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SCUTTLEBUTT 1662 - September 7, 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, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere. MARSEILLES LOUIS VUITTON ACT 1 Skipper Chris Dickson's BMW Oracle Racing squad answered any questions that may have been raised after yesterday's third place finish with a powerful performance. After a premature start forced them to return and re-start, helmsman Gavin Brady sailed USA-76 back into contention on the left side of the race course, closing a huge initial gap, and putting the team into the top three by the first windward mark. The American team continued to play the left side of the course on the second upwind leg, and by the time they reached the windward mark for the last time, Dickson was looking back at the rest of the fleet. Sunday's race winner, Team Alinghi, trailed close behind, while further back Emirates Team New Zealand and K-Challenge, which had sailed a strong first beat, were locked into third and fourth place. While K-Challenge had to settle for a fourth place finish, the French based team sailed a fantastic race, getting a good start, and sailing a very strong first leg. K-Challenge helmsman Thierry Peponnet steered the boat up the favoured left side, and in a 2000-generation boat, with a crew that has spent less than a full week of training, was able to lead the big three (Team Alinghi, BMW ORACLE, and Emirates Team New Zealand) around the first top mark. At the back of the fleet, Team Shosholoza continues to surprise many America's Cup observers. This fledgling team rallied from a foresail problem that saw them sail bareheaded for much of the first windward leg to make a spectacular pass of Le Defi just meters from the finish line. The South African team earned the victory by just three seconds, helped in no small part by Le Defi earlier having to return to re-start with BMW Oracle at the beginning of the race. Racing started in a moderate 12 to 14 knot Southeasterly, but on the first run, the wind increased, and by the end of the first downwind leg, gusts up to 25 knots were screaming down the course, making for a second consecutive day of challenging conditions for the crews. Unlike previous editions of the America's Cup, there is no hard wind limit for the Marseille Louis Vuitton Act, and complete discretion over whether to start racing resides with Principal Race Officer Peter 'Luigi' Reggio. With the wind continuing to increase after the first race, Reggio decided to send the fleet home, and to try for more racing on Tuesday. "We were getting wind readings of 25-26 knots at surface level after the first race," Reggio explained. "But the masts on these boats are 30-metres high, and the teams that sailed upwind a bit after the first race told us they were seeing 28-30 knots. That's just too much for these boats." Racing will continue in the Marseille Louis Vuitton Act with two fleet races scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. Standings after two races: 1. Team Alinghi (1, 2) 11 points 2. BMW Oracle Racing Team (3, 1) 10 points 3. Emirates Team New Zealand (2, 3) 9 points 4. K-Challenge (4, 4) 6 points 5. Team Shosholoza (5, 5) 4 points 6. Le Defi (6, 6) 2 points Event website: www.americascup.com/en/ Act 1 Gallery: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/04/act1/ THE LIST IS GROWING *With a christening ceremony in its home country, the French K-Challenge has become the sixth Challenger for the 32nd America's Cup. The team was officially accepted as a Challenger with a letter from Pierre Yves Firmenich, the Commodore of the Société Nautique de Genève, the Defender of the America's Cup. K-Challenge is an international, multi-cultural team, led by CEO Stephane Kandler, and America's Cup winner (1992) Dawn Riley, the General Manager for the team. The skipper, Thierry Peponnet, is a two time Olympic medallist (Gold-1988 and Bronze-1984), who has competed in two previous America's Cups in 1995 and 2000. The design team is led by Bernard Nivelt, Dimitri Nicolopoulos and Guillaume Verdier, who have a range of experience across previous America's Cups, Open 60s and catamarans. This challenge marks the 11th time since 1970 that France has been represented as a challenger in the Louis Vuitton Cup, the longest such streak in the Cup (only the United States, as a Defender as well as Challenger, can rival it).K-Challenge has recently acquired NZL-57 and NZL-60, from the winning Team New Zealand defence in 2000, and will use that boat as a training and testing platform until its new yacht is built. * For the first time ever in the 153 years' history of the prestigious America's Cup (AC), there might be a German sailing team to challenge the world's oldest sports trophy. For ten months so far, a group of investors, marketing specialists and sailing experts have been working on making the German challenge happen for the 32nd AC. The campaign will start with a crew of young and mainly German sailors under the name of Fresh Seventeen. Confidential discussions with a number of potential partners have been very promising so far. The project Fresh Seventeen has been initiated by Deutsche Challenge 2007 AG (DC 2007 AG). The DC 2007 AG is responsible for implementing the project structures as well as for securing the financing. Marketing has been placed in the hands of the Swiss-based expert agency prince henry tv & sponsoring ag (Zug). The Financial Director of DC 2007 AG is holding manager Thomas Robl from Munich, who will work with Andreas John (Sports Director) from Hamburg and Eberhard Magg (Technical Director) from Kressbronn on Lake Constance. John will be selecting the crew that he plans to build and lead to world class sailing in cooperation with leading international sailing professionals. Magg is putting together a design and construction team and will be responsible for coordinating the building of a new cupper for 2007. - www.Fresh17.de HAPPY CREW…PRICELESS Looking to prepare for your end of summer/fall race schedule? Quality team gear isn't expensive. It's priceless. Musto, Gill, Dubarry, Maui-Jim, Reyn-Spooner, Dryshirt ™, and Spinlock are just a few of brands carried at the Sailing Pro Shop. This superior selection makes it easy to service the most successful boat programs that require on-time delivery at competitive prices, with customized graphics and embroidery when needed. For a limited time you will receive a free $80 Mylar Pro-Race bag when you place a qualifying order through our online store or by calling toll free: 1(800) 354-7245 or http://www.sailingproshop.com/scuttlebutt3.htm MIA September 6, 2004 - The GBR Challenge team were absent from the opening of the America's Cup regatta in Marseille yesterday but the team are on the cusp of securing sponsorship for the 2007 event. GBR sources say that a title sponsorship deal, likely to be in excess of £15 million, will be signed at a meeting tomorrow. A formal announcement could be made within a week. The funds will come from one of four companies GBR have been courting for nearly a year. They are two high street banks, an oil company, and a United States-based corporation. GBR's chairman Peter Harrison has already pledged £20 million in funding but he has said that he does not want to go it alone without sponsorship for a second challenge. There are six confirmed challengers for the 2007 America's Cup in Valencia, where the Swiss Alinghi team will defend the Cup they won in Auckland last year: Larry Ellison's BMW Oracle Racing, Italian teams +39 and Luna Rossa, South Africa's Shosholosa, Emirates Team New Zealand and France's K Challenge. - Tim Jeffery, Daily Telegraph, full story: http://tinyurl.com/43cb6 QUOTE / UNQUOTE "Russell Coutts's salary ranks among the top 20 in Switzerland. He is as well-paid as the greatest football stars of today. I cannot divulge the terms of the contract, but you'd be shocked. His salary does not lag behind that of the main Swiss CEO's. The truth is that with Michel Bonnefous, our interest lies in preparing a beautiful event in 2007, while Russell Coutts wanted to make a lot of money. In November, he already received 75% of the enormous salary we agreed upon for the 2007 Cup. Russell Coutts and Alinghi Holding will find themselves in court. I will fight with all my strength to defend principles of integrity and loyalty. If people understand this, great; if not, too bad. But I know that this is the only way to build the future and to protect the team." - Ernesto Bertarelli, from a posting on the Cup in Europe website quoting TSR & L'Hebdo. Full story: www.cupineurope.com/LatestNews/2007-Alinghi-EN8.htm MAXI YACHT ROLEX CUP Roy Disney's maxZ86 Pyewacket (USA) took line honors and was the corrected time winner in the first race in racing division of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup. Pyewacket beat Randall Pittman's Genuine Risk by just 38 seconds scratch, but corrected out 12+ minutes ahead of Pittman's canting keel Dubois 90. Bob Oatley's R/P 77 Wild Oats corrected into second place, leaving Genuine Risk in third. Neville Crichton's 90-foot water-ballasted Alpha Romeo, which was top dog in the Med last year, looked seriously off the pace next to the new canting keel maxis. Alpha Romeo finished more than seven minutes behind the shorter Pyewacket and corrected out into sixth place in the racing division. For day one of the 33-boat event hosted by Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, the racing class course was 32 miles, with the cruising and Wally classes sailed a 22-mile course in winds between 11-16 knots. Luca Bassani's Tiketitan won the Wally division while Italy's Viriella, owned by Vittorio Moretti, claimed first in the cruising division. - http://www.yccs.it/ LEGAL ISSUES Tracy Edwards, the round-the-world yachtswoman, was yesterday given two more months to settle a £500,000 debt secured against her home as she prepared to go to the High Court to contest another legal challenge over her business ventures. A district judge gave Ms Edwards more time to resolve her dispute with Andrew Pindar, the Yorkshire print firm tycoon, about a loan he made to her in 2002 to purchase the £1.1m catamaran, Maiden II. But if she fails to find the money she could still be forced to sell the Berkshire house she shares with her four-year-old daughter and her mother, who suffers from multiple sclerosis. "It is a substantial property in a fantastic location and no one has a divine right to live in such a place," said Henry Chapel, a spokesman for Mr Pindar. John Armistead, also speaking on behalf of Mr Pindar, said after the hearing: "She has multimillion-pound business opportunities in Qatar. I am not sure what particular bucket she will get the money from." A private hearing at Newbury County Court was told that Mr Pindar's loan was secured against the Edwards's Berkshire home, Burnt Hill House in Yattendon. Both sides agreed to set 6 November as the latest settlement date. - Jonathan Brown, The Independent, full story: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=559028 NEWS BRIEFS * Friday saw the lightest wind of the week in the third annual 18 Skiff International Regatta at St. Francis YC, and 52-year old John Winning's Computer Associates team from Australia ran away with victories in the last two races. Over five days on San Francisco Bay, Winning and his crew of Euan McNicol and Jack Young won 5 of the 10 races with no finish worse than third. Final results: 1. Computer Associates, 13; 2. Omega Smeg, Trevor Barnabas/ Trent Barnabas/ Rob Greuter 18; 3. West Marine, Howard Hamlin/ Mike Martin/ Rod Howell, 18. - Additional information: www.stfyc.com & www.18footers.com Amazing photo gallery: www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/04/sf18/ * Olympic 470 Gold Medal Winner Paul Foerster honored by his home town at Rockwall City Hall ceremony. ounty Commissioner Scott Self (himself an accomplished J22 sailor) read a proclamation from the Mayor and City Council declaring September 1, Paul Foerster Day in Rockwall. A packed house included many young sailors who enjoyed visiting with Paul, and trying on his medals. During his comments, Foerster appeared as a true Olympian as he humbly thanked all who attended. He encouraged all to get involved and enjoy the sport of sailing. * Team New Zealand head into the first regatta (Louis Vuitton Act 1) a little short in the afterguard department. Finn gold medallist Ben Ainslie and former Stars and Stripes tactician Terry Hutchinson will not join the team until next month. Joining Barker in the afterguard next week are Rod Davis (tactician), Kelvin Harrap (strategist) and Kevin Hall (navigator) - a group who, apart from this week, had never sailed together. - NZ Herald, http://tinyurl.com/43akv * ISAF has released the first rankings of the new Olympiad following the conclusion of the Olympic Sailing Competition of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games last Saturday. Frankly, we stopped reading them when we saw that Olympic Gold medalists Paul Foerster and Kevin Burnham had moved up to fifth place, and Star Gold medalist Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira were now ranked #12. (Huh?) If anyone really cares, the new rankings are posted on the ISAF website. - www.sailing.org/rankings SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM Any time you start getting your gear together to go to a regatta, the first thing on you mind will be your Camet Padded sailing shorts. You may already own some, but now is the time to get on the Camet web page and look at the different models and colors available. The 3000, Bermuda, Aruba, Cargo, Women's 3000 and Ocean shorts are all made out of the fast drying breathable Supplex,(UV 40+) and with the Cordura seat patch to hold the foam pad to help you get through those long hours on the rail. Coolmax shirts, Mylar bags, Rashguards etc. http://www.camet.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (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 Glenn McCarthy: Crunch the numbers. When US Sailing develops the US Sailing Team leading up to the U.S. Trials, by my numbers there are 90 members. US Sailing has roughly $1M a year to spend currently. Ignoring overhead throughout this theory, that works out to $11,111 average per team member per year. The U.S. holds the Trials roughly 6 months before the Olympics, which narrows the Team down to 18. Now using 1/2 of $1M, since there is only 1/2 of a year to go to the Olympics, that kicks the average to $27,777 per team member for the 6 months before the Olympics. As others have said already, it appears that the U.S. model used needs changing. Who requires that the Trials must be held 6 months before the Olympics? What if the Trials were held 2-1/2 years before the Olympics? Should this occur, the average funding would leap up to $55,555 per team member per year for the final 2-1/2 years. This doesn't require US Sailing to increase fundraising one-cent. Wouldn't it be easier to fund raise during the final 2-1/2 year period knowing exactly whom the money is supporting? Wouldn't it be a lot easier for the Trial winners to attend functions across the U.S. in their down time at many clubs in a fundraising effort, while inspiring sailors across the U.S. when meeting the Olympic hopefuls? Currently, time doesn't allow the trial winners to visit across the U.S. in their climb to Olympic gold. * From John Sherwood, Annapolis: Some feel that U.S. sailors failed to meet expectations at Athens. Bull! Two medals, three additional top fives and many high place race finishes show that they were fully competitive. Give the U.S. Olympic sailors the credit they deserve. When fleets consist of only excellent sailors, some excellent sailors are going to get beat. Note the world champions from other countries who finished out of the money. Our sailors had competitive boatspeed and race savvy. The race venue was tough. Picking the best side on the first beat was critical and difficult. Even teams that had lots of training in Athens didn't get it right. I agree that sailors need to be motivated early to aim for the Olympics and assisted in their efforts, but I'm not keen on trying to build an elitist "master race" of Olympic prospects per Philippe Kahn. Our selection system has worked in the past, it worked this time, and with appropriate fine tuning it can work in the future. * From Roger Marshall: One of the major points that commentators on the US Olympic sailing miss, is that in Britain there are thousands of dinghy sailors who get out almost every weekend and race on lakes, reservoirs, and in the open sea. Competition in most classes is intense. Just go to the Hayling Island YC web site for example, to see how many dinghy classes are started each weekend. These dinghy sailors build a base of knowledge of that class that is often unrivalled. Only the very top sailors are supported by the infusion of money from the national sailing authority. In the US, kids tend to go through dinghy classes and on to larger boats without staying in the smaller classes to generate the knowledge and the intense competition needed to compete at higher levels. Optimist, Laser, 420, and on to larger boats seems to be the progression, at least around Narragansett Bay. Often, the exception is the few talented sailors who set the Olympics as a goal and stay in their chosen class. If America wants to have a world-class Olympic sailing team, start by bringing more kids into sailing at the dinghy level and increasing their knowledge and talent pool. Not only will this help racing teams later on, but as these kids find jobs it will expand the entire sailing industry. * From Henry Filter (edited to our 250 word limit): Jonathan McKee wrote an article that essentially said "many sailors think they are not good enough to go for the Olympics, which is wrong." Additionally, "finishes are nothing but a gauge of your progress in the process towards perfection." It stressed not focusing on the finish position, but on the basics. Once those basics are mastered, the results will come. The casual observer does not realize how far the US has come. In the Laser class, 10 years ago a top 20 at the worlds was rare. In 2003/ 2004, USA finished 6th and 2nd respectively. That's progress. Based on recent World's finishes, the US had shots of medaling in eight classes. . In the 80s, you could take four years and campaign. Win the trials, you could medal. Today, you need a 10+ year Olympic career. As I watched the Olympic Medal ceremonies for the 470s, Finn and Yngling, most teams on the podium had been to at least one previous Olympics. The US does not currently have the infrastructure to support the career Olympian, but with programs like "Pegasus", we can get there. To the youth sailor, I say "go for it". It will be an experience like no other, the skills you acquire will transfer to the business world. Corporate America will soak you up! What a great sport, when a 39 year old mother of two can realize her dream of representing her country in the Olympics. * From Richard Collins, Pleasanton, CA: Re Paige Railey's comments on not having a person to look to as mentor except herself, I don't find this unusual. When running Jr sailing for several years in CT, I found many youth sailors had bad experiences either as crew or getting crew for FJ's or 420's so preferred Lasers or other singlehanded boats. They were not drilled on the rewards of "Crew" and "Team" and were always ready to lay blame elsewhere. It seems the "I", "Me", "My" still permeates today's youth in some quarters (thanks to $$$ and media?). Too bad. * From Arturo Delgado, ISAF Council member and former President Of EUROSAF, Royal Spanish Federation and Vice President of IYRU: Because of the big influence the Optimist Class has on kids and future great sailors, I've maintained for years that ISAF, Continental Federations and MNAs must have more control on the development and activities of the Class. THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS What would men be without women? Scarce, sir, mighty scarce. - Mark Twain |
