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SCUTTLEBUTT 2932 - Friday, September 18, 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 JK3 Nautical Enterprises and New England Ropes THE SECRET AGREEMENT It’s no secret anymore. In Scuttlebutt 2931 we published a link to the heretofore ‘secret agreement’ between SNG and the ISAF for the 33rd America’s Cup. Everyone who cares anymore has now read it. Following is an excerpt from the yachtpals.com analysis of the document: While what was released was not quite the damning backroom conspiracy its "confidential" aspect and "secret" payment seemed to suggest, there are some areas of the agreement which certainly cause concern. Most notably, the second paragraph in section 7 reads: "Any conflict between the provisions of the ISAF RRS and other ISAF Regulations and provisions of the Deed of Gift, shall be decided by the SNG exclusively, who will keep at all times the right to modify the relevant documentation to comply with the Deed of Gift provisions." This, along with the wording of section 5 subparagraph (b), seems to give the defending club (Alinghi), and the management company it has chosen for the race (also part of the agreement), somewhat free reign in regard to the sailing rules for the event. Section 11 reads quite clearly that "The Parties shall keep this agreement confidential at all times," without an obvious clause for mutual consent in modifying this agreement. However, Alinghi has, on its website, today stated that they have "decided to publish the agreement" along with the ISAF, though this was several hours after the ISAF released the document. - Brad Hampton, full story: http://yachtpals.com/americas-cup-7028 GGYC STATEMENT San Diego, CA, September 17, 2009 - Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) re-asserts its reasonable request that the 33rd America's Cup be sailed under the un-doctored International Sailing Federation (ISAF) rules and not some hybrid version which the Societe Nautique de Geneve (SNG) has tailored for its own benefit under the scope granted to it in the secret agreement struck with ISAF. This agreement is now public, as GGYC requested. Some of the terms of the agreement have been altered but there is still a long way to go before the 33rd America's Cup can be considered a legitimate competition for both defender and challenger. SNG is clearly bound by the Deed of Gift to sail under ISAF rules because they are the rules of the defending club. * GGYC goes on to explain exactly what they feel is necessary to achieve a competitive and legitimate 33rd America's Cup, and those issues are now posted on the Scuttlebutt Forum: http://tinyurl.com/lnejp9 NEW YORK YACHT CLUB TAKES THE LEAD Newport, R.I., USA - The fleet of 19 teams from 14 nations competing at the inaugural New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup worked it hard in four shifty, somewhat unpredictable races on Narragansett Bay today. Irish eyes were smiling aboard the Royal Cork Yacht Club’s entry when skipper Anthony O’Leary won the first two races of the day, but it was the New York Yacht Club’s team led by skipper Phil Lotz (Newport, R.I./ New Canaan, Conn.) that made the move to the top of the scoreboard (from second yesterday) when he played the averages for a score line that never left the single digits. Lotz gave credit to his team and tactician Ken Read (Newport, R.I.), known as one of the best sailors in the world, for a remarkable comeback in the second race that took them from sorry-at the-start to phenomenal-at-the-finish. “It was a classic Newport northerly,” said the Canadian team’s trimmer Geoff Moore, who now lives in Toronto but used to call Newport home. Moore made the point that no one is winning all the races and he expects everyone to have a bad race or two, but there are no discard races, so staying on top of the game is key. Standings 1. New York Yacht Club (USA), Phil Lotz, 2-4-2-8-6, 22 points 2. Royal Canadian Yacht Club (CAN), Terry McLaughlin, 1-3-5-1-5, 25 3. Royal Cork Yacht Club (IRL), Anthony O'Leary, 3-1-1-14-7, 26 4. St. Francis Yacht Club (USA), Craig Healy, 12-11-11-2-2, 38 5. Japan Sailing Federation (JPN), Makoto Uematsu, 4-16-3-6-11, 40 Nightly reports, blogs, daily video and results are available at: http://www.nyyc.org/eventnews Online video reports: http://jobsonsailing.com/ Live-race tracking by Kattack: http://tinyurl.com/oyue8a SAN DIEGO J/FEST 2009: IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CREW! Southern California’s J/Fest is at the San Diego Yacht Club September 25th - 27th. J/Fest is Southern California’s largest regatta exclusively for J/Boats. Don't miss out on the biggest J/Boat event of the year! This year J/Fest will be focused on celebrating and thanking your crew and those who contribute to the fun and success you have during the sailing season. There will be exciting one design racing, great prizes, and fun parties. Register for J/Fest today! www.sdyc.org/raceinfo/races09/jfest . Questions? Contact J/Concierge Amanda Denton at JK3 amanda@jk3yachts.com SAIL FOR GOLD REGATTA Weymouth, England - The breeze on Thursday was between 8-16 knots and shifting up to 30 degrees. There was a 1.5 metre swell coming side on to the wind to make it all like a washing machine. Winner of Tuesday's windy race in the Finn Class, Zach Railey (USA) picked up a 13th and a 10th Thursday to drop to eighth overall. He said, "It is interesting that it is so shifty. With the wind coming of the cliff face, it makes for large direction changes in the breeze that are hard to pick up on." As for the venue, he said, "The facilities are fantastic and the race management has been top notch." In the Women’s Match Racing, the USA’s Anna Tunnicliffe won her division and now advances to the quarter finals with seven other teams With only one day of fleet racing left, the Olympic classes will battle it out Friday to ensure top ten positions and spots in Saturday’s medal races. Friday is the last day of racing for the three Paralympic classes, when the medals will be decided. Following are the North American teams who are currently in the top ten at the Sail for Gold event in the respective classes: * Finn: Zack Railey (USA) 8th of 37 * Women’s Match Racing: Anna Tunnicliffe advanced to quarter finals * RSX Men: Ben Barger (USA) 10th of 44 * 2.4mR: Mark Le Blanc (USA) 6th of 14 and Paul Tingley (CAN) 8th of 14 * Sonar: Doerr/ Freund/ McKinnon-Tucker (USA), 1st of 9 * SKUD 18: Scott Whitman/ Julia Dorsett (USA), 1st of 6 and John McRoberts/ Brenda Hopkin (CAN) 3rd of 6 Preview and photos: http://sailingteams.ussailing.org/ Results: http://www.sailracer.co.uk/events/18401/results.htm THE FLYING KIWIS As if to display exactly why they are the champions-in-waiting of the 2009 Audi MedCup Circuit TP52 Series, Emirates Team New Zealand produced a flawless display across two very challenging big breeze races today to set themselves off on the perfect footing as the Caja Mediterraneo Region of Murcia Trophy finally got under way. While other teams were found wanting, some struggling in the short, steep seas off Cartagena and the gusty, shifty SW’ly wind which peaked at 27 knots, Emirates Team New Zealand took flight, reveling in the robust conditions. Their wins proved the virtue of their many years of top level racing together as a crew, but - as other teams suffered equipment failures and shredded sails - their triumphs are testament to their exceptional high standards of preparation. “With the wind reaching 32 knots and a very rough sea, Team New Zealand was in a class of their own winning both races,” said Paul Cayard. “Racing was stopped after the second race due to the damage that some of the boats incurred. Boats like Synergy and Matador broke 2 or 3 gennakers each! No collisions though. Forecast for tomorrow is more of the same.” ETNZ’s Ray Davies said, “Our biggest worry was breaking something and you do all you can to prevent that, but on the other hand you can’t sail slow. It was fantastic crew work all round. Years sailing together make that difference which is as well because a lot of the time it is just about impossible to communicate.” Davis revealed that his secondary role in the high speed, wet, bumpy, surfing conditions was keeping helmsman Dean Barker wedged inside the boat as they ploughed through the walls of white water. Day One Results 1. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), 1+1= 2 points 2. Audi TP52 Powered by Q8 (ITA), 2+3= 5 points 3. Bribón (ESP), 3+5= 8 points 4. Artemis (SWE), 7+2= 9 points 5. Bigamist 7 (POR), 6+4= 10 points Event website: http://2009.medcup.org "COULD IT GET ANY WEIRDER?” Westport, CT (September 17, 2009) - Andy Horton said, "Could it get any weirder than that?" as he crossed the finish line of the first race of the day over a minute ahead of Alberto Zanetti and Gustavo Warburg (ARG). In fact, it did get a lot weirder as the afternoon on Long Island Sound wore on. But Horton and crew SteveErickson (USA) cracked the code of Long Island Sound's wind shifts and flushing current and walked away from Thursday's two races of the Star North American Championship with two horizon jobs. They crossed the finish line in the second race over two minutes in front of Richard Clarke and Tyler Bjorn (CAN). With Thursday's two bullets Horton/Erickson and their Lilia inched ahead of Clarke/Bjorn and their P Star by one point, and took the regatta lead from George Szabo and Rick Peters who scored two double-digit finishes - which move them down to fourth place. Preliminary Scores following 6 races with one discard. 1. Horton/ Erickson (USA) - 5, (13), 2, 3, 1, 1 - 12 2. Clarke/ Bjorn (CAN) - (16), 3, 1, 1, 6, 2 - 13 3. McChesney /Zwigelberg (USA)- 12, 1, 3, (16) 3, 4 - 23 4. Szabo /Peters (USA) - 2, 4, 4, 2, (12), 11 - 23 5. MacCausland /Murphy (USA) - 11, 7, 5, 4, (15), 5 - 32 Complete results: http://tinyurl.com/rckvto ENDURA BRAID DEBUT AT MELGES 24 WORLDS Chris Larson and his team will be partnering with New England Ropes at the upcoming 2009 Melges World Championships in Annapolis, Maryland. New England Ropes, the leading marine performance cordage manufacturer in North America, will have some hot new colors and designs for this campaign. Our broad selection of Endura Braid, V100 and Salsa and our complete dinghy range will give Larson’s team an edge on sail control and performance. For more information, on our wide selection of racing products, visit our website: http://www.neropes.com. Others make rope. We make rope perform. RAMPING UP Following the announcement yesterday that Britain's Team Origin will be stepping up their sailing activities again, there has been confirmation that the team plan to compete on next year's Audi MedCup Circuit. Team Origin’s lead designer Juan Kouyoumdjian (ARG) was in Cartagena yesterday at the Caja Mediterraneo Region of Murcia Trophy. “We have to make the decision whether to buy an existing boat and make it fast or build to the new rule and so we are going through that process just now,” said Team Director Mike Sanderson. “We would love to do a new boat. We have to make the decision very soon but it ticks all the boxes, utilizing more of our team, our design capability. But the flip side of that is that we have to believe it will be competitive in the future. It appears this season that the three new boats have a slight edge and so we really want to be able to at least reach that pace. At the moment we are just inside that window (to build new) and so we would have to go at it full noise to get there, we are just deciding just now what the best way will be. Juan (Kouyoumdjian) is working on it just now. He’s looking at it. But to build new, if it makes sense, is our first choice because it uses so many aspects of our team’s abilities,” Sanderson concluded. - http://2009.medcup.org SAILING SHORTS * Following the success of last year’s inaugural World Yacht Racing Forum which attracted over 300 delegates from 37 countries, the second edition of the Forum returns to Monaco this December 9 -10. This year, a new event has also been added to the schedule – the Yacht Racing Design and Technology Symposium – which will run parallel to the Forum in an adjoining conference room (www.yrdts.com). The World Yacht Racing Forum promises an outstanding line up of speakers including Conference Chairman Peter Gilmour (AUS), Tom Whidden, CEO of North Sails, and two time Vendee Globe winner Michel Desjoyeaux. - For a full list of speakers and conference programs: www.worldyachtracingforum.com and www.yrdts.com * Middletown, R.I. - Bonnier Corp.’s Cruising World magazine kicks off its yearlong 35th anniversary celebration with the publication’s October 2009 issue. The October issue marks the launch of a boatload of activities that celebrate the milestone anniversary of the very first Cruising World edition, called The Sailboat Show Annual, which was released during the 1974 Annapolis Sailboat Show held in October of that year. The commemorative issue of Cruising World will include not only its regular features, but also a number of articles by longtime friends and readers of the publication, including a special tribute to Cruising World’s founder, Murray Davis. - www.cruisingworld.com * There were few surprises in the August report of United States sailboat brokerage sales, as reported by broker members of YachtWorld.com. Sailboat brokerage sales in August held steady at 523 boats, which is similar to the prior three months and only 14 percent lower than the 605 boats that were sold in August, 2008. Over the warmer months of May to August, 500-550 sailboats have been reported sold each month, which, collectively, is 20 percent fewer than in the same months in 2008. - http://www.sailamerica.com/ CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Is your event listed on the Scuttlebutt Event Calendar? This free, self-serve tool is the easiest way to communicate to both sailors and sailing media. These are some of the events listed on the calendar for this weekend: September 18-20 - 2009 29er U.S. Nationals San Francisco, CA, USA September 18-20 - Audi Melges 20 Sailing Series Porto Cervo, Sardinia, Italy September 18-20 - Mariner National Championship Regatta Riverton, NJ, USA View all the events at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Please submit your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, ‘The Curmudgeon’). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). One letter per subject, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- To submit a Letter: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- To post on the Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Doran Cushing (re story in Scuttlebutt 2930) I've been biting my tongue so long it's bleeding. Jessica Watson's incompetence to sail for a day without colliding with a 63,000 ton ship was painful enough to read, but now we get daily reports of the fixin' of her boat. I think it was it Moon Zappa who said "gag me with a spoon!" Stop. Just stop reporting this drool. As an average but prudent offshore sailor, I made it from Los Angeles to the Panama Canal, to Columbia, to Florida, to the western Caribbean, and back again (and few thousand other offshore miles) without the recent technology. I had radar, a SatNav (anyone remember those?), a depth sounder, and paper charts. I never hit a freighter, or anything else except the bottom once in a while (while awake, on deck, in daylight). I might add I did much of the offshore work in Central and South America single-handed as my friends decided meeting me at nice places was better than sailing there. I'd bet the 13-year old in Europe has more skill than Ms. Watson but the lawyers won't let her sail (and I don't disagree with that decision). Ms. Watson, her family, and her sponsors need to get real, get a life, and take the skinheads bowling (but not go sailing offshore single- handed). * From Howard Bentley (re story in Scuttlebutt 2930) The yacht Ella's Pink Lady was damaged in a collision with the 63,000 tonne cargo vessel Silver Yang, off North Stradbroke Island, in the early hours of September 9. The 16- year-old Queensland schoolgirl was heading to Sydney on a test run before attempting to break the record for the youngest person to sail solo around the world. Perhaps a collision with a tanker should wake you up that this is a sophomoric pursuit of an ill advised record. * From Chris Woods It is with great fondness that I write to wish God's Speed to one of sailboat racing's greatest supporters, who recently sailed on. As the Chairman of New York Yacht Club's Team Racing it was with great pleasure and admiration that, several times a year, I would thank Hugh for his RC work at our regatta dinners. He would invariably get a standing ovation when the competitors learned that the gentleman who was hand-over-handing 80 feet of a mark's ground tackle in response to course change requests from our ever-vigilant PRO was in fact over 80 years old and a past Commander of the USS Constitution. When asked "how he did it", he would simply hold out his two big hands to show the acorn-sized calluses across them and smile. He will continue to be an inspiration to us all. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION When sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt, that’s a pretty good sign that you’ve grown up. Special thanks to JK3 Nautical Enterprises and New England Ropes Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
