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SCUTTLEBUTT 2374 - June 27, 2007Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is distributed each weekday, with support provided by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, Defender of the 32nd America's Cup (http://www.ubs.com/sailing). A RACE OF EMOTIONS (June 26, 2007) This America’s Cup just keeps getting better, and more interesting. Tuesday's contest was a race of emotions for the 34 sailors on the two yachts. The lead changes were frequent and dramatic. This was one of the best races in the 156-year history of the America’s Cup. And we are a long, long way from deciding the winner. Both teams were at times brilliant, and at other times sloppy. In the 6.5 to 9.2 knot wind range, there was little speed difference, upwind or downwind, between these boats. The waves out on the race course were huge, confused and nasty. It was a tough day for the helmsman. At one point on the first windward leg Alinghi’s helmsman Ed Baird looked over his shoulder at Emirates Team New Zealand surging into a big lead and uttered (expletive deleted) and thrust his head down. He looked mighty frustrated. Not a good thing so early in a race that promised a lot of wind changes. Alinghi’s superstar tactician, Brad Butterworth, calmed Baird down and the team went to work. -- Gary Jobson, read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/gj/#Race3 AMERICA’S CUP MATCH First team to win 5 races in the 9 race series Challenger: Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) 0-1-1-_-_-_-_-_-_ = 2 Defender: Alinghi (SUI) 1-0-0-_-_-_-_-_-_ = 1 * Race schedule: The fourth race is planned for Wednesday, with Thursday to be the next rest day. Racing then resumes on Friday through Sunday before another break on Monday. -- Complete schedule: http://www.americascup.com/en/americascup/program/calendrier.php * Weather report: Wednesday will see cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid 70’s F (24 C), with a southeasterly sea breeze continuing, though coming in slightly stronger at 10-12 knots. * TV schedule: VERSUS (USA) and TSN Broadband (Canada) will provide live coverage of the Finals from 8:30 a.m.–11 a.m. ET. VERSUS will also have a replay from 6-8 p.m. ET., while TSN Broadband will archive each race for later viewing. -- http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar/shows/#6 * Cayard watch: America's Cup veteran Paul Cayard has been offered roles as skipper and project coordinator for the next instalment of the 156-year-old event. "I am considering, more than one (offer)...as skipper or project leader, to lead a team," Cayard told Reuters on Tuesday. "I'll decide as soon as I can." -- http://uk.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idUKL2651830220070626 * New boat: Even though Germany's first-ever bid to challenge for the America's Cup failed in May, the team is building a new yacht in hope of trying again next time. The yacht, currently under construction at the German shipyard Knierim-Yachtbau, was issued sail number GER101 on Tuesday. It will be the 100th boat made in the current America's Cup Class, as there was no sail number 13 issued. -- http://tinyurl.com/2borvb FOUR AND A HALF HOURS OF TELEVISION The third race of the 32nd America’s Cup proved one thing – a yacht race television show can be riveting. Tight start, huge leads, major splits, multiple passes, a horrid leeward mark rounding - all in minimum winds - and a final winner that wasn’t known until mere boat lengths from the finish. This race set many records, but think about it… this was 4 ˝ hours of great television. Watching Versus, they even seem to be getting some recognizable companies to retain ad space. Commercials from UBS and Troy Sears/ Next Level Sailing are now among those from Mobil, Harley Davidson, Captain Morgan Rum, Pacific Life Insurance, Motel 6, Nissan, Tanqueray gin, Hennessy Cognac, Travel Texas, and Edward Jones Investments. Don’t criticize the commercials… celebrate the recognition that these companies are giving the event. -- Scuttleblog, read on: http://tinyurl.com/2cqgc6 RACING WITH THE STARS ON THE NEW E33 Reigning Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, Jud Smith, and 2-time Yachtsman of the Year, Dave Curtis, will be match racing the new e33 daysailer. These world-class sailors have volunteered their time and the remaining positions aboard have been auctioned to support Hospice of the North Shore. The race series will be held on Saturday July 7th at the mouth of the Marblehead, MA harbor. Come watch the action by land or by sea! Please contact the newest member of the e sailing yachts team, Keith Church, for more information: mailto:kchurch@esailingyachts.com or go to http://www.esailingyachts.com IS "ORACLE'D" A VERB? (June 26, 2007) Something happened here today. The underdogs took a big bite out of the big dogs and the place went crazy. There were reporters running, Kiwi fans running, an ear-shattering chorus of horns, why, you'd think the America's Cup had done been won. Instead, it's Emirates Team New Zealand up 2 races to 1 in a first-to-five. Picture NZL 92 closing oh so slowly toward their final meeting with Alinghi on an agonizing light-air reach to the finish—if you think it's hard to watch something like that, try being on board when you need to go faster and the boat . . . just . . . won't . . . go . . . faster—and New Zealand Herald reporter Julie Ash was watching and hardly breathing and wringing her hands and shaking like a leaf. For something that started out as a snore, delay-delay-delay just waiting for the light breeze to settle down enough to get a race going, this one turned into an emotional barn burner. Have we seen such a punch-out in an America's Cup race since 1983? I don't think so. Have we ever, ever seen that many lead changes? I don’t think so. By my count there were four major, critical lead changes. Lower the bar and you easily find many more. Someone said twenty lead changes, but with the boats split wide on the way to the finish, who can really say? New Zealand strategist Ray Davies chewed on the question, then joked, "I can't count that high." I'm in the newsroom of the Press Center as I write, and there's an energy in here—people focused, writing, nervous to get it right and get it out—that was never here in the Acts, never here in the LVC, not here even on Sunday when NZL 92 evened the score. Something happened here today. -- Kimball Livingston, full report: http://sailmagazine.blogspot.com/2007/06/is-oracled-verb.html MORNING LIGHT MEETS THE NEW PYEWACKET Long Beach, Calif.---Sooner or later, the boats Morning Light and Pyewacket were destined to meet before starting the Transpacific Yacht Race, and when they did the younger sailors were awestruck. "Holy cow!" was one of the milder reactions when they returned to Rainbow Harbor in downtown Long Beach last Sunday after a two-night offshore cruise to find Roy E. Disney's other boat---newly and radically modified---in their usual parking spot along Pine Avenue Pier. They had sailed on the maxZ86 Pyewacket after the team tryouts last year, but now it had grown eight feet and sprouted wings. Jesse Fielding said, "It's the wildest sailboat I've ever seen." After the 2005 Transpac Disney, now 77, announced his retirement from racing and donated the boat to the Orange Coast College School of Sailing and Seamanship, then changed his mind, chartered it back and ordered major changes that would stretch it to 94 feet and add wings for stacking sails and bodies as ballast. -- Complete story: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/0626 GREAT STORIES FROM CHICAGO NOOD Rick Strilky, the top T-Ten sailor in Chicago, returned from his sabbatical in Lasers for a one-shot regatta in “Wombat.” Using his old UK-Halsey inventory, he won the NOOD’s biggest class (33-boats) and took the Best-in-NOOD title. UK-Halsey’s Mike Considine helped on tactics, but easy to-set-up sails helped this veteran find his groove and return to glory. UK-Halsey also powered J/105 winner, Dorin Candea’s “Messy Jessy,” which dominated the second biggest class (23-boats). Both Albert MacDonald’s “Obsession” (PHRF-3) and Tom Neill’s “Nitemare” (GL70) won their classes with UK-Halsey sails: each had 4 bullets apiece. Let us help you. 800-253-2002, http://www.ukhalsey.com GUEST COMMENTARY A dozen US Flags flapping in a 20 knot westerly, a group of 420's and Ideal 18's screaming up and down the river, across the way, Hugo Boss (the Volvo 60) was just hauled out on the way to LA and Hawaii, 100 or so friends having a cocktail in a new Pavillion and Burgee Bar that has been finished minutes before, tomorrow is Harborfest and fireworks, next week our members head for some of the best cruising grounds in America, In September we host 31 countries and 200 sailors for the Disabled Sailing World Championship, next year it is the J/22 Worlds. I hope everyone is seeing this kind of enthusiasm for sailing where they live. This is not Newport or Annapolis. We are the Rochester Yacht Club (NY), one of the best regatta sites in America with a great membership and staff. If you are in Rochester please visit us. If you live here, come join us. When it comes to participation in sailing our glass is more than half full. -- Charlie Ross ETCHELLS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (June 26, 2007) The first day of racing at the Etchells World Championship, hosted by the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, Cowes, brought two incredibly challenging races for the forty-five boat, eight nation fleet. With rain squalls running across the Solent on a regular basis the wind was constantly shifting by up to 40 degrees and ranged in velocity from 6-16 knots. The difficulty of the conditions is amply demonstrated by the results with only three teams ending the day with two single digit race results. Results – top five 1. GBR, Andy Beadsworth, 1-6, 7pts 2. GBR, James Howells, 3-5, 8pts 3. USA, Jud Smith, 10-2, 12pts 4. NZL, Anatole Masfen, 4-8, 12pts 5. GBR, Ante Razmilovic, 5-15, 20pts For daily reports and complete results: http://www.etchellsworlds2007.org SAILING SHORTS * 50 E Scow teams from the Midwest and East Coast converged at the Carolina Yacht Club for the 2007 edition of the E Scow Nationals, which was held over three days last weekend. This is the first time the city of Charleston, South Carolina has held a Scow National Championship, and based on the outstanding job done by the PRO, organizing committee and CYC’s members, many more major regattas will be held here in the future. Sam Rogers dominated the 6-race event, claiming all top-five scores that allowed him to sit out the final race. Links: Event report: http://www.e-scow.org/Story07/NAT07-report.html Complete results: http://tinyurl.com/yten34 * Watsonville, Calif.--June 26, 2007--West Marine, Inc. announced today that sales for fiscal year 2007 are expected to be approximately $683 million to $688 million. Comparable store sales for the year are now estimated to decrease between 1.5% and 2.5%. As a result, the company is revising its full year 2007 earnings guidance to be in the range of $0.24 to $0.34 per share versus the previously issued guidance range of $0.45 to $0.55 per share. -- Complete release: http://tinyurl.com/2xsjg9 * Racing was postponed on Tuesday for the 63 entrants at the Moth Worlds in Lake Garda, Italy, as winds up to 40 knots kept the fleet ashore. The scheduled layday on Wednesday is now being used to catch up on the race schedule. To view the results and competitor equipment, go to http://www.moth-sailing.org/worlds/2007_italy.xml#results * Following the recent birth of his second child, for personal family reasons British sailor Brian Thompson has made the difficult decision to step down as co-skipper to Guillermo Altadill in the Barcelona World Race. Brian will remain with the team as coach to pass on his IMOCA 60 experience to Guillermo and a new co-skipper who will be selected in the coming weeks, in time for the Rolex Fastnet Race starting 12th August. The doublehanded Barcelona World Race is set to start on November 11, 2007. -- http://www.barcelonaworldrace.com * Joe Harris and Dobbs Davis worked hard for their line honors in the double-handed leg of the Bermuda 1-2. They drove Gryphon Solo across the finish line at marker R2 off of Newport at 23:41:30 on Monday night. Their unofficial elapse time from the Friday start from St George's Bermuda was 82 hrs 41 min 30 seconds. By Tuesday morning, they were still standing 1st in class and 1st in fleet on the iboattrack leader board. When Gryphon Solo finished, the next closest boat was Wildeyes sailed by Michael Millard and Jim Fauci, almost 200 miles southeast of Newport. -- http://www.bermuda1-2.org * New Orleans, LA (June 26, 2007) Following day 3 of the US Youth Sailing Championship, the event website failed to post complete results by 8pm ET. Here are the current leaders: Justin Doane (Laser Radials), Colin Smith (Laser), T. Sinks and M Renoir (C420), and E Dellenbaugh and B Provancha (29er). -- http://www.ussailing.org/championships/youth/youthchamp LIVE ON THE BIG SCREEN Watch your business or boating experience come to life in high definition video. Whether you want sales and marketing products or just pure entertainment, our 20 years of experience shooting video in the marine environment will catch you at your best. http://www.whitecapvideo.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or simplicity (letters shall be no longer than 250 words). You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot, don't whine if others disagree, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Larry Pierce: No mention of the Bermuda 1-2 currently underway. While single handed offshore sailing is of questionable wisdom, there is no denying he skills required to complete this event. At the very least, an honorable mention is due the fleet. => Curmudgeon’s Comment: We agree, but the Bermuda 1-2 has seemingly been unable to provide sufficient information for Scuttlebutt to cover their event. We are following the race every day, and including worthy updates when they are available, such as the story above in SAILING SHORTS that came from the Gryphon Solo team. Interestingly, the US Youth Championship, which is going on this week and is US Sailing’s premier Youth event, was unable to post complete results following racing on Tuesday. There did seem to be an inordinate amount back-slapping in their Tuesday notes, but no complete results, and their event report section was still looking for the Tuesday report too. They did mention that they were turning off the lights at 5:47 pm, so maybe there was a good party to attend. Whatever! * From Nick Barran: The author of a recent letter (in Issue 2372) suggested that Title IX considerations would interfere with the much talked about New Zealand plan to reintroduce citizenship or at least residency requirements should they win this AC event. I am not a lawyer, but as I understand it Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, race or anything else, which certainly includes nationality. If the lawyers get involved with the selection of crew for America's Cup competition they would be making the argument that the rule changes that maybe proposed by Team New Zealand are not permitted under a contract subject to New York law and therefore, Title IX. If they prevail, then there would be some precedent that might force the US Olympic Committee to also discard nationality as the basis for its selection process. Presumably the IOC is not subject to Title IX, but if a US team was selected without regard to nationality then it would affect the eligibility of the team sent to China or subsequent events as, hypothetically, the team would include non-US nationals. * From Murray de Lues, Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club: As a very proud Kiwi sailor, I was horrified at the outburst of profanity by Brad Butterworth in Race 2. His “justification” was it was the only way to get the message across to the race committee, to move spectator boats off the course is utter rubbish. Having watched all of the coverage from the Louis Vuitton racing, we often saw VHF communication between the PRO and each boat when a course change was made. Why didn’t he just apologise for the outburst and acknowledge the situation should have been handled better instead of making up a cock and bull story? The decision of the ex Team New Zealand sailors who now sail for Alinghi still polarises opinion here in New Zealand. I was disappointed they left but recognise they were all professional sailors and knowing full well New Zealand has more than 17 AC grade sailors, knew we could replace them. With this display of “professionalism”, maybe we are better off without them. At least Chris Dickson (BMW Oracle), who has a fearsome reputation for toy throwing in private, didn’t do it on live TV. * From John Greene: SailJuice correctly made the observation (in Scuttlebutt 2373 - Team Spirit vs. Boatspeed) that "there just isn't the same sense of team spirit emanating from the Defender as you get from the Challenger". This is not entirely surprising given that the only Swiss guy on the Swiss boat is the guy with the bucks, and it's quite possible he would not even be on the boat if he wasn't holding the purse strings. Now that Ernesto's greatest asset is no longer driving the boat (Coutts) and Bradley is fxxxing rattled, it remains to be seen if the Cup can be successfully defended by "Switzerland". I along with 80 odd percent of Buttheads look forward to a tightening up of the nationality rules and the spirit of a true competition between nations. -- Scuttlebutt poll: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/07/0619 * From Chris Auld: In reply to Arabella Denvirs concerns regarding unbiased commentary (in Issue 2373), I couldn't help noticing her giving Alinghi a 35-minute victory. Bias you say? I also have some sympathy with Versus for their reference to Bertarelli as a Billionaire, as it was his ability to purchase the A Team of America’s Cup yachting, not his sailing ability that got him to where he is today. Loving the contest and the dialogue though. 1:00 A.M. in New Zealand has become an exciting time to be awake. * From Rick Hatch: TSN Broadband (in Canada) carries the Versus broadcast. In addition to the live coverage, each race is usually posted on TSN Broadband for re-run viewing about six to eight hours after the finish of the race, so people can look at any race anytime afterwards. I came into my office a bit late this morning (stopped at the boat ion the way), turned it on and caught the last five minutes of leg four. It was so exciting that I then read through Mark Chisnell's play by play of the entire race. Fantastic stuff! - Online access (blocked outside of CAN): http://www.tsn.ca/yachting/ - Mark Chisnell's play by play: http://www.tackbytack.com * From Anton Huggler, Bainbridge Island: Regarding Bill Sandberg fixing a ripped spinnaker using dental floss (letter in Issue 2373), we did the same thing on "Kyrnos" sailing the Pacific Cup. Shredded our kite across a panel and half a mile down a leach. Ran out of thread while hand stitching it back together - I recommend using the waxed variety as it works great! * From Chris Caswell: I applaud Bill Sandberg’s use of a cotter pin and dental floss, but find it surprising that a yacht would enter a 650-mile offshore race without a basic sail repair kit or even RipStop repair tape, especially when only one chute is allowed. Here’s a case where seamanlike planning would have eliminated the need for a clever jury rig. CURMUDGEON’S CONUNDRUM Why do old men wear their pants higher than younger men? Special thanks to e33, UK-Halsey, and White Cap Video. Scuttlebutt is also supported by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, the Defender of the 32nd America's Cup. |
