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SCUTTLEBUTT 2294 – March 6, 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). DAY TWO: WHERE DID 8043 COME FROM? With a square line and about a third of the fleet determined not to push the start in fear of having more letters added to their score, the 78-boat Star Bacardi Cup fleet got off to a clean first start at noon on Monday. Pity the teams who were black flagged in the first race on Sunday, then for Monday’s race went to the right side on the first beat (ugly move) and to the left on the second beat (ugly move again). However, if you happened to do just the opposite, you may have been in for the thrill of your sailing career. Despite not being on anyone’s pre-event favorites list, sail number 8043 belonging to Americans Jock Kohlaus and Larry Scott, rounded the first weather mark in fifth in the company of skippers Ian Murray, Freddie Loof, Mark Reynolds, and Flavio Marazzi, and were the best today at managing the fickle winds on Biscayne Bay. -- Read how Jock Kohlaus and Larry Scott found their way to win the race, and become the lead U.S. entrant, all in Lynn Fitzpatrick’s Bacardi Cup diary on the Scuttlebutt website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/StarBacardiCup Preliminary results after two races (top ten of 77 boats) 1. NZL, Hamish Pepper/ David Giles, 2-3, 5 points 2. SWE, Fredrik Loof/ Anders Ekstrom, 8-2, 10 3. AUS, Ian Murray / Andrew Palfrey, 6-5, 11 4. POL, Mateusz Kusznierewicz / Dominik Zycki, 4-9, 13 5. GER, Matthias Miller/ Manuel Voigt, 7-7, 14 6. BER, Peter Bromby / Bill McNiven, 5-11, 16 7. SUI, Flavio Marazzi/ Donat Hofer, 14-4, 18 8. USA Jock Kohlhas/ Larry Scott, 23-1, 24 9. NOR, Eivind Melleby/ Petter Morland Pedersen, 12-14, 26 10. ITA, Luca Modena/ Michele Marchesini, 11-18, 29 Complete results: http://tinyurl.com/3278pr FOILING OPTION (This singlehander, which already has racks and a trapeze, is now experimenting with another layer of wow… foils.) After two years of development, drawing on his extensive experience building foiling International Moths, Weymouth hi-tech boatbuilder Linton Jenkins and his company Full Force Boats have produced a set of foils designed specifically for the RS600. The result is one of the most radical – and yet very sailable – boats in the world. “The idea for developing the RS600FF came out of speaking to all the sailors who rang me up about buying an International Moth but who were just too heavy for the boat,” explains Jenkins. “If you weigh much more than 75kg then you’re going to be too heavy to be competitive in the Moth. So this left a lot of disappointed people who wanted to go foiling but didn’t have anywhere to go. “So we started developing the RS600 and seeing how it would convert to being used for foils, and I have to say Clive Everest [the original designer of the RS600] designed virtually the perfect boat for foiling, although he probably didn’t realise it at the time! Now with the RS600FF, we have a foiling boat that works for people weighing between 70 to 95kg, it’s one-design, and with the original RS600 reefable rig you can sail the boat a long way up the wind range.” With around 350 RS600s in existence throughout the UK, Linton expects most sailors will probably want to buy a secondhand hull and convert it for hydrofoiling. This offers a very cost-effective option, which will appeal to most people. However, boats can be supplied brand new from LDC Racing Sailboats and fitted with the RS600FF package. -- Photos and full report:http://www.sailingtalk.com/RS600FF.html MELGES 24 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP The 2007 Full Power Melges 24 World Championship is taking place in early May at Santa Cruz, CA, where epic conditions are anticipated for the hottest sportboat in the world. Melges has two remaining boats for immediate delivery… take advantage of this opportunity. You still have plenty of time to get organized and attend this spectacular event. Remember, Melges delivers race-ready products. No bottom jobs, no fairing - just add water and enjoy the performance! Check out the latest at http://www.melges24.com MONDAY MORNING TACTICIAN After coaching the 420 Midwinters in Jensen Beach, Florida for the third year in a row, a few themes have started to become recurrent in my notes. One of the most critical of those was the handling of the first 100 yards of sailing after the start. In researching a completely different subject for this week’s Monday Morning Tactician column, I came across an interesting assertion in the North U. Smart Course on my dusty shelf. On page 107, David Dellenbaugh presents a sketch (Figure #26 in the chapter: Starting) that shows a bunch of boats coming off a starting line. The assertion reads: After the start “Point high for two reasons: 1. So you will keep clear air to leeward, 2. So you will squeeze off the windward boats, gaining the option to tack.” The author goes further in his explanation in the text, “After several minutes, a few boats will squeeze ahead of the pack like watermelon seeds. Your object is to be one of those boats.” I maintain that this is sometimes sound advice, however, the potential gain from a slightly more sophisticated discussion can be significant. -- Andrew Campbell, full report: http://tinyurl.com/33uerr SEND PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENTS HERE Every publication receives New Product Announcements, which informs the media of the latest gadgets now available to the sporting public. In the interest of keeping the Scuttlebutt newsletter at a manageable length, the Curmudgeon has generally tossed these announcements – until now. A new category has been created on the Forum called – you guessed it – New Product Announcements. This will be the place for companies to post their product news, and for the ‘buttheads to stay in touch with what’s soon to come to the stores. So, listen up companies: If you have something to say, say it here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/products READER RANT: SAILING AS FASHION? I'm just gonna vent a little... Has anyone else noticed that sailing gear has become fashionable lately... for those that have never actually set foot on a boat. I'm a senior at PSU, and it seems like the greek life (frats & sororities... among others) have adopted the yacht club look. Sperry must be making a fortune off all the Top-Siders I've seen around. I saw two kids on the bus today in Helly Hansen jackets... two on the same bus at the same time. I asked one of 'em if he was interested in sailing (seeing if they'd join our club) and he said “I've never been on a boat. But, it's always looked fun.” Well it is fun... for those of us that do it. Now, I've been one to walk around town in my Gill cruising jacket with the fluorescent hood popped when it's raining... but I have it because I sail (and I don't want to get wet). I don't think there's anything more comfortable than my broken-in Top-Siders. But, I broke them in while sailing down in Annapolis. Where did you break your Top-Siders in? Walking into Abercrombie? Maybe I'm just being overly cynical, but the posers are starting to annoy me. I think it's great that sailing becomes more mainstream and publicized, but what's next for these people... going out in spray smocks and trousers? Has anyone else noticed this? -- Post comments here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/07/fashion ACT NOW Spring is just around the corner. Get ready to race at North U TRIM and Tactics Seminars. Gary Jobson and other top instructors deliver fresh insight into racing success. Tactics, Strategy, Rules, Trim, Helming, Spinnaker Handling – North U seminars cover every facet of racing performance. You can spend a lifetime learning to be a better racer, or you can accelerate the process at North U. Learn Fast (& Smart). Call 800-347-2457 or visit http://www.NorthU.com SAILING SHORTS * The 10th Annual Strictly Sail Pacific boat show will be held April 18-22, 2007, in Oakland, CA., and Scuttlebutt now has $5.00 discount tickets for all the ‘buttheads. Look for their banner ad on the Scuttlebutt website for info, or go straight to the show’s e-commerce site to buy your discount tickets: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/jump/strictlysail * For the America’s Cup defender, the Alinghi team took to the air and flew SUI91 from their winter training site in Dubai, arriving in Valencia Sunday afternoon on an Antonov plane. SUI64 is due to follow by ship. This is the first time during this campaign that the Swiss Defender has flown a racing yacht, the last being in 2001, when the team flew SUI64 from Geneva to Auckland where they successfully won the America’s Cup in 2003. SUI100 was delivered direct to Valencia on January 26th, where it will await trailing with SUI91. -- http://www.alinghi.com/en * Monday marked a big day for BMW Oracle Racing and Emirates Team New Zealand with each team leaving Port America’s Cup mid-morning for two-boat training and testing in Valencia for the first time this year. The two top challengers on the Louis Vuitton Ranking had previously spent time in New Zealand over the southern hemisphere summer, only now returning to Valencia. -- http://www.americascup.com/en/news/detail.php?idContent=13752 * St Petersburg, FL (March 5) - Greg Fisher, with crew JoAnn Fisher, and Jeff Eiber of Annapolis, MD, never relinquished the lead they earned by winning the first race of the Thistle Midwinters East, holding it all the way to win the seven race series. Twelve points back was Paul Abdullah, Andy Lawrence, and Tim Fitzgerald of Jacksonville, FL in second with locals Robby Brown, Patrick Wilson, and Rob Britt in third. -- Results: http://tinyurl.com/2jdagc * The 2007 ISAF Annual Conference, previously scheduled to take place in Athens, Greece, will be held in Estoril, Portugal at the Palacio Hotel and the adjoining Vila Galé Estoril. The Conference, held from 1-11 November in ISAF’s Centenary Year, will incorporate the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards and the launch of the ISAF Sailing Hall of Fame. -- http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j1,FnAu`~&format=popup * For those planning to participate in one of the Leukemia Cup Regattas, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society program has just launched a virtual Regatta for six weeks beginning March 1. Gary Jobson, America's Cup winner, Leukemia Cup Regatta National Chairman and a blood cancer survivor, will send participants weekly emails with mini- video clips, in which he will talk about his career and his experiences as an ESPN commentator and provide the inside scoop on the world of sailing. For information on the additional prizes and benefits: http://www.lls.org/regatta/virtual * Now posted on the Scuttlebutt website, photographer Amory Ross provides us with some of the images he took at the 27th St. Maarten Heineken Regatta: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/07/0305/ EIGHT BELLS A good friend of mine over the years, Ian Wooldridge has died today of cancer aged 75. Ian was Britain's foremost sports writer, writing for the Daily Mail for 50 years. He won so many 'Sportswriter of the Year' awards, and every other journalistic accolade, that it would take a book to list them. Starting as a cricket correspondent, his way of analysing sport of any type made him a great sports writer, whatever the sport. In 1982 he became introduced to the Americas Cup and covered the Newport '83 races extensively. He was the first major journalist in Britain to bring the event to millions of people in the Daily Mail in a way they could understand. He was particularly interested in what made Dennis Conner tick, and wanted Coronation Street (a popular British Soap) to understand the America's Cup as well as the Squadron. He never lost his interest in the America's Cup after that. I covered various events with him. Spending three weeks in Bosnia in a Land Rover with Ian was an adventure in itself - just a taxi ride across London with Ian was hilarious story after story. If he's gone to a heaven, they are in for some entertainment! Ian was one of THE greats of Fleet Street. -- David Redfern CHARTER SWAN 601 IN 2007 Swan 601 ‘Artemis’ is available to charter for 2007 Caribbean and UK events: Antigua, Cowes Week, Swan Europeans, Fastnet. Class winner at Acura Key West 2007. Fully race prepared and ready to dominate any IRC event. Full suit of 2007 inshore and offshore Quantum Carbon sails. Contact Peter Bresnan: +44 7990 970 881 or Pbresnan@vmgracing.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 Mike Levesque: (re: #2293 story on huge number of Black Flags for the first race at the Star Bacardi Cup) There must be an interesting story behind that statistic! Talk about R/C hell, both for the racers and the PRO...Reminds me of a good quote from Speed (the movie), "Pop quiz, what do you do???" I've been on both sides of the game, fortunately haven't seen many black flags (come to think of it, only one regatta in 10 years, racing Hobie 16s just about every weekend including several North Americans). I come from a line of (literally) Olympic-level PROs (as mentors) that basically see the black flag as the ultimate sign of weakness that the RC can't control the fleet. Obviously, this is probably not true in all situations, but it would be interesting to hear what techniques others use to keep the black flag from ever seeing daylight. I’ve been taught that line management is all about length and angle to the pin. Assuming you have racers that know how to start in a variety of current, light air, etc… Also, the use of the General Recall flag should be kept to an absolute minimum. If there are 8 boats over, and you only get 6 numbers, an Individual is preferred. The more Generals, the more people tend to push it. Other tools: start recording as many numbers as you can before the gun goes off, and use a spotter on the pin boat (using boat with flag as the pin). What other tricks/tools are people using? * From John Tormey: I just tried to get info from the NHYC website about their Cabo race, and found myself with little information, but the crummy site layout did force me to open up six separate browsers. They are using the Regatta Manager program, which pulls you off the YC site to their site, but then doesn’t offer much help after that. The features required me to download a PDF file to view the standings, while the entry list is painfully long and done alphabetically rather than by class. Hopefully the Curmudgeon can deal with it better than I can. Curmudgeon’s Comment: Don’t count on it. * From Geri Conser (regarding Coutts interview in #2293) Finally someone has got the right idea. How long have we waited for someone to get the idea of great fast boats racing? For years multihull people have tried to get the idea out there that real fast is real fun and a very marketable item. Drag racing on the water with lots of high tech boats, wild colors and great sailors who could ask for more. Exciting is the name of the game. Paul and Russell are on the right track. Get the excitement of sailing to the masses with lots of bright colors, wild boats and people. The concept has been around waiting for the right people to put the act together. Paul and Russell could make it happen. * From Bruce Hyland, New Zealand: Re Canada's Cup and Paul Henderson's letter (in #2292) on the RCYC's deferral of the racing and as a former member of that auspicious club, I am beginning to think that the social members and verandah crawlers may have taken over the running of the club. Paul's argument for the deferral is one of a lack of resources for the club in terms of sailors and money. Interesting, isn't it that New Zealand, with a population less than that of the city of Toronto, is able to both succeed at the Olympics, America's Cup, and countless other international events. No Kiwi club would dare to turn down a challenge such as that presented to the RCYC. Paul's numerous skills are obviously needed in the corridors of power at the club, as they contemplate spending untold millions on a new clubhouse, possibly destroying one of the most distinctive historic sailing sites in Canada. Perhaps the money is going in the wrong direction. Better having active sailors on the water competing than having a new mausoleum for the social members to gaze at the moored, sedentary yachts. * From Len Davies, Cape Town, South Africa: Alistair Skinner - Scuttlebutt # 2290 - has encapsulated the entire kinetics debate and all that goes with it most succinctly and all following the topic would benefit by digesting just what has so clearly been described! * From Michael Millard: (regarding the response from Russell Painton) Hmm, in the end, it sure does feel as if IRC's view to any variety of innovations is nothing more than a subjective view - albeit an international or global one - reflecting how "they" feel...rather than just calculating the impact of that particular innovation (ie, the spinnoa). While the IRC might argue the adjustment to the rating that would have a 'deterrent effect' (thus discouraging the use of this innovation) on the rating simply helps contain owner costs (they do not have to incur the cost of the innovation) and this approach to innovations helps keep costs down and makes the IRC more of an everyman's rule...the affect of IRC, and the attitude of many event Organizers who are no longer offering PHRF and/ or requiring a Fully Endorsed Certificate (regardless of PHRF rating), at least in the US, seems to be discouraging PHRF racers from competing at all. Furthermore, isn't it ironic that the way the IRC seems to be approaching various innovations, is somewhat familiar to the way local PHRF committees handled innovations...somewhat 'subjectively' with the difference being that it is a global response rather than a local...well, I guess we can at least be thankful for the consistency. Hmm... it does seems like in it's own way, IRC is no better than any other single number rule. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION An ignorant person is hell-bent on proving their limitations. Special thanks to Melges Performance Sailboats, North U, and Peter Bresnan. Scuttlebutt is also supported by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, the Defender of the 32nd America's Cup. |
