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SCUTTLEBUTT 2706 - Monday, October 20, 2008Scuttlebutt 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. Today's sponsors are Team McLube, North U, and Speed & Smarts. EXCITEMENT AND TRAGEDY FOR VENDEE GLOBE Les Sables d’Olonne, France - For the premiere ocean races, or at least the ones in Europe, it is becoming standard operating procedure to have an Official Race Village to provide a focal point of visitors to come and soak in the essence of the event. The Vendee Globe, that all out, non-stop, globetrotting event for 30 Open 60 entrants to begin November 9th, enjoyed the official opening of their village last Saturday. All of the solo skippers were present for the official photographs and the welcoming briefing, while the crowds have turned up to discover the stands and educational displays around the pontoons. If there was a somber note, it was from an incident on Friday at 2:30 am when Alex Thomson and his crew onboard the Open 60 yacht HUGO BOSS were struck by a 60 foot fishing vessel. HUGO BOSS was two miles outside the harbour of les Sables d'Olonne when the incident happened, waiting to transfer some of the technical team onboard at daylight having just crossed the channel from their homeport of Gosport, UK ready for the start of the Vendée Globe. At the time of the incident, HUGO BOSS was stationary with only its mainsail up and was visible with its navigation lights, trim lights and a strobe light on. Its radar and AIS systems were also activated and working. The fishing vessel, registered in France, struck HUGO BOSS forward of the cap shroud on the starboard side, severely holing HUGO BOSS and bringing the mast down. The mast and sails were cut away from the boat before they motored into les Sables d'Olonne to have the damage assessed. Said Alex, “Until somebody tells me we cannot start the race on Nov. 9th, we will start on November 9th. We have many possibilities with the mast, one is to repair, another one to build, I’ve been offered a mast from Yann Elies, and the sailing world is a very close one, so it’s been very supportive”. Race website: http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/ UPDATES FROM U.S. SAILING ANNUAL MEETING * St. Petersburg, Fla. (October 17, 2008) - US SAILING has awarded its prestigious trophy for excellence in race management, named the St. Petersburg Yacht Club Trophy, to Southwestern Yacht Club of San Diego, Calif. Southwestern Yacht Club (SWYC) was selected from a list of 9 nominated sailing organizations for outstanding organization and execution of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Sailing in the 49er, held in October 2007. The regatta was held over a 14-day time period (several days of measurement and check-in; a day for final tuning, practice and the Opening Ceremonies; eight days of scheduled racing and a reserve day. All 24 scheduled races were completed in difficult weather conditions. -- Complete report: http://www.ussailing.org/pressreleases/2008/st_pete_trophy.asp * St. Petersburg, Fla. (October 17, 2008) - US SAILING has presented Hugh Elliot of Alexandria, Va., with the Gay S. Lynn Memorial Trophy for his outstanding contribution to sailors with disabilities and the sport of disabled sailing over a sustained period of time. The award presentation was a surprise for Elliot, who had not been told he had been selected to receive the award, the country's only award of its kind for disabled sailing. A lifelong sailor, Hugh Elliot became involved in disabled sailing following a car accident in the spring of 1993. It was Gay Lynn, after whom the trophy is named, who encouraged Elliot to try disabled sailing. He went on to compete in the 2000 U.S. Paralympic Team Trials and emerged as runner-up of that event. Since that time, Elliot has made it his personal mission to mentor sailors with disabilities, promote disabled sailing and encourage others to do the same. -- Complete report: http://www.ussailing.org/pressreleases/2008/gay_lynn_trophy.asp * St. Petersburg, Fla. (October 17, 2008) - Ruth Creighton of Wilmington, N.C. has received US SAILING's Timothea Larr Award for her lifelong commitment to quality sailing education. The award is the US SAILING Training Committee's highest honor, presented annually to an individual whose vision and guidance has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of sailor education and training in the United States. -- Complete report: http://www.ussailing.org/pressreleases/2008/larr_trophy.asp * St. Petersburg, Fla. (October 18, 2008) – US SAILING has awarded its prestigious Nathanael G. Herreshoff Trophy to Roy E. Disney (Burbank, Calif.) for his outstanding contributions to the sport of sailing in the U.S. over many years. Disney was unable to attend Friday night's awards ceremony at US SAILING's Annual Meeting in St. Petersburg, Fla., for a good reason: Disney's feature film "Morning Light" - about sailing - was released nationwide last night. -- Complete report: http://www.ussailing.org/pressreleases/2008/herreshoff_roy_disney.asp * St. Petersburg, Fla. (October 19, 2008) - During a voting process that took nearly six weeks, US SAILING members voted to fill three positions on the organization's Board of Directors. The elected members of the Board of Directors, all of whom will serve for a three-year term, are John Dane (Gulfport, Miss.), Dawn Riley (Clair Shores, Mich. / San Francisco, Calif.), and Bill Stump (Venice, Calif.). In addition, during today's Annual Meeting, the Board of Directors re-elected Jim Capron (Annapolis, Md.) as President for a third consecutive one-year term. According to the organization's Bylaws, the president can serve for a maximum of three consecutive terms of one year each. -- Complete report: http://www.ussailing.org/pressreleases/2008/bod_electionresults.asp YOU LOVE MCLUBE HULLKOTE, BUT HAVE YOU MET ONEDROP? By now everyone knows that the only coating PUMA has on their entire hull is Team McLube Hullkote Speed Polish… they love it. But did you know that PUMA has also been testing another new Team McLube product? Introducing McLube OneDrop Ball Bearing Conditioner. This sexy new lube comes in its own compact needle-nose dispenser for easy pinpoint application. OneDrop lubricates, conditions and protects your ball bearings by keeping them running smoothly, free from dirt, salt and grime. OneDrop works wonders on traveler cars and battcars, improves performance and protects your investment. Learn more at: http://www.mclubemarine.com NERVOUSLY SHUFFLING TOWARDS THE GALLOWS (Oct. 19, 2008; Day 9) - The fleet continues their slow progress like condemned men shuffling nervously towards the gallows. For noose, read Doldrums. The compression of the fleet, due to the lighter winds for the leaders, finds that Ian Walker’s Green Dragon has been dealt the best hand. While navigator Ian Moore’s westward course several days ago seemed like a gamble as he separated from the fleet and the better winds closer to the African continent, the Dragon now finds itself staring at the 30 degrees W longitude line, a section of the ocean that routing software predicts to be the zone of least resistance through the equator. Through the weekend, the lead fleet first got shuffled when Ericsson 4’s Tony Mutter had to be dropped off on Friday at the Cape Verde Islands as a result of an infected knee. Mutter was transferred to a fishing vessel to be taken ashore for medical supervision, and hopes to rejoin the team in Cape Town. The progress of GD has seen PUMA consolidate their position toward the west, leaving their tight race with Ericsson 3, and taking some pain pills to do so. For the standings below, boat speed ranged from 17 knots (GD) to 4.3 knots (PUMA) at the 8 degrees latitude north of the equator, with GD now with 744 nm to go until the Fernando de Noronha scoring gate. The length of Leg One is 6500nm, with teams expected to finish by the first week in November. Current standings (as of Oct. 20, 1:00am GMT): 1. Green Dragon, Ian Walker, 4102 nm distance to finish 2. Ericsson 3, Anders Lewander, 19 nm distance to lead 3. Puma, Ken Read, 35 nm DTL 4. Team Russia, Andreas Hanakamp, 37 nm DTL 5. Telefonica Blue, Bouwe Bekking, 44 nm DTL 6. Telefonica Black, Fernando Echavarri, 59 nm DTL 7. Delta Lloyd, Ger O'Rourke, 60 nm DTL 8. Ericsson 4, Torben Grael, 61 nm DTL Race website: http://www.volvooceanrace.org IT COULD ALL GO IN THE DUMPSTER Love the Volvo Ocean Race, but I am a bit confused. Let me see if I have this right. You sail for a week, making all kinds of tactical moves down the African continent. Working the wind shirts. Weaving around the Canary Islands. Offwind angles at 20 knots, countless jibes, each requiring the entire crew to either sail the boat, or move all the gear to the new windward side. Lots of decisions made, and some get it right, and some not so right. But hold it… now you are telling me that the leaders have to go through the doldrums before they get to the scoring gate? The doldrums, that absolutely random low-pressure area around the equator where the winds are as predictable as my economic future. I understand that you have to go through this aquatic Las Vegas to get to Cape Town, but how about throwing the boys a bone beforehand. Why is the scoring gate SOUTH of the equator? The site of the gate is at Fernando de Noronha, off the coast of Brazil. There is some logic to pulling the fleet across the Atlantic. Better winds, better sailing, okay, I get that, but why make it a scoring gate? Why not just a mark of the course? Why not pick a point in space… okay the ocean… before the doldrums, and give out some love there, where it might actually reward the teams that were more smart than lucky? I don’t get it, but somebody must. Please post the reasons here, and if no reasons get posted, I will take that as an answer too: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6543 FROM SAILING SCHOOL TO SCHOOLING SAILORS Professional sailors know better than most, sometimes just avoiding a catastrophic wipeout is cause for celebration. Kristen Lane, a sailor from Tiburon, got that feeling when she sailed her boat to success, surviving 35-knot winds and dramatic seas at the Melges 24 Worlds regatta in Santa Cruz last year. Other boats around her weren't so successful as masts snapped and other equipment broke up in the extreme weather. The 18th-place finish out of 72 world-class boats was a breakthrough point in the Marin skipper's relatively short sailing career. Lane, who lives in Tiburon's Paradise Cay, has made a name for herself in local sailing over the past few years. As owner and skipper of the Brickhouse, the 37-year-old Lane went from zero experience in the local J105 fleet three years ago to sailing her crew to top 10 places in the highly competitive division. Not bad for a relative newcomer to sailing. Introduced to the sport on a first date with her now-husband Peter, Lane's first sailing experience in the late 1990s was not your average dinner-and-a-movie outing. Avid skiers, the two met on a ski hill at Southern California's Big Bear resort where Lane was a young ski instructor. Five years later, they met again in Los Angeles and shortly thereafter had their first date on Super Bowl Sunday aboard Peter's sailboat. -- by Michelle Slade, Marin Independent Journal, read on: http://www.marinij.com/sports/ci_10742507 * Kristen was 7th out of 44 last month at the Melges 24 US Nationals in Charleston, and will be competing in Annapolis at the class North Americans on October 26 to November 2, 2008. NEW RACING RULES, GREAT GIFTS Are you ready? New Rules take effect January 1. Scheduling is now underway for US Sailing Racing Rules Seminars presented by North U. Check the schedule, sign up or find out how to host by visiting NorthU.com or by calling North U at 800-347-2457 or 203-245-0727. At NorthU.com you can also find the full range of North U books and CDs as well as seminar gift certificates. http://www.NorthU.com COLLEGE SPORTS AND THE OLYMPICS A recent article from the Wall Street Journal makes the observation that despite the U.S. Olympic team winning more medals at the 2008 Summer Games than in any nonboycotted Olympics, it believes its days of dominance may be numbered. That is in part because U.S. colleges, the primary breeding ground for the country's Olympians, have eliminated hundreds of teams in Olympic sports in recent years. Interestingly, it is my belief that four years of college sailing for the elite U.S. sailor is not necessarily the best way to improve one's chances of success at the Olympic level. The bulk of college sailing is done in low tech, borrowed boats and sailed on short courses. With the development of high school sailing, those top ranked youth sailors coming into college from popular sailing sites likely did this exact type of sailing already for four years. Considering that Olympic sailing involves highly technical equipment, with the competitions held on long courses where knowledge of weather and current are ultra valuable, the eight years of high school and college sailing succeed in giving the elite sailor only a couple of tools in what remains a cavernous tool box. The sooner the elite sailor starts understanding how to own a boat, care for a boat, tune a boat, and travel with that boat, the sooner they are on their way to understanding how to play the Olympic Game. -- Scuttleblog, complete story: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2008/10/college-sports.html CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar SAILING SHORTS * Oyster Bay, NY - Although it happened in October, the conditions for the 2008 Sonar North American Championship were very much July or August, with winds never exceeding 11 knots, usually between 5 and 7, and at times dying altogether. There were the usual huge shifts to remind us that Long Island Sound has not been changed for the better by global warming but is more in tune with the wild fluctuations on Wall Street. In spite of all, the consistency of Peter Galloway of Noroton Y.C. and his staff of highly skilled technicians won the event for an unprecedented fourth time. -- Read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6540 * Rye, NY - The final tally is in and this year's Heineken High Performance Dinghy Open, hosted by American Yacht Club, included 85 boats competing, posting its most impressive attendance to date. The race course on Western Long Island Sound was quite a sight, with classes in attendance including the A-Cat, Moth, 505, RSK6, International Canoes, Contenders, International 14s, Fireballs, Flying Dutchmen, Viper 640s, and a Tempest. It was a diverse group with attendees from as far as California and Canada as well as many local American Yacht Club and New England sailors. -- Complete report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6541 * Long Beach, CA (Oct. 19, 2008) - Casey Hogan and Newport Harbor Yacht Club’s Women’s Sailing Team won the 2008 Linda Elias Memorial Women’s One Design Challenge Sunday hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club and sponsored by the Long Beach/Los Angeles Women’s Sailing Association. Sailing on the same Catalina 37s used in the Congressional Cup match race held every year at LBYC, Hogan, who was third at the end of the day’s racing Saturday, fought back Sunday in a building breeze of 10-12 knots to take the win. “It was a steep learning curve,” Hogan said. “We don’t sail these boats very often but today went really smooth. “ -- Complete report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6546 * America’s Cup defender Alinghi team has indicated that there may be an announcement this week regarding a 2009 event to be held in Valencia that would use the International America’s Cup class boats. * The Puerto Calero TP 52' World Championship Islas Canarias will take place on Monday through next Saturday on the waters of the Atlantic Spanish island, with the participation the world’s top boats and crews. Fourteen teams representing eleven countries will race in the most international TP52 World Cup so far. This will also be the first time the TP52 world championship is held in Spain, after visiting Miami in 2006 (USA) and Porto Cervo (Italy) in 2007. Torbjon Tornqvist’s Artemis will be defending the title won last year, while current MedCup champion Terry Hutchinson’s Quantum Racing has world dominance in sight. -- Event website: http://www.tp52worldchampionship.com/ultimanoticia.php?idioma=eng LEARN THE NEW RACING RULES! If you want to understand the 2009-2012 racing rules you should subscribe to Speed & Smarts, a bi-monthly newsletter full of race-winning tips on speed, tactics, strategy, rules and more! The next issue explains all major changes in the new rules; future issues will cover each rule in detail. http://www.SpeedandSmarts.com EIGHT BELLS Michael Campbell, who for the last quarter of a century has been the West Coast's preeminent ocean racer, passed away last Friday after a long fight with Carcinoid Syndrome. While campaigning primarily for the Long Beach Yacht Club, he was also active at the St. Francis Yacht Club. Campbell’s yachts included the Tim Barnett-designed Climax, followed by a Sled, a Turbo-Sled and a TP52 which were all designed by Alan Andrews … and all named after his wife, Victoria. His current boat is the hugely successful Tim Kernan-designed custom 70-foot Peligroso which he co-skippers with Dale Williams. Campbell’s offshore boats have won an unprecedented number of major prizes in blue-water Mexican races to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Manzanillo, Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada, as well as the Transpac race to Hawaii. During this same period, he also achieved unrivaled success in prestigious regional and international regattas in California and in Mexico. Cards may be sent to 49201 Avenida Anselmo, La Quinta, CA 92253; donations can be made to Nagourney Institute, 750 east 29th Street, Long Beach, CA 90806. Said Victoria, ““Mike believes that Dr. Nagourney is a brilliant and dedicated scientist and that if it ever happens, he will be the one to unlock the mystery of the cure for cancer.” -- Complete report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6544 * From Chris Dickson: “I first met Mike 28 years ago, at Long Beach Yacht Club, and like all my family and thousands of others, we have enjoyed his friendship ever since. I was an aspiring young Kiwi sailor, representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron at my first ever foray into the International Match Racing scene, attending the Congressional Cup. With a keen Kiwi crew, loads of enthusiasm, and an equal shortage of money, we spent the first night in a borrowed RV. Hearing of our crowded accommodations, one of the club members immediately came and unreservedly offered his spare room and car to my team. Yes it was a young Mike Campbell.” -- Complete letter: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6545 => Curmudgeon’s Comment: Chris’ letter aptly describes the man that we all knew and admired. If you world like to submit your own comments, either of the two links above will direct you to Mike’s thread. LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Reader commentary is encouraged, with letters to be submitted to the Scuttlebutt editor, aka, ‘The Curmudgeon’. Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). You only get 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 R. G. Newbury: I wonder if anyone else is as disappointed as I am in the Volvo Ocean Race website. That site is the only one I can remember in a long time which makes my entire computer unresponsive, and which takes forever to load and continues downloading active content while you are trying to read it. And then, the long awaited video (as mentioned in Scuttlebutt 2705) turns out to be some proprietary Microsoft format stuff which I cannot play on a Linux computer. Maybe somebody needs to be told about youtube.com and that thing called 'flash' technology..... CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION When I die, I'm leaving my body to science fiction. Special thanks to Team McLube, North U, and Speed & Smarts. A complete list of preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
