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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 838 - June 18 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
VOLVO OCEAN RACE The women's entry will be the second from Nautor Challenge, whose two-boat campaign is headed by Kiwi veteran Grant Dalton, recent winner of The Race with Club Med and embarking on a record seventh round-the-world race. Dalton has first pick of boats designed by Bruce Farr and German Frers Jr, with the second boat going to the women's team. An evaluation of the two new boats begins soon and each will be equal in terms of funds, gear and sails. Charles is based at Hamble, near Southampton, and was part of Britain's 1999 Admiral's Cup team. Her husband, Neal MacDonald, is a Whitbread and The Race veteran, now involved in his second America's Cup with the GBR Challenge. Other British sailors linked with the boat are Miranda Merron and Ellen MacArthur. - Tim Jeffery, Electronic Telegraph, UK. Full story: sport.telegraph.co.uk * Thousands of people turned out at the christening of djuice dragons race boat, djuice. "We raced home from Gothenburg, set up camp in Sandefjord, selected the race boat, cleaned it up and delivered it to Oslo within four days," says skipper Knut Frostad. "Choosing the race boat after two and a half months of two-boat testing wasn't easy as they are both fast. However now we have made the choice, we all feel the boat we have selected will serve us best for the race. To see it today being christened in Oslo with so many supporters is a milestone for us - and one large step closer to the start of the race." For fans unable to attend the christening, the event was broadcast live on the internet at djuice dragons' website www.djuice.com/dragons * Grant Dalton is planning on racing his brand new Volvo 60 in the Giraglia Rolex Cup this week. The king of round-the-world racing saw his as-yet-unnamed vessel launched last Thursday, so it will be an impressive achievement if the Nautor Challenge team can have their silver and red boat race ready in time. The Giraglia Rolex Cup takes place from 17-24 June 2001
AROUND ALONE "For eight years Charleston was honored to be the home port for Around Alone, therefore it is with great regret and disappointment that we must remove ourselves from consideration as the start/finish host port for the 2002-2003 event," read the release. " The Charleston Maritime Commission is not in a position to meet the specifications of the Host Port Requirements Clipper Ventures has set forth. "The economic climate in Charleston has changed since the 1994-95 BOC Challenge and Around Alone 1998-99. After an exhaustive search for a method in which to satisfy the Host Port Requirements, the Commission has concluded that we cannot, in good faith, commit Charleston to an agreement we currently are unable to meet." The 27,000-mile single-handed raced was sold to UK-based Clipper Ventures in April. Nettlesome issues as to where to keep the fleet of deep draft boats, as well as financing for other logisistics proved insurmountable. - SailNet website. Full story: www.sailnet.com
HONORS Full story: www.sailing.org
A HARD SAIL IS GOOD TO FIND
BROKEN RECORDS Frances Joyon's (from La Trinite, France) 'Dexia Eure et Loir' was the first yacht over the finish in just 3 hours, 8 minutes and 29 seconds, breaking the current record by over 45 minutes. Until today, the course record stood at 3 hours, 55 minutes and 28 seconds set by one of 'Dexia Eure et Loir's' co-skippers in 1986 on board 'Paragon'. Mike Slade's giant super sloop 'Skandia Leopard' was first monohull over the finish line breaking the existing monohull race record of 5 hours 12 minutes, 3 seconds by over an hour, completing the race in 4 hours, 5 minutes and 40 seconds. Following Slade's yacht, the Ultra 30 'Reloaded Red Square' - just 1/3 the size of 'Skandia Leopard' - was the second monohull across the line (1st in class) in 4 hours, 26 minutes and 22 seconds; a second Ultra 30, 'Hoya', finished just 23 seconds later. 'Mandrake' is the corrected time winner - completing the circumnavigation in an 5 hours and 45 seconds. The combination of tactics by owner Peter Morton, Adam Gosling on helm, and navigation by Tom Schnackenberg proved an unbeatable force on the water, breaking by more than 10 minutes the previous record of 5:12 set by the 84' Maxi Longobarda. Designed to be a nice undistorted "sportsboat" to rate well under the IR2000 rules IRC and IRM Mandrake was built in under ten weeks using the deck, rig, and gear from the IOR 50 of the same name. Complete results: www.hoyaroundtheisland.org
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From David Redfern, Portsmouth, England (Regarding the USS Constitution being the oldest commissioned warship in the world, built in 1794) From where I sit, out of my window is a very active warship called HMS Victory, still commissioned, built in 1758. Regarding the sailors' constitution, with the USS Enterprise in port here in Portsmoth and the USS Navarro nuke sub - the US Navy is, I am pleased to report, still trying hard to keep up the Constitution tradition. * From Rand Milton: While I was at first skeptical of the new starting sequence, I must say that it does work extremely well. Having just sailed last week at the J/80 Worlds, I was extremely impressed with the Ida Lewis YC Race Committee and especially their use of the radio for broadcasting announcements and the countdowns for each signal. * From Ryan Hamm: I have been to many regattas in our area and around the southeast where the new sequence is being used. It has worked great at all of them. The flexibility it provides the race committee to run races with different type fleets has improved our sport. In one design and PHRF it works well. I hope everyone gets used to it. It is ten-fold better than what we had before. * From J. Theodore Everingham: We recently used the RRS 26 (new starting) sequence at the NOOD Regatta at Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit (235+ boats, three courses) with NO problems in three days of racing in difficult conditions. I was PRO for one of the three courses; our team started 8 offshore classes in 6 races (48 starts) without so much as a hiccup from either the competitors or the race managers. The customers loved it! So what's the problem again? * From Jamie Wilkinson (edited to our 250-word limit): The main Solent Race Officers (of which I am one) all use the new 5-4-1-Go system when appropriate, but there are definitely times when it is not. For multiple classes, large yachts (30 to 60 ft), long start lines, strong tides, and courses announced by VHF radio, we all use the 10-5-1-Go sequence. The course is read initially on VHF after the Warning signal by the main Committee boat , and then read back by the ODM Committee boat. It is then repeated once by the main Committee boat after the Preparatory Signal. There are inevitably times when VHF signals are broken, and it needs to be repeated occasionally. To give us time to read the course in this way for different classes, we need the extra time inherent in 10-5-1-Go. And in strong tides and light winds, it can take all of 10 minutes for the line to clear ready for the next start. Also in light winds, we get yachts motoring into the start area after the previous class have started and turning off engines when in approximately the right place before the preparatory signal. The key point is that no single system covers everything. Most important, while the RYA Racing Rules Committee are keen for everyone to use the new 5-4-1-Go, the RYA Race Management Committee are happy with the "Horses for Courses" approach. 5-4-1-Go is just the default system. Go with whatever system is best for the type of racing you run. * From Scott Ridgeway: It seems the new starting system works just fine for dinghies and small keelboats that keep their jibs up all the time. However, it will never be satisfactory for the second or third race of the day at multi-class regattas where the boats in the first start need to make a headsail decision before the start. Deal with it! CURMUDGEON'S COMMENT: And that's the final word. This thread is (once again) officially dead. * From Ken Legler, Tufts Sailing Coach: I must respectfully disagree with Aaron Kuriloff regarding college sailing scholarships. It is idealistic to think sailing scholarships would even out the playing field in college sailing. If I were in charge of giving out scholarships, and I would be if I coached at the Division One university that somehow found this previously unbudgeted funding, I would give them to the rich kids that grew up in junior sailing and traveled to the big regattas. The poor kids that learned to sail in community programs while working through high school, that may be more deserving and certainly more needy, would likely have less experience at big regattas and would likely not be getting the scholarships based on sailing. Basketball is not a good comparison for parity, nor is football. Imagine Tufts playing North Carolina in basketball. If Tufts played Michigan in football, there would be more ambulances than paying fans. Many people overestimate the "pull" college sailing coaches have with Admissions and overestimate the budgets of the big varsity sailing programs, by the way. The biggest varsity sailing programs are essentially run like any Division III athletic program, even at Division I colleges. * From: Tim Hogan: Having spent 4 days last week watching college sailing, I came away with a few observations. The team racing was held at MIT on the Charles river and the sailing was very entertaining. Due to shifty winds and talented sailors, the lead would change many times in the race making for great spectating. Georgetown won with Harvard and Dartmouth right behind. The next three days we watched 36 races held at Point Judith in Rhode Island for the fleet racing championships. With 2 races to go, 4 schools were within 7 points and the sailing was extremely pressure packed. Tufts and Dartmouth were tied for the last race with Tufts prevailing, Harvard second, Dartmouth third and Boston College fourth. Why is college sailing dominated by the east coast? Why is high school dominated by the west coast? West coast high schools won the top four spots at their nationals with Coronado High School winning both the team racing and fleet racing. This type of sailing - the short course program can be a lot of fun for both the sailors and spectators. * From Pete Hoffmann: I can't agree with Andrew Hurst's statement that, "there is very little in the (America's) Cup to visibly benefit sailing as a whole." I have always believed that the " Trickle Down Effect" from America's Cup sailing has been huge. From hardware to sailcloth, technology to tactics the world wide racing community has benefited greatly.
FOR THE RECORD The damage is severe enough to cause Fossett to halt his attempt this balloon season, which ends July 31. He is uncertain whether he will continue his quest to achieve the aviation feat, he told reporters by phone at a news conference held in his Mission Control at Washington University in St. Louis. "The balloon is repairable but not in the time frame of this season," Fossett said. "It will be very difficult to make another try. It involves a huge time commitment, not only in preparing equipment, but it also takes a large number of people, many of them volunteers, and you need to wait for perfect weather conditions. This was the attempt intended to succeed." The attempt from Kalgoorlie, Australia, was Fossett's fifth unsuccessful try for the record. He said that preparations by his team, who had been in Australia for three weeks, were excellent, and that all had proceeded well before the wind gust came up. "This is one of the greatest risks, to have the inflation process fail," Fossett said, noting that fellow balloonist Richard Branson lost a balloon during inflation at an attempt from Morocco. "It's a huge disappointment," Fossett said. "We all share the disappointment. We proceeded properly and caught this misfortune." According to mission meteorologist Bob Rice, there was a favorable weather trajectory for both Sunday and Monday, but Sunday looked more favorable. "It's unfortunate," Rice said. "About a five-minute period of this wind puff damaged the balloon. A gust of wind, about eight knots or so, but that's far too much for a balloon that's only partially inflated." The small top gas cell had been fully inflated and the main gas cell 60 percent inflated before the wind blew up from the south. Full story: solospirit.wustl.edu
LAUNCHINGS
INDUSTRY NEWS
5.5 METRE WORLDS
ONE-DESIGN
UK MELGES 24 NATIONALS
Final results:
MATCH RACING
Final Results: Full results from: www.centomiglia.it
CHICAGO NOOD But the fluky lake sailing airs of the first two days suited the exuberant crew of J/29, NEMESIS, just as well as Sunday's perfect wind-up. Nemesis' crew were winners not only of their class overall but of two of the regatta's special trophies. Co-skippered by father, Curt, and son, Chad Kasten, both of O'Fallon, Illinois, NEMESIS won the Hall Spars & Rigging Boat of the Day Award on Saturday and the Farmers Family Award, a fleet trophy presented by Farmers Insurance Group to the top family crew in the regatta. The Kastens and their redoubtable five person crew scored five bullets in five races, which may have had something to do with their experience with lake sailing in their home waters on Carlisle Lake. Other class winners include:
Tartan Ten (48 boats)
Corsair (12 boats)
Farr 40 (15 boats)
Great Lakes 70 (11 boats)
J/105 (20 boats)
J/24 (14 boats)
J/35 (10 boats)
S2 7-9 (16 boats)
1D35 (8 boats)
33' Class (8 boats)
Beneteau 40.7 (8 boats)
Beneteau 42 (8 boats)
Great Lakes 50 (8 boats)
J/30 (8 boats)
Level 35 (8 boats)
Level 60 (7 boats)
Melges 24 (8 boats)
PHRF 114-126 (14 boats)
PHRF 15-33 (9 boats)
PHRF 39-54 (7 boats)
PHRF 78-96 (5 boats)
PHRF 99-113
PHRF Racer-Cruiser (8 boats)
S2 9.1 (8 boats) Complete results: www.sailingworld.com
VANGUARD 15 PACIFIC COAST CHAMPIONSHIPS
Final results (32 boats):
THE CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUM |
