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SCUTTLEBUTT 3232 - Friday, December 3, 2010Scuttlebutt 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: Summit Yachts and Doyle Sails. AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE Sailing is recreation, and organized racing provides structure to that recreation. The majority of sailboat races are run by volunteers for passionate sailors, and in a perfect world, everyone gains from participating in a healthy activity. But when the fun goes away, so do the participants. When Alex Watters recently contacted Scuttlebutt, he was curious if anybody else was sick and tired of, as called it, "the world's most boring race course, the now dreaded (multiple) windward leeward loop(s)." The sport was losing some of its luster for Alex as was tired of spending the entire summer sailing these loopie courses. This was not a new inquiry. A Scuttlebutt survey in February 2009 asked the question: Is there enough reaching in racing? Of the respondents in that survey, 77% said that windward-leeward courses were either signaled all the time (30%) or nearly all the time (47%), and that 73% of the voters would prefer more courses signaled that had reach legs. While that seems to be an overwhelming mandate, we wondered if there had been any change over the last two seasons in course selection. So this week Scuttlebutt asked the same question, and the results bore out that, well, people are still looking for some variety. Of the respondents, 81% said that windward-leeward courses were either signaled all the time (31%) or nearly all the time (50%), and that 74% of the voters would prefer more courses signaled that had reach legs. While the results of this survey do not reflect the sentiment of every sailor on every race course, it does seem like there are a lot of unsatisfied customers in our sport. The comments, as always, provided additional detail beyond the survey percentages. The key points of debate on the advantages and disadvantages of race courses with upwind, downwind, and reaching legs have not changed. So rather than debate that subject, maybe the next question should be: Are we more likely to lose people from the sport by doing something, or doing nothing? -- Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt Survey comments: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/10/1130/ COLLAPSE CONTINUES FOR RICHARD, MINOPRIO Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia (December 2, 2010) - The Monsoon Cup, the prestigious final round of the 2010 ISAF World Match Racing Tour, has turned the hard fought world of top level match racing upside down. While Ian Williams, the 2006 and 2007 World Match Racing Champion, is making a valiant effort to raise his fifth position in the overall Tour rankings, current Tour leader Mathieu Richard looked anything but relaxed, seemingly suffering a serious form slump in this event. And the biggest beneficiary of the current collapse by Richard and Adam Minoprio, who sits second in the Tour standings, is four-time Olympic medalist Ben Ainslie whose chance of moving up from third in the Tour standings continues to improve. "It's the conditions more than anything," noted Ainslie. "There can be just metres between a win and a loss in these very light conditions. Yesterday and today the results have been coming more from general sailing ability - finding the pressure, picking the right side of the course and it's probably easier for dinghy sailors than for some of the match racers." The focus now is on who will be among the top eight to advance to the quarter finals. Looking at the leader board Williams has plainly qualified and Ainslie, Torvar Mirsky and Jesper Radich look comfortable, but behind them it seems there are six crews fighting for four quarterfinal placings. Noted Richard, "We need six wins to be sure to get into the quarterfinals and we have to beat Minoprio, Mirsky and Robertson to get there. Right now it does not look good." Second Day Standings 1. Ian Williams, GBR (Team GAC Pindar), 7-0 2. Ben Ainslie, GBR (TEAMORIGIN), 5-1 3. Torvar Mirsky, AUS (Mirsky Racing Team), 5-2 3. Jesper Radich, DEN (Gaastra Racing Team), 5-2 5. Francesco Bruni, ITA (Team Azzurra), 4-2 6. Bjorn Hansen, NOR (Hansen Global Team), 3-3 7. Mathieu Richard, FRA (French Match Racing Team), 3-5 8. Peter Gilmour, AUS (YANMAR Racing), 2-4 9. Adam Minoprio, NZL (ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing), 2-4 10. Keith Swinton, NZL (Black Swan Racing), 2-4 11. Phil Robertson, NZL (WAKA Racing), 2-5 12. Jeremy Koo, MAS (Koo Racing Team - Evernew), 0-8 Results grid: http://www.monsooncup.com.my/results.php Flight summary: http://tinyurl.com/MC-Summary-2010 POPCORN: Here are some of the options on how to follow the racing: Live text updating: http://www.wmrt.com/live-blog.html Video highlights: http://www.wmrt.com/multimedia/video-gallery.html YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/worldmrt PERMUTATIONS: The Monsoon Cup will determine who becomes the new ISAF Match Racing World Champion. Mathieu Richard is the current leader in the overall Tour standings, but based on the second day standings, Ben Ainslie would take the crown. Details: http://tinyurl.com/WMRT-2010-math 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 THINK SPRING! Just finished Thanksgiving? Not even Christmas yet? If you want to go racing next spring you need to start thinking about it now! And if you want the leading edge in 35 and 40 foot IRC Racer/Cruisers, you need to think about the Summit Yachts line of extraordinary boats. These Mark Mills designed boats have amassed the most enviable record of major regatta wins worldwide! So if you want the 2011 racing season to be your most successful yet, check out the Summit Yachts line at http://www.summit-yachts.com "THIS TIME THERE IS NO EXCUSE" Marcelino Botin has made something of a name for himself designing winning IMS boats over the years, mainly in the Mediterranean. So in late 2003, when Emirates Team New Zealand were looking for new design impetus following their 5-0 America's Cup loss to Alinghi, he was earmarked as a key talent by their design coordinator Andy Claughton. Since then, Botin has been successful not only on the America's Cup stage, designing Emirates Team New Zealand's Louis Vuitton Cup winner, but also designing TP52s which have won the Audi MedCup over the past three seasons. Botin Carkeek's first attempt at a Volvo Open 70 began with a very promising design for PUMA, which finished second. With time and resources now on his side, Botin is intent on giving CAMPER the tool to win the race. Botin considers that their greatest opportunity to date was granted to them with the Camper Emirates Team New Zealand project, as it has given them the chance to complete a 'research and development programme' (R&D) and testing plan: "I think the biggest difference for us this time to last time, is time. Last time we had absolutely no time to design the (PUMA) boat. "We had just finished with the America's Cup in 2007 and this was August 2007 and we had to, if I remember, produce the lines for September, it was something like that. It was basically three months to design the (PUMA) boat and we had done no preliminary work at all." "We did not know the rule at all. We had to develop all the tools for the Volvo Ocean Race, which are very, very different from the America's Cup or any kind of windward-leeward regatta racing. It was a struggle to get the boat in time and to do any kind of sensible research. Botin confessed, "In fact, we were pretty surprised that the boat actually was reasonably competitive, to be honest. This time it has not been like that at all. We have had time to develop the tools, to develop the VPPs, the routers, the CFD, everything. And we have had time to design the boat. Obviously this time there is no excuse!" Where will the big gains and losses be design wise do you think for the next race? "One thing which is pretty evident from the last race and the way these boats perform, is that you can make up a lot of gains if you are fast in the up range of speeds, when you are doing 28 knots instead of 25 or 26 knots. That means a big gain over 24 hours and that sort of speed difference is not achievable when you are doing 12 knots of boat speed. Basically then you need to have a very good all-round boat, but it has to be especially good in that high range, high speed stuff." -- Complete story: http://tinyurl.com/VOR-120210 MILESTONES AND MILES By Kimball Livingston, yachting journalist In the opening decade of the 21st century I had the opportunity to sail milestone editions of America's three great distance races: Centennial Bermuda, Centennial Transpac, and the 100th running of Chicago-Mac. So I did. If anyone else did the same, I'd be interested to hear. Along the way I got fried, frozen, slammed, sore and high on sailing and life. I lost one friend and made others. I sailed the Centennial Transpac on the ultimate West Coast plastic classic, a Cal 40, and the story would be nicely balanced if I had then sailed the Centennial Bermuda on the ultimate East Coast plastic classic, a Hinckley Bermuda 40 yawl. But I am so glad I didn't. And, I had sailed the Race to Mackinac before, so this time I was spared the ritual dunking - that water's cold, baby - at the other end. The bare facts: First race to Bermuda, 1906. First race to Honolulu, also 1906. First Chicago-Mackinac, 1898, so I missed that Centennial, but accounting for a few gaps during wartime, the 100th edition came up in 2008. Much of what we know in the sport today was getting off the ground in the first decade of the 20th century. The first international rule. The first international authority. Milestone editions of the great distance races were obvious attractions for a journo, with organizers heating the oven just a little bit hotter and more boats and more people showing up for the special occasion. The first twist in my tale occurs, ironically, in 1936. Because -- In 1936 one Jim Flood of San Francisco, California was the new owner of the most famous racing yacht in the world, Dorade, brought out from the Atlantic coast to see what Olin Stephens' remarkable yawl could do in the Transpacific Yacht Race, Los Angeles to Honolulu. Flood wisely secured Myron Spaulding - designer, builder, measurer and violinist - as sailing master for a race that got off to an excruciatingly slow start. Thirteen days later, however, Dorade bombed down the Molokai Channel past Diamond Head with the first sweep in the history of this biennial classic. That is, since race one in 1906, no boat had previously been first to finish, first overall on corrected time, first in class. It wouldn't happen again until Windward Passage pulled it off with a brilliant win in 1971. -- Read on: http://kimballlivingston.com/?p=5478 SAILING SHORTS * The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) has published the Notice of Race for the 2011 ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship, the 41st edition of the championship being held in Zadar, Croatia from 7 to 16 July 2011. Three hundred of the world's top sailors representing over 60 nations are expected to descend on Sailing Club Uksok in Zadar next July for youth's sailing blue ribbon event. Since its launch in 1971 the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship has gone from strength to strength, attracting ever increasing numbers of participants and nations and proving a stringboard onto the world stage for many of the sport's greatest stars. -- Read on: http://www.sailing.org/news/34795.php * Twenty-one teams have traveled from all across North America, Great Britain and Italy to compete in the Melges 32 Gold Cup Regatta (Dec. 3-5), hosted by the Lauderdale Yacht Club in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Defending Gold Cup champion Rod Jabin (Annapolis, Md.) on Ramrod is back with 2009 Melges 24 World Champion Chris Larson serving as tactician. One of Jabin's top adversaries, 2010 Winter Series and European Champion Joe Woods (Torquay, UK) with tactician, Olympic Gold Medallist Paul Goodison on Red is also in attendance. -- Full report: http://www.melges32.com/?p=news&id=698 * Sir Keith Mills is holding discussions with Iain Percy and Ben Ainslie to resurrect elements of his Team Origin programme for next year. In October, Mills pulled the plug on Britain's America's Cup campaign, claiming the 34th Cup rules were skewed too heavily in favour of holders BMW Oracle. But he is now believed to be talking to Percy about him taking over skipper duties from Ainslie for a 2011 Audi MedCup campaign in Team Origin's TP52. Ainslie was believed to be reluctant to get involved because of the strain of qualifying for the London 2012 Olympics. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/Telegraph-120210 * CORRECTION: In Scuttlebutt 3231, the reference to the Halifax Yacht Squadron in the story about a possible Canadian America's Cup challenger is actually the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, which is in Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada. J/111 FULL SPEED AHEAD The J/111 is J Boats' latest sleek, speedy and versatile 36-footer. A star at the fall boat shows, the J/111 was recently awarded SAIL's Best Boat 2011 in the Performance Boat category. Hull #1 with an inventory of Doyle sails successfully completed sea trials in Newport, RI and headed to New Zealand for their summer sailing season. To ensure the J/111 sails were fast out of the bag, easy to trim and maintained their designed shape through the wind range, Doyle utilized a computational simulation environment. For more information on how Doyle can power your One Design, visit http://www.doylesails.com/onedesign PHOTOS OF THE WEEK Some of the random photos from the sport received this week at Scuttlebutt include the amazing Moth, December, guessing game, big tease, solar powered, rough life, and up close. Here are this week's photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/10/1203/ SEND US YOUR PHOTOS: If you have images to share for the Photos of the Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com VIDEO OF THE WEEK With just over a month to go before race one of the 2011 Zhik Moth Worlds, regatta organizers have received a talent filled 112 entries from ten countries who are all ready to test themselves and their boats on Lake Macquarie NSW, Australia in January 2011. There will undoubtedly be a record amount of photos and video coming from the contest, so we will provide a tuner this week and will then sit on our hands as long as we can before the big event. Check out super mothel Scott Babbage as he offers up multi-cam onboard footage plus electric action from the 2010 Moth Europeans in Switzerland. Click here for this week's videos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/10/1203/ SEND US YOUR VIDEOS: If you have clips to share for the Video of the Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com 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 Barry Dunning, International Keelboat Racing Coach: Thank goodness for Alex Watters letter, I thought I was lone voice in the wilderness. Being an Etchells sailor, I brought this subject up at the World Championship AGM in Ireland this year. One of the comments was that the new trend of sailing four up with smaller crew would not be able to cope with nor have the strength to manage an Etchells on a windy reach. My response was that, as a fleet we needed some test of strength and skill in our sailing. I too, am bored stiff with the same courses time after time at Worlds, Europeans, Nationals and Regional championships. As a fleet we have lost the skill of reaching, tight gybing and making decisions as to which spinnaker to use for which angle. Sure, keep a run in for one of the legs, but let's have some reaching too. It's a long time since I have had a screaming reach with the boom in the air, pole just off the forestay, spray up to the spreaders, and all the crew hanging on by their toenails. As the Etchells class has a max weight limit, a reach is no longer dominated by the heavier crews. * From Tom Goddard: Here we have a so-called sport where you can't be too fat, because of weight limits. But you can't be too fit either. You can't hike as hard as you want to because of the imaginary line projecting vertically from the top lifeline. Though the way you make the boat turn is by moving the tiller, you can't move it too quickly or too often because that is illegal. You have to pull the sails in to make the boat go, but you can't pull the sails in too quickly or too often because that is illegal too. You can't really move around on the boat, because that can be illegal as well, and might be called pumping, flicking, ooching, rolling, or torquing. Even though boats sail in water, you can't let water touch your body because that is illegal, not because it makes you go faster, but because it can slow you down. You have to tack to go upwind, but don't tack too often or too efficiently because that is illegal too. You can gybe to go downwind, but don't gybe too often, and make sure your boat speed neither increases nor decreases during and especially after the maneuver (unless there is an "obvious change or wind speed or direction" of course.) Sailing used to be the pastime of adventurers and pirates and iron men pitting themselves against God and the elements. Sport is supposed to be an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition. What have we got now? A bunch of jam tarts standing around, afraid to go to the pre race party because they're scared they might fail the weigh-in. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION A television remote control is like a woman. It gives man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying. SPONSORS THIS WEEK Mount Gay - Kaenon - LaserPerformance - Ultimate Sailing Melges Performance Sailboats - Henri Lloyd - Team One Newport North Sails - J Boats - Ullman Sails - JK3 Nautical Enterprises Summit Yachts - Doyle Sails Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
