|
SCUTTLEBUTT 2350– May 23, 2007Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is distributed each weekday, with support provided by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, Defender of the 32nd America's Cup (http://www.ubs.com/sailing). POSTPONED (May 22, 2007) Strong Northeasterly onshore winds forced the Race Committee to postpone Tuesday’s semi-final match between Emirates Team New Zealand and Desafío Español 2007. With winds between 20-25 knots, the Race Committee considered the sea state off Port America's Cup (with waves up to two metres) such that it could cause damage to the racing yachts (rules for this ACUP prescribed the boats to be designed for 7-22 knot winds). The forecast for Wednesday is for more moderate Northeasterly winds, although the sea state could remain an issue. First team to win 5 races advances to challenger finals. The pairings are: 1. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) 1-1-0-1-1-0-_-_-_ = 4 4. Desafío Español 2007 (ESP) 0-0-1-0-0-1-_-_-_ = 2 2. BMW Oracle Racing (USA) 0-1-0-0-0-0-_-_-_ = 1 3. Luna Rossa Challenge (ITA) 1-0-1-1-1-1-_-_-_ = 5 - WINNER * Race schedule: Semi-final racing will continue with 1 race scheduled for Wednesday through Friday, but the series will be completes as soon as either Emirates Team New Zealand or Desafío Español 2007 gains 5 wins. If the weather conditions prevent racing on Wednesday, than two races will be planned for Thursday and Friday. The winner of this match will then pair up with Luna Rossa Challenge in the challenger finals beginning on June 1st. -- Complete schedule: http://www.americascup.com/en/americascup/program/calendrier.php * Television schedule: Versus’ coverage of the Semi-Finals will consist of live coverage from 8:30–11:00 a.m. ET, with replays from 12-2:30 p.m. and 4:30–7 p.m. ET. -- http://www.versus.com/americascup * Auction: Scuttlebutt has taken Desafío Español 2007 team gear off of Paul Cayard’s back, and is auctioning it to the highest bidder this week. Maybe you didn’t turn the handles during the Spanish team’s outstanding campaign, but you can look like you did with Paul’s autographed gear. Proceeds benefit youth sailing. Cap and floppy hat have now joined the jacket, vest, and backpack. Details at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/07/cayard * Good times: The Louis Vuitton Cup in Valencia is clearly having a considerable effect on the City as almost all the hotels of three stars and higher are already filled. Last Sunday alone, some 60,000 people visited the Port area, and four thousand of these came from Italy to encourage Luna Rossa in its quest for the America’s Cup. Equally, the large stores in Valencia have registered a 13% increase in sales that can be directly attributed to the competition. -- Valencia Life Network, mailto:publisher@valencialife.net * On the rebound: After closing the chapter on an ill-fated America’s Cup campaign with +39 Challenge, Iain Percy with new crew Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson begin their Star Olympic campaign this week at the Breitling Regatta, Medemblik, Holland (23-27 May). Also, Star world champion Hamish Pepper is getting his crew back, as BMW Oracle Racing has released Carl Williams of his duties so he can return to his training with Pepper. THE REST OF THE BEST (May 22, 2007) Since my arrival in Valencia I have been watching BMW Oracle in awe. They seemed to have it all: the most money, the best technology, the fastest boat, solid crew work, a great track record. By all accounts it seemed hard if not impossible see this team fail to make it to the finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup and event the America’s Cup. What went wrong? Let the facts show they really did have the best of the best in terms of all the ingredients necessary to win the America’s Cup on paper. I was amazed at how refined the game has become in terms of technology and design. Every possible controllable variable has been analyzed and the outcome of its use predetermined. In essence there are few surprises in this America’s Cup generation. Boats can be changed or moded to fit a given wind range or even set up to capitalize on the weaknesses of a given competitor. BMW Oracle literally had a shelf full of every changeable part that could be added or removed from the boat to optimize it for any scenario. The boat itself was proclaimed to be the fastest and lightest in the entire fleet- a true breakthrough. Without giving away too much, every BMW Oracle sailor I spoke to was literally blown away by USA 98’s capabilities. The team was not shy to admit this to the media either. In their minds it seemed they truly felt they were unstoppable. -- Tucker Thompson, read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/t2p/#May22 * Armchair quarterback: Got an opinion for the demise of BMW Oracle Racing? If so, there is a thread on the Forum for you: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4896#4896 THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX RULE In 1977 Bill Lee broke the Transpac course record with his ULDB 70 Merlin and put Santa Cruz designs at the forefront of the "Sled" sailing movement. The father of "Fast is Fun," Lee designed ultra light racers like the Santa Cruz 70 specifically for downwind races like the Transpac. The 65-year-old currently works as a yacht broker in Santa Cruz, and is serving as Entry Chairman for the 2007 Transpac. In the June issue of Sailing World, editor at large Herb McCormick speaks with Lee about the state of Transpac design; in the following online exclusive, Lee shares his opinions about hired guns, explains the difficulties of developing Grand Prix boats under traditional ratings rules, and reveals the best way to rid your crew of pesky grinders. -- http://tinyurl.com/2bqjbt STONE COLD FEVER The Sydney 38 is a hot class, and last weekend Michael and Kate Kennedy’s Doyle-powered “Copernicus” proved hottest of the hot in the St. Francis YC Stone Cup -- three bullets in four races. Meanwhile in the IRC division, Mike Garl's Beneteau 40.7 “White Dove” dominated the competition with a full Doyle inventory, including a new IRC Code 2 jib. If you want to go stone cold fast, contact Doyle Sailmakers at 1-800-94-DOYLE or online: http://www.doylesails.com PUMA ANNOUNCES PLANS (May 22, 2007) PUMA announced that the Botin Carkeek design team and custom yacht builder Goetz Custom Boats have been commissioned to begin work on PUMA's new Volvo Open 70, which will compete in the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09. Marcelino Botin and Shaun Carkeek are internationally known for their outstanding reputation, with Botin being currently the lead designer for Team New Zealand in the America's Cup Challenger Trials. The designers have had resounding success in the highly competitive IMS and TP 52 classes. For Goetz Custom Boats of Bristol, Rhode Island, USA, this will be their fifth build for the VOR. The schedule is for PUMA Racing Team's new VO 70 to be ready to sail in early 2008. * Curmudgeon’s Comment: It is always nice to see the Scuttlebutt advertisers succeed. Congrats to our friends at Goetz Custom Boats, who this week have also launched their new website: http://www.goetzboats.com ON THE WIRE WITH KEVIN STITTLE (Canadians Kevin Stittle and his Tornado skipper Oskar Johansson jumped up on the big stage by winning the most recent Olympic event in Hyeres, France last month. Here are some excerpts of an interview with Stittle, who is in Medemblik, Holland this week for the next event on the Olympic circuit – the Breitling Regatta – where racing begins on Wednesday for more than 1200 competitors from 62 countries.) > About your partnership: Oskar and I are a fairly new team, we have only been together for about 2 ½ years. We have tried to make up for this by putting in lots of hours on the water. We both had extensive prior Olympic campaigns in other classes so that experience has helped fast track our Tornado program. The two of us have pretty different approaches and sailing styles. The counter balance has worked really well for us; I think it’s an important characteristic to any double-handed team. > About your Olympic Campaign and having won Hyeres: Winning Hyeres was a huge stepping stone for our Campaign. We had a good Europeans and we knew with a few less mistakes we could perform even better but we never imagined coming out so strong in Hyeres. Everyone back home is really pumped, the response has been awesome, it’s been 20 years since the last Canadian double handed team won Hyeres in any class. It was a surreal experience, a lot of things came together for us at that event. > About how important training (European season) is: The European season is the proving grounds for any Olympic class, it is impossible to get to the top without attending the majority of these high level events. We certainly feel it’s a bit of a disadvantage to not be from a European country, it makes for long trips from home for a good part of the year. Traveling definitely wears on you, but the significance of the grade 1 circuit in Europe can’t be ignored. The level of competition in Europe is unparalleled in our sport, if you want to be the best you have to be ready to spend a lot of time there. -- Complete interview: http://www.tornado.org/html/news_article.asp?ArticleID=223 COMING TO AMERICA Ever since his keel failure in Leg 1 of the Velux 5 Oceans, Alex Thomson has been back on the horse in his quest to capture short-handed titles. Along with his title sponsor - the swanky fashion brand Hugo Boss - he is the midst of a new Open 60 build that will be his steed for the Barcelona World Race this November, a new two-handed, non-stop round the world yacht race covering 25,000 miles over three months. However this is merely a build-up for Thomson’s real pursuit, The Vendee Globe, arguably the toughest and most extreme sporting event in the world – single-handed, non-stop – alone at sea for 80+ days. On top of this, Alex Thomson Racing has launched another boat, Hugo Boss II, a Volvo 60 that is coming to America. It is due to arrive any day now in New York for its first race - the Block Island Race on May 25th. After that it's overland to Toronto, and then onto LA for the start of the Transpac, a 2,550-mile race from the US mainland to Hawaii. -- http://www.alexthomsonracing.com NORTHEAST TUNE-UP Larchmont, NY - Sailors from the northeast have emerged from hibernation and targeted this week's Block Island Race as a major tune-up for the '07 season. The spring classic, hosted by the Storm Trysail Club and in its 62nd running, is a distance race of 185 nautical miles from Stamford, Conn., down Long Island Sound, to Block Island, R.I., and back. Last year's event hosted over 100 boats, and this year's fleet -- comprised of IRC, PHRF and doublehanded boats -- is shaping up to be impressive when it sets out at 1700 on Friday, May 25. Currently, the smallest boat entered is the Olson 30 Wave Dancer, skippered by Benoit Ansart (Old Greenwich, Conn.), while the largest is the Reichel/Pugh 81 Bon Bon, skippered by Stephan Reith (Hamburg, Germany). The larger boats generally finish on Saturday afternoon, with the majority of the fleet finishing between midnight Saturday and 8 a.m. Sunday. -- http://tinyurl.com/yvz2qk J/65 VIDEO TOUR JK3 Nautical Enterprises, Inc. invites you to take a personal tour of the J/65 “Brand New Day” from the comfort of your own chair! Take a video tour and see for yourself the flagship for J Boats, "Brand New Day", the 65-foot custom luxury racer/ cruiser that is currently for sale in San Diego, CA. Don't miss your chance to step aboard a truly a one-of-a-kind sailing yacht. Call Jeff Brown at 619.224.6200 for more information on this and other listings, and visit ”Brand New Day” by clicking on http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7922479841303055047&hl=en WOMEN’S COLLEGE NATIONALS Norfolk, Virginia (May 22, 2007) - The ladies are up first as the ICSA Women's National Championship - the first of the three Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) National Championships, sponsored by PENTAX Imaging Company and Vanguard Sailboats - gets underway Wednesday hosted by The Lady Monarchs from their Sailing Center at Old Dominion University (Norfolk, Va.). Competitors from 18 schools, all of which qualified for this championship through conference eliminations, will race FJs on the Elizabeth River over three days (May 23-25), followed by the announcement of the Quantum Female College Sailor of the Year at the conclusion of racing. -- http://collegesailing.org/nas/spring07/womens/womens_preview.asp OWNERSHIP CHANGE AT ELVSTRÖM SOBSTAD (May 22, 2007) Elvström Sails A/S, Europe’s largest sail maker has been sold to Peter Jørgensen, a Danish businessman. 42 year old Jørgensen will assume the role as Chairman of the Elvström Sobstad Group. The company has been sold following a personal decision by Claus Olsen, owner and chairman of the Group since 1980. Claus will, however, remain at the company in a management role to oversee the Groups subsidiary companies in the UK and Norway, plus purchasing and other foreign supply contracts. None of the other 100 employees at the main factory in Aabenraa, Denmark will be affected including Andrew Smith, who remains as Group Vice President responsible for design, development and production. -- Full report: http://www.elvstromsobstad.com/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsID=52 SAILING SHORTS * The Notice of Race for the 30th Anniversary Singlehanded Transpac from San Francisco to Hanalei Bay, Kauai, has been posted. With the start Saturday, July 12, 2008, and full moon six days later, already 30 skippers have returned participant replies. The 2,120-mile SHTP is run by and for sailors who wish to encourage and develop short-handed sailing and enjoy the camaraderie that has been a hallmark of this “bring what you got” non-commercialized event since 1978. Info at http://www.sfbaysss.com * Now Playing on T2P.TV is the Congressional Cup 2007, Presented by Acura. Daily footage from Long Beach, CA of the most famous match-racing event in the US. -- http://www.t2p.tv/guide/cc07.php * The latest episode on Yachting TV includes a test of the top 3 of lifejackets on the market, a segment on boat building, and a sailing skills episode that looks at headsail boat handling. -- http://www.yachtingtv.co.uk * The NMMA's 2006 Recreational Boating Statistical Abstract, which will be released on June 1, reports that US boating participation increased last year, while unit sales of "traditional" powerboats declined by five per cent. Boat registrations reached their highest levels since 2001. According to an NMMA statement, about one-third (73 million) of US adults went boating in 2006, a participation increase of approximately 1.3 million Americans from the 2005 total (71.3 million). The study also reported that the number of boats in use increased to nearly 18 million, and boat registrations surpassed 13 million for the first time since 2001. -- IBI Magazine, full report: http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20070422162059ibinews.html * (May 22, 2007) The rich get richer, as the saying goes, and that appears to be the case among the 15 boats still competing in the Charleston to Bermuda Race. Though light and variable winds affected most of the fleet for much of Monday, moderately stronger breezes favored the leaders near the end of the day and through the night. These marginal increases in velocity were enough to cheer a few crews, among them the Open 50 Gryphon Solo, who have thus far managed to maintain a comfortable if not commanding margin over their closest rivals. -- Results and fleet tracking are available at http://www.charlestontobermuda.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or simplicity (letters shall be no longer than 250 words). You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot, don't whine if others disagree, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Derek Bouwer, Commodore, Algoa Bay Yacht Club, Port Elizabeth, South Africa: (In reply to Paddy Boyds letter in Issue 2348 regarding the lack of ethnic diversity among the Nigerian Lightening team) While I cannot speak for Nigeria, here at ABYC we run a very good Community development sailing school in partnership with the Love Life organization (as do many other clubs, sporting disciplines, and institutions). The mission is to serve all colours of the skin tone spectrum and to comply with the Government request to bring a previously white dominated sports to those who where previously disadvantaged, though we face many obstacles. Soccer is the sport in Africa, with all other sports lagging behind and sailing, I am afraid to say, is a dismal quadrillionth in the list. Swimming also lags far behind, and because so many people have a fear of drowning, most of our prospective sailors come through swimming lessons before getting their bums into boats. We have progressed from white sailing coaches to the sailing school being run and coached by black sailors who have come up through the coaching ranks. Unfortunately, the image of sailing suffers from the stereotyping, in all spectrum of the of the skin tone spectrum, as being the playground of the ultra rich and as such a lot of people shy clear of sailing. Disappointing as it may be, these factors have a direct bearing on sailing in South Africa and I would say sailing in Africa in general. It will thus take some time for the complexion of sailing to change in both South Africa and Africa, but we are working on it. * From Adrian Morgan: (Re Buck Downes '...I expect Larry Ellison is sitting on his mega yacht sipping a one hundred year old single malt scotch wondering what the hell just happened'.) Single malts don't improve with age. On bottling at five, ten, 18 years, or so, their unique character is captured forever. However, once exposed to the elements they deteriorate rapidly, like a five-year-old semi-finalist in a Louis Vuitton Cup, and should be drunk quickly (as were most of Oracle's crew, I imagine, that evening...) Mr. Ellison should try a ten-year-old Talisker if he wants to drown his sorrows, or a Lagavulin... * From John Polli: The overhead views of the prestart are beautiful to the eye, but need an important addition to make them much more understandable. The overhead picture needs a simple arrow pointed at the start line. The way it is now, I don't really know what in hell I am looking at until the last 30 seconds or so. The tactics would be much clearer if I knew which direction they were going. The verbage from the announcers occasionally tells which direction they are going but it is spotty. Put an arrow on top of the picture pointing towards the start line. Second complaint: Show the computer graphic showing the position of the boats much more. Too much sailing lingo and not enough overhead graphics showing the relative position of the two boats. I have owned two sailing boats and still don't understand some of the specialized lingo from those two guys. Where is the guy who announced from a tossing boat in Perth? He was great. * From Frank Betz: (regarding story ‘Confessions of a Sailing Writer’ in Issue 2349)"Laconic, self-effacing and given to few explanatory words"? I guess sailing writer Morgan Steinmetz never had a chance to interview Ted Turner! CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. Special thanks to Doyle Sailmakers and JK3 Nautical Enterprises. Scuttlebutt is also supported by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, the Defender of the 32nd America's Cup. |
