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SCUTTLEBUTT 2417 - August 23, 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 the support of its sponsors. PERFECT MEDAL RACE DAY Qingdao, China (August 22, 2007) The breeze kicked in Wednesday in Qingdao with 15-18 knots sweeping across the course for the eight Medal Races. The prevailing wind direction allowed for the windward-leeward course to be set adjacent to the breakwater, and provided for a great vantage point to see which teams would earn a trip to the podium and collect medals. When sailors turned the corner out of the marina they were surprised by the heavy winds and the waves. Some sent their coaches back in to get their hiking boots, hiking shorts and spray tops. As the day went on the wind came up and the current started to rip in the opposite direction of the wind making for tall rollers that broke over spectator boats by the end of the day. Great Britain ended the day with three gold medals and a silver, whilst the Aussies picked up two golds, a silver and a bronze. France also claimed four medals, all of them bronze. On the outer courses the Yngling, Laser and Laser Radial fleets all completed the final races of their opening series and will line up for their Medal Races on Thursday, starting at 13:00 local time. -- Complete daily report: http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j1qFniu/l&format=popup FINAL RESULTS – Top Three plus top North American(s) RS:X Women* 1. GBR - Bryony Shaw, 1-2-1-3-(9)-4-[4], 19 2. ITA - Alessandra Sensini, 2-7-4-8-4.6/RDG-2-[2], 23.6 3. AUS - Jessia CRISP, 5-(10)-6-2-3-5-[3], 27 ---------- 17. CAN - Nikola Girke, (18)-17-16-15-10-16, 74 RS:X Men* 1. NZL - Tom Ashley, 3-2-3-2-(6)-4-[1], 16 2. CHN - Yuan Guo Zhou, 1-(6)-1-1-3-1-[9], 25 3. FRA - Julien Bontemps, 2-(8)-4-7-5-6-[2], 28 ---------- 15. MEX - David Mier Y Teran, 9-13-11-14-(17)-13, 60 Finn* 1. GBR - Ben Ainslie, 1-2-1-2-1-(6)-5-[7], 26 2. NED - Pieter Jan Postma, (15)-1-3-7-12-8-1-[1], 34 3. NOR - Peer Moberg, 5-5-(18)-10-9-2-10-[2], 36 8. USA - Zack Railey, (20)-18-2-11-6-11-9-[5], 67 470 Men* 1. AUS - Mathan Wilmot/Malcolm Page, (13)-1-6-1-13-3-2-2-[1], 30 2. GBR - Nicholas Rogers/Joe Glanield, 4-5-5-9-2-(17)-3-3-[2], 35 3. POR - Alvaro Marinho/Miguel Nunes, (22)-7-10-6-5-13-1-6-[5], 58 ---------- 14. USA - Mikee Anderson-Mitterling/David Hughes, 14-14-13-2-17-8-10-(19), 78 470 Women* 1. AUS - Elsie Rechichi/Tessa Parkinson, 1-5-8-3-1-12-8-8-(14)-[3], 52 2. JPN - Ai Kondo/Naoko Kamata, 9-2-1-4-2-11-12-1-(15)-[5], 52 3. FRA - Ingrid Petitjean/Nadege Douroux, 7-3-6-5-8-1-17-(20)-5-[1], 54 10. USA -Amanda Clark/Sara Mergenthaler, 5-12-(18)-10-12-8-10-13-13-[10], 103 Star* 1. BRA - Robert Scheidt/Bruno Prada, 5-2-(13)-3-4-1-[2], 19 2. NZL - Hamish Pepper/Carl Williams, 4-6-2-1-2-(9)-[4], 23 3. FRA - Xavier Rohart/Pascal Rambeau, 3-3-4-(5)-1-2-[7], 27 ---------- 12. USA - John Dane/Austin Sperry, 6-10-14-7-(15)-13, 50 Tornado* 1. AUT - Roman Hagara/Han Peter Steinacher, 3-2-1-1-(6)-1-[3], 14 2. AUS - Darren Bundock/Glenn Ashby, 1-(9)-2-3-5-2-[4], 21 3. FRA - Xavier Revil/Christophe Espagnon, (12)-1-5-6-7-3-[2], 26 9. CAN - Oskar Johansson/Kevin Stittle, 8-11-(13)-10-2-5-[7], 50 10. USA - John Lovell/Charlie Ogletree, (13)-13-4-7-8-7-[10], 59 49er* 1. GBR - Stevie Morrison/Ben Rhodes, 6-(19)-4-16-2-7-4-1-2-[4], 50 2. ESP - Iker Martinez/Xabier Fernandez, 1-2-2-(15)-1-8-15-9-11-[1], 51 3. DEN - Peter Hansen/Soren Hansen, 10-1-7-10-3-5-1-(12)-5-[8], 58 4. USA - Morgan Larson/Peter Spaulding, (15)-3-5-2-5-3-8-10-12-[6], 60 * NOTE: For the results above, those finishers in the top ten competed in the medal race on Wednesday, which is denoted by the final race position in brackets. Because each position in the medal race receives double-points, their placing is then doubled for the cumulative score. Preliminary Results – Top Three plus top North American(s) Laser 1. POL - Maciej Grabowski, 1-8-(22)-8-6-3-4-5-1-11, 47 2. GBR - Paul Goodison, 3-4-1-10-7-(26)-8-1-3-12, 49 3. SWE - Rasmus Myrgren, 8-3-6-(14)-5-9-2-11-6-3, 53 9. CAN - Michael Leigh, 4-6-18-11-(24)-8-17-6-16-4, 90 Laser Radial 1. USA - Anna Tunnicliffe, 7-(19)-1-3-6-1-1-1-2-6, 28 2. NZL - Jo Aleh, (9)-1-3-1-7-4-8-4-6-5, 39 3. CRO - Tina Mihelic, 15-3-4-9-1-3-20-2-1-(DNF), 58 7. MEX - Tania Elias-Calles, 4-13-7-4-8-5-15-12-(20)-9, 77 Yngling 1. USA - Sally Barkow/Carrie Howe/Debbie Capozzi, 1-3-2-(5)-3-1-4-3-2-1, 20 2. GBR - Sarah Ayton/Sarah Webb/Pippa Wilson, 2-1-1-(7)-2-3-5-4-1-2, 21 3. NED - Renee Groeneveld/A. Bes Marije Kampen, 4-2-(11)-3-7-2-2-2-3-3, 28 Complete results: http://www.2007qdregatta.com/node/node_8874.htm ALL THEY NEED IS WIND As the host city of 2008 Olympic sailing events, Qingdao, a port city in east China, is taking its chance to build up its image of a "Sailing City". Qingdao is the first city in China to open its Olympic venues to public, and the two Olympic test events thus far in Qingdao have played a role in attracting more Chinese people and making them more acquainted about the charm of the sport. Tourists from home and abroad swarmed into Qingdao for the events, with the four competition areas placed alone the coastal line for enhanced spectating. Apart from the test events and the Olympic Games, some other major international sailing events will be held in Qingdao. The 2008 Volvo Ocean Race will be there, as will the base for the Chinese team that competed in the last America’s Cup. In order to build up the image of a " Sailing City" and popularize sailing in China, the Qingdao government put a lot of effort on converting youngsters from mere spectators into budding sailors. The government purchased 1,000 boats for young sailors with 1,300,000 dollars donated by local companies, and has held five youth training camps with coaches from seven different countries. -- China Daily, full story: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2007-08/19/content_6033130.htm MELGES 24 ‘DOC HOLIDAY’ WINS A CLOSE ONE IN CHARLESTON Congratulations to Ullman Sails customer Jeff DuVal and his team on ‘Doc Holiday’ for their first place finish at the tightly contested 2007 Melges 24 Gold Cup in Charleston, SC, August 18-19. With light shifty winds, the regatta came down to the wire with the final results decided by a tiebreaker. Competing with a complete set of Ullman Sails, DuVal’s team had three 1st places and two 2nd places that helped seal their Gold Cup win. Top competitors choose Ullman Sails for performance and speed. Do you? Contact a local Ullman Sails loft and visit http://www.ullmansails.com Curmudgeon’s Comment: Here is a link to a story from a Charleston publication about the Gold Cup event: http://tinyurl.com/3xu9ok SUPREME COURT GRANTS ORDER New York, NY (August 22, 2007) – The Supreme Court of the State of New York today granted an order sought by the Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) requiring the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) to promptly answer a request to speed up the legal process for resolving its proposed new rules for defending the next America’s Cup. The San Francisco club sought the Court ruling alleging SNG is in serious breach of its fiduciary duty under the Deed of Gift that governs the Cup. It says SNG has accepted an invalid challenge from a sham yacht club, and is seeking to impose an unprecedented one-sided set of rules that hugely favor the defender to the detriment of all other competitors. “We are very pleased with this ruling by the Court, because we believe the Cup will be irrevocably damaged if we don’t get SNG’s Protocol changed,” Tom Ehman, Head of External Affairs for BMW ORACLE Racing, the US club’s team, said. “The new Protocol would give SNG’s team, Alinghi, radical new powers to control nearly all aspects of the event that are still unsupported by any explanation from SNG as to why they are needed,” he said. Ehman said the syndicate whose challenge had been accepted by SNG, the Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV), was a shell organisation that had been formed only days prior to issuing a challenge and did not comply with the terms specified by the Deed of Gift. “We would still prefer to negotiate a solution outside the court, but we see SNG as violating its responsibilities as Trustee, and we are fully prepared to go the legal distance if needed to stop the America’s Cup being subverted into a hopelessly one-sided event,” he said. -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/0822 ADVICE ON WEATHER ROUTERS The 30th Mini Transat begins on September 16th, which is the 4240-mile singlehanded race starting in La Rochelle, France, stopping in the Canary Islands and finishing in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. Sailed in the Open 6.5 Meter Class, American Clay Burkhalter launched his Rod Johnstone designed 21-footer (of J-Boats) in February 2006, and recently came third out of 70 entries in a two-handed warm-up. Among the people assisting Burkhalter is Digby Fox, who is filming a documentary of the campaign. Fox contacted Scuttlebutt for advice on choosing their weather routing consultant, as this type of assistance will be crucial for game planning Burkhalter’s course during the two legs (weather routing updates are not permitted during the race). We in turn sent out an email blast to some trusted professionals, and thanks to Bill Biewenga, Dobbs Davis, Robbie Haines, Peter Isler, and Chris Larson, here are the suggestions they provided: Roger (Clouds) Badham: clouds(at)ozemail.com.au Chris Bedford/Sailing Weather Services: cbedford(at)sailwx.com Ken Campbell/Commander’s Weather: commandersweather(at)compuserve.com Nick White: nick_white(at)xtra.co.nz => Contact Digby Fox if you have additional ideas: digby(at)digbyfox.tv => Clay Burkhalter’s Team Acadia website is http://www.teamacadia.org => North Sails has partnered with Sailing Weather Services to provide free Weather Forecasts for the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds in Copenhagen, Denmark from August 29-September 1 (with a regatta overview forecast on August 28.) North Sails will also provide two complimentary weather forecasts during the Pre-Worlds from August 24-25. To sign up, visit North Sails' online weather center at: http://na.northsails.com/ew/ew_main.taf AROUND THE HORN WITH FINKLE (Here are some excerpts from a newsletter published by Don Finkle of RCR Yachts in Youngstown, NY on Lake Ontario) * The regatta that is creating buzz everywhere is the Beneteau First 36.7 NAs to be held at Buffalo YC, with an amazing 46 boats entered! Roughly 20% of all of the 36.7s in North America will be at this regatta. It is rare that you will find an event where there are that many boats of that size and type all racing one design. Four days of course racing should provide a very worthy winning team when all is said and done. The 36.7 class is where it is at right now for racing boats in this size range. * I was in Rhode Island for 3 days sailing the Alerion 28, 33 and 38, as well as visiting the Pearson Composites factory where the Alerions and J/Boats are built. I was able to take a side trip to the boatyards to do some sight-seeing. One of my favorite places to do that is NEB, New England Boatworks. They have Farr 40s all over the yard, with and without keels. Seemingly as common there as J/24s are around here. Gold-platers included Magic Glove, Hissar, Hexe, Blue Yankee, Rima 2, Privateer, and others, some with canting keels. In the water was one of the two J/65s that have been delivered to date, beautiful! A few Melges 32s were in the yard on trailers under their road covers. Seven of the new NYYC Swan 42s were there in a row, with 3 being commissioned at the time. * While at NEB I ran into Gary Hoyt who was fiddling with the new balanced rig on his personal Alerion Express 20. Gary is widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative minds in our sport, and this new rig is his latest brainchild. There is a carbon fiber mast with a boom on one side that protrudes forward of the mast. It sort of looks like a giant Sunfish rig in that regard. It is hard to explain in text, but essentially the rig has one mainsail that protrudes forward of the mast as well as aft, and no headsail. The boom rotates around the mast on a sleeve affair, so downwind the whole sail is perpendicular to the wind. Gary told me that it sails very well but there are still some bugs to work out of it. It looks sort of peculiar, but the concept, if it works, will make sailing this boat even easier. -- RCR Yachts, http://www.rcryachts.com ACCURATE, RELIABLE & DEPENDABLE PERFORMANCE Ockam is the leader in providing the most accurate real-time data available. The high-speed Tryad processor combined with an available 3-axis rate stabilized compass utilizes the full motion of the boat to deliver a stable, accurate & dependable wind solution. The Tryad also logs all system data internally so you can view it after racing. With performance and weight in mind, sensors interface close to their location, allowing information to stream throughout the system’s robust single cable network. View more lines of information than the competition with the new Matryx II, graphical display that also strip-charts data. Contact: mailto:sales@ockam.com SAILING SHORTS * With so many regattas reporting either too much or too little wind, it is nice to hear how the Club 420 North Americans in Long Beach, CA strolled through their event schedule without any interruptions from Mother Nature. SoCal photog Glennon Stratton was shooting the action, and has shared 16 images from the action: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/07/0822 * The World Sailing Speed Record (WSSR) Council announced the ratification of a new world record by Francis Joyon (FRA) onboard the 98-foot trimaran "IDEC". Joyon blistered the singlehanded Cross Channel Record from Cowes to Dinard on Sunday August 18th, averaging 21.6 knots along the 138-mile course. His time of 6 hours, 23 minutes, and 36 seconds beat the previous record set in July 2006 by Thomas Coville (FRA) and his 60-foot trimaran “Sodebo" by 1:52:11. -- John Reed, Secretary to the WSSR Council * Portimao, Algarve, Portugal (August 22, 2007) -- A fifth from a tricky first race followed by their third victory from five starts ensures that Peter de Ridder and his Valle Romano Mean Machine crew extend their overall lead at the Breitling MedCup TP52's Circuit's Portugal Trophy off Portimao to ten points. The series' fourth race started after a long wait for a sea breeze to develop, with race tactics balancing the benefit of more breeze on the left side of the course against the favoured wind shift to the right. These conflicting breezes delayed the fifth race, which finally started at 1720hrs with conditions similar to Tuesday’s brisk NW'ly. -- Daily report: http://2007.medcup.org/news/?langPost=EN&id=2881 * Brant Beach, New Jersey (August 22, 2007) -- Day three of the Sunfish World Championships had the fleet back on the water after a day on land because of weather conditions. The sailors were greeted by more Nor'easter weather with a light rain, winds in the 12-15 mph range, and record setting low temperatures in the upper 50's. Sebastian Mera of the Dominican Republic rolled a 2-1-1-2 for the day, and now with a drop race, leads the fleet with only 9 points. He is followed by Jon-Paul Patin (USA) and Malcolm Smith (Bermuda) who are second and third, both with 24 points. Full results at: http://bbyc.net/SunfishWorlds/index.htm * (August 22, 2007) The ISAF World Match Race Rankings were released today, and with the World Championship victory claimed by world # 1 women's match racer Claire Leroy (FRA), there was no surprise that she stays firmly at the top of the rankings. Ian Williams (GBR) is also holding firm at the top, and three more podium positions at ISAF Grade WC regattas sees him extend his lead yet further. -- Complete report: http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j12Fniu/w&format=popup VIDEO OF THE WEEK Last week in the Photo of the Week feature, it was reported that Vanguard Sailboats may soon begin importing the Laser SB3 into the US, which is a speedy 20-foot one-design that has become quite popular in Europe. So what is the deal with this sportboat class, which attracted over 90 boats at Skandia Cowes Week (GBR) two weeks ago? Some insight can be gathered from this week’s 3:11 minute video, which was filmed at a special “championship of champions” event called The Volkswagen Touareg King of Cowes. The breeze builds nicely during the event, offering a handy look at what this class is capable of. Also, if you have a video you like, please send us your suggestions for next week’s Video of the Week. Click here for this week’s video: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/07/0820 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 Mike Brown, Chicago: In regards to Chicago Yacht Club's decision not to race this past Sunday at the Verve Cup (as discussed in Issue 2416), I wonder if the sailor that motored the miles out to the race course - with no other fellow racers around - was listening to their radio. Race organizers were making broadcasts each time they made a decision, which included a harbor postponement until 10:00 due to a threatening band of rain that showed possible lightening strikes. The second band of weather that passed after 11:15 produced no wind. The flags were limp and CYC was erring on the side of the out-of-town boats that needed to get home on Sunday. I got a detailed report from a competing yacht that motored to Milwaukee stating that it was wet and windless, and they left even before 11! Of course, had we had a couple of races on Saturday instead of this skewed upwind, downwind, reaching around everywhere race, I am sure most would not have had complaints about what we were faced on Sunday. Mother Nature wins. I wanted some racing, who likes to sit in 6th place knowing you have a chance on points to move up possibly into the money...and then nothing. One thing that never changes, some sailors will always gripe about what the RC did or did not do. * From Roland Keith: Regarding the problems with the online info at the Pre-Olympic test event website, I'm also spitting blood at US Sailing/US Sailing Olympic Committee's pathetic lack of reporting action. They finally got results reports running on their home page after the Chinese got it together on day 3 or 4. Nothing else to flag this important event on the US Sailing home page. Drill down for a link and if you're lucky you'll find the Olympic pages with nothing in them. No news, no diary, no competitor reports, and a few scrappy fotos showing people sleeping. I understand that the US support team numbers twelve people, undoubtedly with countless hours of waiting time. Very weak effort! * From Bob Patterson: Two things I'm tired of hearing about: 1) The AC controversy. At this point, I am completely tired of hearing about the legal wrangling and back door moves. I'm a fan of Formula 1 auto racing, which is about as autocratic and arbitrarily run organization as any, but even Bernie Eccelstone wants to keep teams involved and spectators happy. 2) Olympics: Why does ISAF not get the host country for each Olympics to hold sailing somewhere where there's actually breeze? Rowing gets flat stretches of water with no waves, white-water rafting gets a variable plume to shoot, so why does our sport get stuck with crazy tides and no breeze (China), or, to quote a Greek friend of mine, "why are they sailing in possibly the only place in Greece without wind?" (By my check, the last decent breeze at the Games was in Pusan, South Korea.) I find it hard to get motivated to aspire to the highest level of our sport when these two measures of it are pretty much a joke. * From Edward Fryer: Peter Isler calls the Americas Cup the "the oldest and therefore by that measure - the most successful sporting event in the world." The Americas Cup is the oldest – international - sporting event in the world. In terms of domestic sporting events, things like Doggetts Coat and Badge - contested annually since about 1715 - has a few years on the AC. I'm sure there are others. => Curmudgeon’s Comment: We Googled this one, and aside from the Doggetts Coat and Badge being a four floored bar on the Southbank of the river Thames near Blackfriars bridge, it is also among the oldest continuing rowing races, held annually in England along the River Thames from London Bridge to Chelsea, a distance of 4 miles 5 furlongs (7.4 km). * From Chris Boome: (regarding letter in Issue 2416) You got it exactly right Paul! I remember year's ago sailing with my young son Casey on the Saturday before the Richmond Yacht Club Jr. program. We sailed two El Toros "all the way" to Marina Bay Yacht Harbor, found a deli, and got lunch, then he smoked me on the way back to Richmond...that was great. I was smiling from ear to ear and so was he. Casey has not turned into the rock star sailor that Patrick Tara has become (probably bad parenting), but at age 24, he has moved back to San Francisco after college and has asked me to help him get into sailing more. We are starting off with Friday night beer can races on a J/105, and while it is different than our El Toro experience years ago (no beer in the El Toro), I can't help but think the seed was well-planted back then. * From Tyler Garrett: Come on guys, don't link to lame blog sites with lame definitions of stink potters (as in Issue 2415). That Blog has some stories that make sailors look way dumber than stink potters. I have spent many days this summer tied to the fuel dock at Goat Island in Newport, RI observing docking. I would say that the boat handling skills of sailors vs. stink potters leans slightly towards the stink potter. I also see plenty of sailors using the much maligned stink potters favorite aid...the "bow thruster." CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION The early worm gets eaten by the bird, so sleep late. Special thanks to Ullman Sails and Ockam Instruments. |
