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SCUTTLEBUTT 1301 - April 4, 2003Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is adigest of major yacht racing news, 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. PRESEASON REFRESHER COURSE: To best prepare yourself for the sailing season try these quick exercises: 1. Buy a case of beer, sit with it in a very warm place for a few hours, then drink it. 2. Apply sunscreen to your face in streaks and sit in front of a sun lamp for 2 hours. 3. Sit on a bench with large metal fixtures cutting into your legs, stare straight up into the sun for two hours - for a more robust workout: invite 4 friends to come over and yell at you the whole time 4. Go out and get very drunk, sleep 4 hours, then stand on a rocking chair for 6 hours. 5. Go to bank and withdraw $1,000 - then light it on fire. 6. Sit in front of a commercial fan and have someone throw large buckets of salt water on you. 7. Repeat number 6 in jeans and a sweatshirt and /or repeat number 6 with head turned sideways to ensure water lodging fully into ear drum. 8. Cut limb off nearby tree, tie ropes to it, stand on rocking chair with tree limb and ropes - hold them over your head for 3 hours... at 5 minute intervals drop on your head - more robust version: have friends yell at you in 6 minute intervals. 9. Set your wrist watch to 5-minute repeating counts ... let it go off all day long. 10. Pour cold water in your lap and give yourself a wedgie, now alternate between sitting and running around bent over. 11. Tie ropes between 2 trees - push your body against them as hard as you can for 6 consecutive hours - don't stop for pain or bruising. 12. Place sandpaper on your stairs, crawl up and down on your knees for several hours. 13. Make 12 sandwiches on white bread with bad meat and cram them into a bread bag - eat one a day for 12 consecutive days... make sure the last one is peanut butter and jelly if preparing for Race Week. 14. Tie ropes to rear bumper of friend's car, hold on tightly, but allow rope to slip through fingers as car drives away - TIP: works best with nylon fiber ropes, lengths in excess of 50'. 15. Upon completion of previous 14 drills - sit down and drink 14 Mt Gay rum drinks, any flavor. VIADUCT BASIN Auckland City is making a bid to keep land used for former America's Cup yacht bases in public ownership. The Auckland City Council has entered negotiations with America's Cup Village Ltd (ACVL) for six former syndicate bases at the Waitemata Harbour end of Halsey St. the city wants to create a marine stadium at the Viaduct Harbour and is gradually buying land in the area. The stadium would be used as an entertainment complex for on and off-water events. Land housing a quartet of former cup bases at the Fanshawe St end of syndicate row is already being redeveloped by private company, Viaduct Harbour Holdings. The land where the six bases stand, including the former homes for Team New Zealand, Alinghi and Prada, is owned by public funding body, Infrastructure Auckland, and managed by its subsidiary, ACVL. - Phil Taylor, Central Leader as posted on the StuffNZ website, full story: www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/sundaystartimes/auckland/0,2106,2373065a6497,00.html CARBONATION Dreaming about the Carbon Fiber Poles on your buddies' boats? Put off by the price? Well, Layline is psyched to bring you great values with a sub-$500 J-24 pole, a sub-$800 J-29 pole, and a sub-$1,000 J-35 pole. We are fired up about introducing you to our exclusive supplier Forte RTS. Forte uses FEA (Finite Element Analysis) design and Triaxial Braiding construction to yield a pole that has 10 times the impact resistance of pre-preg poles while retaining all the rigidity and weight savings that you would expect in a carbon pole. Check 'em out online: http://www.layline.com/llf/prod/forte/fcp.htm AROUND ALONE At 12:30 local time Thursday the team of five riggers, one electrician plus skipper Derek Hatfield and shore crew Patianne Verburgh, began the task of stepping the new mast on Spirit of Canada. The rig arrived in Ushuaia Wednesday evening, and the whole team worked through the night to get everything put together. They hope to have the forestays, furlers and mainsail put on by the end of today and the jib tomorrow morning. Derek is then going to check on the weather scenario, as the forecast is for a strong low to pass over Cape Horn area this weekend. If all goes well, Spirit of Canada should be back on the water racing this Saturday. Thanks to Raymarine, who have supplied all new electronic equipment onboard the boat, you will be able to track Derek's progress on the Positions page each day using Raytech 4.1 navigation software. In Salvador, Brazil, the Bobst Group - Armor Lux shore crew successfully put the keel back into boat. Bobst Group - Armor Lux is just in need of a few minor reparations and she will be back to her former glory. In all of this, skipper Bernard Stamm was absent, although he hoped to be back in time to manage the operation - but a strike in the French airport has left him temporarily stranded. - Mary Ambler, full story, www.aroundalone.com CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS * April 12-18: Lightning World Championships, Coral Reef & Biscayne Bay Yacht Clubs, Miami, FL. www.lightningclass.org * June 27-29: North Sails Race Week, Golison & Golison and Premiere Racing, Long Beach, CA. A new schedule for 2003 adds two races - one additional race each on Friday and Saturday. www.Premiere-Racing.com NEWS BRIEFS * The field of 10 competitors for next week's Congressional Cup ISAF Grade 1 match racing series is led by six recent America's Cup campaigners including two-time winner Gavin Brady, who sailed with Italy's Prada at Auckland. Others are Ken Read of Team Dennis Conner, Magnus Holmberg of Sweden's Victory Challenge, Luc Pillot of France's Le Defí, Australian James Spithill of Seattle's OneWorld and Paolo Cian of Italy's Mascalzone Latino. Those who didn't sail in the America's Cup are Denmark's Jesper Radich and Jes Gram-Hansen, currently ranked Nos. 2 and 3 by the International Sailing Federation; 1994 winner Chris Law of the UK and Long Beach resident Scott Dickson, who will have older brother Chris as tactician in his seventh Congressional Cup as a skipper. - Rich Roberts, www.lbyc.org * At the close of registration on Thursday night, 139 boats had registered for the 32nd BVI Spring Regatta presented by Nanny Cay Marina, substantially beating the record set last year of 114; the increase was spread through a number of classes. * In a historic day for sailing in India, an Indian has become World Champion in the International OK Dinghy as Nitin Mongia won the 25-boats Championship with a race to spare. Ben Morrison from New Zealand won Race No. 6 to record his first win at the Championships and move into 2nd place overall. Nick Craig from Great Britain took third place. www.indiasailing.org/okworlds2003/ * Hard times: Because of the continuing difficult business climate in Papua New Guinea, the 2003 Coral Sea Classic Race has not attracted the expected number of entries from the Royal Papua Yacht Club, so the organizing committee has reluctantly decided to cancel the event. Recent adverse publicity in Australia regarding security in PNG appears to have discouraged overseas entries. In addition, the downturn in tourism in Far North Queensland and the resulted downturn in the economy has also affected entrants due to funding constraints on boat owners. - Peter Renner, Sail-world website, www.sail-world.com/ NEWSFLASH For the last couple seasons everyone's been trying to come up with the ultimate shackle. Some were good, some were bad, and all had their drawbacks. Annapolis Performance Sailing wants to be the first to tell you the shackle war is over. New from Tylaska, comes the Spool Shackle. Half the weight and two-thirds the cost; they'll have the others flying white flags. And so amazingly simple, you'll be left wondering why you didn't come up with this peace plan. Curious? To get your fair and balanced news from Tylaska and APS click on http://www.apsltd.com/scuttlebutt.asp LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com) (Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is not a chat room or a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Tim Prophit: Peter Huston maintains that those who seek sponsorship money to support sailing have become, "… a marketing services entity that just happens to sell advertising services through sailing." I don't think so. In my mind, we are recognizing that someone is willing to provide money, to run an event we can participate in, without which said money the event either would not occur, or, be a lesser quality event. Remember, a rose by any other name ... it simply doesn't matter what the name of the event is, or whether or not there is a bow sticker with "Brand X" on each boat. What matters is the quality of the racing, the race management, etc. If that can be improved by an injection of cash, and that cash comes from a sponsor as opposed to a participants pocket, more power to us, the participants. Do you remove your sailmakers mark from your sails? If not, what's the difference? And if you do, I commend your commitment to your principles. * From Peter Godfrey (re Peter Huston's comments in 'Butt 1300)" Right On! * From Michael Silverman: I strongly disagree with Mr. Huston's comments in 'Butt 1300. There are plenty of sailors who do not own boats but still love to sail. In turn for their dedication as crew, these sailors sometimes ask for nothing more than perhaps a meal and a few drinks. However, it can be difficult for these sailors to truly forge ahead in the sport of sailing because of the prohibitive costs. Allowing these sailors the opportunity to receive sponsored funds so they can travel around the country/ world, and perhaps even eat while the do so, is not only 'nice', it embodies the Corinthian spirit of the sport. * From Ron Baerwitz: Peter's comments on sponsorship conclude that income level dictates who can skipper a boat, not ability. I, like many other capable sailors, desire to skipper my own yacht but cannot afford the luxury of ownership. My years in both yachting and business have offered me the resources to raise money to do so. The question - why shouldn't I be able to offer advertising on sails, hull or wherever, to get myself, a crew and another boat on the start line? Why shouldn't the guy who has a good boat but lacks the money for new sails every year (like RO's at the top of the class) seek sponsorship to get those new sails? Do the logos of corporate sponsors really bother anyone's eyes while racing? If so I suggest you're focused on the wrong issues. Long ago my Olympic campaign raised over $150,000 which afforded my partner and I the luxury of racing around the world. It only happened through sponsorship. The sponsorship money came because we advertised "USA" on our mainsail. We marketed our great country and were proud to it. So, what is the difference if we do it for IBM, ATT or Jerry's Famous Deli? None to me, because with their generosity, I get to skipper a yacht that otherwise was out of my reach. * From Roger Marshall (In response to your guest editorial regarding being towed at the end of a tether - edited to our 250-word limit): For my book, Heavy Weather Seamanship, we did a few relatively unscientific experiments by towing a volunteer clad in foul weather gear, a harness, and a six-foot long tether behind an outboard powered boat. We found that the drag from the volunteer was so high that he could not undo the tether shackle when the boat speed was slightly more than 4 knots as read from the boat's speedometer. Above 6 knots or so the bow wave thrown up by the volunteer was so high that it was almost impossible for him to breathe and he resorted to bobbing up above the wave to get a breath. At that point we stopped experimenting for fear that we'd drown him. My conclusion was that an older or less fit person would succumb much sooner than our volunteer. For this reason I recommend in my book that jacklines running down the deck of the boat end at least six feet (or a tether's length) ahead of the transom and some form of handrail be mounted as low as possible on each side of the transom to give the MOB something to grab onto to temporarily relieve the load on the shackle and get free of the tow. Also, it should then be possible to design a shackle that could be released by the MOB under a load equivalent to being towed at more than 4 or 5 knots. * From Richard Squire: On my own boat(s) the jack-lines terminated six feet from the stern (roughly the tether line length). That way I could reach anything in the stern of the boat without disconnecting. Incidentally, the jack lines themselves were sail tie material---flat, soft and strong---thus they would not roll underfoot. They ran continuously outside the shrouds to the bow cleats. * From Giles Anderson: Thank you for closing down the seasickness thread, but you should be aware that some of the sea sickness remedies suggested in the last few issues of 'Butt violate the IOC Anti-Doping Code. Several readers suggested a remedy containing Ephedrine. Here's what happens when you use Ephedrine while competing in any Olympic sport, sailing included (this is straight from the IOC Anti-Doping Code - Article 3: 1): In a case of doping, the penalties for a first offence are as follows: a) if the Prohibited Substance used is ephedrine, phenylpropanolamine, pseudoephedrine, caffeine, strychnine or related substances: I) a warning; II) a ban on participation in one or several sports competitions in any capacity whatsoever; III) a fine of up to US$ 100,000; IV) suspension from any competition for a period of one to six months. If in doubt, seek the advice of doctor who is familiar with the IOC Anti-Doping Code, it's readily available at the ISAF and IOC web sites. To be clear, you don't have to be competing in the Olympics to be subjected to the Code, see the ISAF web site for details. Another word of caution, some over the counter medications will put you in breach of the IOC Anti-Doping Code, another reason to ask a doctor before swallowing. * From Andy La Dow: I wanted 'Butt readers to be aware of the untimely and very sad passing of a dear friend and yacht racing enthusiast from San Diego Yacht Club, George Gregory. George passed away on February 18, leaving behind his lovely wife Pam and their 19 month old daughter Molly. Many "Buttheads" I am sure are aware of his death but for those who are more distant geographically this may be new unfortunate news. A celebration of George's life was held at San Diego YC some weeks ago followed by a memorial service in his hometown of Vermilion, Ohio outside Cleveland. THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground |
