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SCUTTLEBUTT 3323 - Tuesday, April 19, 2011Scuttlebutt 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. Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: New England Ropes, North Sails, and J Boats. SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT By Norbert Bajurin, GGYC Commodore Regarding your 'Insider' comments in Scuttlebutt 3322, you are correct that Golden Gate Yacht Club is the home club of ORACLE Racing, of which we are exceptionally proud. However, your suggestion that Mr. Ellison funded the club to gain control of our Board is false. As I am the one who in 2001 forged the deal with ORACLE Racing, I can attest that there was never any funding exchanged for Board seats. Your assertion that ORACLE Racing controls our Board is totally untrue. You should check your facts before publishing such incorrect and misleading information. There are twelve seats on our Board of Directors of which only three are filled by individuals who also are ORACLE Racing team members. This highly contrasts with your statement that they control half of the Board. And yes, Tom Ehman is our new Vice Commodore. He has been a popular GGYC member for ten years and brings experience as both a board member and flag officer from a number of other clubs - to say nothing of 30 years of America's Cup experience. He was elected for those strong attributes. Tom and the two other directors from ORACLE Racing are key assets for GGYC; I am sure there are many other clubs that would be as proud as we are to have them serve on their Boards. As long as we are talking about GGYC Board members, we also have a banker as treasurer, an attorney as a director, an engineer as our Rear Commodore, and our Past Commodore is a marketing/communications guru. Myself? I am just an auto air-conditioning mechanic. Perhaps your 'Insider' should visit my shop in downtown San Francisco as it appears he or she is blowing a lot of "hot air." => Curmudgeon's Comment: My apologies for the confusion. The information posted in Scuttlebutt 3122 came from the GGYC website which lists only six directors, three of which being from the Oracle Racing team. Norbert tells me the website will be updated soon. -- http://www.ggyc.org/officers.php For additional information on the partnership of Oracle Racing and Golden Gate YC, here are two articles from SF area newspapers: November 11, 2002: http://tinyurl.com/SFC-041811 September 26, 2007: http://www.marinij.com/ci_7005936?source=most_viewed LET'S MAKE PROTESTING EASIER By Rob Overton, Intl. Umpire Last month, Scuttlebutt published an article by Peter Wilson, complaining that we, as competitors and judges alike, are neither obeying nor enforcing the Fundamental Principle of our sport, as stated in Sportsmanship and the Rules at the beginning of our rulebook. In particular, he notes that sailors are not doing their turns when they know they've broken a rule, and they're not protesting when they know they've been fouled. I've been thinking about that, and there's one thing we rules writers and regatta organizers might do to address this problem: Relax the time and notification requirements for protesting and for taking penalties. Rule 61.1(a) says, "A boat intending to protest shall inform the other boat at the first reasonable opportunity. When her protest concerns an incident in the racing area that she is involved in or sees, she shall hail 'Protest' and conspicuously display a red flag at the first reasonable opportunity for each. She shall display the flag until she is no longer racing. ..." The rule goes on to say that these notification requirements are relaxed in certain cases: no hail is required if the boats are too far apart to hear hails, no flag is required for boats shorter than 6 meters (about 20 feet), and none of the requirements apply if there was injury and damage and it's clear that one boat intends to protest. But these are just common-sense exceptions and in most cases don't relieve a protestor of the basic requirement, which is to "inform the other boat at the first reasonable opportunity." Most protest committees give the protestor a little slack when it comes to the flag - after all, a crewmember has to be freed up to take care of it, and in many boats that means going below, grabbing the flag and tying it up on the shroud or backstay - but in the case of the hail, most protest committees interpret "first reasonable opportunity" to mean "almost immediately". Hailing doesn't involve getting a flag out of the cabin, and if there are no injured crewmembers to care for or damage to fix, protest committees feel that there's really no excuse for delaying the hail. -- Read on: http://www.ukhalsey.com/blog/post/Lets-make-protesting-easier.aspx AIRFORCE ONE OUTFITTED BY NEW ENGLAND ROPES On the Melges 24 podium at Charleston Race Week was Airforce One, fully outfitted with New England Ropes! Led by Moth world champion Bora Gulari, the team even featured their latest innovation that's so top secret, it's not even listed on their website! More information on that is coming soon! At the Melges 24 Worlds, look for Team New England Ropes / West Marine Rigging, and as a proud sponsor of Gulari, check out high performance products built to perform like STS-12-75 and STS-12-90 - made of 100% Dyneema! To find out more about New England Ropes, visit http://www.neropes.com TAX PLAN WOULD SINK STATE'S BOATING INDUSTRY By Rives Potts, The Hartford Courant I have been employed at one of the most well-respected full service boatyards in the northeast for more than 30 years. In the 1980s and early 1990s, boat owners came to us from Europe, South America and from both coasts of the U.S. for the special skills and care of our Connecticut craftsmen. Our future felt secure. In the mid-'90s, Rhode Island, in an effort to give its marine industry a boost, eliminated almost all taxes on boats and boating. Rhode Island officials learned a valuable lesson from the disastrous effects of the ill-conceived federal luxury tax of 1990, which caused more than 19,000 marine industry jobs to be lost nationwide, and drove many boat manufacturers out of business. Boat sales dropped by 40 percent and the overall tax revenue was lower than pre-luxury tax levels. It also kick-started the continuing trend to have boats built outside the U.S. The unemployment compensation benefits paid out were more than three times greater than the tax revenue generated. When the federal government realized its mistake and repealed the 1990 luxury tax in 1993, much damage was already done to America's boating industry. Rhode Island saw that increasing taxes caused customers to either stop buying boats or to buy them outside of the U.S. After eliminating the taxes on boating, Rhode Island got an immediate surge in its marine business. Boat building blossomed, new boatyards formed and marinas expanded. Including related businesses, by 1999, Rhode Island's marine industry grew by more than 6,000 jobs and more than $1 billion in revenue. Connecticut was not so smart. It kept or increased taxes on boat sales, labor, slips and storage and lost business and jobs to Rhode Island. To stop this slide, the Connecticut marine industry lobbied the General Assembly for relief from these job-killing taxes in the mid-'90s. The effort was partially successful and slowed losses to our eastern neighbor. But because the taxes on sales and use and slips remain, Connecticut keeps falling behind. In the past 20 years, we have gone from 15,000 jobs to 4,500 jobs in our marine industry; there are virtually no boat manufacturers left in Connecticut; most of our marinas have empty slips; and our boatyards have cut payrolls. At our boatyard, we've gone from employing 104 craftsmen to 53. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/CT-041811 SOUTHERN SLAM For the nearly 250 teams at the 2011 Sperry Top-Sider Charleston Race Week, the three day event tracked The Story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. One day was too windy, one day was too light, and one day was just right. Working around six foot tides and strong currents, the five race courses hosted 16 fleets of one design and PHRF. After bluebird conditions for the opening day, strong winds cancelled the next day with fickle winds on the final day allowing fleets to complete a total of 4 to 5 races. RESULTS: http://www.yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=407 PHOTOS: Thanks to photographers Billy Black, Joy Dunnigan, Priscilla Parker, and Karen Ryan for contributing to the Scuttlebutt event gallery: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/11/0417/ VIDEO: Ashley Love and Lindsay Foster from T2P.tv provide daily highlights. Day 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_s93bjxiug Day 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te60JZt7y08 Day 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml8oMlgdkqs FREE CLASSIFIED ADS The Scuttlebutt Classified Ads provide a marketplace for private parties to buy and sell, or for businesses to post job openings. Here are recent ads: For Sale - * Self steering and emergency rudder system * Etchells USA 65 Now Hiring - * Race Director - Santa Barbara Yacht Club * Yacht crew member job opening View/post ads here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/classified_ads SAILING SHORTS * Winthrop, MA (April 17, 2011) - Thirty-five teams traveled to Winthrop for the 2011 IC Nationals sponsored by Paul W. Marks Food Service Co., and dealt with the big breeze that blew through the entire northeast, with winds consistently in the high teens and many gusts into the low to mid 20s. While many teams suffered in the survival conditions on Saturday, two teams from Larchmont excelled. Two-time national champions John & Molly Baxter and Sunfish world champ Paul-Jon Patin with long-time crew Felicity Ryan battled throughout the first day, with the later carving out a single point lead. Racing was cancelled on Sunday in deteriorating conditions. -- Full report/photos/results: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=11713 * US SAILING's Olympic Sailing Committee (OSC) has nominated 16 American sailors to compete at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico from Oct. 14-30. The sailing competition of the 2011 Pan American Games will feature nine events, including four Olympic classes - Laser (Men), Laser Radial (Women) and RS:X (Men and Women) - and five non-Olympic, open classes - Hobie 16, J/24, Lightning, Snipe and Sunfish. US SAILING's nominees to the 2011 U.S. Pan American Games Team are as follows: http://tinyurl.com/US-Team-041811 * (April 18, 2011; Day 23; 20:27 UTC) - Velux 5 Oceans leader Brad Van Liew (USA) is predicted to reach the finish of leg 4 in Charleston, USA on Tuesday April 19, around 0800 EST (1300 UTC). This will be Van Liew's fourth straight leg win, which began when the fleet of four Eco 60 solo skipper set sail from Punta del Este, Uruguay on March 27. Derek Hatfield (CAN) is 98 nm further back in second place. -- http://www.velux5oceans.com/ * Boaters are keeping their butts out of the water - and we're not talking about the kind in swim trunks. The BoatUS Foundation reports that the 43 marinas that participated in its 2010 Cigarette Litter Prevention Program saw an amazing 63% average reduction in the amount of cigarette litter - which ultimately would have ended up in the water. -- Read on: http://www.boatus.com/pressroom/release.asp?id=652 FOUR BULLETS FOR 'GAMBLER' AT CHARLESTON RACE WEEK North Sails would like to congratulate 'Gambler' for sweeping PHRF B with four bullets at Sperry Top-Sider Charleston Race Week, where a record number of 270 boats raced in the 3-day regatta. Doug Shaffer, owner of the J/122 'Gambler,' commented on his new North 3Di jib, "I have had many boats, upwards of six with North sails, and this 3Di sail is the BEST YET!" Check out our Web site for some awesome videos by T2P.tv highlighting the great racing and people who made CRW such a fun event! http://na.northsails.com GUEST COMMENTARY Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community. Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted comments chosen to be published in the newsletter may be limited to 250 words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Jon Deutsch: This past Saturday the line of strong storms that produced many tornado's in North Carolina also passed through coastal parts of Virginia. While over 100 people were enjoying Opening Day Dinner at Fishing Bay Yacht Club in Deltaville, Virginia, a Tornado passed within 3/4 of a mile of the club. The group knew about the tornado watch that was in affect, and moved to the interior of the club. The tornado knocked out power and blocked the only road out of the club, causing many at the dinner to have to walk home. One club member who had left early drove near the path of the tornado and had minor car damage. The tornado went directly over the home of another club member while they were inside and while the house received significant damage, everyone inside was ok. Overall there were no major injuries in the Deltaville area. The tornado passed east of all of the marinas in town and only damaged private homes, docks and boats. Tornado path: http://www.fbyc.net/1303133573/index_html Club member accounts: http://www.fbyc.net/1303080301/index_html Aerial video: http://tinyurl.com/Deltaville-041811 * From Joe Buck: The story titled "Sustainable Power Consumption" (Scuttlebutt 3321) quotes Derek Hatfield, skipper of Active House, discussing power consumption in terms of "amps per hour" or "amps an hour" which are meaningless, non-sense terms. It is not clear whether Derek should, instead, have used the term "amperes" or "ampere-hours", which have quite different meanings. The term "amperes" or "amps" is a measure of electrical current, i.e. the rate at which electrical charge is flowing out of a power source or into a device that is consuming the power. (A current of one ampere represents the transfer of one coulomb of electrical charge per second.) The term "ampere-hours" or "amp-hours" is a measure of the total amount of electrical charge that has been transferred, e.g. into or out of a battery. E.g, a 100 ampere-hour battery is rated as being able to output 100 ampere-hours of electrical charge before it is completely discharged (although, in practice, only 60 percent or so of this amount may be available.) Thus such a battery can provide approximately 60 amperes of electrical current for one hour, or 10 amperes of current for 6 hours, or 1 ampere of current for 60 hours, i.e. a total of 60 amp-hours of electrical charge, before the battery must be recharged. The correct, and meaningful, terms are "amperes" and "ampere-hours". Derek's use of "amps per hour" needlessly confuses the discussion. * From Michelle Slade: After volunteering at the Leukemia Cup Regatta (San Francisco Yacht Club/Oct 1 - sign up now!) booth on Friday at the Strictly Sail boat show, I was reminded that if there's one person whose praises need to be sung far and wide, it's Robin Reynolds, the key person behind what I understand is sailing's most successful fundraising effort across the country. Robin is not only a person of great integrity and extremely committed to the cause she works for, she does it in the most cheerful upbeat way, always with a smile and never a complaint (not even after four long days working a boat show...). She's a delight to work with and I thought it especially insightful that she viewed having the booth at the show as, more than anything, a great vehicle to bring her community of people involved in the Leukemia Cup together - it wouldn't surprise me if people came to the show just to support Robin and her great efforts. The sport of sailing is fortunate to have people like Robin involved - long may there be many more. * From Noel M. Field, Jr.: The subject of college coaches which has received recent comments reminds me of an incident that occurred at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy many years ago. I was one of the judges of an intercollegiate regatta. I was on the top floor of the sailing center when a competitor came up and asked if I was aware of what was happening on the dock. When I went down to the dock, I found the coach of one of the teams "improving" one of the boats. It seemed that the boats, (I believe they were either 420s or FJs) were beginning to wear out the plastic gaskets which were on the bottom of the boats alongside the centerboards. I learned that this coach and his team were systematically pulling up on the dock the boat which would be used by that team in the following race and were shaving off the gasket - a little less friction for the boat for that team in the next race. We put an end to that practice, but since that time I have never been sure just what kind of standards of sportsmanship that coach imparted to his students. Generally, I find coaches do a great job of instilling a spirit of sportsmanship. Unfortunately that coach and his predecessor had set standards which were unacceptable, but his teams succeeded in winning. I always felt the sailors would have done just as well if they hadn't been coached in shaving the rules. * From Bruce Thompson: (re, letters in Scuttlebutt 3322) I'd offer Patrick Broderick this rule of thumb, "pass all the marks you can, round those you must and never buttonhook in either direction". That is the essence of rule 28. Note that the RRS do not define rounding or passing marks. And Rule 28 never requires a buttonhook. I offer Clark Chapin the observations above plus this: he ought to look at Appendix L which is where he will find optional guidelines for writing SIs. But given his lawyerly bent a case study might help: Perhaps attracted by an entry fee readily denominated in Loonies ("zero"), four boats unexpectedly made the 24 hour round trip from Thunder Bay Ontario south (relatively speaking) to participate in our regional regatta last September, thereby extending their sailing season. Knowingly and wittingly, I neglected to provide them with a written copy of U S Sailing's prescriptions to the RRS for what had become an international regatta. Sadly, no one even noticed my act of defiance! They all just had too much fun to notice. * From Jim Key: Still bothers me that America's Cup doesn't think TV is vital to its fans. They haven't thought of TV as a money maker for the sport. Nascar has! I still can't get any TV coverage on America's Cup anything. No Extreme 40 stuff... no nothing! There are cooking channels, there are shopping channels, there are religious channels, and of course there is the SPEED channel. We will never bring the sailing sport to the public without a TV sailing channel. Maybe US SAILING should take the lead role in TV access. Sailing in the Olympics Games is struggling, why? Because you can't watch it on TV. 250+ channels of stuff on TV and not a sailing channel, Golf has one, Nascar of course has one, more than their share, ESPN, Speed, FOX, ABC - they all fight over who gets to air Nascar. Grow the sport, grow youth involvement, grow yacht club membership, grow sailboat sales, grow marina use. We're going to need TV to spread the Sport of SAILING. => Curmudgeon's Comment: While North American programming has been lagging in sailing coverage, we remain hopeful that this next America's Cup will provoke a change. There are many aspects of the next event that are being designed expressly for television packaging. But the reality is that media programming is a reflection of people's interests. Sad to think how the "core" cast member of "The Jersey Shore" will be earning at least $100,000 per episode in their upcoming fourth season. ANNAPOLIS IS NEXT STOP FOR THE J/80 CLASS You know a class is strong when with 1,300+ boats worldwide, you can't find a used boat. The J/80 fun continues after Charleston with the Sperry Annapolis NOOD followed by several New England events culminating in the J/80 North Americans in Larchmont. For family sailing and great competition, the J/80 hits all the buttons.... http://www.jboats.com/j80/ CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. SPONSORS THIS WEEK APS - IYRS - New England Ropes - North Sails- J Boats JK3 Nautical Enterprises - Quantum Sails - LaserPerformance Harken - Ullman Sails - Gowrie Group - Hall Spars & Rigging Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
