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SCUTTLEBUTT 2312 – March 30, 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). PAUL HENDERSON: SAILING AND THE 2012 OLYMPICS (If you have an ounce of interest in sailing, the Olympics, or sailing media, or simply enjoy the display of strong ideas being presented by strong people, you owe it to yourself to read this letter from past ISAF President Paul Henderson.) To Fellow Buttheads: I trust you will take the following biased opinion as being from a recently excommunicated "Pope of Sailing" and also a Member of the IOC. The IOC, in their wisdom, set the maximums for the 2012 London Games at 28 sports, 300 events, and 10,500 athletes. Here is what that means for sailing: 1) On sailing being kicked out of the Olympics: Each sport is voted on by the 120 Members of the IOC, and it takes 50% +1 to remain Olympic. For the vote on events to be held at the London 2012 games, sailing received over 70% support. Of the sports that were dropped for 2012, Baseball got 35% and Softball 50% (missing the +1). Rugby 7's and Squash were voted on to replace the two deleted sports. However, they got only approx. 35% of the vote so were not admitted. The result is that there will be only 26 sports for London and a slot for 500 more athletes and two missing events. Several years ago a tabloid polled 100 of the movers and shakers of the Olympics who were asked the question: “What sports should remain in the Olympics?” Amongst these people, sailing ranked 8th, tying with Soccer out of the 33 sports, which included the "wanabees". By the way, Sailing is the sport the now IOC President started in as he rose up the IOC ladder. Long story short, sailing looks solid. 2) On sailing being promoted on TV during the Olympics: Of the 28 sports, 14 get minimal TV. Sailing is one of them. Nothing sailing does will ever change this. Sailing is a participatory sport. However, Sailing was the number 5 sport in Olympic hits on the Internet. That is our medium and to prostitute the integrity of the sport for some "pie-in-the-sky" TV dream is ridiculous. * Paul’s just getting started, and if you wondered if you had an opinion on the events that should be sailed in 2012…he does. Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/0329 THE MAKING OF WIND (With the final Louis Vuitton Act starting next week, and the challenger series commencing in just nineteen days, we thought it was high time to look back fifteen years to the most famous feature film ever produced on the America’s Cup - WIND. Kimball Livingston was amongst those in the sailing community who had contributed to this epic, where the making of the film had nearly as many subplots as the real thing. Enjoy Livingston’s report – Part 2 of 2.) I had the good fortune to be paired off writing with Roger Vaughan, whose book, "The Grand Gesture" is only one of his many, but it's my choice as the book about the culture of racing 12 Meters at Newport. Roger didn't set out to teach history; rather to take you to places other sailing books don't. I don't remember who I'm ripping off here, but one of the reviewers said something like, "It is a good book because the author is not part of the yachting establishment, and does not wish to be." Lots of us, including Roger Vaughan, are hoping for a nailbiting series in Valencia, 2007, which is what brings this to mind. The Newport (RI) world was something very different. If you have a historical/ sociological bent and you're looking for a bit of contrast, or if you're thinking of Newport as the good old days, you can find used copies of "The Grand Gesture" with only a bit of online searching. Speaking of searching, let's start looking for a bottom line here. It's a piece of work concocting a drama about the America's Cup. You got your challenger eliminations structure, you got your history-as-baggage, but you don't got your evil bad guy. Surely we've all seen at least one old racecar movie with a bad guy sabotaging the brakes on the good guy's car, but you don't want to go there. If and when the ultimate sailing movie gets made, it will grow from a smaller seed (I'll be one of the early ticket purchasers for "Morning Light"). WIND was driven by financing from Japan, which was planning an America's Cup challenge (co-producer Mata Yamamoto had co-produced "Mishima" with Tom Luddy, and Mata made this movie happen). Mata's first move was to buy the screen rights to Dennis Conner's post-Australia book, "Comeback." The very first script included a scene of Dennis having breakfast . . . -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/wind VIDEO OF THE WEEK On the fifteenth anniversary of the movie WIND, we’ve been privileged this week to have one of its writers - Kimball Livingston - provide Scuttlebutt with some of the stories from the making of the movie whose story line is based around the America’s Cup. If this film has somehow escaped your attention, we have a 6:11 minute edited clip for you to enjoy. 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/07/0326 DISTANCE RACING? HEAD NORTH. What do Magnitude 80, Stark Raving Mad, and Titan 12 have in common? They all reached the finish line first in three major distance races recently using complete North Sails inventories. Magnitude 80, owned by Doug Baker, not only won the 2007 Marina del Rey to Puerto Vallarta Race, they also set a new course record! Stark Raving Mad, owned by Jim Madden, was the first to finish in the 2007 Newport Beach to Cabo San Lucas Race, and Titan 12, owned by Tom Hill, crossed the line first in the Montego Bay Race 2007. When performance and speed matter, head North: http://www.northsails.com A LABYRINTH OF BYZANTINE COMPLICATIONS (SAIL Magazine’s West Coast Editor Kimball Livingston has attempted to peel away the cover of the recent Transpac announcement in ‘Butt 2311 regarding their lifting of the rating limit, and look to see what is inside. Below are a few excerpts.) The surprise decision to remove the rating limit from the Transpacific Yacht Race, only four months ahead of the 2007 race, comes at the end of a not-so-sudden season of open rumors that Roy Disney's team had found a loophole in the Transpac rule and were planning to put a new, ABN AMRO-like back end on the MaxZ 86, Pyewacket, to exploit it. Hasso Plattner, whose MaxZ 86, Morning Glory, set a new course record in the 2005 Centennial Transpac, believes the rumors and says he's not going to defend his record. He says, "If there's no chance to get the owners in cohesion, and everybody's on their own, then sooner or later, your Maxi will be sailing handicap against Transpac 52s. The whole idea of the MaxZ 86 was to avoid this, to take the same boats to every race. Now my design team tells me that, to be competitive, I have to rebuild the last 10 meters of the boat. But no, I won't destroy a beautiful boat for one race. Morning Glory is in Southern California now, but instead of racing Transpac it will go back to Italy for the Rolex Maxi Cup in Sardinia, which just might be the swan song." (Some of the facts are) both Disney and Plattner set out to optimize their boats for this 2007 West Coast classic, a 2225-mile reaching and running race from San Pedro to Honolulu. Like Newport-Bermuda and Chicago-Mackinac, the Transpac uses the Offshore Racing Rule (ORR, son-of-Americap) whose purpose is to rate boats for long races that have a history of special rating needs. But they do not use standard ORR for the top-end boats. Instead, as explained by Transpacific Yacht Club Commodore Al Garnier, four individuals put up $5,000 apiece to create a Transpac-limit VPP for the likes of Pyewacket and Morning Glory (canting keels and fore-and-aft rudders--CBTF technology), "and that was a mistake; it turns out that $20,000 did not produce a robust program." -- There’s more, much more: http://sailmag.com/TranspacVPP SANDERSON JOINS TEAMORIGIN (London, UK) Mike Sanderson, the record-breaking ISAF World Sailor of the Year and winning skipper of the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race, has been appointed Team Director for TEAMORIGIN, the new British America’s Cup campaign, it was announced Thursday. TEAMORIGIN is aiming to make sailing history by becoming the first British challenger ever to win the America’s Cup, the oldest sporting trophy in the world. The team was launched earlier this year by Sir Keith Mills, the British businessman who ran London’s victorious bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. The team has committed to participate in at least two America’s Cup campaigns – the 33rd and 34th editions of the event, likely to take place in 2009 and 2011. Sanderson, 35, from Whangarei in New Zealand, is married to the British yachtswoman Emma Richards MBE. Mike and Emma were married in Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, in May 2006. -- Full release: http://www.originsailing.com/da/48709 VIEWING THE CUP ONLINE Sail TV has just announced that it will be broadcasting coverage of the 32nd America's Cup in Valencia online through a deal with Alcatel-Lucent, the Official New Media Provider for the event. Starting from Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 13 on April 3rd, and continuing right through to the end of America’s Cup, Sail TV plans to feature short daily Video News Release updates, and will be showing delayed, embargoed broadcasts of the official TV highlights shows, plus live images from around the venue, together with specially produced content that will be exclusive to the channel. All of this will be available as ‘Video-on-demand’ and scheduled programming. ue to pre-existing arrangements, Sail TV will not be allowing broadcasts into Canada, New Zealand, Spain or Italy, which will be blocked to viewers from these countries. Coverage of the event will be available on a 24/7 basis at http://www.sail.tv * Curmudgeon’s Comment: This weekend should be a busy time for the cameras, as April 1st is the date that all teams are required to remove the skirts that cover the hull and appendages under the waterline. Since the “skirt era” began with Australia II during the 1983 Cup at Newport, this is the first time when the date for their dismissal will be prior to the start of all racing. -- Additional info at http://www.challengercommission.com/2007/01/coutdown-to-cup.html AN ABSORBING INTEREST How true is this statement on the America’s Cup – “Here at stake are grand principles – sportsmanship and tradition – pitted against the greed, commercialism and zealotry that threatens to vulgarise the sport”? Find out by reading Bob Fisher’s two-volume, lavishly illustrated book, An Absorbing Interest. Full details at: http://www.wiley.com/go/americas US OLYMPIC UPDATE Thirty members of the US Sailing Team (18 teams) are in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, training for the Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta, which begins March 31. This competitive Olympic classes regatta is especially important for world-class athletes because it is one of six events recognized by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) in the ISAF World Cup Series. The entry lists are stocked with big names from 21 countries in the 12 participating classes (eleven Olympic classes and the Dragon as an invited class). For the Tornado class, this regatta also serves as the 2007 Tornado European Championship. As a new initiative, US Sailing will be providing a weekly update, which will provide a taste of the competition, conditions and color marking their Olympic and Paralympic journeys. It will include previews of major events, results, sailor profiles, and behind-the-scene diaries. This week’s Spotlight includes a preview of the Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta, color from a few of the sailors and a calendar of upcoming events in 2007. -- http://www.ussailing.org/olympics/spotlight/Spotlight032907.asp SAILING SHORTS * It’s the Caribbean racing season, with the commencement of the BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival this week, and the completion of the International Rolex Regatta in the USVI last weekend. Photographer Daniel Forster has provided the Scuttlebutt website with a sampling from the recent action: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/07/0327 * Jobson Sailing has produced a highlights show for ESPN 2 from the 2007 Acura Miami Grand Prix that will show this Saturday, March 31st at 12:30 pm ET. * Sailors with disabilities who hope to represent the U.S.A. in China at the 2008 Paralympic Regatta will have an opportunity to improve their odds of doing so at this summer’s C. Thomas Clagett Jr. Memorial Clinic and Regatta. Scheduled for August 26-30, 2007, and hosted by Sail Newport, the event begins with a two-day clinic (August 26-27) that is open only to U.S. sailors and is led by five-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Betsy Alison (Newport, R.I.), coach of the US Disabled Sailing Team. -- Complete details: http://tinyurl.com/286jp8 * Sir Robin Knox-Johnston is the lone entrant still competing in the third leg of the Velux 5 Oceans Race, where he is in fourth overall. The wind direction has Knox-Johnston on an upwind course toward the finish line in Norfolk, VA, USA, where he is projected to finish by Friday. Graham Dalton remains in Fortaleza, Brazil, where he had took port to repair rudder damage. Shortly after his arrival, his keel bulb fell off, and in that his efforts to retrieve it have failed, he set out to cast a new one. The task is near complete, and Dalton expects to depart by Friday. http://www.velux5oceans.com * Now posted online are the Sailing World College Rankings as of March 28, 2007, where Yale still leads the coed rankings, while St. Mary's has supplanted Charleston atop the women's. -- http://tinyurl.com/yv6h67 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 Dwayne Daniels: I can not help but believe that even those who still believe in coincidence must have had an amused smile on their respective faces as they read the recent press release (in ‘Butt 2311) from the Transpac Yacht Club -- raising the maximum speed limit for their 2000+ mile race -- just three months before the race starts. Isn't it a coincidence that this rating limit change occurs exactly at the same time that long-time board member (and benefactor) Roy Disney's top-rating maxZ86 Pyewacket is undergoing major surgery? Old timers may remember how years ago, TPYC also raised the race's maximum speed when Mr. Disney turbo-charged his Santa Cruz, 70. And several years later they raised it again when Disney originally built his maxZ86. Just a coincidence, I'm sure. Real old timers will recall that in days gone by, boats had to be in measurement trim and have their final rating certificate by the end of March to even be eligible to enter the July Transpac Race. No more. Some skeptics are now wondering if the Transpac YC's next press release will formally announce their name change – to the Mickey Mouse Yacht Club. * From Anne F. Jaeschke: WIND has always been my favorite movie and inspired me as a woman in this sport of racing. Although it wasn't the type of movie that would win some big award, to me, it was important because it showed what racing is all about. To this day when I watch the movie my heart beats fast as the boats fight back in forth in a tacking duel. When I race, we use phrases from this movie all the time! And to top it all off I named my boat "Senta" (for those real WIND fans, they would know that this is the name of the I-14 that Mathew Modine and Jennifer Grey race). I just am very disappointed that there aren't more movies about this topic. I can't imagine a more exciting movie than doing one about an around-the-world race or following an Olympic sailor through their training and competitions. * From John Williams, MHC Chair: (as posted on the Forum) It is not unreasonable to suppose that the path to establishing events for a Games is twisted and hard to follow - it would be naive to imagine that principle sometimes doesn't get back-burnered in such a process. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, I don't think anyone on either side of the issue in the US actually feels animosity - we should all suppose that the volunteers are all trying to do what seems best. For my part, I just feel that a mistake has been made and should be corrected... simple as that. I've said elsewhere that I believe those involved have not been completely honest with me, and some have taken exception to that sentiment. It is important to note that I don't expect to be told the "whole truth" about how this issue was decided, as there is back-room wrangling to manage and unpopular decisions to be made. I appreciate that someone has to do that job and some folks are better suited to it than others. I would hope that the folks who have to make these decisions are at least honest with themselves and don't hoist the flag of righteous indignation at my skepticism. * From Count Enrico Ferrari: Great comment from John Wade on substances and girls. I am really stoked to race the Wednesday nighters up here in Anacortes, WA, particularly now that I have a new hot girl sailor joining the crew (her previous skipper is selling his race boat)! My cruiser/ racer Catalina 42 is always in need of crew, but it does help to use cold substances as a lure to get crew on board, made easier by my secret race weapon - a refrigerator - and hiking is optional. The goal is not to win but rather to not be last, and also to have more fun on the water than anyone. The season begins in April and attitudes are UP. * From Maurice Cusick: As was reported in ‘butt 2277, well known sailor Steve Womsley died recently here in Newport, RI at the much too young age of 34 years. Steve read Scuttlebutt daily. Please note that a charitable trust has been set up in his remembrance. Donations may be sent to the Steven D. Womsley Memorial Trust, c/o Maurice Cusick, Esq., 547 Thames Street, Newport, RI 02840. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt". Special thanks to North Sails and Bob Fisher. Scuttlebutt is also supported by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, the Defender of the 32nd America's Cup. |
