|
SCUTTLEBUTT 1538 - March 12, 2004Powered 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. AMERICA'S CUP HALL OF FAME Four legends of America's Cup sailing Tom Whidden (Essex, Conn.), Brad Butterworth (New Zealand), the U.S.A.'s Hank Haff and England's William Fife III (both deceased) have been named as the 2004 inductees to the America's Cup Hall of Fame. The inductees will be honored on the occasion of the Rolex America's Cup Hall of Fame 12th Annual Induction Ceremony to be held Thursday, June 10, 2004. - Bradley William Butterworth OBE (1959-) - In the Cup's long history, no other afterguard member has won so many races in succession as Butterworth. As tactician aboard three winning boats (New Zealand's Black Magic in 1995 and 2000, and Switzerland's Alinghi in 2003), Butterworth set a new Cup record with 15 consecutive America's Cup race victories. - William Fife III (1857-1944) The designer of two of Sir Thomas Lipton's early Cup challengers, as well as hundreds of other beautiful, fast yachts, William Fife III (sometimes referred to as William Fife, Jr.) was born into his trade in his father's and grandfather's shipyard in Fairlie, Scotland. By the age of 30 he was designing and building noted racing boats for clients who included many Americans and Canadians. With G. L. Watson, Fife dominated the design of large sailing yachts in Britain in the 1890s before Watson turned his attention to the design of steam yachts. - Henry Coleman Haff (1837-1906) Nobody in America's Cup history has sailed in the afterguard of more successful Cup boats than Hank Haff, skipper and/or tactician of four winners between 1881 and 1895. As of 2004, only Nathanael G. Herreshoff, C. Oliver Iselin, and Dennis Conner have matched his remarkable record. - Thomas A. Whidden (1948-) Tom Whidden was the most successful America's Cup tactician of the 1980's, helping to win three of the contests (1980, 1987, and 1988). He has been active with the Cup ever since. "When I was 16 my dream was to become a sailmaker and race in the America's Cup," said Whidden of his years as a junior sailor on Long Island Sound. He fulfilled both wishes: as a sailmaker he became President of North Sails, and, after he earned Dennis Conner's respect by besting him in ocean races, Whidden was asked by Conner to help out with the ultimately successful Freedom campaign. - Jan Harley 1993-2004 Hall of Fame Honor Roll: Charles Francis Adams, James L. Ashbury, Charles Barr, J. Burr Bartram, Robert N. Bavier, Jr., John Bertrand, Baron Marcel Bich, Sir Peter Blake, Alan Bond, Dick Brown, Edward Burgess, W. Starling Burgess, Malin Burnham, Bradley W. Butterworth OBE, James E. Buttersworth, William F. Carstens, Dennis Conner, Russell Coutts, Briggs S. Cunningham, Sir Michael Fay, William P. Ficker, William Fife III, Henry Coleman Haff, Sir James Hardy, Nathanael G. Herreshoff, F.E. "Ted" Hood, Chandler Hovey, Sherman Hoyt, C. Oliver Iselin, Gary Jobson, Arthur Knapp, Jr., William I. Koch, Sir Thomas J. Lipton, Harry "Buddy" Melges, Edward I. du Moulin, E.D. Morgan, Henry Sturgis Morgan, Emil "Bus" Mosbacher, Jr., Frank J. Murdoch, Charles E. Nicholson, Sir Frank Packer, General Charles J. Paine, Victor A. Romagna, Morris Rosenfeld, Stanley Rosenfeld, Tom Schnackenberg, George L. Schuyler, Henry Sears, T.O.M. Sopwith, George Steers, John Cox Stevens, Olin J. Stephens, II, Roderick Stephens, Jr., R.E. "Ted" Turner, Harold S.Vanderbilt, Gertrude Vanderbilt, George L. Watson, Thomas A. Whidden, The Earl of Wilton. Full story: http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?SEID=362&Nid=12821 SPONSORSHIP Thirty one year old professional skipper Conrad Humphreys and the O6T ocean racing team announced Motorola Inc. as their title sponsor. Together, they are forming the Motorola Ocean Racing Team to compete in the international ocean racing circuit for the 2004-5 FICO-Lacoste World Championship title. The Plymouth, UK based Motorola Ocean Racing Team has acquired the 1998 Finot design Open 60 boat previously raced as 'Team Group 4' and 'Ecover' under British skipper Mike Golding, which is currently undergoing a winter refit in France. She will be named HELLOMOTO and re-launched in the spring of this year. The 2004-05 FICO-Lacoste World Championship will kick off with The Transat classic, single-handed yacht race (ex-OSTAR), which starts from Plymouth on 31st May 2004, crossing the North Atlantic to arrive in Boston, USA some 14 days later. The main event, the solo, non-stop round-the-world Vendée Globe yacht race starts from Les Sables d'Olonne in the Vendée region of Western France on 7th November 2004. The 2005 programme includes the fully-crewed Calais Round Britain Race, the Rolex Fastnet and two-handed Transat Jacques Vabre race. Conrad Humphreys will be representing Britain amongst a field of top international skippers with the overall goal to win the FICO-Lacoste World Championship. In 2001 Conrad Humphreys triumphed in world-class yachting as the winning skipper of the BT Global Challenge round-the-world yacht race. In 2003, Motorola backed his own project to race the Open 50 HELLOMOTO to class victory in the two-handed Transat Jacques Vabre race from France to Brazil. The Motorola Ocean Racing Team is now actively looking for additional partners and sponsors. - www.conradhumphreys.com DOWN WITH THE SHIP While it may be honorable for a captain to go down with their ship, it's less than honorable when your shades go down while you're on your ship. If you've ever lost your sunglasses over the side and watched them sink quickly out of sight, you will appreciate these. Designed with integral flotation, introducing Gill's new range of floatable polarized eyewear. Stop worrying about giving Davey another pair of your shades and start spending more time paying attention to the things that will win you races. Check out Gill's full range of floatable eyewear now at APS… http://www.apsltd.com/scuttlebutt FOR THE RECORD * Steve Fossett and crew on Cheyenne covered 263 miles past 12 hours and are still 2000+ miles ahead of the Orange 2002 route. Brian Thompson on Cheyenne writes: "We have been making steady progress eastwards towards the Horn. The low we were promised has turned out to be weaker than predicted, especially as we have gone southwards and closer to the low, where in this case the winds are less. We have spent most of the day sailing downwind with one reef, blast reacher and staysail. Just at sunset the cold front from the low has passed through, swinging the wind into the south. We are now carrying 2 reefs and the storm jib, and reaching eastwards. The forecasts are showing good amounts of moderate reaching winds for much of the passage to the Horn so that is good news. Yesterday we were looking at 2 gales to navigate so that has brought an improvement of a day in our projected ETA and reduced the risk of breakages. www.brianthompsonsailing.com/ Steve Fossett Challenges: http://www.fossettchallenge.com * By the end of her 14th day at sea, the Cap Gemini and Schneider Electric trimaran had added another 468 nautical miles to her counter, with an average point-to-point speed of 19.5 knots. The northwesterly winds strengthened during the night and Geronimo attacked the Southern Ocean with the bit between her teeth. Between 23:18 GMT last night and 11:18 GMT this morning, the 11-man crew had covered over 300 nautical miles in 12 hours - an average point-to-point speed of over 25 knots. Her lead over the current record continues to lengthen, and conditions seem set fair for good average times all the way to the Cape of Good Hope. "We're extending our lead well, there's plenty of wind and it's manageable with good gliding conditions, said skipper Olivier de Kersauson. "The crew is really happy because the boat is making much better progress than last year, with a 5 to 7% higher average overall. And despite having mediocre conditions all the way down through the Atlantic, we're still ahead of the record." - http://www.trimaran-geronimo.com CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar BIG The tallest mast built by Auckland-based Southern Spars was stepped in the super-yacht Tiara. At 63 metres (206ft) long, the carbon fibre mast is too tall to sail under the Auckland Harbour Bridge which has a clearance of 43m. It will clear, but only just, the bridge of the America's which spans the Panama Canal, an important consideration for a yacht that will be based in the Caribbean. Built at Auckland by Alloy Yachts, Tiara is 54m (178ft) overall with a beam of 11m (36ft). The sloop was designed by Dubois Naval Architects. Tiara's rig gave Southern Spars' designers one unusual problem to solve: the crew has to be able to remove the backstay to allow a helicopter to land on the afterdeck. - www.southernspars.com NEW! THE REGATTA GALLERY AT ULTIMATE SAILING. Featuring Sharon Green custom prints of S.O.R.C. and Key West Race Week. Prints are available in sizes up to 20 x 30. Order now and have your own prints of the sailing action delivered to you in 3 business days. Place your order at http://www.ultimatesailing.com BACARDI CUP Miami, FL Alfonso Domingos and crew Bernardo Santos of Portugal assured themselves of the 2004 Bacardi Cup championship after the fifth race in the six-race Star Class Regatta on Thursday. Their first place overall of 17 points is enough to make them the first Europeans to win the coveted Bacardi Cup since the race began in Cuba in 1927. British world champions Iain Percy and crew Steve Mitchell took first place for the second day in a row and moved into10th overall. They finished today with a long lead on the rest of the 93-boat fleet after passing the Danish team at the third mark in 15-knot winds coming in from the northeast. Six-time Bacardi Cup champion Mark Reynolds moves into fourth place in the overall standings. Howie Shiebler and crew Will Stout of San Francisco are in second place overall and Canadians Ross Macdonald and crew Mike Wolfs are in third. Sailors were allowed to drop their worst finish after the fifth race today. The final race of the Bacardi Cup will be sailed on Friday. - Janet Maizner Standings after five races without one discard: 1. Afonso Domingos & Bernardo Santos, POR, 17 2. Howie Shiebler & Will Stout, USA, 23 3. Ross Macdonald & Mike Wolfs, CAN, 24 4. Mark Reynolds & Steve Erickson, USA, 35 5. Flavio Marazzi & Enrico De Maria, SUI, 43 6. Marc Pickel & Ingo Borkowski, GER, 44 7. Colin Beashel & David Giles, AUS, 44 8. Peter Bromby & Lee White, BER, 47 9. Hans Spitzauer & Andreas Hanakamp, AUT, 48 10. Iain Percy & Steve Mitchell, GBR, 54 Full results: http://www.bacardicup.com/press.asp NEWS BRIEFS * The Calema Midwinters Windsurfing Festival held in Florida had more than 170 racers, including a fleet of 120+ Formula racers, from 12 countries. Australian Steve Allen won first place in the Formula Pro division, second place went to Wojtek Brzozowski from Poland and currently ranked number two in the world, with Ross Williams of Great Britain placing third. The regatta was also a qualifier for the World Cup 2004 - Seth Besse, Steve Bodner, Jason Voss and Mike Zajicek, from the United States qualified, plus Antoine Questel from France and Keith Atkinson from Great Britain. - www.calema.com * After one windy day match racing J/80s in the Marseilles International Match Race series, Bertrand Pacé (FRA) leads the pack with six points. Luc Pillot (FRA) and Mathieu Richard (FRA) are one point back with five points while Dimitri Deruelle (FRA) holds the fourth spot with four points. Racing continues on Friday for the 10 European skippers in the event. - www.ycpr.com/resultats/resultats_1103.htm A HAPPY ENDING Jean Luc Van den Heede is very discreet, but found it difficult to hide his emotion, as he brought Adrien alongside the Vendée Globe landing stage in Les Sables d'Olonne. In Les Sables d'Olonne, the naval tradition grows ever stronger. In the hearts of the local people, the four "Vendée Globe" events clearly set a precedent in terms of the enthusiasm and admiration they feel for yachtsmen. Jean Luc Van den Heede is now one of them. By smashing Philippe Monnet's record by 29 days, VDH entered marine legend last Tuesday. The welcome that was given to him late today was that much more heartfelt, as a few years back the sailor from Amiens made Les Sables his home port. Among the crowds that had gathered on the landing stages, his loyal partners waited with pride and eagerness. It must have taken a lot of courage and solid commitment for Jean Luc to set out on four occasions to attempt this challenge, and his three sponsors also showed unwavering trust, loyalty and support through all those years. It was also a moving occasion for Michel Adrien, a stalwart supporter and former sailor himself. He could easily imagine the difficulties Jean-Luc must have encountered in order to achieve his performance: 'If a record was well deserved, it was this one' was the essence of what he said, while breathing a sigh of relief. - www.vdh.fr WEATHER ADVISORY! Summer sailing is around the corner! Plan to improve your inshore and offshore sailing skills with the help of www.WxAdvantage.com - a comprehensive weather information resource and North U. offering a completely new weather seminar series! Cutting edge graphics will bring the lessons alive. Bill Biewenga, veteran ocean racer and weather router is also available to coach you, your crew, or club; provide custom weather routing for offshore passages. Bill brings 320,000 ocean miles and 17 years of weather routing experience to every project. For information, email billbiewenga@compuserve.com today or visit us at North U: http://www.northu.com 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 nor a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Ed Furry (edited to our 250-word limit): It is a bit frustrating to me to hear that some of the top pro sailors including Paul Cayard and World Champion Freddie Loof are dropping out of the Bacardi Cup when they are doing poorly and/or don't like that sailing conditions. What kind of example are they setting for the young sailors growing up in the World? I guess it tells them that if you are doing poorly in a regatta or don't like the weather, which no one can control, then you may as well give up. I may not be as good of a sailor as these guys but I have race against most of them in the Farr 40 class and I am embarrassed for them. I am sure if it were the Olympics they would stick it out. I think I remember Mark Reynolds being pretty deep in the last Olympics and was still able to win a Gold medal. If they are resting up for the Trials then they shouldn't have even started this regatta. Hopefully some of the other top pros like Ian Piercy, Mark Reynolds and George Szabo, that have bad races, BFD's or OCS's in this regatta will continue to push through it and work there way back up the standings. I would say we should commend them for this but in reality they are just doing what they are supposed to. But in this case we should at least say thanks for setting an example. Curmudgeon's Comment: I fairness to Canard, one look at his website (www.cayardsailing.com) documents fully how much time he and Phil Trinter have spent in Florida and how hard they have trained for what has been their single goal for more than a year - the US Olympic Trials, that begin in just six days. Cayard's Thursday report states, "I left Miami feeling that the boat is in good shape for the trials. Everything on our list was done. We sailed with both masts and all four mainsails in the first four races of Bacardi Cup. I am now in Kentfield CA with my family. Sleeping in my own bed for the first time in a month was great." Personally - considering what's on the line for Cayard and Trinter - taking a short break now may be exactly the right thing for them to do to insure they're rested and ready for the important 11-day grind that begins on March 18. * From Jack Attridge: It is sad that Joe McCoy has to make the weight issue in the Star Class personal. George Iverson is one of the most respected sailors in our club and is very fit. He happens to be "big boned" and obviously loves sailing in a class that he has been passionate about for years. He is the 2001 recipient of the Governor Foss Trophy, along with the likes of Jud Smith, JB Braun, Jack Slattery and Dru Slattery. This award recognizes "outstanding yacht racing achievements by Eastern Yacht Club Members". George is standing up for what he feels is fair and he has every right to do that given the fact that he has 6 top 10 finishes in the association's North American Championships since 1990. This is about a passion for sailing and the desire of someone trying to stay in a class that they have enjoyed for many years. * From John McNeill: I find the presumptive superiority Joe McCoy conveys as 'slender and fit' is offensive. Fitness has little to do with size or conformation, as the most obtuse can observe in the animal world. You may be a slender and fit gazelle, but this tiger is still going to have you for lunch. The limitation tyranny that is being visited on some classes of our sport will, in due course, prove to be detrimental to their popularity as we are unable to be 'inclusive' in participation and those who would enjoy open competition leave for more welcome situations. Hope you all enjoy the grand regatta for the Weight Watchers Cup, if you can put a fleet together. * From Peter W. Wickwire (re Joe Coy's missive): I'm a large fit person who has sailed competitively my entire life. At 6'4", and consistently working hard to stay at 225lbs, you've no idea the number of classes I'd love to race and can't due to size. Imagine the problem I faced at age 17 when, just as all my training was paying off, I grew too large for my Laser. While fit and strong at 17, I wasn't ready for a Finn on a number of levels. It frustrated me I could no longer race against or train with my friends. It would've been fun, not to mention beneficial, to mature as a person and sailor a few more years in Lasers before moving to a Finn. As such I switched my focus towards football for college. Now in my early 30s I'll weigh my "fattie" fitness against most. As evidence there are large fit sailors, I've now completed nine marathons and I've qualified for Boston four times and ran it under 3:h at 225lbs.. There are plenty of fit and skilled "fatties" working hard on and off the water to sail faster. * From Paul France, Bay of Islands, New Zealand: These days I sail an aging 1970/71 One-Tonner and find it hard to relate to complaints over weight rules for crew in the Star Class. Tonight we battled hard for second place in our club Wednesday night series. When the crew asked for my "pleasure quotient" my smile could not have been wider. I accept the aspirants for top honours tread different floorboards from me but I hope the requirements they have will not reduce my pleasure quotient as I battle it out with my friends and sailing colleagues. CURMUDGEON'S COUNSEL Never pass up an opportunity to pee. |
