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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 813 - May 11, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome.
WORRELL 1000 - By Zack Leonard * Brian Lambert and Jamie Livingston of Alexander's on the bay held off Rod Waterhouse and Katie Pettibone of Guidant to win their fifth straight leg and build on their overall lead. Lambert and Livingston led from the start and built a 15 minute advantage, but Waterhouse and Pettibone had superior speed in lighter wind and reeled in the leaders as the breeze died at the end of the day. "In the puffs we would pull away and in the lulls they would chase us down," said a smiling Livingston. The wind never built above 10 knots and frequently dropped as low as 5 knots. The still lumpy seas were frustrating to many of the sailors. After winning the first five legs Brian Lambert and Jamie Livingston probably deserve and introduction. Lambert is an architect from the Fort Walton Beach area of the Florida Panhandle. A multiple Nacra Champion, Lambert spent some time in the Tornado and is a regular fixture in the Florida cat circuit. His local fleet is strong. Smyth, Lambert, Newkirk, Bob Curry and a bunch of other top cat sailors all live in the area and have good racing year round. Livingston is a Computer Programmer from Miami, but he's probably spent more time riding on the side of a catamaran than any one in North America over the past 20 years. He's been a member of the US sailing team in the Tornado class many times and pops up at nearly every catamaran event in Florida each year. Both sailors have completed the Worrell 4 times. The next leg is the longest of the race at 121 Miles. It will bring the fleet farther off shore than they have ranges yet. The beaches of Florida's barrier island will give way to the wetlands and deltas of the Georgia coast. It will be a long day. - Zack Leonard STANDINGS: 1. Alexander's on the Bay 2. Fully Involved, 01:56:47 (Behind Leader) 3. Dinghy Shop 02:20:40 (BL) 4. Guidant, 03:00:18 (BL) 5. Outer Banks, 03:21:55 (BL) Complete standings & more: www.worrell1000.com
AMERICA'S CUP Nine months after the official launch of the Swiss Challenge, the syndicate is christened "Alinghi", Swiss Challenge for the America's Cup. Today, it brings together 85 professionals of whom 26 are sailors and the same amount boatbuilders, all of them united and determined to bring the America's Cup to Europe. Under the experienced eye of skipper Russell Coutts and tactician Brad Butterworth, the 26 crewmembers train in Geneva; training that is as physical as it is tactical. Soon, they will be sailing in the Mediterranean, off Sète, on their training boat SUI 59 refitted by the Swiss boat yard Decision S.A. This boat, it's double keel removed, now sports a classic rudder. The concept of this Class America has brought together the skills of engineers, designers, top technicians, as well as the know-how of researchers at the EPFL (Polytechnic School of Lausanne). Convinced by the professionalism of the syndicate, 'UBS', the third largest bank in the world in business turnover, and Infonet, one of the top specialists in communication management, have joined the Alinghi Team as main partners. Three co-sponsors and many official 'suppliers' have also expressed their confidence by committing themselves to the competition with Alinghi. The 500 days that separate the Swiss Challenge from the first regatta of the Louis Vuitton Cup will be put to good use in building two boats for the competition and to the continued training of the crew. - Bernard Schopfer, www.alinghi.com
NOOD
IT'S ALL ABOUT WEIGHT The ASSA ABLOY Racing Team used a special building method that allows the hull not to be painted. The boat comes out of the mould and can be put into the water almost straight away. According to skipper Roy Heiner, not painting the hull will save some 100 kilos that can be crucial for an edge in boat speed when it really counts. "Our unique building method using a female mould allowed us to not paint the hull but it also allowed us to save weight in construction. We are ultra-light and extremely pleased with that as we believe it could give us a competitive edge." ASSA ABLOY Racing Team is building two new boats to be ultimately prepared for the Volvo Ocean Race. - Simon Keijzer, www.assaabloyracingteam.com
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Mark Reynolds: More positive, less bashing - Right on! * From Matt Ciesicki, illbruck Challenge: Your comments on negativity are well-spoken and timely. While a few of us are in this game professionally the majority (including the pros) are around the sport because we love it. * From Mark "Rudi" Rudiger , Team ASSA ABLOY: Congratulations on taking a positive stand! Now I can look forward reading the "entire" 'Butt during my morning coffee and go off to winning races with a positive attitude. * From Carrie Dair, California Yacht Club Junior Program Director: It was great to read scuttlebutt this morning. With all the bashing that's been going I have been hesitant to actually read the butt. We have an awesome sport and it is up to sailors (racers and cruisers) everywhere to maintain and develop it to it's fullest potential. Growth almost always comes from adversity, but negativity stifles that growth. Scuttlebutt provides us with lots of good information which we pass on to the Junior sailors in our program. In the past we have pulled positive features and articles from it and passed it on down the line. What kind of message would be sent if we passed on the floundering non-constructive criticism? I commend you for getting back to your roots. * From Murray B de Lues: Yahoo for you. Down here in New Zealand, I enjoy Scuttlebutt but I do echo your comments about the tone of some of the letters. As Chairman of the Centerboard division of the Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club http://www.yacht.org.nz, I know how many hours are spent by volunteers to enable yacht racing to take place. From running Learn to Sail programs to International events, I would guess to probably over 98% is done by unpaid officals. We give our time freely and would be the first to acknowledge that not everything about our sport is perfect. As it is a development sport, the only thing that is certain is change. From materials for sails, hulls deck gear, you name it. By nature most yachties are competative. This means everyone is looking for that advantage over the next guy or gal. Trying to keep up with that is an administrative nightmare. So to all you knockers out there, if as much effort was spent into trying to improve our sport in a fair way as is spent knocking it, it would be awesome to see the result of all that talent focused in a positive way. If yachting winds you up so much, go and sit in a traffic jam, don't read Scuttlebutt on you laptop and you won't be annoying those of us who enjoy our sailing and this newsletter. Positive attitudes lead to positive actions. * From Jonathan Goddard: John Kolius once told me, when a bunch of negative chatter was bringing me down, he said, "the 95% of the people that you don't hear from are generally happy". So true. * From John Schalka: I was thinking the same thing about the negative tone in the letters. I have been sailing/racing for about 40 years and have managed to avoid or at least not have an opinion about US Sailing, rating systems, or nationalism in the America's Cup. I did have a great sailing expirence over the winter that I want to share. I have been teaching my young son to sail an Optimist. We had a mild winter here in Seattle so we were able to do quite a bit of sailing early in the year. Since the other juniors were involved in their other winter activities and coaching/ teaching was not available I worked out my own program. First, I tried sailing another Optimist, which does not work if you are big and old. I moved on and discovered that by placing one of the Motorola radios inside his life jacket I could talk to him in a normal voice as he was sailing. The effect is like having a radio-controlled sailboat. As long as you can see him you can just say left or right, move forward, watch out, etc. and he can hear and learn. You have to remember to not say too much or talk about homework or he will turn it off, but it has been a lot of fun and I see it as a big step up from yelling over the noise of the outboard. * From Dan Hirsch: I want to complain about all the complaining on the 'Butt. Even the Curmudgeon is complaining, now! Your complaint about the increasing negativity in recent e-mails will end once two things happen. First, everything about our beloved sport has to be made perfect, immediately. Second, once everything is perfect, nothing affecting our sport can change. Once these things are in place, the 'Butt should settle down to a constant thrum of happy chatter. There is another option: get those stupid, whiny humans out of the program! It is human nature, unchanged over the milennia, to look at what is and decide how it ought to be. Before we change things, we talk about what is wrong with them. Then some start talking about how things ought to be; and sometimes, someone actually changes some things. Then the process begins anew. It's not pretty, but it is us. Oh, well... Remember Curm', it is bitchin' that got us out of caves and into central air... (What is a curmudgeon, anyhow?) Respectfully encouraging you in your very valuable contribution to the difficult and aggravating process of improving our sport. * From Graham Kelly: There seems to be some confusion about the underlying justification for the nationality rules for the America's Cup. As I recall, the nationality rules for the America's Cup were adopted after Andy Rose sailed as tactician with the Austalians in either the 1977 or the 1980 America's Cup. At the time, the suspicion was that the NYYC adopted this rule in order to limit a perceived advantage by prohibiting challengers from access to American sailors. Although I believe that there may have been official "concern" about nationality, my recollection is that the persuading concern was the issue of competitive advantage. In the preceeding generation (from the 1880 to the 1930's), this purpose was served by the rule that challengers were required to be sailed to America for the races on their own bottoms, which meant that the challenging yachts were more heavily built than the non-oceangoing defenders. By the 1950's and 60's, that rule had been abandoned, replaced by the "national origin" rules which limited challengers to domestic hardware and sailcloth in a time when American products were far superior. I don't recall anyone at the time attributing these rules to a "Corinthian spirit." * From Johnny Greenwood (edited to our 250-word limit): I have no problem with the world's top sailors sailing for other countries. If nothing else it increases the level of the regatta by making sure that all the best sailors are present. An example of this is Russell Coutts and his match racing crew. The next event will certainly be better off having them out on the water competing for the Swiss rather than sitting in the wings watching Dean Barker sail. If you want to represent your country, go to the Olympics. If you want to sail in the world's premier professional sailing event, then get there however you can. There is little doubt that money was a major factor in Coutts and his buddies move but let's not forget these guys are competitors who have always looked for new and tougher challenges. The same can be said for the likes of Davis and Cutler. The IACC class has been around long enough now that the next breed of boats should be very close in performance. That should put more emphasis on sailing skill and teamwork and as a result I predict we are in for the best racing and event that the Cup has seen. As a Kiwi I hope that TNZ can again successfully defend. But if there is a team of sailors out there, regardless of where they were born, that can outsail them and take it away then that will really be something to see ... and my hat will be off to them. * From Jason Hayman, Auckland, New Zealand (Re Rich Roberts America's Cup story -edited to our 250-word limit): The subject of the nationality of America's Cup sailors is an issue which extends far beyond the America's Cup itself to very roots of how sailing is perceived by the general public and the promotion of the sport in general. The people responsible for organizing sailing events of this caliber need to take in account the welfare of the sport as a whole. They could well take a lesson from the reorganization of the New Zealand Rugby Union when they decided to take Rugby Union professional to stop the player drain from the country. The key to their success has been their ability to create separate brand images and promote the sport to a wide cross-section of the population without sacrificing national pride. I think that if the America's Cup becomes anything but a competition between nations, it would become just another yacht race and you would lose the interest and support of the general public and with it the sponsorship dollars. I think that there should be one team per nation that is linked to the national body of that country. Another thing they might want to think about is trickle down, some of the money generated by things like the sale of TV rights should trickle down to develop the sport on a national level. This might help yachting to become more of a sport for the masses instead of a game for the wealthy few. Think about your future boys and girls, not just the next race! * From Mark Playsted: In reference to the Dredging Issues that have been brought up, Last Weekend's Vallejo Race is a classic example. A great many boats, at least a hundred, participated in this annual race from San Francisco Bay to Vallejo, and on the approach into Vallejo itself a number of boats grounded, including one of our competitors, which allowed us to beat them. Even more problematic was the issue of getting into the Yacht Club and Marina docks. We watched boat after boat ground on the entrance, and inflatables were running back and forth pulling boats into the harbors. Pretty amusing for us, as we were one of the first boats in, and got to watch the melee', but pretty frustrating for those who got stuck. I was told that the reason for the problems was lack of dredging. While the Navy was at Mare Island the channel was continually dredged, but now that the Navy have gone no dredging is going on and the channel and marinas are getting steadily more silted up. * From Sandy Martin, Commodore Transpacific YC: I would like to say thank you to Mike Van Dyke and Mark Dolan for their insite into the position Transpac has taken regarding the requirement for 4 celestial sights to be taken during the race. Yes, there is a safety issue of depending entirely on electronic measures to get you across oceans, but that is the small part of the issue. Transpac supports the concept that your navigator should be a real navigator, not just someone with a computer gadget with an "on" button. Back-up is not an issue as I am sure there will be 4 or 5 GPS's on every boat as they seem to come with every sea bag. Transpac, however, would like to encourage the continuing art of the real navigator and his contributions to the sport of open ocean racing and particularly the Transpac Race. A very few noon sights, sun lines, or star sights surely won't slow down any boat and a competent, well seasoned navigator might even help a bit... and yes, there is also that very bad word "tradition". * From Tom Wheatley: I'm sure a lot of East Coast sailors can remember when only celestial navigation was allowed for the Newport to Bermuda Race. I think it's a great tradition.
REFINANCE YOUR BOAT LOAN
BRRRRRRR The team of adventurers will embark on a two-week journey, titled "80 Degrees North Under Sail," battling extreme weather, Arctic wind and ice, and traveling to an area in the world that is so remote, few sailboats ever attempt to visit it. "The crew will have to take precautions to minimize health risks that include everything from frost bite and hypothermia to seasickness," said Dr. Kenneth Dardick, a travel health expert. From Troms¿, Oystercatcher XXIV will sail 800 miles north on the treacherous Barents Sea to Spitsbergen, the largest island of the glacial Svalbard Archipelago, which is protected by the Norwegian government. It lies north of Finland and east of the most northerly part of Greenland. On each day of the journey Jobson will post his daily log - complete with photos - on www.jobsonsailing.com. Information about Arctic weather health hazards will be posted on www.transdermscop.com. While exploring the vast northern locale, the crew plans to hike, climb and ski the region's glaciers, explore the local history and kayak the pristine Arctic waters. - Dana Paxton
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