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SCUTTLEBUTT #757 - February 21, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk... with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome. Send to scuttlebutt@boats.com. THE RACE Team Adventure had another blistering day in southern ocean. In the 24 hours prior to today's 7:00 PM GMT official position report, they logged 588.7 miles at an average speed of 24.5 knots. With two stops for repairs, and to disembark injured crew members, skipper Cam Lewis, from Lincolnville, ME, now finds himself with only eight of his original crew of 13. Ahead of them Warta Polharma is also sailing in strong winds, generated by a low pressure system centered around 45 south 61 west. Tony Bullimore and his Team Legato crew, now down to 6 in number, will rejoin The Race in a few hours time after a starter motor flown down from Auckland arrives at 08:00 and is fitted to one of their generators. Bullimore also expressed surprise at the media attention given to the departure yesterday of journalist Rob Salvidge. "Rob's decision to leave the boat was for personal reasons which we respect and understand. The issues have been blown up out of all proportion and the crew and I have taken all that we have read in the press with a pinch of salt. Rob departed on the best of terms and with our good wishes, as I am sure he will confirm when he gets back to Blighty today. And when we get back to Bristol, I'm sure that he will be one of the first to greet us on the quay." Bullimore's thoughts are now focused on re-catching his Polish rivals on Warta Polpharma who left Wellington four days ago, and Team Adventure which departed on February 19. "We caught up 1,800 miles on the stage from the Cape of Good Hope to New Zealand. We have both the boat and experience onboard to do the same on the next stage through the Southern Ocean to Cape Horn. It is going to be a tough challenge, but there is another 12,000 miles to go." 1.Club Med / distance to finish 3358.9 miles Event site: www.therace.org VENDEE GLOBE: WAVRE AND COVILLE HELD UP BY HIGH PRESSURE Wavre, normally the more philosophical one, is finding his patience coming to an end, just over 150 miles from the line. "My boat speed - 3 knots. The speed towards the finish - 1.7 knots. So I'm not in a great mood this morning. I have 2.5 knots of wind and it'll be like this all day. To be so close to arriving too, it just increases the bad feeling psychologically about tenfold. I mustn't complicate this persecution - if I just think about the finish, my morale takes an automatic dive!" Thomas Coville, just 66 miles behind Wavre, is enduring the same arduous conditions. Simone Bianchetti (Aquarelle.com) managed to celebrate his 32nd birthday yesterday by crossing the Equator. Yves Parlier (Aquitaine Innovations) has been climbing his rigging for a control check whilst becalmed in the Southern Atlantic. "I re-rigged my mast for the NE trades and tightened my starboard shroud, which was too slack, and so avoided another catastrophe! The masthead rigging which holds the shrouds and the stay was too loose and if that had fallen well the whole lot would have come down!" Parlier is pushing back his ETA to around the 17th March in light of the calms he is in. Catherine Chabaud (Whirlpool), the most recent victim of a dismasting, is now out of the race rankings after starting her engine to motor towards Vigo. She will be met offshore by her team with fuel supplies for the boat today and hopes to arrive tomorrow night in port. She fully intends to sail under jury rig to Les Sables d'Olonne, albeit with crew members. "It's important to me, to get to the finish, even if I am no longer racing. I am still confident in this boat, and of what we've managed to live through together." The shore team have been unable to contact with Mike Golding on board Team Group 4 today - he is still making every effort to conserve his dwindling fuel supplies. He has maintained his 10 knot average speed and has now extended his lead over Josh Hall on EBP EspiritPME Gartmore to 480 miles. Golding is now in 7th place on the water after yesterday's dismasting of Catherine Chabaud's Whirlpool. Event site: www.vendeeglobe.com GOOD STUFF LEGG MASON J22 MIDWINTERS Full results at http://j22.org/midwinters/ -- some great pictures by Philip Hubbel of sailset.com are at http://www.sailset.com/j22MW/j01photos.html. Towards the bottom of the picture page are shots of a fabulous J22 Death Roll Competition, held in what appears to be upwards of 35 to 40 knots. LASER MIDWINTERS EAST Top five, Laser Class (full rig) Full results at http://www.clwyc.org/LaserMidwintersEast01/home.htm TEAM NEW ZEALAND 2003 CLOTHING Guest Editor's note: I just made huge Dad points with my three kids, gave them each a Team New Zealand hat (courtesy Line 7, thanks guys) which none of their friends will have; that seems to be important to pre-teens. The hats are really nice, the three-layer brim in black and grey is a neat detail.) MARBLEHEAD-TO-HALIFAX RACE The race is open to boats competing under the following handicap systems: IMS (boats handicapped under the International Measurement System); PHRF Racing (Performance Handicap Racing Fleet boats sailing with spinnakers); PHRF Cruising (Performance Handicap Racing Fleet boats sailing without spinnakers); multihulls and classic yachts. One of the oldest and most challenging long-distance sailboat races in North America, the Marblehead-to-Halifax Race offers intense boat-for-boat competition and requires racers to make complex tactical choices as they sail a 360-nautical-mile course (about 425 statute miles) from Marblehead, Massachusetts, to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Depending on wind conditions and boat speed, racers will be on the course anywhere from 33 to more than 100 hours. The course record-33 hours, 29 minutes and 52 seconds-set by Starlight Express, a Santa Cruz 70 in 1989, has yet to be broken. -- Keith Taylor HARRISON JOINS WITH RORC TO SUBMIT AMERICA'S CUP ENTRY Based in St James Place, the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) is one of the most prestigious yacht clubs in the world, having been founded in 1925. The events sailed under its burgee include the Admirals Cup, the BT Global Challenge and the Volvo Ocean Race. Harrison commented: "I'm pleased that RORC has come on board to lodge the America's Cup entry on behalf of GBR Challenge. The agreement with RORC has enabled us to formally enter the competition for the 31st America's Cup and I look forward to seeing GBR Challenge on the start line for the Louis Vuitton Cup." The 'notice of challenge for the match', the necessary papers and a bankers draft for the $US 150,000 entry fee for the America's Cup entry have been delivered to Peter Taylor, Commodore of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. -- Mark Bullingham Team site: www.gbrchallenge.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON GUEST EDITOR SPEAKS: OK, OK, I shouldn't have closed the discussion thread about regatta organizers and the media so quickly. Call me young and foolish. Or just young. It's open again, here are some new ones. Fire away. - David McCreary *From Cory Friedman <cfriedman@worldnet.att.net> There are plenty of regattas that are well managed. They demonstrate that it's not rocket science and that anyone that wants to do a good job can. * From Bob Black <rblack@flsouthern.edu> I've been on both sides of this fence, as a reporter and as a public relations type, and one's about as bad as the other from a frustration point of view. Provisional results (pending protests) should be put forth immediately upon finish by the scorers/RCs, and corrections can go into tomorrow's edition. Otherwise both public and sailors lose interest. * From John Browning <browning@sailtexas.com> (edited to our 250 word maximum) At 'Telltales' and 'www.sailtexas.com' we had to give up after some four years on reporting on the regional TSA Youth Circuit. It was not just us -- the 'TSA Official Score keeper' couldn't always get the results from a region either. Surely to encourage youngsters into the sport should be a priority -- not to keep the events and results a secret? Last year at a US Sailing National event at Houston Yacht Club, I offered to take photos and have them available each day, at my own expense, copyright free to US Sailing for any editorial use. This was prior to the event. There was considerable delay by US Sailing and then what I took to be a very reluctant 'yes if you must' -- by then the first day, a day of sunshine was over, the following two days were wet and I ran out of enthusiasm to spend my money, time, expertise and also get wet.... However Julie at Houston Yacht Club as always, provided 'unofficial' results at the end of each day, these were posted on: www.sailtexas.com -- hits on the web site went up for the three days by 3000%! The interest was there. US Sailing provided the 'official' results some ten days later -- by then it was 'history' as they say in Texas..... * From Manfred Schreiber <manfred.schreiber@SPSystems.de> About media exposure: It is not a job which "volunteers", class secretaries, etc. get paid for. Therefore they have other priorities. Often they are not even at the event. More "media-discipline" should be asked for by the winners of the events. They must have an interest in exposure. International and Olympic class winners are often being sponsored or funded which means they must pay back for this. It is their duty. And if they don't do it, they are the ones spoiling the sponsorship market. Class secretaries are mostly doing an incredible job running the whole show, keeping the class together. The winners are on an emotional high which frees more energy which makes it easy for them or their friends/spouses to keep the world informed. It's the winners' responsibilities to do or to organize this job. *From Dick Lemke <Dick.Lemke@co.dakota.mn.us> * From Thomas Priest <Thomas.Priest@HSC.com> There are two big reasons I can think of immediately that make shock absorbers a hard sell for sailing.... you nailed one already: weight. The other is loss of power. An off-road car's source of power is still hooked directly to the wheels driving it... But a sailboat's source of power is the wind-to-the-sails-to-the-mast-to-the-hull-pushing-it-through-the-water...... .if you put a "shock absorber" in that loop, you also put a "power" absorber in that loop!(read s-l-o-w). * From Chuck Voeltner <voeltner@aol.com> WORD OF WARNING THOUGH. If you do volunteer to get involved and get tapped on the shoulder when the organization accepts your offer, be prepared for continual tapping. There simply are not enough people who are willing to make the effort to get involved. THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION |
