SCUTTLEBUTT No. 764 - March 2, 2001
Scuttlebutt 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 and
contrasting viewpoints are always welcome.
EDITORIAL COMMENT
(Following are three excerpts from Andrew Hurst's editorial in the March
issue of Seahorse magazine.)
* It takes someone as informed and as universally respected as Olin
Stephens to say it before those in a position of any authority will finally
acknowledge it. And sadly the words have found the forum at least three
years too late. "Simplify IMS".
Everyone, aside it would seem, from those managing the rule were aware of
the blindingly obvious. The 1998 Rolex Commodores' Cup was one of a handful
of 'above-club level' IMS events brave enough to run with single figure IMS
scoring. But it worked well there as it did elsewhere. Dual number scoring,
recently advocated by Olin Stephens would have been a practical and even
better solution. Yet the purists objected to any solution that failed to
exploit the IMS VPP to its fullest, most fluid 'potential'. Scientific ego
run amok.
Yachting Key West Race Week was an even greater success than usual this
year, buoyed primarily by the continued growth of one-design classes. The
IMS Fleet at Key West, by comparison, was the smallest-ever seen - and of
idiosyncratic interest only. Plenty of people were ready to invest in the
ORC's premier category of handicap racing a few years ago, but that time
has now passed.
* It was the wealthy private owners now populating one-design fleets that
used to support the experimentation and innovation of the custom sector.
The very customers that IMS needed, its lack of transparency has driven away.
If the ORC (now a division of ISAF) acts immediately, and with visible
commitment to the wholesale change of philosophy, it may still not be too
late to salvage the threads of recovery for offshore handicap racing.
Unfortunately, I suspect it is already too late. But it would be great to
be proved wrong. - Andrew Hurst, Editor, Seahorse magazine. (See Seahorse
March 2001 for this article in full.)
Seahorse website: www.seahorsemagazine.com
THE RACE
As marathon runners hear the roar of the crowd as they approach the
entrance to the stadium, so Club Med will soon pass through the Pillars of
Hercules - the marker points of Gibraltar and Jebel Musa in Africa fabled
to have been raised by the son of Zeus - en route to glory in Marseille.
Not that Grant Dalton is counting his chickens. The fabled skipper himself
says, "Our only worry is getting through the Straits. It'll be time to
think about Marseilles once we're in the Mediterranean".
Crewman Jacques Caraes elaborates, "The sea has got rougher and the weather
models are announcing a major gale. We'll be careful, but downwind isn't a
problem for us."
All of which leaves Loick Peyron, skipper of Innovation Explorer little to
console himself with, as he vainly chases the leader - 1,220 miles/1,952km
ahead. Still battling with his tattered gennaker as he struggles past
Madeira, the Frenchmen maintains a stoic manner saying, "We are sailing not
very fast but faster than the days before. No qualms, the objective is to
finish."
Team Adventure is readjusting itself to the thought of a hard slog up the
South Atlantic, after the thrill of rounding Cape Horn. Since that point
Team Adventure has crept through the Lemerre Straits that separate Tierra
del Fuego and the Estados Islands and has headed off towards the Falklands.
Cam Lewis has managed a 24-hour run of 288 miles/460km. - Martin Cross, Now
Sports website
POSITIONS: 1. Club Med, 845nm to Marseilles, 2. Innovation Explorer +1225,
3. Team Adventure +6004nm, 4. Warta Polpharma + 6420nm, 5. Team Legato +9019nm
Full story: http://www.now.com/feature.now?fid=1335787&cid=997704
SCHMUNDO
Here in Annapolis, just about everything we apply to the surfaces of a boat
is fondly referred to as "schmundo". While West System epoxy concoctions
are the ultimate schmundo, any high-quality filler, sealer, cleaner,
coating or polish fits the definition. This spring you can order all the
maintenance supplies you need from your desk at work, and be ready to go
first thing Saturday morning. Think of all the time you'll save, and
remember that if it's not from www.pyacht.com it's not schmundo.
VENDEE GLOBE
Yet again in the Vendee Globe 2000/1, Les Sables d'Olonne witnessed two
arrivals within the space of just three and a half hours after 111 days
racing. After a nail-biting match race to the finish in strong, squally
winds and big seas across the Bay of Biscay, first to arrive on the horizon
was Bernard Gallay (Voila.fr). The Franco-Swiss skipper crossed the line at
0818hrs and 11 seconds, therefore totaling 111 days, 16 hours, 7 minutes
and 11 seconds in order to complete his circumnavigation. The cold beauty
of the morning sun shone on the gleaming orange and white Open 60, full
main flying downwind towards the line in a freshening breeze. Gallay has,
moreover, finished 8th in the race rankings and completed his second VendŽe
Globe.
Josh Hall (EBP/Gartmore) was spotted on the horizon just 3 hours later, and
surfed into Les Sables dÕOlonne with just the storm staysail up in big,
gusting winds, and a lumpy sea. He crossed the line at 1159hrs and 2
seconds in 9th place, the last of the three British skippers to finish the
course. The first words shouted were: "I just had 70 knots of wind 10 miles
from the line!" He was unable to enter the channel due to the tide barrier,
until 1730hrs French time, at which time the whole world it seemed had
gathered at the harbour entrance, the sun pushed through the storm clouds,
the sea had levelled off and the wind eased too. - http://www.vendeeglobe.com
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON leweck@earthlink.net
(Letters selected to be printed may be edited for clarity, space (250 words
max) or to exclude unfounded speculation or personal attacks. This is not a
bulletin board or a chat room - you only get one letter per subject, so
give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. We don't publish
anonymous letters, but will withhold your e-mail address on request.)
* From: Bob Fink BobNJoy123@aol.com
Now that US Sailing has decided that the "penalty" for a protest regarding membership in a qualifying
organization shall be a "warning," may I suggest that it be taken the next
logical step and require that the "warning" be given to the individual who
was enough of a chicken%#$% to even file such a protest in the first place?
* From: Mark Jardine mark@yachtsandyachting.com (Re Getting Race
Results Online) For Race Officers wanting to get results onto the web fast
there is a FREE scoring program available for download at
www.yachtsandyachting.com called Sailwave. It runs on Windows 95, 98, 2000,
ME, SE, NT4+ and has a dedicated 'Publish to the web' button. At Yachts &
Yachting Online just go to Downloads and then Scoring Program.
* From: Alex Pline pline@snipe.org (Re the state of results reporting
by race committees) We've been around this block before (if I remember
correctly the first time was when the Curmudgeon expressed his opinion on
the delay in posting the Star NAs results at Lake George), but I think it's
important not to bash the Race Committee per se for something that they are
not responsible for. Posting of results (on the web) is the responsibility
of the event organizer. Thus, as noted, the great job done by Premier Racing.
The separation between event organizer and RC responsibilities is clear at
all levels of the sport. Even at small local events the event chair is
rarely (if ever) the PRO, and is more likely a competitor or a club member,
and in large events, is never the case.
The RC is responsible for producing the results and making them available
to competitors and event organizers. From there it is essential that the
event organizers have in place a process for getting the results on the
web. As was expressed in the first go around, this process spans the
spectrum from employing a web-savvy volunteer competitor to a club
webmaster to paying a professional.
So for all you regatta organizers: put posting results on your list of
regatta tasks and take it seriously, everyone (peers and sponsors) will
appreciate it in this "gotta have it now" electronic age.
* From: Peter Godfrey pgodfrey@glenvilleassociates.com I second Paul
Kamen's comments. A great many of the problems with racing today - and
often pointed out in "Butt - emanate from sponsorship, rather than being
solved by it.
* From: Jeff Bright sabrehawk69@hotmail.com (edited to our 250-word
limit) It's attitudes like Paul Kamen's ('Butt #763) that perpetuate the
reason why competitive sailing isn't as popular as it could be. I agree
that races are for the racers, but we shouldn't blow off the sponsors just
so the "RC can have a round at the bar". If that were the case then we
might as well not even have a sports section in the local paper since
football is for the players, NASCAR for the drivers, the local HS girls
basketball for the players, etc. Without sponsors, media exposure (local
and national), etc., sailing as a sport will continue to be thought of as
an "elitest" endevour and languish as it has for years. With sponsorship
and media exposure in non-sailing venues, we might finally get enough
interest to get sailing out of the closet and appeal to the masses (or at
least a larger %).
Let's get our heads out of the sand and embrace sponsorship and the media.
Money and exposure can do nothing but enhance the sport with the inevitable
trickle-down of technology and money. The ultimate goal is to get new
people to the sport and put more boats on the line in the local regattas
because maybe someone saw a newspaper or magazine article on racing and
thought that would be fun to do.
As for opting out of USSA because you don't like a particular item like the
eligiability "fiasco" (that was easily dealt with by USSA) - Buh Bye!
* From: Craig Leweck craig@beachamconstruction.com While Mr. Kamen's
does not feel strongly about the need for promptly posting regatta results
on the web, perhaps he has not considered what the internet has provided to
the sport.
Just because we might not all be able to travel to all the regattas we
would like, the internet can allow us to still participate in the event. By
prompt postings on event websites, we are drawn to learn of the events of
the day.
Just because our lives did not permit our attendance this year, our
interest remains high and the internet can be the conduit toward
maintaining that interest for future years. Particularly in one-design
classes, where the interest is attached to be the class and the event,
event websites can keep the one-design class member close to the action.
The key, however, is prompt postings on these event websites. If the
information is old or not regularly posted, we will stop logging on.
The world is huge and our lives are busy. Please Mr. Kamen, allow for the
internet to help us all remain close to each other and the action.
* From: David McCreary dmccreary@boats.com (Re: Paul Kamen's comments
yesterday) Certainly most of the regattas in the US and elsewhere are run
without sponsors and should be solely for the enjoyment of the racers. But
I was not talking about local Merit 25 races, or making the RC post results
to the internet. I was ranting about the indifference to the media shown by
organizers of major, world level events. Those events cost a LOT of money.
World class judges don't get paid very much, but airfare to the event and
meals add up. Mark boats burn gas, volunteers get lunches provided, the
beer tent is rented, portable toilets aren't free.
Clubs look to sponsors to help defray costs (thus keeping entry fees
reasonable); sponsors should get exposure for their money. The best bang
for the buck is the internet, and in most cases it's the only exposure a
sponsor will get other than the flag in the beer tent. RCs should not be
charged with webwork. The organizer should pay someone competent to handle
media requests and the net.
Anyone who thinks that sponsors "need" a public profile from sailing has
been smoking ropes instead of pulling them. Ditto with those that every few
years talk about writing another set of racing rules independent of the
ISAF. What part of the current Racing Rules are "geared to the interests of
the sponsor or spectator"?!? Come on Paul, you talked about rewriting the
rulebook 5 years ago. Where is it?
* From: Norris McNamara NorrisMcN@aol.com Olin Stephins' excellent,
excerpted article omits one consideration that may have led to the downfall
of the rating system - cost. Having one's boat laser scanned for
measurement costs well over $1,000. For a rule to gain acceptance and
general use it must be accessible to the incidental sailor - owners, like
myself who race offshore one-design, but may race under several different
rules in the course of a season. As it stands now, trying IMS just isn't
worth the expense.
AMERICA'S CUP
The 31st America's Cup is scheduled to begin on Saturday, 15th February.
The ninth scheduled race day in the best-of-nine series on Auckland's
Waitemata Harbour is two weeks later; on Saturday, 1st March, 2003. The
'Saturday-Sunday, Tuesday-Thursday' schedule is a repeat of the last
America's Cup calendar and guarantees spectators racing during at least two
weekends. If the America's Cup match goes to the full nine races, five of
those races will be during weekends to provide maximum exposure to the
global television audience.
There are three reserve dates in early March. In a change from last time,
the last two reserve dates are on consecutive days to bring a faster
conclusion to the regatta if it is prolonged by adverse weather.
The scheduled dates for the 31st America's Cup Match in 2003 are: Race
1-Saturday 15 February, Race 2-Sunday 16 February, Race 3-Tuesday 18
February, Race 4-Thursday 20 February, Race 5-Saturday 22 February, Race
6-Sunday 23 February, Race 7-Tuesday 25 February, Race 8-Thursday 27
February, Race 9-Saturday 1 March., Reserve 1-Sunday 2 March, Reserve
2-Tuesday 4 March, Reserve 3-Wednesday 5 March.
Nine yacht clubs from seven different countries had submitted challenges
accompanied by an entry fee of $US150,000 in time for yesterday's March 1
deadline for lodging challenges with the RNZYS. From now until the second
and final deadline of March 1, 2002, the entry fee increases to $US300,000.
The nine challenges received by the March 1 deadline are:
á Yacht Club Punta Ala, Prada, Italy
á Reale Yacht Club, Canottieri Savoia tba, Italy
á Seattle Yacht Club, OneWorld, USA
á New York Yacht Club, Stars and Stripes, USA
á Societe Nautique de Geneve, Swiss Challenge, Switzerland
á Dusseldorf Yacht Club, Illbruck Challenge, Germany
á Union Nationale pour la Course au Large, le Defi, France
á Royal Ocean Racing Club, Brittani,a United Kingdom
á Gamla Stans Yacht Sallskap, Victory Challenge, Sweden
"We are expecting, but have not yet received, a challenge from the Oracle
Racing syndicate from the United States," said Peter Taylor, Commodore,
Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. "And there is still the prospect of at
least one other late challenge from a country that has not yet declared an
entry for the next America's Cup."
"The course areas for the America's Cup regatta and the sharing of the
water space between Team New Zealand and the Challengers is similar to the
systems established in 2000. The arrangements worked well then and will
work well in 2003," said Taylor. - Sailing-online website.
Full story: http://www.sailing-online.com.au/welcome.cfm
THE REST OF THE STORY
You need a lot of things to win a world championship, and boatspeed is at
the top of that list. Boatspeed was not a problem for Giorgio Zuccoli when
he won this year's Melges 24 World Championship - he used Ullman Sails. Of
course he did - Giorgio is a licensee of Ullman Sails International and has
been with Dave Ullman for years. But more importantly for Ullman customers,
Giorgio is also a major player on the sail design team that Dave anchors.
Wouldn't you like to have this design team working for you? You can:
http://www.ullmansails.com
NEW LOOK
The ISAF website has a fresh new look. As their lead story points states,
"The software that drives the system has been totally updated to make the
ISAF website the most powerful internet tool in the world of sailboat
racing." It's definitely worth checking out: http://www.sailing.org/
FROM HORSERACING TO THE HIGH SEAS
Following the decision to suspend all UK horseracing for seven days, as
part of emergency plans to contain the spread of Foot and Mouth disease,
Ladbrokes.com will be offering an array of betting opportunities on a broad
range of international sporting events, including the highly exciting and
unpredicatable Times Clipper 2000 Round the World Yacht Race.
Race organisers, Clipper Ventures Plc, the AIM listed yacht racing and
branded sailing event company, are currently running a betting promotion
with Ladbrokes on the next race in The Times Clipper 2000, a 950 nautical
mile sprint from Yokohama to Shanghai. Visitors to race website will be
able to put their yachting knowledge or support for their favourite boat to
profitable use and all new bets placed (excludes existing accounts) of £10
or over, qualify the lucky gambler for a Times Clipper 2000 Polo Shirt.
The fleet of eight identical 60-ft yachts, each sponsored by UK cities
including Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Plymouth, Portsmouth
and the island of Jersey, will set sail from Yokohama at 10:00 local time
on Monday 5th March 2001. -Sue Warden-Owen
Race website: www.clipper-ventures.com
ACURA SORC
MIAMI BEACH, FL, March 1, 2001-California's John Kilroy showed winning form
in the opening race of the Farr 40 Class at the 60th anniversary of the
Acura Southern Ocean Racing Conference (SORC) regatta. Aided by ace
tactician John Kostecki, Kilroy and his Samba Pa Ti turned in a performance
worthy of the 1999 world champion.
Kilroy's closest competition came from Coconut Grove, FL, skipper George
Andreadis who took second place with Atalanti X. Andreadis, one of the top
skippers in the highly competitive Farr 40s, won the class last month at
Yachting Key West Race Week.
An almost total lack of wind caused a considerable delay for all eight
classes racing today, but the longest wait of three and a half hours
happened on the Acura Circle, where the Farr 40s and 1D35 one-designs were
only able to sail one race. There were two races for IMS and PHRF boats and
Melges 24s on the Omega Watch Circle, and for multihulls on the Ocean Drive
Magazine Circle.
When the southeaster finally filled in, conditions were ideal, with the
breeze starting at eight knots and building to 14 knots before the last
boat surfed over the finish line.
In the other classes racing off Miami Beach, there was an interesting mix
of return winners and new names scattered through the results. In the 1D35
Class, David Pyles from Easton, MD, in Loose Ruck bested perennial winner
Robert Hughes' Heartbreaker from Ada, MI.
Ken Read and Makoto Vermatsu campaigned the latter's new Farr 50 Esmeralda
to two first places in the seven-boat IMS Class. In the PHRF big-boat
class, George Collins, from Fisher Island, FL, scored two second places to
lead on points at the end of the first day. - Keith Taylor
Complete results: http://www.acurasorc.com/
THE CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUM
Why is it, when a door is open it's ajar, but when a jar is open, it's not
adoor?
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