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SCUTTLEBUTT 1273 - February 27, 2003Powered 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 emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. ANOTHER POSTPONEMENT Strong winds and choppy seas today have forced the seventh delay in America's Cup racing. A subtropical low-pressure system positioned just north of Cape Reinga has been the problem over the past few days, bringing strong winds and unsettled seas. Race four was originally meant to take place last Thursday but was postponed due to fickle conditions. It was postponed again on Saturday, Sunday and Monday due to light or shifty conditions. But strong winds were the problem on Tuesday and yesterday. The forecast was for 18-24 knot east-north-easterly winds with gusts of up to 28 knots, and Friday's prognosis is not much better, with strong winds and big waves expected. - Julie Ash, NZ Herald, full story: www.nzherald.co.nz/americascup/ * After nine days of unsuitable weather for racing, the forecast is much better for Friday (Thursday in the US) with moderate conditions due on the Hauraki Gulf. Northeast winds of 13 to 18 knots are expected under overcast skies. Principal Race Officer Harold Bennett has said Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are now scheduled as 'race' days. A decision will be made as to whether to race on Monday, if needed, over the weekend. - http://americascup.yahoo.com/ * The schedule for the best-of-nine Cup match between Alinghi and Team New Zealand shows five scheduled competition days left before racing ends March 6. With Alinghi leading, 3-0, six races could be needed to conclude the series. Cup rules call for races to continue daily after March 6 if no one has won five, but each day's racing would be by mutual consent of the competitors. Both sides have veto power over nonscheduled race days, meaning a team in danger of losing could just say no - forever. "When we looked at the rules beforehand, it seemed okay," said principal race officer Harold Bennett, who has taken heat for the string of weather delays that stopped the Cup in its tracks. "But in this situation I have no control. It's in the hands of the competitors, as it has been for 150 years." - Angus Phillips, Washington Post, full story: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2716-2003Feb25.html A MESSAGE FROM ELLEN Writing in the nav station of Kingfisher2 - I still feel completely gutted and empty even thinking of where we are right now. Our objective has gone, our focus has gone and our Jules Verne is well and truly over. I have been bowled over by the spirit with which so many people have dealt with our problems. So many emails, so much positive energy flowing through to us on Kingfisher2, still deep in the Southern Ocean. It would have been hard to pick a place much further from a major port to lose our mast - and what seems like a blessing and a punishment is the time it will take us to make our way to Australia. Time to come to terms with all that has happenned, but also a long time to think of what has been. It really has to be said that we are thankful for everyones energy that has gone into this project, from Kingfisher Plc giving us the chance to try for this record, and to the hundreds and thousands of you who have sent both your encouragement when things were going to plan, as well as your encouragement when things have not. In so many ways it's the encouragement that people have shown when things are not going so well, that makes the difference. I suppose like cheering for your football team even though they've just had a bad result. It's a hard realisation that things go wrong - but a very real realisation. Life is without purpose, right now. However, we go on though.. there are new challenges out there, many of which I am sure I have never even dreamt about yet - many I am sure not even related to sailing... So here's to getting to Australia - here's to the next challenges, I hope you'll be able to live those with us too ... whatever that may be. - Ellen MacArthur, http://www.teamkingfisher.com COMMAND OF THE WEATHER Cold fronts are windy with sudden shifts. Sea breezes start on the beach, work outward, then die outside first. Racing or cruising, weather affects every aspect of our sailing. Learn to understand the weather at the daylong seminar presented by Commanders' Weather and Bill Biewenga. Sponsored by Ockam Instruments, Blue Water Sailing, and Spinsheet Magazine, the interactive classes are available in Chicago, Annapolis, Detroit, Newport, and Marblehead this March and April. Ockam U sessions are scheduled on the day following in Chicago and Newport. For Weather Seminar details visit http://www.WxAdvantage.com or e-mail billbiewenga@compuserve.com. For Ockam U information, email tom@ockam.com KELLIE'S ANSWER IS . . . Yes! I am one lucky girl! I'm always admired the quiet, romantic and private side of Mike. And for all those emails and phone calls that we received ... no date yet ... but it will definitely not be on a regatta weekend (that really narrows it down!). - Kellie Fennessy JULES VERNE TROPHY After an average day yesterday, the Cap Gemini and Schneider Electric trimaran has been averaging nearly 20 knots off the Brazilian coast for the past few hours, making the most of some reasonably sustained westerlies. "It´s allowing Geronimo to get a little further east," said skipper Olivier de Kersauson. "The waves are disgusting, but at least we´re making good headway. The trouble is that there´s an enormous area of calm to our north. There may be a tiny mouse hole that we can get through, but we´re not entirely certainly where it is. We´re wondering how we can get out of the bloody awful position we find ourselves in. Nevertheless, when I look at the route to the east that I we could have chosen, I can see that we couldn´t have got through, so that makes things a little easier to accept, but it still comes down to a choice of two poor routes and let´s hope that we´ve chosen the least bad." Distance traveled in the last 24 hours: 315nm. - www.grandrecords.com CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS * March 14-16: Sailing World National Offshore One Design (NOOD) Regatta, San Diego YC - www.sailingworld.com/sw_nood.php NOT GOOD FOR BUSINESS America's Cup weather hitches have wreaked havoc with charter boat bookings as operators report waning public interest in the regatta. Refunds are being offered and prices discounted for remaining races after delays caused by wild weather. * Sunsail's financial manager, Fraser Smith, said the company had only a few bookings for their boat the Oleanda at the weekend. "People are just giving up," he told the Herald yesterday. "The phones have stopped." He said refunds were given for any postponed races. * The owner of Nick's Cruises, Sally Lewis, said the weather delays were annoying, but there was nothing that could be done about them. However, bookings throughout the entire season, including the challenger series, had been weaker than during the last cup, especially because there had been no racing over the peak holiday period around New Year. "We just have to be patient. There's one thing we can't control and that's the weather. People are a little more upset this time - we started a month earlier, and then there was no racing over the holidays, which really upset a lot of people. That was so dumb. The tourists didn't come. The last America's Cup was a lot more fun for me, it was really humming, now it's boring." She said that if sailing had gone ahead yesterday she would have had only seven people on board. - Helen Tunnah, NZ Herald, full story: www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?thesection=news&thesubsection=&storyID=3198051&reportID=4 AROUND ALONE All the Class 1 boats in Around Alone 2002-03 are safely round Cape Horn now, and with Salvador de Bahia a transatlantic race away, the bets are already on for finishing points and positions in Leg 4 for the overall rankings going into the final leg. New leader for leg 4, French skipper Thierry Dubois on Solidaires, has been sleeplessly fire-fighting in squally upwind conditions to the North East of the Falklands for a couple of days, let alone trying to eek out as much of an advantage on Stamm whilst he stopped in port. At 17:00hrs GMT Wednesday Bernard Stamm restarted his race on Bobst Group - Armor Lux after a 22 hour pit-stop in Port Stanley to repair his broken keel board. The impatient and exhausted skipper snatched just an hour's sleep and mended his mainsail rip whilst three men worked in the confined space in Bernard's rabbit-warren of a boat on fixing and bolting the two steel plates either side of the keel. Bruce Schwab on wounded Ocean Planet rounded the Horn earlier today and is heading for the Falkland Islands to pull in and repair his broken boom. Graham Dalton is sheltering Hexagon in the archipelago to starboard of Cape Horn and made the rendez-vous with his shore manager last night to get the carbon splint onto his boom, but he has yet to rejoin the race. As both these boats also will take the 48 hour penalty once they receive outside assistance. - www.aroundalone.com STANDINGS: 2200 UTC February 26 CLASS 1: 1. Solidaires, Thierry Dubois, 2234 miles from finish; 2. Bobst Group-Armor Lux, Bernard Stamm, 225 miles behind leader; 3. Tiscali, Simone Bianchetti, 412 mbl; 4. Hexagon, Graham Dalton, 623 mbl; 5. Ocean Planet, Bruce Schwab, 652 mbl 6. Pindar, Emma Richards, 686 mbl. CLASS 2: 1. Tommy Hilfiger, Brad Van Liew, 3061 miles from finish; 2. Everest Horizontal, Tim Kent, 702 mbl; 3. Spirit of yukoh, Kojiro Shiraishi, 935 mbl; 4. BTC Velocity, Alan Paris, 1367 mbl; 5. Spirit of Canada, Derek Hatfield, 1539 mbl. WEAPONS OF THE WEATHER TEAM Russell Coutts has been quick to recognize the part played by the weather team in Alinghi's success so far. Mike Broughton wrote a story about the Alinghi weather team for the America's Cup website that provides real insight into the process and the equipment used by the team. - http://americascup.yahoo.com/story2083.html WATERPROOF GEAR BAGS BY SAILING ANGLES A vinyl coated nylon gear bag with RF welded seams and a hearty T1 waterproof zipper that's tough and floatable! Two rugged handles and an outside mesh pocket that's ideal for separating wet items from the dry interior. A great emergency grab bag for offshore adventurers as it will hold clothing, food stuffs, medical supply, survival gear, and if necessary, keep you afloat should you need to abandon ship. A must for any water-oriented enthusiast whether catamaraning across the bay, sailing across the ocean or simply rowing out to your mooring. 30" by 13" diameter in khaki/navy. http://www.sailingangles.com CYANIDE THREAT Auckland, NZ - A group calling itself September 11 and claiming to possess 25kg of "weapon grade cyanide" is behind the terrorism threat to the America's Cup. The threat is outlined in the letter sent to the United States Embassy and the British and Australian High Commissions. Police disclosed the contents of the letter last night, saying they had an "open mind" as to the intent of the author. The police counter-terrorism chief, Assistant Commissioner Jon White, said: "We have no knowledge of any such group in New Zealand." He said a group called September 11 had been identified in Australia but there was no indication it had any connection with New Zealand. A poisons expert said while it was possible that someone could collect 25kg of cyanide it could not be made into a weapon such as a bomb. - Patrick Gower and Natasha Harris, NZ Herald, full story: www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?thesection=news&thesubsection=&storyID=3198064&reportID=62066 FACTOID: Russell Coutts turns 41 years old on Saturday, March 1. Michelle Slade has done a feature about the "skipper of the most successful challenger ever," on the Cupviews website. - http://cupviews.com/ 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 or a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Michael J Dailey (2x Cup Vet - re the Swiss flag and the Harbor bridge): That just about cooks it. How can the powers that be in Auckland, let some mid, or worse yet, lower level bureaucrat decide the public image of NZ on the world wide stage? I just don't get it. Kiwi's are well thought of world wide, and beyond the sailing world as well. So, how does something as embarrassing as this go on, not just the first day of racing, but through the first three race days? Guess the guys from NZ Transit just don't get out much eh? The Cup going to NZ was definitely one of the best things to ever happen to the event. But with a demonstration of such a lack courtesy and sportsmanship as the flag issue, maybe it is time for the event to move on after all. Let the Auckland politicos figure out who they can throw their next parade for, after the Cup is long gone. Sadly, * From David McNicoll: Congratulations to Sherwood Kelley (Butt 1272) for so clearly spelling out what thousands of sailors around the world must have been thinking. The glory must be in winning the AmCup -- not plodding around the track by yourself. Bertarelli will forever regret crossing the finish line in the first race. * From: Fred Jones: I am writing in response to Sherwood Kelley's incredibly naive suggestion to reward TNZ for not being prepared for Race #1 of the America's Cup. Being ready to race in both boat & crew prep is a requirement for successfully competing. This is The Event, the amount of effort put out to be at this point is not to be squandered. The sportsman-like thing to do was to in that situation was to inquire if TNZ required an Alinghi tender to stand by to render assistance. In motorsports, yacht racing, horses ... the loss of an individual competitor has no impact on the event or the remaining participants. * Robert A. Constable (Re Sherwood Kelley's letter in 'Butt 1272): You must sail around the course if you want to win the race. It's that simple. Except in regatta-supplied boats (and even then, sometimes), breakdowns are part of our game. The ACC boats are a development class, which means that there is as much emphasis on boatspeed as there is on crew work, tactics and strategy. And boatspeed means that the equipment has to hold together--otherwise it was under-designed for the conditions or under-maintained. When TNZ clearly had a faster boat than Prada in 2000, should they have given the Italians a head start to make it a "race" instead of five consecutive wire-to-wire "sail-arounds" (I exaggerate for effect)? This might have started as a friendly competition among nations, but, like it or not, it has evolved into a hard-nosed, and expensive, competition between businessmen. I wouldn't expect any tough syndicate boss to forego a victory because the other boat's hardware couldn't handle the conditions, just as I wouldn't pull up in Saturday afternoon club race because one of my competitors popped a backstay or lost a halyard. Coutts & Co. have sailed a fast boat to three victories - some more exciting that others, but excitement doesn't count on the scorecard. They are there to win a regatta, not a public relations skirmish. Whatever your views on the nationality/ loyalty issue, Team Alinghi doesn't deserve to have their performance discredited. * From Chris Corlett: I don't believe it! Surely, Sherwood Kelley was kidding when he suggested that Alinghi drop out of Race 1. * From Jeff Penny: I'm sorry but I have to disagree with Ed Du Moulin. The Americas cup race committee should be international. If we want the world to experience the great fun in yachting by promoting it on TV, we need to manage this cup better. It's time for a race committee to be made up of people who have no personal interest in the cup. * From Don Goyette: My wife, Karen, and I were at the Bitter End YC for the 2001 ProAm Regatta and enjoyed observing the antics of Mike Priest in his quest for Kellie's attentions. Good on ya, Mike, and Kellie: just say 'Yes.' * From Andreas Stüven: Way to go Mike, this development is certainly more interesting than the loyalty battles in Auckland. * From Joe McCoy: A marriage proposal on "The Scut-Butt?" How wonderful! Please say yes! I wish you both the best. * From Dean Hubbard: Hey, Kellie. I don't know the man but Mike Priest seems to be one class act! Don't miss the boat. Good luck to both of you. * From: Rick Hatch: So Mike, just how big of a reception were you thinking Kellie might consider? Let's see: Wedding invites x more than 17,000 Buttheads = who the heck needs a dowry? * From David Tillson: A proposal through scuttlebutt! Maybe you should consider adding a "Scuttlebutt Singles" section to your web site . . . * From Ralph Mailloux: As a member of Team Pendragon and one who was in attendance at the Bitter End Yacht Club Pro Am Regatta, I can only convey that this was a match made in Virgin Gorda (Heaven). Kelly and Mike are perfect for each other. As I sat here and read the proposal this morning, and Mike, you got stones. * From Kelly Mathews: Call me a romantic, call me a sook, but Mike - you put a tear in my eye this morning! Good luck! * From Bruce Munro: Is this a first -- a marriage proposal on Scuttlebutt? All of us at the St. Francis Yacht Club would like to wish Kellie and Mike all the happiness in the world. They are great people and deserve it. THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. |
