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SCUTTLEBUTT 1725 - December 6, 2004Powered 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, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere. US HANDICAP RACING Three top US yacht clubs announced today their combined effort behind a mid-level handicap rule initiative for the three most visible and prestigious distance races in the US. The announcement by Rick Lillie, Chicago-Mackinac Race Chairman, Commodore Truman Casner of the Cruising Club of America (CCA) and Commodore Jerry Montgomery of the Transpacific Yacht Club (TPYC) marks the formation of the Offshore Racing Association (ORA). Working in collaboration with US Sailing, ORA will focus on the management and development of Americap II, the VPP and measurement-based rule currently used by those clubs. US Sailing will retain administrative functions such as certificate issuance while ORA will undertake promotional and developmental tasks providing an increased level of manpower not previously directed toward the rule. In developing the midlevel rule initiative, the ORA has reached out to include such experienced advisors as Olin Stephens and Stan Honey. Additionally, the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC), co-organizers of the Newport-Bermuda Race with CCA are supportive of the initiative, as are the Marion Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race organizers. The Newport-Bermuda, Transpac Race and Chicago-Mackinac Races have been using VPP-based rules for some years now with the intent of providing the fairest method of handicapping available for their racing fleets which include a wide range of existing boats designed over the past several decades. For those presently holding Americap II certificates, improvements will be made but the fundamentals will remain the same. In response to requests from racers, 2005 certificates will show single number time-on-time and time-on-distance ratings for each of the standard course/wind mixes, allowing both simplified scoring and on-the-water estimates of fleet position. Wind tunnel and towing tank test data, mixed with analysis of race results, will guide another seven modifications to the VPP for 2005. The Chicago-Mackinac and Marion-Bermuda Races will be run once again under Americap II in 2005. In the meantime, ORA will develop the rule to be even more inclusive of diverse boat types and enhance its ability to handle closed course racing. Look for the new name Offshore Racing Rule (ORR) to replace Americap II on certificates for 2006. ANOTHER PLAYER? The German America's Cup campaign, 'Fresh Seventeen' plans to have its new cup yacht built by "Knierim" in Kiel in 2005/2006. The shipyard promises to deliver state-of-the-art technology thanks to the substantial support of stake-holder Klaus Murmann. This has been generally agreed between the Deutsche Challenge 2007 AG (DC 2007 AG) and the traditional yacht-builders whose premises are located on the south bank of Kiel Canal. Meanwhile DC 2007 AG has not yet decided to give its "go" to the Deutscher Challenger Yacht Club (DCYC) for the official filing of their entry with the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG). "We need some more time for the sponsoring negotiations," said Alexander von Bergwelt, chairman of the DC 2007 AG advisory board. According to von Bergwelt, the talks so far have been very promising, and "we have no doubts that we will reach our target." Fresh Seventeen had gone public in late summer and plans to get to the start with a budget of 45 million Euro. The 17th December is the official closing date for entries, but there is a prolongation rule until April 28, 2005. Never before has a German boat taken part in world's longest-standing sporting competition so far. Not only German sailing circles have high hopes that this is about to change. The German public broadcasting companies ARD and ZDF are about to close their contracts for the TV rights to cover the regatta series. "The America's Cup will be one of the most important sport events in 2007," points out ARD sports co-ordinator Hagen Bosdorf. "The planning process has taken up full speed," says Willy Kuhweide, Commodore of the DCYC. The 1964 Olympic gold medallist acts as a consultant to the leader board in all matters of major concern from the overall public presentation of the campaign to the building of the team. More than 120 applicants have so far asked to become part of the Fresh Seventeen team, for the most part sailors, but also sail-makers, boat-builders and deck hands." In the meantime, the project leaders have met with high-level potential skippers with Cup experience, who have all confirmed their interest in the German team, but do not want to be named until the final start of the project. - Andreas Kling, www.Fresh17.de OUT OF DEBT December 3, 2004, Doha, Qatar - Quest International Sports Events (QISE) today confirmed that Tracy Edwards has sold the multihull Maiden II and is repaying all her agreed outstanding personal debts with the proceeds of this sale and additional funds she raised from a personal sponsorship deal. Maiden II has been sold to an undisclosed owner for an undisclosed sum, but QISE can verify that sponsorship monies received for the Oryx Quest 2005 are not linked to Tracy's debt repayment in any way. "It goes without saying, that I am absolutely delighted and relieved that I can now pay back all the wonderful people who have kept us going for the past two years, especially the crew of Maiden II. I am also glad that the very few financial disputes are being solved," said QISE CEO Tracy Edwards MBE. "I would like to thank each of my creditors for their continued support and patience throughout this difficult period. I can now finally focus all my efforts on QISE and the successful promotion of the Oryx Quest 2005 that starts in Qatar on 5 th February 2005." The Oryx Quest 2005 is the first non-stop around-the-globe sailing race involving the world's largest and fastest multi-hull catamarans. Starting and finishing in Doha , Qatar the Oryx Quest promises to be the first of two major international sporting events in the Middle East . Current entries include the Qatar 2006, Tony Bullimore's Daedalus, Olivier de Kersauson's Geronimo and a fourth entry, which will be announced shortly. - www.qisel.com/ HARKEN DOESN'T MIND IF YOU'RE NAUGHTY OR NICE …and to prove it we'll send you a free hat if you wrap up Harken gear this holiday. From Harken duffles tough enough for rough airport handling, to wallets that withstand years of sitting, to belts, gloves and shoes, Harken gear tops everyone's wish list. http://www.harkensailinggear.com PREVIEW There are already 31 J/105s on the entry list for Key West 2005 presented by Nautica, and 40 are expected. Also, there are now 42 Melges 24s from coast to coast and seven countries entered, matching the current number of PHRF entries. There will be lots more before the deadline. Luna Rossa helmsman James Spithill, will be there sailing a Melges 24 with Jonathan McKee. "It is my first time in [a Melges 24]," said McKee, who owns Olympic bronze and silver medals. This is not official Luna Rossa business, just a fun event for us. Having said that, we are sailing with mostly Luna Rossa guys, including [brother] Charlie McKee and Manuel Modena, but also a young kid from Miami who sails Optimist." The entry list currently shows boats from two dozen countries and five of the seven continents. Many of those will figure in the intense competition among teams for the International Team Trophy. Peter De Ridder's Mean Machine from Monaco won the Farr 40 class last January as part of the Europe B team that wrested the title from Italy's multi-year dominance. Dec. 10 is the deadline for entry applications to avoid late fees. Final entry applications are due Dec. 27. The regatta is limited to the first 350 entries. - Rich Roberts, www.premiere-racing.com/ VENDÉE GLOBE Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle) and Vincent Riou (PRB) are running away. Hervé Laurent (UUDS) has been forced to quit after he lost his port rudder. It's the starboard rudder that is forcing Conrad Humphreys (Hellomoto) to head towards the region of Cape Town to change it all by himself. Raphaël Dinelli (Akena Vérandas) has not managed to solve his babystay problem. "I can't get over the disappointment. I'm no longer in the race," said Hervé Laurent after he threw in the towel, "and that's tough to face up to." This is the first retirement from the 2004 edition of the race, in which Hervé was one of the favourites. "I'm currently heading for Cape Town, and the adventure is over. It's a shame for my sponsors. Seeing everything go up in smoke just because a little part has broken, is quite frustrating. I'd spent a year on this boat. For the moment I don't know what I'm going to do once I have found a replacement rudder". On Saturday, Conrad Humphreys' Hellomoto hit an unidentified floating object (UFO) whilst going along at 15 knots and the bottom ½ metre of the starboard rudder was smashed, part of which is the protective crash or false tip. "I have a full spare rudder which can slot into either side but it's never been done before and I have to attempt this on my own," Humphrey's said. "I have three places I could go to find a calm and enclosed area of water. I need to remove the old rudder stock first and then it's a complicated process which my shore manager Joff is working on to try and sink the spare rudder with the anchor and chain, then drop over the side to mouse a line through the stock out of the boat and up on deck. It'll be like doing a Lucky Dip trying to fish the rudder, pull it up through the bearings. The trouble is that if there is any swell and the rudder turns whilst I'm doing this it could damage the bearings but I have to try. I have three options to come in close to Cape Town or Hout Bay on the Atlantic side, or Simonstown which is on the east side of Cape Point. If I can change the rudder then I am confident that I can continue in the race." Rather less positive news is coming from Raphaël Dinelli's Akena Vérandas, whose babystay broke. Unfortunately Raphaël's repair job hasn't held out either. "The repair that I did has broken again. For the moment I don't have anything to replace it with. Now, the problem is that the mast is not being kept up properly, and he cannot push the boat for fear of putting too much strain on the spar. The only solution I can see is to make a rope stay and I don't have enough rope on board to do that. It doesn't matter about the rankings. The Vendée Globe is a great adventure and I'll be fighting all the way. I'm going to have to find a solution". - www.vendeeglobe.fr/uk/ Leaders at 0400 GMT December 6: 1. Bonduelle, Jean Le Ca, miles to finish 15,586 2. PRB, Vincent Riou, 49 miles to leader 3. Sill Véolia, Roland Jourdain, 558 mtl 4. VMI, Sébastien Josse, 735 mtl 5. Ecover, Mike Golding, 806 mtl 6. Temenos, Dominique Wavre, 1365 mtl 7. Virbac-Paprec, Jean-Pierre Dick, 1381 mtl 8. Skandia, Nick Moloney, 1434 mtl 9. Pro-Form, Marc Thiercelin, 1499mtl 10. Arcelor Dunkerque, Joé Seeten, 1578 mtl 11. VM Matériaux, Patrice Carpentier, 1812 mtl 12. Ocean Planet, Bruce Schwab, 1827 mtl 13. Hellomoto, Conrad Humphreys, 1911 mtl 14. Hugo Boss, Alex Thomson, 2118 mtl 15. Roxy, Anne Liardet, 2132 mtl 16. Max Havelaar/Best Western, Benoît Parnaudeau, 2246 mtl 17. Benefic, Karen Leibovici, 2351 mtl 18. Akena Vérandas, Raphaël Dinelli, 2383 mtl 19. Brother, Norbert Sedlacek, 2518 mtl Abandoned - UUDS, Hervé Laurent NAUTI AND NICE PHOTOGRAPHY FOR THE HOLIDAYS Onne van der Wal has calendars, classic yacht notecards, books and enough stunning sailing photography to sink Santa's sleigh! Shop Onne's website for the best holiday gifts for all your 'nauti' friends and make their holidays bright and your shopping easy! http://www.vanderwal.com ELLEN On day 8 of Ellen MacArthur's solo, round the world record attempt, B&Q has sailed over 3000 miles at an average speed of 15.3 knots and built her margin ahead of Joyon's record to nearly 12 hours. As Ellen approaches the Doldrums, wind speeds have decreased as forecast this afternoon and boat speeds have dropped from 20 knot averages overnight and this morning to around 10 knots. The routing models are predicting B&Q will cross Monday evening or Tuesday morning and if this is proved correct, Ellen looks on the pace to set a new solo time to the Equator. She will need to cross before 16:33:44 GMT on Tuesday (7.12.04) to beat the time set by Joyon of 9 days, 8 hours and 23 minutes. - www.teamellen.com/ellen.asp?artid=100 NEWS BRIEFS * According to a posting on the Mariantic America's Cup website, the Sausalito Challenge is now saying they will file their official America's Cup entry after a member's meeting at Sausalito Yacht Club on December 12. - www.mariantic.co.uk/ac/six.htm#Diary * The 2004 Sir Peter Blake Memorial Torbay Youth Regatta hosted 267 competitors in 12 classes. After light shifty winds on the Saturday, 30 - 40 knot winds on Sunday kept the young sailors ashore. The Sir Peter Blake Memorial Trophy - awarded for the most outstanding performance at the regatta was awarded to Jo Aleh (Westlake Girls High School and the Kohimarama Yacht Club). Recently awarded the youth female sailor of the year by Yachting New Zealand, Jo was runner up in the girls single handed event at the 2004 World Youth Yachting Championships. Complete results: www.torbaysailingclub.org.nz IN MEMORIAM Electra "Exy" Johnson, who with her late husband, Irving, circumnavigated the globe seven times in 25 years with amateur crews and chronicled their adventures in books, travelogues and National Geographic articles, has died. She was 95. Johnson died of natural causes Nov. 19 in Hadley, Mass., said her son, Robert. In recent years, the doyenne of sailing helped fund two brigantine sailing ships named the Irving Johnson and Exy Johnson, which were launched in 2002 by the nonprofit Los Angeles Maritime Institute. The tall ships sail out of San Pedro to Santa Catalina Island and beyond for the TopSail program, established in 1991 to benefit at-risk youths. - LA Times, http://tinyurl.com/6waux NIP THE HOLIDAY SHOPPING LIST IN THE BUD TODAY For your crew, your skipper, your significant other: Padded Sailing Shorts and Longpants, Knee Sleeves, Kontrol Racing Gloves, Sun Shirts, 4-way stretch fleece with drop seats - base layer (Quadroflex fleece), battened hiking pants, gear bags. For the stockings or the tree, one stop shopping at Sailing Angles and nip the holiday list in the bud. You can find Sailing Angles gear at APS, Layline, Team One Newport, PYacht or http://www.sailingangles.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (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 Alistair Murray: Every time I see examples of political correctness to an extreme level, it's usually in the U.S.A. and it makes me think you guys are going mad. In the December/January issue I can't believe that readers have written in complaining about the use of the term "Chinese Jibe". Sailing World's response was good with its attempts to explain the origin of the term, but I can't believe the editors actually apologized! C'mon, no offence is or was intended to anyone. If you are going to change the name of this maneuver, please call it the "Australian Jibe", as we have done plenty of them down here, we take no offence and we can use the publicity. * From Marc Herrmann: Let me get this straight. Assume my employer decides to axe me for some reason or another, I go my merry way and seek other employment without restrictions from my previous employer. An AC Syndicate employee gets axed and they cannot seek employment with other syndicates or anything related to AC sanctioned events? Hmmmm ... what's wrong with this picture? Perhaps the "cup protocol" needs to be reviewed to address this issue since the AC is getting a bad enough rep as it is (for now). One question of interest to the uninformed. When the change to the cup protocol was initiated, was this decision made by committee including syndicate employees? * From Doug Wardrop: First Russell and now Schnack is out of the loop for the next Cup? Say it ain't so! It's one thing for Coutts to agree to disagree as he is the new era golden boy and eventually did what was good for Russell; but Schnackenberg? He is the bridge to and from the new AC era and does more to forward sailing because it. AC has always been about egos & money and it's one thing for Larry to hire Cayard and bench him, but to summarily make it impossible for Schnack to be involved because he doesn't fit your management style? I know this new rule was intended to protect the syndicates from flagrant bed hopping and driving the talent rates up. But, was it ever the intention to disqualify someone like Tom, this early in the game, from being involved at all in what can only be described as "his realm"? Me thinks not. Unless Schnack was looking to quietly retire and slip out the back door this sucks all the way to Arabia! BTW - Cayard seems to be conspicuously MIA since the Olympics - is it time for to start watching for his picture on milk containers? * From Clay Bartel: I have a long time favorite of my own when it comes to a children's book. Sailor Dog, a golden books classic is a story that inspired many children to take to the water to find adventure. It is an accurate sailor story that inspires children to fantasize about traveling the water and finding new places, the hard work that it requires to be successful on the water and the rewards that a sailor feels when he has the ability to weather the "storm". * From Jeff A. Jelten: I hardily agree with John Glynn and I commend Scuttlebutt for giving space to this most important of issues for the future of the sport. I too am in the process of introducing sail to my children, and my wife as well, and I have the same anxieties about succeeding. I have great respect for Glynn's approach and what's more I believe that is how the worlds greatest sailors have been and continue to be brought into the sport. It's difficult to compete with the instant gratification of PS2 and computers at a point in children's lives when their attention span is at its shortest. I believe that industry could address this better but are primarily focused on the high end of the Yachting. They have to start now to culture the yachtsmen and yachtswomen of the future that they will want to market to. How about some easy to use, accessible, exciting, fun, new technologies for intro level sailing. Some products that address and empower the needs of women and children to get them out on the water having a good time. They are key to the future of the sport. P.S. Sailing Away! by Donald Crews is another good children's book. * From Chuck Hall (edited to our 250-word limit): As I read John Glynn's guest editorial on the lack of youth sailing, I felt as if he and I lived on different planets. He laments the lack of opportunities for children to learn to sail and to race sailboats. He notes that most national publications seem focused on professional sailing. Perhaps that is true, but for children's sailing he is simply looking in the wrong places. My family spends 75% of our weekends on the water in some of the greatest sailing venues in America. We see hundreds of other families thoroughly enjoying themselves too. After sailing, most families join their friends in pool and pizza parties or at a 50-person table eating gravy-fries. There are happy faces everywhere. No, don't look for the kids at a NOOD regatta or at beer can races on Friday night. Just attend any USODA Opti regatta in your area. I can hear John now, "But, that is high-pressure racing." For some that is true. But, that is only a small part of the story. The vast majority of Opti sailors have no Olympic dreams-they only want to feel the joy and freedom of sailing their own boats. They love seeing their sailing friends and meeting new ones. For the majority, Opti racing provides the same pleasures for kids, that John wants them to enjoy as adults. So, John don't worry about the future of our sport - just go the USODA web site and find a regatta close to you. * From Gary Morgan: Here in Seattle our two free sailing magazines, namely 48 deg. N. and NW Yachting are very supportive of the NW junior programs. The cover each of the major junior circuit regattas with both a write up, results and pictures. It was always great for your child to see their name in print, maybe a picture of themselves sailing and their results. And parents love it too. Hats off to these two fine maganzines for supporting the juniors in the NW! CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks. |
