|
SCUTTLEBUTT 1818 - April 15, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere. SEA OF CHANGE (The following excerpt is provided by columnist Doug Krikorian of the Press-Telegram, a Long Beach, CA newspaper covering the Congressional Cup.) It is a most unlikely setting for a historic ethnic breakthrough, one that figures to have a revolutionary impact on international sailing competitions. I mean, one doesn't think of the Congressional Cup as an event that would play a vital role in a sociological milestone, because it's always been just a nice little regatta cordially hosted by the Long Beach Yacht Club without too much fanfare, without any controversy, without even the faintest hint of ever being involved in a revolutionary racial development. But that is the case this week as, for the first time ever, a sailing team from South Africa has a black among its crew members for a major race in a sign of progress in a country still struggling to recover from the evils of apartheid institutionalized segregation that finally came to a blessed end more than 10 years ago. Twenty-five-year-old Ashton Sampson might never be mentioned in the same sentence with Martin Luther King, Jackie Robinson or Rosa Parks, but he, nevertheless, still is a pioneer in a country where the racial divide still is wide, especially on the sporting landscape where the national cricket team is all white and the soccer team is all black. He understands that he is considered an oddity in South Africa, a black man who enjoys sailing more than, well, playing soccer. He understands that, if he does well and the team does well in the America's Cup in Valencia, Spain, in 2007, that he can become a huge role model for a lot of young black kids who might be inspired to give sailing a try as he did one afternoon on a lake in his native Cape Town when he was a mere 16. Said Ian Ainslie, a tactician for the South African team, "You must understand no more than two percent of our population ever heard of the America's Cup. Now they see this huge yacht in South African colors, and they see this multiracial team sailing it. I think that's a good sign." - Doug Krikorian, Press-Telegram, full story, http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204~23173~2814817,00.html CONGRESSIONAL CUP Long Beach, CA - It felt like it was coming together for Dean Barker Thursday - not just the 41st Congressional Cup, presented by Acura, but the America's Cup in Valencia in 2007. Barker, skipper for Emirates Team New Zealand, won all five of his races, including a final light-air runaway against Chris Dickson that allowed him to leapfrog the CEO and skipper for one of his fellow AC challengers - BMW Oracle Racing - two years hence. Barker is 11-3 after 14 of 18 matches in the double round robin, followed now by Dickson, who is 10-3 but has one makeup race in hand against Russell Coutts, who is third at 9-4. That race, postponed a day earlier when Dickson's traveler car broke, will be sailed Friday or Saturday before the semifinal sailoffs. However it turns out, the teams with America's Cup intentions should be the better for the experience. It's different from sailing in the big one but a good training ground because of the smaller boats, shorter courses and shorter races. Barker and Dickson are good bets to reach the semifinals, but the other two positions are up for grabs among Coutts, France's Mathieu Richard (9-5) and England's Chris Law and Finland's Staffan Lindberg, each 8-6. - Rich Roberts, full story, http://www.lbyc.org/ Standings (after 14 of 18 rounds): 1. Barker, 11-3; 2. C. Dickson, 10-3*; 3. Coutts*, 9-4; 4. Richard, 9-5; 5. tie between Lindberg and Law, 8-6; 7. Nordbjerg, 6-8; 8. Presti, 4-10; 9. S. Dickson, 3-11; 10. Larson, 1-13. Race video provided by t2p.tv: http://www.t2p.tv/guide/concup05.php DOING THE RIGHT THING (The following excerpt is taken from an article by Sailing World magazine's sportsmanship counselor Sporty - aka JJ Isler - plus comments from readers and guests.) It's heartening to know that so many sailors share the desire to do the right thing while racing. Snipe sailor Vincent Casalaina wrote: "There are several instances from my past sailing that I always look back on with dismay, times when I clearly did not do the right thing in the heat of the moment. Those times make me more aware of how I want our sport to stress sportsmanship in all its forms much more than it does now." I wholeheartedly agree-I wish I could take back the times that I've screwed up. And I'm sure the sailors who I treated unfairly are rolling their eyes that my name is associated with an article on sportsmanship! But that's where Sporty comes in-and when Sporty needs a second opinion, he can ask respected sailors for their input. Question: Is it OK for your friends to help by covering or tacking on a competitor on the last day of a regatta if you didn't ask for help? Sporty says: Obviously we can't be held accountable for the actions of others, yet this gets back to the fundamentals of sportsmanship. We want to win the race fair and square with our competitors sailing at their best and we want the respect of our competitors. If the only reason that you won was because your friend sailed your closest competitor into last place, then you haven't met many of the criteria listed above. Sporty asked top sailor and well-known good sport Morgan Larson to give his input on this one. "Your friend is breaching the rules by voluntarily helping you," says Larson. "This happened to me at the Youth Nationals when my friend let me pass him on the last beat because he wasn't 'in the hunt' and I was. I didn't ask him and he didn't know this was illegal, but the judges protested us both and after the hearing they disqualified my friend from the race." Curmudgeon's Comment: Additional questions include de-tuning boats during round-robin events, helping teammates qualify for the Olympics, sharing tuning information, and repaying favors on the racecourse. Full article at http://www.sailingworld.com/article.jsp?ID=36564&typeID=402&catID=596 THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE NUMBERS What makes Ockam data better? Almost 30 years of research as well as utilizing a scientific approach to solve the issue of instrument accuracy. Ockam allows for the calibration of sensor inputs to ensure more reliable and accurate data into the CPU while also providing a simple way to refine your numbers using the Matryx display. This combined with up to 8 times per second processing by our proven Pentium-powered Tryad CPU means your race winning decisions will be more reliable than ever. Break away from the middle of the pack by contacting Ockam: mailto:lat@ockam.com SHORT MEMORY Knut Frostad, a former Norwegian Olympic sailor, has a short memory. This is why he is preparing for his fourth round the world race. He will step onboard Brasil 1 as a watch leader during the Southern Ocean legs of the event, which starts from Galicia this November. "Only short memory can explain why I'm back," Frostad laughed. "But, seriously, these legs are the best part of the race. Arriving in Rio de Janeiro, looking back and seeing what you've survived," the sailor said. The Volvo fleet is scheduled to arrive in Rio around March 13th, after 23 days at sea. There are two true stages of the Volvo Ocean Race, which take the fleet far into the Southern Ocean. The first starts from Cape Town, South Africa, and finishes in Melbourne, Australia, and the second start in New Zealand's capital Wellington and finishes in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. "To have an idea of how difficult theses legs are I compare them with driving an articulated bus moving 100 km per hour," said Brazilian skipper Torben Grael. - Volvo Ocean Race website, full story, http://www.volvooceanrace.com/pages/news/news134.htm SCUTTLEBUTT CONTEST The "Where is Waldo?" contest barely got out of the blocks before we had to halt the action. Some folks either don't sleep, or they don't sleep until they read their Scuttlebutt. The idea was to find Alinghi team member Ed Baird in a recently released team photo. We thought he was a bit hidden, but within the first hour our top three winners found him. Contest winners were Matthew Gregory (Ann Arbor, MI, USA), Lisa Ross (Toronto, ONT, CAN), and Mathew Brown (Auckland, New Zealand), who earned themselves snazzy Scuttlebutt Sailing Club caps. - http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/contest/waldo ERNESTO BERTARELLI It's hard not to be impressed by the extent of professionalism surrounding America's Cup defenders, Team Alinghi. And one only has to see the extent of how organised the team is to understand why pure talent on the water wasn't the only Cup-winning factor in 2002/3. Ernesto Bertarelli, the owner, president of Alinghi, succeeded in creating one of the world's best sailing teams and the result on the water was a clear reflection of the extremely well-organised, professional way in which things were run on shore. With a Cup-winning formula in place from last year it's not surprising therefore that Team Alinghi are the first Cup syndicate to have relocated to Valencia and, with two years to go, are well on the way to repeating their performance as favourites to win the Cup in 2007. Interestingly Bertarelli finds himself in a fairly rare situation where an owner succeeds in becoming closely involved with not only the running of the team but with the sailing. As a talented sailor in his own right - navigator aboard Alinghi - Bertarelli says although it was a dream to be part of the sailing team what he needed to do was to understand how the team worked on the water. Chatting to yachtingworld.com, Bertarelli said: "I did not have an understanding of what it took and how hard it was, so I trained with them [the crew]. I was then able to get to a level where I could contribute to the team as a sailor. Being in the heart of the team gave me the ability to understand issues and not be remote. This is more relevant than people think because to win the America's Cup you need to be aware of the team to allow them to take their own responsibilities and be able to contribute without impediments or prejudices." - Sue Pelling/ Yachting World, full story, http://www.ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/20050314174046ywamericascup07.html GLOBAL CHALLENGE Following the outcome of a protest hearing for Leg 4 in the Global Challenge the overall learderboard table has changed. Pindar was protested by the Global Challenge Race Committee "for a breach of RRS [Racing Rules for Sailing] 42.1 following notification, under General Sailing Instruction 20, of the use of their engine in reverse gear at 1530 (local time) on the 27th March 2005." Pindar had engaged their engine for 1 3 minutes, to remove some kelp, which was stuck on the rudder. Nominated Global Challenge Race Committee representative, Matthew Ratsey explained: "The jury met for about an hour, considered the various facts and awarded a 40-minute penalty on time, based on a judgment about how long the manoeuvre would have taken had they not started their engine … They accepted (skipper) Loz's statement that it was an error of judgment and wasn't deliberate." Before the hearing, Pindar was provisionally in joint 9th with VAIO on 32 points, but will now slip to 10th on 31 points. SAIC La Jolla had provisionally been in joint 4th with Samsung, but with their extra point, their tally will rise to 42 and they will take sole claim on 4th, relegating Samsung to 5th. The next leg will begin May 1st, leaving Cape Town, heading northwest across the Equator and up the southerly portion of the Gulf Stream, along the east coast of the USA, and on to Boston. - http://www.globalchallenge2004.com/en Leaderboard after 4 legs 1. BP Explorer, 50 points 2. Spirit of Sark, 48 3. BG SPIRIT, 46 4. SAIC La Jolla, 42 5. Samsung, 41 6. Barclays Adventurer, 38 7. Me To You, 36 8. Team Stelmar, 33 9. VAIO, 32 10. Pindar, 31 11. Imagine It. Done., 26 12. Team Save the Children, 24 NEWS BRIEFS * The first biennial Classic Yacht Symposium, sponsored by the Herreshoff Marine Museum and the New England Section of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers attracted 155 attendees from across the continental U.S. and Canada. It featured discussions, papers and presentations by a number of well-known names in the field. The event hosted students and faculty from the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle, the Landing School in Kennebunkport, Newport's IYRS, plus the Webb Institute, and produced a 240-page Proceedings containing twelve papers plus background papers for the two discussion panels. - http://www.herreshoff.org/ * Website Programming - T2P met with Olympic Gold medalist Kevin Burnham in Key West this year for a look at his 30-year Olympic quest. He went on to win Boat of the Week in Key West and was recently crowned a Rolex Yachtsman of the Year! That interview in now on-line: http://www.t2p.tv/ NEED COACH BOATS, SUPPORT BOATS, OR MARK BOATS? Ribcraft, the leading builder of safety, coach, and mark boats to yacht clubs and sailing programs has long recognized clubs' needs for high quality, commercially built support boats that are not just durable and safe, but economically sensitive. First to offer a special buy direct program specifically for sailing programs, Ribcraft enables clubs to save money while at the same time purchasing a boat built around the club's specific needs. Ribcraft RIBs are ideally suited for the wear and tear of junior sailing programs and race committees. Find out for yourself what the leading yacht clubs already know: http://www.ribcraftusa.com CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar 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 not 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.) * From Oscar Gallo: We went to the Congressional Cup this (Wednesday) afternoon. What a buzz seeing these top dogs duking it out... and being able to watch the whole thing from the Belmont Pier in Long Beach. * From Ben Cesare: I am stunned by the stubborn (read: "dense") nature of the readership. Lowell North, Peter Barrett, Dave Perry, Peter Isler...what more do you folks want! Buttheads are giving liberal arts a bad name here! I can just hear my engineer friends...,"you guys never studied." One defense I will provide for the illusioned ones is when sailing upwind against the current, the effects of pinching appear to have increased effect because you have more time to witness it relative to your competition and visual references such as shore and the stationary marks! One great place to see this is at SUNY Maritime in an easterly on a flooding tide (NE to SE flowing). I knew many All American sailors and coaches convinced of lee bow effect. The reality, as these same people knew, is that the harder you trim the main in a collegiate FJ, the higher you can stick it with sometimes "unbelievable" net vmg gain. When you saw the effects in the "slow motion" of going against the current, you were incented to pull even harder. This resulted in "Wow.... check out that lee bow effect!" (Don't worry Brad, I'm not going to name names) Situations like that so convincingly trick one's senses that people become....well....dense! END THIS THREAD or provide a scholarship for buttheads to take evening physics classes. * From Bob Merrick: Please stop printing letters that attempt to prove the so-called lee bow effect. The concept is false in all cases. Physics is not a mater of opinion (at least not on this level). American schools are having a hard enough time teaching math and science without us spreading false information. * From Dave Perry: I am glad people have enjoyed thinking about and debating the effect current has on how we sail and race our boats. The excerpt in Scuttlebutt was from Chapter 29 in my book "Winning in One Designs" (published by US Sailing), which ends with a mathematical proof, both numerical and geometric, that there is no "lee bow" effect. It was put together by two great minds: Stan Honey, one of the world's premier navigators, including numerous wins in the Transpac, Bermuda and Chicago Mackinac races, the Admiral's Cup, and onboard Steve Fossett's Playstation; and David Dellenbaugh, one of the premier racers and teachers in our sport, having won the America's Cup, Congressional Cup and Lightning Worlds, and who writes and publishes "Speed & Smarts." I commend the proof to all who are interested or remain doubtful. * From Bruce Thompson: Boy do you have a lot of readers who cannot think in 3-D! Paul Henderson, put sails on your Popsicle sticks! You're a former President of ISAF! OK, who can explain this? We all "know" that the lift of a sail or airplane wing is caused by the Bernoulli Effect - air flowing over the curved surface travels further than that flowing over the straight side causing an exchange of static pressure into dynamic pressure (thereby conserving total energy - Einstein was right!). So the static pressure on the flat side of an airplane wing is at a higher static pressure that the curved upper surface and this lift keeps the plane aloft. So how come during the annual Chicago Air and Water Show the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds can fly upside down without crashing into Lake Michigan? Boy, I hope spring arrives soon! * From Andrew Bray, editor, Yachting World: I'm sure the lee bow debate will continue as long as the Curmudgeon will permit it - and probably longer in clubs and bars. So when interest wanes here's another teaser that kept the readers of Yachting World engaged for many months. So much so that the crew of Velsheda built a replica whilst at sea in mid-Pacific to try to settle the argument. The Panama Canal authorities are becoming concerned because the headwaters at the Gatun Lakes are not replenishing water 'lost' as ships lock up and down. Discussions of this problem suggested that yachts were responsible for greater water loss than a Panamax because they displace less water in the locks. Right or wrong? Curmudgeon's Comment: Having taken the lee-bow effect debate as far as we can, we are going to close this thread now - and open the gates to comments regarding airplanes flying upside down and lost lock water. Bring it on! CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION One of the perk of being over 60 is you enjoy hearing about other people's operations. |
