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SCUTTLEBUTT 3425 - Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Scuttlebutt 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.
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Today's sponsors: North Sails, Gowrie Group, and Team One Newport.
WITHOUT EVER GETTING WET
Bruce Nelson may not have been in Connecticut over Labor Day weekend but he
nevertheless did manage to win the Vineyard Race.
Nelson, the noted America's Cup yacht designer based in San Diego, took
part in the 238-nm Vineyard through Sailonline.org, a Swedish virtual
sail-racing navigation simulator that, when buddied with real races, runs
them on the internet by duplicating the routes in real-time wind
conditions.
The virtual version of the race allows users to encounter similar
conditions as the racers on the course by using real time weather models
and selecting appropriate course headings and wind angles to sail during
the running of the race. This is the second year Sailonline.org has used
the Vineyard Race as a course for its members. Each competitor was assigned
a boat with performance based on the polars from a TP52.
"It is a challenging game which demands your attention," noted Nelson. "You
can just specify a series of delayed commands to send the boat on your
pre-determined course, but if you want to win it requires a bit more than
that." The online race takes place concurrent with the actual race, even
starting at the same time and using the same weather data, updated every
six hours but released into the game every 10 minutes.
Nelson, who competes in a dozen such virtual races a year, said this one is
particularly difficult because the course is so challenging with many
landmarks to avoid and changing conditions. As such, Nelson checked in
every few hours, even at night, to make sure his boat was on track. "On a
race like SOL's World Race, similar to a Volvo ocean race or Global Ocean
Race you can set your steering commands and not have to come back for six
hours. The Vineyard Race is more demanding, but fortunately it does not
take too long," he said.
"It's a lot like doing the real race," he added. "It's similar to being the
navigator."
Just like the racers who were on the Vineyard course Labor Day weekend
Nelson faced countless decisions. On the way out he chose to hug the
Connecticut shore, heading out through Fishers Island Sound. It was a run
to the Buzzards Bay entrance marker so he worked on making sure he jibed at
the right times. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/Vineyard-Race-091211
EVENTS WHERE AMATEURS ARE RECOGNIZED
(September 12, 2011) - The grounds of New York Yacht Club's renowned
Harbour Court clubhouse in Newport, Rhode Island, were filled with sailors
from around the world, who are set to begin racing tomorrow (Tuesday) in
the second biennial New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup presented by
Rolex.
The 22 teams, representing yacht clubs from 16 nations and six continents,
have traveled far and wide to get to Newport. The teams, especially those
less familiar with the Swan 42 class, enjoyed several perfect practice days
with today's 12-14 knot southwesterly breeze, under sunshine and brilliant
blue skies, appreciated by all competitors, especially those from some more
sunshine-challenged locales
The Swan 42s, an ultra competitive one-design class, were conceived by the
NYYC as the yacht club's ninth one-design class since its' founding in
1844. The New York Yacht Club Race Committee, led by John "Tinker" Myles,
Jr. ran several practice starts today for the fleet.
Racing will run from Tuesday, 13 September through Saturday, 17 September.
A total of eleven (windward-leeward) races are planned, with no throw-outs.
Racing will take place off Newport, R.I. on Rhode Island Sound or in
Narragansett Bay.
One of the first teams to arrive in Newport was Clube Naval de Cascais from
Portugal, with skipper Patrick Moteiro de Barros. The team has been on-site
for over a week practicing on their chartered Swan 42 Orbit, and making the
most of coach Bill Shore's expertise and local knowledge. de Barros
commented, "The goal is to do the best we can, and we're here to win. We
may not win, but that's the motivation."
To that end de Barros, who is a four-time Olympian, has assembled a crew
that at its' core are very competitive Dragon sailors. Included in this mix
is tactician Henrique Anjos, a three-time Portuguese national champion in
the class. With no Swan 42s available locally, the team came up with a
clever alternative last spring, chartering a Dufour 40, and adding a
bowsprit to it so they could fly an asymetrical spinnaker.
De Barros is no stranger to Newport, having sailed here in the 1980s when
he was the helmsman on Magic, the trial horse for Dennis Conner's Freedom.
The team had hoped to participate two years ago, but couldn't come, and the
appeal of the event is clear to de Barros who added, "The Invitational Cup
is totally Corinthian, and I think it's important to have events where the
amateurs are recognized. This is one of the most prestigious yacht clubs in
the world, and I think events like this should carry on." -- Read on:
http://tinyurl.com/NYYC-IC-091211
NORTH-POWERED BOATS WIN 8 CLASSES AT CBYRA ANNAPOLIS RACE WEEK
Congratulations to the North Sails-powered boats who won eight of 14
classes at the 2011 CBYRA Annapolis Race Week held September 3-5 on the
Chesapeake Bay. 124 boats raced in the three-day regatta with the following
boats winning their classes: Night Shift (Farr 40); Velocity (PHRF A1);
Monkey Dust (PHRF A2); Defiant (S2 7.9); Millennium Falcon (J/24); UpChuck
(Cal 25); Tenacious (J/105) and Be Bob (J/30). When performance counts the
choice is clear: http://www.northsails.com
'DOING' VERSUS SITTING
By Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt
So there I was, Saturday morning, watching the America's Cup World Series
racing in Plymouth, live on my computer. Very, very cool. I was totally
enjoying the YouTube media platform and livestreaming capabilities, which
offered me five different video and audio streams to choose:
Sports - A sports commentary for newer fans of the America's Cup
Sailing - Those seeking a more technical commentary.
Boat A - Ringside seat - selected on board audio and video
Boat B - Ringside seat - selected on board audio and video
Graphics - LiveLive and Virtual Eye providing a tactical graphics feed
The broadcast had seemingly improved from their inaugural ACWS event a
month earlier, but after about 30 minutes, some of which was a race delay
to allow a ferry to cross the course, I said to myself: "Craig, this is
your weekend. You are sitting in your office... alone...on a beautiful
day." And that's when I realized the hurdle for online viewing.
During this same weekend I was active outside, but I also watched some
baseball, some football, and some tennis. Never did I watch a full game,
but each time I was surrounded by people. Because watching sports is a
social and entertaining occasion.
So while I am at work this week, I suspect my productivity will dip as I
view the ACWS racing on Wednesday through Friday. But for their final
racing on Saturday and Sunday, I will be choosing between watching the
races online, or taking a break from the computer. Until I connect my
hi-def 56" TV to the internet (or winter hits San Diego), I will likely be
'doing' versus sitting.
How are you handling this situation?
A reminder for U.S. viewers that the Versus cable channel will be broadcast
a one hour highlights show on September 18 at 7:00 P.M. ET. -- Scuttleblog,
http://sailingscuttlebutt.blogspot.com/2011/09/doing-versus-sitting.html
ACWS-Plymouth website: http://tinyurl.com/ACWS-Plymouth
REVISED: The race schedule has been revised. Racing on Wednesday and
Thursday will include a total of six fleet races, with the standings from
the fleet races used to seed the nine crews entering the match racing
championship, scheduled for Friday and Saturday. The schedule for Sunday
will be one fleet race, a winner take all contest for the ACWS Plymouth
Championship. -- Details: http://tinyurl.com/Plymouth-rev-091211
SAN DIEGO: After Plymouth, the America's Cup World Series moves to America
where San Diego will host the third event on November 12-20. While there
will be open viewing areas surrounding the bay, it is hard to beat the VIP
experience if you can afford it. Both corporate and individual packages
include excellent viewing plus parking, booze, food, and a photo op with
the America's Cup Trophy. Prices range from $850 for a couple on the final
race day to $10,950 for a corporate table of ten for the week. Details
here: http://tinyurl.com/ACWS-SD-091211
MORE SAN DIEGO: Australian double Olympic silver medalist Darren Bundock
will be given the helm of ORACLE Racing Coutts in the ACWS San Diego (Nov.
12-20). Russell Coutts will stay onboard. Driving the decision is the
chance to start rotating members of the sailing team so that more
experience AC45 racing and because Coutts is sure Bundock will sail the
boat faster. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/ACUP-091211
AN INSURANCE AGENCY'S DIARY: COUNTDOWN TO HURRICANE IRENE
Insurance doesn't matter, until it does. And before a hurricane is one of
those times when everyone starts to think about their insurance. The other
time is when they have a claim. Gowrie Group, Connecticut and Rhode
Island's largest and most prestigious independent insurance agency,
recounts their experience in the days before and after Hurricane Irene as
they help thousands of clients in the track of Hurricane Irene prepare for
the storm and recover and report claims in the aftermath.
Tuesday August 23, 2011 - morning: The calls began in the morning as the
track of Hurricane Irene started to aim more clearly at the East Coast. Our
clients were starting to get nervous. The questions varied from insurance
specific, to billing, to meteorological:
"Is my policy active and paid up to date?"
"Do you think it is going to hit us?"
"Should I haul my boat?"
"Do I need to buy a generator?"
"What is my business interruption coverage?"
"Do we need to pull the docks at our yacht club?"
Tuesday August 23 - afternoon: All eyes were on the storm. We sent out an
email to all of our clients, directing them to the Gowrie Group Storm
Center Website to find detailed information on how best to protect their
boats, homes, businesses, marinas and yacht clubs. The Storm Center also
provides live tracking links, preparation videos, step-by-step guide for
making a disaster supply kit, and instructions on how to report a claim. We
put up an alert message on the Gowrie website directing all traffic to our
Storm Center.
Wednesday August 24: The volume of phone calls into the office really
started to pick up... read on:
http://gowrie.com/pdfs/2011HurricaneIreneGowrieDiaryCountDown.pdf
PHOTO GALLERIES
* With the America's Cup coming to San Francisco in 2013, there is a lot of
emphasis on how the landscape will provide an unmatched backdrop to this
elite event. This is something that the yachting photographers of the world
have known for years, and take advantage of each year during the Rolex Big
Boat Series. Here is a sampling from this year's event from Daniel Forster,
Sharon Green, Eric Simonson, Dave Keane, and Chris Ray:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/11/bbs/
* The harbor last week in Porto Cervo, Italy was a tad bit fuller as the
2011 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup hosted a 47-strong multinational fleet.
From the Mini Maxis(yachts from 18.29-24.08 metres) to the Supermaxis (yachts
in excess of 30.5m), this event attracts serious swank on and off the water. And this
year it also included some carnage, as the thirty metre Illusion ploughed
into the Swan 90 Kora. Photos by Carlo Borlenghi and Ingrid Abery:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/11/0911/
BUY ONE-DESIGN INSURANCE INSTANTLY ONLINE FROM GOWRIE
Gowrie Group's new website for One-Design sailors lets you be in charge of
the buying process and select the coverage limits that fit your needs. Sail
smart this Fall and protect your boat and lifestyle with an insurance
policy designed specifically for one-design sailors. Gowrie's One-Design
Insurance policy includes as standard $300,000 in liability coverage, with
the option to buy up to $2 million. The program is endorsed by US SAILING
and members are eligible for a 10% discount. Over 135 classes (less than
30') are pre-approved for the program. Get an instant quote and purchase a
policy online now: http://www.gowrie.com/onedesignquote
SAILING SHORTS
* Chicago, IL (September 12, 2011) - British Olympian Lucy Macgregor led
her team to victory in the Grade 3 Autumn Open B Event at the Chicago Match
Race Center, which was sailed in Tom 28s. The semi-finals included
Macgregor, round robin winner and 2012 Olympic hopeful Brad Funk, local
favorite Don Wilson, and Seah Chin Yew with Team Zoke Kiwi Match. Macgregor
beat Wilson and Funk beat Yew to advance to the Finals, where Macgregor
swept the Final series 2-0. -- Full story:
http://chicagomatchrace.com/PressRelease/article.asp?p=10100
* The 2011 Etchells North American Championships were held September 8-10
at Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead, MA. Long time Etchells sailor Hank
Lammens held off Jud Smith to win his first NA's title. PRO Bruce Golison,
the defending NA's champion, had rain, fog, big wind shifts, strong current
and at times no wind the first two days to deal with, however, on the final
day of the championship, four great races were completed to send the
38-boat fleet home with seven races in the books. Results:
http://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=551
* Seventy-nine teams competed at the U.S. National E-Scow Championship,
hosted by Torch Lake Yacht and Country Club in Bellaire, MI on September
09-11. Chris Jewett of Minnetonka, MN with crew Pat Hughes and Rick Kotovic
took the lead after the third race, keeping their scores in the top five
during the 5-race series to build a 13 point lead and take the title. --
Results: http://tinyurl.com/E-Scow-091211
* Sixteen 2.4 meters from the US and Canada competed in an 11 race US
National Championship series held at Noroton Yacht Club (Noroton, CT)
September 9-11. Alan Leibel, Paul Tingley, and Bruce Millar, all from
Canada, were 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. with 19, 24, and 26 points respectively.
Mark LeBlanc was the top US boat with 27 points, just two points ahead of
John Ruf, and thus won the Nick Scandone Trophy given each year to the top
US 2.4 sailor. Alan Leibel finished off a great season winning the Canadian
Nationals, North Americans, and US Nationals. -- Results:
http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=12579
* The US-IRC Championship of Long Island Sound and PHRF Fall Classic - is
being run jointly by the Riverside Yacht Club (RYC) of Greenwich, Conn.,
and the Storm Trysail Club (STC), headquartered in Larchmont, N.Y. This
annual event, will take place at Riverside Yacht Club over the weekend of
September 17-18 in 2011. -- Details:
http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=12578
* From September 9 to October 19, 2011, US SAILING will hold its annual
election to fill three seats on its Board of Directors. All current US
SAILING adult and family members are entitled to vote online here:
http://about.ussailing.org/Directory/BOD/2011_Board_Election.htm
* According to multiple international news sources, French cruiser
Christian Colombo, 55, was killed and his body tossed overboard late last
week during an altercation with pirates in the Gulf of Aden. His wife,
Evelyne, was rescued from her Somali captors after a multinational effort
tracked down the alleged assailants and overtook their vessel, aboard which
Mrs. Colombo was being held captive. The couple's catamaran Tribal Kat was
found adrift and unmanned Thursday in waters off of Yemen by a German
warship which had responded to a mayday broadcast during the attack. --
Latitude 38, read on: http://tinyurl.com/Lat38-091211
* CORRECTION: In Scuttlebutt 3423, there was one story titled 'A Most
Appropriate Malapropism' which featured an intentional misuse of a word.
But there was also an unintentional malapropism in the same edition, where
prominent cordage company New England Ropes provided information on two
Dyneema products that were said to have "ultra-low strength". Let it be
known that both STS-12-75 and STS-12-90 are made from 100% Dyneema fiber,
are exceptionally strong with "ultra-low stretch". http://www.neropes.com
EVENT COMMUNICATION: STOP DOING STUFF LIKE THIS
By Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt
Action at the 2011 International 14 World Championships in Weymouth, UK has
so far been severely hampered by the aftermath of 'Hurricane Irene'. For
their race schedule on September 5-18 at the site of the 2012 Olympic
sailing events, the storm forced the cancellation of the Team Race Worlds
and has thus far allowed for only one fleet race.
Curious about the event, I went to look for the world championship website
address, which I found to be I14Worlds.com. I quickly gulped, and suspected
the worst. And I was right. The International 14 class had purchased this
most appropriate domain name for their biggest event, but had made no
effort to archive past event history on the site.
The 2010 International 14 World Championships had used the exact same web
address, but there was no longer any trace of event information from that
event on I14Worlds.com. As a result, all the media stories on the Internet
that linked to the 2010 event website are not connecting with the 2010
event information. To this flow of traffic, it is simply gone.
Attention one design classes... stop doing stuff like this.
FREE CLASSIFIED ADS
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buy and sell, or for businesses to post job openings. Do you have an ad to
post? Here are recent ads:
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* 2011 Event Laser $5,300
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IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN...TON = NIBS
If you happen to be lucky enough to be "cruising" around Newport Sept. 15th
- 19th, stop by any of our Team One Newport booths at the Newport Int'l
Boat Show and chat it up with our team of experts (and some pretty cool
product reps, too). Under the Team One A14-21 tent we'll have Musto,
Atlantis, Slam, Dubarry, GoPro, Vibrams, Teva and some Team One brand
goodies. Tent C5 is home to Gill and Henri Lloyd will be holding court in
Land A2. We'll have some awesome boat show deals -- AND if you spend $400
or more, and you remember to mention you saw this ad - we'll deduct the
price of your admission to the show from your order!! Can't make it to the
show? Check out our website anytime - http://www.team1newport.com
GUEST COMMENTARY
Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community.
Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted
comments chosen to be published in the newsletter may be limited to 250
words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should
save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com
Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum
* From Harrison Hine:
Congratulations to Henry Sprague who finished third in the U.S. Finn
Championship (in Scuttlebutt 3424). Henry is a real inspiration to all us
geezers. I was one of the many Finn sailors that Henry usually trounced in
the 1960's and I'm glad to see that he is still able to compete at age 66
or so. Stay young and keep that back in shape and you too can complete in
dinghies well into later life.
* From Bill Reilly:
I just got back from Porto Cervo where I was racing in the Supermaxi class
(of the 2011 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup), and saw the letter from Marc Jacobi and
the other criticism (last week in Scuttlebutt) of the Race Committee's
decision to abandon racing on the first day of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup:
We all know that 25-28 knot winds is not menacing, but that day there was a
lot more wind than that. The race committee boat may have registered 25-28
knots from their wind instruments at about 5m above sea level, but at the
top of our 60m mast we were seeing gusts more in the range of 35-40 knots -
in a very protected harbor. There was way more wind than that outside, and
in "bomb alley" I'm sure there was even more. Not something to be taken
lightly by anybody, especially in Porto Cervo.
And as Scotty Murray pointed out in Friday's edition, getting the boats in
and out of the harbor could have been quite dangerous. If Marc Jacobi was
there, I'm sure he would have also agreed that the RC made the right
call...
CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION
Those who can't laugh at themselves leave the job to others.
SPONSORS THIS WEEK
Summit Yachts - IYRS - North Sails - Gowrie Group
Team One Newport - Doyle Sails - J Boats - Ullman Sails
JK3 Nautical Enterprises - Southern Spars - West Marine
Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers
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