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SCUTTLEBUTT 3406 - Tuesday, August 16, 2011Scuttlebutt 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. Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: Team One Newport, North Sails, and LaserPerformance. RAMBLER 100 CAPSIZES IN FASTNET RACE (August 15, 2011) - A statement issued by the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) at 2053 BST reported that the yacht Rambler 100 (USA) has capsized between the Fastnet Rock and the Pantaenius Buoy. The Irish Coastguard services were at the scene coordinating the rescue as well as the Baltimore RNLI lifeboat. Two Sikorsky helicopters have been scrambled and an Irish Naval vessel is en route to the scene of the accident. All 21 crew have been rescued. According to RORC, a further statement will be released when more information becomes known. Meanwhile, the two largest trimarans in the record-sized Rolex Fastnet Race rounded the Fastnet Rock off southwest Ireland at around 0930 this morning. As expected Loick Peyron's Maxi Banque Populaire (FRA) was leading, but surprisingly just eight miles ahead of the Seb Josse-skippered Gitana 11 (FRA), despite the latter being just 77 feet compared to Maxi Banque Populaire's monstrous 140-foot long hulls. Once around, the boats have approximately 250 miles (on the rhumb line) to sail to the finish in Plymouth after 608 nautical miles. -- Reports at event website: http://www.fastnet.rorc.org HARDESTY TAKES CHICAGO GRADE 2 INVITATIONAL Chicago, IL (August 14, 2011) - The breeze was on for Bill Hardesty (USA) to win the Chicago Grade 2 Invitational at Navy Pier on the third and final day of racing which was filled with upsets, breakdowns and collisions. Winds picked up to 30-40 knots in the middle of the night and tapered off just enough for racing, though, it was determined early on that spinnakers would not be flown after a broach with spreaders in the water by Chicago Match Race Center Sailing Director Taylor Canfield (USVI). The day began with the completion of the second Round Robin that had potential for a three-way tie for third between Nicolai Sehested (DEN), Hardesty and Canfield with one team not advancing into the Semis. Even without spinnakers, there was still enough action to cause several collisions including one between Sehested and Laurie Jury (NZL) that ended in significant damage. The incident occurred in a port-starboard situation when Jury on starboard tried to bear away enough to avoid the collision with Sehested's port boat. Unfortunately, Jury wasn't able to move the boat enough and ended up T-boning the Danes. A better Finals match-up could not have been scripted between Hardesty and Jury in a best-of-three series. While Hardesty dominated Match One from the start, Jury held his opponent off long enough to win Match Two. The split wins lead to Match Three which was a dog-fight the whole way through with Jury receiving a penalty for not keeping clear in the start. The New Zealand team looked like they were going to be able to gain ground on their opponent up until Hardesty threw in a dicey tack that crossed the top of the rigs. In what seemed like a certain call for a penalty on Hardesty, the umpires gave penalties to both teams leaving Jury with his prior flag. Hardesty attributed persistence to his team's success this weekend. "We got together for the first time on Thursday for a few hours to practice. Friday was looking pretty rough. My team worked it out and was able to pull it all off today." -- Full report: http://chicagocup.org/news/article.asp?n=1068 THE CLOCK IS TICKING!! Attention College and High School sailing teams: Your scholastic sailing season is fast approaching and we don't want you to wait until the last minute to get geared up. Register NOW with Team One Newport and SAVE. Remember that staying dry and comfortable gives you the mental edge. Team One is just the place to outfit YOUR Team and help you towards victory! Be one of the first 5 schools to submit your team roster/contact info and receive some Team One Newport schwag. Don't put it off....call 800.VIP.GEAR, FAX to 401.849.8460 or Email ted@team1newport.com today! Then visit our website http://www.team1newport.com and get your order started! VALUABLE LESSONS LEARNED Olympic gold medallist Anna Tunnicliffe reports in her blog on the lessons she learned this weekend at the Chicago Grade 2 Invitational. Team MacLaren ended the regatta with a 7-9 record, after tying for 6th overall and losing the tie. Tunnicliffe stated, "Not pretty, but much better than how the regatta started." --------------------------------------------------------------------- The morning started with a skippers' meeting at which they informed us we would be sailing with reefed main sails. We then went and rigged the boats and headed off for racing. The first two matches sailed were the matches that didn't finish yesterday due to the storms. After one or two great wipeouts, the race committee decided that we wouldn't use kites anymore. Most of the time between races the teams hungout in the lee of the pier to stop the boat from being shaken around, but when we ventured out past the pier, it was full on! With three minutes to go before our entry, we gybed around and our vang blew up. A block exploded under the pressure of the gybe so the girls did a quick re rig of the vang so we could enter and sail the race. We had a good start and drew a penalty on the Danish team just before the start gun went. We started to the left of them, but had good speed and eventually reached the obstruction area and therefore were entitled to room to tack. They tacked and we were able to roll over them just before the top mark. Downwind, we sailed a little too wide out from the mark and they were able to get inside of us and round ahead at the bottom mark. Upwind, we kept the game close as they had a penalty still to spin. We sailed out to the starboard layline and then followed them into the mark. They tried to slow and pull us close to them, but we hung back as we were supposed to. They went on the round the mark, but tacked just shy and ended up rafting up on it. We sailed plenty of extra distance to get around them and the mark and went on to win the race. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/3hgnwnr DOWNLOADING POST OLYMPIC TEST EVENT By Michelle Slade Dean Brenner, Chairman, Olympic Sailing Committee, has begun to download the events of the past few weeks at the 2012 Olympic Test event that wrapped up over the weekend in Weymouth, England. Here he talks about what he's got to focus on next as US Olympic sailors prepare for the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships and beyond. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- What did you take away from the Test event? Brenner: We've been thinking about it a lot. The best way to describe it is that you're always going to be proud of a medal at an event like this and every time you win one, you feel really good about it. We won two medals and we're proud of that. But we're not satisfied. We can do better than two bronze medals and we need to better than that. I don't want to say that in any way suggests that we're not proud of what Sally, Elizabeth and Alana achieved in the match-racing and what Paige achieved in the Radial. They're significant accomplishments and we're definitely celebrating those performances. Where can improvements be made? Brenner: We're going to focus in a couple of ways. We've always been very focused on a class by class basis and it's no secret to anybody who follows our program that we pick where we put our resources. We're not at the stage where we think we can compete in all ten events for a medal so we're going to strategically apply those resources. We think there are five or six places where we can be legitimately competitive next year and that remains our goal. We struggled in some classes in the really, really big Weymouth breeze and I don't think it's a fitness issue - our team is very fit - but I think it was no mystery to anyone who we were racing against out there that our team needs to get a little bigger (heavier) so we're going to focus on that too. But, we'll be there in all ten events and we'll put our best foot forward in all ten. What's the general spirit among the US sailors after the Test event? Brenner: Excellent, we have a very close team, a very confident team and we work really hard on keeping everybody together, supporting each other, so the spirit is absolutely positive. It's one thing if you have a less than ideal result and you don't know why. It's another thing entirely when you don't get the result you want but you know exactly why. We had two or three events minimum where we know for sure that our result would have been better if we were a bit heavier. We're giving our sailors more support than they've ever had before and they know it and are grateful for it. We're constantly adding resources that will let them focus more exclusively on their sailing. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/3mjtayp CORRECTION Results were incorrectly reported in Scuttlebutt 3405 for Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih (USA) Star sailors who competed at last week's 2012 Olympic Test event. They finished 6th in the medal race and 9th overall. CAYARD REPORTS ON CASCAIS (August 15, 2011) - The first racing of the new America's Cup is now in the record books. In yesterday's only and final race, there were three lead changes, the top boat speed was 24 knots, the course had 6 legs, and the race took 40 minutes and was within .5 miles of the shore. Everything that had been promised was delivered. Cascais delivered perfect conditions all week with wind between 8 and 18 knots. For those who thought catamaran racing would be dull and boring, this past week has been a wake up call. The final of the match racing yesterday between Emirates Team New Zealand and ORACLE Racing Spithill was classic match racing with the competitors even tacking on each other at upwind speeds of 15 knots. There is much to learn in racing these boats. New strategies for starting, course management, sail trim and boat handling. These boats are extremely physical for the crew. I was looking at the heart rate data of one of our crew for a race the other day and his average heart rate for the 25 minute race was 91% of his maximum. His minimum heart rate was 82% and he hit 100% three times! Athletics has finally hit sailing! It was fantastic to see this new sailing "product" rolled out in such a convincing way. The live internet coverage of the racing was very well done with graphics that show the course boundaries like a basketball court. Other graphics for the "zone" around the marks. The replays of critical moments along with commentary were cool. Sure, all this can be improved still and will, but it is such a huge leap forward from past coverage of sailing. -- Full story: http://www.cayardsailing.com/cs_Reports.cfm?evtID=143&csRpt=1038 NORTH-POWERED J/105s TAKE 1, 2, 3 AT 2011 NORTH AMERICANS North Sails-powered J/105s ruled the 2011 North American Championship held in Marblehead, MA over the weekend. Scimitar, owned by Henry Brauer & Stewart Neff, scored three bullets over the 11-race series to win the North American title. Savasana*, owned by Brian Keane, finished 2nd and Radiance, owned by Bill Lakenmacher, took third overall. All three boats raced with North Class Sail Development (CSD) upwind sails and Scimitar and Radiance raced with North V-Series CSD spinnakers. When performance counts, the choice is clear: http://na.northsails.com (* = partial inventory) PHOTO GALLERIES The event schedule last week was stacked up on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Here is some of the evidence: * Extreme Sailing Series - The Extreme Sailing Season is embarking on its fifth season, with the nine event tour traveling through Asia, Europe, and North America this year. Competing in equally matched 40-foot catamarans, the stop in Cowes, UK always provides a blustery and bustery show...images by Daniel Forster: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/11/0813/ * America's Cup World Series - While the winds were light and the carnage was lighter, the AC45 racing in Cascais launched this new era for the America's Cup. Photos by Guilain Grenier and Chris Cameron: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/11/0814/ * J/105 North Americans - This 35-foot racer cruiser is made for those who will not give up the intensity of one-design racing, with solid one-design rules providing the foundation for growth. And unlike the very few other one-design classes over 30-feet, there are no pro sailors allowed in Class events. Photos by PhotoBoat.com: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/11/0815/ SAILING SHORTS * Marblehead, MA (August 14, 2011) - Henry Brauer and Stewart Neff on Scimitar were victorious on their home turf to win the 2011 J/105 North American Championship in Marblehead, MA. With crew Stuart Johnstone, Julia Langford, Will Walters and Steve Cucchiaro, Scimitar never scored worse than a 16 in the 11-race series, including three bullets and two runner-up tallies. With a total score of 68 points, the team finished 13 points ahead of its closest competition in the 42-boat fleet. -- Results at: http://tinyurl.com/436794c * Sailors from all backgrounds competed at the 2011 US 470 National Championships, hosted by the City of Lake Forest, IL, August 5-7. The event brought out 470 enthusiasts of all types in a fleet including three father-daughter teams, two post-college 470 teams, one husband-wife team, and a variety of "masters-aged" teams. At the sharp end of the fleet '88 470 Gold Medalist Allison Jolly, sailing with Andrew Sumpton, mixed it up with Lake Forest local Olympic hopeful and Hunter Ratliff, fresh off the spring training circuit in Europe, teamed for this event with Ian Schappe who won, becoming the new 470 National Champions. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/3k9muvq * In a vintage Cowes Week which averaged 20 knots of breeze over 8 days Mike Bartholomew's Summit 40 Tokoloshe sailed a consistently excellent series to take the Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week Title. Guided by Solent tactician Mike Richards it was a true test of stamina as well as skill for the UK based South African boat. Tokoloshe scored one of her three firsts on the Tuesday in lighter conditions to win the Britannia Cup, Cowes Weeks premier stand-alone trophy, the second time in the last four years it has been held by a Mills Design boat. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/3q6puh2 * The 50th Cal 20 Class Championship was hosted over the weekend by the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach, California. The event topped its goal of 50 boats for the championship, totaling 53 in Gold, Silver and Bronze classes, and by the end of the weekend they were all rocking in whitecaps stirred up by 15 knots of wind from southwest. The course was nine-tenths of a nautical mile windward-leeward, twice around, between Oil Island Freeman and the anchored tanker Front Eminence. Keith Ives and Chuck Stevens (Alamitos Bay YC) took first place. -- Full report: http://www.abyc.org/upload/cal20champs2011pr5.doc * The nomination deadline for the ICSA All-Academic Sailing Team is September 9, 2011. The ICSA All-Academic Sailing Team recognizes those scholar athletes who have distinguished themselves in national and intersectional competition, while achieving the highest levels of academic excellence. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/43wztda FREE SHIPPING AT LASERPERFORMANCE! For the rest of August, LaserPerformance is picking up the tab on shipping for your next sailboat. Take delivery of a Bahia, Vago, Optimist or Bug and you can save up to $525. You need to hurry as there are limited quantities available and some restrictions do apply. Please call your local dealer or LaserPerformance with any questions. http://na.laserperformance.com/home GUEST COMMENTARY Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community. Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted comments chosen to be published in the newsletter may be limited to 250 words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Tony Magee: Re America's Cup coverage, I finally stumbled onto the following YouTube site http://www.youtube.com/americascup#g/u late Saturday - it was a random event and I could not duplicate the find if my life depended on it, and spent all of Sunday staring at the computer. After watching hours and hours now, I find the AC45s interesting but really miss the tactical aspects of the windward starts, headsail decisions, on-course tacking duels, et cetera. It's just not the same event. With the AC45s, a huge number of variables have been removed from consideration in the conduct of a race and will be the same with the AC72s. * From Cameron McIntyre (re Scuttlebutt 3405): Responding to Mr. Baldwin's comments regarding my own, really, seriously how many "newbies" are watching? I can't find viewership statistics for the series in Cascais, however previous America's Cup statistics report online viewers at 140,000 on race days (Yachting World, Elaine Blunting). In addition I will reference the 13,417 Americas' Cup Facebook friends, of which I am one. Dissect the numbers anyway you choose, they are tiny and they reflect a niche market all of whom I am confident are familiar with the term "headsail". I would like to see the popularity of the sport grow, however rather than designing and defending commentary designed for people who don't know what a sail is, perhaps the better approach would be to make it more exciting and informative for those that do. And begin by using the correct terminology. Name a broadcast professional sport where the commentary is designed for the one viewer who knows nothing about the sport? I am sure everyone on the AC broadcast team works hard to deliver a first class product and I will retract the word "horrible" and suggest that the commentary has a lot of room for improvement. The video coverage is excellent, the CGI is first rate and I agree that long-winded details about asymmetric dagger boards might be over the top, but I don't think I am being unfair by suggesting it should be referred to as a dagger board rather than "the big black thingy". CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION It is a dog-eat-dog world out there and I'm wearing Milk-Bone underwear. SPONSORS THIS WEEK Harken - Kaenon Polarized - Team One Newport - North Sails LaserPerformance - Doyle Sails - Atlantis WeatherGear - Lewmar Summit Yachts - Ullman Sails - The Pirates Lair - JK3 Nautical Enterprises Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
