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SCUTTLEBUTT 3591 - Tuesday, May 15, 2012Scuttlebutt 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: APS, Gowrie Group, and Mount Gay Rum. NO STRUCTURE, NO ORGANISATION, NO YOUTH DEVELOPMENT By Alvin Sallay, South China Morning Post Former Olympian and millionaire businessman Neil Pryde has warned sailing is in danger of being kicked out of the Olympics as the fallout continues from the controversial decision to dump windsurfing in favour of kiteboarding for the 2016 Games. Pryde says the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) has made a terrible and unfathomable decision and accused it of "selfishness". "The ISAF is represented by all member countries and most come from the yacht brigade. What they have done is to safeguard their narrow interests and sacrificed windsurfing. What they don't realise is the whole sport of sailing is in danger of being kicked out of the Olympics," said the 71-year-old Pryde, whose name is attached to the RSX windsurfing discipline which will be seen for the last time at the London Olympics. "From a business perspective it doesn't impact me as I will continue to provide the sailing equipment. But from a personal point of view, I think it is a terrible decision for the sport of sailing as a whole. It's an absolute disgrace." His business interests allow him free access to the corridors of power in the sailing world and Pryde was present two years ago at an ISAF council meeting in Athens when the move began to get kiteboarding into the Olympics as a separate discipline. Pryde said: "Originally the idea was for sailing to ask for another medal at the Olympics by introducing kiteboarding. There was no talk of replacing windsurfing, but somehow, over the years, things have evolved and with the number of athletes at the Olympics being restricted, this has unfortunately occurred. "While kiteboarding is a great sport, it is quite immature. There is no structure, no organisation and no youth development. And the plan was to introduce kiteboarding by the 2020 Games, not in 2016. Fast-forwarding a still developing sport is totally ridiculous." -- Full story: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=13793#13793 CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR When the ISAF Council voted for kiteboarding to replace windsurfing at the 2016 Olympic Games, the medal prospects for the United States went from zero to hero. Americans Johnny Heineken and Adam Koch are two of the top three sailors in the latest Course Racing World Ranking, and Johnny is the defending Course Racing World Champion. But despite the prominence now given to kiteboarding, Johnny has his concerns too. Here he comments on the challenges that lie ahead for his sport... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I have to admit I did not see that one coming so soon. The challenge now is for kiteboarding to maintain our equipment regulations about as they are now. If we end up with an RS:X situation (current Olympic windsurfer), it will be over. So, I think we have two main things to address right now: * Equipment - Keep the box rule and open (production) kite rule. We cannot go one design. If we go one design, we will have the same situation as now with the Olympic RS:X board and formula class. The top sailors will participate in professional tour stops and race formula boards, and we will have two people from each country racing one design kiteboards to try to earn a medal. Furthermore, we'll lose the industry support that currently supports the top sailors. If a big company like Neil Pryde or North Sails produces the one design equipment, there won't be any incentive for them to be sponsoring the sailors. * Schedule - We also have to address how to integrate the ISAF Sailing World Cup events and our current kite racing schedule. This may mean moving our current tour stops around on the calendar a little to make room for the ISAF events. The important thing here is that we keep the momentum these tour stops have created and use them as tools to continue to grow the sport. The PKRA (www.prokitetour.com) currently runs great events, and we need to be careful not to take away from this (by doing anything like limiting participants to only ISAF events), we just want to fill in the gaps with those events that put competitors on the Olympic track. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The weeknight Cabrinha Race Series for kiters has begun at St. Francis Yacht Club, where last week they had 51 entrants racing on San Francisco Bay: http://www.stfyc.com/default.aspx?p=v35EvtView&type=0&ID=2770481 NEW ARRIVAL AT APS! Full freedom of movement, highly breathable, and lightweight.these are not the normal descriptors of foul weather gear. They do, on the other hand, describe the new Gill KB1 series. The trousers, jacket, and smock that make up the KB1 range thrive in harsh conditions and strenuous activity making them a perfect fit for the active racer. You'll be as comfortable around the cans as you will be taking a wave in your lap on the way to Bermuda in the Gill 4 Dot 3-layer breathable fabric. Is your current gear as versatile as you are? Find it here at APS: http://bit.ly/JF4TqA WHO WANTS THE VIP TREATMENT? All six boats in the Volvo Ocean Race will be in Miami when the race schedule begins again this weekend. But before the fleet sets off on the 3590 nm Leg 7 from Miami to Lisbon, Portugal on Sunday, they will battle it out in the PORTMIAMI In-Port Race on May 19. And Scuttlebutt will get you on the water. Scuttlebutt will be giving away five VIP guest spots on the Volvo Cars VIP spectator boat to watch the action for the In-Port Race. On Tuesday (May 15) at 1000 PDT, Scuttlebutt will post on Twitter and Facebook how to win the tickets. Get connected with Scuttlebutt... Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt Overall Standings (after Leg 6) 1. Telefonica (ESP), Iker Martinez (ESP), 164 pts 2. Groupama 4 (FRA), Frank Cammas (FRA), 153 pts 3. CAMPER (NZL), Chris Nicholson (AUS), 149 pts 4. PUMA Ocean Racing (USA), Ken Read (USA), 147 pts 5. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (UAE), Ian Walker (GBR), 68 pts 6. Team Sanya (CHN), Mike Sanderson (NZL), 25 pts Standings: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/racetracker/rdc.html Schedule: http://tinyurl.com/VOR-2011-12-schedule Video reports: http://www.youtube.com/user/volvooceanracevideos Race website: http://www.volvooceanrace.com SEEKING ANSWERS (May 14, 2012) - The US Coast Guard of San Diego has requested that US Sailing conduct an independent review of the sailing accident that occurred during the 2012 Newport to Ensenada Yacht Race resulting in the deaths of four sailors. Aegean, a 37-foot Hunter 376, and her crew of four were victims of an accident that destroyed their boat a few miles offshore near Mexico's Coronado Islands at about 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 28. These were the first deaths in the 65-year history of the race. The members of the Independent Review Panel are Chairperson, Bruce Brown (Costa Mesa, Calif.), John Winder (Annisquam, Mass.), Alan Andrews (Corona del Mar, Calif.), Ed Adams (Middletown, R.I.), and Alan McMillan (Pensacola, Fla.). The Offshore Special Regulations Consultant on the panel is Evans Starzinger (Milford, Conn). The Safety at Sea Committee Chair and Review Panel Liaison is Chuck Hawley (Santa Cruz, Calif.). Medical Advisors are Dr. Michael Jacobs (Vineyard Haven, Mass.) and Dr. Kent Benedict (Aptos, Calif.). Jim Wildey (Annapolis, Md.) will advise on investigation procedures and formats. The panel and the US Coast Guard understand the urgency of this review and anticipate completing initial findings and recommendations to be released to the public in June. -- Full report: http://media.ussailing.org/Latest_News/2012/Newport_Ensenada_051412.htm CARIBBEAN SAILING REGATTAS ADJUST 2013 DATES Several of the premiere Caribbean regattas have agreed to adjust their dates in 2013 to improve crowding the racing calendar. The race directors will meet again in October 2012 to discuss this new schedule and work on a permanent solution that will run from 2014 onward. The big boat racing circuit in the region has grown over the years, with new regattas being added and smaller events developing to an international level. This resulted in a crowded race calendar with some conflicting dates. Peter Holmberg of the Caribbean Sailing Association spearheaded this effort in an attempt to help both the visiting sailors and the events. "The regatta directors were asked to consider the overall benefits, and not just the success of their individual event. The spirit of cooperation from everyone was greatly appreciated. With these adjustments, the entire Caribbean gains - the individual regattas and sponsors gain, the island economies gain, and the sport of sailing gains." 2013 Schedule January 21 - Mount Gay Rum Round Barbados Race January 25-27 - The Super Yacht Challenge Antigua February 16-18 - Puerto Rico Heineken Intl Regatta February 18 - RORC Caribbean 600 March 1-3 - St. Maarten Heineken Regatta TBD - Caribbean Super Yacht Regatta Virgin Gorda March 22-24 - International Rolex Regatta, St. Thomas March 25-31 - BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival March 28-31 - St. Barths Bucket Regatta April 8-13 - Les Voiles de St. Barth April 18-23 - Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta April 28-May 3 - Antigua Sailing Week The new regatta dates and links to their websites can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/CSA-051412 GOWRIE GROUP: NOW'S THE TIME TO REVIEW YOUR BOAT INSURANCE Boat insurance pricing has changed with the marine marketplace. When boat values change, and your boat usage changes, it's time to look again at your insurance protection. The insurance experts at Gowrie Group understand the complex risks that go along with boat ownership, racing, and cruising. Get a comparison quote from Gowrie Group now. It's smart. It's fast. It can save you money. Call us 800.262.8911 or fill out our easy online quote form: http:// www.gowrie.com/yachtquote (use code: Scuttlebutt). SAILING SHORTS * Seattle, WA (May 13, 2012) - The 2012 High School Doublehanded Chanpionship (Mallory trophy) was sailed on Lake Union on May 11-13. Both days saw cloudless skies and temperatures in the 70s with winds between 5 and 12 knots. Twenty teams competed, with A-division sailing Vanguard 15s and B-Division sailing Flying Juniors. Point Loma High School team (San Diego, CA) won both A and B Divisions to take the title. Team members Olin Paine, Johannes Mcelvain, Trevor, Jake Reynolds, Maddy Brownsea, and coach Steve Hunt. -- Full report: http://www.mallorytrophy2012.com/results.html * (May 14, 2012; Day 4) - The first leg of the double-handed Class40 Atlantic Cup, which began on Friday in Charleston, will see the leaders arrive at the finish in New York City tonight. The 14 boat fleet is led by Jorg Riechers (GER) and Ryan Breymaier (USA) on Mare, who had 28.4 nm to go as of 8:38 EDT. There will be approximately a 4-5 day stop-over in New York before the race restarts and competitors sprint to Newport, Rhode Island. Once in Newport, skippers will race an inshore grand prix with a crew of six. -- http://atlanticcup.org/race/ * Barcelona, Spain (May 14, 2012) - After lights winds on Sunday allowed for only one race, the second day of the 2012 470 World Championships saw the Men and Women's fleets roll through three races to get back on schedule. Canadians Luke Ramsay/ Mike Leigh flew up the standings, moving from 64th to 14th after posting a 2-1-4. On the women's side, Americans Amanda Clark/ Sarah Lihan rallied after a BFD on Sunday, moving up to 20th with a 9-3-3 today. Racing concludes Saturday. -- Event website: http://worlds.470.org/eventsites/default_s1.asp?eventid=66686 * (May 14, 2012) - It was a great day for the British sailors on the second day for the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Finn Gold Cup in Falmouth. Ben Ainslie (GBR) won the opening race to take the overall lead while Ed Wright (GBR) dropped to second and Andrew Mills (GBR) had another good day to move up to third. The second race of the day was won by Chris Cook (CAN), who sits in sixth overall. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/Finn-051412 * (May 14, 2012) - After their start on May 9th, Giovanni Soldini (ITA) and his international crew of seven have failed in their attempt to break the New York-Lizard Point transatlantic speed record set by the 140 foot Mari Cha IV (6 days, 17 hours, 52 minutes, 39 seconds). -- Full report: http://maserati.soldini.it/non-ce-labbiamo-fatta/?lang=en * San Francisco, CA (May 13, 2012) - St. Francis Yacht Club hosted its 2nd annual Team Race Invitational this past weekend, with five yacht club teams from the West Coast racing on the San Francisco City Front. The three boat teams competed in J/22s with winds ranging from 10 to 25 knots, completing 38 races, with St. Francis Yacht Club passing San Diego Yacht Club on the final beat of the last race to win the Invitational. Seattle Yacht Club had the best record in the triple round robin series before falling to San Diego Yacht Club in the semi-finals. -- Details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=13790 * Venice, Italy (May 13, 2012) - Organised by the Compagnia della Vela e dal Diporto Velico Veneziano, this was the 26th edition of the Trofeo Marco Rizzotti (May 10-13), which has become one of the most important Optimis Team Racing events worldwide. Ninety sailors from 8 countries combined to form 18 teams, including three from USA and two from Singapore. USA LISOT (New York) took the title undefeated, with 18 race wins. USA (LYC), last year's winners, finished fifth. -- Full story: http://www.optiworld.org/news1Article.php?link=12newsRizzotti.html * The World Sailing Speed Record Council has awarded a Performance Certificate to Tomasz Cichocki (POL) for sailing singlehanded around the world with stops. Cichocki sailed "Polska Miedz", a 39-foot monohull, for 311 days 7 hours and 27 minutes (1st July 2011 to the 7th May 2012). -- http://tinyurl.com/WSSR-051412 EIGHT BELLS Frank Bethwaite (91 years) passed away peacefully after a short illness on Saturday May 12, 2012, surrounded by his family. A pioneer in small boat design and research, Frank was the author of "High Performance Sailing" (1992) and "Higher Performance Sailing" (2002) and had just completed his third book on apparent wind sailing to be published later this year by Adlard Coles. Born in Wanganui, New Zealand on May 26, 1920, Frank learned to sail on the Wanganui River, building his own boats, experimenting with rigs and hull designs. He joined the Royal NZ Air Force during World War II and flew bombing raids in the Pacific for which he was awarded the DFC. Frank met and married Adelaide (Nel) Mills, a cipher officer in the air force, in 1945 and moved to Torbay, just north of Auckland. Continuing his interest in flying, Frank joined TEAL (later Air New Zealand), at the same time experimenting with model aeroplanes to find the most efficient wing shapes in competition. After five years of testing various designs and studying thermal lifts along the coastline, Frank won the world endurance record of over nine hours aloft in 1952. This was followed by 2 more world records. Four children were also born over 11 years. Frank and Nel moved to Sydney with the family in 1959 after Frank joined the CSIRO for the visionary cloud seeding project, settled in Northbridge and immediately became active members at the Northbridge Sailing Club, forming a group that designed the Northbridge Senior (NS14), a small light sailing boat that women could sail as well as men. The NS14 proliferated on the east coast of NSW and is still racing in various pockets today. In the early 60s, under Frank's guidance and leadership and the teaching by volunteer club members, several hundred children learned to sail. Numerous State, National and World Champions evolved from this initiative. -- Read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=13792#13792 SAILING SPOKEN HERE. THE CONVERSATION KEEPS IMPROVING! For sailors like you, catch up on sailing resources and news on Sailing Spoken Here. With tens of thousands world-wide members, sailors have connected to discuss their challenges, share their most treasured sailing photos, debate their past regatta scenarios, locate a Mount Gay Rum sponsored regatta in their area and find their favorite sailing bars to celebrate the completion of a day at sea. With Gary Jobson on board, Sailing Spoken Here now offers even more valuable content. If you haven't already jumped into the conversation, you're missing out. Luckily, today's a new day: http://www.sailingspokenhere.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 Paul Henderson: Just an observation from a has-been ISAF President and IOC Member who first went to then IYRU in 1970 as a smart-ass Canuck. Never in all that time has a Council changed 40% of the classes in an Olympiad. This totally disrupts the sailors, which is the reason for the Games, not some unobtainable TV exposure. No other sport has ever done this. One event maybe, but 40%? I trust that the IOC Program Commission will ask ISAF to review all its decisions... including the keelboat exclusion. * From William Tuthill, Jamestown, RI: Regarding the divergent views about kite boards and windsurfers in the 2016 Olympics, might it now be time to let common sense prevail? Here we have a solid track record for windsurfing going back decades. It is a sport that relates to Kitesurfing in only one way - a board. Both sports have sails that are dynamic with reference to the board, and both sports are appealing on a worldwide basis. Hearing that the vote to jettison windsurfing from the Olympics had roots in language differences is no surprise. No one in their right mind [who wants to promote sailing] would knowingly alienate such a large and well established portion of the board sailing community. Kite racing on water is a new and exciting sport- even one that deserves a place in the Olympic Games. However, I would urge the IOC to be circumspect about making a drastic move that cuts away the established base that gave birth to the board sailing community. * From Alistair Murray: Frank Bethwaite was a true legend of the sport of sailing. In particular his knowledge of aerodynamics and weather and his talent for designing small boats that were years ahead of their time, left him in a class of his own. His primary motivation when designing the fabulous Tasar dinghy was to create a high performance planing dinghy that could be handled by a man and a woman together. He was so proud of the fact that he introduced so many women to sailing as a result of his success. But he did so much more, and the world of sailing has benefitted in so many ways from his innovations and his contributions to the science of small boat racing. Many of us will be sailing in the Tasar Australian Nationals in Darwin in July and we will be putting our heads together to come up with a fitting send-off for a genius who has enriched our lives to such a great degree. If it wasn't for Frank Bethwaite many people would be sailing slower boats! * From Tom Priest: In Scuttlebutt 3590..."The opening day of the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Finn Gold Cup in Falmouth, UK ..." With billion dollar losses adding up (& making the news), I wonder if things like sponsoring yacht races will go away. ADVERTISING. FREE ADVERTISING The Scuttlebutt Classified Ads provide a marketplace for private parties to buy and sell, or for businesses to post job openings. For free. As a bonus, each week the Scuttlebutt newsletter includes some of the recent classified ad postings. View/post ads here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/classified_ads CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Did You Know: Recycling 1 aluminum can will run a computer for 3 hours. 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