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SCUTTLEBUTT 2810 - Friday, March 27, 2009Scuttlebutt 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. Today's sponsors are North U, PredictWind.com, and Rick Tomlinson. SALLY BARKOW: OLYMPIC PAST AND FUTURE Sally Barkow won the US SAILING Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year award in 2005 and 2007, based largely on the tremendous success she and her Team 7 Sailing teammates - Debbie Capozzi and Carrie Howe - had garnered as they prepared for the women’s keelboat event at the 2008 Olympics. Sally’s team was a huge medal favorite in the event, and with only the medal race to go, the bronze medal was theirs to lose. Unfortunately, that is what happened, and after hit marks and jury penalties, they finished seventh overall. Here Sally discusses what she is doing now: * Where are you now and what are you up to? Sally Barkow: “After the Olympics, I took a bit of time off, now I am working for Frank Atkinson at Rigging Systems, in Miami. They helped us with custom work during the last Olympics and helped Betsy Alison during her campaign for the previous Olympics. Rigging Systems is pretty dialed in on tech issues and have a good rigging shop that focuses on the details that make a difference. I am focusing on sales for them and racing in various one-design classes as well as preparing for the match race circuit. Visit www.riggingsystems.net” * Do you intend to compete for the 2012 Olympic match racing slot? Sally Barkow: “As well as working for Rigging Systems I will continue to sail a lot, specifically I will race on the international match race circuit, both open and women’s events. My ultimate goal is to create the first professional international women’s sailing team to compete on the open Match Race World Tour, but we have a lot of work to do first to achieve this. Realizing it is not easy to make a transition from Olympic sailing to pro sailing, or even big boat racing for women, it would be great to create a pathway for the future and be able to get more women into pro sailing. “I have been match racing for the past 6 years just because I love it, so that will not change just because it has gone Olympic. I think it is great for women in the sport and, yes there has been a slight resistance with getting it all going (very typical at the beginning of a quad when new equipment has been selected). I know things will fall into line and it will be a good change and this change will intensify the level of women’s sailing and match racing. As for me, I’m hoping that what I am doing now will prepare me for 2012.” * How different is the approach going to be for the Olympic match race event as compared to the keelboat event? -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/0325 WILL THE MULTIHULL GET BACK INTO THE 2012 OLYMPICS? Carolijn Brouwer is a talented sailor who has competed in three Olympic Games in three different classes. Most recently she was steering the Tornado in Qingdao, the only woman in the fleet. The Belgian sailor is also President of the International Tornado Association (ITA), and so the SailJuice website contacted Brouwer to find out the latest on the possibility of a multihull getting back into the Olympics for Weymouth 2012. SailJuice (SJ): Hi Carolijn, what do you know? Carolijn Brouwer (CB): The IOC have a meeting around the middle of August when the 11th medal should be discussed. The ISAF mid-year meeting is coming up in May in Poland, and the ITA has put in a submission to ISAF concerning the 11th medal and the multihull and Tornado. The problem with the mid-year meeting is that only submissions deemed urgent will be considered, that's up to ISAF Executive to decide. In November in Madrid, Goran Petersson said that November this year would be too late to decide on equipment for an 11th medal, and he thought it would be better if this was decided in May. So if they consider what Goran said, then it should be discussed properly at the mid-year meeting. -- Read on: http://www.sailjuice.com/articles/carolijn-brouwer-11th-medal SPRING SPECIAL Just in time to brush up for sailing season, North U is offering Free Shipping to Scuttlebutt Readers on all mail orders placed by the end of March. This deal applies to the full line of North U Books and CDs, as well as books, CDs and DVDs from Dave Perry, John Rousmaniere and Tucker Thompson. Free shipping for US. Half price to Canada. (Sorry, does not apply for overseas shipping or express delivery.) Add “Scuttlebutt Free Shipping” to comments and we’ll deduct the shipping fee before processing charges. 800-347-2457 or http://www.northu.com HISTORY, HOSPITALITY AND THE OLD FARTS (March 26, 2009) Many pasty white New Englanders left snow and chilly winds behind and took a direct flight to sunshine and paradise to be greeted by island hospitality and their friends from St. Thomas Yacht Club, Rolex and Yacht Haven Grande. The 2009 International Rolex Regatta begins on Friday and runs through Sunday and over 65 boats full of sun seekers and wind worshippers are registered. As always, a world-class race committee that lends its talent to so many regattas in Southeast Florida and the Caribbean is here also, even Arthur “Tuna” Wullschleger is here with his International Jury. Reportedly Wullschleger is 92 years old. While he may not be as nimble as he used to be at getting around in a boat, he is still sharp as a tack. I’m not sure that Wulfslager would ever deign to be called an “old fart”, but there are a group of self-proclaimed old farts at the St. Thomas Yacht Club. They even have a sign on the wall inside the clubhouse that reads “STYCOF” – St. Thomas Yacht Club Old Farts. Everyday the old farts gather for their coffee and solve the world’s issues. When it comes to sailing, however, they are much more than a bunch of windbags blowing hot air. -- Lynn Fitzpatrick, read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/0326 FINAL FOUR NEARLY DECIDED Long Beach, CA (Mar. 26, 2009) - A recent series of small earthquakes in the California desert not far away was felt on the water here Thursday. How else to explain the virtual tsunami that swept over the Long Beach Yacht Club's 45th Congressional Cup and turned the battle for the Crimson Blazer upside down? Ben Ainslie lost all five of his races and all but toppled from contention for reaching Saturday's semifinals. Yes, that Ben Ainslie, the ISAF World Sailor of the Year and triple Olympic gold medalist. "Can we [still] get to the top four?" he asked at the dock. That tale will be told Friday in the last three of 18 rounds as Ainslie goes to work with an 8-7 record trying to overtake three rivals---France's Mathieu Richard, the 2007 winner; New Zealand's Adam Minoprio, who just won the World Match Racing Tour opener at Marseille, and Italy's Francesco Bruni, a late entry---who share second place at 10-5. Terry Hutchinson, the 1992 winner and 2008 MedCup champion for Quantum Racing, is in at 13-2 but not mathematically assured of finishing first. -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/0326b * Terry Hutchinson has a lot of reasons to smile these days. Following his accomplishments on the water in 2008, he won the Rolex U.S. Yachtsman of the Year award. Now he is on the endorsement circuit... http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2009/03/terrys-alliances.html NATIONS CUP GRAND FINAL The 2009 International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Nations Cup Grand Final - a global competition to find the world’s top match racing nation - are being held this week in Porto Alegre, Brazil, with Dave Perry (USA) and Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) representing North America. Here is Anna’s latest report: (Mar. 26, 2009) - Today was our lay-day of racing. As we advanced to the semi-finals on Wednesday, the repechage was held today to decide who the fourth person in the semi’s would be. After a long postponement for lack of breeze, the fleet finally went out and started racing around 1:30pm. Three flights were sailed, and the winner of the round was Great Briton’s Lucy Macgregor. Lucy will join the top three finishers from the first round robin in the semi-finals. The top four teams are us, Claire Leroy from France, Giulia Conti from Italy, and Lucy. -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/0326a * Sadly for Dave Perry’s team of John Loe, Dean Brenner, and Chris Museler, they went 0-3 on Thursday to finish the event in seventh out of ten teams. -- Full report: http://johnloe.com/2009/03/26/isaf-nations-cup-final Event site: http://www.sailing.org/nations-cup.php EXPERT WIND FORECASTS - FREE 1 MONTH TRIAL! Want a competitive edge in your next regatta? Use a forecast from PredictWind.com! We are the choice of champion sailors around the world...read about it at http://www.predictwind.com/Customer+Feedback.html Using proprietary technology we generate 2 independent forecasts twice daily. For Offshore Sailors we generate 7 day forecasts with truly global coverage. For Inshore Sailors we use an incredible 1km resolution model with local topography to generate a forecast of unparalleled accuracy for your sailing area. High resolution equals better accuracy. Get your FREE 1 month trial at http://www.PredictWind.com AN UNLIKELY WINNER (Mar. 26, 2009; Day 41) - Ericsson 3 has finally crossed the Volvo Ocean Race finish line in Rio De Janeiro to win Leg 5. After an agonizing march to glory, Swedish skipper Magnus Olsson and his men officially finished at 10:37:57 GMT. On arrival, a jubilant Olsson, buoyed by the result, said: "It's unbelievable. We had a fantastic strategy when we needed it. Aksel (Magdahl) did a fantastic job on that. We executed that strategy in a very good way. We were so tired but we were fighting on with tremendous spirit right to the end, everybody worked well with each other. And, finally, we nursed the boat really well and didn't have any breakdowns." Ericsson 3 started eight half hours behind the scheduled starters after a pit stop for repairs in Taiwan en route to the leg start in Qingdao. Olsson admitted the victory seemed a long way off at the time. "We didn't look like a winner then," he said. "Getting there (Qingdao) tired, carbon dust all over the boat and eight hours late and a few guys new in the crew and all that, but we managed to turn it around, it's fantastic, it really is." -- Read on: http://linkbee.com/L23Y Crewed around the world race in VO 70’s, with ten distance legs and seven In-Port races. Leg Five from Qingdao, China to Rio de Janiero, Brazil is 12,300 nm. Current positions (as of Mar. 26, 10:15 pm GMT): 1. Ericsson 3 (SWE), Magnus Olsson/SWE, Finished Mar. 26, 10:37:57 GMT 2. Ericsson 4 (SWE), Torben Grael/BRA, 5 nm Distance to Finish 3. PUMA (USA), Ken Read/USA, 54 nm DTF 4. Green Dragon (IRL/CHN), Ian Walker/GBR, 376 nm DTF 5. Telefónica Blue (ESP), Bouwe Bekking/NED, 547 nm DTF Telefonica Black (ESP), Fernando Echavarri/ESP, Did Not Start Delta Lloyd (IRL), Roberto Bermudez/ESP, DNS Team Russia (RUS), Andreas Hanakamp/AUT, DNS Event website: http://www.volvooceanrace.org Overall scores: http://www.volvooceanrace.org/rdc/#tab4 Race tracking: http://volvooceanrace.geovoile.com WHERE IS ZAC? Where in the world is Zac Sunderland? Unfortunately, the 17-year-old from Thousand Oaks (near Los Angeles) has been stuck in St. Helena, an island in the South Atlantic, for more than two weeks, trying to complete repairs and get on with an endeavor that now appears in jeopardy. Sunderland set out from Marina del Rey last June intent on becoming the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe. During his voyage, a slightly younger sailor from England embarked upon a similar quest in a larger, faster boat, and threatens to upstage his Yankee counterpart. More frustrating for Zac, as he strives to fix a mysterious engine problem and repair his self-steering unit, is that time suddenly is of the essence. His journey was so carefree not long ago, featuring lengthy stops in exotic ports. Now Zac must find a sturdy wind and stick to the task at hand. He'll sail more than 4,000 miles across the Atlantic and into the Caribbean. Ultimately, he'll pass through through the Panama canal and embark upon a 2,970-mile uphill journey to Southern California. -- LA Times, read on: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/outposts/2009/03/zac-sunderland.html SAILING SHORTS * (Mar. 26, 2009) - After many years of trying, Richard Jenkins, a mechanical engineer from England, today, March 26, has taken his Greenbird to 126.4 mph (to be verified by Bob Dill at NALSA) in 30 to 40 mph winds on a dusty Ivanpah Dry Lake at Primm, NV during the NALSA Pacrim 2009 Championships and America's Landsailing Cup Regatta. The previous record of Bob Schumacher and Bob Dill from 1999 of 116.7 mph in the Iron Duck has been raised. Racing for over 80 pilots will continue on Friday at the regatta. -- Full report with photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/0327a * Georgetown and Charleston are the top-ranked college coed and women’s sailing teams, respectively, in the Sailing World College rankings as of March 25th. Full list here: http://linkbee.com/L23Z * (Mar. 26, 2009) - The New York Court of Appeals did not issue an America’s Cup decision today, with the next possible date for a decision to be March 31st. Valencia, Spain’s Public Administrations Minister Elena Salgado publicly demanded the expulsion of BMW Oracle from their base in Valencia if they lose their legal case. She added that what they want is for the bases to be used by the teams participating in the Cup, and BMW has not signed on and therefore their base could be used by someone else. -- Valencia Life Network, mailto:publisher@valencialife.net PHOTOS OF THE WEEK Some of the random photos from the sport received this week at Scuttlebutt include juniors training and Vipers planning; northern and southern hemisphere contrast; Rio at last; and 17 images to show you how much fun March sailing can be in Italy. If you have images you would like to share, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor. Here are this week’s photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/09/0327 RICK TOMLINSON PHOTOS ONLINE FROM ACURA MIAMI GRAND PRIX The Acura Miami Grand Prix was a great photographic event and photographer Rick Tomlinson has put all his images online in a searchable format. Free shipping on all photographs to the USA. Check them out at http://www.rick-tomlinson.com VIDEO OF THE WEEK Helmetcams and other types of mini video cameras are exposing us to all sorts of sailing craft. This week we are going to do some Freeskate Ice Sailing, or at least this may be the closest we will ever get to actually doing it. Think windsurfer rig attached to a skateboard with ice runners, and silently sailing across frozen legs. Click here for this week’s video: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/09/0327 * If you have a video you like, please send your suggestion for next week’s Video of the Week to mailto:craig@sailingscuttlebutt.com * If you are curious about the people that were involved in last week’s Video of the Week (iceboating segment that was shown on ABC News), we received an email from Mark Kiefer, Founder of the World IceRacing Circuit, who provided some of the details: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/09/0320 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 Chris Welsh, owner of Ragtime: (re, letter this week) Another thought as to whether the Transpac's, both Hawaii and Tahiti, are true ocean crossings. I've sailed on all the way down to New Zealand too, but the paths to Hawaii and Tahiti are unique, and quaint is not really a fair description. Sailing with islands, anchorages, food, fuel, and medical resources around is vastly different from what you see (and worry about) getting from Los Angeles to the two island chains. LA to Tahiti was significantly more challenging to prepare for than LA - Honolulu. Sailing from Tahiti on to New Zealand after the race was a walk in the park by comparison in terms of logistics, knowing we had alternatives available. And at 2200 and 3500 miles respectively, the two Transpacs are both further than a Atlantic crossing. And John Jourdane's upcoming 51st crossing will total over two years at sea... plus the other sailing he has done. It's a formidable record. All this being said, I was impressed to see trophies for the Auckland- Rio race at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron. As most of the runnings were pre-watermaker, gps, etc, the route and past winners struck me as pretty hardy. I think it is on the order of 4,000 miles plus. Not quite related, but Thursday morning, Ragtime was at 04 20 S, 160 20 W sailing towards Honolulu and I'm still hoping she'll make LA in time for the Ensenada Race. Unfortunately, I'm manning the desk for the moment though. * From Gunther E. Hering, Hamburg, Germany: (re, America’s Cup report in #2809) Congratulations to Ms. Elena Salgado for making the only proper and ethical decision regarding Bertarelli, Team Alinghi and ACM. They are not fit to defend or participate in any future America’s Cup competition. We all can only hope that the New York State Court of Appeal has the wisdom to decide promptly and correctly. Gary Jobson’s recent commentary (in #2804) is spot on. * From Maurice Cusick, Esq., Newport, RI: (re, America’s Cup saga) We should just start from scratch. I will pay the local tin smith (we have one) to make a new cup. Let's invite all the countries to just come to Newport in 2010 in sixty four footers. We already have docks. We will get Ida Lewis YC to do race committee. You have to sail it here on its own bottom, just like when I was a kid. Then we will sail and race sailboats. Simple, really. Old school baby. APRIL FOOLS WRITING ASSIGNMENT In anticipation of April 1st, Scuttlebutt is hosting an April Fools writing assignment. There are countless themes to choose - just scroll through recent issues of Scuttlebutt and put your own absurd twist to any event… or make up your own. We will publish every story (without the author’s name), and dig into the prize bin for the most worthy. To allow you to cover all the relevant “news”, the deadline has been extended until 12:00 pm Pacific Time on Tuesday, March 31st. Send stories to the Scuttlebutt editor at mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION “Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.” - Warren Buffett Special thanks to North U, PredictWind.com, and Rick Tomlinson. A complete list of preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
