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SCUTTLEBUTT 2617 - Friday, June 13, 2008Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors. OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN: 57 DAYS TO GO Canadian Laser sailor Mike Leigh, ranked 5th in the world, provides insight from the ISAF Grade 1 Delta Lloyd Regatta in Medemblik, Holland last month: “I think one of the big takeaways from this event was equipment preparation. At top level laser racing, sails really only last one major grade 1 event, and then get demoted to training or use at smaller regattas. Therefore, I normally go through between 5-7 sails a year. Typically, I buy all my sails for the season at one time, so that I can put them all up and compare shapes, note imperfections, and then rank them-saving the best ones for the most important regattas. However, for the Holland Regatta, I didnt have time to look at the latest batch of sails. Unfortunately, I had grabbed a sail with a really tight leech, and my speed suffered. It took me most of the first day to figure out the problem, and after that, I figured out how much I needed to free the sheet to bring back my normal groove. “Now I am not blaming my gear for my lack of speed. Instead, I am blaming my lack of preparation, as this was well within my control, and presents an interesting scenario for the games where the lasers are receiving supplied equipment. In China (at the 2008 Olympics), it will be of the utmost importance to identify the differences between our normal gear, and the supplied gear. In particular, the stiffness of the mast, mast rake, and the shape of the sail. Then we will need to take this information, and be able to adapt our normal setup so that we are still getting the correct shapes and feel to maximize our boatspeed. I know this problem has plagued almost every top laser sailor I can think of at one stage or another, and whilst adapting may not win the Olympics, not adapting could certainly lose it.” -- http://xrl.us/bw9zg * Riva del Garda, Italy (June 12, 2008) - The 86 men and 33 women teams at the 2008 ISAF Grade C1 470 Europeans on Lake Garda gripped with another day of random lake-like conditions. Noted Americans Stu McNay and Graham Biehl, “None of the coaches know what to do, which makes it even more challenging for the sailors. We’ve found huge shifts to move in for no reason, and leave just as fast, with huge pressure differences.” After four days of racing, Americans Amanda Clark and Sarah Mergenthaler lost their lead position after rolling a 5-31 and now sit in third overall. However, steadily moving up in the ranks is Molly Carapiet/ Molly O'Bryan Vandemoer (USA) who are now in eighth position. Friday is the final day of fleet racing before the top ten advance to the Medal Race on Saturday. -- Results: http://abe5.com/4v1 McNay/Biehl website: http://blog.teammb.org/?p=41 CRAP GOVERNMENT AND COURTS IN CALIFORNIA by Richard Spindler, Latitude 38 (June 12, 2008) In just the next chapter in the book on complete crap justice in California, on Wednesday Judge Richard Martin ruled there was enough evidence for 39-year-old Bismarck Dinius of Sacramento to stand trial on charges of vehicular manslaughter in the April 29, 2006, boating accident on Clear Lake, CA that resulted in the death of Lynn Thornton. In a world where there was even a smidgen of justice, Judge Martin would have stopped the four-day hearing during the first 10 minutes to excoriate the Lake County District Attorney for charging the wrong man with the crime. For as the outrage now stands, Deputy Sheriff Russell Perdock, who on that dark night slammed his high-powered speedboat into the quarter of the sailboat that Thornton was on at an admitted 40 to 45 mph - and perhaps as fast as 60 mph - hasn't been charged with anything! -- Read on: http://xrl.us/bxaa2 FINDING THE FORMULA Larchmont, NY - What happens when you mix over 100 Vanguard 15s, including over two dozen former college All Americans with short course racing? No one knows for certain, since the Vanguard 15 class has never had a regatta this size before, let alone a national championship. But with 100 boats from 15 states already pre-registered to race at Larchmont YC on June 14-15 in the Nautica Vanguard 15 National Championship, we will find out the answer soon enough. The event, expected to be one of, if not the largest one design national championship in the United States in 2008 (excluding junior boats), will have all competitors on a single starting line racing on the short courses that have defined the Vanguard 15 class since its inception. The regatta has attracted a larger crowd than in past years due to the growth of the class on the East Coast and the convenient timing of the championship, which avoids conflicts for college sailors and junior sailing coaches who make up a large portion of the class, as well as team racers. Hosting the event at Larchmont YC, home to the largest Vanguard 15 fleet in the country, helped the cause as well. -- Full report: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/08/0612 IN THIS CASE, IT ‘IS’ ROCKET SCIENCE At this year’s 185-mile Block Island Race, two grand prix behemoths were challenged in the overall standings by a J/120. Her name was Rocket Science; she came Third in Fleet, First in Class, with nary a pro aboard in a fleet that topped 100 boats; the science was in her UK-Halsey sails. The IRC Class 1 winner, SirenSong, used the same science. Real Boats, Real Sails, Real Fast. So, when someone says, “It aint rocket science,” don’t believe them: more and more “rockets” are turning to UK-Halsey’s Tape-Drive and MatriX string sails: rocket science that’s winning. 800-253-2002. http://www.ukhalsey.com NEW TALENT SHINES AT KOREA MATCH CUP Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea (June 12, 2008) - After a day spent trouncing many of their elder rivals, it appears that some relative newcomers to the World Match Racing Tour are now well on their way to securing berths in the next Quarter Final stage of the Korea Match Cup. Adam Minoprio (NZL) and his Emirates Team New Zealand/Black Match Racing has amassed eight points thus far in the Round Robin, second only on a tie-break to Jesper Radich (DEN) and his Rudy Project Sailing Team, while Torvar Mirsky (AUS) and his Mirsky Racing Team currently lie in third. Radich secures his spot in the next round on his impressive 8-3 record, but said this about the young talent he faces in this competition: “I know it wasn’t too long ago that I was the ‘young guy’ in the field, but I know that’s not true anymore, because I got my butt kicked by another young guy today.” He was referring to Mirsky, who at 22 is indeed the youngest competitor at this event, but has also this year been active at many others on the Tour. Besides Radich, Mirsky dispensed today with two other past Tour champions and recent America’s Cup veterans, Magnus Holmberg (SWE) of Victory Challenge and Paolo Cian (ITA) of Team Shosholoza. -- Complete report: http://www.worldmatchracingtour.com/da/81169 Stage One round robin racing concludes tomorrow morning, followed by the start of Stage Two in the Quarter Final knockout series. Scores after 16 (of 22) flights: Jesper Radich (DEN) Rudy Project Sailing Team 8-3 Adam Minoprio (NZL) Emirates Team New Zealand/BlackMatch Racing 7-3 Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team 5-1 Ian Williams (GBR) Team Pindar 5-2 Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Shosholoza 4-4 Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Alandia Sailing Team 3-2 Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team 3-2 Sébastien Col (FRA) K Challenge/French Match Racing Team 3-2 Wataru Sakamoto (JPN) Siesta Team 3-4 Magnus Holmberg (SWE) Victory Challenge 2-6 Peter Gilmour (AUS) Team PST 2-5 Seung Chul Lim (KOR) Korea Gyeonman Team 0-11 => Curmudgeon’s Comment: The Mirsky Racing Team sent us an update on their first two days at the event, which is now posted here on the Scuttlebutt website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/08/0612c BACKS TO THE WALL There has been a lot to complain about lately. The 33rd America’s Cup is in the crapper and the Catamaran is out of the 2012 Olympics. Add the war in Iraq, human rights concerns in China, a tough US economy, rising gas prices, environmental issues… it makes for quite the Molotov cocktail. In this climate, why the heck would US SAILING initiate the concept to require the American sailor to join the national sailing authority? We strongly suspect US SAILING did not anticipate the reaction of the American sailor. Now they are in an awkward position of arguing with their customers, trying to explain their value when they haven’t sufficiently demonstrated it. Based on the recent Scuttlebutt poll and comments, there are plenty of people that feel they should join US SAILING, but they feel quite differently if it is required. If you are highly vested in the sport, actively playing the game, supporting US SAILING shouldn’t be a hard sell. However, US SAILING has done such a total botch job in presenting the idea of required membership, and now finds itself in a stand-off with the very people they need to be working with. The Board of Directors will vote on the issue next week, and the burning question will be in how well they listened to their customers. For them to say, “Heh, we screwed up” would solve a lot of problems, and would likely provide a pretty nice starting point for the American sailors to reunite and move forward again… together. -- Scuttleblog, http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2008/06/backs-to-wall.html SAILING SHORTS * Cannigione, Sardinia (June 12, 2008) – Three races were reportedly held on the fourth day of the J/24 World Championship, however, the online results are incomplete with only one new race being posted showing Mark Hillman (USA in the lead after six races. -- Results: http://xrl.us/bxanf * (June 12, 2008) Salvage experts on Wednesday recovered and towed to shore the 38-foot sailboat Cynthia Woods, which capsized Friday night, leading to the death of one of the six people on board. Investigators with the U.S. Coast Guard, assisted by experts brought in by Texas A&M University, will begin inspecting the boat to determine why its keel separated shortly after it set off on a race from Galveston to Veracruz, Mexico. The university system has authorized its own inquiry into the deadly accident, to be headed by Deputy Chancellor Jay Kimbrough. -- Houston Chronicle, read on: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/5832339.html * (June 12, 2008) Neville Crichton has smashed his own course record in the Giraglia Race, after steering his 100-foot maxi Alfa Romeo across the finish line at Genoa at 0803 hours this morning. This is the 56th edition of the Giraglia Race, a 243-mile marathon starting from St Tropez via the Giraglia Rock at the northern tip of Corsica to the finish in the Italian port of Genoa. Crichton completed the 243-mile course in just over 18 hours, a massive improvement on the record set by Crichton's previous Alfa Romeo, a 90-footer which set a time of just over 22 hours back in 2003. -- http://www.regattanews.com/event.asp?id=194 * This weekend more than 500 sailboats will be taking part in Europe's largest lake regatta -- the Bol d'Or Mirabaud - on Lake Geneva, bordered by Switzerland and France. Hosted by Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), among the entrants will be the high-tech multihulls, including more than 100 Surprise sailboats, the Décision 35, the new Mirabaud LX on hydrofoils, and the M2 class. -- http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/08/0612a * The UK's Formula Yacht Spars has been placed under voluntary administration after failing to stem its losses on the UK market. The company, which is based in Lymington, Hampshire, claims to be the largest producer of performance carbon and aluminum yacht spars in the UK, supplying its products to America's Cup and Volvo Open 60 vessels, as well as superyachts. Formula's European operations in Montpellier, France and Blokzijl in the Netherlands have been recovered out of the administration and continue to trade as normal. -- IBI Magazine, complete report: http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20080512100653ibinews.html * (June 12, 2008) Sailing World's College Rankings has Boston College finishing out the season atop both the Coed and Women's rankings as determined by SW's coaches panel: Michael Callahan (Georgetown), Ken Legler (Tufts), and Mike Segerblom (USC). -- http://xrl.us/bxaxh * Ian Walker, skipper of the Green Team, has officially announced the majority of the Green Team's squad for the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09. The team along with 15 shore crew are already hard at work at Endeavour Quay, Gosport preparing their new Volvo Open 70 for sea trials. Amongst the crew are Ian Moore (IRL) Navigator; Damian Foxall (IRL) Watch Leader; Justin Slattery (IRL) Bowman; and Tom Braidwood (AUS) Trimmer/Driver. -- Yachting World, full report: http://www.ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/20080512160150ywnews.html * Correction: The story in Issue 2616 titled GETTING READY FOR THE 2008 BERMUDA RACE by Tony Bessinger, Sailing World seemingly missed the fact checker. Here are the corrections: the Reichel/Pugh 69 Bella Mente is owned by Hap Fauth, the 99-foot Speedboat is owned by Alex Jackson and designed by Juan Kouyoumdjian, Dan Meyers's 66-foot Numbers is designed by Judel/Vrolijk, and George David's Rambler is a Reichel/Pugh 90-footer. GET BERMUDA RACE READY Ocean Racing's waterproof Offshore Backpack keeps your laptop and kit dry when everything else is wet! Polyurethane-impregnated fabric, sewn, taped & RF welded seams plus a removable neoprene computer sleeve. Add the matching Offshore Duffel and you’ll have the driest, best looking sailing luggage at RBYC or anywhere else. http://www.OceanRacing.com PHOTOS OF THE WEEK Some of the random photos from the sport received this week at Scuttlebutt include British Olympic Team gala, Alfa Romeo setting records in the Med, Kiteboarders competing in San Francisco, routing to Tahiti, traditional boating in the Canary Islands, and Raptor sailing in Wisconsin. If you have images you would like to share, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor. Here are this week’s photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/08/0613/ LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or simplicity (letters shall be no longer than 250 words). You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot, don't whine if others disagree, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Chris Rast. US 2008 Olympic 49er representative: (re, letter and story in #2615-2616) Tim Wadlow and I have had the honor and pleasure to work with this very dedicated 49er Team for over a year now. The Peckolt brothers (or "Peckis" as we call them) show an almost insane amount of work ethic and always go that extra mile when necessary. Our partnership with them has been very fruitful for both of our teams and has helped us close the gap with the top teams. We have an extremely open relationship and share (almost) all information. Yesterday Jan (the skipper) started an equipment discussion with me on a subject that our team has done a lot of development with two other teams in the past. In fairness to these two teams I had to tell him that I was bound to an agreement not to disclose too much information on this subject. My fear of having upset him with this statement was totally unwarranted then his response was: "Oh Chris, thanks for talking so frankly about this. This speaks only for you and I have complete respect for that. But maybe I can tell you about some of my ideas?" What a great guy. In my book, these two sailors have already won a medal...... * From Steve Hatch: About being a member of US Sailing, in Australia the prescription says that after any crew member has sailed three times they must be members of a club and the national authority. * From Derek Bouwer: I've been reading with interest the debate about belonging to USSA, the reticence to belong to a national body seems to be a worldwide phenomenon. In South Africa ,we have encountered the same problem with people actually leaving sailing because they do not want to pay South African Sailing (SAS) fee's. Having been actively involved in the executive of my yacht club and actively involved in SAS, I find this reticence strange. There are a few perceptions: 1. SAS is only for those sailors that race. 2. The National body does nothing for me. 3. Social yacht club member don't believe they should belong. I can only speak from the South African point of view but without a National body that belongs to ISAF as a sailor you would not be able to compete internationally, hold regattas under the international RR, etc. The National body engages the governmental structures in matters of safety at sea, boating regulation, etc. My personal experience is that we would not have finalised our rental agreement with the local Port Authority had we not been affiliated to a National body which was affiliated to our Olympic Body. The rental rate dropped by 80% because all of a sudden they recognised us as a sport! This benefitted all the member of our club sailors, social, cruiser & racers because they did not have to finance an exorbitant rental which would have ultimately cost them more that the yearly subscription to SAS. * From Barney Harris: I am against mandatory membership in US SAILING. That said, I am, and have been, a member for decades. I'll bet that 75% of the activity that goes on in that organization is not necessary for the sport of sailing. For my annual dues I'd like to get a print magazine and a yearbook - but these were phased out years ago. What are they spending the $ on now? I have no idea. Presently, US SAILING'S revenue is linked to the value they deliver to the members in the most tangible way possible: if the members don't believe it’s worth the money, they don't join / re join. US SAILING must listen and answer the mail - or perish. I believe this is good for US SAILING, the membership, and the sport. It's a check and balance that prevents US SAILING'S activities from getting too far from the people and sport it was created to serve. I can also understand why US SAILING does NOT like this - their spending is constrained by the needs and desires of members they serve - just like it should be. If membership is made mandatory, then US SAILING will no longer be compelled to serve its members. Don't believe me? I say the fact that USS would resort to using their position as steward of the RRS as a means to increase revenue is very telling – it’s bordering on corrupt. * From Fred deNapoli, Groveland, MA: (re, letter in #2616) More anti-professional competition whining? If anything there's not enough sponsorships and professionalism. Sailing is one of the last holdouts where vast personal wealth can be allocated to an event without a whisper, whereas teams with sponsorships are looked upon with disdain. This makes no sense. Young, talented sailors that don't happen to come from wealthy families have but one hope, and one hope only, to break into the highest levels of the sport....professional sponsorship. But there are some who feel it should remain the playground of the landed gentry, exclusively. And fear the heightened level of competition that sponsorship may bring. And they should, because it will, and rightly so. Personally, I welcome the opportunity to test my skills against the best in the world. And while I may get my fanny kicked, my ego can take it, I'll likely learn something, and I'll be a better sailor for it. CURMUDGEON’S FRIDAY THE 13TH OBSERVATION Paraskevidekatriaphobia: Derived from three Greek words = “Paraskevi” which means Friday, “dekatria” which means Thirteen, and “phobia” which means fear. “Democracy is the eagle on the back of a dollar bill, with 13 arrows in one claw, 13 leaves on a branch, 13 tail feathers, and 13 stars over its head -- this signifies that when the white man came to this country, it was bad luck for the Indians, bad luck for the trees, bad luck for the wildlife, and lights out for the American eagle.” - Johnny Carson Special thanks to UK-Halsey Sailmakers and Ocean Racing. A complete list of preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
