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SCUTTLEBUTT 1888 - July 26, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. YOUTH SAILING - SAND TRAPS AND POTHOLES No doubt, it was a tricky day to be running races. The wind was coming from an unlikely direction, and the races were for kids who had not yet reached their twelfth birthday. The top third of the fleet was pretty accomplished, but for the bottom third, many were racing for their very first time. There were coaches around the course, and parents on nearby docks to view an event that was a qualifier for a championship to be held the following week. After watching a couple races, it became apparent how challenging the sport can be for young racers (even old racers) when the course conditions are not "right." When one end of the start line was heavily favored, the kids at the opposite end were instantly playing catch-up. When the weather mark was reachable on one tack, those on the other tack were soon far behind. When marks were set near adjacent docks, obstructed wind and moored boats divided the fleet. For the better kids, the skewed courses and tricky course locations likely provided an interesting puzzle to solve. When the start line couldn't be reached on starboard, a coach was instructing his kids to set up above the line and dip down prior to the gun. When it was vital to be on port immediately after the start, the race winners figured out how to do it. However, for over half the fleet, the race conditions appeared to present more questions than answers. At the end of the day, all the races were completed and the better kids qualified for the championship. The day also provided a good reminder that sailboat racing is hard enough on square lines and balanced courses without adding sand traps and potholes. Creating an even playing field improves the opportunity for all the kids to have good races, which hopefully helps build their confidence and enjoyment for the sport. - Craig Leweck, http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/05/brm/ TRANPAC As expected, five boats did beat the older Pyewacket's Transpac record of 7 days 11 hours 41 minutes 27 seconds, led by Hasso Plattner's Barn Door win with Morning Glory early Sunday morning in 6:16:04:11. The others were Roy Disney's new Pyewacket in 6:18:32:25, Randall Pittman's Genuine Risk in 6:22:02:35, Doug Baker's Magnitude 80 in 7:03:02:57 and Doug DeVos's Windquest in 7:05:58:03. Magnitude 80 was second overall to Morning Glory on handicap time in Division 1. The King Kalakaua overall trophy winner is now a battle between two Transpac 52s. Philippe Kahn's Pegasus holds a 25-minute handicap lead over Roger Sturgeon's Rosebud. Pegasus led by 40 miles at Monday morning's position report but owes Rosebud, an earlier generation TP 52, more than three hours. Pegasus was due to finish late Monday night or early Tuesday-and then start counting. Meanwhile, the smallest boat in the race---Jamie and Jenny Neil's Super 30, The Cone of Silence, from Australia---threatened to steal the show with its surge to the front of the Division III pack, now 12 miles in front of Tim Beatty's Perry 56, Stealth Chicken. Tom Garnier's J/125, Reinrag2, is next and leads The Cone of Silence by 4 ½ hours on handicap time. With strong trade winds now blowing in the islands, all are expected to finish Tuesday morning into mid-day. Other key finishers: -- Davis Pillsbury's Ralphie at 11 p.m. HST Sunday, winning the 14-boat Cal 40 class by more than 10 hours, followed by a flood of wrong-way rivals Monday. Steve Calhoun's Psyche, which won overall under Don Salisbury in the Cal 40s' historic debut in 1965, was second in its first appearance in the race since. -- Challenged America's B'Quest, a team of sailors with disabilities from San Diego, remarkably fourth overall among eight boats in Division V. Despite sailing short one crew and with veteran Urban Miyares ailing, they finished their second successive Transpac a half-hour behind Ralphie. -- Larry Hillman's Swan 48, So Far, from Chicago, winning Aloha B at dusk Sunday for a runaway sweep on both elapsed and handicap time. -- Scott Self, who with Nigel Brown sailed his Hobie 33 Soap Opera to first place in Division V and among seven doublehanded boats. -- Rich Roberts, http://www.transpacificyc.org/ THE MELGES 17 - RUMOR HAS IT! The popular new Melges 17 has been setting the pace in the Midwest and around the country as Melges has pumped out nearly 40 new boats in just 6 months time. More boats are being delivered each week. Rumor has it that this 17-foot scow is keeping up with the popular Melges E scow that is 28 feet long, particularly downwind. Impressive! This easy to handle new scow is getting new people into the sport and other back into the sport. The Melges 17 proves to be a real winner. See the boat up close at http://www.melges.com FICKLE FAN INTEREST When the Tour de Lance reverts to the Tour de France next summer, you and I, almost all of America, will stop caring about the race. Without Armstrong in U.S. headlines and highlights, without him in our minds and hearts, next summer's Tour de France will be a rumor. No longer will Americans bother to learn what a peloton is. No longer will we check TV to see who won the 10th stage. And the next time we read about the Pyrenees Mountains will be when one of our children needs help for a school paper on Alexander the Great. We root for him because his story has become a chapter in American folklore. His iconic status will not soon diminish, but after he speeds by the Arc de Triomphe one last time, we will see how many Armstrong fans return next year to the race that introduced him to us. As a country, we've gone through these spasms of interest before over sports we know and care little about. In the '80s, the country got hooked on the America's Cup after it was lost and then won back by Dennis Conner. Remember his high-seas adventures on the Stars & Stripes? No? Well, Conner was very big at the time. He represented American pride in a sport even more unfathomable to us than bike racing. We not only got over our infatuation with the America's Cup, we forgot that the race even exists. A similar future likely awaits the Tour de France once Lance hangs up his helmet. -- Excerpts from commentary by Bob Molinaro, Virginia Pilot, full story: http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=89684&ran=160362 ON THE TUBE Outdoor Life Network, which made a name for itself broadcasting the Tour de France, has acquired the rights to broadcast the 2007 America's Cup in the United States. OLN plans to broadcast qualifying regattas beginning this year, the Louis Vuitton Cup for challengers in 2007 and the America's Cup match between the Louis Vuitton winner and Alinghi of Switzerland. The next cup will be sailed in Valencia, Spain, although some of the qualifying regattas will be sailed elsewhere in Europe. OLN, in more than 63 million homes, broadcasts outdoor adventure and action sports television. The America's Cup has previously been shown in the United States on ESPN and ESPN2. OLN broadcast the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2002-03. -- AP, full story: http://sports.bostonherald.com/otherSports/view.bg?articleid=95223 NEWS BRIEFS * After circumnavigating Australia, the Capgemini and Schneider Electric trimaran Geronimo is preparing for more record attempts in the Pacific. The maxi multihull will firstly head to Papeete in Tahiti and then onto the west coast of the USA. Geronimo plans to attempt a number of records within the Asia Pacific region over the next few months. The Tahiti Nui Challenge will set a new benchmark record following the rules of the World Sailing Speed Record Council for a Sydney to Tahiti passage. -- http://www.superyachting.com/ * On Monday Nautor's Swan and the New York YC announced their partnership in a new 42-foot one-design racing yacht designed to perform well under IRC, and be comfortably cruised. The class rules will be developed by the NYYC, which will be initially responsible for administering the class, plus promoting and running class events. With strict limitations on equipment and sails, NYYC Swan 42s will race with only standard equipment as delivered. Nautor's Swan will market this Frers-designed light displacement, high performance boat to class sailors and other leading yacht clubs around the world. * Team Holmatro - the first of the new Volvo Extreme 40 teams - will be launched next Wednesday, July 27. This new mid-size multihull has been purpose-designed for grand prix racing as part of the in-port entertainment during the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 stopovers. The fleet of Volvo Extreme 40's will be fitted with Holmatro hydraulic downhaul and mainsheet systems, and with Meissner winches that have been designed specifically for these high speed race cats. Holmatro is official class supplier for hydraulics and Meissner winches. -- www.VolvoExtreme40.org * Russell Coutts has officially launched his website to provide the latest information on his sailing and yachting career. The website is in English, French, Italian and German, and contains frank and up to the moment commentary from Russell on all the races he competes in. The site will also soon provide details of new design and other projects Russell is working on. -- http://www.russellcoutts.net FROM HAWAII, TO COWES, AND SYDNEY All over the world, you will find the Camet Padded sailing shorts. The leading teams are using the combination of our Coolmax shirts and Shorts made out of a breathable, fast drying fabric with a UVA certification (97.5%) for sun protection. With our closed cell foam inserts available for a variety of different model of shorts, we have redesigned comfort giving you the ability to hike hard without losing feeling in your legs. This will allow you to go longer and not suffer from fatigue, helping you to think clearly and perform to your expectations! http://www.camet.com REGATTA NEWS * The 42nd Snipe World Championships are set to begin Tuesday, July 26 in Gamagori, Japan, kicking off the 75th Anniversary of the Snipe Class. Twelve nations are in competition for the Hub E. Isaacs trophy with current world Champion Augie Diaz defending his title. However, a Typhoon is scheduled to hit Gamagori in the next 48 hours and the fleet is grounded until further forecasts. www.snipe.org * New Yngling World Champion Sally Barkow (USA) now knows the identity of the eleven sailors who will challenge her defense of the ISAF World title in Hamilton, Bermuda from October 15-18. Malin Kallstrom (SWE) was unable to accept her invitation and number eleven in the Rankings, Paula Lewin (BER) received the one additional invite from the Bermuda Sailing Association, meaning Betsy Alison, who had fallen to number twelve in the Rankings got the last remaining invite. -- Full story: http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j1,Fh561w&format=popup * More than two-thirds of the fleet had finished the Bayview Yacht Club's 81st annual race from Port Huron to Mackinac Island by Monday's first light. Of the 267 boats that started Saturday, at least 188 had crossed the line by about 6 a.m. Monday, according to the club's Web site. The first boat in was Earth Voyager, which crossed the finish line at 12:46 p.m. Sunday. The multihull boat owned by Ray Howe of Rochester, N.Y., beat its own record by about two hours. It raced with a crew of five, including Howe's two sons. -- http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw118882_20050725.htm * It was windy and wavy first day at the 39-boat Rolex Swan American Regatta in Newport where winds gusted to over 30 knots. Although two races had been scheduled today, the New York Yacht Club race committee sent the fleet in after the eventful first race - except for the Swan 45s of Class C. The committee decided to hold a challenging second race for the nine-boat division. Spinnakers were blowing out, and as one sailor noted with a smile, "It was a good day for the sailmakers." -- Complete results: http://tinyurl.com/chpok * Forty top-ranked disabled sailors from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom will converge on Chicago this week to participate in the 14th annual U.S. Independence Cup/ North American Challenge Cup regatta (IC/NACC), a three-day US Sailing National Championship that showcases the best of disabled racing in specially outfitted 20-foot Freedom Independence boats and singlehanded 2.4mR boats. The competitors, selected through a series of local and regional qualifying regattas and by special invitation, are a diverse mixture of men and women in all age brackets, with a broad range of disabilities. -- www.ussailing.org/independence IN MEMORIAM The life of Bill Lawhorn celebrated and memorialized this past Sunday on the waters off Dana Point, Calif. Bill, who started racing with his father at age 4, touched the lives of countless sailors during his 20 Transpac Races, 50 Ensenada races, Transatlantic, Fastnet, Cowes, Kiel, Kenwood, Nassau, Manzanillo, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas, Tahiti, '64 America's Cup Trials and too many other races to recall. Transpacs were always his favorite, and he treasured the race he sailed with his brother and father, as well as winning Ensenada overall with his son. In honor of his love of Transpac Races, 20 Hawaiian Leis were flown in from Hawaii to be laid on the water with his ashes this past Sunday." WANT A PROVEN WINNER? The Vanguard Club 420 has won every major C420 Championship in North America this year. Champions Adam Roberts/ Nick Martin, Emily Dellenbaugh/ Leigh Hammel, Megan Magill/ Briana Provancha, Becca Dellenbaugh/ Leigh Hammel all use Vanguard equipment. You have a choice, Vanguard has the results. http://www.teamvanguard.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is neither a chat room nor a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. And please save your bashing, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere.) * From Cliff Bradford: I wish to supports Mr. Kelly's point regarding the Cone of Silence. The yachting press and the public are overly enamored of the giant 30m boats with canting keels etc but sufficient attention is not given to boats like the Cone that represent boats of a size that most of us can relate (and maybe aspire) to. It should be noted too that the boat is doing the Transpac with a crew of 4, which indicates that the boat is manageable and economical to operate. The owner has pointed out that the boat isn't cheap though considering that it is custom designed and made in carbon! * From Paolo Sheaffer: Golf handicapping works should be used in all informal series, in my opinion. Some folks take weekday racing too seriously. More newbies will come to our sport if it is fun, and less uptight. I will always remember a Middle Harbour Yacht Club beercan race years ago. Reverse handicap start, first finisher is docked three seconds the following week, second; two, and so on. Gary Geitz was helming this Mottle 30 (?) and we had over 25 "crew." Anyway, after an eventful race, we were finally approaching the finish line in third place, barely ahead of a Farr 1104. Geitzy calls out, "What's the trophy for third?" "Some pewter thing." "What's fourth?" "A bottle of Bundy." Somehow, our boat shot head to wind and the Farr amazingly won the pewter thing. Try it in an informal series near you (not the 'throwing the race' part.) At a minimum, it will give the whiners something else to complain about. I like the idea of an award for greatest handicap reduction Paul cited. * From Matthew L. Thomas: How do we put the fun back into sailing and get more people to show up? I hate to say this, but the offshore powerboat guys (those noisy, really fast and really expensive boats that most of us hate) have come up with a formula that works well. Have a Poker Run. You pay a fee to enter - say $1000 and get 3 cards. A distance course is set with additional cards earned at each mark. This lets the faster, bigger boats run a longer course. Elapsed time is kept and there is usually a section where a radar gun is used to check top speeds which are posted for fun. Additional cards are awarded for specific things too - most women, best fancy dress, etc.... Additional cards can be bought for $500 each. Racing stops at 18:00 and best hand wins. Prize-givings are usually held at a restaurant/ bar. Expenses are taken out of the income, the organizer takes a fee and the rest is divided up amongst the top five hands. The first one I went to, the winning hand took home $30,000! Entry was $1,000. Not bad for a fun day on the water. * From Liz Walker, Championship Manager: Entry fees for US Sailing championships are determined based on numerous factors that go into organizing a regatta: charter fees (if any), number of days, level of sponsorship, transportation needs, meal costs, clinics, etc. Regattas involving juniors can cost more than those for adults because the logistical needs are greater. While circumstances differ, in many cases, the entry fee to a championship is paid by an individual US Sailing Area once the eliminations conclude. The entry fee is in the national Notice of Race so that Areas can know the amount and the cost is generally evenly divided by the number of Regional Sailing Associations (RSA) sending teams so that the burden is shared by all the competitors. When the fees are being calculated, it isn't known how many regional areas will participate, so the host will make a reasonable estimate based on the previous year. This fee is in addition to any costs incurred for hosting the semi-final itself; in other words all of the costs normally associated with hosting a regatta. As others have mentioned, some RSA's do provide some of the entry costs for the semi-finals to defray the costs; however that is a matter determined by each individual RSA. In this instance, the US Sailing Area B semi-finals, the club that hosted the semi-final event provided boats with no charter fees, fed and housed up to 15 teenagers and other race officials and paid for the entry fee for the finals to the winning team. * From Peter T. Johns: In reply to Mike Ingham and the cost of US Sailing Junior events. My son and 2 of his friends qualified for the Semifinals of Area A Sears Cup. This event was the beginning of this week in Portland Maine. To my knowledge SM Sailing took care of all the fees and cost of entry and our only cost was to get kids to Portland from Cape Cod. Seems like a pretty good deal compared to Area B. We should all be very grateful to Vanguard for providing the boats, personnel and equipment fro the US Sailing ladder events. For full disclosure, Chip is my brother, and I have been to lots of Laser events where Vanguard and their dealers have made boats available, at nominal costs to participants. Now to the real issue, what we need to insure is that these events are well run and competed in locales close to the majority of the participants. We owe that much to our young aggressive sailors. At the debrief for the recent event in Portland, stories of errors in starting sequences as well as judgment about wind speed abound. I trust the Area A US Sailing reps are listening, we should do much better for our best young sailors. * From Tom Donahue (Response to Mike Ingham): My son is sailing Area C Bemis elimination's. Cost is $10 per sailor for food. This is a bring your own 420 event. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS Sign in an Optometrist's office: "If you don't see what you're looking for, you've come to the right place." |
