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SCUTTLEBUTT 2676 - Monday, September 8, 2008Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors. MEMORIES FROM THE MAGICAL SUMMER OF 1977 As reported in Scuttlebutt 2675, Carl Paxon "Bunky" Helfrich, architect, yachtsman and CNN Original, died peacefully on Wednesday, September 3, 2008. His longtime friend Gary Jobson has provided a complete obituary, and also an interview he had done with Bunky discussing their time as part of the winning 1977 America's Cup team with skipper Ted Turner and Courageous. Here is an excerpt of the interview, which points out the progress (some good, some not so good) in the past 30 years: * Tell me a little bit about Ted as a leader? Helfrich : Ted is an unbelievable leader. He once said that he wasn't that good in small boats because his primary talents were organization. So the larger the boat got, the more his talents came into effect. He set goals for everyone and then he left you alone. He would say let's get this accomplished and that was about it. You accomplished it and you went on from there. * What about the electronics back in 1977? Helfrich : We didn't have electronics. We didn't have GPS. We didn't have any of the things that these guys have now. Bill Jorch just navigated by the seat of his pants. We never missed a mark. We were always on them. Gary Jobson had a little puck that he went around sighting the wind and the other boats and never missed a windshift. We never missed a tack. It was, again, just a wonderful group of guys. * So you didn't have the read outs from 150 different weather buoys? Helfrich : We didn't have weather. We didn't have the chart tracks to see where we were in comparison with the other boats. Ted said it a couple of times that we were just out there, we were just doing seat of the pants sailing and that's what we did. We concentrated on sailing the boat. We didn't concentrate on technology. We didn't concentrate on new sail fabrics or anything like that. Robbie Doyle was amazing on the boat in that in July our sails had been completely worn out and he was able to patch the sails back together so we could complete the July trials and then luckily one of our friends from Texas bought us some new sails for the August trials. And then we went on again to start winning and that was when we were selected to be the defender. Complete interview and obituary: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6357 TRIVIA QUESTION When the Volvo Ocean Race for crewed VO70s begins October 4th in Alicante, Spain, and the Vendee Globe for singlehanded Open 60s begins November 9th in Les Sables d'Olonne, France, both events will head south down the Atlantic Ocean toward which points? (Answer below) PARALYMPIC GAMES: RACING BEGINS MONDAY * Brian Todd, National Team Coach, Canadian Sailing Team: "(Last Saturday was) another beautiful day in Qingdao; it was 5-10 knots in the AM and slightly less in the PM. As I look out the window here in Qingdao, all of the buildings are lit up; it is for lack of more words, amazing! They have an interesting system here. During the evening there are so many lights that I would think you could see the place from space but around 10:00PM the lights begin to dim and by 10:30 every light in every tower is out and energy is saved during the night - good concept! I am not sure how they do it but there are sailing pictures projected on a number of buildings and a boat or graphics move from building to building like a movie screen. It is hard to describe but if you have the chance make the trip it is certainly one of the more vibrant cities I have visited." -- http://www.sailing.ca/feature/2008/09/predictions.html * Betsy Alison, Coach, US Paralympic Sailing Team: "Just as an FYI, we have seen cooler temperatures (in the 70s) than the Olympic sailors had in August, and we are seeing slightly more breeze on average (3-7 knots daily so far). I can only hope that it continues along those lines." -- http://www.ussailing.org/Olympics/blog/paralympic/2008/09/measurement.html * A record 80 athletes sailing in 41 boats from 25 nations will compete for the medals in Qingdao, in what is sailing's third appearance at a Paralympics. Two races are scheduled to take place on Monday's opening day with 11 races scheduled in total for all three classes before the end of the regatta and medal ceremonies on Saturday, September 13th. There are no medal races for the Paralympics, with four races needed to constitute a series. There will be one drop race if 5 to 8 races are completed, and two drop races if 9 to 11 races are completed. -- http://www.sailing.org/paralympics INTRODUCING THE MORRIS M29! Morris Yachts announces the latest addition to their M-Series line - the M29 is intended for short or single-handed sailing. Hull #1 will be launched in February. The M29 will deliver performance sailing that is fun and comfortable. The boat is a graceful combination of classic style, the latest in naval architecture and modern boatbuilding materials. Her Morris Yachts quality construction and finish, together with her S&S design pedigree will guarantee lasting service and value. To date the company has sold 73 M-Series yachts since the first M36 was launched in 2004. For more information: http://www.morrisyachts.com/The-Morris-M29 THE LAWSUIT TO NOWHERE By Cory Friedman, AC Legal Analyst (September 7, 2008) Even attentive 'Buttheads who diligently have been paying attention to The Greatest Show on Earth, the three ring circus also known as the AC litigation (Commercial Division, Appellate Division, First Department, and now the main event in the third and most important ring, the New York Court of Appeals) may have forgotten about the AC sideshow in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, before District Judge Pauley. There amongst General Tom Thumb, The Fiji Mermaid and Chang and Eng, the Siamese Twins, Team New Zealand (TNZ) has been exhibiting the greatest oddity of them all, The Lawsuit to Nowhere, against Ernesto Bertarelli and his posse (SNG, ACM, et al.). If you have been focusing on the presidential race between "Senator Change" and "Senator Change," or have actually been out sailing or doing something useful, a quick refresher is in order. -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/cf/#p28 ELSEWHERE IN THE AMERICA'S CUP . * Author G. Bruce Knecht has published a story regarding the current state of the America's Cup in the first issue of WSJ Magazine, the weekend magazine that was published September 6th as part of the Wall Street Journal. For those who are less enamored by American Larry Ellison's involvement in the America's Cup, their safe haven appears to be distance racing. Knecht explains: "(Ellison's interest in the America's Cup) happened when he sailed the Sydney Hobart race in 1998 and the fleet was battered by waves more than 80 feet tall and hurricane-force winds, resulting in five boats sinking and the death of six sailors. As Ellison's boat began disintegrating, he swore that if he survived he'd never enter another ocean race. Said Ellison, 'I decided to focus on a more technical and less life-threatening form of sailing.'" -- Complete article: http://magazine.wsj.com/features/the-competition/collision-course * Emirates Team New Zealand is down to only "four or five" people, says former director of sailing Rod Davis, one of the latest casualties as the cost of prolonged America's Cup court action bites deep. Davis has been "let go" as the legal wrangle between BMW Oracle and holders Alinghi continues to exert financial pressure on would-be Cup challengers. Davis is the highest-profile casualty of the latest layoffs. He has been involved with the America's Cup for 20 years, appointed coach of Team New Zealand in 1988, prompting his move to New Zealand from his native US. The move does not mean that Team NZ is surrendering its America's Cup ambitions - merely that it must go into "sleep" mode for the time being. -- NZ Herald, full story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10530985 * Even though the New York Court of Appeals has still not decided whether the BMW Oracle Racing trimaran will ever compete for the America's Cup, the Anacortes-based team has attracted a steady stream of interest in the Deed of Gift challenger that they launched last week. Visiting on Friday was United States Congressman Rick Larsen, and today will see Scuttlebutt publisher Craig Leweck checking in with the team. To help fill the thirst for information, the team has produced a video that is now online: http://tinyurl.com/BORmovie DOWNSIZING BY DESIGN After six years of sailing at the leading edge of international maxi yacht racing with his maxi and 'super' maxi yachts Alfa Romeo and Alfa Romeo 2, Neville Crichton, the Australasian businessman and yachtsman, is 'down-sizing' - but still retaining the Alfa Romeo marque. The Sydney-based New Zealander has dominated maxi boat racing in the Mediterranean with his 90-footer and his 100-footer, both named Alfa Romeo, sailing the latter to line honours in a remarkable 135 races. In contrast to the 'super' maxi, Crichton's new racing yacht is a 69-foot 'mini' maxi named Alfa Romeo III. His objective is closer racing competition. Alfa Romeo III made her racing debut in the new Mini Maxi Division of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup at Porto Cervo, Sardinia last week, sailed there by the Ericcson Volvo Round the World team, headed by Torben Grael. Why, after years of campaigning boats among the biggest and fastest racing yachts in the world has the New Zealand speed enthusiast - in cars and boats - 'down-sizing'? "I would have loved to have built another 100-footer, but the level, quality and quantity of competition in this class is simply not at the level at which I would wish to continue competing," Crichton said. "There are probably ten yachts in this class in the world that are competitive, but it has proven very hard to get a reasonable number of them, let alone all of them, together for the same event. With Mini Maxis (60 and 79 feet LOA) there will be more of them built and this means strong, more varied fleets, and that's the sort of racing in which I wish to compete." -- Adonnante, complete story: http://tinyurl.com/5lnj5o * Porto Cervo, Italy (September 6, 2008) - The 19th edition of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, organized by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, concluded today with the forty competing Maxi yachts waiting for wind, but the light and shifty breezes build past 2 knots and PRO Peter Craig was forced to abandon racing for the day. Overall victory therefore went to George David's Rambler (USA), Ernesto Bertarelli's Numbers(SUI), Ranger (CAY ISL) and Lindsay Owen Jones' Magic Carpet2 (GBR) in the Racing, Mini Maxi, Cruising and Wally divisions respectively. On an upbeat note, reports from the crew of Andres Soriano's Alegre advise that crewmember Led Pritchard is expected to make a full-recovery from his traumatic lower right-leg fracture suffered after a halyard wrapped around his leg just as the jammer that was holding the halyard broke. Event reports: http://www.regattanews.com/event.asp?id=198 Results: http://www.yccsresults.com/maxi08/results1.htm Audio interviews: http://tinyurl.com/Pro-Sight-Sailing * There is a good reason that Maxi owners hold the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo. because the place is god's gift to the sport. For photographers Carlo Borlenghi and Ingrid Abery, we suspect this event was in the cue long ago. Enjoy their imagery: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/08/0905a HARKEN TRANSITION BACKPACK: GREAT FOR SAILING & SHORE Carry gear to your next class or the next port of call with the Harken Transition backpack, personalized by Team One Newport with your boat or team logo. Pack in your books or foulies, stash your shades in the soft easy-access pouch, and dry your wet shoes in the mesh compartment. Details like a laptop sleeve and a comfortable back-panel set the Transition apart. Too much gear for the Transition? Try the 3-in-1 Rolling Carry-On with detachable backpack! http://www.team1newport.com/products.asp?dept=90 RICHARD OVERCOMES WEATHER, WILLIAMS TO WIN IN ST. MORITZ St Moritz, Switzerland (September 7, 2008) - Mathieu Richard (FRA) was crowned the 'King of the Mountain' today in St Moritz after beating Ian Williams (GBR) 2-0 in a light wind final, claiming the St. Moritz Match Race title after several days of postponements, freezing temperatures, storms, and fickle winds. Richard and Williams had advanced to Finals after Semi-Final matches against Philippe Presti (FRA) and Adam Minoprio (NZL), respectively. In the first match of the Finals, a split tack saw Richard take an early lead but not enough to be able to cross in front of Williams. As the teams approached the top mark on opposite tacks, Richard on Port, they both luffed head to wind but Richard just had enough speed to wriggle around the bow of Team Pindar to take the lead. "Mathieu was faster off the start in both races, and that's what won him the races. For some reason we weren't able to attack or defend this afternoon," said Williams at the press conference after racing. In the petit-final, Minoprio won the first race, but Presti went on to take the next two and secure 3rd place. Currently Ian Williams leads the World Match Racing Tour with 92 points, followed by Mathieu Richard on 72 points. The tour now heads to the Troia Portugal Match Cup in Troia, Portugal on Sept 23-28, 2008, where teams will be racing the SM40's for a total prize purse of $125,000.00. Final day recap: http://www.worldmatchracingtour.com/da/87189 Results: http://www.worldmatchracingtour.com/da/86769 THE WAITING IS ALMOST OVER The much anticipated MORNING LIGHT movie, which documents the training and participation of a young group of sailors in the 2007 Transpac race, will have several premieres in October. For the Chesapeake Bay area, and particularly for those attending the US Boat Show in Annapolis (Oct 9-13), the movie will be shown on Thursday, October 9 at 6:00 p.m. at Bow Tie Cinemas, Annapolis, and Friday, October 10 at 6:00 p.m. at Landmark Theatres - Harbor East, Baltimore. Special Guests include Roy Disney, Leslie DeMeuse Disney, Gary Jobson (Baltimore only), Robbie Haines and MORNING LIGHT Crew Charlie Enright, Steve Manson, and Jeremy Wilmot. The event will be hosted by Downtown Sailing Center and National Sailing Hall of Fame, and will benefit Downtown Sailing Center and Annapolis Community Boating. -- http://www.pacifichighproductions.com/ * Before Scuttlebutt publisher Craig Leweck heads east for the US Boat Show, he will have attended the Hollywood premiere of the movie earlier that week, and will hopefully have time to provide his comments before the east coast showings. Here is the movie trailer: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/08/0714 CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar SAILING SHORTS * Alicante, Spain (September 5, 2008) - PUMA Ocean Racing arrived in Alicante, Spain mid afternoon today (CET), successfully delivering their boat il mostro from their training base in Newport, RI. The team left Newport on August 26th in preparation of the start of the Volvo Ocean Race on October 4. The PUMA boat and sailors will remain in Spain until the start to continue their training. The team still has to participate in the required safety training, weather briefs and il mostro will undergo official measurement by Volvo Officials. -- http://www.pumaoceanracing.com * Chicago, IL - With the schedule planning on four days of racing for September 3-6, the 33-boats competing in the 2008 Beneteau First 36.7 North American Championship had to be happy with only three days as shifty winds forced the abandonment of racing on the fourth and final day. Overall winner was Dan and Dave Shriner's Legend with Peter Wenzler's Blackbird finishing second; both teams are from Detroit, MI. 2007 NA Champion Richard Reid's Zingara from Toronto, Canada finished in third. The top Corinthian boat was Chick and Alexis Pyle's, KEA from San Diego, CA. -- For reports and results: http://www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=204 * On Monday, September 15, 2008, Joby Easton & Bill Huseby - Division 1 Doublehanded and Overall winners of the 2008 Pacific Cup onboard their Cascade 36 Raindrop - will have a presentation at the Hayden Island Yacht Club Portland, OR at 7:00pm. -- http://www.haydenislandyachtclub.com TRIVIA ANSWER Both the Volvo Ocean Race and the Vendee Globe begin by heading south in the Atlantic Ocean. The Volvo Ocean Race heads south to a scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha, an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean about 220 miles offshore from the Brazilian coast, before finishing their first leg (6500 miles) in Cape Town, South Africa. The VOR fleet will have started on their next leg (to Cochin, India) before the non-stop Vendee fleet passes Cape Town on the way to their first mark of the course 31 miles further south, taking the Cape of Good Hope to port. From there, the route takes Cape Leeuwin (Australia) to port, Cape Horn (Chile) to port, Antarctic to starboard before finishing in the bay of Les Sables d'Olonne, France. Volvo Ocean Race: http://www.volvooceanrace.com Vendee Globe: http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en S.O. APPRECIATION MONTH AT NAUTICALLUXURIES.COM September finds many of us winding down another great sailing season and re-introducing ourselves to our significant others. Why not thank them for their support with their own "trophy" from Nautical Luxuries. Mention the Curmudgeon for a 10% discount. Try our Gift Guide and, if that works, come back after Super Bowl. http://www.NauticalLuxuries.com EIGHT BELLS Id Crook, established member of the Snipe class community, died peacefully September 3, 2008. He was a long time sailor who met his wife Anne racing at the Menai Straits Regatta in North Wales. They immigrated to Canada and Oakville in 1954. It was at the Oakville Yacht Squadron in 1954 that he discovered the Snipe Class. Through his racing he travelled the world, represented Canada at the Pan American Games, was Commodore of SCIRA and the Oakville Yacht Squadron and was an international Race Official. The OLDE MAN was a serious sailor who knew how to have serious fun. There are many stories of parties at various regattas that bring a smile and fond memories. He leaves his wife Anne, daughter Gweneth and many close friends from around the world. A celebration of his life will be held at a later date. Donations in Id's memory can be made to either the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto or the Trillium Cancer Centre in Mississauga. Condolences may be left at http://www.oakviewfuneral.ca LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Reader commentary is encouraged, with letters to be submitted to the Scuttlebutt editor, aka, 'The Curmudgeon'. Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). You only get one letter per subject, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- To submit a Letter: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- To post on the Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Alexander Kovell: Dear Skip, I would like to thank you for setting such a good example for the rest of us. No matter how hard it was, it sounds like it was the right thing to do under the circumstances. It is sad for us all that you had to scuttle a boat with so many miles, stories and memories. Eight bells for Wildflower, may her passing lead to new friends and sailing adventures! * From John Sweeney, St. Thomas: Regarding the aerial photos of the TP52 windward mark action in "butt 2675, did Quantum Racing get away with one at that weather mark? Looking at the series of four quick succession photos, images 1 thru 3 show Quantum in the process of tacking below Desafio, in all three she is clearly not through her tack while Desafio is close hauled, fetching the mark. By image 4, Quantum has completed her tack, is unmistakably within the two boats length circle and Desafio is heading up to give room at the mark. The question is, did Quantum make her tack inside of the two length zone? Image 3 suggests that Quantum is inside of the zone prior to completing her tack - it doesn't appear that another 52 could fit between the stern of the white boat about to round and Desafio's bow. If so, Quantum is not entitled to room inside of Desafio (RRS 18.3). Did Desafio skipper Paul Cayard give one away to Quantum skipper Terry Hutchinson? -- Photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/08/0905 => Curmudgeon's Comment: These were great images for analysis, so we asked Terry Hutchinson how the situation played out from his perspective. Said Terry, "What the sequence does not show is that Desafio did a hard tack just in front of us and left us only one avenue - to tack underneath. Did we get away with one? Absolutely not! Desafio tacked very close to us but clear and left us an avenue to tack underneath and lay the mark. They could not have made it any harder on us, and as I look back at it, we did nice work to get around the mark considering we started our tack underneath them going about 11.5 knots. Trust me when I say at this point of the series, there are no breaks being given. All points good and bad are earned." -- http://www.Hutchinsonracing.org CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUM Do hungry cows have ravenous appetites? Special thanks to Morris Yachts, Harken, and International Crew. A complete list of preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
