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SCUTTLEBUTT 1336 - May 23, 2003Powered 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. SPA REGATTA Medemblik, The Netherlands The sailing conditions were close to perfect for the second day of this enormous regatta (1,200 competitors representing 60 nations) for Olympic class boats - 12 to 17 knots of wind. Prominent class leaders include Ian Percy/ Steve Mitchell, GBR, (Star), Robert Scheidt, BRA, (Laser) Shirley Robertson/ Sarah Webb, GBR (Yngling) and Ben Ainslie, GBR, (Finn). Following are the North American sailors who rank in the top 20 of their respective classes: - 470 Men (71 boats): 2. Paul Foerster/ , USA - 470 Women (38 boats): 16. Erin Maxwell/ Jen Morgan, USA - 49er (55 boats): 5. Tim Wadlow/ USA; 18. Morgan Larson/ Adam Koch, USA - Europe (84 boats): 17. Tania Elias-Calles, MEX - Finn (78 boats) 8. Christopher Cook, CAN - Laser (143 boats): 19. Mark Mendelblatt, USA - Mistral Men (55 boards): 16. Peter Wells, USA; 17. Zachary Plavsic, CAN; 19. Kevin Stittle, CAN - Star (54 boats): Peter Bromby /Lee White, BER; 3. Mark Reynolds /Magnus Liljedahl, USA - Tornado (39 boats): 14. Oskar Johansson/ John Curtis, CAN; 16. John Lovell /Charlie Ogletree, USA; 18. Eric Holden /Mark Coakley, CAN - Yngling (28 boats): 3.Carol Cronin /Liz Filter /Bridget Hallawell, USA; 5. Betsy Alison /Lee Lcyda /Suzy Leech, USA; 14. Hannah Swett /Joan Touchette /Melissa Purdy, USA; 16. Felicity Clarke /Martha Henderson /Kari Mackay, CAN; 20. Jody Swanson /Cory Sertl /Elizabeth Kratzig, USA Every evening the Champions Cup is sailed in front of the harbour of Regatta Center Medemblik. It is a daily knock-out competition with the best competitors in every class of that day. They strive in little so-called "battleboats" for the honour of the day and off course the Champions Cup itself, completed with a cheque of 440 Euros. Today after a tough competition, 470 sailor Paul Foerster from the USA won from Tornado sailor Leigh McMillan from Great Britain. Curmudgeon's Comment: It's hard to ignore the fact that British teams lead the Star class, the Yngling class, the Finn class, and they are 1-2 in the 49ers, second in the Tornados, and top ten in the Mistal women, 470 women and the 470 men. The Brits seem to be doing something right. The regatta ends this coming Sunday. http://sparegatta.org/2003/ NOEL ROBINS Paralympic sailing Gold medallist, America's Cup sailor, ocean racer and dinghy champion, Noel Robins lost his battle for life after a tragic car accident in Perth left him in a coma four weeks ago. Today, Australia's sailing community mourns the passing of one of its most well respected and honoured sailors. Noel's sailing achievements over his extensive career have made him a true icon and inspiration to the sailing community; both locally, nationally and internationally. He continually displayed his excellence throughout his sailing career, challenging the world's best in such events as the America's Cup, Admirals Cup, Paralympic Games and many other regattas and races around the world. In the lead up to the 2000 Paralympic games, one of Noel's sporting goals was to win a Sonar Olympic Gold medal and he did just that! In Sydney, Robins and his crew, Graeme Martin and Jamie Dunross triumphed, winning Australia's first ever gold medal in the Sonar class. For this achievement he and his crew were honoured with an Order of Australia Medal in 2001. - Simone Green, Sail-World wesite, full story: http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?Nid=9857 GRUMPIES Ever wonder why you end up soaking after a day in your foulies even if no waves hit you? If so, it's time to think about upgrading those fisherman foulies to something more breathable. Grumpy sailors are slow sailors. Not having to worry about being uncomfortable allows one to focus on more important things. Annapolis Performance Sailing encourages you to take advantage of Gill's Breathe Easy promotion. Act before June 15th and get up to $50 cash back on Gill breathable gear. Breathe easy, APS and Gill can help you rid your boat of grumpies, check out http://www.apsltd.com/scuttlebutt.asp FOR THE RECORD It's a down-to-the-wire race for the trimaran Great American II and her two crew members as they prepare to finish their Hong Kong to New York sailing record attempt at the Statue of Liberty early next week. Thursday, the 53-foot trimaran was south of Bermuda and 1,230 miles from New York as Rich Wilson (Rockport, Mass.) and Rich du Moulin (Larchmont, N.Y.) plotted their route through three storm systems blocking their path. The two have been at sea 66 days in their attempt to eclipse the record of 74 days, 14 hours set by the extreme clipper ship Sea Witch in the China tea trade a century-and-a-half ago. Steering and navigating their boat on alternate four-hour watches, the two adventurers are matching their progress against the log of the 196-foot square-rigged Sea Witch, renowned in history as one of the fastest clipper ships ever launched. The modern-day sailors currently hold a narrow lead over the ghost of the clipper, after trailing several times during the long, arduous voyage down the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope and up the Atlantic Ocean. "We're very, very close in the challenge for the record," said du Moulin, in an email from the boat today, transmitted via satellite. "Yesterday's analysis showed Great American only 142 miles closer to New York than Sea Witch. That's less than a day's sailing, or only 11 hours difference when each of us is at maximum speed - two great sailing vessels, 154 years and 142 miles apart!" The tactical puzzle facing the two sailors requires them to ride the favorable currents of the Gulf Stream while avoiding any counter current or back-eddies that could bring them to a standstill if the wind goes light. At the same time they must pick their way through the storm fronts marching up the coast. Some 360,000 schoolchildren are following the adventure of Great American II on a daily basis through the sitesALIVE! educational program at www.sitesALIVE.com. - Keith Taylor TEAM NEW ZEALAND Rugby is poised to snatch much-needed sponsorship cash from New Zealand's bid to reclaim the America's Cup. Lion Breweries, which says its sponsorship of Team New Zealand "is up in the air", said yesterday it was about to announce a significant new rugby investment. This heightens the chances of Lion greatly reducing its involvement in Team NZ or leaving its family of five sponsorship group entirely. The loss of a big sponsor would hit the Government's controversial $33 million investment in Team NZ, which is based on a $1 contribution for every $2 it raises in other commercial sponsorship. The brewer's corporate affairs and sponsorship director, Graeme Seatter, yesterday confirmed the sponsorship agreement with the New Zealand Rugby Union. He has yet to meet new Team NZ boss Grant Dalton but said Lion is conducting a feasibility study on its involvement. That, however, has been hampered by uncertainty over whether Team NZ would be competing and where the yacht racing would be held. Some parts of Europe ban alcohol sponsorship. "We've made a decision with rugby. We haven't yet made a decision about Team New Zealand. But the two need to be taken in isolation," Mr Seatter said. "We want to see what develops (with Team NZ's future). It's hard to make a decision when you don't know what you're making a decision on. There's too much up in the air at the moment." - The Dominion Post, NZ, full story: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/0,2106,2490957a6427,00.html JONATHAN MCKEE (The UK's Daily Sail website did a story on how US Olympic medallist Jonathan McKee, a newbie solo sailor, creamed the competition in leg one of the Mini Pavois. Here's a brief excerpt.) Possibly one of the reasons for McKee's success is that his boat was well and truly sorted prior to the last Mini Transat by Brian Thompson and Thompson's then shore crew Tanguy de LaMotte [who now has his own Mini]. This Team McLube is a Simon Rogers design with a keel that can not only be canted but can be hauled fore and aft in the boat at the same time. McKee said that nothing major broke during the leg. "I was lucky. I had a couple of instrument issues, nothing that turned out to be critical . That was lucky and my sails did great. Keel, rudder and all the main stuff was good. Fortunately it is all pretty battle tested now." Aside from some small tweaks to his jib McKee says he has not changed the sails since the Mini Transat. "It is pretty tested stuff, so we have a good basis to go forward. We are going to make a couple of new sails. I can't afford all new sails." Thompson sailed with him in the two handed Course des Lions and McKee says helped him a lot, but since taking the boat to the Atlantic coast of France has been without shore support. "That's how it is for most of the guys. It is a fact of life on a low budget program." - The Daily Sail, full story: http://thedailysail.com/ISM/articles.nsf/Interview/D2F9E7A555E4673680256D2D004E2964?OpenDocument&Login NEWS BRIEFS * There is more detail about the proposed tribute to the late Sir Peter Blake online (www.nzmaritime.org/tribute.htm) and the museum will be keeping this updated when fundraising starts in earnest. Those interested can subscribe to the museum's on-line newsletter for breaking news (form at www.nzmaritime.org) * Northshore Yachts 'Northshore 369' has won the 'Australian Boat of the Year Award' - http://www.sail-world.com/ * One of Scuttlebutt's loyal advertisers, Kaenon Polarized, has been drawing quite a bit of praise these days. In their 2003 Buyers Guide, Outside Magazine listed their Kore model above all others. And now the June issue of Sailing World Magazine just came out with their tech review, and they too judged the Kaenon Kore as their first choice. Outside Magazine - http://outsideonline.com/outside/gear/bg2003_2.html IS YOUR CLUTCH SLIPPING OR IS YOUR NEW HALYARD STRETCHING? Check out the results and comments on our latest stretching tests where we put some new lines through their paces. The results will drive home the importance of "preloading/ prestressing/ prestretching" your new halyard before hitting the starting line. We advise racers everyday about which Line/Clutch/Boat combination is correct. Our strength is in our experience and knowledge, advising our customers and selling more cut lengths of line for racing halyards than anyone else in the country. Layline, The Latest and the Best for 18 years! http://www.layline.com/llf/llpages/articles/lst.htm CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS * June 13-15: San Juan 24 North American Championships in Seattle, WA. A separate class for "non-flying sails" will be offered. http://www.sj24fleet.com/naca03 BERMUDA MAKES A GREAT WEATHER MARK "A great weather mark" is not how most sailors want their destination defined when they're sailing a race that's nearly 800 miles on the rhumb line, but that's how it's felt for most of this year's Charleston to Bermuda. A southerly shift brought some relief overnight and favored boats to the south. Eleven of 16 starters are still racing. - Sail magazine website, full story: http://www.sailmagazine.com/news/NEWS/ The leaders of the Charleston to Bermuda Race as of 7AM on May 22 are Rex Conn's Alacrity, Newick 48 Tri (123 miles from finish), Teddy Turner's Troika, Condor 40 Tri. (125 miles) and Mike Finn's J 160 SC, Kativa, (130 miles) http://www.sailnet.com/c2b/index.cfm OUTTA HERE The curmudgeon is off to Catalina Island for the Memorial Day holiday weekend, which removes any hope for a special holiday issue of 'Butt on Monday. Our next issue will be Tuesday, May 27. Enjoy the three-day holiday weekend - we certainly plan to. 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 or a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From John Rowley: The Sea Story about Ship High In Transit needs some additional thinking. Why in the 16th and 17th centuries, when there were beasts of burden everywhere, would someone be shipping their residue from place to place? It was already there! And, why would a good sailor of a rather round bottomed boat without a deep keel be placing something light like dried manure down in the bottom of the boat, that was usually for heavy stuff to keep the boat on an even keel? And, does this label come out with the same acronym in all languages, or were only the English shipping this Bull Ship High In Transit around? Checking with Google's Language Tool: Spanish: Nave Alta En Tránsito or NAET German: Schiff Hoch Bei Dem Transport or SHBDT French: Bateau Haut En transit or BHET Italian: Nave Alta In transito or NAIT Portugese: Navio Elevado No Trânsito or NENT * From James King: Thanks for printing the amusing story of the origin of the word 'sh*t'. I trust you're aware that this is one of many such stories of the origin of this word (I was warned once before travelling to Singapore in the days when I had longer hair that my passport would be stamped 'Suspected Hippy In Transit'). Indeed, there are many stories of words originating as acronyms. Perhaps the most common of these is 'Posh', supposedly short for 'Port Out, Starboard Home', being the favoured side of a ship for comfortable passages to and from India. The common link between all these stories is that they are recent inventions, generally amusing, but without any supporting historical evidence. Acronyms only started being used in the 20th century, and the word itself only dates to 1943. For more info on this subject, have a look at: http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.wordorigins.org/errors.htm * From Jaime Edwards: I know you take great care in the accuracy of your reporting. Thus I thought I would pass this on after reading your reporting of the urban legend regarding the origin of the sailing term "sh*t". While I have no doubt that this term is an integral part of the sailing vocabulary, it may well have not originated there. According to http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/shit.htm, The word sh*t entered modern English language derived from the Old English nouns scite and the Middle Low German schite, both meaning "dung," and the Old English noun scitte, meaning "diarrhea." Our most treasured cuss word has been with us a long time, showing up in written works both as a noun and as a verb as far back as the 14th century. Scite can trace its roots back to the proto-Germanic root skit-, which brought us the German scheissen, Dutch schijten, Swedish skita, and Danish skide. Skit- comes from the Indo-European root skheid- for "split, divide, separate," thus shit is distantly related to schism and schist. (If you're wondering what a verb root for the act of separating one thing from another would have to do with excrement, it was in the sense of the body's eliminating its waste -- "separating" from it, so to speak. Sort of the opposite of today's "getting one's sh*t together.") * From Stephen C. Kratovil:Well, clever as that all is, etymologists everywhere must be holding their noses right about now. According to my dictionary, the word "sh*t" is much older than the 1800s, appearing in its earliest form - before 1,000 A.D. - as the Old English verb scitan. That's confirmed by lexicographer Hugh Rawson in his bawdily informative book, "Wicked Words" (New York: Crown, 1989), where it is further noted that the expletive is a distant relative of words like science, schedule and shield. They all derive from the Indo-European root skei-, meaning "to cut" or "to split." For most of its history "shit" was spelled "shite" (and sometimes still is, euphemistically), but the modern spelling of the word can be found in texts dating as found in texts dating as far back as the mid-1700s. It most certainly did not originate as an acronym. " - http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-s-word.htm Curmudgeon's Comment: I think we have covered this subject sufficiently to declare this thread officially dead. * From Michael W. Fortenbaugh, Commodore, Manhattan Sailing Club: Thank you for spreading the proper philosophy of weekday evening racing. You are doing a great public service. But please add one more: 16. Thou shall not consume beer or other alcohol until you get back to dock and the boat is tied up. Even one beer starts to affect your judgment and decision making. Recently, we have found that asking skippers to keep their crew from drinking until their boat returns to dock, increases the civility on the water and leads to a safer atmosphere. The skippers who have embraced this philosophy are demonstrating great "leadership" and have been leading us to a safer sailing environment. Plus, we have found that a little abstinence on the water leads to a more spirited post-race celebration at the docks. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example. |
