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SCUTTLEBUTT 3417 - Wednesday, August 31, 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, LaserPerformance, and SailFast. BUILDING A WORKING RHYTHM The broadcast ability of the 34th America's Cup has been presented as a significant priority. But while the magazine show - America's Cup Uncovered - has been crisp and professional, the broadcast of the inaugural America's Cup World Series event in Cascais was much less so. With the next America's Cup World Series event in Plymouth, UK on September 10-18, Scuttlebutt checked in with Gary Lovejoy, head of America's Cup TV, for an update: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * Can you give us the debrief from the Cascais event? GARY LOVEJOY: In Cascais, we had the opportunity to see all of the pieces come together for the first time and are pleased with our first go. It was a great learning opportunity as we tried different camera angles, commentator combinations and the incorporation of the onboard footage into the broadcast for the first time. We have a number of learnings from our team and from the input of viewers, which we will be incorporating into our Plymouth broadcast. We appreciate that your readers have been very vocal, on what they like and don't like. So we want to say right up front, we actively encourage viewers to keep feeding us this input through our Facebook page, Twitter feed or to the team at America's Cup TV at actv@americascup.com. * What were viewed as the highs and lows from the first event? GARY LOVEJOY: We had several things that worked very well on the behind-the-scenes side that will really set us up for success in the long-term. Our overall goal is to create greater interactivity for the viewer, so this is a growing process. Where we start today will not be where we end up in 2013, as we seek to add in new elements, new technologies and continued feedback from viewers. Our starting point is a significant investment in the production side of the house so we can bring the action to the viewers by bringing them right onto the boat. We believe this is critical to growing our sport, because it allows viewers to connect directly with the athletes. This is where the onboard cameras and mics come into play, and we were really happy with the images and sound that was captured. The feedback from viewers has been very strong, particularly with the onboard footage. -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/11/0830 MONEY WELL SPENT The cost of bringing the America's Cup World Series to Plymouth has been "money well spent", the leader of the city council has insisted. The AC45s are due to begin racing in Plymouth Sound on 10 September. Suggestions that it could cost up to 500,000 pounds ($815k) to stage have been rejected by Vivian Pengelly, who said the council had budgeted 100,000 pounds ($163k). Plymouth City Council has estimated the second leg of the ACWS could generate 10 million pounds ($16.3mil) for the local economy. It said providing accommodation for the teams alone - 700 beds for 20 days - will benefit local hoteliers by 1.2million pounds ($2mil). The council has previously said it could not disclose the "fee" it paid to host the event in the city. Devon sailor Conrad Humphreys said staging the America's Cup could cost the council "at least" 500,000 pounds, but Mrs Pengelly said that was "not quite true". "It's not going to cost nearly as much as we thought, because we've got so much sponsorship from people like the university and business, who've been absolutely fantastic," she told BBC News. "It can cost anything up to 100,000 pounds, but until we know exactly what sponsorship we're getting, we're not really sure what the cost will be." A media city has been set up on Plymouth Hoe where a 100-strong television crew will beam the competition across the world. The nine 45ft (14m) catamarans taking part in the challenge have been unloaded from a cargo ship which arrived in Millbay Docks last week. An estimated 150,000 people are expected to watch the newly designed AC45 racing yachts from vantage points all around Plymouth Sound. -- BBC News, read on: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-14715190 MORE: The third event for the America's Cup World Series will be in San Diego, CA (Nov. 12-20), where a study conducted by San Diego State University determined the economic benefit of the event would amount to $20 million. HENRI-LLOYD WOMEN'S VENTURA JACKET AT TEAM ONE NEWPORT The brand new Women's Ventura jacket by Henri-Lloyd is available at Team One Newport. This great new women's sized jacket is ideal for Coastal sailing and features Henri Lloyd's Optivision hood system which allows the wearer much improved peripheral vision whilst receiving the same protection from the hood. Visit http://www.team1newport.com/prodinfo.asp?number=HLY00201 for this great new jacket and more terrific sailing products! Or call 800-VIP-GEAR (800-847-4327). BALL GETS ROLLING IN ROCHESTER Rochester, NY (August 30, 2011) - There were smiles all around when five races were sailed today on Lake Ontario as competition at the 14th edition of US SAILING's Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship (Rolex IWKC) got underway in earnest. With no races able to be held yesterday (Monday) due to lack of breeze, today saw the official first championship races held under abundant sunshine with temperatures in the upper 70s and winds ranging from 8-12 knots. Four winners in five races, along with a tight mix of competitors finishing second and third in individual races, has resulted in a tight battle at the top of the scoreboard, as some of the most elite women sailors in the U.S.A. strutted their stuff in J/22s on Lake Ontario. "It was really hard sailing today," said Carol Cronin, who is currently tied for second overall. "Because it [the breeze] was off the land, there were puffs and lulls and streaks of breeze." The defending champions - Anna Tunnicliffe, Debbie Capozzi, Molly Vandemoer and Liz Bower - won the first race of the day, but it is their American Olympic match race rival Sally Barkow who holds the overall lead after five races. Barkow has won this championship three consecutive times ('03, '05, and '07) before sitting out the 2009 event because of scheduling conflicts. She is competing with Annie Lush, Alana O'Reilly and Jackie Campbell. Full report: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/11/0830a/ Results: http://tinyurl.com/RIWKC-2011-results HAVES AND HAVE NOTS As the World Match Racing Tour moves into St. Moritz, Switzerland this week for the sixth stop of the eight event tour, the haves and have nots on the overall tour leader board are getting exposed. Among the haves is Ian Williams (GBR), who is hoping to see his name added to the list of 'greats' in the World Match Racing Tour history books by winning a third world title. After five stages of the World Match Racing Tour, the world's premier monohull match racing series, British skipper Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar is currently lying third in the overall standings - but with two consecutive wins under his belt heads towards the remaining three events as the skipper to beat. Williams is already one of only five skippers to win multiple World Match Racing Tour titles, and the only European to do so. A third title would see him draw level on wins with legends such as Russell Coutts (NZL), Ed Baird (USA) and Chris Dickson (NZL). The only skipper with more wins is Peter Gilmour (AUS), currently with four world titles to his name and sitting in second place overall this season. "Having had a couple of years where we haven't even finished on the podium has been frustrating. A win this season would be fantastic and a real sign that we still have what it takes. I think we have a good shot at the title. We've now had three good results from four events and we have to get at least one more from the next two events in order to be right up there." Williams puts his success down to the "chemistry" between his team, which recently saw the return of his 2007 world title-winning crewmate and current Etchells World Champion Bill Hardesty. "Having Bill onboard again has been brilliant, he's a great sailor and our personalities really click on the race course," Williams added. "However it's about the whole team - Matt Cassidy has done a great job this year, as have Mal Parker and Gerry Mitchell. We've got chemistry on the boat and we've been able to come back from some tricky situations to win. That's the difference between this year and last year." The first Qualifying Session at the St. Moritz Match Race kicks off Wednesday. Catch the preview on The WMRT Morning Show with Hannah White at www.wmrt.com from 1100 local time (GMT +2) and a review of the day on The WMRT Today Show after racing finishes. Live coverage begins on Thursday 1 September from 1400 to 1600 local time (GMT +2) at www.wmrt.com. SNIPE WORLDS 2011: HARDEST REGATTA YET By Carol Cronin, 2004 Olympian I've sailed ten regattas so far this year, and all provided excellent competition. But looking back, none even came close to the all-new "degree of difficulty" standard set by the 2011 Snipe Worlds, which were hosted by the Royal Danish Yacht Club in Rungsted, Denmark. This is of course completely appropriate; a World Championship should be the pinnacle of any sailor's annual calendar. So I'll go even farther out on the one-design limb and say that in two decades of high-level international sailing, the 2011 Snipe Worlds was my Hardest Regatta Yet. Here's why. Tough competition All 59 boats had earned the right to be on the starting line by pre-qualifying, so the fleet was extremely deep. The eight US teams had all finished in the top three to five at one of three national regattas last year. Most of the other seventeen countries represented (including Japan, Italy, Argentina, Great Britain, Spain, Canada, Puerto Rico, and most of northern Europe) probably had similar qualifying systems. I have no idea how Brazil - which claimed the three podium spots, with all five teams in the top ten - selected their Worlds team, but we'll get to that in a moment. Changeable weather While the locals insisted "It's never like this here," we sailed in everything from drifting to planing conditions - sometimes all in the same race. The wind blew out of a completely different direction on three of the four days, with a few 30-degree shifts to mix up the scores. And on day three, we received 80 percent of the usual monthly rain total. Clearly this was no typical week of sailing. Difficult sea state Denmark is not known for its beaches, and there is very little wave-absorbing soft shoreline along its east-facing coast. As a result, the chop was always bigger than the breeze-and so irregular that even the famous Annapolis weekend slurry began to seem as flat and predictable as fresh pavement Boats.com, read on: http://www.boats.com/blog/2011/08/snipe-worlds-2011-hardest-regatta-yet/ COMMENT: In the report 'Online Expectations' in Scuttlebutt 3414, it warned event organizers to avoid purchasing custom website addresses to use for their event. A case in point is the 2009 Snipe World Championship. When I went to look for some details from that event, I found their domain address (www.snipeworlds2009.com) had not been renewed and all the information that was posted there was no longer available. PLEASE people... don't do this! - Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt editor LASERPERFORMANCE FALL SALE PROMOTIONS - 9/1/11 THRU 12/31/11 Buy a qualifying boat and receive a free GoPro HD Helmet Pro video camera. Check out the Heavy Air Laser Slalom (below) filmed mostly on GoPro's. As always, yacht clubs, camps and individuals can take advantage of low Fall Fleet Builder promotional pricing on C420's, Opti's, Bug's and CFJ's. Details at LaserPerformance.com (http://na.laserperformance.com/home) or your Local Dealer (http://na.laserperformance.com/dealer-locator). VIDEO: http://na.laserperformance.com/heavy-weather-laser-slalom-2011 WHEN TEN SECONDS IS TOO MANY SECONDS By International Umpire/Judge Jos M. Spijkerman The latest ISAF Q&A (2011-018) deals with recalling boats that are over the line at the starting signal. And the timing of the individual recall (X flag and sound signal) for four boats, which in this case is made after 10 seconds! As always the question is if a specific time is too long. Like how many seconds you should raise a protest flag or how long after an incident you should do penalty turn(s). The (ISAF) panel has answered as we can expect: 'it depends' and finds subsequently in the described circumstances, that ten second was (too) long. It is long if you count 10 seconds in your head, but it is not long on a heaving deck of a committee boat with force 7 winds blowing your ears off and you can't hear what the second line slighter is saying. Like the Q&A panel states: 'It depends'. One of the issues I've learned doing starts is that your communication with the pin-end boat must be flawless. Better to repeat your agreed on method for the 50th time, then to have to wait in asking for conformation a second time on how many boats were over. Then those ten second will have passed and then some. Look at it this way. If you give an individual recall because you think there was a boat over, but are not sure, and subsequently get no confirmation from the other people on the pin-end nor the second linesman, you may have hoisted that flag for nothing, but you don't have to score anybody OCS. If you think someone is over and wait for conformation before hoisting the flag, it may be already too late when you get that. And you will be unable to score anybody OCS. Or if you do, that will be overturned in a subsequent redress hearing. Sure, it is always better to be sure before you hoist the X, so there's no chance that any boat returns unnecessary. But in my opinion to hoist and then find no boat over, is the better of two (not the best) choices. -- http://rrsstudy.blogspot.com/2011/08/isaf-q-2011-018-g12-10-seconds.html SAILING SHORTS * The deadline to submit bids to host the 2013 ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championship is Thursday, 1 September 2011. The ISAF Women's Match Racing Worlds has been held every year since 1999 with the most recent event in 2010 being hosted by the New York Yacht Club in the USA. For 2011 the champion will be decided at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships, the principal qualification event for the 2012 London Olympic Games where women's match racing will make its Olympic debut. -- Details: http://www.wimra.org/news_detail.asp?rk=957 * Alexandria, VA (August 30, 2011) - Early reports from Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) estimates the total damage as a result of Hurricane Irene to recreational boats from South Carolina to Maine could total up to $500 million (editor's note: this early estimate applies to boats only; this figure does not include any boating infrastructure). The last hurricane to strike the US, Hurricane Ike (2008), was estimated to cause $200 million in damage to recreational boats. -- Full report: http://www.boatus.com/pressroom/release.asp?id=711 * Hamilton, ONT (August 30, 2011) - The 2011 edition of the Mobility Cup began today, with more than 60 disabled athletes from five countries including Australia, the Netherlands, the U.K., U.S.A and Canada are competing in the event. Hosted by The Royal Hamilton Yacht Club and the Burlington Sailing & Boating Club this year marks the 21st anniversary edition of the event. Montreal sailors dominated the Gold Fleet competition. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=10979 * Next spring will mark the 65th year of the 125 nm Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race, and the first year of a course change. A move is in the works for the race headquarters, which will prompt the finish line to be relocated from just outside Ensenada Harbor, which is generally out of sight from land, to the northern side of Todos Santos Bay, from where the boats will be visible in their tactical approaches to the finish line before proceeding into the Coral Marina or to the usual moorings downtown. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=12519 * CORRECTION: Sorry for the inconvenience if you tried the North Sails link in the Scuttlebutt 3416. If you are interested in the details on how you can recycle your old sails and receive a 20% discount voucher for a new sails, here is the correct link: http://www.na.northsails.com/tabid/14313/Default.aspx WE CAN'T HELP YOU IF YOU CAN'T HELP YOU The Marine Industry News category of the Scuttlebutt Forum was created so companies could get guaranteed exposure by posting their own personnel, product and service updates online. But we need you to post your updates. Each week the Scuttlebutt editors select updates to include in the Thursday edition of the Scuttlebutt newsletter. Here is the link to post Industry News updates: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/industry_news RED BAGS AT NIGHT... SAILORS DELIGHT! Red sailcloth bags from SailFast are on sale now for Scuttlebutt readers. 35% off! Get 'em while they're hot. Click here for special offer: http://tinyurl.com/isailfast-083111 Or visit http://www.isailfast.com today. While supplies last. 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 Casey Robert Baldwin, Nova Scotia: As someone who sells Gemini ocean-going cruising catamarans in Atlantic Canada, I am familiar with curmudgeons who honour the great tradition of mono-hull racing and cruising and staunchly resist twin hulls. After many years of experience in small and large mono-hulls, I understand the resistance to catamarans, which I now fully endorse despite their lack of historic aesthetics. The current defender of the America's Cup, an event which has lost some status since the last 12 metre battle in 1987 and seemingly endless litigious battles ashore, has now chosen the correct path to regain its former glory as the Super Bowl of sailing. In a rapidly changing world, young sailors need heroes, and a premiere event to spur them on to further experience in racing and cruising that reflects their digital world. One need only remember that the extraordinary designer Nathaniel Herreshoff designed a catamaran over a century ago that cleaned the clocks of the best mono-hulls in the New York Yacht Club. Not surprisingly, it was banned from subsequent regattas. A century later some of that attitude is still extant, although, to be fair, it is an apple and orange comparison. Nevertheless, the first round of the America's Cup World Series in Portugal amply demonstrated the excitement possible in 45 foot racing cats, with leading edge live video and graphics. Next year and in the Cup itself in 2013, the larger 72 foot cats promise even more interest and drama. For the first time, a major U.S. television network (NBC) will be broadcasting the 2013 Cup live along with some of the lead-in competitions. I think it is the speed of the catamarans and hi-tech coverage planned that has captured the interest of a major network. It is doubtful that would have occurred if mono-hulls were still the competitors in the America's Cup. Networks always target the young and major coverage of sailing will increase interest in the sport, whether young people are starting in Lasers or Hobie Cats and moving on to larger boats. * From Helmer Schweizer: I read with interest the part on ZERO TOLERANCE in Scuttlebutt 3416. In my opinion, judges sometimes overact and want to make use of their power, demonstrate it to themselves and the others on the water. In other words: They police more than the police does. This reminds me of the famous experiment where people were given power to switch higher and higher the penalizing voltage, even beyond the kill point indicator and the artificial pains screams of the sufferer. Sure, I do not want to say the starboard yelling port sailing guy was right, especially if he was known to be an experienced sailor. What else other than a formal protest and dsq could a judge do? He could walk up to the sailor and tell about the observation and very brief on the possible/potential actions by the judge and the resulting consequences. And then, suggest/recommend him to do two things on his own will: - provide the other boat an apology - withdraw from the race finish and be classified as a DNF. This has two effects: It allows the wrongful sailor to take things back in his own hands, and show that he is a gentleman after all, regain his future credibility; as well as teach all a lesson who hear about it. Only if the sailor would be stubborn would/could the judge lodge a protest. This is similar to get caught in the car going too fast, but being let go with a (lower priced) ticket/warning instead of being charged and prosecuted by the full power of the law. Some common sense should be implied in all we do all day. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote. 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