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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 880 - August 16, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
ROLEX FASTNET RACE Slightly further apart were the two leading Volvo 60s, Jez Fanstone in NewsCorp putting exactly 21 minutes between himself and John Kostecki in illbruck. Both results could have gone either way, but it was the same offshore tactic that worked for Fanstone. "What we have learned is that the Volvo Ocean Race is going to be very close, a very hard nine months," said Fanstone, safely ashore in Queen Anne's Battery as the crew carried on to Gosport and a 10-day refit for the boat. "It's disappointing, but they did a better job and fully deserved the win," said Kostecki. We learned about our boat and our competitors. It was a huge lesson but, let's put it this way, we don't want to trade boats with anybody." Gunnar Krantz's Team SEB was the third Volvo 60 finisher, ahead of Roy Heiner's Assa Abloy. Giovanni Agnelli's 92-foot Stealth had been first home, slipping gently through an almost glassy sea to take the cannon which signalled line hours just 62 second before 04.00 in the morning. Time ran out for David Lowe's 52-foot Loco just after 1807 Wednesday evening in her bid to win the overall Fastnet Challenge Cup. Skip Sheldon's 65-foot Zaraffa remains the leader on IRC handicap, under which the vast majority of yachts are entered in the Rolex Fastnet Race. But Loco, with Iain Percy, Adrian Stead, Peter Morton and Mark Heeley in the crew, could still win the Fastnet Rock Trophy for yachts with an IRM handicap. Further back, the remainder of the 211 boats still competing were streaming round the lighthouse and rock off south-west Ireland. They had a fresh 15 knots of wind, but the forecasters are predicting that the breeze will lighten again for the rest of the week, so the smaller boats will be finishing on Friday, maybe even later. - www.rorc.org
2002 TRANSATLANTIC CHALLENGE In 1997, the last time that the New York Yacht Club and Rolex organized the Transatlantic Challenge, the yacht Adix, strikingly similar to Atlantic and skippered by Tasmanian captain Paul Goss, came very close to making the record its own, as did several others in the 16-boat fleet. However, the winds, ultimately, would not allow it. It had been the same story four years before in 1993 when Goss guided Adix through its inaugural attempt at an ocean passage (non-racing) record over Atlantic's course. The yacht was becalmed a few days out from the Lizard. Skipper Paul Goss and his crew of the 184-foot three-masted schooner Adix are back for a third attempt, and they will face stiff opposition. "There are boats entering this time that are more modern than us and built much lighter, and they are more efficient over a wider spectrum of wind angles," Goss said. "Our edge would be our waterline length (Adix will likely be one of the largest boats entered), but we can only take advantage of that if the wind is on the beam or slightly forward or aft of it." Perhaps as driven as Goss will be Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who came to prominence more than 30 years ago when he completed the first ever non-stop solo circumnavigation. Known for his unstinting focus on the job at hand, he will be at the helm of the two-masted 135 foot Eleonora, which has been chartered by Paul F. Van Vlissingen and Hugh Lord Amherst to represent the Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS), the New York Yacht Club's partner for organizing activities at the race's end. Given the right conditions there are a number of yachts that could beat Atlantic's time. One of those yachts is Isam Kabbani's returning entrant Sariyah. At first, the calm, quiet Kabbani of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, seems to be a superyacht owner drawn to the event more by the allure of the magnificent boats than by their purpose in gathering, but a closer look reveals he has put careful thought into his 130-foot ketch's assault on the race record. According to Sariyah's Captain Tim Laughridge: "We've taken 17,000 pounds off the lead wings on the keel, and we're working diligently on our light wind and downwind performance since we are a relatively heavy displacement boat." In '97, the yacht was the second boat to finish the race, and it posted a second in the Contemporary division. This time, with some parameters for classes changed, Sariyah will find itself in the same Spirit of Tradition division as Adix. " Another yacht to watch will be the new Sorcerer II, a 95-foot Frers sloop owned by J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., of Potomac, Md. Sorcerer II is Venter's next step up from the 82-foot Sorcerer that he entered in '97 and with which he won the Contemporary division. Among other entries are the 111-foot ketch Blue Leopard, the 94-foot two-masted schooner Seljm, the 100-foot sloop Sapphire, the 132-foot schooner Windrose and the 112-foot sloop Zingaro. Yachts will be divided into three separate categories: Classic, Spirit of Tradition, and Performance Cruising. www.nyyc.org
SOG STAINLESS STEEL POWERLOCK MULTI TOOL
WOMEN'S MATCH RACING
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From: Jack Slattery (re Brian Hancock's Quiz): It is easy to move your genoa car (inboard or outboard) too far forward to make the luff break evenly. I find it best to find a compromise between letting the top break first and closing the lower leech (creating excessive negative exit angle). Basically, one doesn't want to bring the leech back around toward the boat too much to keep the top from breaking first. Negative exit is drag and drag is slow. The best thing to do in finding this compromise lead position for reaching is to watch the speedo as you move the lead around. After a little experience, you'll have a good general idea where the lead should go on practically any boat. Most often, on the size of boats most of us sail the outboard position will be 1'- 2' forward of the normal inboard upwind sheeting position. * From Anne Allen, MD: (edited to our 250-word limit): At a district regatta this past weekend we had problems with a couple of sailors getting heat exhaustion - one particular J-24 sailor, trying to "make weight" for her team, dehydrating herself enough in the extreme humidity and heat that she became very sick - so sick that she ended up not being able to race the next day, even though she had "made weight". Again this raises the issue of weight restrictions in boat classes, but also suggests that sailors may be placing their teammates in danger by trying to put specific crews together with expectations of weight loss from the individuals that are probably unreasonable in a short amount of time - especially in extreme heat conditions. It is highly recommended that when forming a team, sailors be reasonable and honest about weight loss expectations, put together an appropriate weight-loss timeline, and don't forget about dehydration and heat illness susceptibility in such situations. Also, in response to the sports drinks questions being raised, it is recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine that water is probably the best fluid replacement for the first 45 - 60 minutes, but that for longer periods of time and for endurance events, that a sports drink should be added to replace lost electrolytes such as sodium and potassium. (Salt tablets are not recommended.) There are many different sports drinks on the market, but it is suggested that one should choose a beverage that has less than 7% to 8% carbohydrate. * From Rick Hatch: I invite all fellow Buttheads to literally explode ISAF's inbox at with nominations for Ellen MacArthur. Her endeavours in the Vendee Globe and the EDS Challenge deserve the highest recognition of her fellow peers. The French government already has, Buckingham Palace is next (they may already have), so maybe even ISAF will take notice this time. So she's not an Olympic sailor? Neither are the overwhelming majority of her peers. www.sailing.org/worldsailor/nominationform.asp * From Geoffrey Newbury (re Malcolm McKeag's comments): In fairness to the ISAF reps, they were wimps about the change. There was absolutely no reason why anything needed to be changed but the sails used in the Olympics: those sails don't need numbers. Since there is never more than one competitor from any nation, a national designation is all that is required. ISAF should have agreed to going that far and no further. Other sailers should not have been forced to do anything different. And since we actually get no television coverage anyway, it made no difference in the end at the Olympic level. The ISAF reps have also been wimps about drug use. I agree that drug testing may be required at certain events and levels, but there was and is no need for the draconian and stupidly all-inclusive implementation which was foisted on us. The structure was probably copied from weight-lifting or swimming, where everyone (unfortunately) is suspected of drug use upon taking up the sport at an Olympic level. And Malcolm is wrong: it is not the 'Great God Television', it is the Great Mammon of Television Money. * From Mike Milburn: It is hard to believe that Team Adventure did not use radar; and yet based on the commentary on ABC-TV's "Nightline" concerning a close call with a freighter in fog, it seems as though they did not use radar despite their speeding through notoriously foggy stretches of ocean. * From Mark Gaudio: My ear around the local docks suggests a light turnout for Big Boat Series this year. I hope this near term trend will be reversed. Although several classes of Grand Prix racers will be present, the heart and sole of what has made this regatta a success over the years may be lacking. I'm talking about the participation in large numbers for the average PHRF'er. I have always been a proponent of quality not quantity in day to day living, but there needs to be critical mass to consider the regatta a success. One possible explanation may be the Americap Scoring System that will be used for the regatta. The average PHRF'er will not spend the $800.00 or so to get the certificate. It should be noted that California YC is the only one on the California Coast with a dedicated Americap class. It's used in their Wednesday night series and last week that generated just THREE entries in TWO different classes. Some will not show up because they whine about the random modified PHRF rating given to them once they get to the Bay, and are held captive. I'm not sure what's worse, crabby participation, or lack of participation altogether. Maybe they might consider using Americap for the boats rating less than say 50 PHRF (most of these folks have IMS/Americap Certificates anyway), and let the others just go regular PHRF. Maybe its not too late to beef up the participation #'s, thereby pegging the fun-meter further ...
HIT AND RUN Vladimir Ivanov, the captain; Dmitriy Bogdanov, the second officer, and Mikhail Gerasimenko, the lookout of the Virgo, were arrested by the RCMP Tuesday night at the airport in St. John's, Newfoundland, based on arrest warrants issued in a U.S. District Court in Washington. The trio were apparently headed home to Russia when they were taken into custody. The operator of the tanker, the Primorsk Shipping Corporation, says the arrests came as a surprise because the RCMP told a judge earlier that day that the crew wasn't going to be detained. Primorsk Shipping spokesperson Carey Dearnley said Wednesday the men are being charged with manslaughter, misconduct and aiding and abetting. * The Virgo has been the focus of an inspection in the Aug. 5 ramming and sinking of the Starbound, a 28-metre fishing trawler from Maine. The Starbound's captain, the only survivor of the collision, says his boat was rammed in the middle of the night by a huge tanker which then failed to stop and assist. - www.CTVNEWS.com
QUOTE / UNQUOTE
AMERICA'S CUP
THE BIG FOUR
CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS * September 1-2: Sailing World NOOD, St. Francis YC, San Francisco, CA. 600 sailors in more than 100 boats racing in ten classes. www.sailingworld.com
CANADA'S CUP
EDS ATLANTIC CHALLENGE Within a couple of hours Gartmore fell to Golding's push falling three miles to his stern. Golding was still behind Kingfisher but now by only 17 miles. But, conditions remains slow for all the northern boats. Boat speeds have remained in the sluggish 4 to 5 knot range all day and AlphaGraphics was showing an average speed of just 3.8 knots. Not so down south where Sill and FILA continue to play their hands. Only in the last few hours has either boat shown any signs at all that they are heading to the same port and the rest of the fleet. However, with boat speeds approaching 12 knots it would appear that the two mavericks might now be seeing the first pay off of their southern strategy. The boats appear to be getting their first taste of the downwind stream that they hope will take them all the way to the English Channel. - Stephen Pizzo
Positions at 23:54 GMT:
LASER WORLD MASTERS
Results after 6 races with 1 discard:
THE CURMUDGEON'S COUNSEL |
