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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 547 - April 12, 2000US OLYMPIC TRIALSFor 113 sailors in four classes -- Europe, Finn, Laser and Star -- tomorrow's mandatory lay day will offer an opportunity to plan their next move before the final four days of racing commences. Eight races have been completed in the first four days of the Olympic Team Trials - Yachting, allowing competitors to discard their worst race to date. (A second drop will figure into the scoring for each class once competitors have sailed 10 races.) Organizers are hopeful they can stick to the plan to conduct eight additional races before the event concludes on April 16. Only the winner in each class will be named to the 2000 Olympic Team which will then go on to compete at the Olympic Games (scheduled for September 16-October 1, 2000) in Sydney, Australia. Organizers -- San Francisco Yacht Club (Belvedere) for the Europe and Laser classes; Richmond Yacht Club (Pt. Richmond) for the Finn class; and St. Francis Yacht Club (San Francisco) for the Star class -- have rotated the fleets around the Bay, utilizing courses in Richmond, Southampton Shoals, Berkeley Circle and Emeryville. Conditions typically associated with San Francisco Bay at this time of year have been the rule, with breeze ranging from the mid to upper teens, depending on course location. EUROPE: In the last four years, '96 Europe Olympic Bronze Medalist Courtenay Becker Dey (The Dalles, Ore./Rye, N.Y.) has concentrated her sailing efforts in the doublehanded 470. When she finished second at the Olympic Team Trials in the 470 Women's event last October, Dey jumped right back into the boat that took her to the Olympic Regatta in Savannah. As the only member of the US Sailing Team, male or female, ever to have been ranked top-five nationally in two Olympic-class boats at the same time, Dey's performance thus far in the Trials only hints at her abilities. Standing first overall with six bullets and two second-place finishes (counting one drop), Dey has eight points on 2000 Europe World Bronze Medalist Meg Gaillard (Pelham, N.Y.). Gaillard has a DSQ (disqualification), used as her drop race, to amass 16 points overall. Rounding out the top-five in the 23-boat Europe fleet are '94 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Danielle Brennan Myrdal (New York, N.Y.) with 27 points; Krysia Pohl (San Francisco, Calif.) with 31; and Samantha Barnes (Greenwich, Conn.) with 40. FINN: For '99 Finn National Champion and Pan Am Games Silver Medalist Russ Silvestri (Tiburon, Calif.) these Olympic Trials may be a case of deja vu. Silvestri knows what it's like to be this close to a shot at an Olympic medal after four previous attempts to become the U.S.A.'s Finn Olympic representative. (A trip to the '88 Olympic Games as a Team alternate did not result in his seeing action on the water.) Silvestri has led these Finn Trials from day one posting five bullets and three second-place finishes for a total of nine points (counting one drop) in the eight-race series. In second place with 17 points is '98 Finn National Champion Darrell Peck (Gresham, Ore.). Peck has the distinction of being the top-finishing American at the last five out of six Finn world championships. Currently holding third through fifth place in the 26-boat fleet, with 22, 30 and 32 points, respectively, are Mark Herrmann (Bothell, Wash.); '94 Goodwill Games Finn Silver Medalist Eric Oetgen (Savannah, Ga.); and Mike Deyett (Windham, N.H.). LASER: Starting the series with an OCS (over early) hasn't kept '99 Pan Am Games Laser Silver Medalist Mark Mendelblatt (St. Petersburg, Fla.) from taking the lead in the 32-boat Laser fleet. Counting four first-place finishes, a third, a fourth and a sixth, gives Mendelblatt 17 points and a one-point edge over ICYRA All-American John Myrdal (Kailua, Hawaii). Following in third through fifth place, respectively, are ICYRA All-American Brett Davis (Largo, Fla.) with 26 points; Peter Hurley (Mantoloking, N.J.) with 39 points; and '98 College Sailor of the Year Bill Hardesty (San Diego, Calif.) with 40 points. STAR: 16 Star teams are staging their assault on this event from the Treasure Island Sailing Center, with two-time Star Olympic Medalist ('92 gold, '88 silver) and '95 Star World Champion Mark Reynolds and Magnus Liljedahl (San Diego, Calif./Miami, Fla.) holding a dominant lead at this point in the regatta. Counting five first-place finishes and two second-place finishes (dropping a fifth), gives Reynolds and Liljedahl nine points overall. In second place, with 20 points, is '86 Star World Champion Vince Brun and Mike Dorgan (both San Diego, Calif.). George Szabo and Rick Peters (San Diego/El Segundo, Calif.) are third overall with 25 points, followed by '93 Star World Champion Joe Londrigan and Mark Strube (San Diego, Calif./Miami, Fla.) with 26 points. Rounding out the top-five are John MacCausland and Phil Trinter (Cherry Hill, N.J./Lorain, Ohio) with 32 points. -- Jan Harley For competitor bios and results: http://www.ussailing.org/Olympics/OlympicTrials/ CONGRESSIONAL CUP LONG BEACH, Calif. -- They never met in the America's Cup at Auckland, but their recent rivalry has set off sparks that could lead to fireworks when the 36th Congressional Cup passes the midway point Wednesday. Dean Barker, the "golden boy" of Team New Zealand's clinching victory, and France's Bertrand Pace share first place at 6-2 as they finish the first round robin head to head. Denmark's Sten Mohr is at 5-3, followed by everybody else except France's Damien Iehl at 4-4 or 3-5. Mohr is 1-7. After waiting 90 minutes for fog to blow off the harbor, racing proceeded in southerly onshore winds of only 5 to 10 knots that held invisible windless traps at the bottom end near the beach. Holmberg sailed into one to blow a 38-second lead against Barker, and Dickson found another as he tried to hold off Mohr and do a penalty turn at the finish line. As Dickson dropped his spinnaker and circled, Mohr sailed around and underneath him and the boats collided, side by side. Both protested, but the on-water umpires weren't sure whether Dickson came down on Mohr or Mohr luffed illegally -- so they flagged both boats. Moments later Mohr was declared the winner by one second, keeping him in the chase and dropping Dickson to 3-4. Dickson said, ruefully, "We're not sure that Sten actually beat us across the line because when we went across we were connected." Mohr said, "I think I might have made a bad decision going for the room that wasn't there. We could have been in the wrong." Barker, 26, has won four consecutive races since losing to Dickson. He is sailing with a crew of tactician Hamish Pepper, trimmer James Dagg, mainsheet trimmer Tony Rae, tailer Chris Ward and bowman Dean Phipps. The latter was a regular aboard the Kiwis' lead boat in the America's Cup, while Ward sailed two of the five races and the others worked with Barker on the backup boat. QUOTES AND NOTES: James Spithill, who collected five of the nine penalties imposed by the on-water umpires Monday: "I'm trying to forget. I think I averaged one-and-one-half a race." Dean Barker, who also had his ups and downs with the umps: "We've been to a few events prior to this and [have found that] it's difficult to get consistency with umpiring around the world." Sten Mohr, No. 1-ranked in the world: "This is the first time I've sailed with a wheel since I was here in '96." More Mohr, on his pre-start joust with Barker alongside the viewing platform that is Belmont Pier: "It's a spectator sport. We stayed in there for a couple of minutes to get the crowd going." For the sake of confusion, New Zealander Tony Rae is trimming mainsheet for Dean Barker. American Tony Rey is calling tactics for Scott Dickson. Both sailed in the America's Cup. The 10 skippers, each with a crew of five, are competing for a total purse of $25,000. They'll race one another twice through two round robins. If weather conditions cooperate, there will be enough time remaining for the top four to advance to the semifinals to determine the final two in a best-of-5 final on Friday afternoon. -- Rich Roberts Photos and complete information: http://www.lbyc.org The RACE Peter Goss announced that Team Philips, his revolutionary 120 ft catamaran, would be repaired without altering Adrian Thompson's original design concept and on the start line of The RACE in Barcelona on 31st December 2000. Adrian Thompson, Team Philips' designer reports: "The breaking of the bow section has been identified as a failure of the unidirectional carbon strakes (strip) that runs the length of each side of each hull. These strakes, which are about 500mm wide and 6mm thick are manufactured as part of the inside skin of the sandwich structure of the hull. The strakes are subject to an end load (compression) and a tensile load (tension). The successful loading of this area is wholly reliant on a satisfactory adhesion of the strake to the Nomex core used in the sandwich structure. "The core samples have revealed that it is the expanding air that has caused the carbon strakes not to have bonded to the Nomex core and are therefore unable to accept the end load applied without buckling. Fortunately this is a problem unique to this area of each hull and is therefore a regrettable, but isolated problem. "As with any in-depth investigation where significant resource is used to establish the failure mode, the wisdom of loading a thin strake stabilised in this way has been questioned. Further surveys with the boat in the factory and design work will define the detail of the solution which is likely to be based on more conventional composite frames or stringers." Full story: http://www.teamphilips.com/index.cfm?ArticleID=1502 LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net) Letters selected to be printed are routinely edited for clarity, space (250 words max) or to exclude personal attacks. But only one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if people disagree. -- From Tom Fisher -- I guess I'd still like to add my two cents about listing the crew's names on the results. As you know I've been scoring a lot of the snipe events (world, nationals, fleet 495) and have the same feelings that Carol and Craig have. Results MUST reflect everyone on the boat. To that effect I've been developing a scoring program that takes us away from DOS and towards a database driven solution that marries the registration and scoring in one. I scored the San Diego NOOD regatta with it, will be scoring the Yachting Cup and it's very flexible as to what can be displayed on both the web and the scoreboard. I can literally put the entire crew of a maxi on the results. The hardest part though is working with the registration process to gather this information. The mindset of many race organizers is that the only piece of information that needs to be gathered is one name (be it skipper, owner etc.) per boat. Scoring software will quickly be able to trap the information needed, if the regatta participants and race organizers prioritize it, it will be done. P.S. I really believe that the scoreboard is a social tool also. Knowing who is sailing on the other boats will get everyone associating names with faces, prompting conversations and friendships. -- Talbot Wilson -- If we in America wonder why we were left behind in the America's Cup, take a look at the Congressional Cup entry list. There is not one world-class American Skipper in this world-class match race event. Also in the first two events on the Swedish Match race Grand Prix Tour, there were no American skippers. I guess if American's don't compete consistantly on a world-class level we won't be ready for the next America's Cup either. -- From Paul Miller -- I have to disagree with the assertions that it is impossible to put on a world-class regatta without sponsorship or too high an entry fee. Richmond Yacht Club did exactly that when they ran the I-14 Worlds a few years ago. The entry fees were consistent with sponsored regatta's and no major sponsors were involved. The big difference was the hordes of volunteers the club produced and the lack of give-away items, catered meals and hotel costs. Having run a number of low-expense regattas the big trick is finding and keeping good volunteers. To do this you have to make it fun and rewarding for them. The other big trick is maintaining a "corporate knowledge and partnership" of the merchants to go to save money on food, prizes, gas, etc. -- From Mike Priest -- Does the final sentence on John Beatson's release in 'Butt 546 really expect "the sailing public ..." to stop using the 3DL sails they already own??? I'd rather order a North tanbark sail than switch to their licensed brand after all their foot stomping, regardless of outcome, it is refreshing that North Sails has stayed the high road. CURMUDGEON'S COMMENT - Peter Holmberg is from the US Virgin Islands, and he has certainly proven to be 'world-class.' But I'd have to agree that match racing is much more important in other parts of the world than it is in the US. CLASS REUNION The 150th Anniversary of the America's Cup organized by the Royal Yacht Squadron in conjunction with the New York Yacht Club, will certainly showcase the Who's Who in the America's Cup illustrious history. Scheduled for Cowes from August 18th - 25, 2001, -the following luminaries have sent acceptances to Peter Nicholson, Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron: - His Serene Highness the Aga Khan is a keen sailor and creator of the Porto Cervo Yacht Club in Sardinia. He is Chairman of the International 12 metre Committee. - Prince Albert's descendant, Andreas Prinz von Coburg has agreed to be a Vice-President for the regatta. - Halsey Herreshoff, grandson of Nathanael Herreshoff and creator of the Herreshoff Foundation and the Herreshoff Museum which houses the America's Cup Hall of Fame. - Patrizio Bertelli was responsible for the Prada challenge. - Elizabeth Meyer who is responsible for the recovery of the J boat Endeavour and is currently supervising the rebuild of Shamrock V. - Henry H Anderson is a Founder ITMA (International 12 metre Association) and a former IYRU (International Yacht Racing Union) Counsellor. - T E (Tommy) Sopwith's father Sir Thomas (T.O.M) Sopwith challenged vigorously for the America's Cup in the mid thirties with the J boats Endeavour and Endeavour II. - Ted Turner, Contender in 1974 America's Cup defence with 'Mariner', skipper and successful defender of the America's Cup with 'Courageous' for the United States against 'Australia' in 1977. - Olin Stephens - Ted Hood - Dennis Conner - Sir Peter Blake Event website: http://www.amcup2001.com COMMODORES' CUP Growing interest overseas in this year's Rolex Commodores' Cup (RCC) looks set to guarantee one of the strongest international fleets ever to compete in this event. Organisers of the RCC 2000, the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC), have confirmed serious intent from 9 nations, and a further 6 countries have expressed positive interest. Concentrated efforts are being made by the RORC to gain overseas entries, and Peter Rutter, Commodore of the RORC, together with other RORC officers, are visiting various yachting groups around Europe to explain the new event format and IRM rule. Peter Rutter comments, "We hope to see the return of the current title holders from Germany, and we expect a positive response from our presentations planned in Guernsey, Sweden and Finland." This year will be the fifth biennial Rolex Commodores' Cup and the first international regatta to use IRM. This new rating system has been well received and, following the inaugural IRM Nationals, an increasing number of yachts are applying for certification. Mike Urwin at the RORC Rating Office confirms the rule's increasing popularity with IRM boats being built abroad, "As well as UK and France, we have had rating enquiries from America, Australia, Holland and South Africa. IRM boats are being built in USA, Australia and Malaysia, as well as UK. This bodes well for the international flavour building for this year's Rolex Commodores' Cup." UNCL has recently announced that there will be a second French IRM team for the challenge between France and the English at the Spi Ouest regatta over the Easter weekend. The yachts in the two French teams include a J125, Farr 40 and J92 in one team, two Sydney 40's and an IMX 40 in the other team. David Minords, General Manager at the RORC said, "These three boat combinations would be perfect for the Rolex Commodores' Cup and the French are expected to have at least one team in attendance." The English team at Spi Ouest comprises a new IRM44 design, a Farr 40 and a new IRM30 design owned by Peter Rutter. The various teams and crews are starting to prepare for the rigorous training schedules and selection processes. Bill Edgerton at the RYA commented, "The RYA is pleased to have attracted so many potential entries for the English team, and have long held the belief that the trials should be an event in their own right. We see The Rolex Commodores' Cup as a showcase for young talent to get out and prove themselves, with the hope of being picked for future international competitions. Early indications suggest that this year will comprise a lot of internationally campaigned boats. Competition will be hot." -- Susannah Bourne CALENDAR Boston Leukemia Cup Regatta -- May 20th. (Contact: Alan McGlashan -617-569-6269) MORE OLYMPICS The full New Zealand Yachting team is: 49er - Daniel Slater and Nathan Handley 470 Women - Melinda Henshaw and Jenny Egnot 470 Men - Simon Cooke and Peter Nicholas Finn - Clifton Webb Europe - Sarah Macky Mistral Men - Aaron McIntosh Mistral Women - Barbara Kendall Soling - Rod Davis/Don Cowie/Alan Smith Tornado - Chris Dickson and Glen Sowry COLLEGIATE SAILING This past weekend St. Francis Yacht Club hosted its Annual Collegiate Regatta on San Francisco Bay. With 39 FJs from 17 West Coast universities, this was one of the biggest college regattas of the year. As part of the event, St. Francis hosted a dinner on Saturday night for local high school sailors to hear from a panel of college sailors about their different programs. Sailing conditions were ideal the traditionally challenging tides of San Francisco Bay and winds ranging from 10-18 knots. The Trojans from USC led by Skippers Dalton Bergan and Daniel Meade edged out Stanford for the victory. Steve Kleha and his crew from Stanford were victorious in A-Division while USC's Meade dominated B-Division. -- Scott Sellers Final Varsity Results (24 Teams in Varsity; 15 Teams in JV) 1) USC 2) Stanford I 3) Stanford II 4) UC Santa Barbara 5) Hawaii THE CURMUDGEON'S DEFINITIONS Consciousness: That annoying time between naps |
