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SCUTTLEBUTT 1414 - September 15, 2003Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is adigest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. GIPSY MOTH IV Yachting Monthly is proposing an ambitious plan to restore Sir Francis Chichester's world-famous 53ft ketch Gipsy Moth IV and sail her around the world in 2005. The yacht is currently rotting away through lack of funds in a dry dock in Greenwich, and a detailed survey commissioned by Yachting Monthly has revealed that she needs urgent work, which could cost at least £100,000. The plan would be to return her to sailing commission and celebrate the 40th anniversary of Chichester's circumnavigation by taking her round the world again. "Gipsy Moth IV is a potent symbol of our sailing heritage and it would be a tragedy if she was left to rot away," says Paul Gelder, Editor. 'The 40th anniversary of Chichester setting off from Plymouth on his historic, solo voyage coincides with Yachting Monthly's 100th anniversary in 2006. I can't think of a better way of celebrating our 100th birthday and Chichester's heroic voyage than to see Gipsy Moth IV out of dry dock and refitted for a second circumnavigation - via the Trade Winds route.' Yachting Monthly will be maintaining a separate section of its website dedicated to the project. Here you can read about Gipsy Moth IV in more detail, learn about her glory days, see what she is looking like now to understand the implications if she remains unrestored, register your support for the project by subscribing to a dedicated e-mail newsletter and ask or answer questions or leave messages on a dedicated forum. - Yachting Monthly website, full story: http://www.ybw.com/ym/gipsymoth/ LASER MASTERS NAs On the third and final day of the Rolex Laser Masters North American Championships, local sailor Andy Pimental (Newport, R.I.) claimed victory over an impressive 132-boat fleet and locked up his Masters Class for ages 45-54 as well. His closest competition on Narragansett Bay, where the event was held and hosted by the New York Yacht Club, came from another local sailor, Scott Ferguson (Jamestown, RI), who topped the younger Apprentice Masters Class (ages 35-44) and finished second overall in fleet. Pimental won the Gay Lynn Memorial Trophy and was awarded an engraved Rolex timepiece. Pimental regularly sails Snipes and recently won the Snipe Nationals. The top Apprentice Woman, which was Frances Flam (Philadelphia, Penn.) and top Master Woman, which was Sally Sharp (Enfield, N.H.). According to Steven Wolff (Fairfield, Conn.), who co-chaired the event with Susan Daly (Newport) and Gary Jobson (Annapolis, Md.), the combined age of the fleet was 6388 years. "The oldest sailor was 77-year-old Bob Saltmarsh of Mattapoissett, Mass. - Media Pro Int'l, complete results: http://tinyurl.com/nddq BIG BOAT SERIES Winners in three Americap and seven one-design classes were named at the St. Francis Yacht Club's Big Boat Series presented by Rolex. John Kilroy of Los Angeles, Calif. won the Atlantic Perpetual Trophy, for his victory in the 15 boat Farr 40 class. Roger Sturgeon's TP 52 Rosebud won the Americap A class and the St. Francis Perpetual Trophy, while Martin Braun of Los Altos Hills, Calif. won the City of San Francisco Trophy for his victory in the Santa Cruz 52 class with his Winnetou. Tim Russell's Aquavit, won the biggest class in the regatta - the 35-boat J/105 class - on a tie-breaker over Peter Wagner's Nantucket Sleighride. - Media Pro Int'l, www.stfyc.org. BIG BOAT SERIES, MELGES 24 WORLDS, STAR WORLDS When the St. Francis Yacht Club runs major events like these they turn to The Pirate's Lair for graphics and printing. If you want the best sailing graphics for your website, tees, embroidered gear, and banners give us a call at (888) 724-5286 or log on to: http://www.pirateslair.com/sailing ISAF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS Sunday was the first qualification day for the Yngling fleet. Racing took place on both courses after a slight delay to wait for some breeze. It was only blowing 6 knots for the start of the first race. Standings: 1. USA, Jody Swanson/Cory Sertl/Elizabeth Kratzig, 4 2. DEN, Dorte O. Jensen/Helle Jespersen/Rachel Kiel, 6 3. RUS, Ekaterina Skudina/Krutskikh Diana/Tatiana Lartseva, 11 4. FRA, Anne Le Helley/Emmanuelle Duby/Elodie Lesaffre, 14 5. USA, Carol Cronin/Elizabeth Filter/Nancy Haberland, 16 6. USA, Sally Barkow/Carrie Howe/Deborah Capozzi, 16 13. BER, Paula Lewin/Peta Lewin/Maria Lopez, 27 14. USA, Hannah Swett/Joan Touchette/Melissa Purdy, 28 18. USA, Elizabeth Alison/Lee Icyda/Susanne Leech, 35 22. CAN, Felicity Clarke/Martha Henderson/Kari Mackay, 43 Sunday was the final day of qualification for the Europe class before the fleet is split into Gold and silver for the final three days of racing. In the overall standings, all the race results excluding discards, including those in qualification, count towards the final result. Standings: 1. NOR, Siren Sundby, 10 2. NZL, Sarah Macky, 19 3. CZE, Lenka Smidova, 22 4. DEN, Trine Julie Abrahamsen, 26 5. USA, Mary Gaillard, 27 25. CAN, Magalie Bonneau-Marcil, 70 27. MEX, Tania Elias Calles, 74 54. CAN, Victoria Crowder, 122 56. USA, Christin Feldman, 125 Tuesday, qualification continues for the Yngling class, and starts for the Mistral and Star fleets. The Europe class has a lay day before the finals start on Tuesday. Full results for the classes are available on the event website: http://www.cadizworlds2003.com NEWS BRIEFS * Farr International, Inc. announced production will resume of its latest offshore one-design class yacht, the Farr 36 One Design. Custom boat builder James Betts Enterprises, Inc. of Verdi, NV will be the sole North American builder of this 36-foot high-performance carbon fiber yacht, and expects two new boats to be ready for Key West Race Week in January. Thus far five Farr 36 ODs have been built by dk Composites and Carroll Marine. Betts' experience has been in building sophisticated custom composite designs since 1970 - including the IACC yacht America True for the 2000 America's Cup. - www.farr36.org * You can take a three month racing vacation during the summer of 2005 on one of 15 evenly matched Beneteau 47.7 yachts that will race around Europe on 11 separate legs, calling at 13 ports in 11 different countries. The race will start in Poland, visit Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, the UK, France, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, before finishing in Monte Carlo. The schedule includes Skandia Cowes Week and the Rolex Fastnet Race. Each crew will be made up of one professional skipper and nine crew. The race welcomes both experienced sailors and complete beginners. A crew berth costs £9,950: www.okieurochallenge.com * As a result of his win at the ISAF Match Racing World Championship, the USA's Ed Baird has moved up to the number three spot behind Karol Jablonski (POL) and Jesper Radich (DEN) on the latest ISAF World Match Race Rankings. And because of his sixth place at the same regatta, Russell Coutts move up from 228th to rank 105. Marie Bjorling (SWE) remains on top of the women's rankings, with the USA's Liz Baylis in sixth and Betsy Alison in seventh place. http://www.sailing.org/matchrace/mrranking.asp * We just got two awesome sailing photos of the new 140-foot Mari Cha IV race boat that we've loaded on our website. You gotta see these: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/ * Seven first-place finishes earned Paul Callahan, Keith Burhans and Roger Cleworth the title at the recently held fourth annual Millenium Regatta hosted by Shake-A-Leg-Newport. Racing in Sonars, the trio finished second in race four of the eight-race series for a near-perfect scoreline. Finishing second, six points back, was the Newport team of Robie Pierce with crew Al Pierce and Paul Mello. Callahan, Burhans and Cleworth are campaigning with an eye toward the 2004 Paralympic Games. * The American yacht Zaraffa, winner of this year's TransAtlantic Race, will contest the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2003. The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia today received an Application for Entry from Zaraffa's owner, Dr Huntington ("Skip") Sheldon. Zaraffa is a Reichel/Pugh 65, built of carbon fibre and launched in 2000 * Early morning dull skies over Narragansett Bay cleared to give the 12-Metre Class an excellent final day of racing for the North American Championships. Edgar Cato's KZ-5 Hissar won the Grand Prix division overall trophy, while the top spot in the Modern division went to Craig Millard sailing the Museum of Yachting's flagship, US-26, Courageous. George Hill's US-17 Weatherly claimed first place in the Classic Traditional division and Earl McMillen's US-6 Onawa took first place honors in the Classic Vintage division. http://www.musuemofyachting.org/ * The TV coverage of the Moet Cup between Alinghi and Oracle BMW Racing begins on Tuesday at 7:00pm ET/ 4:00pm PT with a reair at 2:00am ET/ 11:00pm PT. Tuesday's program will feature the racing that was done on Monday. http://www.olntv.com KOSTECKI AND BUTTERWORTH ON THE SAME TEAM Kaenon Polarized lens technology will be the only common denominator on the two tacticians at the Moet Cup this week. Butterworth calls them "magic." Kostecki says "they're mandatory tools of the trade." Sailing World named them the best. Kaenon Polarized. Evolve Optically. Find yours at Team One Newport; APS, Annapolis; Sailing Supply, San Diego; Island Sports, Middletown; Boat Locker, Darien; Seattle Sunglass Company; Robert Normann, New Orleans; Eye Glass Shoppe, Honolulu; Eye Gallery, Atlanta; Alain Mikli, NYC; Edward Beiner, Miami; l.a. Eyeworks, South Coast Plaza; Sunglass and Optical Warehouse, San Diego; Solstice, and West Marine. http://www.kaenon.com MAXI YACHT ROLEX CUP Porto Cervo, Sardinia - After several days of big breeze, the last day of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup was sailed in bright sunshine and 6-8 knots of wind from the North East. Organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda the coastal race held on Saturday confirmed all division leaders, with no real changes occurring in the overall positions since yesterday. In the Wally Class Luca Bassani's Wallyño made it four out of five wins to take the largest class. Neville Crichton's New Zealand-registered Super Maxi Alfa Romeo won again in the IRC Class and Raffaele Raiola's Idea SAI took top honours in the IMS Class. Since the collision on Wednesday between Alberto Roemmers' IMS Maxi Alexia and Mike Slade's IRC boat Leopard a series of redress hearings have been going on to try and sort out the lot of the Argentinean Maxi Alexia that was denied the opportunity to continue racing when her topmast was broken. The issue was confused somewhat because the day in question featured two windward leeward courses, the combined results counting for one set of race day points. This morning Alexia, with average points from the first three races, was declared the overall leader, in spite of having missed two races. With today's race the issue was confused further still when a discard came into the equation, meaning that for Alexia to win the regatta Idea SAI had to finish worse than second in the final race. Lindsay Owen-Jones' Wally 94 Magic Carpet2 cut the last corner of the course a little too close and hit the rocks, decelerating from 10 to 3 knots and throwing the foredeck crew over the side in the process. Little damage was done except to the pride of this crew that have always been at the front of the fleet and even sailed to within less than a minute of the elapsed time of the mighty Alfa Romeo yesterday. Morten Bergesen's giant 105-foot Wally ketch Nariida hit the same rocks as Magic Carpet2 and lost the daggerboard extension of her keel in the process. - Media Pro Int'l, http://www.yccs.it/ita/index.asp MINI TRANSAT The Mini Transat fleet is still floundering in virtually no wind as it heads down the coast of Portugal to Lanzarote. But although there is little change expected imminently, crews are focusing on depression forecast over the Canary Islands in the next few days. American Jonathan McKee sailing a Rogers-designed prototype has taken over the leading position and is currently in a close battle with the initial race leader Sam Manuard sailing his owned-designed prototype. Armel Tripon in a Finot/Conq 98-designed prototype is also keeping the pressure on in the light, testing conditions. - Sue Pelling, Yachting World website, full story: http://www.yachting-world.com/yw/home.htm Standings on September 14 @ 1500 UT: 1. Jonathan Mc Kee, Team McLube, 638.1 miles from finish; 2. Samuel Manuardm, Tip Top Two 646.0 mff; 3. Armel Tripon, Moulin ROTY, 651.8 mff. - http://www.transat650.org/ SCUTTLEBUTT WEBSITE LINKS Classifieds: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/classifieds Sailing events: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar Photo gallery: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos Interviews: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/interview J/80 PASSES HULL #600 MARK What began as J Boats' family-friendly entry model for its sprit boat range (26'-53') is now ISAF recognized with 600+ boats in twelve countries. The 2003 Worlds are in Fort Worth, TX, October 11-17, and a special package is currently available from J Boats. - http://www.jboats.com/j80 LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com) (Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is not a chat room nor a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Kimball Livingston: My friend Bruce Munro is correct that sailing is under-reported in Northern California. Unfortunately, until we have crossover celebrities (and I don't mean movie stars in boats) that won't change. But I'd like to correct one point: Bruce says that I "continue to freelance for various magazines" when in fact I am now on staff at SAIL. Since SAIL is the only national sailing magazine that has ever committed to having a full-time editor on the Left Coast, I think the decision makers in Boston deserve credit. * From Brooks Magruder (Singapore): I have one word response to Monro's complaint of poor print coverage in SF Bay-- that is "Latitude38" which is the best print coverage of sailing, cruising, racing, chartering, sailing culture in the world. It's free in every local marina & marine store, so why would anyone look to SF Chronicle for layman's coverage?? Also has daily updates on www.latitude38.com that I read religiously from Singapore along with my 'Butt. * From Mark Green (Regarding newspaper coverage of sailing): Who needs a newspaper to bury a few column inches deep in the sports section when we have Scuttlebutt with more than 17,000 of our peers reading it daily? Not many will see the newspaper coverage, especially outside of its circulation area, but those that are interested in the sport will see the sailing news in the 'Butt worldwide...even at sea. Time to wake up to the internet age with its many narrow micro media outlets for special interests. Yes...we are a special interest. But it's better this way. Wouldn't you rather have the deeper daily coverage with links to the sites of interest, reader discussion and feedback than the feeble excuse for sailing coverage that is (was) in most newspapers? OK, true, you can't show your name in the paper to your buddies at the water cooler on Monday morning....but if you need that you can print out the 'Butt and leave it in the men's room! * From Ralph Taylor (edited to our 250-word limt): The item on the Mari Cha IV stirs some thoughts in my muddled brain. First, is that this boat is as big as a commercial jetliner, almost half a football field. I started to ask "Who's she going to race against?" then remembered that she will be going for records, racing against ships of the past, not the present. It's sort of a contest between wood and cotton versus carbon fiber, Kevlar & resins. Then I began wondering where we were going with this trend. And, it is a trend: The Volvo Open 60s, used for the last round-the-world race, are becoming the Volvo Open 70s -- growing by ten feet. Mari Cha IV is only the latest of the "mega-yachts"; several have already been built. I suppose the article hints at the upper limits when it refers to keeping the sails' weights within limits manageable by people using simple machines. But is there a limit to the number of masts on a boat? Add more masts, add more sail area. I also wonder if greater size automatically means a faster boat. Perhaps a greater theoretical hull speed - but Neptune presents his challenges and winds and currents still have more to say about outcomes than our feeble efforts. CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUM How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage? |
