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SCUTTLEBUTT 1511 - February 4, 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 and personal attacks for elsewhere. NOT JUST BROKEN - OBLITERATED Francis Joyon obliterated the monohull and multihull solo round-the-world records yesterday - a quiet man performing heroic deeds. The Breton returned to his home port of Brest, completing his 27,150-mile voyage just ahead of the dawn. He had nursed and muscled his 90ft trimaran IDEC around the world in 72 days, 22 hours and 54 minutes. This was one of the most significant circumnavigations of all time. He beat the solo non-stop record set by fellow Frenchman Michel Desjoyeaux in his Open 60 monohull by 20 days. The solo multihull record, set by another Frenchman, Philippe Monnet, was slashed by 53 days. Ellen MacArthur, putting her new 75ft trimaran B & Q through trials in New Zealand to attack the very record Joyon's had just broken, said: "What Francis has done is extraordinary. He has set a stunning pace." - Tim Jeffery, The Telegraph, full story: http://tinyurl.com/3hern QUOTE / UNQUOTE "Francis is without a doubt the best solo sailor we have seen in the last 15 years. He has exceptional physical strength and nothing can stop him. He crosses the Atlantic like others may take their family camping. He shows no fear. On land, his wings don't touch the ground." - Thomas Coville contender of the Trophée Jules Verne from 1997-2002. http://www.yachting-world.com/yw/home.htm "He has managed to sail with averages similar to that of a fully crewed boat. In fact, you can almost forget the averages, because he has just sailed a huge trimaran designed for a crew of eight people around the world. It takes someone fairly special to do that, let alone maintain fully crewed averages! - Ellen MacArthur, www.teamellen.com VOLVO OCEAN RACE Boating Partners UK Ltd (BPUK) announced their aim of entering a fully funded, properly supported female crew into the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06. "We have always felt strongly that the time is right for a crew of leading yachtswomen to have a proper shot at the Volvo Ocean Race," said BPUK's Managing Director Manley Hopkinson. "This will involve having a boat specially designed and built for them from the start, as well as receiving the funding, support and preparation time that is required to be fully competitive in the race." The rules for the new Volvo Open 70 class specifically included the addition of two extra crew-members for women crews in order to make it a level playing field in terms of strength. BPKU has enlisted the support of professional sailor Emma Westmacott. Westmacott has enjoyed a successful sailing career and is certainly no stranger to the Volvo Ocean Race, having been involved in two previous race campaigns. In last edition of the event in 2001-02, she was watch leader for Amer Sport Too and was involved with the campaign from the outset; running both team fitness and onboard electronics. Emma also competed in the 1997-98 Whitbread Round the World Race, the predecessor of the Volvo Ocean Race onboard "EF Education", as a helmsman and trimmer. Emma has been involved in other round the world campaigns including a Jules Verne (a non-stop round-the-world record attempt) as watch leader on 'Royal and SunAlliance', with Tracy Edwards. The syndicate has already formed partnerships with a number of commercial groups including: a design team combining the respective offices of Rob Humphreys and Jason Ker, Musto, North UK, Formula Spars, Marine Pics, S2 Marketing, Mission Performance and World Sport SA. www.volvooceanrace.org FOSSETT CODE RED BUT ALL SET WITH HIS MUSTOS Steve Fossett, skipper of the 125' maxi catamaran Cheyenne, is currently on stand-by for his round-the-world record attempt. Fossett and his twelve strong crew have chosen Musto clothing for their endeavor, knowing that from the moment they set off they will be protected against the ocean's elements...whether trying to stay cool in the Doldrums or hammering along at 35 knots in the Southern Ocean. You don't need to sail a maxi catamaran to experience Musto. Give it a try next time: http://www.musto.co.uk INDUSTRY NEWS From February 1st, 2004 the German based Dimension-Polyant is taking over the complete Membrane Technology 'D4' from Australia's Fraser Sails Pty Ltd, of Somersby NSW, Australia and the experienced team of employees under Bob Fraser. The Doyle Fraser sail lofts including the large Central Coast facility at Lisarow are not part of the acquisition - they will continue to exist independently. Dimension-Polyant has also entered into a licensing agreement with Genesis International A/S, Denmark concerning rights of use regarding the Membrane Technology of the Genesis patent. Dimension-Polyant is a leading manufacturer of sailcloth for yacht sails, dinghy sails, surf sails, and surf kites, hang gliders, paragliders, hot air balloons and many more. Recently two new super maxi Yachts equipped with 'D4' sail inventories - Skandia and Zana - finished first and second in the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race. Dimension-Polyant maintains production locations in Germany and the USA and now also in Australia as well as sales offices and warehouses at the most important commercial centres in the world. Sail-world.com, full story: http://www.sail-world.com/ AMERICA'S CUP San Francisco Bay sailor and advertising ace John Sweeney is drawing up plans to lead a second local challenge for the 2007 America's Cup in Valencia, Spain. If things come together, Sweeney's syndicate will be sponsored by the Sausalito Yacht Club. His "low budget" campaign will cost about $40 million. His sailing operations will be based at Treasure Island. The syndicate's name will reflect its corporate sponsor, which has yet to be determined. It could be Oracle's rival, PeopleSoft, or whoever is willing to ante. In a twist, Sweeney plans to auction off the exclusive sponsorship rights to his racing syndicate. The bidding would start at $20 million for a corporate-branding opportunity that Sweeney likens to Formula One auto racing. In the meantime, two unnamed Sausalito residents have given his fledgling campaign a $10 million donation. "It's the dream. I've always been a racing sailor. I've always wanted a chance to put my ideas into the mix," said Sweeney, a former crewmember for Ellison's Oracle BMW Racing. Sweeney hopes to spend less than one-third of the more than $120 million that Ellison's syndicate is likely to pour into its campaign to wrest the silver cup from the Swiss Alinghi team. Oracle BMW Racing is nominally sponsored by the Golden Gate Yacht Club, but it is bankrolled in large part by Ellison's fortune. Ellison plans to build two new racing yachts for the 2007 America's Cup that reflect the latest technological advances in design. Sweeney plans to build one new 80-foot racing yacht and to purchase two yachts from the 2003 America's Cup. He hopes to have two boats training on the bay by late summer. "It would be foolish to say that you're going to Valencia to beat Oracle and Alinghi, but you can have a very competitive team," Sweeney said. "Basically, there will be a lot of guys racing for the advertising." Running an America's Cup campaign is a proven money drain, with roughly 55 percent of the budget going into the payroll and $10 million or so to build a swift racing boat. - Excerpts from a story by Jim Doyle, San Francisco Chronicle, full story: http://tinyurl.com/388je CREW CHANGES The crew of Steve Fossett's 125-foot catamaran Cheyenne is still waiting in Plymouth, Devon, UK for a favorable weather pattern to begin their attempt to break the Round the World record. The ongoing delay has necessitated several crew changes. Adrienne Cahalan (2003 Australian Yachtswoman of the Year) has been selected Navigator for Cheyenne's record attempt, replacing Stan Honey whose prior commitments as navigator on the new Pyewacket mean he no longer has time to sail RTW. Thomas Coville has also had to leave the program due to his commitments to re-launch his 60 foot trimaran Sodebo at the end of March. Coville's replacement has not yet been selected. www.fossettchallenge.com FOR SALE It's official. The Vendée Globe Race is up for sale! Or at least the remaining assets are up for sale from the company Sail Com, that went into liquidation on 4 December 2002 as well as Philippe Jeantot, who was put into liquidation from a judgment on 9 May 2003 and confirmed by the ruling in Poitiers on 28 October 2003. The sale comprises two trademarks and two Internet addresses. Both the trademarks bear the Vendée Globe name. - YachtingUniverse.com, full story: http://tinyurl.com/27cq5 MAN OVERBOARD The first seconds are always critical. Overboard victims may be unconscious, traumatized, hypothermic…unable to help in their own recovery. Automatically activated SeaMarshall personal rescue beacons can mean the difference between a successful recovery and tragedy. For information on SeaMarshall marine beacons and homing receivers: Chip Barber at admin@chbarber.com or http://www.seamarshall-us.com NEWS BRIEFS * The International Foundation for Disabled Sailing (IFDS), Paralympic sailing authority, is in final preparations for the world's first, IFDS Two-Person World Championship this March in Tampa Bay, Florida, at the St Petersburg YC. This inaugural event is a key step in the development of a new two-person sailing discipline for the Paralympic Games, focused on severely disabled athletes. The event will be sailed in the spinnaker-equipped Martin 16, a high-performance, sixteen-foot sloop designed specifically to accommodate sailors with severe disabilities. www.spyc.org/ifdsworlds * Jean Luc van den Heede sailing his 84ft aluminum cutter Adrien, on his fourth attempt at the 'westabout' singlehanded global challenge, has been sailing in a light southeasterly breeze with a spinnaker flying. This has helped to open up his lead over Philippe Monnet's record to a full 21 days. VDH is now just 1003 miles from the Cape of Good Hope and under 7500 miles from the finish. - http://www.vdh.fr/gb/ * On this day in history in 1987, San Diego Yacht Club celebrated the victory of skipper Dennis Conner and the Stars and Stripes over Australia's Kookaburra III to sweep the America's Cup series in Fremantle. - http://tinyurl.com/2hanw * For the 2004 Newport Bermuda Race, all sailors competing in the IMS Cruiser/Racer, Americap II Non-Spinnaker and Americap II Double-handed Divisions must obtain an ISAF Sailor's Classification Code. The Newport Bermuda Race uses this process to limit the numbers of professionals that can compete in these Divisions, keeping a predominantly amateur set of sailors aboard these yachts. To obtain an ISAF Sailor's Classification Code each crew member, including the Captain, must answer a short set of questions online: www.sailing.org/isafsailor/register.asp. For the full wording of NOR 3.2.5: http://www.bermudarace.com/2004/nor.php DEFIBRILLATOR-CAUSED FIRE Experts said Wednesday that they had never heard of a defibrillator starting an ambulance fire like the one that ignited the clothing on a New London woman as a paramedic attempted to revive her. Wednesday, the chief state's medical examiner's office said 47-year-old Brenda Jewett was already dead Monday night when her clothing caught fire as a paramedic applied electric shocks in an attempt to restart her heart while on the way to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital. Jewett's husband had found his wife unconscious on the floor of their home Monday evening and called for an ambulance. The medical examiner's office said Jewett, who was apparently severely overweight, died of natural causes. No members of the ambulance crew were injured. The bizarre fire has prompted an investigation by the state police major crime squad, state and local fire marshals and the Office of Emergency Medical Services at the state Department of Public Health. - Wm. Hathaway, ctnow.com, full story: http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-defib0129.artjan29,1,1899444.story CLARIFICATION It has come to our attention that the headline for the Vanguard ad we ran in 'Butt 1510 was offensive to some readers. Please be assured that no one at Vanguard Sailboats condones trying to hide the fact that you are an OCS starter. We apologize if our tongue-in-cheek ad headline may have been offensive to some Scuttlebutt readers. All white boats have been popular with Laser sailors for many years, for a variety of reasons; nostalgia for a previous boat, aesthetics, and the ever popular theory of a "hidden bow" on the starting line. Our intent, of course, was to get people to read the ad and find out that all white Lasers are available, not to encourage people to try and stress out already beleaguered race committees. - Chip Johns, President, Vanguard Sailboats, www.teamvanguard.com SORC ADVANTAGE You can have the advantage at the Acura SORC event by having your very own Raider RIB Tender for your use throughout the entire regatta. A Raider Cabin 900 (30 feet) with twin 225HP Honda's is available for charter. This Raider RIB (with driver provided) can give you the same advantages that the Grand Prix fleets have become accustomed to for years! Only one boat is available. Check out the Raider RIB Cabin 900 at the website or call 877-7RAIDER to reserve today. http://www.raiderboat.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 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 Jessica Carter, New Zealand: It was great to read your article about Russell Coutts sharing his experiences with young sailors in Dubai. New Zealanders will get a chance to hear more about his outstanding achievements and his contributions to youth in sailing when the New Zealand Sportsman of the Year Awards are announced this month. They will find out that during a long and illustrious career he has coached, assisted and inspired young sailors, generously given his time, shared his knowledge and encouraged their dreams to achieve the highest international honours. The Awards will give New Zealanders an opportunity to reclaim their reputation for sportsmanlike behaviour, which was eroded by their hasty vilification of this fine yachtsman. Yes...time for the Kiwi detractors to lie down and admit that Coutts contributes more to youth development in sport than they do. * From Chris Links, Australia: I find John Bertrands's views (Scuttlebutt 1508) on raising corporate funds for an America's Cup campaign out of Australia as quite disappointing. "With profile and success comes responsibility." It would be much more appropriate if he was out there supporting our sport at all levels rather than on his own agenda of which is obviously the Volvo Ocean race and Skandia race week. If there are sponsors out there for these great events there is no reason that they are not out there, for one of the oldest and greatest sporting events in history. We are very lucky that it just happens to be in our Sport! If John and the rest of the guys that wrestled the cup away from the American's had not believed that it could be done twenty years ago, they would have given up long before they brought the cup home.I hope there's money out there for all these great events. Let's help each other out, in our sport not make things harder buy saying it can't be done without a billionaire. There is certainly the talent and enthusiasm to provide sponsors at all levels great partnerships and return on there investment. * From Tania McKenzie: Congratulations to Robert Atkins (Butt #1510) for spilling the beans on the ISAF Judges. For those of us that have attended International Juries we have seen judges sit at the end of the table say nothing and stare blankly into space. In the 'old days' sit on enough IJ and you were appointed. ISAF saw the error and now makes all new judges sit for the exam, but the old bad judges still do not have to sit for the exam, they are just reappointed! Now we could have those same bad judges appointed at the Athens Olympics because of politics. We all strive so hard to send the very best sailors to the Olympics. Now we have a person's life ambition and dreams before a panel of judges, when some may not be competent, but appointed because of politics. ISAF must ensure that all the judges are the best judges. that they have all attended and passed an ISAF Judges seminar. If ISAF can not come out and say this then we know that they are as corrupt as the 'other' sports. We must know our Olympic sailors go before the best International Judges in our sport, not the politically appointed judges! * From Tom Dessel: Following up on Ed Sherman's submission ('Butt 1509) about the doctor from Atlanta who recently has his Beneteau 57 stolen from its berth, I wholeheartedly agree that boat owners should be aware of a state-of-the-art wireless monitoring system now available to monitor boats 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the U.S., Mexico, Canada and U.S. Virgin Islands. GlobalGuard offers such monitoring, and boat owners receive an alert anywhere, anytime when, for example, the boat has been moved from its mooring or dock without authorization. The system will also alert the owner if the boat is taking on water or if the system detects smoke or fire on-board. Conveniently, boat owners can receive this alert through a telephone call, a pager, email - or all three. Boat owners may also verify their boat's current location and system status via GlobalGuard's secure Internet site. The site displays the mapped position of the boat and provides detailed information such as speed, direction of travel, latitude and longitude. While on the website a boat owner may also remotely control programmed functions of the vessel, whether it is docked or in transit, such as disabling the ignition system or deactivating various onboard electronic devices. GlobalGuard systems use the U.S. Government GPS satellite network, a live 24/7 Monitoring & Support Center and Motorola's ReFLEX nationwide two-way messaging network to locate, communicate with and control vessels. * From Ralph Taylor: We need more discussions among us racers on man-overboard situations. IMHO, one of the most dangerous situations is when a crew goes in the water at a crowded mark rounding. Picture 40 boats rounding a windward or leeward mark in close proximity: They've been busy fighting for room rights and setting up for the next leg. The swimmer would be difficult for the rounding boats to see (even if they weren't involved in spinnaker hoists or douses) and in extreme danger of being run over. It's also difficult & dangerous in heavy traffic for a boat to turn & stop in order to do a rescue. Three initial suggestions: 1) All crews who spot the swimmer need to hail surrounding boats, so they have advance warning. 2) Race committees should think very carefully before calling courses in which multiple classes will be rounding marks together. 3) Perhaps, the RRS need to specifically give a rescuing boat ultimate right of way. (Here, the hail could be "Rescuing".) Such situations are ugly. In the ones I've seen, only superb & radical boat-handling by all boats prevented a tragedy. CURMUDGEON'S QUOTATIONS "I never hated a man enough to give his diamonds back." - Zsa Zsa Gabor |
