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SCUTTLEBUTT 3045 - Wednesday, March 10, 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.Scuttlebutt on Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Scuttlebutt on Facebook: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/facebook Today's sponsors: Doyle Sails, Team One Newport, and LaserPerformance. DAWN RILEY: ON A MISSION By Andrea Watson There is a buzz in the sailing community that match racing in the United States is the new next best thing. While some may wonder whether the U.S. will fully embrace match racing to the level of excitement in Europe and other foreign ports and many will argue that match racing is definitely not new, there is no question that the level of racing and match racing on Long Island has been ratcheted up a notch or two (and quite possibly more) in the last few months. Enter Dawn Riley, who packed up her car on New Year's Day and drove east to Oyster Bay (NY) and the Oakcliff Sailing Center to start her new position as executive director of the center. With Dawn on board anything can happen...and will. You just "gotta" believe that really, really exciting things are going to start happening in Oyster Bay. That's what happens when Dawn Riley starts a new adventure. Dawn is one of the best-known sailors in the world. She was the first woman ever to manage an entire America's Cup syndicate, the first American, man or woman, to sail in three America's Cups and two Whitbread Round the World races and is one of the forerunners in providing community access into the sport of sailing. And, as if that is not enough, Dawn is also a past president of the Women's Sports Foundation, serves on the board of US Sailing, and is an advisor to several public service organizations. The Oakcliff Sailing Center grew out of an idea that recognized that there was a gap in the growth path of sailors and the center had a huge opportunity to fill that gap. The founders decided the center should be dedicated to training sailors, boat workers, owners and teams in order to raise the level of sailors and sailing in the United States. The center is not a yacht club with restaurants and pools; it is not a junior sailing program or a community learn-to-sail program; and not an Olympic training center - those already exist. What the center is, in part, is a match racing training center because match racing is the best way to raise one's game with a one-on-one fight to the finish. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/yjnspq9 * Oakcliff Sailing Center's Spring Match Racing Division will kick off its season on March 13th with a full day of match racing instruction, video, and story-telling. The seminar will be led by Dave Perry, the highest ranked US match racer and very entertaining speaker. Dave is currently the coach for the US Sailing Team Alphagraphics women match racers, winners of the Gold Medal at the recent 2010 Miami Olympic Classes Regatta (MOCR). Joining Perry will be other experts, including Debbie Capozzi, Olympian from Long Island and member of the Gold Medal winning team at the 2010 MOCR. -- Details: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/10/Oakcliff_Sailing_Center.pdf BUTTHEADS SAY TAKE THEM TO COURT Despite all the litigation that proceeded the 33rd America's Cup, the majority of Scuttlebutt readers say that more is needed. However, after the Alinghi team lost the match, their club - Société Nautique De Genève’s (SNG) - is asking for all litigation to end. The new defender of the Cup, Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), may still seek to pursue their breach of fiduciary duty (BFD) action against (SNG), which in short means that SNG had been bad trustees of the America's Cup, and should possibly not have a right in the future to become a trustee again. This would mean SNG could no longer compete for the Cup. The NY Supreme Court was set to welcome the parties on March 10th, but this has been postponed by the Court at the request of both parties as settlement talks continue. We are not sure what is being settled, but 64% of poll participants believe that GGYC should, as one person stated, "Keep SNG from ever having the opportunity to ruin the Cup a second time!" Read all the comments here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/10/0308/ QUEST FOR SPEED Radical boat designer Vlad Murnikov is out to create the world's fastest monohull. The SpeedDream concept is to produce a monohull capable of reaching speeds in excess of 50 knots and maintaining an average speed on par with the fastest multihull. Doyle Sailmakers' Tyler Doyle is using Computational Fluid Dynamics, composite Finite Element modeling and automated shape optimization to design SpeedDream's innovative sails. While you may not be looking to break the speed barrier, know that the Doyle design team is. To learn more about the design and research that goes into building the world's fastest monohull, visit http://www.doylesails.com/news GRAND PRIX SCORING When British mothist Tim Penfold found himself dismasted during the first race of the International Moth Worlds on Monday, he became the beneficiary of a unique scoring system that the event has used for the last three seasons. Rather than receive a DNF, Penfold got 38 points despite there being 44 entrants, thanks to the 'Grand Prix system' the class has borrowed from Formula One. James Boyd of the Daily Sail reports: "Due to the skill required to sail these boats, the difference in speed between the good guys and the less good is significant. Today (in the first race) for example there were boats still rounding the weather mark for the first time as the leaders were halfway up the second beat. So once the first boat is home, then everyone finishes regardless of the lap they are on. All the three laps thus score the top points, the two lappers follow and then those who only managed one lap. Thus Tim Penfold is 38th because he broke his boat after he had completed one lap." -- http://tinyurl.com/yfhz79w * Dubai, UAE (March 9, 2010) - Day Two of PUMA International Moth Worlds got to a late start as a foggy haze and light winds lead to a 30 minute postponement onshore. Today was really a pressure game - those who stayed in the pressure were able to get up on their foils and make gains. The fleet had three races, bringing the total for the event up to four. Races two and three saw light winds and tough foiling conditions. The breeze filled in a bit for race four, allowing the fleet to really get up and moving. The leader board remains relativity unchanged, with Mach 2 designer Andrew "Amac" McDougall still in the number one spot, followed by Michael Lennon (GBR), Brad Funk (USA), Scott Babbage (AUS), and Chris Graham (UAE). -- Results: http://www.dosc.ae/moths-entry-list/results/puma-moth-worlds-2010.html * Elite photographer Thierry Martinez is at the PUMA International Moth Worlds, with his daily images getting posted on the Scuttlebutt facebook photo album: http://tinyurl.com/yk36eup AZZURRA DELIVERS STAND-OUT PERFORMANCE ON OPENING DAY Auckland, NZL (March 9, 2010) - Azzurra, the Italian boat with the old name and the young crew, defeated Britain's TEAMORIGIN in the closest of four hard-fought races on the opening day of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland. Italian skipper and helmsman Francesco Bruni snatched a victory from Britain's three-time Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie at the first weather mark of their race as their boats rounded the mark overlapped. Sailing above the mark, Ainslie tried to luff his opponent only to see the Italian execute a swift spinnaker set, sail clear and go on to win. In their efforts to stay on schedule, the race committee spent a long first day on the water. In the morning, cloudy skies killed any chance of a sea breeze developing and delayed racing. The Rangitoto Channel entrance to Auckland Harbour was so glassy at late morning that Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio joked that it appeared to have been paved. The long wait for wind ended at 2:45pm as the first pair started on the Blue Course at the mouth of the channel between Rangitoto Island and the Takapuna cliffs. The breeze was five to seven knots from the northwest. After a second race in similar conditions, the breeze switched to the south for the third race inside the harbour. The last race didn't start until 7:10pm and finished after sunset just before 8:00pm Day 1 Match Results All4One def. Mascalzone Latino Audi Sailing Team, 00:44 Azzurra def. TEAMORIGIN, 00:53 Emirates Team New Zealand def. Artemis, 01:40 ALEPH Sailing Team def. Synergy Russian Sailing Team, 03:26 Live streaming web coverage of the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Auckland is available on the event website. Complete report: http://tinyurl.com/yfmu3p3 Team lists: http://www.louisvuittontrophy.com/teams/EN/ BACKGROUND: The Louis Vuitton Trophy series is designed to be a cost-effective format for match racing competition in Version 5 America's Cup Class boats. Teams will take turns on the two Emirates Team New Zealand yachts NZL 84 and NZL 92 that have been fitted out, optimized and rigged after a year in storage. They will race four matches a day to complete a round robin seeding series before a ladder elimination culminating in the finals on March 21st. The 2010 series continues on to Sardinia (May 22-June 6) and Dubai (Nov. 13-28). FOR THE RECORD (Day 38 - March 9, 2010; 17:25 UTC) - With a little over 5,000 miles left before reaching Ushant, the virtual separation between Groupama 3 and Orange 2 has been yo-yoing for the past three days. The giant trimaran has picked up her average speed since escaping the zone of high pressure, whilst five years ago the maxi-catamaran was just beginning to make laboured headway close to the Brazilian coast. The crew had a hundred mile lead on rounding Cape Horn, a 190 mile deficit off Uruguay as Franck Cammas and his men began their beat in the high pressure, and finally were 360 miles off the pace at 0700 UTC this Tuesday. Yet since Groupama 3 has made it back into some powerful E'ly winds, the deficit has been decreasing slowly but surely with 30 miles made up in the space of seven hours. "It was a rough night, with heavy seas, even though the wind was less violent than forecast," indicated watch leader - helmsman Fred Le Peutrec. "We had thirty knots of E to NE'ly with some good four metre waves. We're all anxious about the idea of breaking gear, so we're being very careful. We've got two reefs in the mainsail and I think they've just dumped the heavy airs jib on deck! Down below we're finding it hard to hang on. It's more testing for the men rather than the boat, as she's seen conditions such as these before!" -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/yzfjhbz Current position as of March 9, 2010 (22:00:00 UTC): Ahead/behind record: -345.6 nm Speed (avg) over past 24 hours: 19.2 knots Distance over past 24 hours: 460.2 nm Distance to go: 5,006 nm Data: http://cammas-groupama.geovoile.com/julesverne/positions.asp?lg=en Map: http://cammas-groupama.geovoile.com/julesverne/index.asp?lg=en * After their start on January 31, 2010, Franck Cammas and his nine crew on Groupama 3 must cross finish line off Ushant, France before March 23rd (06:14:57 UTC) to establish a new time for the Jules Verne Trophy (21,760 nm) for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by any type of yacht with no restrictions. Current record holder is Bruno Peyron and crew, who in 2005 sailed Orange 2 to a time of 50 days, 16 hours, and 20 minutes at an average of 17.89 knots. CONGRATULATIONS TO BMW ORACLE RACING TEAM You can be a part of the winning 33rd America's Cup team with some really cool BMW ORACLE gear from SLAM … and it's available at TEAM ONE NEWPORT. You can get the waterproof backpack (link: http://www.team1newport.com/prodinfo.asp?number=SLMB463022) and Men's, Women's and Kid's shirts and more. There will be more items going up on the website everyday! Check out http://www.team1newport.com. If you're attending Safety-At-Sea in Newport this weekend, be sure to come by the store after for a "How to dress for warmth and dryness" on Saturday evening at 6:00, 7:00, and 8:00. Any questions, email Martha@team1newport.com or call 800-VIP-GEAR (800-847-4327) BACARDI MIAMI SAILING WEEK Miami, FL (March 9, 2010) - Light wind and a late start marked the second day of BACARDI Cup Star Class competition on Biscayne Bay with Rick Merriman and Phil Trinter taking the overall top spot in standings with Brazilian Lars Grael and Ronald Seifert securing the day's victory. "The last two days have been real light and the wind shifts really haven't been that large, but they've really mattered," explained Merriman. "We found the pressure we needed and felt we had a good start to the day, which really helped along with a big gain in the second run. It's been difficult out there, but luckily we've been able to stay consistent." The Star Class competition will continue through Friday, March 12th. The Viper Class begins Wednesday, March 10th with Melges 20, Melges 24 and J24 starting their run on Thursday, March 11th. -- Full story: http://www.miamisailingweek.com/news.html Preliminary results (top 5 of 84) 1. Rick Merriman/ Phil Trinter, USA, 4-2, 6 pts 2. Andy Horton/ James Lyne, USA. 8-5, 13 3. Will Stout/ Rick Peters, USA, 7-8, 15 4. Peter McChesney/ Shane Zwingelberg, USA, 5-12, 17 5. Eivind Melleby/ Petter Mřrland Pedersen, NOR, 10-11, 21 Complete results: http://www.miamisailingweek.com/results.html SAILING SHORTS * (March 9, 2010; Day 8) - Qingdao's skipper Chris Stanmore-Major prediction that the worst was still to come has been proved correct for the fleet in the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race. With the fleet battling strong headwinds and waves on their course to California from China, they are now approaching the last of the small islands off the coast of Japan before being fully immersed in the Pacific Ocean. Conditions are expected to improve over the next couple of days, with the wind angle moving back for some exhilarating downwind sailing. -- Full report: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/race_news/?item=1631 * Larchmont Yacht Club and American Yacht Club (Rye, NY) have announced details for the second annual Robie Pierce One-Design Regatta for sailors with disabilities. Building on the success of the inaugural event, as many as 35 teams are expected to share the starting line this year, making this the largest one-design regatta for sailors with disabilities in the U.S. Last year's inaugural regatta at American Yacht Club drew 22 teams sailing in specially adapted Ideal 18s. -- Details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9372 * The inaugural Cabo Marine Show will take place on April 16-17, 2010 at the Cabo San Lucas Marina in Mexico. Organisers said it would be the "most important nautical/marine show" in Los Cabos as well as Baja California Sur. A statement issued by the organisers said that boat and accessories manufacturers, marinas and resorts would all exhibit at the "Marina Golden Zone" of the show. Attendees from the US, Canada and Mexico are expected to be at the show. -- IBI Magazine, read on: http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20100208162101ibinews.html * The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) announced the completion of an agreement to sell the Toronto International Boat Show to Canadian Boat Shows, Inc. The sale is expected to be finalized on March 31, 2010. On the heels of its recent acquisition of the New England Boat Show in January, the sale of the Toronto International Boat Show comes as the NMMA continues to reposition its boat show portfolio. -- Read on: http://www.nmma.org/news/news.asp?id=17820&sid=3 SEND US YOUR BEST WINTER PICS! Have you been sailing at all this winter!? Or was your boat underneath piles of snow? Either way, submit your fun frostbiting photo (or snow covered boat photo) to LaserPerformance's photo contest for a chance to win a 15% discount at the LaserPerformance online store. For more information go to http://www.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 Scott Truesdell: (re, sinking of so-called "tall ships") A major factor in the evolution of sailing as an amateur recreation (as opposed to a dangerous job) was the adoption of fore-and-aft sails instead of square sails as the primary motive power. Fore-and-aft sails can be handled entirely from on deck and no one is required to climb into the rigging to shorten sail when things get blustery. The clipper ship era was brought down not only by steam, but also by the attrition of able bodied seaman capable of managing the huge sails on the extreme clippers. Even when cut down to more manageable sizes, the sails on these craft were huge and it took skill and experience and a measure of luck to simply stay alive. As the experienced seamen abandoned ship for the gold rushes of California and Australia, their replacements were drawn from a steadily declining pool of less skilled sailors. Square rigged boats are harder to sail. And they are less safe. Likewise, Marconi rigs are less exhausting to operate than gaff rigs. Exhaustion most definitely plays a role in the safe handling of any craft. How many accounts of abandoned boats have you read that did not include the word "exhausted?" -- Forum, read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9369#9369 * From Fred Roswold: (re, interview in Scuttlebutt 3038) I don't think Nicholas Hayes is speaking for the majority of sailors. I disagree with him that racing is meaningless or that we just do it for the friendships. We don't race to make friends; we race for the competition and the chance to win. I know most of my racing friends feel this way too because we talk about it in the clubhouse after the race. Racing, for me, is a challenge and an opportunity for Judy and I and our crew to try to exceed and improve in many disciplines: boat preparation, crew organization, crew training, tactics and strategy, helming and so on. If we succeed we might win and that feels great. It's fun. Even if we don't win we have fun and feel really good when we know we sailed really well. Yes, we also enjoy the friendships we form among our crew and among our fellow competitors, but that's not why we race. And Pros can have a place among our kind of local racing if they are doing it for fun. We like to have them in the fleet and we can measure our performance against the best sailors whether they are pros of just good amateurs. We think it is great to compete against them. Now if someone hires a pro to sail with them in a local race it becomes a job for the pro. That's OK too but if we, as amateurs, doing it for fun, are constantly outgunned by someone willing to spend a lot of money on a pro, after a while we might tend to stop trying. This is why there are limitations on pros in the sailing instructions. -- Forum, read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9373#9373 UNH BOATHOUSE FIRE - DONATE HERE Last week, the University of New Hampshire sailing team suffered an arson fire that resulted in the total loss of their equipment and boats. The blaze destroyed 55 boats, five motors, three launches, trailers and additional equipment - totaling a complete loss for both the sailing team, the UNH Community Sailing Program, a summer program for youths between 6 years old and 18 years old, and a combined junior and senior high school sailing team. The damage is estimated to exceed $500,000. Here is a recent update: http://tinyurl.com/yks8fz9 To help expedite donations, Scuttlebutt has established an account that will be accepting funds this week. Use this link to submit your donation by Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, or PayPal: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/store/ Also, Z Blok sunblock will donate $1 to the UNH Sailing Team for each tube of Z Blok sold on-line in the month of March. This donation includes all sales retroactively since March 1. -- Details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9347 CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION You know you are getting older when 5:00am is when you get up, not when you go to bed. Special thanks to Doyle Sails, Team One Newport, and LaserPerformance. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
