|
SCUTTLEBUTT 3153 - Wednesday, August 11, 2010Scuttlebutt 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. Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: Layline, Doyle Sails, and LaserPerformance. FRENCH SAILORS RACE HARD FOR GOLD AT WEYMOUTH Weymouth, England (August 10, 2010) - It was forecast to be big Tuesday a couple of days ago. Doug Charko, the USA Team AlphaGraphics weather man predicted on Sunday it would be 15-20 knots and gusting 25 - and so it was, with 49ers, Stars and Finns all sent back to the harbor early, and the SKUD-18's not racing at all. The French nailed it on the second day of Skandia Sail for Gold 2010, with outstanding performances in three classes. Manu Dyen and Stephane Christidis (FRA) added to the three second places that they scored yesterday to lead the 49er class by seven points. The 470 duo of Pierre Leboucher and Vincent Garos (FRA) scored double bullets today to lead world champs Matt Belcher and Malcom Page (AUS) by eight points. Jonathan Lobert (FRA) in the Finn class is 17 points ahead of Pieter-Jan Postmas (NED) in second. Elsewhere, the Kiwi Star pairing of Hamish Pepper and Craig Monk, winners of both of yesterday's races, slipped from their pedestal a little with a ninth today, but still lead overall. USSTAG's Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.) had two consistently strong races today, finishing fourth in both. Following right behind her was USSDT's Sarah Lihan (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) who scored a 5, 7 today in the split Laser Radial fleet of 91 boats. Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla) was in the front of the Finn fleet until he hit a big wave in the last downwind run and flipped. He made a quick recovery, swiftly righting the boat and gaining positions to finish with a solid five. Racing continues through Saturday August 14, with medals decided in Paralympic classes on day 5, Friday August 13, and Olympic medals decided on Saturday. Event website: http://www.skandiasailforgoldregatta.co.uk/ U.S. team event website: http://tinyurl.com/2frqzke For up-to-the-minute racing news, follow the teams on Facebook and Twitter. Follow US sailors on their blogs/websites: Team Tunnicliffe: www.teamtunnicliffe.com Zach Railey: http://www.zach2012.com/ Erik Storck/Trevor Moore: http://storckmooresailing.com/ Peet Must/Carl Horrocks: http://www.barnegatbay49er.com/ Rob Crane: http://robcraneracing.com/Blog/Blog.html Clay Johnson: http://www.claysails.com/ Andrew Campbell/Brad Nichol: http://campbellnichol2012.blogspot.com/ Stu McNay/Graham Biehl: http://www.teammb.org/ Amanda Clark/Sarah Chin: http://www.teamgosail.org/ Maxwell/Kinsolving Farrar: http://www.470teamusa.com/wordpresstesting/ Doerr/Kendell/Freund: http://teamusa674.com/ Ben Barger: http://www.benbarger.com/ Farrah Hall: http://www.farrahhall.com/_ Background: Skandia Sail for Gold is the final ISAF Sailing World Cup event of the 2009-2010 series. Held at the venue of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Regattas in the towns of Weymouth and Portland, England, Sail for Gold has attracted more than 975 sailors from 57 countries, including 50 members of the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) and US Sailing Development Team (USSDT) who are competing in all 10 Olympic classes and two Paralympic classes. CITY WORKING ON AMERICA'S CUP SCENARIOS By Katie Worth, San Francisco Examiner San Francisco, CA (August 10, 2010) - The cracked and crumbling concrete parking lots in the shadow of the Bay Bridge could be transformed into a busy central hub for a 2014 America's Cup yacht race. But in order to make that a reality, The City must bargain away the long-term development rights for the valuable property. San Francisco's most developed vision yet for how a race could be held in the Bay was outlined Monday night at a neighborhood meeting at the South Beach Yacht Club. The City is competing with Spain and Italy to host the race, which is considered the world's third-largest sporting event after the Olympics and soccer's World Cup. Local billionaire Larry Ellison's BMW Oracle Racing team, which sails for the Golden Gate Yacht Club, won the Cup in February and has the right to name the location and date for the next race. The 10 or 12 racing yachts from around the world would be docked at Pier 50, just south of AT&T Park, but the central public hub for the event would be further north, at Piers 30-32 and Seawall 330, according to project manager Kyri McClellan. The piers and the seawall are currently used as parking lots on either side of The Embarcadero just south of the Bay Bridge. Pier 50's foundations are in good shape, but Piers 30-32 are literally crumbling and were red-tagged after the tire of a large truck punched a hole in the pier last year. Now, only small vehicles can park there and no events can be held on the grounds. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/3xt9xhw CONGRATS TO TEAM LAYLINE OPTI SAILORS Layline would like to congratulate all of winners and participants at this year's super hot Layline U.S. Optimist Nationals as well as all of those kids on the Layline Optimist National Team. Layline's custom gear department has produced thousands of items for teams all around the world as well as the official supplier for the U.S. Optimist Class and their teams. We are using only the best products out there: Atlantis, Henri Lloyd, Gill, Magic Marine, Zhik and more. Call us today and get your team looking in top shape. We have any and everything you need for your racing boat. If you don't see it just ask. 800-273-9491 or http://www.layline.com LATEST THOUGHTS ON AC34 (August 10, 2010) - The Daily Sail's James Boyd caught up with Russell Coutts at Cowes Week and gained some insight into some of the changes in discussion for the 34th edition of the America's Cup. Here's an excerpt from Boyd's story in today's edition of the Daily Sail: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternative course formats are also being investigated to maximise passing opportunities by, for example, having a short beat followed by the downwind leg. Rather than having the full race course as a giant diamond defined by the starboard and port tack laylines into the weather mark and leeward gates, Coutts is also looking at chopping off the sides of the diamond, narrowing the race track. This would prevent boats becoming 1km or more apart as occasionally we have seen in past America's Cup matches and would also prompt the boats to carry out more manoeuvres. With the LV Trophy on hold now in 2011, Coutts is also considering what can replace it as he seems to have no interest in continuing any form of racing in Version 5 ACC boats (very 1990s). An option being considered, we understand, is some sort of one design and if BMW Oracle Racing is erring towards multihulls then one imagines that a 2011 version of the Extreme 40, perhaps with a solid wingsail, might be the weapon of choice. Those who attended Thursday's Extreme 40 meeting in Cowes with Coutts included ex-Alinghi shotgun helmsman Loick Peyron, OC CEO Mark Turner and Extreme 40 circuit manager Gilles Chiorri, as well as Paul Campbell-James and Extreme 40 circuit creators Mitch Booth and Herbert Dercksen. Dercksen has always been uncompromising when it comes to the merits of catamarans and he is entirely aligned with Coutts' vision, having been the principle architect of the Extreme 40 class. -- Full story: http://www.thedailysail.com CANADIANS TAKE 2010 INTERNATIONAL NA FIREBALL CHAMPIONSHIP (August 10, 2010) - Ten teams from Alberta, BC, Colorado and Oregon registered for the 2010 Fireball North American Championship held at beautiful Cascade Locks, Oregon on August 6 to 8. The event was part of Columbia Gorge Racing Association's annual Columbia Gorge One Design (CGOD) Regatta and was hosted by the local Portland Fireball fleet. After 10 races with 2 discards Jamie Cox/Simon Pearson CAN secured the North American Championship title, followed by Rupert Holmes-Smith/Evelyn Chisholm CAN in second and Frank Crawford/Sean Holmes-Smith CAN in third. Fireball Friday was the kind of day that the local wind surfers and kite boarders refer to as "nukin' in the Gorge." Race committee had set up two courses - the western course was for the Tasars and NW Youth Circuit (Optimist, Laser, Laser Radial and Laser 4.7 fleets). The eastern course was longer and set up where the winds and seas were bigger. The Fireballs along with Melges 24 and Moore 24 fleets were assigned to this course; but Friday we got it all to ourselves. Ten boats (actually eleven if you count one unregistered, newbie Fireballer who came down from Pullman, Washington just to see what it was all about) launched into winds clocking steady at 28 with gusts up to 35 mph. Seven boats completed the first race, four completed the second. PRO, Ray McCormack, called it for the day as the winds continued to build and the fleet availed itself of CGRA's trademark bottomless beer cooler. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/2ww9xb4 2010 12 METRE ERA REUNION BECKONS SAILING'S ELITE Newport, RI (August 9, 2010) - The members of sailing's royal court - to large extent - include any veteran of the storied 12 Metre era of America's Cup racing that stretched from 1958 to 1987. With 80 teams competing as contenders or defenders, there is a cadre of sailors whose involvement in the Cup - as skipper, crew, afterguard, designer, builder, syndicate member, race manager or press - has earned them admittance into sailing's version of Burke's Peerage: the 2010 America's Cup 12 Metre Era Reunion presented by Rolex. Since the call went out in January heralding the September 16-19 event, numerous icons of the sport with vetted connections to the 12 Metre Era have confirmed their attendance at this event which takes place from Harbour Court, the New York Yacht Club's (NYYC) on-the-water clubhouse in Newport, Rhode Island. Starting on Wednesday, September 15, the 12 Metre North American Championships will include three days of racing for the North American title with luminaries sprinkled among the fleet including Ted Turner and Gary Jobson sailing on American Eagle US 21. -- Full story: http://www.nyyc.org/home/article_816/ JON PERKINS LEADS INTERNATIONAL KNARR CHAMPIONSHIP San Francisco, CA (August 10, 2010) - The real story of today's 4th race in the International Knarr Championship was the spectacular come back by Danish skipper and former IKC champion Soren Pehrsson. Starting in 4.5 knots of flood off of Fort Mason, under an "I" flag, Pehrsson was the only sailor called OCS. Pehrsson had to clear around the weather end committee boat, which required him to tack and duck a boat, and then sail close hauled against the current for quite some time to clear the committee boat anchor rode. As the race was to the current relief on the City Front, Pehrsson had spotted the entire fleet almost two minutes. Pehrsson battled back the entire race, finishing in 5th place behind fellow Dane Lars Gottfredsen. Today's race winner was Chris Perkins, also a former IKC champion. There were a lot of lead changes among the top 5 boats throughout the race, but Chris hit a couple of good shifts at the top of the first beat and never relinquished his lead. Patience was the name of the game; namely when to tack toward more favorable current closer to shore. The pressure was spotty on the shore, leaving only a narrow band of favorable current and breeze to play in. Second place went to Dane Peter Lerbrandt, and third to regatta leader Jon Perkins, who has only 8 points mid way through the series. Wednesday is a layday, and racing continues on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. -- Current standings: http://tinyurl.com/2bql5m3 UNSURPASSED RACING TECHNOLOGY Doyle Sailmakers utilizes a computational simulation environment to engineer sails that are faster out of the bag, easier to trim, and maintain their designed shape through a greater wind range. While Doyle's CFD analysis illustrates how powerful and efficient sails can be made, the results are proving it with Doyle sails winning the 2010 Yngling Worlds, J/122 Nationals, and 210 Nationals. When one designs come down to one, it's Doyle. http://www.doylesails.com/onedesign BUFFALO YACHT CLUB CELEBRATES 150 YEARS (August 9, 2010) - To mark the 150th anniversary, the board of directors has scheduled a week of activities dedicated to the history of the Buffalo Yacht Club (Buffalo, NY) beginning today with a flag ceremony. The club began with about a dozen men who, on Aug. 10, 1860, adopted a constitution. The makeup and number of boats from the original club are not known but the current one now lists more than 300 boats in many classes. The biggest celebratory event will be the Mercedes Benz J/22 North American Regatta on Aug. 20-21. It caps a summer of races that included the Great Lakes International Challenge Cup, the 53rd Lake Erie Interclub Cruise, in which more than 60 boats started in Buffalo and raced to Port Dover in Erie, Pa., and the BMW LYRA Leukemia and Lymphoma Charity Mini-Match Regatta on July 27-Aug. 1. In recognition of the BYC's 150th anniversary, the regatta was held entirely in Lake Erie instead of Lake Ontario for only the second time in the race's century old existence. More than 90 boats from Canada and the United States competed in eight sailing events, culminating in a yacht club match racing challenge that benefited the Leukemia Society. The BYC claims to be the third oldest yacht club in continuous operation in the United States. The Web site yachtclub.com lists it as the 11th such club in the U.S. but does not say which have been in continuous operation. The first two yacht clubs in the U.S. are the Detroit Boat Club (1839) and the New York Yacht Club (1844) of America's Cup fame. -- http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/other/article97401.ece SAILING SHORTS * Tallin, Estonia (August 10, 2010) - Day four of the 2010 Marinepool Melges 24 World Championship in Tallin, Estonia saw two races sailed in ten to fifteen knot shifty breezes giving the skippers and tacticians several head scratching moments out on the Baltic. With a single discard in now place, a fifth in the first race and a tenth in the second today was good enough to see Lorenzo Bressani on Uka Uka Racing still top the leaderboard tonight. Bressani leads by nine points from Nergaard in second with Bolzan a further three points adrift in third. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/2a4qp4j * Barnegat Bay, NJ (August 9, 2010) - The Lightning Class Women, Junior and Masters North American Championship are now completed with the qualifying series commencing today for the North American Championship. Winning the earlier titles were Courtney O'Connor, Timmy Crann, and Peter Hall respectively. The Qualifier for the North Americans conclude Tuesday with the Championship series scheduled for Wednesday through Friday. -- Results at: http://www.lightningclass.org/ * New York, NY (August 2, 2010) - The New York Yacht Club (NYYC) announced today that twelve teams have been awarded entries for the Eleventh Annual NYYC Masters Team Race. To the victor goes the Commodore George R. Hinman Masters Invitational Trophy - the NYYC's Masters team-racing championship. The regatta will be staged August 20, 21 and 22, in Newport, RI at NYYC's Harbour Court Clubhouse. The trophy has become the unofficial national championship for master's team racing. -- Read on: http://www.nyyc.org/home/article_817/ * The "East Coast Trifecta" kicks off with the CMRC Chicago Match Cup this weekend, hosted by the Chicago Match Race Center, August 13-15. This Grade 2 Series, which includes participation from Bayview Yacht Club in Michigan, and the Manhasset Bay Yacht Club in New York, coordinates world-class talent, bringing them to the US for 3 back-to-back-to-back events. Each of these events are a qualifier for the World Match Race Tour, with the winner of the Chicago Match Cup earning a spot in the WMRT Danish Open, and the winners of the Detroit Cup and the Knickerbocker Cup each earning a spot in the Argo Group Gold Cup in Bermuda. -- http://www.chicagomatchrace.com/ * Chicago, IL (August 10, 2010) - Bankers from across the U.S. heard reasons why boat loans should be in their stable of offerings at the Consumer Bankers Association's "CBA Live" annual lending conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Registrants at the conference were generally open to the idea of serving or reconnecting with the marine community, the National Marine Bankers Association (NMBA) stated in a press release. -- Read on: http://www.boating-industry.com/output.cfm?id=2594863 * Correction (re, Scuttlebutt 3152) - There was an error in the initial scoring for the Chicago North American Challenge Cup in the 2.4mR. The corrected scoring resulted in Nigest Sewnnet in 1st place, and Kristie Walker in 2nd place. Both ended with 16 points and the tie-breaker (with Nigest with 5 bullets verses Kristie's 3) went to Nigest. The error was discovered before the awards were made. SIZZLING HOT SUMMER DEALS WITH LASERPERFORMANCE Regatta fees and boat maintenance hitting your wallet hard? Check out the great summer deals, only at the LaserPerformance online store. Free shipping on Bugs for the entire lower 48 states, 15% off C420 covers, $75 off a $500 purchase, and much much more. Check out all the deals at http://shopna.laserperformance.com Sail Legendary LaserPerformance.com * LETTERS AND FORUM Please email your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, 'The Curmudgeon'). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). 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 Sutter Schumacher: I suspect Scuttlebutt may have come across this item during the daily round-up of content for the 'Butt, but just in case it slipped past your radar and you think it may be of interest to readers: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20012631-56.html. It's not about sailing, but sheds a different light on one of the current big names, Larry Ellison, and puts his seemingly significant investment in the Cup into perspective. * From Bob Reitz (re, Scuttlebutt 3152): I don't get the objections to John Kerry taking this action. Don't we ALL try to minimize our taxes in whatever legal fashion possible? If he can LEGALLY register his yacht in a state in which he has no residence and thereby avoid whopping taxes, more power to him. However, it is ironic (and yes, perhaps a bit hypocritical) that he's voting to increase taxes in his home state because it doesn't have enough revenue. I still think 99.9% of the rest of us would have done the same thing. Pull the board out of your own eye before trying to pull the sliver out of your neighbor's. * From Bill Sandberg (re, Scuttlebutt 3152): Good for you for publishing some of the blogs/websites for USSTAG members. It would be nice if you could publish a list for all team members. You might be surprised how much words of encouragement from their countrymen mean to these terrific athletes. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Everything old is new again, but if you wore it before, you're too old to wear it the second time around. Special thanks to Layline, Doyle Sails, and LaserPerformance. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
