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SCUTTLEBUTT 2856 - Tuesday, June 2, 2009Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors,providing a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Twitter updates: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Today's sponsors are North Sails, Morris Yachts, and OceanRacing.com. DON’T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE TWICE By John Loe, Sailing World After graduating from college, and concluding my scholastic sailing career, I assumed I was done taking notes. However, I quickly realized the complication and variety in the boats I was racing after college made documenting my days on the water more important than ever. In addition to the standard sail controls, the 505, for example, has adjustable shrouds and a mast ram. I initially thought I could remember the best settings for any given condition and duplicate them at will. I was wrong. Even if the class is fairly simple, it's impossible to track everything. Getting in the habit of documenting your days on the water will allow you to improve more quickly and avoid wasting time re-learning the same lesson. The hardest part about taking notes is getting started; just as bad habits are hard to break, good ones can be a challenge to start. For many sailors, the first inclination after a long day on the water is to kick back with a beer. This, of course, is the best time to jot down a few thoughts on the day. The key is to get the entire crew involved. If you have to motor in from the racecourse, this is a great time to gather the team in the cockpit and reflect on the day. If your boat is too small for that, then wait until you've lowered your sails and spend a just a few minutes debriefing before finishing your de-rigging. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/n22chk ST. MARY’S HOLDS BIG LEAD IN DINGHY NATIONALS San Francisco, CA (June 1, 2009) - Not only is getting to the ICSA/Gill National Championship an achievement in itself – most recently the 18 competing schools had to make it through the semi-final round held in May in Boston – the race for the most coveted title in college sailing is the highlight of these sailor’s school year, and, in many cases, their college sailing career. So the fleet jumping the gun and affecting a general recall at the start of racing today could be chalked up to nerves, aggression, or just the excitement of getting the show underway. Under cloudy skies, racers who over-adjusted their strategy for the lighter than expected and shifty conditions earned attention from the judges who doled out penalties for kinetics, while three protests resulted in three DSQs (disqualifications) on day one of this three-day championship event. -- Read on: http://2009icsa.blogspot.com/2009/06/st-marys-leads-race-for-college.html Standings after 8 complete sets: 1. St. Mary's College, 61 2. Georgetown University, 88 3. Yale University, 96 4. U.S. Naval Academy, 125 5. Roger Williams University, 130 Complete results: http://www.collegesailing.org/nas/spring09/coedresults.asp Event website: http://www.collegesailing.org/nas/spring09 SailGroove video: http://www.sailgroove.org/sc/icsa2009spring Kattack tracking: http://americanregatta.com/regattas/2009/icsa * Noted sailing commentator Gary Jobson will produce a program on the ICSA/Gill National Championship for ESPNU set to air Saturday, June 20 at 3:00 p.m. and Wednesday, July 1 at 3:00 a.m. * Photos from the Team Race Nationals are now added to Scuttlebutt’s 2009 Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association National Championship photo gallery: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/09/cn COVER UP! Attention Etchells, Lightning, J/22, J/24, Star, Flying Scot, Thistle, Snipe, and Sabot owners: North Sails One Design is giving FREE covers when you buy a full set of sails! For instance, J/24 owners get a full skirted deck cover ($1,181 value) FREE! Check it out! This offer is valid for North American customers only and ends on 6/12/2009. Other restrictions apply. Take advantage of this high-value promotion today! -- http://www.onedesign.com UNSUNG HEROES: SHORE MANAGER No sooner had Ian Stewart flown home to Auckland from Cape Town and shared a cup of coffee with his family, than he was catching the next plane back to South Africa. When Tyco struck rudder failure just days into the second leg of the 2001-02 Volvo Ocean Race (from South Africa to Australia), they needed their shore manager to be waiting in Port Elizabeth (S.A.), ready to ship the injured boat to the next port of Sydney. Stewart had already packed up the shore base and left South Africa but here he was, flying the 7,400 miles back again. Shore manager is one of the most demanding roles of a Volvo campaign; one that Campbell Field, shore manager for Telefonica, likens to the conductor of an orchestra: “You’re the interface between the skipper, the sailing team, the shore team, the rig designer, the sail designer and the logistics manager.” It’s a matter of getting them all to harmonize on the same tune without having to wave a big stick. The essence of the shore manager is to ensure he has the right tools to do any job that may arise and the right people in his shore team to do the job properly. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/VOR-6-1-09 *BIG BANG: An explosion at the Telefonica shore base Sunday night caused approximately "60,000 to 70,000 euros" worth of damage in one of their containers, according to shore manager Campbell Field. It is not yet known what caused the fire, but among the destroyed items were the two yachts' radars, electronic spares, tool kits, hard disks and computers. No one was present at the time of the explosion and the team expects the destroyed equipment to be replaced by the middle of this week. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/Bang-6-1-09 * SPORTS BAR: Footage on board each team from the In-Port race on Saturday has been cut together into a package of eight video screens that allows you to watch all of them simultaneously during the race, and to be able to toggle the audio on and off from each boat. -- Details: http://tinyurl.com/Sports-Bar-6-1-09 * VOLVO OCEAN RACE: Began in Alicante, Spain on Oct. 4, 2008, crewed around the world race in VO 70’s, with ten distance legs and seven In-Port races. Finish is in St Petersburg, Russia on June 27th. The next event is Leg 8 from Galway to Marstrand, Sweden (950 miles), which starts on Saturday, June 6th and is expected to finish by June 10th. -- http://www.volvooceanrace.org/schedule/ Event website: http://www.volvooceanrace.org Race tracking: http://volvooceanrace.geovoile.com Overall scores: http://www.volvooceanrace.org/rdc/#tab4 AINSLIE OUTLASTS IEHL IN GERMANY Langenargen, Germany (June 1, 2009; Day 5) - An estimated 45 000 people have experienced the sights and sounds of Langenargen this week as the town played host to the second stage of the World Match Racing Tour. Match Race Germany ended today with Ben Ainslie (GBR) and Team Origin taking 1st place in a first to three points final against defending champion Damien Iehl (FRA) and his French Match Racing Team. Ainslie drew first blood in the final. He then went on to defeat Iehl in the second match, however Iehl was not going to let his Match Race Germany title go without a fight. He secured the third match only to be out mastered by Ainslie in the fourth and final match. This is the first event for Team Origin on the Tour this year and the win catapults Ainslie to 4th place on the World Tour standings with 25 points. However the 20 points gained for being runner up takes the Frenchman to joint 1st place with fellow country man Mathieu Richard on the Tour standings. Ainslie’s crew included Iain Percy (tactics), Christian Kamp (trimmer), Mike Mottl (mainsheet) and Matt Cornwell (bow). They finished the regatta with 25 points towards the Tour standings and won $10,000 of the $50,000 prize purse. In the petit-final Peter Gilmour defeated Mathieu Richard 2 -0. Final report: http://www.worldmatchracingtour.com/da/98184 Match scores: http://tinyurl.com/Results-5-28-09 MORRIS YACHTS M-SERIES EVENT: JUNE 12-14 NE HARBOR, MAINE Morris Yachts invites you to view all four of the M-Series yachts at the Morris yard in Northeast Harbor, Maine June 12-14. This is the first time all four boats have been shown together. The new M52 combines beauty and ease of handling with commodious cruising accommodations. The M52 is perfect for a daysail or day after day of voyaging. The new M29 is sporty, classic and oh so fun. Don¹t miss this opportunity to see four of the world¹s most beautiful boats in one of the most beautiful settings. To RSVP call 1-207-244-5509; http://www.morrisyachts.com/news SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES WITHIN MELGES 24 CLASS Most Melges 24 owners will have at some time considered sponsorship as a potential means of offsetting the cost of campaigning their boat on the regatta circuit. Indeed on the US and European circuits, hulls and sails displaying sponsors decals are a familiar site these days. Bagging yourself a sponsor is not a simple matter and requires a professional approach. What is the best way to attract a sponsor in these post credit crunch times? Are there still businesses out there worth approaching with a proposal? How do you position your team as a viable sponsorship option? To try to find answers to these and other questions we sat down with someone who specialises in yacht sponsorship - David Fuller, founder of Pilote Media, a niche publisher and sports marketing consultancy that specialises in the business of yacht racing and the contributing editor at the website yachtsponsorship.com. IM24CA: Given the difficult global economic situation are there still any businesses out there that are interested in sponsoring yacht racing? DF: Yes. For some, the global economic situation is an opportunity to re-evaluate sponsorships and some companies are looking to more ‘niche' sports where there might be some relative bargains to be had. It needs to be a business-based sponsorship though, with real deliverables. Companies can't be seen to be spending money on going sailing while at the same time making people redundant. Complete interview: http://tinyurl.com/M24-6-1-09 => Curmudgeon’s Comment: While the examples in this interview are being applied to the M24 class, the information is very applicable to a wide swath within the sport. HEADLINE ACTS COME TO JERSEY (Mt Arlington, NJ) - For close to 72 years, Gene Murphy has spent every summer on Lake Hopatcong -- starting with his first visit as a newborn in August 1937. He's a mainstay at the Lake Hopatcong Yacht Club, where he's been a member for 55 years. He raced in the club's first Tomahawk Regatta in 1959 (at age 21), its 50th last year (at age 70) and "most of the ones in between." But despite the familiar scene during this (past) weekend's 51st Tomahawk Regatta -- a cluster of Stars, two-sail keelboats, elegantly riding Lake Hopatcong's quirky winds -- Murphy stood in front of the green-shingled club afterward, a wide grin on his face, and marveled. "Did you see that?" Murphy asked with a grin. "Three of the best sailors in the world just finished one, two, three at Lake Hopatcong." Not bad for a narrow body of water in northern New Jersey that's home to amateur sailors and is best known recently for its troubling low water level. But Tomahawk organizers Kevin and Brian Murphy -- Gene Murphy's oldest two sons -- have quietly turned the starting line of the annual two-day event into an unlikely mix zone: world champions and Olympians next to father-daughter teams and the Sussex County assistant prosecutor. The headlining acts this year: Rick Merriman, a college All-American and Etchells world champion; Peter Bromby, four-time Olympian and three-time champion of the premier Bacardi Cup; and Mark Reynolds, two-time Olympic gold medalist and one-time silver medalist. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/Star-6-1-09 Final results: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/0601.htm SAILING SHORTS * The Sperry Top-Sider National Offshore One-Design Regatta held May 29-31, 2009 by Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit, MI had 191 boats competing in 20 classes. Teams vying to make the short list for the overall championship of the Detroit NOOD were Melges 24 class winner Alan Field and Frank Kern's win in the J/120 class, but it was Ted Pinkerton and the crew of his Tartan 10 Perfect that won both their class and the overall title. -- Details: http://tinyurl.com/NOOD-6-1-09 * The 2009 American Sailing League second annual 18-foot skiff Championship Series at San Francisco’s PIER 39 this past weekend provided lots of excitment for the hundreds of spectators watching. After crashes and the big breeze on Saturday, all the teams worked tirelessly overnight to repair snapped carbon fiber bowsprits, torn sails and other equipment to complete the series on Sunday. Team Harken, with Howie Hamlin, Fritz Lanzinger, and Matt Noble (and Paul Allen, who replaced Noble after he injured his knee on a spinnaker take down), were dominant throughout, winning every race but one. -- Photos and full report: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/09/0601 * Momentum is building for a new coastal weather radar in Washington state that proponents say could dramatically improve forecasts, prevent millions of dollars in storm-related damages and even save lives. Though Washington gets some of the most extreme weather in the country, it’s considered to be among the worst areas in the nation for coastal radar coverage. That could soon change - President Obama’s proposed budget includes $7 million for a Doppler weather radar system for Washington state. -- Three Sheets Northwest, read on: http://tinyurl.com/lmtzd5 * The Cuba Run will be the first open ocean beach catamaran sail to Cuba and back. As Cuba is still off limits and has restrictions to free travel and other limitations for all USA Citizens, the US Treasury has made available a way to travel to Cuba on a Cultural Exchange mission such as this event. The start and finish line will be in Key West, with the distance to Cuba to be approx. 95 nautical miles. The event includes a leg to Cuba, a day of racing in Cuban waters, a layday, and the leg back to Key West. -- Details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=7539 * While gas prices are rising across the country, on average they are nearly $1.50 cheaper per gallon than this time last year, AAA reports. As of Tuesday morning, the average price of self-serve regular in the United States was slightly above $2.31 per gallon - about 9 cents higher than one week ago. But that's down from $3.79 this time last May. Historically, gas prices are at their highest during midsummer, peaking sometime between Memorial Day and Labor Day. -- Trade Only, full story: http://tinyurl.com/nlrasv * (Newport, RI) - On Saturday, June 6, International Yacht Restoration School students will mark their graduation from the school's two full-time programs by showcasing their work and launching the boats they spent the past year restoring. Boats launched this year include: a fleet of 12-foot Beetle Cats, an iconic New England catboat design that dates to 1921; the 35-foot motor launch Corsair, originally launched in 1939 for yachtsman and financier J.P. Morgan; a Herreshoff 12 ½ designed by the "Wizard of Bristol," Nathanael Herreshoff; and a 15-foot replica of a 19th-century Whitehall rowing boat. -- IYRS website: http://iyrs.org * CORRECTION: It was reported last week that the Invitational Regatta for the Hoag Cup in Newport Beach, CA was this past weekend, but the dates had been changed to June 12-14, 2009. -- http://www.hoagcupregatta.com SUMMER SAILING ESSENTIALS * Duffels and backpacks featuring waterproof zippers, polyurethane-impregnated fabric, seams that are sewn, taped and RF welded for luggage that is truly waterproof. * Optimum Time watches featuring 5,4,1,0 ISAF start sequences, "Sync" buttons and more. * Chemical free, mineral based sunscreen and lip balm. * Accessories & more at http://www.OceanRacing.com IF I WERE PRESIDENT OF US SAILING… Gary Jobson will become the next president of the US SAILING in October, and for the past week Scuttlebutt has been actively seeking input from the Scuttlebutt community on what we would like US SAILING to address during his administration. To help motivate us, OceanRacing.com donated three Optimum Watches that were raffled off on June 1st to everyone that submitted their input. As one contributed noted, there were lots of good ideas submitted - 57 in all. They all brought some serious issues to the table… with the exception of just one…this one: If I were King of US SAILING, not queen, not duke, not baron. My regal robes of the fleet, would be cuban, not cotton, not dacron. I'd command each thing, be it Ellison or Ehman. With a woof and a woof and a royal growl - woof. As I'd click my heel, all the boats would heel. And the sloops bow and the cats kowtow. And America's Cup would take wing - If I - If I - were King! ESPN would show respect to me. The Clubs all genuflect to me. Though my sail would lash, I would show compash For every underling! If I - If I - were King! Just King! Monarch of all I survey -- Mo--na-a-a--a-arch Of all I survey! View all submissions here: http://tinyurl.com/Jobson-6-1-09 JUNIOR BIG BOAT PROGRAMS - OVERCOMING INSURANCE ISSUES by Rob Stephan (May 31, 2009) This week I wrote a small item for a forum on Scuttlebutt as to "What would I do if I were President of US SAILING" (which was to rapidly create a structure to promote Junior Big Boat Programs at Yacht Clubs and Community Sailing Programs around the country.). In response to my post, here are some concerns that insurance professional Glenn McCarthy had with setting up a JBBS Proram: “No doubt this program makes sense at face value. But there are huge problems with it in the background. If the big boats are on federal waterways, and if the juniors are paying the club or organizer to be placed on one of these big boats (regardless whether the owner is being compensated or not), the USCG will explain very clearly that the juniors become "passenger for hire." If there are 6 or less juniors on board, the captain must hold a USCG captains license (it used to be called the 6-pack license). However, if more than 6 students are on board, the boat must become an inspected vessel by the USCG and meet all of the requirements for passenger for hire. “Next, if the boat owner holds a private pleasure craft insurance policy, and carrying kids who paid to be on board (even though they paid the club and not the owner of the boat is not germane), in most likelihood the boat owners insurance policy is voided by carrying passengers for hire. A suggestion is if they eliminate any fee where the club just facilitates the connection to juniors with the big boat owners, that removes all of the above. The program is a great idea; people just have to be very careful with its implementation.” This seems like a good opportunity to refresh the record about the "Passenger for Hire" issue with regards to Junior Big Boat Programs, and the clarification by the US Coast Guard on how to avoid insurance policy conflicts. -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/0531 CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember. Special thanks to North Sails, Morris Yachts, and OceanRacing.com. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
