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SCUTTLEBUTT 1255 - February 5, 2003Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is adigest of major yacht racing news, 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. A DIFFERENT TAKE ON SPONSORSHIP Tim Kent, the skipper of Everest Horizontal (in the Around Alone Race), has an amazing disposition; even when times are exceptionally trying Tim's sense of humor always comes through, so it was especially good news to hear that Tim has signed a new supporting sponsor. Jim and Karen Smiley, the sponsors of the Western Bay Finance Race Village here in Tauranga, were quick to notice that despite Tim's outward optimistic appearance, that behind the smiles and laughs Tim was more than a little concerned about finances. To put it mildly, Everest Horizontal is a campaign running on fumes. In a gesture typical of the kind all the sailors have received here in Tauranga, Jim pulled Tim aside and made an unsolicited offer of support. "What this means is that we will now be able to pay all our bills in full before we leave Tauranga," Tim said. "I can't thank Jim and Karen enough. They probably have no idea how welcome this money is right now, but let me tell you, I can get a good nights sleep now." Western Bay Finance are not the only group to come to the help of Everest Horizontal. There have been others who have made offers, both big and small. Brad van Liew, the skipper of Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America, just signed a sponsorship agreement with Samson Lines. He will completely outfit his boat with Samson's latest cordage. With that deal in place, Brad looked around and noticed that his good friend Tim Kent could use some new rigging for his boat, and in a generous gesture (Tim is after all coming second in Class 2 behind Brad), he gave Kent all his spare rigging. "Tim should be able to completely outfit his boat with new gear, and I am happy to help," Brad said. "If anyone deserves support it's Tim." Van Liew was not the only one to step up to the plate. Henry Lloyd, one of the world's best foul weather gear suppliers, has offered Kent a new set of wet weather gear to replace the set that got ruined by the soot in his cabin. Unfortunately they could not get the new gear to New Zealand in time for the start of Leg 4, and so a quick arrangement was made. Henry Lloyd is also a sponsor of Emma Richards and her team, and in a nice gesture, Robin Gray, Pindar's team manager, offered to give Tim his (practically brand new) set of foul weather gear. "I always imagined that one day I would have logo'd foul weather gear," Tim said with a smile. "I just thought it would have Everest Horizontal on it not Pindar!" - Brian Hancock, Around Alone website, full story: http://www.aroundalone.com/raceviewer/archive/ ISAF TEAM RACING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP British doctor Stuart Hudson and his band of Pirates are fighting their fellow countrymen and women for a place in the Team Racing World Championship semifinals in Auckland. The New Forest Pirates, otherwise known as Great Britain 1, and the Spinnaker Club, or Great Britain 2, have sailed to the top of the leaderboard after two rounds of racing in the gold league. But even if both teams remain in the top three at the end of the third round-robin tomorrow, only one of them can progress to the semifinals under the Team Racing World Championship rules. Once the boats reach the next phase of the regatta, it comes down to nations rather than individual teams - each country can only have one team in the semis. That rule could give a much needed lifeline to defending champions, New Zealand, who has fallen off the pace in the last two days of racing to slip to the bottom half of the gold fleet. The United States teams are in a similar predicament to the British, with one of them to be knocked out even though they are both in semifinal contention. At the end of round robin three tomorrow, the top three nations will automatically go through to the semifinals, while the next three countries will race the top nation from the silver fleet in a repechage to find the last semifinalist. - www.nzteamracing.com STANDINGS - Team Racing Worlds Gold Fleet: - Great Britain 2, 10 wins 3 losses - USA 2, 10-4 - Great Britain 1, 9-4 - USA 1, 9-5 - New Zealand 1, 7-7 - Ireland 1, 4-10 - Australia 1, 2-10 - Netherlands, 2-10 UPGRADING 15 YEAR OLD INSTRUMENTS? Most Ockam components are fully service supported and in many cases upgradeable to 2003 spec - even if your system was installed in the early 1980's. Our latest software revision, Unisyn, is quite easily installed on Ockam's model 001 CPU, and, when combined with the new e/Series model 041 GPS interface, will turbo charge a vintage system. We'll even offer a little trade-in credit for your old Loran/Position/LatLon interfaces - call us at 203/877-7453 or email Tom Davis for more information (tom@ockam.com). Additional information at http://www.ockam.com PARALYMPIC GAMES The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Management Committee decided that events for intellectually disabled athletes will not be included in the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games. This decision was taken because the revised system for testing athletes' eligibility submitted by the International Sports Federation for Persons with an Intellectual Disability (INAS-FID) did not meet the conditions required by the IPC. The Athens 2004 Paralympic Games event programme was set in October 2002 in order to meet the timelines for the organisation of the Games. INAS-FID was granted an extended deadline of 31 January 2003 to meet the conditions set by the IPC 2001 General Assembly after several athletes were found guilty of cheating at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games by wrongly claiming to have an intellectual disability. The IPC's conditions require athletes to present primary rather than secondary documentation of their eligibility, for INAS-FID to create and test a sport-specific eligibility system and for athletes with an intellectual disability to participate at Paralympic Games under the same protest rules as all other athletes. - ISAF website, full story: www.sailing.org/Article_content.asp?ArticleID=3836 AC 2006 The Blackheart campaign has put paid to any hope that the next America's Cup campaign will be held in New Zealand if Alinghi wins the cup. This is the view of Dunedin yachting guru Martin Balch, who has been working in Auckland during the cup campaign. There had been talk that Alinghi would bring the next campaign back to Auckland because the infrastructure was already in place. "That idea is now buried because of BlackHeart," Balch said. The American syndicate OneWorld has said it would not return to Auckland for a future campaign. "I'm saddened by what has happened this year. It has done a lot of damage to New Zealand," Balch said. - Alistair Mcmurran, Otago Daily Times, full story: www.stuff.co.nz/otago/0,2106,2229356a3845,00.html I VAN NOSTRAND CHALLENGE CUP January 25 - The Van Nostrand Challenge Cup had been raced only twice since 1889, when a wealthy Hudson Valley ice yachtsman, Gardiner Van Nostrand, donated a Tiffany silver cup to be kept by the winning team of each year's race. At that time, ice boats were the fastest vessels on earth, reaching more than 100 miles an hour in a strong wind. But the first and only winner of the cup, the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat and Yacht Club here, had been loath to risk it after winning in 1891. After defending it successfully only once, in 1978, the club kept the cup locked away in a jeweler's safe. The commodore of the New Jersey club recently shocked many of his members by accepting a challenge from the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club. The Hudson boatmen had long resented the New Jersey team's refusal to risk the cup. They were eager for their chance to win it back The two teams had agreed to race only the old-fashioned wooden boats known as gaff rigs, some of them a century old. From a distance, the rigs resemble 19th-century schooners, with dark spruce masts and tall parchment-colored sails. Up close, they are more like gigantic wooden crossbows, with a long main beam and a transverse spar running across it for stability. - Robert Worth, New York Times. If you want to learn who won this prestigious prize: www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/nyregion/30ICE.html ULLMAN SAILS / KEY WEST RACE WEEK 2003 Congratulations to our customers and their crews for their outstanding performances at Key West Race Week. 1st and Boat of the Week!; Zuni Bear (J-105); 2nd Wet Leopard (J-105); 1st Bad Boys (C-28R); 1st New Wave (PHRF 4); 2nd Beautiful World (PHRF 4); 1st Defiance (PHRF 6); 1st* Blu Moon (Melges 24); 2nd* JBird III (PHRF 2); 2nd* Blur (PHRF 9). If you are ready for the Ullman Sails speed advantage now, call your nearest Ullman Sails loft or visit us at: http://www.ullmansails.com * denotes partial Ullman Sails Inventory JULES VERNE TROPHY * GERONIMO: The Cap Gemini and Schneider Electric trimaran has been heading further North since yesterday, traveling from 50° south to 45° south over the last 36 hours in an attempt to minimize the impact of an enormous weather front. Geronimo covered 422 nautical miles on Day 24 of her Jules Verne Trophy attempt. In these waters, the crew wear special Fujinon night vision goggles whenever they're on night watch. Human concentration is still the last line of defense against an unwanted meeting with an iceberg. Returning northwards from 50°S lengthens Geronimo's route, but reduces her risk of collision, at the same time as giving her an advantageous position in relation to the low pressure area. On Day 24 of the journey, Geronimo is 1248 miles ahead of Orange's record. http://www.grandsrecords.com * KINGFISHER2: The trace winds are behaving themselves again, the breeze kicked back again yesterday evening, and Ellen MacArthur hopes that Kingfisher2 should be at the Equator 2 days from now, just under a 1000 miles away. The record time of Geronimo to the Equator (6d 11h) is not going to be beaten for this leg, but they have set their sights on beating Orange's time of 7 days 22h, and the previous ENZA record of 7d 4h (ie pass the Equator before 1048gmt on Thursday). The key tactical issue is to determine exactly where to cross the area of no wind near the Equator, that is known as the Doldrums. Weather router Meeno Schrader with Ellen have for the moment an aim of crossing between 26 and 27 degrees west where winds looks favourable. After that they must then work out how to cross the giant anticyclone spreading across the entire South Atlantic (St.Helena high) that is blocking their route to the south. http://www.teamkingfisher.com Kingfisher2 Day 5 Summary: - 11 hours 36 minutes behind Orange - DAY 5 24-hour run: Kingfisher2 395 nm, Orange 467 nm, Geronimo 526 nm - End DAY 5 distance to go: KF2 - 22704 nm, Orange - 22523 nm, Geronimo - 22465 nm AS SEEN BY ERIC DOYLE (The following quotes are excerpts from an interview with Eric Doyle posted on the New Orleans YC website.) "The Stars and Stripes program I was involved with (in 1999-2000) was great, small time with a very close team. We only had one boat, not much money and we just had to go out and do the best we could with what we had. It was great because we did pretty well with a less than stellar boat and the whole group of people that were involved was awesome." "Going to Oracle BMW from Team Dennis Conner can best be described as going from a family organization to a corporate giant. We really didn't want for anything for the racing program. Everything is magnified by a factor of ten, however this includes both good and bad problems. It's great when the money is available early on and if you have an idea you can present it to the team, act upon and then develop it because you have the resources." * "My thoughts on the hula are that if you buy into it from the beginning and design your hull shape including it; it is probably a good thing. The differences in speed are very small and it could be the difference for Team NZ. Having said that, it will probably come down to the conditions, as everything is a trade off. An upwind speedster can't be a downwind flyer. A heavy air boat won't go in the light. Someone will have an advantage somewhere but only when the conditions warrant." * "Next for me is back to California with my wife and new baby boy, and then back in my star boat. On that boat, if I want to tack, I just push the tiller away from me. If I want to go right, I go right. If I want the main a little tighter, I just pull the sheet. I am trying to put the pieces in place for another run at the Olympic trials which are next May in Miami, Fl. I have a new boat on order; I just have to raise the money to do the whole campaign properly. Some big boat sailing in between, hopefully some Farr 40 stuff which I really enjoy." - Full interview: http://noyc.org/doyle.html DRUGS The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will launch a new website this week. On the new site, users can find out about the latest developments regarding the World Anti-Doping Code, WADA's outreach program, and the World Conference on Doping in Sport, which will take place March 3-5 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Visitors can also link directly to The True Game, WADA's interactive game aimed at educating athletes regarding doping, and the Passport program, an initiative through which athletes can demonstrate their commitment to doping-free sport. The new site will be available beginning February 5 at www.wada-ama.org Report from the ISAF website, www.sailing.org ARAMID RIGGING AT ACURA SORC Aramid's rigging specialists will be at our fully equipped 40-foot service trailer, daily, in the Monty's parking lot, next to SORC race headquarters. If you'll be racing in Miami, stop by for your free Chums™ sunglass holders, and let us take care of all your rigging needs. Our daily on-site service includes: high performance cordage and LOUPS™, Kevlar stays, PBO stays, hydraulic sales and service, hardware, lifelines, splicing, swaging, rig tunes, inspections and waterproof rigging notepads. Order now by calling 401-683-6966 or in Miami call 401-345-1907 and look for this trailer near Monty's http://www.amidrigging.com/trailer.asp NEWS BRIEFS * The 5th International Sailing Summit (ISS), was held January 22-23 in Geelong, Australia. One hundred global sailing leaders from both the sport and industry on hand to discuss the issues facing sailing and to develop strategies for increasing participation in sailing worldwide. Some outcomes include the development of the United Kingdom Sailing Association, dialogue with the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) to encourage the ISAF to reevaluate its previous racing-only focus to include recreational sailing, and the raising of AUD$35,000 for the not-for-profit organization Sailability to fund development of a facility in Greece to allow access to disabled sailors. - www.sailingsummit.com/ * Thistle Midwinters West, Mission Bay YC - Final Results (29 boats): 1) Mike Ingham 18pts; 2) Skip Dieball 18.5pts; 3) Mike Gillum 28.5pts; 4) Ron Smith 33.5pts; 5) Mike Poltorak 46pts; www.thistleclass.com/index.html * DN world Championship, Lake Champlain, Valcour, NY - Final results (128 boats from 12 countries): 1, Karol Jablonski, 11; 2. Thomas Karlsson, 14; 3. Ron Sherry, 16; 4. Bernd Zeiger, 20; 5. Tomas Lindgren, 26. - http://cerebus.winsite.com/DNboard/mesgMain/2007.html * Jere Sullivan has been named the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center's 'Sailor of the Year.' An avid sailor for nearly 70 years, Sullivan's accomplishments include wins of two Chicago to Mackinac races, and five overall Queens' Cup race wins. Mr. Sullivan is also a major contributor to Wisconsin Lake Schooner Education Association's tall ship, the Denis Sullivan, named after his great-grandfather, a Great Lakes schooner captain at the turn of the 19th century. - www.sailingcenter.org * Seattle, Washington Over 75 boats jammed the Leschi waterfront of Lake Washington to participate in the Seattle Laser Fleet's annual Frigid Digit Regatta, Feb 1-2, 2003. The Lasers, Laser Radials, and Optimists were treated to mild temperatures in the high 40's with winds from 12- 3 knots. Carl Buchan successfully defended his 2002 title by winning the 7 race series. Andrew Vance, 2nd. Bill Symes, 3rd, Al Clark, 4th, and Brendan Fahey, 5th. Top Radial Finisher: Kevin Grierson, 1st, Abe Torchinsky, 2nd, Jim Johnstone 3rd. www.mjbrig.com/slf * February 10 is the deadline to register for the 2003 Acura SORC, February 26 - March 2, in Miami Beach, FL. The fleet will be racing under IMS, PHRF, as well as one-design classes and Multihulls classes. - www.acurasorc.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com) (Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is not a chat room or a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Chris Welsh: I may be missing something, but how does Howie Hamlin who won the 18' Skiff Worlds in 2002 and and again in 2003 get ranked #2 in the world ranking list for the class? Seems to me, the World Championship results are the world ranking list...especially when a guy does it twice in a row... * From Fredrick Rothwell: According to recent press reports, the TNZ Trustees were going to 'set the record straight' about Russell Coutts' claims several days ago. What's happening? Are the spin doctors having a problem building a case? * From Joe Schulz-Heik: Where is the reply from TNZ former and present trustees and management? Even if some items stated should be disputable, these are very heavy allegations. How can the trustees and management of TNZ stand by and allow Black Heart and others to smear the reputation of Russell Coutts, Brad Butterworth and others for so long? Messrs. Coutts, Butterworth & Co. may be the lucky ones in the end for not having gotten involved with such a convoluted Trust arrangement. With these latest revelations, let's hope the "Hula' will not result in a lopsided AC and the Cup goes to Europe. Update the Nationality requirements for the AC and participation will be enlarged and racing will be gaining! THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS Definition of a will: A dead giveaway. |
