like all you need is a big wallet and some great binoculars to watch
your boat win. Peter's statement is a great ad for golf, and a clear reason
to finally separate amateurs and pros.
-- Steven Levy - I sail regularly against pros such as Jonathan McKee and
Bill Buchan. But I sail against them on their own boats, with their own
crews; they're not hired hands for some RO. That makes a huge difference.
It is indeed fun - and great learning - competing against them; if I can't
beat 'em - heck, I can't even keep 'em in sight! - I can at least tell
great war stories to my friends! There are no great war stories - and
there is no fun - in being beaten by ROs simply because they outspend my by
a ton and hire a Buchan or a McKee or a Melges. That's the behavior we
should be trying to kill via the US Sailing rules in all but a very few
regattas.
-- From Alexander "Ali" Meller - I am an amateur racer. Not only do I want
to race against the best (including pros), I choose to not race in any
class that limits who can participate.
-- From Rick Scott - Choosing on and voting for the royal classes sounds
like and fine idea, but I see it easily becoming corrupt, what with
industry influence, etc... And I mean getting UGLY quick. Let the people
choose the classes, and then give them a venue by promoting more one-design
regattas.
-- From Andy Nicholson Hamble UK. - Peter Isler's comments regarding a
range of Royal One-Design classes is nonsense. It called the free market
and competition. Choice is the market driver and what will continue to
fuel growing participation in our sport. An owner will consider all the
implications of buying a boat and then make his/her choice. Successful
classes are established through the 'market' (owners and crew) deciding
what it wants to sail and what it doesn't. That is why we have the Melges
24, Mumm 30, J105, ID35, Farr 40 and IC45, which provide the best one
design racing at national/international level today.
If we don't have local classes, Mini Transat's, Open 60's and IRM for
example, how is the 'market' going to decide what it wants to sail next. I
have massive respect for any owner who does something different, because of
them we can look forward to racing even better yachts in the coming years.
I enjoy superb one design racing on a Farr 40 and Mumm 30, but I'm not
going to force my choice on anyone else.
-- From Pete Harken - Olympic Trivia: Peter Barrett from Wisconsin Scow and
Ice boat country, 3 Olympics, 1960, Rome, Finn, 7th or 11th?. 1964, Japan,
Silver, Finn (should have had the Gold, but dropped out of a crucial race
when he ticked a mark unseen! Think about that!! The Gold was won in the
opposite manner. Which medal is worth more? Depends on your definition of
"worth"?) 1968, Mexico, Star with Lowell North, Gold. Humble beginnings,
humble winner, always shared his expertise with his competitors!
"Sponsorship" was not in his book--did it all on his own!! Never cashed in,
gave back knowledge big time to US sailors, never got the recognition he
deserved, never cared. Other big sailing wins, like Buddy, too numerous to
mention. Roll Model for aspiring youngsters; don't we wish!!
SUCCESS STORY
One hundred and twenty eight paid entries for the Baja Ha-Ha VII cruisers
rally from San Diego to Cabo were received by the September 12 deadline.
The fleet includes everything from a Catalina 27 to a N/M 94. There are
eight catamarans, the largest of which is a Choy/Morelli 70. If history
proves to be an accurate guide, about 85 to 100 boats will actually hit the
starting line off San Diego. The 760-mile rally departs San Diego on
October 31 and finishes in Cabo on November 9 after stops at Turtle Bay and
Bahia Santa Maria. - Lauren Spindler
Event website: http://www.baja-ha.com
List of entries:
CURMUDGEON'S COMMENT: The success of this event certainly underscores Peter
Huston's comment in today's letters section, "The market for fun is far
larger than is the market for winning."
OLYMPIC TRIVIA
No less than 17 previous Olympic gold medal-winning skippers will again
represent their countries, including nine out of ten skippers who won gold
in Savannah. In total, 45 Olympic sailing medallists will compete in
Sydney. The current world champion in each of the nine classes will also
compete, with two of those being US Team members: Soling sailors Jeff
Madrigali (Novato, Calif.), Craig Healy (Tiburon, Calif.) and Hartwell
Jordan (Discovery Bay, Calif.); and Star skipper Mark Reynolds (San Diego,
Calif.) and crew Magnus Liljedahl (Miami, Fla.).
WINNING ELEMENTS
When you win, you want everyone to know about it, and nothing tells the
story better than sharp looking crew apparel from Pacific Yacht Embroidery.
For a winning program, the look of your crew gear is every bit as important
as the cut of your sails. Pacific Yacht Embroidery will make that special
effort to set your crew out from the crowd. Just get in touch with Frank
Whitton to learn how affordable his high quality crew apparel can be, Even
if you lose you'll feel better because you look so good. Pacyacht@aol.com
619-226-8033 http://www.companystoresite.com
USSA CHAMPIONSHIPS
* US Women's Championship 2000 for the Adams Trophy - Race 10 - 270 - 10
kts. Windward Leeward, twice around. Natalie Pryde and Debrorah Schoenherr
were OCS and returned. Last years Adams Cup Champion from Area G -
Stephanie Wondolleck just held off both Area J teams with Brigden-Snow
finishing second and Pat Stadel in third.
Race 11 - 280 - 6 kts Windward Leeward course, two and a half times around,
windward finish. OCS boats: Debroah Schoenherr and Amy Cermak both returned
to start properly. Fleet split evenly way out left and right. Left seemed
risky with the breeze so far left, but it paid - and most of the left boats
rounded just ahead of the right. Mary Brigdon-Snow and her crew Stacey
Szabo, Pam Gregory and Julie Mitchell lead all the way around to cap off a
great series. - Jeff Johnson, SDYC Race Manager
Final results: 1. Area J, Mary Brigden-Snow, Mitchell /Gregory/ Szabo (25
points) 2. Area G, Stephanie Wondolleck, Sodaro /Vogen /Pohl (40 ) 3. Area
J-2, Pat Stadel, Eichenlaub/ Butler/ Martin
Complete results: http://www.ussailing.org/adams/2000/results.htm
* US Men's Championship 2000 for the Mallory Cup - The regatta is over, but
no results have been posted on the Detroit YC website. As of Saturday, the
Area D team (Robert B. Schmidt, Gulfport YC, David Bolyard, Pontchartrain
YC and Hew Hamilton, Pontchartrain YC) was leading the regatta sailed in
Flying Scots: http://www.dyc.com/mallory/results.html
WHAT'S GOING ON?
Is there a full moon? Like the Mallory Cup mentioned above, the race
organizers of the Rolex Sail Newport Cup - the third event in a series of
Rolex-sponsored women's match race regattas - stopped updating their
website halfway through the regatta: http://www.newportmatchrace.com/
OLYMPIC SAILING ON TV
The NBC Sailing team of Jil Gossard and Gary Jobson is airing daily reports
on the sailing activity at the Olympic Games in Sydney. The reports will
air on CNBC on the show hosted by Pat O'Brien at 7:00 pm eastern time, 6:00
pm central, 7:00 pm pacific. The reports will be in the first segment of
the 7:00 pm show, and will be at least five minutes every night. - Jobson
Sailing
OLYMPIC WEBSITES
If you need it faster than 'Butt can provide it, here are a couple of
websites that will get you up to speed quickly:
- The ISAF Olympic site is easy to navigate and has the race schedules and
play by play as it happens on the racecourse. Their 'instant news' is
probably the most current stuff you'll find anywhere:
http://www.sailing.org/olympics2000/today/
- US Sailing is set up to provide schedules, summaries, photos, commentary,
standings, US Sailing Team bios and trivia. Obviously their focus will be
on the US Team, and they have a channel to provide notes of support to the
USA Olympians: http://www.ussailing.org/olympics/2000/
- The NBC Olympic home page has a link to the TV schedule for each day:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/
THE CURMUDGEON'S QUOTATIONS
"There ain't no rules around here. We're trying to accomplish something." -
Thomas Edison
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