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SCUTTLEBUTT 2570 – April 8, 2008Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors. THE HERE, THE NOW, AND THE WHY OF OLYMPIC CLASSES Former ISAF President and current International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, Paul Henderson makes a number of interesting points in regard to the current 2012 Olympic Event and Classes 'discussion'. Here are some excerpts: “Having been involved in the selection of the Olympic Classes for 30 years at ISAF, it is interesting to see that nothing has changed. Personal bias always prevails. If the vote goes your way, the ISAF Council is brilliant. If your personnel or those of your country's medal chances are not served, the ISAF Council is dysfunctional. Here goes on my bias. Deja Vu! “No matter what sailing does, we will never get much live Olympic TV. The feed is there but the individual country broadcasters usually do not pick it up as Athletics, Football, Basketball, etc. fills their broadcasts. Sailing gets very high niche market internet hits, especially live mark-by-mark roundings. The print media loves heroes and human interest stories. The equipment is secondary. “Keelboats must be kept both for Men and Women (because it has the most heroes). It also provides the infrastructure for the Paralympics (ie, hoists and docks). The singlehanders are the essence of the Olympics and the five now should be kept (Finn, Laser, Laser Radial, RS:X Men and RS:X Women). That leaves three events of 10 to decide. I like Cats and Skiffs because they must be sailed - and not Air-Rowed - around the course with kinetics. The problem then arises as to what to do with the 470. “It is sad that the IOC is holding Sailing to an agreement made to reduce from 11 as the reasons originally invoked 4 years ago are no longer valid. Hopefully someone with influence will get to Jacques Rogge to delay the erosion till 2016.” -- Complete submission in Sail World: http://tinyurl.com/3ovf7g * The vote on the Scuttlebutt poll is holding firm that changes should be made to the Mens and Womens event lists for the 2012 Olympic Games. The poll will close Tuesday morning PT, where after Scuttlebutt – with the help of the ‘buttheads – will take the next step at determining what would be a better mix of events. To place your vote and comments, and to check on those of others, go to http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/08/0403 GATEWAY TO GREATNESS With the clock ticking down to the Beijing Olympic Games, the start of 2008 has brought with it a rapid succession of World Championship events in the Olympic Classes, and the resulting list of World Champions presents a remarkable illustration of talent fostered at the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship (this year in Denmark, July 10-19). The world’s premier youth sailing event has always been looked upon as a breeding-ground for the sailing stars of the future and with a quick analysis of current trends it’s clear to see this is a reputation well earned. Of the ten teams that have so far claimed World Championship victory in 2008, only one fails to count an ISAF Youth World appearance on their sailing resume. Between them, these ten crews boost an incredible Youth World Championship haul of eight gold, two silver and three bronze medals. If you include the 2007 Star Worlds Champions on the list (the 2008 Star World Championship has not yet taken place) the tally increases to nine gold’s thanks to Robert Scheidt’s (BRA) contribution. “Time and time again we’ve seen the top performers from the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship go on to reach the very highest levels of achievement in the sailing world, whether it is the Olympic Games, the Volvo Ocean Race or the America’s Cup,” said Fiona Kidd, chair of the ISAF Youth World Championship Sub-Committee. “What’s really encouraging is that in recent years we’ve seen several new nations - for example Guatemala, Singapore and most recently Cyprus - step onto the Youth World podium for the first time.”-- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/3lsb4t HIGH PERFORMANCE CLOTHING There are many variables that go into performing well at a regatta. Some are controllable, some are not. Clothing is a controllable variable. Therefore, when looking for high performance clothing, the Code Zero quick dry shirt from Camet is a perfect choice! Made with a double circular knit lightweight fabric that is designed to wick away moisture, dry fast, be comfortable, and have maximum UV protection. This high performing shirt is perfect as a single warm weather layer or as an under layer for cold weather. Camet is the source for Padded Sailing Shorts, Pants, Vests, and so much more… http://www.camet.com/?Click=738 BEHIND THE LENS IN KEY WEST by Gary Jobson Like hundreds of other like-minded crews, our team was heading south from all corners of the United States. Our anticipation was running high. Would the conditions be perfect—blue water, big winds, and waves? Would we get in 10 races? Would all of our pre-regatta planning come to fruition? When we all finally arrived on the eve of the regatta we assembled for our traditional crew meeting. But this wasn't your typical racing crew; we had a much different agenda. As the ESPN sailing team covering Acura Key West Race Week, we had to deliver the excitement, which is no easy task. The logistics involved are every bit as challenging as entering a boat. But once the regatta gets rolling, the hours for us are much longer. Key West Race Week is a big event to wrap your hands (or in our case, cameras) around. There are helicopters to book, onboard cameras to mount and dismount, interviews to hunt down, and of course, a lot of aggressive editing to create nightly Internet reports. As producer, it took me three months to prepare all the logistics, but like any television crew, we were on a mission to capture the essence of the event, report its highlights, and make even the most casual ESPN viewer appreciate the incredible sport of sailboat racing. -- Sailing World, read on: http://tinyurl.com/4mf3jy * Highlights from Acura Key West Race Week 2008 will be on ESPN2, scheduled for April 13 at 12:30 pm eastern. -- http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar/shows/#4 MONDAY MORNING TACTICIAN by Andrew Campbell, US Laser 2008 Olympic representative It’s Monday again and this past week has provided its fair share of head-scratching incidents that have sent me to the rulebook for a little clarification. We’ve been in Hyeres, along the south coast of France between Nice and Marseille for the last ten days enjoying the improving spring temperatures and varying breeze common to the area during this time of the year. I was able to hook in with a small training group made up of the top Swedes, Norwegians, and an Austrian sailor who descended upon the Base Nautique for a week-long camp. We had one rules incident in particular this week to review, which involves two boats traveling around a windward mark. The boat ahead having pinched to get around the mark is going decidedly slower than an oncoming boat behind also trying to bear away around the mark. As the boat ahead heels to windward very tight to the mark and then gets his bow down leaving a space between him and the mark, the boat behind is having a stellar mark rounding, wide and looking to leave the mark tight to his port side. As the boat ahead rolls into a gybe, he realizes that all of a sudden a starboard tack, leeward boat has appeared in between him and the mark preventing him from completing his gybe onto port (or in many cases, prevents the Laser from making a full 180 from close-hauled on starboard to by-the-lee on starboard). Where did this guy come from? He didn’t have room at the mark when the first boat entered the two boat-length circle… but now he’s yelling “Hey, I’m the leeward boat and I’m on starboard. Now get out of my way!” And the boat ahead must crash-turn out of his maneuver and veer off in the other direction yielding the left side of the racecourse (looking downwind) to the other boat’s control. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/4nb9f2 MARINE CUISINE Days away from port and thousands of miles offshore, a sailor in the Volvo Ocean Race decides whether to eat chicken à la king, beef stroganoff, or three-cheese lasagna for dinner. But the teams in the round-the-world race are not airlifting in home-cooked entrées, and they have not hired chefs. The sailors’ hot meals come from freeze-dried and dehydrated food. It’s the same stuff backpackers and soldiers eat—lightweight but high-energy grub packed in plastic pouches. To prepare it, boiling water is poured into the bag, the contents are stirred, and the zipper top is sealed. In about ten minutes, the hot meal is ready to serve. It might not seem appealing to eat a meal out of a pouch every night, but these prepared foods provide vital fuel for sailors. “[Food] is very important as this race is a marathon,” said Dirk De Ridder, the watch leader and operations manager of the Mean Machine team. “You get a bit bored with the meals after day 15, but that's part of being on a boat for such a long time.” Many cruisers keep a few of these products around so they have an easy meal when rough conditions make it too difficult to cook. They don’t roll around in the cabin or rust as cans do, and they can have shelf lives of up to 7 years from the date of manufacture. Plus, many can be prepared with cold water, an attribute that could come in handy in an emergency. Manufacturers offer many instant-food options, From the exotic pesto salmon pasta to traditional spaghetti in meat sauce. Some will at least fill you up if you're hungry, but, as SAIL staffers learned from sampling more than 20 dishes, you wouldn’t want to be stuck in the middle of the ocean with others. -- SAIL Magazine, here are the top picks: http://www.sailmag.com/MRE ETCHELLS MIDWINTERS WEST Impressive! Bill Hardesty wins (again) the Etchells Midwinters in San Diego. In fact, the top 12 boats featured North sails! Whether you are gearing up for the Etchells Worlds in Chicago or just for your local one design fleet championship, the results on both the East and West coasts prove there are no faster one design sails for your boat. For more information, visit http://www.onedesign.com * North Sails has partnered with Sailing Weather Services to provide complimentary standard weather forecasts for the Rolex Farr 40 Pre-Worlds from April 11-12 and the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds from April 16-19 with an event overview on April 15. To receive these daily forecasts, visit North Sails' online weather center: http://na.northsails.com/ew/ew_main.taf SAILING SHORTS * A Timberland international advertising campaign is recruiting sailors from the west coast of America/ Vancouver. They are not looking for Olympians or America's Cup level, more the keen sailor, 18-35, with a good story. The photo shoot will be in Vancouver at the end of April. Interested individuals need to respond by April 8th. Full details at http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=5977#5977 * The World Sailing Speed Record Council has ratified a new outright world speed record by Antoine Albeau (FRA), who reached 49.09 knots on March 5, 2008 at Les Saintes Maries de la Mer, France on custom windsurf equipment. Additionally, at the same day/site, national records were set by Albeau, 49.09 kts (FRA); Farrel O'Shea, 44.34 kts (GBR); and Patrik Diethelm, 46.57 kts (ITA). -- http://www.sailspeedrecords.com/ * A posting in the Valencia Sailing blog states that Ernesto Bertarelli is believed to be meeting with the city of Valencia regarding the possibility of holding the 33rd America's Cup match there in 2009. The estimated terms include the city paying approximately 50 million euros (est. 78.8 million USD) to host the catamaran race. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/3zwgqy * (April 7, 2008 - 09:34) The passage of the cold front was already shaping up to be a little tricky for Lionel Lemonchois and his ten men to negotiate, but storms then stepped in to further complicate matters, leaving Gitana 13 temporarily becalmed. However, the wind has now returned, and as of the 0830 position report, the 110-foot maxi-catamaran was making over 25 knots of boat speed, downwind on starboard tack, on a course of 250-degrees, with a differential over the current record at now over 600 miles. -- http://www.gitana-team.com/en/gitana/index.asp * The Swedish government has published its views on rules for a mandatory driver's license for boaters in Sweden. The country has never before had any mandatory license for driving a motorboat or sailing a yacht. The license will be mandatory from April 1, 2011, according to the proposal. Some 85 per cent of Swedish boat club members already have voluntarily licenses, which can probably be exchanged or migrated according to the new rules during 2009. -- IBI Magazine, full report: http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20080307120515ibinews.html * Police say a boat packed with wedding revelers taking a bride to her new husband capsized on a river in Kano, Nigeria, killing 26 passengers. Kano State police spokesman Baba Mohammed said three people survived the accident late Monday and about a dozen other passengers remain missing, including the bride. Townspeople said the boat hit a tree submerged in the river. Many Africans rely on water travel to get to destinations unreachable by road. Boats are often packed beyond capacity by captains seeking to maximize profits, and accidents are common. -- Fox News, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,344449,00.html * Tortola, British Virgin Islands (April 6, 2008) Winds hovering at 20 knots on Sunday proved to be the lightest wind seen for the 128-boat during the final day of the BVI Spring Regatta. Seventeen classes competed, including dinghy, multihull, charter fleets, and all-out racing machines. -- Event site: http://www.bvispringregatta.org * A French luxury yacht seized by pirates last week in the Gulf of Aden has arrived in the northern Somali town of Eyl with a reported 30 crew members aboard as hostages. The French Foreign Ministry said it was in close contact with the hostage's families and that attempts were being made to establish contact with the hostage-takers. About 10 pirates stormed the 88-metre Le Ponant on Friday as it was returning, without passengers, from the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. The pirates then guided the vessel down Somalia's eastern coast. The hostages included 22 French citizens, six of them women, as well as Ukrainian citizens, authorities said. -- Full story: http://www.680news.com/news/international/article.jsp?content=w0406110A J/105 CLASS ROCKS ON The boat that ignited the spritboat revolution in 1992 is setting attendance records across North America. Enjoy one-design at home or on the road at all 9 NOODs, Block Island, Key West, San Fran Big Boat, and the 2008 North Americans (SF Bay 8/20-24). New 2009 model J/105s are coming! http://www.jboats.com STRANGER AND UGLIER by Elaine Bunting, Yachting World These Open 60 boats are getting stranger and uglier with every refit. The new shape of Vincent Riou's Open 60 PRB, which emerged last week from an overhaul prior to The Transat next month. The most startling difference is the addition of this motorboat style strake from the bow running a third of the way aft. Riou comments that the strakes were laminated on to the hull sides on the advice of designer Bruce Farr. I guess the intention is that when the boat is hard reaching they will work in the same way as the lifting strakes of a motorboat, which keep the bow up, reduce planing resistance and act like spray rails to divert water away from the deck. JP Dick's Paprec-Virbac, another Farr design (and winner of the doublehanded Barcelona World Race), already has trim tabs on the rudders - maybe PRB's will, too? -- Complete post with photo: http://tinyurl.com/4b8r4a * With a little more than one month to go before the start of The Artemis Transat, 26 singlehanded entries (16 Open 60s and 10 Class 40s) are focusing in on the May 11th race start in Plymouth, England for the 2,800-mile dash to Boston, MA (U.S.A.). -- Race website: http://www.theartemistransat.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 Peter Johnstone: (re, 2012 Olympic events) If tasked with choosing medal prospects (an inexact science at best) versus creating excitement for the future of sailing, shouldn't we ALWAYS pick the future of sailing? Hope our US Olympic Sailing Committee takes a less myopic position on Olympic Class selection at the next ISAF meeting. This is a note of encouragement to our US SAILING politicos that make up our ISAF delegation and direction…please get it right this time. Tornados and women's skiff!! Excitement. Future of sailing. Charlie Cook and Cory Sertl, we'll all be watching your vote at that next ISAF Meeting a lot more closely! * From Jim Champ: (re, letter in #2569 by Alfred Poor concerning sportsmanship) Bearing in mind that Lord Arnold/ Donald/ Arlen, as an aristocrat would have been a trained swordsman, and a peasant like young Matty Groves would probably never have picked up a sword before, I agree that the level of sportsmanship concerned was in the best (ie most typical) traditions of the America's Cup. * From Tim Patterson: (re, Transpac’s revised rules for 2009) Powered winches, but no autopilots…how strange. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION On a septic tank truck sign: "We're #1 in the #2 business." Special thanks to Camet International, North Sails, and J Boats. A complete list of preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
