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SCUTTLEBUTT 1578 - May 7, 2004Powered 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. GARY JOBSON With the Olympic Games in Athens less than four months away, a lot of people who hoped to be there now know they won't be, but Gary Jobson still has it in his date book. In indelible ink. He had to cancel a speaking appearance at the Long Beach Yacht Club a little over a year ago. It was the day after he learned the reason he always felt so tired wasn't because he was working so hard as the world's top TV sailing commentator but because he had lymphoma. Then, days before the Congressional Cup match racing classic April 24-28, he had to cancel another appearance at LBYC to receive an honorary Crimson Blazer---the traditional winner's prize---for his contributions to the event and the sport. It wasn't the lymphoma exactly, but the treatments for it. The chemotherapy and stem cell replacement had destroyed his immune system and now he'd landed back in the hospital with pneumonia, chicken pox and shingles. "You can't imagine how disappointed I am to miss the Long Beach event," Jobson e-mailed from Annapolis. "I was really touched that LBYC thought of me. This most recent setback has been the toughest of the past year because it was unexpected. I'm now 11 days out of the hospital and working with a physical therapist to get walking again. What a tough road. But I fully intend to recover. Gary. "P.S. I'll be in Athens covering the Games." Excerpts from a story by Rich Roberts, The Log, full story: http://www.thelog.com/columnists/columnistsview.asp?c=106020 ISAF OLYMPIC WINDSURFING EQUIPMENT EVALUATION EVENT After not being able to complete the comparative testing yesterday, the sailors were sent out in a building southerly breeze at around 1300. Just as testing commenced a large storm came over bringing with it strong 15-20 knot winds and ideal testing conditions. The Evaluation Panel were advised to make all sailors return to the beach due to the threat of hail and excess winds from the storm, unfortunately missing out on sailing in the some excellent conditions. As the storm started to clear, the Lake was left with more light breezes of 5-6 knots which eventually died down to nothing by 1530. However, the Hybrid group did manage to get out and make one testing session, showing off the boards' capabilities to sail in the lightest of breezes equalling that of the Mistral OD, whilst also showing good "Formula" style sailing in the moderate breezes shown earlier in the week. - ISAF website, full story: www.sailing.org/Article_content.asp?ArticleID=7046 US YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP After spending a month of going through 265 sailing resumes, the list of 148 sailors selected to compete in the 2004 U.S. Youth Sailing Championship is now available. This year's event will be held June 18-24 at Carolina Yacht Club and College of Charleston, SC. Competitors include last year's double-handed champion Zach Brown, returning with new crew Graham Biehl. Participants are from 19 states plus Puerto Rico. Top states: California with 34 sailors, Florida 28, New Jersey 16. Competitors: www.ussailing.org/youthchamp/2004/acceptwaitlist.asp?eventid=15502 Event Website: www.ussailing.org/youthchamp/2004/index.asp?navigation=home BREEZE PLEEZE! A day in Breeze gear from Henri Lloyd - Jackets, Trousers, Shorts -- and you'll be shouting it from the highest mast…or rooftop. That's because Breeze is the perfect choice whether you're headed out to the boat, on the boat or back into town. Windproof, waterproof, breathable, Breeze is the absolute, can't-be-beat, ultimate in all around spring/summer comfort, performance and style. You'll wear it, you'll stow it, but you won't ever forget it thanks to its versatility and the way it straddles the line between lightweight and hardcore. Try them on at: http://www.henrilloydonline.com/productmgmt/subcat.asp?nCatID=2 SWEDISH MATCH TOUR Porto Azzurro, Italy - Karol Jablonski and Gavin Brady remained the pacesetters after Day Three at the Toscana Elba Cup Trofeo Locman. Jablonski, representing the Toscana Challenge for the America's Cup, and Brady, the helmsman for Oracle BMW Racing, both won all of their matches today at the Swedish Match Tour event and are the only remaining undefeated skippers. "There's still a long way to go," a tired Jablonski said after stepping off his boat at 8:00 p.m. The third day of the Toscana Elba Cup Trofeo Locman went much smoother than the first two days. The winds were light and shifty early in the day, between 6 and 8 knots from the south/southeast. By mid-afternoon a strong westerly filled and the race committee completed six flights, 19 matches (including a re-sailed match) overall. The race committee, however, was forced to move the racecourse all over the area of Porto Azzurro. The light southerly winds early in the day forced the racecourse outside of the bay. When the westerlies filled they were able to move the course inside the bay, parallel to the shorelines. Then the final flight of the day was sailed out of the bay. "It's very shifty out there," Jablonski said. "Sometimes you have to leave the competition and sail to a shift. But you never know how it'll end up. Sometimes it (the shift) can disappear pretty fast. You don't want to risk the big splits." After Brady's third victory of the day, he sat shoreside for up to three hours before returning to the water for the fourth match, and nearly paid for it. "There's a certain amount of downtime," Brady, 6-0, said. "It's tough to manage. The teams that manage it well might win one more race than the teams that don't. And that could be the difference between advancing or not." Jablonski, Brady and Gilmour are the only three skippers in the field of 12 with winning records. Radich is even at 3-3, but the rest of the field has losing records. Perhaps the biggest surprise is Coutts, who is in 12th place with a 1-5 mark. His one victory came against Baird. Coutts has been off the Tour for a while and says he is here just to have fun. But for a three-time America's Cup champion, losing is no fun. - Sean McNeill Toscana Elba Cup Trofeo Locman Standings (After 12 of 22 scheduled flights) 1. Karol Jablonski (POL/Toscana Challenge) 7-0 2. Gavin Brady (NZL/Oracle BMW Racing) 6-0 3. Peter Gilmour (AUS/Pizza-La Sailing Team) 4-2 4. Jesper Radich (DEN/Team Denmark) 3-3 5. Magnus Holmberg (SWE/SeaLife Rangers) 3-4 6. John Cutler (NZL/Mascalzone Latino) 2-3 = Bertrand Pacé (FRA/Team France) 2-3 = Michael Dunstan (AUS/OzBoyz Challenge) 2-3 = Philippe Presti (FRA/le Défi) 2-3 10. Ed Baird (USA/Team Musto) 2-5 = Paolo Cian (ITA/Italian Challenge) 2-5 12. Russell Coutts (NZL/Alinghi Team) 1-5 Event website: http://www.swedishmatchtour.com/ VOLVO PACIFIC RACE Plans are coming together for the new Volvo Pacific Race that was announced in Auckland last year. It will start in Singapore during mid April 2007 and finish in Hawaii in mid July 2007, taking no longer than three months. There will be eight legs and stopover countries will include Hong Kong, China, Japan, Canada and two stops on North America's west coast. The racing will be for the Volvo Open 70 and there will be in port racing in some, but not all, stopovers. The entry fee has been set at £75,000 plus VAT. The Notice of Race will be issued later this year.- www.volvooceanrace.com CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar OFFSHORE TRAINING VOYAGE Berths available: incredible passages & legendary landfalls. June: Newport Beach (CA) - Easter Island (4,000 miles non-stop); July: Easter Island - Pitcarin - Marquesas. Aboard 65' S&S sloop Alaska Eagle, led by professional skipper, mate & cook. Program is designed for sailors interested in building modern offshore/navigation skills. 949-645-9412, http://www.occsailing.com/pages/eagle/eaglesched2004.html CHANGES IN RACING SAILS AND SAILMAKING (Following is a brief excerpt from a story by John Burnham and Tony Bessinger posted on the Sailing World website.) Racing sails made of laminated materials have been the choice of leading-edge racers for nearly a quarter century. These sails, assembled from panels built of high-strength fibers sandwiched within plastic film, have continued to evolve, and the recent trend has been to design the sail first, then make each section of laminate, or the entire sail, with the expected loads of the sail in mind. In this area, North Sails' 3DL process is the clear market leader among bigger boats. For many sailmakers, existing patents have slowed development of customized lamination for these newer "membrane" sails (sometimes called "load-path" or "string" sails); but with the nine-year Sobstad vs. North lawsuit settled (in 2001) and relevant patents due to expire soon, there's been a spate of manufacturing news. Last winter the industry's biggest supplier of sailcloth and laminates, Dimension-Polyant, bought the Fraser-Doyle production facility in Australia where Doyle D4 sails are made. D-P has cloth-weaving factories in Germany and production laminators in the United States, but the D4 process gives them the capability of making extra-wide sections of laminate, produced to any designer's custom specifications. "To maintain our level in the market," says D-P USA's president, John Gluek, "it became apparent that membrane technology was a direction we had to take." D-P can now deliver custom sections, assembled, to any sailmakers' specs, including Doyle's. "It's another way for us to provide cloth," says Gluek. "The sailmaker will send in his designs, and have the selection of the yarn layout or type of fiber he wants." Gluek expects D-P will add production facilities elsewhere in the world within a couple years. Several other sailmakers are developing their own processes of making membrane sails more directly from raw materials. More than a year ago, UK Sailmakers, makers of the distinctive Tape Drive sails, began selling Ultra, a new kind of sail based on similar principles. More recently, Ullman Sails International and the Quantum Sail Design Group have announced new, unique approaches based on offshore manufacturing. And North Sails hasn't been idle, continuing to invest heavily in quality control and R&D to refine production at its 3DL plant in Minden, Nev., and expand 3DL production of smaller sails with rotary-molding machines. - Sailing World - There is lots more to this story: www.sailingworld.com/article.jsp?ID=33336&typeID=397&catID=607 COCA COLA HOBIE 16 WORLDS Barcelo Maya Beach Resort, Riviera Maya, Mexico - Another great day of racing in winds that began in the 10-knot range and built to 20 by day's end. The temperatures are in the mid 80s and the water is really warm. Master´s and Grand Master´s Standings (4 races with one discard - 58 boats) 1 Juan E. Maegli/Jose Daniel Hernandez, GUA, 5pts 2 Jens Goritz/Simone Monreal, GER, 6 3 Rod Waterhouse/Jason Waterhouse, AUS, 7 4 Mike Montague/Kathy Ward USA, 11 15 Carlos Armando Noriega/Armando Noriega, MEX, 42 Youth World Championship (4 races with one discard - 32 boats) 1 Jerome Legal/Vaik Delevaux, FRA, 3 2 Axel SILVY/Pauline Jupin, FRA, 6 3 Valentin Franc/Sandra Thelier, FRA, 9 17. Jorge Xavier Murrieta/Santiago Ramirez, MEX, 44 20 Jacob Sailer/Clifton Neff, USA, 46 Women's World Championship (4 races with one discard - 18 boats) 1 Pamela Noriega/Martha Noriega, MEX, 6 2 Rosarito Martínez/Kamil Berrios, PUR, 8 3 Annie Gardner Nelson/Eliza Cleveland, USA, 8 Results, pictures and commentary: www.hobieworlds.com/h16-2004/default.asp NEWS BRIEFS * After a ten year hiatus, California's Newport Harbor YC is once again running an 800-mile downwind Spring race to Cabo San Lucas on the tip of Mexico's Baja Peninsula. The dates are March 18-27, 2005 and NHYC has arranged for moorings in Cabo. The information about this 'Transpac Tune-up Sprint" is now on-line - www.nhyc.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=dsp&page=sailing_races * Yipee - The new Official ISAF Rankings for Olympic Classes have been released and they show some big movers in the build up to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens in August. The Grade 1 and World Championship events tend to be those that produce the most movement at the top end of the ISAF World Sailing Rankings, but slightly back from the top few, events such as the Laser Europa Cup and Youth Grand Prix, The United 4 and the SSECS Europe Regatta proved much scope for picking up valuable ranking points. Enjoy: ww.sailing.org/rankings/ * The total number of users registered to ISAF Sailor exceeded 20,000 in April 2004, and the registered users to the ISAF Sailor Classification Code which exceeded 10,000. In April 2004 alone 1,141 sailors registered to ISAF Sailor. - www.sailing.org/Article_content.asp?ArticleID=7044 * This coming Sunday will be six Open 60 footers and 30 sailors setting off from Calais bound for the mythical Fastnet lighthouse, the first event in the IMOCA season, the "1000 milles de Calais". For the Open 60 footer racers, the main event circled on this year's calendar is the Vendée Globe. And in anticipation of this great single-handed loop of the world, the " 1000 milles de Calais " have a lighter, crewed race : a return trip between Calais and the Fastnet, a technical and tactical race to get the season off to a cracking start. - www.1000millesdecalais.com HOT OFF THE MOLD Winches to wet gear, hot off the mold comes the new APS catalog. Whether you're just starting a new build or campaigning an older one, APS' new catalog has everything you could possibly need all in one place. Tired of wasting your time going from one place to get your lines, another to get your foulies, and yet another for your hardware? APS' new catalog is the most comprehensive source for it all. Spend your time sailing. Not searching. New orders online get half off shipping too. Check your mailbox for your copy or request one here… http://www.apsltd.com/scuttlebutt LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com) (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 Dee Smith (re Peter Huston's comments on Pyewacket and Morning Glory): Dear Peter - You must not have been able to see what a nice yacht Morning Glory really is. Yes, she is built for speed and getting there quickly, but she has a lot of things most "dual purpose" boats don't have. There is hot and cold running water, a big shower in a very nice head. Full galley with refrigeration, generator, sat communication and back up. Powered winches and more. There is also something that no rating systems have been able to produce, 500 mile days at ease. The people that have sail her are enjoying sailing more than ever because she is so much fun to sail. With CBTF the ride is the smoothest I have ever been on. These boats have change sailing - one should experience it before making judgment. * From Alice Leahey: I read Magnus Wheatley's reference to Paul Cayard as "the old man" completely differently than did John Church. I took it as a nickname and a term of affection, not as a derogatory comment. The Star class has always seemed to me to be an unusually close group of sailors who genuinely respect each other, without the pettiness sometimes seen in other fleets. Wheatley's assessment of the Olympic hopefuls was both informed and interesting - just the sort of item one hopes to find in Scuttlebutt. * From Phillip Strickland: I'd guess Paul Cayard is the happiest guy who was mentioned in Magnus Wheatly's bit about the various strengths of Star Olympians. Being described is having a case of the slows and being old is the best way to have attention deflected away for him. Does anyone in that group really want to be listed as the clear favorite knowing that the rest of the competitors will be paying special attention to them all the way to, and especially in, Athens? * From John Church (re comments of Ian Parkes): Mr. Wheatley's comments exposed a personal ax to grind. In other commentary, on other, older non-American sailors, he praises 'experience.' While reminding him of his manners, I also opined how I would enjoy seeing the Americans win the gold (which would most definitely cause him to have proverbial egg on his face). I never called for anyone to have a 'thorough egging." And, for the record, your use of 'ageist' tells me everything I need to know about what you and Mr. Wheatley have in common. THE CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUM If swimming is good for your shape, then why do the whales look the way they do? |
