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SCUTTLEBUTT 2652 - Monday, August 4, 2008Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors. US YACHT CLUB FILES APPEAL IN AMERICA'S CUP SPAT (August 1, 2008) - Golden Gate Yacht Club on Friday appealed a New York court's decision stripping it of the role of Challenger of Record for the next America's Cup. On Tuesday, the New York Supreme Court's Appellate Division ruled 3-2 that Spain's Club Nautico Espanol de Vela, not San Francisco's GGYC, should be the Challenger of Record, giving it the right to negotiate terms of the next competition with the current America's Cup holder, Alinghi of Switzerland. It was a reversal of a lower-court ruling that had given the right to the GGYC. The San Francisco club backs BMW Oracle Racing, a syndicate headed by Silicon Valley maverick Larry Ellison. GGYC had contended in a yearlong court case that the Spanish club was a sham and that the Swiss were trying to tilt the rules for the next regatta in their favor. The appeals court disagreed. "We believe the Challenger of Record has to be a real yacht club," GGYC spokesman Tom Ehman said. "It cannot be something that is manufactured with a defender to set up a one-sided event. This decision would set an absurd precedent. We believe we have an excellent case for winning on appeal." Until Tuesday's ruling, BMW Oracle Racing and Alinghi had been preparing for a rare one-on-one showdown in giant multihull boats for the oldest trophy in sports. -- Associated Press, read on: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqt1I0a0b1y0uXjLhYgAGt-EjTNAD929MTIO0 * Team New Zealand yachting chief Grant Dalton calls for Alinghi and Oracle to negotiate a settlement: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10524984 * Sir Keith Mills, the head of TeamOrigin, the British Challengers for the Americas Cup, warned last Saturday that the syndicate was within weeks of collapse, due to the continuing court battle between Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing. -- The Valencia Life Network, mailto:publisher@valencialife.net * These are confusing times for the America’s Cup. Following the Alinghi team’s successful defense of the 32nd Match last summer, they had aligned themselves with the Desafío team to be the Challenger of Record (COR), which in turn had created an alliance with the newly formed Club Nautico Español de Vela (CNEV). However, when the New York Supreme Court initially declared that CNEV did not fulfill the terms of the Deed of Gift, Desafio broke ties with CNEV and are now with another club (meaning that Desafio was never the COR, the CNEV was/is, but now they don’t have a team). Despite the drama last week with the Appellate Division’s decision, the Desafío team enjoyed a huge win in Palma de Majorca at the 27th Copa del Rey Audi Mapfre, where they became the first team ever in the 27 years of the Med’s top event that gets the title in two classes: GP42 and TP52. -- Regatta report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6176 QUOTE / UNQUOTE “I’m disappointed that given the opportunity for a multi-challenger competition as a result of the Appellate Court decision, BMW Oracle has chosen to further delay the 33rd America’s Cup.” -- Brad Butterworth, Alinghi skipper. -- Brad Butterworth, Alinghi skipper, http://www.alinghi.com/en/news/news/index.php?idIndex=200&idContent=16583 "If Alinghi gets away with this, it probably will signal the end of the America's Cup as we know it." -- Russell Coutts, BMW Oracle Racing skipper, http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/03/sports/Americas-Cup-Dispute.php THE SCIENCE OF SPONSORSHIPS - WHO REALLY BENEFITS? Salt Lake City, UT - AlphaGraphics, a leading print, graphics and marketing communications franchisor, recently signed a multi-year partnership agreement with US SAILING to be the first-ever title sponsor of the US Sailing Team, which is now known as US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics. While the Salt Lake City-based company isn't the first to try a sports sponsorship, an inevitable question arises: Who really benefits from such a partnership? In AlphaGraphics' case, everyone does. According to AlphaGraphics' CEO Kevin K. Cushing, the company carefully selected US SAILING because they wanted to be sure that the organization they chose shared AlphaGraphics' goals and values. Andrew Pindar, chairman of AlphaGraphics' parent company Pindar Group and an avid sailor himself, was already heavily involved in sports sponsorships through sailing and felt the sport's values mirrored AlphaGraphics' corporate values of high achievement, teamwork, environmental sustainability and excellence. -- Read on: http://www.franchising.com/pressreleases/8059 BOATING & MARINE BINOCULARS IF you are interested in a set of Binoculars for boating, see our newsletter Choosing Boating & Marine Binoculars (http://www.myboatsgear.com/newsletter/200798.asp). There is also a link to Image stabilized Binoculars. MyBoatsGear.com is the place that keeps you in touch with all the best boating products available on the market. Go to MyBoatsGear.com for boating product reviews and information with access anytime, anywhere. Products reviews are organize into 200 plus easily-accessible categories. -- http://www.myboatsgear.com/mbg/index.asp MARINE ORGANIZATIONS RESTRUCTURE PARTNERSHIP The National Marine Manufacturers Association and Sail America have restructured their affiliation agreement. The newly-restructured partnership, which has the unanimous support of both organizations’ Board of Directors, capitalizes on each organization’s strengths and concentrates Sail America’s resources to aggressively market sailing to the general public and create a stronger sailing presence at boat shows, according to the release. Under the new affiliation, Sail America will continue to function as a separate legal entity and will maintain its own dedicated staff, board of directors, and committees. Sail America will be responsible for endorsing and promoting sail-focused boat shows, developing outreach programs to promote the sailing lifestyle, running seminar programs at all Strictly Sail shows and SailFests, providing content and support for Discover Boating, and helping to develop funding models to increase sailing’s contribution to the industry’s Grow Boating Initiative. Sail America will also continue to own Strictly Sail Pacific but all boat show operations will be managed by NMMA’s boat show team, reducing overhead for Sail America and allowing NMMA to do one of the things it does best: Organize and operate boat shows. NMMA will be responsible for managing and producing Strictly Sail Chicago, Strictly Sail Miami, Strictly Sail Pacific, and SailFest events at the Virginia In-Water Boat Show, the Liberty Boat Show, and the Baltimore Boat Show, all of which will be endorsed and promoted by Sail America. -- Boating Industry, read on: http://www.boating-industry.com/output.cfm?id=1703863 HISTORY MADE AT U.S. JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS Chicago, IL (July 31, 2008) - The Chubb U.S. Junior Championships wrapped up this afternoon with the 93 sailors safely returning to shore just before a thunderstorm rolled in over Lake Michigan. After three days of racing in light wind conditions, the winners were confirmed in the Smythe Trophy (singlehanded - sailed in Lasers), the Bemis Trophy (doublehanded - sailed in Club 420s), and Sears Cup (triplehanded - sailed in Lightnings). History was written in the doublehanded Club 420 fleet when Korbin and Haley Kirk (Long Beach, CA) became the first siblings to win the event in its 34-year history. Singlehanded champion E.J. O'Mara (Burton, Mich.) said the light winds that dominated the event were what he was used to, and helped him be the only sailor of the 20-boat fleet to stay in the top 10 throughout the regatta. The winners of the triplehanded fleet were decided a little later in the day after a protest hearing disqualified Nevin Snow (San Diego, CA) in the last two races of the regatta, which propelled the Perrysburg, Ohio team of Andy Gunkler, Nick Gilmore, Sydney Rush to a silver medal. Will Stocke, Max Famiglietti, and Matt Dowd from Sarasota, Fla. won the fleet and the famed Sears Cup, finishing a comfortable nine points ahead of the team from Ohio. -- Complete report: http://xrl.us/omnou Laser 1. EJ O'Mara, 37 2. Timothy Sacher , 43 3. Drew Shea, 44 C420 1. Korbin Kirk/ Haley Kirk18 2. Kaye Siemers/ Hilary Kenyon32 3. Brady Stagg/ Courtney Alexander57 Lightning 1. Will Stocke/ Max Famiglietti/ Matt Dowd27 2. Andy Gunkler/ Nick Gilmore/ Sydney Rush36 3. Luke Adams/ Dylan Vogel/ Sam Hallowell 27 Final results: http://xrl.us/finalresults OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN: 5 DAYS TO GO * Cosmopolitan magazine set out to uncover the hottest American male athletes, and as they say regarding their top ten list, “Not only does each guy have the will to win, but every sports star on this list also looks damn good while competing.” Guess who made the list? American Laser representative Andrew Campbell. See the list here: http://xrl.us/cosmohottie * The US Olympic Sailing Team has set up a dedicated email address to enable the ‘buttheads to send messages to the whole team or anyone within the team. Emails can be sent here: mailto:GoodLuckTeamUSA@ussailing.org * Being an Olympic athlete is very big deal, but when you are Sally Barkow and your home is in Nashotah, WI (population was 1,266 at the 2000 census), we suspect that you elevate to celebrity status. Here is a television interview with Sally from the local NBC affiliate: http://www.todaystmj4.com/sports/local/26181064.html?video=YHI&t=a * Olympic sailing events could face disruption from typhoons, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau has warned. Typhoon Fung Wong destroyed 110 homes last week and forced 390,000 people to be evacuated, and further cyclones could hit the sailing venues of Qingdao, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Bureau deputy director Wang Jianjie said: "We are likely to have two or three typhoons in our coastal areas." -- http://xrl.us/typhoon * From 2006 Star World Champion Carl Williams (NZL): “(On Saturday)… we were treated to the best day of sailing yet here in Qingdao. There was not a cloud in the sky, not a piece of algae and a really nice 7knt onshore breeze. There was even a major geological discovery made today as there was a small group of islands seen just 5 miles off shore. Im not even sure the locals knew the exist! We have been sailing here for months and never knew??!! With the clear day Qingdao as a city with its huge bordering mountains were exposed for the first time and it truly is quite a beautiful city.” -- http://carlwilliams30.blogspot.com/2008/08/stunner.html * The “news” website CAP (acronym for Crystal Air Productions), which is known for their parody and satire of current events, has taken a hard swipe at the sailing site for the Olympics with a story titled: “Olympic Sailing Site Cleared Of Dead Bodies”. The story begins by stating that, “According to Chinese officials, the site that will play host to the Olympic sailing events this summer is "basically" free of dead bodies that had been littering the sea off the city of Qingdao… and that the bodies that are left will be pushed down below rudder-level to ensure no boats bump into them while racing.” All of it is not true… and very harsh. -- http://www.crystalair.com/content.php?id=55200808001 PROFESSIONAL WIND FORECASTS: FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS! Want a competitive edge in your next regatta? Get a forecast from PredictWind.com - the worldwide specialists in high resolution weather modeling. For the first time ever, you can access a forecast using a model that calculates the wind at an incredible 1km resolution for your local area. High resolution equals better accuracy. The web based forecasts are easy to use, and available in maps, graphs and even a text format that is accessible on your mobile phone. It is the system that champion sailors rely upon, and until January 2009 the forecasts are free of charge: http://www.PredictWind.com SAILING SHORTS * (August 3, 2008) - Bruno Pasquinelli from the Fort Worth Boat Club in Texas won the first two races of the J/80 North American Championships, and from that point forward his well-polished team just kept extending their lead. Pasquinelli won the crown with a race to spare. Light air predominated the three-day, eight-race event hosted by the California Yacht Club in Marina del Rey, CA. Finding the pressure was frequently as important as being in phase with the shifts. Defending champion Kerry Klinger from Larchmont, New York finished second after winning a tie-breaker with Curt Johnson from the host club. -- Full report and results: http://xrl.us/omnmm * (August 3, 2008) The 36th Annual Buzzards Bay Regatta, hosted by the Beverly Yacht Club in Marion, MA, culminated today with an early afternoon surge of near perfect wind and weather. Taking place over three days, the Buzzards Bay Regatta is one of the largest multi-class regattas in the US with approximately 450 boats and 1200 sailors across fifteen different classes. Boats and sailors come to Buzzards Bay off of Cape Cod from all across the Northeast and the country as they look to enjoy the renowned sailing conditions, competition and race management. Full report: http://isailfast.blogspot.com/2008/08/for-press.html Complete results: http://www.buzzardsbayregatta.com/2008results/index.html * The Team Trophy and Family Prize winners for the 2008 Pacific Cup race from San Francisco to Hawaii were Encinal Yacht Club in Alameda, CA (with Music, Azure and Shaman) and Sapphire (including Rasumssen father and son, with the best overall corrected time) respectively. Second in the team standings were San Diego Yacht Club, while those competing for the Family Prize included Velos with three father/ daughter pairs, Green Buffalo with a family of four, and the Cayard family aboard Hula Girl. -- Complete report: http://www.pacificcup.org/08/news/pc08-pr18.html * Lysekil, Sweden (August 2, 2008) - Reigning world champion Claire Leroy performed excellent through the Match, but in the final against defending champion Swede Linda Rahm, the French woman wasn’t good enough. Linda started with two victories, Claire broke back taking two matches, and then Linda in the fifth match secured her second straight title. Lysekil Women’s Match is the world’s largest women match racing event, awarding Rahm’s winning team with SEK 100 000 (16,413.6 USD). -- For daily reports: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6170 * (August 3, 2008) - Three 50-foot trimarans and two 40-foot monohulls are now moored at the foot of the ramparts in Saint-Malo following their finish of the seventh Transat Quebec-Saint Malo (Canada to France). In the multihulls, following on from Crêpes Whaou! the runners-up in order were Imagine (Pierre Antoine) and Prince de Bretagne (Hervé Cléris), who crossed the finish line within three hours of each other. Shortly afterwards, it was time for the winning Class 40 boat, which arrived on the scene at daybreak. Halvard Mabire and his crew took line honours on board their Pogo Structures. -- Complete report: http://www.quebecsaintmalo.com/en/news.asp?id=154 * (August 3, 2008) - The four America's Cup teams present have so far dominated this UK leg of the Extreme 40 iShares Cup, with Alinghi, Team Origin, and BMW Oracle Racing’s two teams filling four of the top five slots. However, it is only the Ed Baird driven Alinghi and catamaran specialist Andreas Hagara on Holmatro that have averted the capsizes and collisions that have plagued the other team’s scores, allowing these two teams to currently hold the top two positions. Racing concludes on August 4th. -- Complete report: http://www.isharescup.com/container.asp?id=17216 * The Mean Machine Team have announced their decision to terminate their TP52 campaign for this season. After launching a new boat for this season, the team amassed finishes of 1st, 11th, 2nd, and 5th in the first four events of the Audi MedCup season championship, with two events remaining. The team was also known to be seeking sponsorship support, but it is not known if this was a factor in their decision to halt their program. The team won the season championship in 2006 and was fifth in 2007. They are currently in fourth, 63 point behind the leader. -- Complete team announcement: http://mean-machine.nl/news?id=7823 CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar WORK ON THE WATERFRONT IN NEWPORT, RI Have your office on the waterfront in a newly restored historic mill building on the International Yacht Restoration School’s campus in Newport. Join a select group of marine businesses including Boothbay Harbor Shipyard, Jamestown Distributors, and Confident Captain. Available for occupancy in February 2009. Contact Terry Nathan, mailto:tnathan@iyrs.org. -- http://www.iyrs.org LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Reader commentary is encouraged, with letters to be submitted to the Scuttlebutt editor, aka, ‘The Curmudgeon’. Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). You only get 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 John A. Glynn: With regards to the thread on weather gates, we have used them at the Bitter End Yacht Club Pro Am and Drakes Challenge Regattas (small fleets, world-class skippers) very successfully for the last 10+ years, first with Freedom 30s, and now with IC 24s. We find that it keeps the boats evenly spread out across the course, while at the same time creating interesting tactical situations, rather than simple parades. For those who want “tactically engaging and mentally challenging” racing, windward gates make all the sense in the world. In the past, it took huge leaps of faith to go from simple triangles to more interesting windward-leewards, and then from single mark set ups to gates at the leeward end and offsets at the top. Properly executed, windward gates are a logical next step for certain types of fleets and skill sets. Sailing always needs to be looking for innovation to keep things fresh. * From Dave Perry: The concept behind the windward gate is a good one. Get more boats onto the run more quickly, keeping the fleet more compressed which makes for more fun and challenging racing. This is not a new idea. The legendary Paul Elvstrom advocated the use of a windward gate and a leeward gate in his book, Expert Dinghy and Keelboat Racing, published in 1967! It took us until the mid-80’s to sincerely try and accept the leeward gate; and at first there were a lot of complaints: it was confusing to the sailors, it required more mark setting, it was not fair if it wasn’t square. But now most one-design sailors would be surprised to sail a course without a leeward gate. With a single windward mark, if you are not in the lead group, you are relegated to overstanding more and more on starboard or take the high risk of approaching the starboard-tack parade on port (often leading to disastrous results), as the leaders extend their lead. And because of the wall of boats on the offset leg, rarely does it pay to gybe at the offset mark, making the boats sail higher on starboard on the run to defend their wind, again as the leaders further extend away. One-design sailing seems to be growing again, especially in the area of one-design keelboats, and many innovations have accompanied, or helped spawn, this growth. Windward/leeward race tracks (eliminating the boring follow-the-leader, rich-get-richer reaching legs), shorter races and more of them a day, leeward gates, three-boat starting lines, and more. The windward gate is worth more experimentation. Yes there will be growing pains. -- Read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6173 => Curmudgeon’s Comment: This topic surfaced earlier this year after PRO Dave Brennan used windward gates at the Etchells Midwinters in Miami. Is this idea gaining momentum? Add your thoughts here on the Forum: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6171 * From Stephen Roffey, Nyon, Switzerland: In reply to Adrian Morgan (letter in Scuttlebutt No. 2651) and any others who accuse Larry Ellison of trying to win the Cup in court because he "can't win it on the water", I have this to say: Do you really think a man with Ellison's class and style would attempt such a thing? If Golden Gate appeal and win the case, Ellison will indeed be the "saviour" of the Cup - and not for the U.S., Adrian, but for the whole America's Cup community, the majority of whom, remember, have condemned what Bertarelli tried to do with his Protocol. Be grateful that Ellison has been prepared to spend his time and money pursuing this litigation. I have long expected that, if Ellison does win the court case, and the Deed of Gift match, he will find a way of handing the Cup back to New Zealand so that a fair competition, in which BMW-Oracle would be a challenger like any other, can be organized. Larry Ellison wouldn't want to win anything by "cheating". * From Peter Gooch, Publisher, The Valencia Life Network: From the European standpoint, these judicial goings on that validated the CNEV claim as Challenger of Record could not have come at a more confusing time, especially since ACM has now cancelled (or postponed) the contract with Valencia Town Hall. The only thing is the King Juan Carlos - himself a considerable sailing enthusiast - was apparently furious that Ernesto Bertarelli had accepted the challenge from the CNEV. The question now is, will this get the competition back onto the water? The reaction from Europe: not this year at any rate as it will all take too long to prepare. Whilst the bases in Valencia remain, the competing syndicates now have to wake up their financiers, and this in the current atmosphere of crisis may prove to be harder than it was when they first hinted at creating a syndicate. No, all in all it's a real shame that the oldest and most prestigious Cup on the yachting calendar has been dragged down like this. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION One of the benefits of growing old is in the reduction of peer pressure. Special thanks to MyBoatsGear.com, PredictWind.com, and International Yacht Restoration School. A complete list of preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
