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SCUTTLEBUTT 3195 - Monday, October 11, 2010Scuttlebutt 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: APS and Quantum Sails. JOSE MARIA TORCIDA WINS CLOSELY FOUGHT J/80 WORLDS Newport, RI (October 9, 2010) - The final races for the J/80 Worlds in Newport were truly epic. No one could've predicted what was in store for the fleet and the top five leaders. Setting the stage for the last race of the competition was the fact that it was still anyone's ball-game to go win. The top three were now the top five - any finish up or down the top ten in the last race would determine who would win between Scott's Quantum Racing, Pichu's Ecc Viviendas, Carlos' Peraleja Golf, Jeff Johnstone's Little Feat (who had the best scores for the last two days, each day) and Glenn Darden's Le Tigre. Without hesitation at around 1:35 the signals were raised and the fleet sent off into the teeth of a "baby gale"- blowing a steady 20-30 knots, shifting 10-15 degrees, with large breaking waves. It was apparent Carlos Martinez had enough "practice" in the first two races to simply show the rest of the world his performances were not a fluke winning the J/80 Europeans by winning the last race in convincing fashion- planing across the finish line going at least 17 knots and enshrouded in huge sheets of salt spray. Second was Javier Blanco from Real Club Nautico de Barcelona (Spain) sailing CROCS in his best race of the series. Third was Jeff Johnstone on Little Feat, despite sailing 80% of the last run wing-on-wing with main and jib after shrimping and shredding their spinnaker on the set at the last windward mark. -- Full report: http://www.j80worlds2010.org/ Final Results (top 10 of 61) 1. ESP, Jose Maria Torcida 48 pts 2. USA, Scott Young/Flynn/Morran/Williamson 50 pts 3. ESP, Carlos Martinez 54 pts 4. USA, Jeff Johnstone 58 pts 5. USA, Glenn Darden/Hillard 59 pts 6. USA, Benjamin Schwartz 93 pts 7. DEN, Thomas Klok 97 pts 8. USA, Jay Lutz/Gary Kamins 110 pts 9. USA, Brian Keane 113 pts 10. USA, Allan Terhune, Jr. 116 pts Full results: http://tinyurl.com/2010-J80-Worlds-results AN EPIC SERIES THE MUSCLES WON'T FORGET Highly decorated tactician Moose McClintock, who earlier this year added another J/24 World Championship title to his CV, joined Annapolis-based one design Allan Terhune, Jr for the J/80 Worlds, held in Mooseıs home waters of Newport, RI. Extreme winds were the theme for the week, and the lessons came hard. Here are excerpts from Moose's daily reports: DAY 1: Long day in HUGE seas to start the regatta. Lots of carnage on the water; we vaporized our one leg old kite on the first douse and spent the whole day trying to figure out how to go in big seas. Downwind, the European teams are on different boats. They blew by everyone like they were parked. These boats are a little different from Melges 24's; these don't plane quite as fast and are a little heavier so you go into displacement sailing earlier. DAY 2: The pressure picked up to more than the big breeze of Tuesday (Day 14) and the seas were about the same, another painful day of riding a hard slamming ride up the breeze and a full on planing ride downwind, sort of the agony and the ecstasy. Suffice it to say that the Spanish are far ahead of the domestic teams when it comes to sailing in these conditions, particularly off the breeze. What a lot of this boils down to is time in the boat, though we've done a couple regattas we havenıt seen the conditions weıre sailing in; unfortunate for us but not for the better prepared. DAY 3: It was an interesting day, sailing inside Narragansett Bay for the first time and seeing a lot of current and a very shifty breeze ... the incredible European offwind speed was not as critical today with flatter water and a little less breeze but it is still amazing to see the Europeans blow by everyone downwind. The best thing today was no rain, which has permeated everyoneıs opinion of Newport. As a lifelong resident, it's always neat to talk about our sailing, and today was the day to show how good it can be here. DAY 4: The final day turned into a full on knife fight, both for the final positions and for getting around the course. Can't say enough about the RC or conditions; both were awesome all week. This will go down as an epic series in the same vein as a San Francisco blow - lots of sore muscles are going to remember it even longer. MUCH MORE: There is much, much more from Moose on the Scuttlebutt Forum, where Jeff Borland also posted a heartwarming about the Angry Chameleon team skippered by Brian Robinson with crew Kristen (his wife and also class president), Tim Borland and Jesse McKnight, which begins with a dismasting and ends with a rescue. Read more here: http://tinyurl.com/26mbrcp GRIP, PULL, GLIDE. That's exactly what Yale Cordage's newest line, Ph.D., does better and differently than any other rope on the market. By encasing Spectra 1000 fibers with polyester before braiding, Yale Cordage's smart engineers have developed a rope unlike any other. The result is a low stretch line that feels great in hands, grips in ratchets and on winches yet has the ability to glide through the blocks when eased without hockling. Where can you find it? Well, only at APS, "The World Leader in Outfitting Performance Sailors"! Get your Yale Ph.D. details, video, and cordage at APS: http://bit.ly/dnfWiq MORE: Tom Yale gave me a personal tour of the Ph.D. line last week at the U.S. Sailboat Show, which by the way stands for 'Performance handling. Delivered'. Not only did he teach me how to splice it in about the time it takes to mix a Pusserıs Rum Painkiller, he convinced me that Ph.D. is what you want for mainsheet and headsail line. He also figured it might take a season or two for his competitors to copy it. When APS saw it, they bought the total manufacturing run. Itıs that good. - Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt editor BIG ACTION IN FINAL ROUND EXTREME SAILING SERIES Almeria, Spain (October 10, 2010) - The second day of the final round of the 2010 Extreme Sailing Series in Almeria delivered exactly what it says on the tin Extreme racing, on the limit of control, with an abundance of thrills and spills. The thousands of Spanish public who flocked to the race village today were enthralled as the boats flew past within touching distance of the stadium walls: "It was unbelievable, the crowds give you a real buzz, it's fantastic," said Dean Barker, Team Emirates New Zealand skipper. A consistent 20+ knots of breeze saw the Extreme 40s 'fly' along at boat speeds in excess of 30mph (46kmph). Today was about staying in control, minimizing mistakes and staying out of trouble. The race management decided that in light of the forecast the fleet would race in groups with no more than four boats on the race course at one time, set inside the tight confines of the port. Each group was determined by the current rankings after yesterdayıs racing. In the end, it was Yann Guichard's crew on Groupe Edmond de Rothschild who did it best, winning three out of their four races, and increasing their lead to 59 points at the top of the leaderboard. The forecast for tomorrow is for less wind but that wonıt take the heat off the skippers as they head into the penultimate day of the final round of the season. -- Full story/results: http://tinyurl.com/2ex7f2y MATADOR TAKES TOP POINTS IN COASTAL RACE/TP52 WORLDS Valencia, Spain (October 9, 2010) Quantum Racing did what they had to do win their second TP52 World title in three years, containing the 2009 world champions - the spirited, never-say-die Matador crew -through todayıs one showdown, final race of the TP52 World Championship off Valencia. The long delay, waiting for enough of a settled breeze to allow competition to take place made only one race possible. With a points cushion which meant that only one of these two could win the title, and Quantum Racing holding a three points cushion, the last race proved to be a tough head-to-head, match race as fully befits the Americaıs Cup waters. For Quantum Racing it completes an unmatched record of two world titles in three years, and a second, only losing out last year on countback to Matador, and adds the perfect final flourish in their final race with the Botin Carkeek designed boat in which they won the Audi MedCup title in 2008 and finished runners-up in 2009 and this season. Finishing in fourth place, just ahead of their arch-rivals was enough for the Russian team to take third, but illustrating just how close it was also in the body of the fleet, only one point separated Synergy from sixth placed Cristabella, with Torbjorn Tornqvistıs Artemis (SWE) fourth, and Audi A1 powered by All4ONE (FRA/GER) fifth. -- Full results: http://www.tp52worldchampionship.org/news/?id=1414 2010 ARGO GOLD CUP GOES TO TEAM ORIGIN Hamilton, Bermuda (October 10, 2010) - Triple Olympic gold medalist Ben Ainslie (GBR) TEAMORIGIN put in a sublime performance to add a second Argo Group Gold Cup to his teamıs trophy cabinet after a scintillating final against Jesper Radich (DEN) Gaastra Racing Team in Stage 8 of the World Match Racing Tour. The final had all the hallmarks of a classic with Radich showing consistently good form throughout the week with 12 wins out of 13, while Ainslie and his crew had been gaining momentum day by day. For added spice, Radich was seeking retribution for his final defeat at the hands of Ainslie in stage 5 of the Tour - Stena Match Cup Sweden. Reflecting on his triumph, Ainslie said: "We made it hard for ourselves and had a battle all the way through but maybe what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. We had fantastic racing against Jesper - it was classic stuff, as good as match racing ever gets." The focus now turns to the final event of the World Match Racing Tour, the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia. The outlook has become bleaker for Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team and Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar sponsored by Argo Group. They are now 29 and 33 points behind overall leader Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team respectively, with their fate lying in the hands of Richard, Ainslie and Minoprio. -- Full story, results, photos, and video: http://www.wmrt.com/ ASKED / ANSWERED When John Oliver asked about wind farms in Scuttlebutt 3184, weather guru Chris Bedford of Sailing Weather Services stepped up to respond in the Scuttlebutt Forum: * Does the turbine extract energy from the wind, is the wind shadow just a mush with low pressure, or is it all twisted or roiled up, how far does the shadow extend? CHRIS BEDFORD: Yes, there is a wind shadow. It can extend miles downwind from a single large wind turbine and modeling shows the shadows extending hundreds of miles downwind in the case of large wind farms. There is no such thing as free energy. Taken collectively, all the world's wind farms will have an impact on the global climate in much the same way that burning fossil fuels does. Other so-called Green Energy "solutions" - such as wave and tidal power - also have environmental impacts. The only true green "solution" is to reduce energy consumption. * How capable are these structures of withstanding extreme wind speeds? CHRIS BEDFORD: Wind turbines are designed to withstand extreme wind speeds. Since they are often installed in locations known to have strong winds, this is a standard requirement. In fact, most turbines shut down during strong winds in order to protect the equipment from damage. However, like any engineered structure, there are limits. There are most definitely cases of turbines failing during storms which exceed design limits or due to control system problems. Such failures are becoming less common as design, manufacturing, installation and maintenance techniques improve. Unfortunately, with the number of installations increasing all the time, the news of failures will never go away in much the same way that airplanes still crash from time to time. * Is that why there are none existing or planned for the Caribbean? CHRIS BEDFORD: There are wind farms in the Caribbean, however few large wind energy plants. The main reason has to do with transmission to the users. It is cheaper and more environmentally sound to build wind farms close to where the energy is used. So a balance must be struck between building wind farms where there is wind AND where there is infrastructure to get the power produced to where it is needed. As is often the case, it comes down to economics. Forum thread: http://tinyurl.com/28fdcnx MEASURE NOW, SAVE TIME LATER With the North American sailing season winding down, now is the time to put the gears in motion for off-season sail cleaning, inspection, repair, alterations and replacement. If you are considering the possibility of sail replacement, NOW is the time to get boat measurements. Once the mast is unstepped and boat under cover, itıs difficult to get the necessary information. Contact your local Quantum Sail Loft for measuring assistance or a sail measurement worksheet as well as cleaning and inspection services, repair estimates and off-season storage. If youıre an inshore one-design sailor, check out our limited time offer on new sails: http://www.quantumsails.com/Classes/classes.aspx RECORD BREAKERS ABOUND ON FIRST DAY AT LUDERITZ Luderitz, Namibia (October 9, 2010) - The 1st National Speed Record was broken within minutes of the start of the Luderitz Speed Event 2010 on what was expected to be simply a training session in anticipation prior to the big winds forecast for the upcoming weekıs racing. Kite surfer Gavin Broadbent smashed the existing New Zealand national record within 13 minutes of the opening of the first day of the 2010 Luderitz Speed Challenge on Friday 8th October at 2nd Lagoon, Luderitz Bay, Namibia. After only 3 runs his official average speed over 500m was recorded at 44.51 knots - the previous record being 40.68 knots. 70 minutes later, also on his 3rd run, Swedish Windsurfer, Anders Bringdal broke the Swedish National Windsurfing record. The existing record was 41.96 and his official recorded speed was 42.9 knots. Australian Kite surfer Tim Pumpa was the 3rd competitor of the day to set a new national record - Best Kite Speed record for Australia with an official speed of 40.72 knots. The previous record was 33.94 knots. All new records are still to be ratified by the World Speed Sailing Record Council (WSSRC). -- Report at: http://luderitz-speed.com/ SCUTTLEBUTT SAILING CALENDAR Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar SAILING SHORTS * Valencia, Spain (October 8, 2010) - Two of the most distinguished figures in world sport will lead the regeneration of the Americaıs Cup. Richard Worth will be Chairman of the America's Cup Event Authority (ACEA) Management Board. He has specific responsibility for the commercial, media and television aspects in one of sports most iconic events. Craig Thompson has been appointed CEO of ACEA and will work closely with Richard to re-position the America's Cup to attract more fans and commercial interest, while delivering the events in new and exciting formats. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/283fn3j * (October 10, 2010) - The first ever official RC 44 World Championship, recognized by the International Sailing Federation, starts on Monday, October 11th, in Lanzarote, Canary Islands and runs until Saturday, October 16th. The RC 44 World Championships Islas Canarias Puerto Calero Cup will be broadcast live on Internet. Live commentary will be available in both English and Spanish, with Dobbs Davis doing the live commentary in English. Live stream will be on the event website www.rc44puertocalero.com. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/2e643by * The 2010 Hobie 16 North American Championships and USA team selection event and country qualifier for the Pan AM games will take place from October 11-15, 2010 on Lake Mohave, Nevada. An international field of 44 teams, including nine former class champions, one past world champion and several Olympic sailors will be competing. Enrique FIGUEROA/Victor APONTE (PUR) are the defending 2009 champions and the early favorites. -- Event web site: www.hcana.hobieclass.com * Chicago, IL (October 10, 2010) - Eleven teams from six member clubs of the Yacht Racing Union of the Great Lakes (YRUGL) converged over the weekend at the Chicago Match Race Center (CMRC) for the annual match race challenge for the 71st Richardson Trophy. First place went to Chris Van Tol (Detroit, MI), second to Don Wilson (Chicago, IL), with Peter Wickwire (Toronto, Canada) in third. -- Full report at: http://www.chicagomatchrace.com/PressRelease/article.asp?p=10064 * The MC-Scow National Championship was hosted by the Lake Lanier Sailing Club (GA) over the weekend in perfect fall conditions, with temperatures in the upper 70s, no clouds, light southeast winds and 75 competitors. After four races, Cam McNeil (White Lake, MI) took first with 11 points, Joe Rotunda (Spring Lake, MI), took second with 22 points, and Noel Neumann (Upper Minnetonka, MN), sat in third with 23 points. -- Full results at: http://www.mcscow.org/ 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 are 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 Toby Cooper (re, Scuttlebutt 3192): I too was just lucky enough to be around the Lee/Olson/Moore/Santa Cruz nexus in the early 70ıs, and one of that tribe reminded me recently of one more reason the Moore 24 and others of the era are such enduring boats. Each sturdy little Moore is a product of something like 20 to 30,000 man-hours, made possible only because rent and controlled substances were both uncontrolled and cheap. Plus, those shops offered an unbelievable benefits package, namely unlimited bashing around the ocean on the same products you built. They say history repeats itself, but in this case I doubt if it ever will. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION To keep a healthy level of insanity, when leaving the zoo start running towards the parking lot, yelling "run for your lives, they're loose!!" Special thanks to APS and Quantum Sails. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
