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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 877 - August 13, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
THE TEAM ADVENTURE SAGA -Cam Lewis A couple of more bumps to leeward, junk bouncing off our port dagger board, hull and rudder to leeward. Crossing the Georges Bank, asking why is there so much junk in the ocean here and why are we smacking into it. Swirling currents, Gulf Streams eddies, Labrador currents and millions of people tossing their garbage into the sea close by. We had sailed around the world and hit nothing! Then at daylight 0530 I had finally closed my eyes and was sleeping or at least dozing in a bunk just below the helmsman when a huge bang startled, adrenalin shooting through my neurons. I was on deck in a flash thinking that the pole had broken and expecting to see the mast tumbling down. It took a few seconds to zoom my eyes on to the leeward port bow which was definitely broken off and oscillating wildly in all directions. Broken off aft of the forward beam. Not what one would have expected from a collision with a ? We hit something, Stuart McKelvey was further aft in the windward cockpit and believes that what he saw closely resembled a section of an overtuned white boat with a red waterline stripe about 15 feet long. No one else saw a thing. It was too foggy to even see the tip of the mast. Our speed barely slowed. The UFO (unidentified floating object) disappeared in the soup behind. Sails were dropped within minutes The impact caused the sacrificial crash box on the knuckle of the bow to shear off just as designed. The shock from the crash must have caused the massive failure of the hull/bow just aft of the forward crossbeam. A failure that will certainly have me, our crew and all the designers and engineers baffled. Right now we need a bus load of carbonologists and a truckload of money to get back out here and have another go at this elusive record. This is not the last of our team, we will be back. - Cam Lewis At 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Team Adventure reported she was under tow from the Canadian coast guard and six miles from Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia. Team Adventure tied up in Shag Harbor at Cape Sable, and in the calm water the crew used scuba gear to install the propellers for the auxiliary engines. At 4:00 p.m. Team Adventure reported the boat had just left Shag Harbor and was proceeding under engine to Vinalhaven, Maine. The boat will moor there until arrangements for the repair are completed. It should take about 20 hrs to motor slowly (180 miles). - www.teamadventure.org
CLASS ACT
RAYTHEON SUMMER SALE
MUST SEE
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Seymour Friedel: I think water is overrated for dealing with the heat. I always have gallons of Gatorade available on my boat and I insist that people drink it. The stuff really works. Being a curmudgeon myself I also insist on no alcohol until after we are heading in. finally, I try and get everyone to wear hats. It is good to keep the sun off the old noggin. * From Paul Meisel: The discussion of heat illness is timely. At the Lake Erie Inter-Lake Yachting Association regatta earlier this week I was overcome by heat exhaustion while trimming the main on a Tartan 10. It was still early in the day (about 11 am) but we were halfway through our third race in fairly heavy air and working hard. Despite having had about three bottles of water, I started to cramp up. Our skipper realized I wasn't sweating anymore and called for water, and her sister had the presence of mind to get ice on me. It took a couple hours after the race before I got back to something approaching normal. Please note, everyone: I thought I was drinking enough water, I wasn't hungover or particularly tired -- I had no reason to think I was at risk but it was a close call. Know the symptoms and watch for them on the hot days. * From Alan Johnson: I am glad to see Jacques Rogge comments about curtailing the growth of new olympic sports. I hope this puts to rest the movement to include Ballroom Dancing in the Olympics. * From Tom Farquhar: In reply to Bill Elmer's comment in #876: One minor point regarding the use of an engine after the class flag is raised--that signal is the class' Warning, and a boat is prohibited by RRS 42.1 from using its engine while racing. Boats begin racing at their Preparatory signal, now one minute after the Warning if RRS 26 is being used unchanged. * From: Rod Carr (Response to Scott Ridgeway): At least in the Radio Sailing, "throwouts" are a way to protect the fortunes of the top 3rd of the fleet which can sometimes be spoiled by encounters with inexperienced skippers, or by the vagaries of the skipper being removed from his boat when at the far mark. We move our National Championships around the country, and have always encouraged newcomers to take part in them. This leads to a fleet of mixed talent, where "top guns" want to test themselves against their peers, and the newbies can sometimes get in the middle of it all. My opinion is that the health of the sport is supported by such an approach, and that "throwouts" are really a self-policed form of redress in almost all cases. * From Stuart Burnett: In the article on the Fastnet Race in Scuttlebutt 876, the various skippers and navigators of the VO60s were listed. Two individuals were listed as being from UK, while one was listed as GBR. What's the difference? * From Brian Thomas: Thanks to Mr. Hothaus for the insightful analysis of America's Cup and Olympic nationality rules in Friday's Scuttlebutt. By way of further illustration, he might have also mentioned that Prada's newly minted "Italian" Gavin Brady not only sails in the Star Worlds for New Zealand, but normally lives at his home in Annapolis, Maryland, which he has now rented to his Kiwi mate, Morgan Trubovich, so Morgan can establish USA residency and sail for Team Dennis Conner. * From Bill Buchan: In response to Mr. Truesdell, Star sailors do not represent Nations in the World Championships, they always have, and hopefully always will, be representatives of the local Fleet or District in which they normally sail.
STAR WORLDS In the sixth match the team from New Zealand, Brady and Iverson, lead all the way. It was their last chance for the world championship. The Swedish though finished third and consolidated their leading position overall, be it with the minimum advantage of only one point! Winner Fredrik Lööf is a relatively new face in Star sailing. After the Olympics he changed from Finn to Star. At the Olympics he won a bronze medal in Finn sailing, in which he is reigning world champion too.
FINAL RESULTS:
TONGUE IN CHEEK
CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS
IMS 50 WORLDS
Final standings:
IMS 50 Season Championship, 5 Regattas, 1 Throwout:
J/24 NATIONALS
Final results: Complete results: www.stfyc.com/race-office/2001/j24nationals.htm
NOOD
BIG BOATS The three J's, Shamrock V, Velsheda and Endeavour lined up for the midday start with the same 35 mile course as the first day. A long beat up to the west to a mark laid under the cliffs near Swanage. A port rounding followed by a reach into the beach off Southbourne, a gybe out to the Bridge Fairway buoy of the Needles and a run down the main Needles Channel to the finish off Hurst Castle at the entrance to the Solent. - SailSail website
To read the race story and see a great J-Boat photo:
RESULTS: Race Two:
HUGE NUMBERS The total fleet is split into four categories each racing for separate prizes; Apprentices aged 35 to 44 years old, Masters 45 to 54 years old, Grand Masters 55 to 65 years old. A separate Radial fleet for lighter weight sailors also includes 20 Great Grand Masters aged over 65. - Full results: www.laserinternational.org
CONTENDER WORLDS
OPTI NATIONALS
FASTNET RACE Most of the records for the Fastnet were set in the last race two years ago when the inclusion of multihulls and monohulls using water ballast clipped the previous best times. The marks to better are the outright quickest time set by Kiwi Ross Field in his Maxi One-Design 80-footer RF Yachting of two days, five hours and eight minutes, an hour better than the time by Boomerang, a conventionally ballasted maxi owned by American George Coumantaros. But for sheer speed, Loick Peyron's Fuji- color ripped round from Cowes, to the Fastnet Rock off Ireland's south-west tip and back to Plymouth via the Scillies, in 1 day 16hr 27min. Rodney Pattisson, joining Francois Joyon's crew on the 60ft trimaran that broke the Hoya Round the Island record a month ago, Eure et Loire, led the charge out through Hurst Narrows yesterday, comfortably ahead of Emma Richards and Mikaela von Koskull on Pindar. Field's NewsCorp led the four of the eight Volvo 60s which will contest next month's Round the World event out of the Solent. John Kostecki enjoyed a dream start on the non-right-of-way port tack right across the bows of NewsCorp, Gunnar Krantz's SEB and Roy Heiner's Assa Abbloy. - Tim Jeffery, UK Telegraph Full story: sport.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2001/08/12/soyots13.xml
US SAILING
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