|
SCUTTLEBUTT 1757 - January 19, 2005Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is adigest 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. TRULY AN INTERNATIONAL REGATTA Walk around the docks at Key West 2005, presented by Nautica, and you'd think you were being bombarded by a battalion of Berlitz instructors. Original or reflected in accented English, the phenomenon is as much a part of the Conch Republic atmosphere this week as the 20-knot-plus northerly winds sweeping the four race courses this week. Consider: The Farr 40 leader after 3 of 9 scheduled races is Dutchman Peter De Ridder's Mean Machine, which swapped wins Tuesday with German runner-up Hasso Plattner, each with a New Zealand tactician, Tom Dotson and Russell Coutts, respectively. The PHRF-1 class's undefeated leader is Japanese industrialist Makoto Uematsu's Transpac 52, Esmeralda, with America's Ken Read calling tactics for Uematsu and alternate helmsman Tom Lihan. The Melges 24 leader is Philippe Kahn's Pegasus 575, driven by San Diego's Bill Hardesty, with Sweden's Freddy Loof and America's 48-year-old Olympic golden boy, Kevin Burnham, on the crew. At 1-6-1, they're one point ahead of Italy's Maspero Giovanni's Joe Fly, with Gabrio Zandona driving and American Morgan Larson as tactician. Kahn, meanwhile, a native of France long settled in Santa Cruz, Calif., and Hawaii, is driving his Farr 40---Pegasus 80808---in fourth place, which combined with Peg 575's score puts the USA West team in first place in the International Team Competition for the Nautica Trophy. For Plattner, 4-1-4 so far, Key West 2005 is a major step toward the Farr 40 Worlds in Sydney in March. Coutts will continue with the team through that event, then switch to Plattner's maxZ86 for the Centennial Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii in July. "We're trying to do all the little things better," Plattner said, smiling. "We're sailing well, but it's only been two days." Coutts said, "Hasso was driving very well. We had good speed, I think we learned something about our downwind sails Monday." - Rich Roberts, Complete results: www.Premiere-Racing.com Check out the amazing regatta images: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/keywest EXTENSIVE SUPPORT T-Systems, the business customer brand of Deutsche Telekom, is 'Official Chief Sponsor' of the South African America's Cup Team Shosholoza. The Team Shosholoza ACC boat will bear the T-Systems logo and will receive extensive support in the areas of information and communications technology and marketing. T-Systems' R100 million investment in Team Shosholoza over a period of three years makes it one of one of the largest international investments in a South African sports team and certainly one of the biggest sponsorships in local sailing. The goal of the South African team is to make it to the quarter finals. - www.sachallenge.com * T-Systems' involvement is two-fold. As well as the cash injection - which will go some way to taking care of the estimated €20-million budget Shosholoza is working on through to Valencia in 2007 - T-Systems will oversee the set-up and workings of Jacaranda, a company created to run all marketing and publicity for Shosholoza. Captain Salvatore Sarno, Managing Director of Shosholoza,also said that the deal would allow three boats to be present in Valencia - the two boats that will constitute the actual America's Cup challenge, and a third, smaller boat to be staffed by young development sailors from Cape Town, giving them the chance to experience the event first-hand. The first new boat is well under construction, designer Jason Ker promising a yacht that "won't disappear over the horizon, but won't be left behind either. It should offer the crew a level playing for this year." "Shosholoza will stay Shosholoza," Sarno stated firmly. "T-Systems never asked for a change of name - Shosholoza is what they like, what they want, and what they are getting." And Wolfgang Jakob reiterated that sentiment. "We're not just a brand on the hull," the T-Systems CEO said. "We want to be a partner.- http://sport.iafrica.com/news/404632.htm ORYX QUEST 2005 Skipper Brian Thompson today revealed details of the 12 sailors who will join him in racing Qatar 2006 non-stop around the world in Oryx Quest 2005. The maxi-catamaran re-entered the water at the weekend after a month-long refit at the Q-Ship Fabrication Yard in Messaied, Qatar, where she has undergone a thorough overhaul under the supervision of Thompson and boat captain Jonny Malbon. "Fortunately we've found the boat to be in very good shape structurally, and have concentrated on renewing and checking basic equipment and saving as much weight as possible," Thompson said. "The engines have been replaced with smaller generators, which require us to carry much less fuel; we have a complete new set of running rigging, new computers and refurbished navigation systems, and brand new sails - probably the best she's ever had. I'd say Qatar 2006 is as competitive now as she's ever been in her racing career." Malbon will remain aboard for the race, joining Thompson as the only other Briton in a very strong multi-national team. Principal watch captains Damian Foxall (Ireland) and Jacques Vincent (France) re-join Thompson from Steve Fossett's blistering 58 day record run around the world in 2004, as does New Zealander Fraser Brown. From the ORMA 60' multihull circuit come leading French skippers Thomas Coville, who is also third watch captain, and Karine Fauconnier, while Australian Sydney-Hobart Race and Global Challenge veteran Will Oxley will occupy the key position of navigator. Fellow-countryman Paul Larsen will be taking time off from his Sailrocket water-speed record project, and swelling the Kiwi contingent are double Olympic campaigner Sharon Ferris and bowman Andy Meicklejohn. Specialist boatbuilder Stan Delbarre from France and Swedish Volvo Race/America's Cup/ORMA sailor Jonas Wackenhuth complete the line-up. Qatar 2006 will start sailing and fine-tuning by the beginning of next week, in readiness for the race against Cheyenne, Daedalus and Geronimo in the Tracy Edwards-inspired Oryx Quest 2005 on February 5. - www.qisel.com/ NEW ENGLAND ROPES INTRODUCES FLIGHT LINE AT KWRW Serious dinghy and one-design racers have been waiting for a product like Flight Line. This super lightweight, high strength, and low stretch line has a beefy core of 100% braided Dyneema surrounded by a braided jacket of braided polyolefin. Flight Line is spliceable, taperable, floats indefinitely in both salt & freshwater, and comes in a variety of colors (with color-matched cores) to make rigging easy. For more information contact New England Ropes at 800-333-6679 or visit our website, http://www.neropes.com VENDÉE GLOBE The top trio (Riou/ Le Cam/ Golding) are currently sailing in fairly established South-Easterly trade winds. They are 180 miles South of the equator in Easterly winds and around a day's sailing from what looks like a fairly uncomplicated passage of the Doldrums. A relaxed sounding Vincent Riou (PRB) is apparently happy with his game plan. "We're moving along steadily. It's grey and I've got 18 knots of wind on the beam. It's too hot - 45 degrees down below and the nights are too long and make trimming more difficult. Leaders at 1900 GMT January 18: 1. PRB, Vincent Riou, 3293 miles to finish 2. Bonduelle, Jean Le Cam, 116 miles to leader 3. Ecover, Mike Golding, 241 mtl 4. VMI, Sébastien Josse, 1101 mtl 5. Temenos, Dominique Wavre, 1118 mtl 6. Virbac-Paprec, Jean-Pierre Dick 2353 mtl 7. Skandia, Nick Moloney, 2844 mtl 8. Arcelor Dunkerque, Joé Seeten, 3231 mtl 9. Hellomoto, Conrad Humphreys, 3798 mtl 10. Ocean Planet, Bruce Schwab, 3905 mtl Complete standings: www.vendeeglobe.fr/uk/ HIGH SPEED COLLISION FOR SKANDIA "I had a high speed collision with something really hard during the night, definitely not a fish, more like a log, but something very big. I was on deck taking a reef, as I've got between 25 and 38 knots of wind, and I was in cockpit we slammed in. It was like running aground, the bow went completely underwater, just a horrendous crash. Only thing I could inspect was the rudders and they were fine, but I'm sure it hit the rudders...it felt like we skipped over some rocks. Very heavy impact. Really slowed the boat up, when it gets daylight I'll take a better look. The worst bit was that you suddenly become overpowered, the boats nose-dived, and you don't know what to release first. You are knocked off your feet, it's all a bit of a ********. I'm now sleeping with my feet forward again" - Nick Maloney, Skandia, www.nickmoloney.com QUOTE / UNQUOTE "It's like going from one extreme to the other, every storm is followed by a calm, I'm in one very big calm at the moment and don't seem to be able to find an escape route for 12 or even 24 hours. I'm 100 miles from Cape Horn, and on current progress it's 100 hours away!. The wind is driving me inshore at the moment and in 12 hours it's going to be completely different so I can't be specific as to my ETA. I'm doing 3 knots in light headwinds." - Conrad Humphreys, Hellomoto, www.conradhumphreys.com MASSIVE FRUSTRATION At 22:00 Tuesday, B&Q was almost becalmed. "It seems like we are chasing a front that is moving away from us, we're going nowhere," Ellen MacArthur said. Massive frustration for Ellen, after an uncomfortable ride towards the front with lumpy seas and light winds. Yet no release as the front seems to be escaping. The clock keeps on ticking. Could be at least 12 hours before Ellen can manage to get close to the front and tackle the thunderstorms that will mark the exit to more stable northerly wind on the other side. Both Ellen MacArthur and her 75-foot multihull B&Q are extremely fatigued and suffering from wear and tear after covering over 21,000 miles of the course so far. As the weather trials continue unabated with three major hurdles to contend with in just 72 hours. "The sea conditions are terrible - got a headsea coming from the north and we are just leaping off waves and falling 3-4 meters," she reported. "The waves are right on the nose of the boat and we're getting thrown around quite violently so it's not much fun at the moment. It will be nice to punch through to the other side of this and actually start making some decent progress to the north albeit slow." On the other side of the front, lies the final third weather obstacle predicted for this 72 hour period - strong north-westerly upwinds, although Commanders' Weather are hoping these will not be as strong as the 30 knots forecast yesterday. The time Ahead/ Behind is now being calculated as the time it took Francis Joyon to reach the same Distance to Finish as Ellen at her current position - this now stands at 3 days and 9 hours. - www.teamellen.com A PICTURE IS WORTH 1000 WORDS... There is just no way to describe with words how unbelievable the Dryshirts™ are so we have created some pictures and short video on this revolutionary product. If you have been trying to figure out how the Dryshirt™ is different from a Nike dryfit, coolmax or other shirts that just wicks water away, you'll immediately see the difference once you watch the shirt in action. Dryshirts™ are breathable, repel water, and have an SPF of 50 immersed or dry. Customized team shirts with your club or team logo available. Video, pictures and dealer info: call 1(800) 354-7245 or http://www.sailingproshop.com/dryshirt.htm NEWS BRIEFS * The Pacific Cup board unanimously approved my motion last night to allow multihulls to enter the 2006 Pacific Cup Race from San Francisco to Hawaii. Entry limits and qualifications have not yet been set. - www.pacificcup.org/ * An all-time record of more than 250 sailing program directors, organizers, and volunteers traveled from across the country to Miami, Fla to attend US Sailing's National Sailing Programs Symposium, presented by Vanguard Sailboats. The Symposium is designed to encourage program organizers of any level to share ideas and learn more about running effective, fun, and safe sailing programs. The five days (Jan 16-20) were filled with educational seminars, hands-on sailing activities, and numerous networking opportunities. Sessions covered a wide range of topics, including curriculum development, building and managing travel teams, risk management, fleet maintenance, college sailing, and much more. - www.ussailing.org/training/nsps/2005/index.htm * Three days of intense action at the Schroder's London Boat Show last weekend proved yet again that windsurfing can be an excellent spectator sport with incredible freestyle, sensational slalom and insane jump competition. 3,000 fans enjoyed the finals, where the pros pushed the level up while risking injury on the jump ramp. Photos and story at: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/pwa-lbs/ * Team ABN Amro will start testing and fine-tuning the boat for their bid in the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-2006. The crewmembers of the first boat are professionals, personally selected by skipper Mike Sanderson (New Zealand) and technical director Roy Heiner: Stan Honey - Navigator (USA); Brad Jackson - Watch Captain (New Zealand) ; Mark Christensen - Watch Captain (New Zealand); Tony Mutter - Helmsman Trimmer (New Zealand); Robert Greenhalgh - Helmsman Trimmer (UK); Sidney Gavignet - Helmsman Trimmer (France); David Endean - Trimmer Pitman (New Zealand); Jan Dekker - Bowman (France); Justin Slattery - Bowman (Ireland). - www.abnamro.com/team * The Mariantic America's Cup website has posted a "report" that the three One World Challenge America's Cup boats - USA56, USA65 & USA67 - have been bought by the Spanish Desafio Iberdrola (ex El Reto) syndicate. ESP65 & ESP67 are being converted to v5 and plan to sail in February. There is no indication of where the conversion is happening or to who's design, which makes the story a bit doubtful, not unlike a lot of the Spanish Challenge story. - www.mariantic.co.uk/ac/six.htm#nogo * Correction: The Storm Trysail and Lauderdale Yacht Clubs extend their apologies to Mr. Schaumloffel of Virginia Beach, Va. and his crew aboard the Hobie 33 Mirage, who indeed captured first overall in fleet at the Fort Lauderdale to Key West Race. "This was a big achievement for us," Schaumloffel said. "For most of the race we were ahead of many of the B-fleet boats, including both Beneteau 40.7s, and saw our fastest speed ever in the boat at 20.9 knots. The second-place boat, Bandana, finished behind us by a little over an hour and 15 minutes." - www.keywestrace.org/ EVENT CALENDAR A comprehensive calendar on the Scuttlebutt website provides event organizers and participants with a single source for event information. A shared database, managed by Regattadates.com and used also by Sailing World magazine, provides user-friendly access for events to input their information. Additionally, one-design classes can transfer their complete event calendar directly into the system. For the sailor, the Scuttlebutt Event Calendar provides a literal buffet of regatta options. Available 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 Christian Fevrier: Obviously the website conceived by Offshore Challenges to follow the Ellen MacArthur's attempt to beat the Francis Joyon's record is one of the most efficient tool ever offered to follow a race. You can see the instant speed of the boat! However, to estimate the gap between the two boats, the very skilled shore team uses an interpolation based on the "whole" performance of Francis Joyon. The method is not perfect and introduces a little bias. As an example, on Tuesday 18 January (Day 52), the Ellen's lead was announced on the website as 3 days and 14 hours. As we have the two boats in line in the Atlantic, I guess it should be more correct to calculate the orthodromic distance between the two boats at the same hour. The result depicts the exact difference "on the water". On Tuesday 18 at 20h GMT, we were lucky to have the data for both boats at the same hour. From my calculations, the orthodromic distance was 729 nautical miles only. Interestingly, between Day 52 and Day 57 in the south Atlantic, Joyon has a daily average of 334 miles. In result, I personally estimate the gap at more and less 2 days. With the northerlies wind blowing right in the nose of Castorama, the gap should be drastically reduced next Thursday night. What a suspense ! * From Christian Jensen (Regarding weigh-in and weight loss programs): Is kind of disturbs me to read about the lengths some people will go through to weigh in just below the limit and then re-hydrate/ bulk up just after stepping off the scale. In best case it is very uncomfortable and in worst case it can cause serious consequences. But worst of all is the fact that when a race/ class has weight limits they actually apply throughout the regatta and racing at a higher weight than allowed is cheating. I know that the NOR/ SI may not allow for spot checks of weight through the regatta in many cases and rely only on the initial weigh-in - but it is still cheating. Agree with Skip Doyle - it is taking sailing too seriously to devote too much time on perfecting weight shedding. Or maybe being too hungry for pickle dishes. Sailing is a Corinthian sport where the competitors are supposed to enforce the rules upon themselves and take the appropriate penalty when breaking any of the rules. If you are routinely overweight two hours after the weigh in you should seriously think about whether you are in the right sport. * From Cole Price: I've been following the discourse concerning rating rules, particularly the evolution of IRC. Most of the articles that I've read discuss IRC's rapid growth and strengths when compared with other VPP based systems such IMS, IOR and Americap. Yet, the most popular rating rule for keel boats in the world today and for the last 25 years is PHRF. PHRF does not rely upon a VPP to determine handicap. It has proven extremely successful and outlived many VPP based systems. This is because PHRF ratings are based upon observed, rather than theoretical performance. Factors such as historical differences in finish time, boat preparation, sail inventory, crew competency, etc., are all considered when developing ratings. However, PHRF's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness; the ratings are subjective. But, PHRF invites its members to "police" the ratings, as any member can request that their rating, or the rating of any other boat be reviewed and considered for adjustment based upon actual performance on the race course. PHRF is a very inexpensive system to race under, with certificates costing only $20 to $50 per year, depending upon location. Yet, a review of corrected finish times shows that PHRF ratings work. I've seen many instances where dissimilar boats that are well sailed correct to within a few seconds for races covering many miles. PHRF is being employed successfully around the world at regattas ranging from small/local to large/world class. At Key West Race Week, if you're not sailing one-design, you're racing PHRF. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Bernadette: The act of torching a mortgage. |
