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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 818 - May 18, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
WORRELL 1000 - by Zack Leonard It was cold and rainy as the boats shoved off the beach. Alexander's stuffed Guidant, reaching over them and then hardening up and pinching on Guidant's air. Tommy Bahama and Castrol reached out away from the shore into better wind and flew a hull without the crew on the wire. The wind was stronger farther from the shore, but boats that head off shore will sail more distance. (The fleet will be on the water for more than 12 hours. At publication time, we had no report about the finish.) Event website: www.worrell1000.com
US SAILING TEAM Team rankings are based on attendance and performance at a series of qualifying regattas determined by the individual class. In the highly competitive Star class, with only one point separating the teams ranked first through fourth, two tie-breaking methods were employed to determine the rankings. The following members of the 2001 US Sailing Team are listed in ranking order one through five: Named by the Star class: 2000 Etchells World Champion Vince Brun and Mike Dorgan (both San Diego, Calif.); 1998 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Paul Cayard (San Francisco, Calif.) and 1992 Star Olympic Gold Medallist Hal Haenel (Los Angeles, Calif.); 2001 Miami Olympic Classes Regatta Champions John MacCausland (Cherry Hill, N.J.) and Sean Delaney (Harrisburg, Penn.); 2000 Olympic Gold Medallists Mark Reynolds (San Diego, Calif.) and Magnus Liljedahl (Miami, Fla.); and 2000 IMS World Champion Terry Hutchinson and Andrew Scott (both Annapolis, Md.). The US Sailing Team, created in 1986 to recruit and develop athletes for upcoming Olympiads, annually distinguishes the top-five ranked sailors in each of nine classes (11 divisions) chosen for Olympic competition. For 2004 those classes (divisions) are: Europe (women); Finn (men); 470 (men and women); Laser (open); Mistral (men and women); 49er, Star, Tornado (all open); and Yngling (women). The 2004 Olympic Regatta is scheduled for August 13-29, in Athens, Greece. Membership on the US Sailing Team identifies sailors as strong contenders for an Olympic berth and provides them with coaching, training opportunities and financial assistance in addition to national recognition. - Jan Harley
OLYMPICS
IN PURSUIT OF SPEED - By Dan Dickison Right now there are numerous other speed seeking syndicates out there, each following their own path toward achieving blazing speed across the water. Someone, somewhere, will eventually harness the wind sufficiently well to exceed 50 knots. Dan Dickison examines a number of these efforts in a fascinating piece posted on the SailNet website. He has the stories and images of some truly extraordinary speed machines. Speed freaks will enjoy this one a lot: www.sailnet.com
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT Official records in the world of speed sailing are broken down into classes by virtue of sail area. Simon McKeon and Tim Daddo set the outright speed record in October of 1993 aboard the famed Yellow Pages Endeavour in Sandy Point, Australia-46.52 knots-when the boat was configured as a C-Class vessel. The other existing records include:
* 10 square Meter Class, Thierry Bielak, 45.34 knots On land, the current speed-sailing record-116.7 mph-is held by Bob Schumacher and Bob Dill aboard Iron Duck, a 39-foot, fixed-wing, slewed landsailer. The record on ice allegedly stands at 145 mph, though that remains unconfirmed. www.sailnet.com
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Patrick Broderick: As a former Commodore of the Singlehanded Sailing Society of San Francisco Bay, I must comment on the solo sailor issue. The SSS has sponsored an biennial race from S. F. to Kaua'i for nearly three decades. Competitors have included Mark Rudiger, Stan Honey, Peter Hogg, and Steve Fossett, along with others. No serious ship/solo sailor incidents have occurred. Solo sailors have, however, reported ships without lights, bridges that don't respond to VHF radio calls, and similar "non attention" situations. By the way, all participants must complete a 400-mile qualifier in the boat they will sail to Hawaii -- and, demonstrate they can find themselves with the sextant and tables -- before their entry is accepted. * From Doug Schickler: Sorry to see the thread of whether single handing is "safe" or legal transformed into whether or not freighters have watch-standers. They do, always. Safe is relative, the law is not - that is the issue for Vendee sailors and Butt readers. For purely economic reasons, because millions are on the line, ocean going ships always have an officer on the bridge. Safe to say you'd find them practicing celestial navigation, checking batteries on GPS's and, of course, drinking coffee. I for one would like to see this thread return to sailing or end. CURMUDGEON'S COMMENT: That sounds like a reasonable request - this thread is now officially dead.
MAST TUNING The basics of boat tuning are fairly straightforward; the most powerful set up required is in light to moderate conditions - when the wind has enough speed to stay attached to the sail but the crew are nearly but not yet fully hiking/trapezing. For most boats this is in the range of 7-11 knots. Below 6 knots and above 12 the shape of the sail will be flatter and more open - in the lighter breeze this is to allow the sail to keep the airflow attached and not cause stalling, and in higher wind it is to prevent the boat being totally overpowered and staggering/capsizing in gusts. A typical example of this would be the use of mast rake to regulate power. When it's windy and a boat is overpowered, using large amounts of aft facing slope (rake) will, by virtue of the change in angle of the leading edge of that sail, cause the generated force to act on the rig with a vertical component. As the boom is to leeward this force pushes up from the leeward side of the boat so there is less resultant force pushing the boat over. Equally the more power required the more upright the mast should be set. On most boats the position of the mast step is fixed (within a few mm) and the point at which it is fixed in relation to the centerboard dictates the most upright it is possible to set the mast. The mast may only go upright to the point where the helm has still got a little weather helm. (Weather helm is the tendency for the boat to luff up when the helm is released with the boat being sailed upright.) Much more mast rake would generally be required above 12 knots. The amount of rake will be proportional to the amount the boat is over powered. Spreaders are the key to power in the mainsail. The straighter the mast is, the more depth will appear in the aerofoil section, so increasing power output from the main sail. The amount of mast bend required will depend on the shape locked into the sail when it was built (Luff curve and fullness). If we return to the idea of maximum power required when the rig is only just up to full power and the crew not fully stretched- when the main is sheeted in hard the leech telltales should just stall. When a little twist (ease on main or ease+car up) is introduced the tell tales should start to fly. In lighter winds this may only be intermittent. Therefore, if the tell tales need much encouragement the sail is probably to deep, if they always fly it's too flat. Full story: www.boatmagic.com
CHALLENGE MONDIAL ASSISTANCE It is very tight racing among the four leading boats of the Mondial Assistance Challenge. Groupama off Franck Cammas moved from third to first place this afternoon as her northern route happened to pay. Foncia-Kingfisher of Alain Gautier lies about 16 miles behind the leader. She had got back in the lead early this morning when navigator Ellen MacArthur decided to head East on the straight route. Former leader Yvan Bourgnon's Bayer went South. and dropped to third place. Belgacom of Jean-Luc NŽlias went even further South and is closing the game. "We're a little bit surprised, as the situation is not what we expected. According to the information we had, the wind wasn't supposed to pick up from the North. We did a good job before the Azores and made a bad choice this time. That's the game. Maybe there will be like a new start. It will be interesting. We'll fight hard. It will be very tactical in this fickle wind", commented Yvan Bourgnon. Event website: www.challenge-mondialassistance.com
AMERICA'S CUP * The impression one got - notwithstanding the extremely limited time and access afforded to those of us trying to explain to you what is going on - was of a group of people who have thrown themselves into their Herculean task with relish and enthusiasm. Professionalism and willingness to learn seem to be the watchwords and realistic ambition is evident as the focus increasingly switches from the hard graft of setting up the shore base and sorting out the boats to the hard graft of learning how to race the yachts. * Our brief glimpse of the two Japanese boats underlined just what a superb deal Harrison struck with the Nippon challenge, securing two state-of-the-art IACC yachts plus a third from 1995 and seven container loads of spares and associated kit. Not only are Idaten and Asura in excellent condition, they, and all the bits with them, were packed away immaculately and everything, right down to the last Black & Decker, was thrown in. The upshot has been that the syndicate has been able to get the boats sailing again with minimum fuss and has already been able to make alterations to the deck layout on one of them, changes which will be replicated on the other in due course. The name of the game at present is two-boat training rather than testing. Ian Walker said that a number of development sails will come on line from North Sails UK in July, but the main sail programme and technical development will await winter training in Auckland and the arrival of the team's new boat in April next year. - Ed Gorman Full story: www.madforsailing.com
EXPERIENCE COUNTS
QUOTE / UNQUOTE - Bus Mosbacher
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