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SCUTTLEBUTT 2284 – February 20, 2007Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is distributed each weekday, with support provided by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, Defender of the 32nd America's Cup (http://www.ubs.com/sailing). 'OUT-OF-THE-BOX' NAVAL ARCHITECT Sometimes a career can swerve in unexpected directions. When Bill Burns was studying mechanical engineering at the University of California San Diego, he never expected to go into naval architecture or specialize in developing innovative hull designs. But what began in 1990 as an “interim” job with Alberto Calderon, a La Jolla physicist, led Burns to the 21st floor of the First National Bank Building and a sweeping view of San Diego Bay. It is the office of M Ship Co. and CBTF Co., two closely related maritime engineering firms, that pioneered unorthodox designs in their respective fields of naval engineering. M Ship Co.'s breakthrough lies below the waterline, where the hull bottom has tunnels that channel the bow wave in a way that generates lifting pressure, which enables a powerboat to move faster. CBTF pioneered a similar advance in sailboat design by replacing the conventional fixed keel with movable ballast and a more agile fore-and-aft rudder design. With the same core group of principals at both firms, CBTF and M Ship Co. operate like some studio rock bands that hire specialized session musicians to play key parts in special projects. “Working with Bill is always a collaboration,” said Douglas D. Holthaus, a San Diego maritime lawyer who has worked with Burns for years. “He doesn't give orders. He deals with everything in a nonconfrontational fashion. Yet, he's always been involved in these out-of-the-box type ideas.” Out of the box was also the phrase that Point Loma naval architect Doug Peterson used to describe Burns, 43. “That's mainly what he's known for,” said Peterson, a renowned designer of America's Cup racing sloops who has worked with Burns as a consultant. The list of other top naval architects who worked with Burns include America's Cup designer Bruce Nelson, John Reichel and Jim Pugh, all of San Diego. -- Union-Tribune, full story: http://tinyurl.com/25kg2r UPDATE: VELUX 5 OCEANS All the competitors in the Velux 5 Oceans have now rounded Cape Horn. Of the back three, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston on Saga Insurance was first round although only a few miles in front of Unai Basurko on Pakea. Graham Dalton followed about 50 miles behind. All of them will be relieved finally to be able to turn north, bidding farewell to the Southern Ocean leg from Fremantle, Australia, and continue with the remaining 7,000 miles on their way to the next stop at Norfolk, Virginia (USA). Sir Robin’s celebrations at rounding the Horn for the third time in his career were shortlived however, as he had to focus on picking up a tow for his stopover in the port of Ushuaia, where he plans to make a number of key repairs that included a repair to his satellite weather information systems, replace the head car for the mainsail, fit a new furler for the reachers, and fix the ballast tank valve. After a very windy tow to Ushuaia that lasted some 8 hours, Sir Robin safely picked up a mooring buoy where his team would attend to the repair list and satisfy the 48-hour penalty required for the pit stop. -- Race website: http://www.velux5oceans.com AN AMERICA'S CUP INSTITUTION Peter Isler was tempted aboard Stars and Stripes for his first America's Cup campaign. Peter Isler's list of hobbies is almost as extensive as his sailing achievements. The American, navigator for Chris Dickson's BMW Oracle Racing syndicate, plays guitar in a band called the Water Brothers. He is a huge fan of Stellar*, Dave Dobbyn, the Finn brothers and American rock band the Grateful Dead, particularly lead guitarist, the late Jerry Garcia. He also likes Mustangs and is partial to the odd bit of writing. Sailing started as a hobby but turned into a career when Dennis Conner lured him to Stars and Stripes in 1987. It took Mr America's Cup quite a bit of talking to convince Isler. "I thought it looked like joining the military. I had this liberal arts experience of sailing where I was sailing lasers, college dinghies and big boats - who wanted to go and train on these heavy 12 metres? It didn't look like that much fun to me." Twenty years later, Isler, 51, is about to embark on his fifth cup. -- New Zealand Herald, full story: http://tinyurl.com/27crrt RUB ELBOWS WITH THE BEST AT L.B.R.W. World champions, Olympic medalists, America's Cuppers or Volvo Ocean Racers annually join hundreds of wannabes in the West's largest keelboat regatta---Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week on June 22-24. Take Lowell North, winner of four Star class worlds and a gold medalist in the 1968 Olympics. Last year Lowell won the last J/105 race and commented, with a touch of dry wit, "It was a good regatta. The race committee did a good job, and the hors d'oeuvres afterward were especially good." At LBRW, the great ones have fun, too. More information: mailto:raceoffice@lbyc.org - online entry: http://www.lbrw.org PAUL CAYARD: FIRST IMPRESSIONS (February 19, 2007) I have taken a consulting position with Desafio 2007, the Spanish America’s Cup team, through March 30. I arrived a week ago and have to say that walking into a program like this, when it is up and running on all cylinders, is quite impressive. In all my past America’s Cup involvements, I have been there from day one and helped build the team and program. When you are on the inside of one of these programs since inception, you are unaware of the complexity and level of detail to which every task is carried. It is just the norm. Walking in cold from the outside is definitely a different perspective and one probably worth being registered as the number of days left to prepare becomes very few. As the days are limited, it is time to focus on what will make the difference in the races. The Louis Vuitton Cup will be fast and furious. There are 11 challengers who will race two round robins in one month. After that, seven teams are eliminated. That is a harsh reality. Hopefully my experience can be of use in helping decide what is worth spending these valuable last man days on and what is not. Desafio has been in operation for about two years. They bought the assets of OneWorld from the 2003 Cup and this was a smart decision as it gave them a great platform to start the program on - two very good boats, all the workshops, tenders, etc. They were sailing immediately after pushing the “GO” button. -- Full report: http://www.cayardsailing.com/cs_evntRpt.cfm?EvntRpt=563 ST PETE NOOD St. Petersburg, Fla. (February 18, 2007) - With 20-25 knots of wind early Sunday morning on Tampa Bay and wind speeds expected to increase by noon, organizers of the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club cancelled racing on the final day. Over 1,000 sailors from 31 U.S. states as well as Canada and the U.K. competed in the three-day regatta, where cold temperatures and strong winds on day one were followed by warmer and much more moderate conditions on Saturday. Awards were given to winners in 17 one-design classes and to the overall winner, John Pollard (Torquay, U.K.) and his crew, which competed in the 41-boat Melges 24 fleet. Pollard received a trip to Sunsail in the British Virgin Islands to compete against winner from each of the additional eight stops on the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta series. Of the 195 teams competing, 75 were from the Tampa Bay area, and, together, they contributed over $3000 to All Children’s Hospital through the regatta’s new partnership with Sailing for Miracles. The Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta sails next into San Diego, Calif. on March 16-18. -- For additional reports and results from the St Petersburg NOOD: http://tinyurl.com/2d4gzj Curmudgeon’s Comment: There is a posting in the Forum regarding the race management at this event. While we won’t field letters on this subject in the newsletter, we encourage attendees to post their comments here: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4347#4347 365 DAYS (If you are not an Olympic or America’s Cup campaigner, haven’t ever been to Key West Race Week, and perhaps have never made it to a regional NOOD regatta, maybe than you are more like this person, who makes the following report on their blog, “Split Tacks”) I started this blog six months ago to record my path towards the 2008 Laser Masters World Championship. As of today there is exactly one year to go until the regatta starts. 365 days. So, being a sucker for nice round numbers, today is a good chance to take stock. To reflect on my goals and the progress I am making towards them. To see whether I am on track. And am I on track? The short answer is no. I'm only sailing once a week, and that's racing rather than training. I'm not getting to the gym, or on the bike. I haven't lost any weight - in fact I put on a couple of kilograms over Christmas. And the amount of sailing I haven't been doing is directly reflected in my lack of blog updates. -- Read on: http://splittacks.blogspot.com/2007/02/365-days.html HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW THE RULES? If you would like to feel more confident about racing near other boats, you should get Learn The Racing Rules! This new two-part DVD, written and narrated by David Dellenbaugh, uses live sailing action and computerized animation to explain all the important right-of-way rules in the 2005-2008 rulebook. Part 1 covers the essential rules that apply whenever boats meet. Part 2 explains the often-confusing rules about marks and obstructions. Each is an hour long and includes the text of all rules discussed. Produced by SEA-TV, it makes a great gift! To learn more or to place an order: http://www.SpeedandSmarts.com WINDMILL POWER Someone was thinking outside of the box on this one. The 36-foot catamaran, Revelation II, is powered by three 20-foot long carbon fiber propellers on a 30-foot rotating mast. The windmill transmits power to a 6 blade propeller underwater, with the net result that the boat can make way even directly into the wind. Right now, you are either astonished, thinking "Why didn't we think of that before?" or your head is spinning with reasons why these boats are not currently plying the seas in great numbers. For instance, how well could such a thing possibly go into the wind if wind and water drag are offset by the forward propulsion generated? Or "who photo-shopped that windmill onto that catamaran?" for the real cynics. But it seems like there is evidence that the wind turbine concept really functions, and even some rather grainy video proof. If you want to evaluate some examples of the math for the proposition yourself… -- Read on: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/windmill_sailbo.php CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar SAILING SHORTS * The Southern California Yachting Association’s 78th Midwinter Regatta was held last weekend, hosted by thirty clubs from San Diego to Santa Barbara and east to Phoenix, AZ. Approximately 600 boats competed in 80 classes that included one-designs, PHRF, cruisers, multihulls, dinghies, predicted log racing, canoes and model sailboats. Results: http://midwinters.scyaweb.org/2007mwr/ * Five boats will line up for the Women's High Performance Dinghy Evaluation Event, which will be held in Hyères, France from 16-19 April 2007. The 29erXX, RS800, Cherub Daemon, Carbonology GT60 and International 14 have all submitted their entries to the Evaluation Event. In advance of the decision on the ten events for the 2012 Olympic Games (which is a reduction from eleven events in China), which will be made at the 2007 ISAF Annual Conference this November, the Evaluation Event will look at whether there are suitable boats for a High Performance Dinghy event for a crew of two women. -- ISAF website, full report: http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j1,FnAp/B&format=popup * The task of the UBS Dubai Defender Trials was for the Alinghi team to determine whether Ed Baird or Peter Holmberg would be the team’s helmsman for the final preliminary regatta - Louis Vuitton Act 13 - prior to the America’s Cup. However, despite Baird winning both rounds of the trials, the team has postponed the announcement, stating that “it was too close to call” and that the Alinghi team has scheduled further racing in Valencia before making a decision on the helmsman. -- http://www.alinghi.com * (Marina del Rey, CA) The Salsa (cruising) fleet in Del Rey Yacht Club's 19th biennial race to Puerto Vallarta got off last Friday, with the 11 boats quietly getting away in summer-like but precious little wind. The five Racing Division boats will start Wednesday and Friday at 1 p.m. -- http://www.pv07.com * The BoatU.S. Foundation's EPIRB Rental Program was honored by Motor Boating magazine with a "Best of the Year" award. As a public service the BoatU.S. Foundation rents the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons for a nominal weekly rate to boaters who may have an occasional need for the expensive device, which can cost up to $1,000. Once activated - either automatically when entering the water or by pulling a lanyard manually - the beacon gives rescuers an exact location of a vessel in distress. The 2007 rental fee is $40 per week, plus shipping. -- Full release: http://www.boatus.com/news/releases/2007/february/epirb.asp * The Sailing World college rankings were updated February 16, 2007, as determined by Sailing World's coaches' panel: Michael Callahan (Georgetown), Ken Legler (Tufts), and Mike Segerblom (USC). -- http://tinyurl.com/2ydtde “MAN OVERBOARD!” A dark and stormy night...no moon & poor visibility...bow man washed overboard...a crew's worst nightmare. But with SeaMarshall automatic water-activated beacons and our new SarFinder homing receiver, a potentially tragic situation is turned into a successful rescue. To find out more about SeaMarshall rescue gear contact Chip Barber: mailto:admin@chbarber.com; http://www.chbarber.com/seamarshall.html LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or simplicity (letters shall be no longer than 250 words). You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot, don't whine if others disagree, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Christian Jensen: (Regarding Dick Katz comments in Issue 2283) You are unfortunately a member of the group of people who will cheat (yes breaking the rules without taking the appropriate penalty is cheating) just to win a pickle dish - pathetic in my mind. I am not sure how we can get back to the Corinthian spirit that sail racing is built on - but this is a serious problem, that certainly doesn't help to build the sport. Curmudgeon’s Comment: We are not sure if Katz’ comments were in jest, or whether his sentiment was a reflection of the “give and take” that happens on the dinghy course, but we won’t have a pile on here. Move on. * From James Stevralia: Great story about Carl, thanks Rich (from Issue 2283). It is really special to hear about Carl. I am sure the BIG referee had a reason for the way the game was played for Carl. For the younger members, 1968 was a famous Olympic game. I was at Villanova at the time and we had several Olympians from the track team, some of which who won medals (most famous was Marty Liquori). The games were known for the athletes returning home with Adidas and Puma bags (the games were amateur then) with promotion encouragement, and also for John Carlos and Tommy Smith (and their civil rights demonstration on the medal stand), but not for Carl Van Duyne! Thank you Rich for telling about sportsmanship--as sailors we should all be proud! http://www.infoplease.com/spot/mm-mexicocity.html * From Roy Williams: As far as sportsmanship examples go, I think that there is not better example than that of Carl Van Dyne who hit a mark while leading a race at the 1968 Olympics and, although no one else witnessed the incident, withdrew from the race. * From John Rumsey: (regarding the Finn story in Issue 2282 of Peter Barrett fouling out off the start line at the ’64 Olympics) The Finn class is noted for rather crowded starts in the 100 plus Gold Cup fleets, with a little bumping going on. Henry Sprague of Newport Beach, CA related an incident to me back in the 60's about winning one of the Gold Cup races in Europe: "I had a perfect port tack start at the pin and was able to cross the whole fleet except for one boat, but he didn't hit me hard enough to slow me down." * From Brian May: (edited to the 250-word limit) Although (with reference to the issue of sportsmanship raised in S-2280) I am pleased that 75% of your poll said they would drop out of a race in similar circumstances, unfortunately, it is the 25% that would not that sully the sport. I had the honour to Captain the Stanford University Sailing Team in 1982/3 (as an Englishman abroad - sorry Sting!), and sadly I had all too many experiences of this less than straightforward behaviour in the US collegiate sector. Not only were marks being touched and any wrongdoing subsequently denied, but some teams would also collaborate on evidence to ensure a protest room victory in a tit-for-tat scenario. Quite apart from mark touching and other sailing infringements, there was also rampant disabling of boats during regattas prior to handover during the boat rotation. Ring-dings would be removed from mainsheet blocks, bungs loosened from transoms, etc. Not quite what the English would suggest "is cricket". Nevertheless, one learnt fast and rather than playing by the same "dirty" rules, we just had to be smarter within the proper rules, checking boats as they were handed over. The education must start at home and school to ensure individuals are happier with themselves coming second in fairplay, than in coming first having cheated. After all, the cheat knows he must have won his medal illegally and has to live with that. In the end, the moral victory is always worth far, far more. * From Chris Sherliker: (regarding Friday’s Conundrum on whether a one-legged duck swims in circles) Whilst walking through a small village in Wales in the rain several years ago, I saw a string of small ducks walking along the river bank following their mother and noticed that one of them appeared to be hopping. Thinking that clearly there were parallels between ducklings and small boys, I was about to turn away when I saw that the miscreant duckling in fact only had one leg. That was it, I had to know: Does a one-legged duck swim in circles? I stood, riveted, in the pouring rain, oblivious to the encouragement of my wife to get a move on because it's chucking it down, and willed the mother duck to lead her brood into the river and answer the question. Eventually (time runs slowly in Welsh rain), the mother duck jumped into the river, followed one-by-one by her ducklings. When our hero finally jumped elegantly into the water, he powered his way upstream, keeping pace with his siblings. Therefore, I can categorically state that; no, a one legged duck does not swim in circles. It swims with a corkscrewing motion, but with a speed equal just to its two-legged friends. * From Frank Betz: In regard to Curmudgeonly definitions (innoculatte), I recall the Italian word for "suppository": innuendo. CURMUDGEON’S CONUNDRUM Why do we wash bath towels? Aren't we clean when we use them? Special thanks to Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week, Speed & Smarts, and C.H. Barber. Scuttlebutt is also supported by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, the Defender of the 32nd America's Cup. |
