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SCUTTLEBUTT 3546 - Tuesday, March 13, 2012Scuttlebutt 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: North U, Atlantis WeatherGear, and RIBCRAFT. LIKE DATING MARILYN MONROE Olin Stephen's breakthrough 1929 design 'Dorade' would prove to influence all concepts of ocean racing during the 1930's , 1940 and 1950's. This 52-foot yawl-rigged wooden boat from the black-and-white era now has her sights set on the 635-mile Newport-Bermuda Race in June. Along with several other crew in training for the Bermuda Race, Boats.com's editor John Burnham learns some unexpected lessons while sailing for the first time on the iconic Sparkman & Stephens beauty. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You learn about a boat quickly when the wind blows above 15 knots, and that's what happened in St. Maarten over four days when several of us had our first sail aboard Dorade. But even before absorbing the dozens of sailing lessons the 82-year-old yawl had to teach us, we quickly discovered that we'd first have to get used to sharing this classic Sparkman & Stephens design every step of the way with the paparazzi. Maybe it's not quite the same as dating Marilyn Monroe, but from the moment we tied up at the Sint Maarten Yacht Club dock before the 32nd Heineken Regatta (Mar. 1-4), all cameras were trained on our slender 52-foot starlet. As dusk fell, ESPN's Jo Ankier came down the dock with her crew to interview owner Matt Brooks and skipper Jamie Hilton under the lights on Dorade's gleaming foredeck. The next day, Friday, Matt and his wife Pam Rorke Levy gave more interviews at the regatta press conference, one of which can be seen on the Heineken Regatta YouTube channel. After Saturday's race, while we anchored off Marigot, a camera crew from Martinique motored alongside and shot a short interview on the boat's history with Greg Stewart, a naval architect in our crew who has worked on technical aspects of the restoration. The crew then stayed aboard for half an hour filming close-ups of Dorade's immaculate brightwork, her six-foot tiller, skylights, and new Sitka spruce masts. Finally, at the regatta's close, there were Jamie, Matt and Pam on camera again with Jo Ankier, discussing the silverware Dorade had just won for us. But it didn't end there: we were also waylaid at the post-race party by crews from other boats who pulled out their cameras to show off their own snapshots of Dorade as we had sailed nearby them. While Dorade was looking good all weekend, she taught us plenty of other lessons. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/Boats-031212 THE COURAGE TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR By Dean Brenner, US Olympic Sailing Program The 2012 US Olympic Sailing Team, our three top women's match racing teams (one of which will qualify for the Olympic Team in May) and many members of our 2012 Development Team all convened at the USOC Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO for the last four days for a physical training camp. It was a chance to check in on health and physical fitness levels for our Olympians and match racing teams, and also a chance to immerse our Dev Team sailors into the realities of what it will take for them to reach their Olympic goals in 2016 or 2020. For our Olympic Team members, the clock is ticking. The Games begin in 138 days, and for each of them, there is work remaining to be done. Some of them are still working out their equipment choices. Some are trying to get a little healthier or fitter or reach a target weight. Some are working on an aspect of their racing, such as onboard communication or tactical decision making. None of them are ready, today, for the Games to begin. But the good news is that there are still 138 days to go, and in most cases, I see our sailors on track for a good Games performance. One of the things on the agenda this weekend was an intense experience with the Navy SEALS program. You can see photos on our Facebook page, and I won't recount it all here. But the summary is that it was an intense experience that forced our sailors to examine the physical and mental pain they could take. For most human beings, their threshold for "no more" is a lot further out there than we think. Most of us stop doing something that seems painful a lot earlier than we need to or should. The experience was excruciating for the participants. Not all of them made it through. But it was also excruciating to watch. The value of these kinds of intense programs can be debated. It's not for everyone, and it's a roll of the dice any time you decide to put your charges through something like this. But there is one aspect of undeniable value. It forced each of our sailors to take a hard look in the mirror. And taking an honest and hard look in the mirror is a hard thing to do. It takes courage put yourself through honest self-evaluation, because the answers you get are not always fun or flattering. But it is important for our sailors to be looking in the mirror in the lead up to the Games, because self-improvement and the goal of being the best in the world absolutely requires a healthy amount of self examination. -- Read on: http://usstag.blogspot.com/2012/03/courage-to-look-in-mirror.html * Portsmouth, R.I. (March 12, 2012) - Fifty-two sailors have been named to the 2012 US Sailing Development Team (USSDT), the pipeline team supported by US Sailing's Olympic Sailing Committee (OSC). The USSDT was created in 2007 to help aspiring athletes, who have been identified as future Olympic prospects, acquire the skills necessary to launch successful campaigns and compete at the Olympic level. -- Full report: http://sailingteams.ussailing.org/News/2012/2012_USSDT_Named.htm NORTH U TRIM WEBINARS North U Director Bill Gladstone will lead two Trim Webinars: March 24 (10a-5p edt, 7a-2p pdt) and March 27 & 29 (7-10p edt, 4-7p pdt). Learn how to control angle of attack, sail depth, and twist to optimize upwind performance in various wind and sea conditions in an interactive on-line environment. Learn how to achieve full power, get the best mix of power, balance power between the main and jib, and how to evaluate your performance at the North U TRIM Webinar. And then we turn downwind. Full info at http://www.northu.com MEXICAN SAILING EXTRAVAGANZA By Chris Snow, North Sails On my way home now from the 2012 Copa De Mexico regatta held this last week on Banderas Bay, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. What week it was both on and off the water! The Copa de Mexico is a two and half week long sailing extravaganza that combines three events. First is the finish of the 1200 mile long San Diego to Puerto Vallarta race. Second is the J/24 event which I participated in - a World Championship style event sailed over 5 days (10 races) on Banderas Bay. The third event is MEXORC which is a big boat event also over 5 days that combines closed course racing and medium distance races around the bay. The venue, Banderas Bay, is the largest bay in the world and combines stunning mountain backdrops with warm water and good wind. The event is staged from the new Marina Rivera Nayarit in a small village on the north side of the bay called La Cruz. All crews are housed at the Marival Resort, a short bus ride away in Nuevo Vallarta - a large development of resorts with good security and all the amenities. The event is heavily subsidized by the state of Nayarit, the Mexican federal government and the Mexican Tourism board. This helps to make it quite affordable for more crews, and creates a whole fleet of ambassadors for Mexico and the region. Fifty-two J/24s participated in this edition with crews coming from the U.S., Sweden, Monaco, Italy, Chile, Germany, France, Brazil, and of course Mexico. Charter boats are provided for all out of country sailors. With a large fleet, the starting line was quite long placing a real premium on starting at the correct end. With fairly shifty conditions it was important to be in phase right away with clear air, if you could do this big gains could be made if not it was very difficult to break out of the pack. Here are some things I learned over the week that might help you in your J/24 sailing (and other sailing as well): - Always set the rig up for conditions at the start, don't worry about the rest of the race speed off the line is essential. - When starting allow plenty of time coming back on port to find a hole. Keep going on port until you find one. Starting with a boat directly to leeward is practically impossible. - If in doubt set the boat up for the lulls. - In choppy conditions always sail the boat flat... even if it feels slow... The boat does not sideslip when flat. - Downwind in choppy rolling seas spread crew weight as far as you can side to side. This helps a lot of stabilize the boat. - If port tack jib is favored and you are towards the front of the fleet be careful about jibing under all the starboard boats approaching the weather mark... Better to go a short distance and jibe in clear air. - At downwind gates... If they are evenly favored go to one the one that will have less downwind traffic. Full report: http://tinyurl.com/NS-031212 LIKE NOWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD They promised the warmest of welcomes as the Volvo Ocean Race returned (this past weekend for the first time in 10 years - and the people of Auckland and New Zealand certainly didn't disappoint. More than 47,000 people flocked to the city's waterfront to watch the arrival of the six boats at the end of the punishing 5,220 nautical mile leg from Sanya in China. Hundreds of spectator boats hit the water over the course of the day in support of the round the world sailors, over one third of them Kiwis themselves returning home for the first time in months. "It was an absolutely amazing welcome as expected," CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand co-skipper and local hero Stu Bannatyne said. "Auckland certainly did not disappoint. It's awesome to come back here. It's the first time in 10 years the race has been here and I think it shows that the race should come here every time." Despite finishing the leg in sixth place, fellow Aucklander Richard Mason, one Team Sanya's two Kiwi watch captains, was beaming as he stepped onto the dock to rapturous applause. "It was a typical New Zealand welcome," he said. "Thousands of people out, and they were following us all the way down the coast too. It's been fantastic - really super cool." The welcome blew away PUMA Ocean Racing skipper Ken Read, sailing into New Zealand with the Volvo Ocean Race for the first time. "Holy smokes, that was a lot of people," Read said. "Clearly New Zealand is a sailing country. To say it's a pleasure to be here is a massive understatement, we can't believe the support." Navigator Will Oxley, one of the few non-Kiwis on board CAMPER, still found a smile after his team were edged into fourth by Team Telefónica. "We certainly put on a show and so did Auckland," he said. "It was amazing. Nowhere else in the world do you get a welcome like this." -- http://tinyurl.com/VOR-031212 Overall standing after Leg 4 1. Telefonica (ESP), Iker Martinez (ESP), 121 points 2. Groupama 4 (FRA), Frank Cammas (FRA), 103 points 3. CAMPER (NZL), Chris Nicholson (AUS), 98 points 4. PUMA Ocean Racing (USA), Ken Read (USA), 78 points 5. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (UAE), Ian Walker (GBR), 53 points 6. Team Sanya (CHN), Mike Sanderson (NZL), 22 points Tracking/Standings: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/racetracker/rdc.html Video reports: http://www.youtube.com/user/volvooceanracevideos SCHEDULE: After what has been the toughest leg so far, the sailors will have their shortest turnaround time in port. Expect teams to be back on the water by mid week for training, with the race schedule to begin on Friday for the Pro-Am, the In-Port on Saturday, and the start for Leg 5 to Itajai, Brazil on Sunday. Schedule: http://tinyurl.com/VOR-2011-12-schedule BACKGROUND: During the nine months of the Volvo Ocean Race, which started in Alicante, Spain (Oct. 29) and concludes in Galway, Ireland during early July 2012, six professional teams will sail over 39,000 nautical miles around the world via Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya, Auckland, around Cape Horn to Itajai, Miami, Lisbon, and Lorient. Teams accumulate points through nine distance legs and ten In-Port races. - http://www.volvooceanrace.com DISCOVER: GREAT GEAR FOR SPRING SAILING If you're like us, you can't wait for the spring sailing season to get started. Here at Atlantis HQ in Marblehead, longer days make us think about the list of things we need to do to the boat to get it ready, as well as the gear we need to stay dry and comfy while we're out there on those chilly spring days. It's what our Aegis spray top and hybrid bib are designed for, and you can find them at an Atlantis dealer near you or online at http://www.AtlantisWeatherGear.com. Discover Life on the Water. Discover Your Atlantis. COMMENT: This past weekend I found myself on a 40-foot catamaran, participating in a 70 mile race that was 'supposed' to offer reaching conditions. Big shocker... the distance race travel guide lied again. It was upwind the whole way, and while I did my share of belly-aching, it would have been a lot worse had I not been outfitted with the team's Atlantis gear. At least I was dry. - Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt A YEAR LATER, HARBOR STILL RECOVERING Santa Cruz, CA (March 11, 2012) - Sailboats glide by, the chatter of outdoor diners fill the air and crab can be bought straight off the boat, but the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor has a long way to go before normal returns to port. A year after a tsunami turned the harbor into a whirl of tidal surges that tore apart slips and tossed around boats like toys, just two of 23 damaged docks have been replaced. Despite appearances, Port Director Lisa Ekers said, there is evidence of the work that remains right under the balls of your feet. "On a real stormy day, you can be standing here on one of our docks and it's an e-ticket ride," Ekers said Friday, leading a tour of tsunami damage one year later. On March 11, 2011, the 9.0-magnitude Great Tohoku earthquake, one of the five strongest recorded in history, shifted Toyko, the largest metropolitan area in the world, 8 feet to the east. Located 32 miles offshore and 20 miles deep, the temblor shoved the Earth several inches off its axis and sent waves more than 100 feet high crashing into Japan, killing more than 15,000 people. The resulting tsunami set off several disasters, including the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown and, when it reached Santa Cruz, the demolition of the harbor. Recent damage estimates put the cost of repairs at $17 million. Two docks that were completely destroyed - U and V docks - are finished, but the harbor estimates it won't be until the end of next year before all 23 are replaced, casualties of repeated surges that seemed as if they would never ebb. "It wasn't like we had a tsunami. It was like we had 40 or 50 of them over the course of 36 hours," Ekers said. -- Mercury News, read on: http://tinyurl.com/MN-031212 SAILING SHORTS * Brisbane, Australia (March 12, 2012) - The second day of competition at the Laser World Masters Championships 2012 delivered sunshine with 10-15 knots of breeze that graced the waters of Moreton Bay. Kerry Waraker (AUS), who was the Laser Radial Great Grand Master World Champion in 2005 in Brazil, heads the Laser Radial Great Grand Master Division leader board. American Peter Seidenberg, who can now drop his OCS, has moved up to fourth position. Racing continues at the 2012 Laser World Masters Championships until Saturday 17 March, with Wednesday March 14 the designated lay day. -- Full report: http://www.sail-world.com/newsfeed_show.cfm?nfid=12&nid=94794 * The International Kiteboarding Association has announced that the 2012 Course Racing World Championship will not take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as planned due to problems getting the necessary permissions for an event at that time of the year and thus a delay in event funding. The 2012 course racing world championship will be held instead at Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy on October 2-7, 2012. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/IKA-031212 * San Pedro, CA (March 11, 2012) - Cal Maritime came into the Port of Los Angeles Harbor Cup/Cal Maritime Invitational Intercollegiate Regatta not only to defend last year's championship but to make it madly interesting. Their path to the title had its share of mishaps but they managed to save the weekend and secure their second consecutive title in the West Coast's only intercollegiate big boat regatta, five points ahead of 2010 winner USC and 10 ahead of CSU Channel Islands. For the first time in the event's five-year history, the top three teams were from California. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=13401#13401 FREE CLASSIFIED ADS The Scuttlebutt Classified Ads provide a marketplace for private parties to buy and sell, or for businesses to post job openings. Here are recent ads: * Hiring key position at North Sails One Design * Executive Director Sought - DC Sail * Profurl Furler for sale *Rental available in Newport, RI for AC World Series View/post ads here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/classified_ads THE PROVEN CHOICE OF SAILORS The Sailor's RIB. Whether coaching our children, setting marks, or just cruising around, RIBCRAFT RIBs prove themselves day in and day out. No matter what you're in the market for - coach boat, support boat, race tender or just for fun boat - a RIBCRAFT will meet your every need. http://www.ribcraftusa.com 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 Rob Dexter: Regarding the lead story in Scuttlebutt 3545 concerning HUD glasses, call me old school but we're fast approaching the point where actual sailing and video games will be indistinguishable. Money issue aside, do we really want our sport to develop to the point where the sailors will be taking orders from computer programs on everything from tactics to sail shape. While we're all free to do as we wish, I see the technology race in sailing as a potential turn off when we're all trying to keep people coming out on the water. While I race in the Thistle Class which until recently did not allow any electronics, we did recently updated the rules to allow pacemakers as required. * From Dale & Jo Mogle: Charlie Dole was one of Hawaii's sailing royalty (Eight Bells, Scuttlebutt 3545). The Mogle Family -- along with many others -- were indebted to Charlie for his gentlemanly behavior, corinthian attitude and generous manner. He was a role model we all looked up to and emulated. A fine sailor and a great friend. He'll be missed. * From Chris Luppens: I was wondering why there is a great lack of scoring programs and other useful apps for iPads and Androids? FEEDBACK: Focusing on only the scoring programs, please email Scuttlebutt about which ones can work on the iOS and Android platforms: info@sailingscuttlebutt.com CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION "When the cost of gas reaches $5 a gallon, it should include insurance." - Maxine SPONSORS THIS WEEK Doyle Sailmakers - Summit Yachts - North U Atlantis WeatherGear - Ribcraft - North Sails - Mount Gay Rum J Boats - Ullman Sails - Southern Spars - New England Boatworks Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
