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SCUTTLEBUTT 3116 - Friday, June 18, 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: Holmatro and Interlux. THE ATTITUDE OF WINNING: EMBRACING THE CHALLENGE By Chris Rast, 3-time Olympian "You gotta be out of your freaking mind!" was the response I got from one of my best sailing buddies when I explained to him in early 2006 that Tim (Wadlow) and I were considering campaigning in the 49er for the 2008 Olympic Games. "Morgan Larson and Pete Spaulding (one of the other US 49er teams) are currently almost dominating the class and you guys want to go up against them? You haven't even ever crewed in the 49er!" I understood his reasoning but at the same time also realized that with that kind of an attitude you were never going to win a Gold Medal. In today's short article I would like to dig into the most important factor when it comes to winning or losing: The Attitude of Winning. There are many parts that make up this attitude and one of them is the way we embrace challenges. It's something we are faced with every day, sometimes just on a small scale and sometimes it can be life changing challenges that must be conquered. Some people think of challenges as mountains that have to be climbed. They see only the small crevices and steep walls, the difficulty of making it on to the next ledge. I prefer thinking about the view we will enjoy when we make it to the top. The only way to truly master a challenge starts off by embracing it. You must be grateful to have been put into a position of facing the challenge. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/2aobyfl KEEPING BUSY: After crewing for Dennis Conner last week at the Etchells North Americans, Chris followed it the next day with his MBA commencement ceremony at UCSD. Fast and smart! BUILD YOUR FLEET WITH A PHONE CALL By Stuart Streuli, Sailing World At registration on Thursday night - 15 hours before the first race - a competitor in one of the smaller classes picked up his packet, then leaned over the table and asked, "So how many boats do we have?" My answer, "Five," was as surprising as it was disappointing. "Is that all?" he replied. I shrugged slightly, unsure what to say. I told him that sometimes boats sign up at registration, though it wasn't likely. Later that weekend, as I thought further about the conversation, I was more and more surprised that this skipper didn't have a better feel for his class. If I were spending a good chunk of money, time, and effort to sail in a three-day regatta, I think I'd probably check the entry lists on occasion to see how many boats had signed up. Furthermore, if the fleet was looking rather slim, I might make a call to other fleet members in the area - or send out a group email - to hopefully spur a few more sign-ups. While this might sound like a magnanimous gesture, it would be purely self-serving. More boats means more fun. One additional boat in a 5-boat class is a 20-percent increase in fleet size, competitiveness, fun, etc. This is especially important for classes that are hovering at or below the point of critical mass. This point was driven home on the first day of racing as I, onboard the photo boat, motored out of the harbor and passed right by a potential sixth boat sitting on the mooring. In most cases, a skipper isn't going to change from "no" to "yes" due to a phone call or email. But on occasion it will happen. Maybe he's struggling to find crew, and you happen to have a few phone numbers. Maybe he's in need of a spare part, and you've got an extra he can borrow for the weekend. Maybe he simply needs a nudge, someone saying, "Hey, you know you'll have fun if you go, and we'll have more fun if you go. It would be great to see you on the racecourse." Some fleets build in bunches. But they are the exceptions. Most do so one boat at a time. For anyone who's served as a fleet captain, this is filed under "stating the obvious." For the rest of us, who often sit wondering why there aren't more boats on the line, it may not be so. When it comes to building our fleets, however, we should all take responsibility. COMMUNICATION: Stuart provided this observation while on-site at the Sperry Top-Sider Chicago NOOD. An additional observation from the Scuttlebutt desk is that while a group email is an epic time saver, the use of email to encourage people is an immensely more passive tool than picking up the phone. If you really want to get somebody to commit, there is nothing like speaking to them direct. More reports from the Chicago NOOD here: http://tinyurl.com/266tuqh QUOTE / UNQUOTE "Marianne Sunderland is due to give birth to a son any day. He has been given the nickname Charlie so maybe that will stick. There's no truth to the rumor that Charlie will attempt to become the first infant to sail around the world alone." - Pete Thomas, LA Times reporter, following the Abby Sunderland saga: http://tinyurl.com/278k5rf HOLMATRO PUSH BUTTON HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS The Holmatro hydraulic systems are designed to create flexibility for yacht-design with the modular approach. The innovative pump and valve technology is controlled through a premium-grade industrial computer, expandable with add-ons. Data logging, remote monitoring and troubleshooting are within reach. The advanced pumps deliver a full range of output. The system will power anything from a running winch to a keel-lifting cylinder or a boomvang. Compared to electric systems, this hydraulic system offers more options for weight distribution, flexibility in installation and central heat dissipation. Great for cruising comfort when sailing shorthanded and handling high loads instantly on modern performance yachts. Details at http://www.holmatro.com/ QUANTUM STILL HAS GRIP ON LEAD Marseille, France (June 17, 2010; Day 2) - At the top of the TP52 Audi MedCup Circuit's Marseille Trophy regatta leaderboard, 2008 overall champions Quantum Racing's (USA) may have only had the sixth best day in the 10-boat fleet, but their 5-6 keeps them ahead of Matador (ARG) on tie-break as the Argentines had a taste of life at the both extremes (1-10). Top scorers amid the 6-8 knot winds were Ben Ainslie (GBR), Iain Percy (GBR) and the TeamOrigin with a 3-1 to move themselves to third on the regatta standings. With only five points separating the top five, Friday's coastal race could prove decisive with its 1.5 point bounty. -- Full story: http://www.medcup.org/news/?id=3317 Francesco Bruni (ITA), tactician Matador (ARG): "We have had an up-and-down day where we have done very good things and very bad ones. We are a little bit angry with ourselves for the second leg in which we were third and we have made the mistake or staying in the middle with less wind than in the sides. Sometimes you need to bet for one side and risk a little instead of lowering the risk but reaming in the middle without pressure. We paid a lot for this mistake, we have paid seven points. Of course the regatta is still open, this is a much opener regatta than Cascais. I guess we have to keep fighting." Iain Percy (GBR), tactician TeamOrigin (GBR): "Much better day for us guys. We had a couple of great starts and it was one of those race courses where it was easier to be in front, so we ended up with two top threes which I think in this quality of fleet is a good day by any standards so we are happy..We were struggling a little bit in Cascais (the first event of the MedCup circuit) and today we are fast downwind so the designers did a good job of working there so that's the main change, some of the appendages. We are pleased; its part of the aim in this season to learn and interact and improve and make changes and we've done that. I think our boat probably is going to be a good strong wind boat." Additional quotes: http://www.medcup.org/news/quotes-of-the-day_3318 Video race replay and daily highlight shows: http://www.medcup.org/replay/ FILL IN THE BLANK If I was campaigning for the 2012 Olympics, getting support from BLANK would be the kiss of death. (Facebook comments below) SAILING SHORTS * The 2010 470 National Championship was hosted by the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club Sailing Foundation (Stonington, CT) June 11-13, with teams from Florida, Connecticut, Illinois, Wisconsin and Canada. The event included a two-day warm-up regatta on Saturday and Sunday, June 5-6, and a three day training camp during the week with Coach Skip Whyte. Winning the event was Brendan Kopp and Michael Costello, of Pequot Yacht Club, CT, who are currently campaigning 470's around their academic schedules, with their eyes set on the 2012 and the 2016 Summer Olympics. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=10050#10050 * Qingdao, China has been added to the ISAF World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) series schedule. The Qingdao Match Cup, which signed a five year agreement through to 2014 to host an annual stage of the tour, will be held October 19-25. The event will utilize 10 new Beneteau First 40 yachts and offer a new total prize pool standard of USD$500,000. With the addition of Qingdao, the World Match Racing Tour maintains the 10 venue format proposed earlier in the year, as the Vietnam Match Cup was taken off the schedule for 2010 but will return in 2011. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/37aunqh * The Canadian Yachting Association has officially announced the members of the 2010 Canadian Youth World Sailing Team. The team will be heading to Istanbul, Turkey from July 8th-July 17th to compete in the 40th edition of the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship. Team members are Alexander Heinzemann (Laser), Brenda Bowskill (Laser Radial), Adam Taylor (420 Helm), Daniel Baker (420 Crew), Erin Berry (29er Helm), and Jessica Round (29er Crew). -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/29vqhal * Middelburg, Netherlands (June 17, 2010) - Dutch judges on Thursday extended a ban delaying a 14-year-old schoolgirl's bid to become the youngest person to sail around the world solo. The district court at Middelburg in the southwestern Netherlands ruled that the safety risks for Laura Dekker were still too high. It granted an application by child protection services to keep Dekker under their supervision for an extra month until August 1. Judge Kuypers ordered another hearing to be held on July 20 to get the opinion of a sailing expert, an update on the teenager's emotional well-being, and to study a full plan for her trip. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/2fdo9ba PHOTOS OF THE WEEK Some of the random photos from the sport received this week at Scuttlebutt include British yachting, crazy yachting, inverted yachting, faux yachting, messy yachting, law enforcement yachting. Here are this week's photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/10/0618/ SEND US YOUR PHOTOS: If you have images to share for the Photos of the Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com VIDEO OF THE WEEK The Newport Bermuda Race is a 635-mile ocean race, most of it out of sight of land, usually lasting three to six days. It crosses a stretch of the Atlantic Ocean known for challenging weather, especially in the Gulf Stream, where there are strong currents. Held every two years in mid-June, the 2010 edition starts this Friday, June 18th. If the fleet holds steady at 188 boats, this will be the third largest race in the 104-year, 46-race history of the Thrash to the Onion Patch, after the 265-boat turnout in 2006 and 198 in 2008. As it stands as one of the classic ocean races in the sport, Scuttlebutt editor Craig Leweck distinctly remembers his baptism when he joined Bill Shore in 1984 to sail on a J/41. Notes Leweck, "From the 'condo-hopping' thru the Stream with double reef main and blade jib, to the light winds later when our navigator sheepishly informed that we were going backwards, to the rainstorm after the finish as I was asleep on deck. this was all a shocker for a SoCal sailor used to the warm downwind slides that characterize the distance racing out west. But Bermuda is heaven!" This week's video is a preview of the 2010 Newport Bermuda Race: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/10/0618/ SEND US YOUR VIDEOS: If you have clips to share for the Video of the Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com DO YOU KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR YOUR BOTTOM? There's only one winning antifouling formulation that keeps proving itself year after year & that's Interlux VC17m Extra. Used by many of the world's largest sailing fleets and ocean events, super-smooth VC17m Extra is made for speed - with an extremely low co-efficient of friction, the hull just glides through the water. Learn more about VC17m Extra and other high performance coatings from Interlux here: http://www.yachtpaint.com/usa FACEBOOK SAYS.. When posted on the Scuttlebutt Facebook page, "If I was campaigning for the 2012 Olympics, getting support from BLANK would be the kiss of death," the comments were: BP Lehman Brothers Timana Tahu Joran Van Der Sloot Goldman Sachs Bernie Madoff Ernest B IRS Abby Sunderland's dad Class A drugs The people who took care of the seaweed at the Beijing Olympics Add more here: http://tinyurl.com/Scuttlebutt-FB-6-17-10 LETTERS AND FORUM Please email your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, 'The Curmudgeon'). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). 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 John Arndt (RE: Scuttlebutt 3115 - Steve Pyatt, Auckland, NZ): Actually half the world will also be dark. At least half of the time. But it works out. They'll be sailing in China while we're sound asleep in California and vice versa. But that won't stop us from all connecting on a global holiday for sailors and don't think you shouldn't be part of it too. Besides, as an Australian who signed up a couple of years ago noted, 'Summer Sailstice may be our shortest day of the year but it's the longest night to party!' If we all work on this we can pass the baton North and South on June 21 and December 21. That's just more sailing and celebrating. Enjoy your sail this weekend and we'll do the same. Then we'll switch places on December 21. Of course this would have all been easier if Columbus was wrong and the world really was flat. * From Beau Vrolyk: As sailing has attempted to morph itself into a TV-worth spectator sport, it has failed so far to consider what is probably the most important feature of TV broadcasting - Schedule. Without being able to predict exactly when a race will start, when there will be breaks for commercials, and exactly when it will finish, TV producers and directors will be loath to try to match the economic demands of their business to the vagaries of sailboat racing as we know it. To become "entertainers" that are worthy of TV time, sailors will need to race on schedule, without any excuses made for windshifts, breakdowns, or lack of wind. Clearly, this will dictate that many of the places that we currently race are unacceptable; it will force sailing into venues where the winds are predictable, the weather it good enough to run TV cameras outdoors easily, and where there is an opportunity for an audience to observe the racing and provide the "Fan Images" that TV loves. All of this will change (and is changing) our sport substantially. One may debate if this is an improvement or a degradation of sailing as we know it, but it is and will change. -- Scuttleblog, http://tinyurl.com/Scuttleblog-BV * From David Storrs: Of course it is easier to sail in a venue where the course is laid out perfectly to the wind and the wind never changes, but life is life. Is P or S in any way disadvantaged by a starting line that is biased, or a windward leg that is not 90 degrees, or a wind that shifts direction? No, that just creates more opportunities for the alert team to take advantage of an opportunity. Perhaps these bad environments just create different opportunities for the two boats, rather than creating an unfair competition? -- Scuttleblog, http://tinyurl.com/Scuttleblog-DS * From Taylor Michie, Author, Racing Winds (RE: Abby Sunderland in #3115): As a child sailor myself, I think Jessica Watson was out to have fun and learn and really did her research before setting out. I felt like she was out for the experience, not for the fame or to set any records. Abby's judgment and the judgment of the family seems to have been clouded by record-setting ambitions and promises of TV deals and documentaries. Laurance Sunderland stated somewhere that they were "running out of money" and it seems like he saw his daughter as an opportunity to remedy that. I personally wouldn't set out on this journey at the age of 16, but I don't have the experience that they do. But Jessica definitely seemed like the purer-motived one. * From Robbie Wallace: Like it or not, it seems that Abby is now an international celebrity with worldwide fame. Everybody knows Abby. It's all over TV news and the Internet every day, is it not? I can't imagine the buzz she will create when she surfaces. This brave and beautiful young lady has a huge future in my view. There is no price on this level of notoriety. When she comes home she only needs a good and reputable agent and she's off to the races! No matter what we think of sending a 16 year old girl to pitch pole in a 70kt squall in the Southern Ocean, it is my prediction that a star has been born. Just watch! => Curmudgeon's Comment: Robbie, you may be right. The commentary has made for an interesting discussion, of which I have derived these three points: - There are a lot of parenting styles, and it is precarious ground to judge others. - For a solo circumnavigation, it is not about age, it is about experience and maturity. Plus with the communication tools available, solo sailing is not too solo anymore, and teenagers are pretty adept at working the phone. - National safety organizations want other countries to save their residents too, so they are likely not to judge the people they rescue (as long as there is no loss of life). This thread is now closed. All the letters submitted, both published and unpublished, are posted in the forum: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=10007#10007 * From Adrian Morgan: (re, story in Scuttlebutt 3115) I sympathize with Paul Cayard and other professionals. Sailing when you can, balancing work and play, is what makes it fun and exciting. Pity the poor pros who, to earn a crust, have to race week in week out. What was fun becomes a chore. I can't imagine anything worse than being paid by an owner to sail his boat, leaving no time to sail my own, being at the beck and call of the man who holds the purse strings, and vulnerable to the sack if results don't justify expectations. If Mr Cayard and others are feeling the strain, I suggest they get a proper job, preferably a productive job or one that helps the less fortunate, and go sailing in their spare time without payment. Then they will appreciate once more the meaning of the word fun. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION A husband is someone who, after taking the trash out, gives the impression that he just cleaned the whole house. Special thanks to Holmatro and Interlux. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
