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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 592 - June 16, 2000AMERICA'S CUPSEATTLE - Seven Team New Zealand members will meet billionaire Craig McCaw in Seattle this weekend to discuss their futures with his new America's Cup syndicate. Designer Laurie Davidson, who has already left Auckland for the United States, will be joined by grinder Craig Monk and mastman Matt Mason, thought to have been offered about $US250,000 ($527,000) each a year to join the syndicate. Also likely to be in Seattle are grinder Andrew Taylor, pitman Jeremy Scantlebury and designer Ian Mitchell, all understood to be on the verge of signing with McCaw. Tactician Richard Dodson, who has not made any secret of his plans to join McCaw, may not be in town owing to a personal commitment. A Seattle meeting arranged with the New Zealanders last weekend was cancelled at the last minute after McCaw told the sailors business commitments meant he could not make it. Davidson was the first New Zealander to jump ship to the United States last month after wanting more design control than he was given by Team NZ. He is rumoured to be getting a $US1.5 million paycheque. But while the defecting Kiwis may be shunned in their home country, McCaw's $US75 million challenge is likely to be hugely popular in Washington state, because of a multi-million-dollar tie-in to a marine protection programme. A number of projects in the area could benefit from extra funding, including efforts to protect the degrading natural habitat of threatened chinook salmon, a push to build a new Seattle aquarium, and pollution control efforts in Lake Washington and Puget Sound. Last month, McCaw and his three brothers gave $20 million to help to renovate the Seattle Opera House. And he even propped up Team New Zealand's campaign in the dying stages with a $1 million donation at a time when the team was short of cash. But he can afford to be generous. Six years ago he sold his cellphone empire to telecommunication giant AT&T for $US11.5 billion. Much of the new challenge is still shrouded in mystery, though an announcement on its future appears imminent. All McCaw's spokesman, Bob Ratliffe, will say is: "Craig will talk about it when he is ready to talk about it, and not before." - Nick Perry, NZ Herald, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ac2000/ DOCK TALK Although Craig McCaw continues to maintain a low profile, normally reliable sources have revealed that Peter Gilmour will be the helmsman for his Seattle-based AC syndicate. Additionally, it's has been reported that McCaw has purchased Dennis Conner's IACC boat, Stars & Stripes (USA 55), and has also acquired the lease on the compound used by the New York YC's Young America syndicate in Auckland's Viaduct Basin. For an unannounced and unnamed syndicate, they seem to off to a pretty good start. EUROPE 1 NEW MAN STAR DAY TWELVE - The way Ellen MacArthur (Kingfisher) is sailing this week, even the whales don't have a chance. MacArthur reported hitting a whale overnight. "Kingfisher was flying along on a reach, and I was down below trying to get some sleep, when the boat suddenly stopped. I leapt up on deck and I saw a 5 metre whale I think, now sadly deceased. I'm not sure what I'm more concerned about, the boat or the whale. An inspection of the boat showed no damage of immediate concern, but the whale faired less well. In such a big ocean, it's a shame I had to meet up with a whale." The incident didn't seem to have an impact on Kingfisher's pace - MacArthur seems to have come through a dangerous tactical situation unscathed. The big high pressure system that's engulfing the leaders just now threatened to hurt the more Northern boats most. But MacArthur was able to dive far enough to the South to effectively cover her opponents, and hold the lead. - Marcus Hutchinson CLASS ONE MONOHULLS: 1. Ellen MacArthur (600 nm to finish) 2. Roland Jourdain (651) 3. Mike Golding (779) 4. Catherine Chabaud (783). Race website: http://www.europe1newmanstar.com/uk/ SLEEPING Helping Ellen MacArthur negotiate this razor's edge of peril is sleep expert Claudio Stampi, director of the Chronobiology Research Institute in Boston. As a circumnavigator himself, Dr. Stampi is a world expert on sleep strategy for sailors. For the eight months prior to this race, he carefully studied Ellen's sleep patterns and worked with her on how to maximize her performance at sea, on when to sleep, and for how long. During the Transatlantic race he provided her with a special sleep microcomputer worn on the wrist, enabling him to monitor Ellen's sleep data via satellite link. For the first time in the history of offshore sailing, it is now possible to follow the minute-by-minute account of Ellen's sleep patterns during the race, and understand how she can manage her outstanding performance with only 4 hours of sleep per day. At the website (below) you will see that Ellen MacArthur has mastered the art of the catnap to recharge her batteries between the intense action of racing her Open-60 Kingfisher 24 hours a day. The charts that we publish show her daily sleep pattern along with analyses and commentary of the data as it comes in. - http://64.23.31.215/uk/sleep/index.shtml FRANCIS JOYON (Sean McNeill has written an insightful story for the Quokka website about Frenchman Francis Joyon - the 44-year-old skipper who guided Eure et Loir, an old, underfunded and underpowered boat, to a triumphant record-breaking victory in the Europe 1 New Man STAR Class One Multihull division. Here's a brief excerpt.) Joyon's boat is the old Banque Populaire that capsized in '96. He borrowed money from friends to buy the Nigel Irens design when the title sponsor didn't renew its contract. But the boat is hardly in fantastic shape. Joyon had to borrow an old mast and it stands 10 feet shorter than those aboard his rivals' boats. His sails were also old and out of shape. "I started to look on the bright side when I saw that I could keep up with the others, despite the older sails and mast," said Joyon. "The chance would only become available by taking off in a different direction and ending up in a better place than the others. So I worked hard on this throughout the race." Joyon's navigational skills were certainly superior to his boat, and he relied on them to win the race. The second and third place finishers, Marc Guillemot and Franck Cammas, respectively, both said Joyon won the race due to his tactics off Cape Race, the southeast corner of Newfoundland. Some 1,200 miles from the finish, Cammas led with Joyon second (27 miles behind), Alain Gautier third and Guillemot fourth. All were virtually sailing in line. Then the breeze started shifting to the southeast from the southwest, and Joyon stayed low while Cammas, Gautier and Guillemot sailed high. With 1,000 miles left to the finish, off Cape Race, Joyon turned southwest in the southeasterly breeze and began speeding to the finish. He fended off late charges from Cammas and Guillemot; each took a turn in the lead yesterday due to their positions in the shifting winds. But Joyon was always well placed to cover either skipper. Joyon finished in a light wind at 6:31 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Lacking a sponsor, he also lacked a shore team to catch his lines and greet him. His wife and three children were due to join him this evening. Nevertheless, he sprayed race officials and some well-wishers with the obligatory bottle of champagne, even though he could barely stand. Joyon said he barely slept in the last three days of the race. He said he slept for two hours two nights ago and 20 minutes the night after, but not at all last night approaching the finish. He said he didn't sleep for fear of not waking up. - Sean McNeill, Quokka Sports Complete story: http://sailing.quokka.com/stories/06/SLQ__0614_s_europe_WFC.html LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net) Letters selected to be printed are routinely edited for clarity, space (250 words max) and to exclude unfounded speculation or personal attacks. This is not a chat room. You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if people disagree. -- From Peter Johnstone - Francis Joyons win in the One Star is made all the more incredible by the relic of a boat that he used. Eure et Loir looks like a survivor from Waterworld, rather than a grand prix open 60 tri. Quite a contrast to the newer 60's that came in later, or did not finish. FOR THE RECORD The wind came back in the middle of the night, allowing CLUB MED to speed up and descend a little further down south again in the search for stronger winds. Bruno Peyron: "We have been fighting for two days to get out of this ridge of high pressure. Yet our average remains good compared with the conditions we have been having for these last 24 hours. At the moment we are doing between 20 and 22 knots under small gennaker. If we can keep these conditions, we should have a good day's run. It is difficult at the moment to forecast an ETA in San Salvador, because the wind remains fairly changeable. Moreover, the calculations of our on board computer have been telling us for the last two days that we won't beat the record. I suspect that the computer doesn't fully realise the performance potential of the boat. So we will just have to try to make it lie. Basically we think we can do it but we must remain cautious because while we are on the fastest boat in the world, capable of doing 625 miles in 24 hours, we also know that everything can stop if we run out of wind. For the moment the tradewind is rather weak, not really set, so its rather changeable medium conditions until the finish. We are remaining concentrated!" After 8 day's racing, CLUB MED has a 478 mile lead over Jet Services V's time and at the last radio session the boat was averaging 20 knots. Website: http://www.therace.clubmed.com/press/index.phtml GAVIN BRADY In Punta Ala (Italy), Innovision Sailing won the Europeans in IMS 1 and the team collected another major trophy. Dutchmen Hans Eekhof's successful Innovision 7, a Judel/Vrolijk design, with Sailing Manager Gavin Brady was able to out perform Costa Azahar, the brand new Bribon and Brava Q8. After the warm up regatta in Capri it was obvious that Innovision's was not fast enough this year. Sailing Manager Brady explains. "The build up was long and hard. During the tune up regatta in Capri it was obvious that we had to do some work on our rating and speed. During the tune up we tried to get the boat faster instead of winning the regatta. We used what we learned in Capri to win in Punta Ala." What does Brady think about the discussion on IMS versus IRM after winning another major IMS trophy? "I don't know a lot about it. It is just another rule that makes it difficult for owners to make decisions on building a new yacht. IMS is an overall performance boat and IRM is a boat for fast sailing down wind. I need to sail both yachts fast if I am on either one." Brady is still preparing for a Volvo Ocean Race campaign. Is he still on the right track? "Sailing a 50 foot is quite similar to many things during a Volvo Ocean Race project. You have to try to optimise to a rule, manage the crew, sail makers, boat builders, etc. Of course you have a different objective in the Volvo, but you handle the problems in the same way. When you know your weaknesses and strengths you know where to focus. The team we sail with now on Innovision will be the nucleus of the Volvo team. All we need now is the money that we are trying to find for the Volvo. But further more we are ready for it." In the mean time Brady also qualified for the Olympics, yet another part of the game. "Olympics is a one design game, IMS is measurement. But it's all as said earlier. Know your weaknesses and strengths, then focus on the right thing. Of course we are pretty happy with the fact that we qualified for the games and sailed better than we expected in Annapolis." - Simon Keijzer CALENDAR * June 19 - 23 - Boatscape.com Block Island Race Week 2000, - PHRF, IMS, and One Design, separated into 12 classes and two divisions. 30 J/105s have entered. Bache Renshaw's NM49 Virago will be the scratch boat in a strong IMS class that includes similarly rated LeRenard, the new Concordia 47, hailing from Annapolis, MD. Vincenzo Onorato's brand new Cookson-built Farr 42 Cruiser Racer will make its debut this week. America's Cup legend Dennis Conner and his Soverel 33 Menace XX are gunning for local favorites Iris Vogel (Deviation) and Norm Dean (Whacko). Deviation has won its class at Block Island for three straight years and is looking to regain the Soverel 33 National Title that they held in 1997 and 1998. Event website: http://www.Premiere-Racing.com * June 29 - July 3, 2000 - USSA Junior Women's Doublehanded Championship women (ages 13-18); Oklahoma Boat Club in Oklahoma City, OK; Club 420s with spinnaker and trapeze. http://www.ussailing.org/youth/racing/jc/Ida/Idalewis2000.pdf. LINE SIGHTS AND HOW TO USE THEM On long starting lines, it can be very difficult to tell when your boat actually is on the line. An optical illusion referred to as "line sag" makes boats in the middle of a long line look like they are on the line when they are actually well below it. One great way to be sure you are on the line is to use a line sight or transit. The concept is simple. Well before the start, at least five minutes before the countdown starts, luff your boat up on the windward side of the committee boat and line up the staff (or sighting flag) on the committee boat with the pin buoy. Note any landmarks on shore that line up behind the pin. Then later, when you approach the line to start, look at the pin buoy. If the church spire, smokestack, or whatever you lined up behind the pin before the start isn't in line, then you aren't on the starting line. If you've got time before the race starts, and a cooperative friend on the committee boat, you can also practice taking line sights and finding the line just by sailing through the line and raising your arm when you think you're on the line. Your friend on the committee boat can then tell you whether you were on the line, behind it, or over it. . - Zack Leo To read all of Leonard's starting tips: http://www.sailnet.com/ THE CASH REGISTER America's Cup visitors gave the Auckland accommodation industry a big boost in the year to April. The number of "guest nights" increased 15 per cent on the previous year. This is compared with Queenstown's 11 per cent growth and Wellington's 7 per cent, according to the commercial accommodation survey conducted by Statistics New Zealand. Figures for the month of April - six weeks after Team New Zealand successfully defended the Cup - still put Auckland's growth at 14 per cent. Tourism Auckland spokesman Craig Wilson said Auckland's growth over the year represented 29.5 per cent of the national increase in guest nights. - NZ Herald Full story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ac2000 THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS Brain cells come and go, but fat cells live forever. |
