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SCUTTLEBUTT 3012 - Thursday January 21, 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. Scuttlebutt on Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Scuttlebutt on Facebook: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/facebook Today's sponsors are JK3 Nautical Enterprises and Ullman Sails. KEY WEST CONTENDERS EMERGE ON DAY THREE Key West, Fla., (January 20, 2010) - With six races completed and four more to be contested at Key West 2010, presented by Nautica, the big picture is taking shape. In the 19-boat Farr 40 class, Barking Mad tactician Terry Hutchinson had a frustrating day, as Barking Mad had the lead midway through Race 5 and wound up finishing seventh. Skipper Jim Richardson (Newport, R.I.) and team are tied with the German entry Struntje Light (Wolfgang Schaefer) on points, just two out of third and 10 behind the leader. Joe Fly increased their lead in the class to five points over fellow Italian entry Nerone (Massimo Mezzaroma) on the strength of a 5-2 line on Wednesday. "Joe Fly is sailing very well so they certainly look like the boat to beat, but there are still plenty of points on the table and things could change quite a bit between now and Friday afternoon," Hutchinson said. "We just have to keep chipping away and hope we get some better karma." Bella Mente, the Reichel-Pugh 69 owned by Hap Fauth of Newport, R.I., stretched its winning streak to five with a bullet in the opening race on Wednesday and holds a commanding eight-point lead in IRC 1. "I'm very pleased. We have won every start except one and the crew has been just superb in its execution," Fauth said. John Kilroy steered Samba Pa Ti to victory in the second start on Wednesday, to extend his lead in the 22-strong Melges 32 class. Completion of six races allowed each boat to drop its worst result and Samba Pa Ti tossed a 14th suffered in Race 1. -- Full story: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=8968#8968 Results: http://www.premiere-racing.com/KW10_Results/kw10_results_reports.htm Key West Event Website: http://www.premiere-racing.com/ * SEAHORSE DISCOUNT: As a special offer to Scuttlebutt readers and participants at Key West Race Week, SEAHORSE Magazine is offering a substantial discount rate for 1, 2, 3 and 5-year subscriptions. New subscribers can save up to 40% off the cover price and 30% off the standard rates for monthly airmail delivery of the world's premier publication on international performance sailing. Details here: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=8947 MAGIC IN MOTION Jeremy Reynolds is a relative newcomer to the J/80 class. The Maryland resident purchased one of the popular sport boats less than a year ago and thus far has only competed in regattas around Annapolis. Reynolds readily admits his crew is still learning the boat and the results reflect that, but that has not stopped them from taking the plunge and entering one of the most competitive events in North America.Key West 2010. Reynolds and the rest of the Magic in Motion team (Keegan Mills, Andy Coyne and Mitch Bennett) hopped in a truck on Friday and towed the J/80 to southernmost point of Florida for Key West 2010. Some of the top J/80 teams in the United States are part of a 19-boat fleet and the regatta rookies are excited to see how the game is played at that level. "We are doing this for the experience. We are not concerned with the final result or worried about placing," Reynolds said. "We just want to soak in the atmosphere and learn as much as we can." The Magic in Motion team learned a lot this past season while competing on the Chesapeake Bay circuit. Brian and Kristen Robinson, Annapolis residents and owners of Angry Chameleon, were among many class veterans who helped Reynolds and crew develop. "There is definitely a learning curve with this boat. The asymmetrical spinnaker is not real forgiving and there are things as far as rig tune and trimming that you can do to improve your speed," Reynolds said. "What's great about the J/80 fleet, especially in the Chesapeake Bay area, is that everyone is so supportive, so open to sharing information." -- Read on in the Thursday issue Race Week News: http://www.premiere-racing.com/KW10_Results/kw10_race_week_news.htm * Look for Scuttlebutt's Key West 2010 micro-site to be the information portal, providing live blogging, daily T2P video, live tracking, weather updates, commentary, and candid interviews. Three video segments from Wednesday include interviews from event manager US Sailing Championship of Champions winner Skip Dieball, sailing gear fashion show by Team One Newport's Martha Parker, and a look at the famous Key West 2010 event tent - during the day AND the night, plus behind the scenes tours of the near-live race course updates and scoring system. View it all here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/10/kw/ 2010 ROLEX MIAMI OCR JANUARY 24-30 Portsmouth, R.I. (January 20, 2010) - US SAILING's 2010 Rolex Miami OCR, six days of racing, begins on Monday. It's the second of seven stops of the 2009-2010 International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Sailing World Cup, and this year's first showcase for the major talents looking to represent their countries at the 2012 Olympic/Paralympic Games in Weymouth, England. This event annually draws elite sailors from around the world, and this year is no different. Approximately 640 registered sailors from 44 nations are ready to battle for medals on Miami's Biscayne Bay. "Our athletes on the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) have spent a lot of hours training and competing over the winter leading up to this event, and I know their hard work will pay off," said High Performance Director Kenneth Andreasen (Tampa, Fla.). "We'll see some tough competition across the fleets, so this will be a good test to see where our athletes stand, and assess where they need to improve in order to win medals at the 2012 Games." The Rolex Miami OCR is not only an elite international competition but also an especially important regatta for American sailors hoping to qualify for the 2010 US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics, which annually distinguishes the top sailors in each Olympic and Paralympic class. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/yjyez9w JK3 NAUTICAL ENTERPRISES AT THE SAN DIEGO BOAT SHOW What better way to launch the 2010 boating season than by attending the San Diego Sunroad Boat Show January 28-31. Check out our display to catch up on the latest offerings from J Boats, including the multi-award winning J/95 and J/97 as well as pricing and specs for the highly anticipated J/111. If "Fast is Fun" is your motto, take this opportunity to climb aboard the all carbon Santa Cruz 37. If you prefer power, we invite you to step aboard the Back Cove 29 and 37 for a taste of classic styling with a modern twist. For more show information, call our office in 619-224-6200) or Newport Beach (949-675-8053), or visit online at http://www.jk3yachts.com PERCY & SIMPSON MAINTAIN STRONGHOLD IN RIO Rio de Janeiro, (January 20, 2010) - Americans Rick Merriman and Phil Trinter snatched the lead from Lars Grael and Ronal Seifert (BRA) on the first run of Race 5 of the 2010 Star World Championship in Rio de Janeiro and followed up Tuesday's second place finish with a bullet. "We're smoking downwind, and still average upwind" said Merriman. In 17th place overall, the pair watched Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson jibe off inside them during the initial part of the first run and loose boats. "That was the signal to continue on without jibing," said Trinter. Percy/Simpson have to wait another day to see if they will bag the 2010 Star World Championship title. The Brits had climbed into fifth place by the second weather mark and saw Flavio Marazzi and Enrico De Maria round in ninth place. To win the World Championship title today, their job was to try to pass more boats than the Swiss, which is not an easy feat when Lars Grael and Ronald Seifert (BRA), Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira (BRA) and Juan Kouyoumdjian and Alejandro Colla (ARG) are your only options, because the Americans were far in the lead. Delighted with the day, Percy said, "I haven't thought about tomorrow's strategy. We hold all of the cards and will decide how to approach it. If the breeze is up, we'll probably yacht around and try to win the race." It's up to Marazzi/DeMaria to win or take second and be eight points ahead of the 2002 Star World Champion and his partner in winning the 2008 Olympic Gold Medal. The Star World Championship brings together 81 teams, representing 20 countries, with racing in Rio de Janeiro on January 16-22, outside of Guanabara Bay. Event website: http://www.starworlds2010.com Preliminary Results (after five races, discarding worst result) - Top 10 of 73 1. GBR, Iain Percy/Andrew Simpson, 9 2. SUI, Marazzi/De Maria, 17 3. BRA, Alan Adler/Guilherme de Almeida, 31 4. GER, Babendererde/Jacobs, 32 5. BRA, Scheidt/Prada, 32 6. BRA, Grael/Ferreira, 36 7. BRA, Grael/Seifert, 39 8. NOR, Melleby/Pedersen, 39 9. ARG, Kouyoumdjian/Colla, 41 10. ITA, Negri/Colaninno, 42 Results: http://www.starclass.org/search.cgi?Action=view&Event_id=1845 QUOTE / UNQUOTE "Whilst BMW Oracle are sailing in an evolution of the French trimaran Groupama, whilst they are also using a German motor. Therefore it is quite incredible that they say that our boat does not comply with the Deed of Gift. But if Larry Ellison wins the America's Cup, I will take him some champagne and we'll share it." - Ernesto Bertarelli, owner of Alinghi, quoted in an interview to a Spanish press agency in which he defended the fact that his sails were made in Switzerland. CURVED LIFTING HYDROFOILS DO BOTH If you have seen photos of the America's Cup multihulls, or any of the modern, ocean crossing, record setting multihulls, then you have seen the trend toward curved daggerboards. The Morrelli & Melvin Design & Engineering team has been participating in BMW Oracle's America's Cup developments, and in this report has tried to simplify the principals for those of you who have a phobia for math, physics and applied sciences. This excerpt is enough to make you dangerous: -------------------------------------------------------------------- Both the BMW ORACLE trimaran and Alinghi catamaran use curved daggerboards (hydrofoils) to provide necessary lateral lift/resistance and they also lift the leeward hull up. The same board is used to reduce sliding to leeward or leeway and also provide vertical lift. The current variations that are being experimented with by both teams, tradeoff more vertical lift for less lateral lift or vice versa. Upwind these boats still need a fair amount of lateral lift/resistance to prevent excess leeway due to their enormous sail plans and the fact that they essentially are always going upwind. These boats sail at apparent wind angles downwind that are only about 10 degrees more than upwind! Downwind, the sails are never really eased and the apparent wind never goes very far aft. the wind is always in your face on these boats. The apparent wind is so far forward on these boats that you always feel as if you are going upwind. -- Complete report: http://morrellimelvin.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/getting-up-to-speed-on-foils/ PROS & AMATEURS IN SAILING by Don Finkle, RCR Yachts ISAF has developed a Sailor Classification Code that ranks sailors as either amateur or professional. Until now there were three categories: 1 for Amateur, 3 for Professional, and 2 for someone who fell in between. As of April 1 there will no longer be a Category 2, only 1 and 3. ISAF says that if a sailor classification is to be used, you must use theirs. Seems rather undemocratic to me. I never liked this system before, and I like it even less now. Last night I waded through all 27 pages of FAQ's intended to explain the new system, to the point that I ended up with an Excedrin headache. Someone can easily go from a 1 to a 3 overnight, depending on what you do and how you do it. It is widely known that the ISAF system has been abused and sailors were falsely categorized. This is one problem, because people cheat when they describe their activities. Sad but true. Another problem has been the gray area between true amateurs and full-on pros. There are many people who are in the industry in some capacity because they love sailing, but are not really professionals. They might work in a boatyard for example. These folks were formerly Cat 2's. With that classification now gone there are many "normal" people who will become Cat 3's and therefore treated the same as Paul Cayard, Kenny Read, Chris Dickson and so forth. I don't know about you, but I think that is nuts. Why does this matter? Some classes have limitations on pros so the owners do not become dominated by someone else with a bigger wallet. The accepted way to do that was to use the ISAF Code and limit the number of 3's and 2's aboard. This is fine. Now that there are no longer any 2's, these classes will be faced with an unpleasant choice. If they increase the number of 3's then it raises the bar beyond what many owners will want, both from a cost and competition standpoint. If they don't raise the number of 3's, then they will have to jettison some of their crew who formerly fell into the 2 Category but now are 3's. Where are those newly-minted 3's (who are not really hotshots at all) going to find a ride in the same class they were used to sailing in? -- Scuttlebutt Forum, read on and post comments here: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=8963 * ISAF Code: http://www.sailing.org/classification/index.php NOT JUST RACING When it comes to cruising, Ullman Sails understands that one size doesn't fit all. Rather than offering a stock line of cruising sails, we build custom sails that match a customer's budget, cruising style and boat specifications. Our experienced sailmakers located worldwide can answer questions about cloth selection, UV cover protection, furling systems, and inventory options. We also offer the latest technology in cruising, including Custom Axis Laminate, Hydranet and FiberPath options. Be confident that you have invested in sails that are built for durability and long term performance. Ullman Sails - Invest in your performance. Visit us at http://www.ullmansails.com SAILING SHORTS * The 21st Annual Women's Sailing Convention starts Saturday, February 6, at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club in Corona del Mar, CA. Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) is the primary sponsor, and the event is presented by the Southern California Yachting Association (SCYA). The event is open to all women from novices to experts and the 2010 program is packed with 28 workshops to choose from, both on and off the water. -- Read on: http://wsscya.scyaweb.org/ * The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) has published the qualification system for the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships, the principal qualification event for the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition. The Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships take place in Perth, Western Australia from 3-18 December 2011. Perth 2011 will be the principal qualification regatta for the sailing events of the London 2012 Olympic Games. With 1,300 sailors representing 70+ nations to Fremantle Harbour in December 2011, Perth 2011 will be ISAF Sailing World Championships the largest single-event ever held for the Olympic sailing events. -- Full story: http://www.sailing.org/31384.php * After a solid third day on the water Erick Storck and Trevor Moore moved up the standings to fourth overall and top North American boat in the North American 49er Championships, hosted by the Miami Yacht Club last weekend, to take the title. -- Read about their experience on their blog: http://tinyurl.com/yfh53mv * The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) has published the 2010 Supplement to The Case Book for 2009-2012, which contains interpretations of The Racing Rules of Sailing. The new supplement includes one new case, Case 113 which interprets rule 20.1, Room to Tack at an Obstruction: Hailing and Responding. This case was approved for publication at the ISAF Annual Conference in November 2009. -- Read on: http://www.sailing.org/news/31380.php CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Is your event listed on the Scuttlebutt Event Calendar? This free, self-serve tool is the easiest way to communicate to both sailors and sailing media. These are some of the events listed on the calendar for this weekend: Jan 21-26 - Audi Victoria Week - Geelong, Victoria, Australia Jan 21-24 - St.Maarten Classic Yacht Regatta - Philipsburg, St.Maarten, N.A. Jan 24-30 - US SAILING's Rolex Miami OCR - Coconut Grove, FL, USA View all the events at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar LETTERS AND FORUM Please email your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, 'The Curmudgeon'). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). 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 Terry Harper (re, letter Scuttlebutt 3010) Is a wing a "sail"? There is more than mere precedent from the 1988 America's Cup. Not only did Stars & Stripes defend with a wing, there was actually a protest by New Zealand that the wing was not a sail. The protest was decided prior to the match by an international jury, who ruled that a wing met the definition of a sail. * From Nelson Willis (re, letter in Scuttlebutt 3007): I take exception to Mike Sharpe's derogatory characterization of Marina Del Rey, CA as "Capital of the Land of Fruit & Nuts"! I sail out of Marina Del Rey and find it as respectable a sailing location as any other (yes, more wind would be nice). The much respected late Roy Disney a "serious offshore" sailor often sailed out of Marina Del Rey. His comments calling "tree huggers" "insane" and grouping them with "child abusers" is also wrong minded. Where would sailing or the world be without the trees to make the oxygen that fills our sails? For that matter, who is he to "guarantee that he speaks for the vast majority of your readers" and knows what we want to read? Can he read minds? Is he against freedom of the press also? Such narrow minded generalizations only diminish the rest of his comments and lead one to think that he himself is a "Fruit & Nut". CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Time heals almost everything. Give time, time. Special thanks to JK3 Nautical Enterprises and Ullman Sails. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
