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SCUTTLEBUTT 1491 - January 7, 2004Powered 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 focus. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. COMMENTARY Good sportsmanship is important to sailing. Without it, sailing as a competitive sport goes right in the dumper. * You either play by the rules or you do not. If you can't or won't play by the rules of sailing, you belong in another sport. If you're big enough, maybe you can play NFL football, because the rules are flouted all the time in professional football. It has gotten to where fouls that are missed by the refs seem to be just part of the game. There is lack of honor in that kind of behavior. Maybe that is why some of the hot sports news has migrated off the sports page and onto the page wherein the press reports drug dealing, rape, robbery, larceny, felonious assault and DUI. It may seem quaint in this day and age to be involved in a sport such as racing sailboats, where one is obligated to withdraw from a race for a serious infraction. It's a tough world, and it isn't getting any more genteel. So, it may seem old fashioned to expect the people you race against to know the difference between right and wrong and to act with a sense of decency, but sailing demands it. There is no room in sailing for the competitor who modifies his boat to make it faster and does not report the modification to a recognized rating authority. * There is no room in sailing for competitors who scull small boats to make them move in light-air conditions when all the other sailors in their class are sitting still, like ducks on a millpond. There is no room either for skippers who put their engines in gear to gain an unfair advantage in light conditions. It's never done in an obvious fashion. It's an "Ooops, who me?" kind of thing. It smells. If we let these sleazy people pollute our sport by their lack of ethical behavior, then we are as culpable as they. Treat them like the garbage they are. When their behavior begins to stink, throw them out. - Excerpts from a story by Morgan Stinemetz in the Sarasota Herald Tribune, full story: http://tinyurl.com/293s6 FOR THE RECORD Plymouth, Devon, UK: Skipper Steve Fossett and the maxi-catamaran Cheyenne's entire crew have spent two of the past three days in successful testing. Tuesday morning Steve reported on weather prospects for a Round the World start - perhaps as early as next week. "It's a long way off for a wind forecast, but right now the weather pattern looks like what we want," Fossett said. "Our meteorologists at Commanders Weather note that a fairly strong area of High Pressure forms west of our start line on the 14th. This would produce strong North-Northwest winds and also strengthen the Trade winds in the tropical latitudes. A start may be possible before the High Pressure moves too far east and chokes our route past Portugal with light winds." - http://www.fossettchallenge.com/ A VERY GOOD YEAR The International Optimist Association has published its annual review of this important branch of junior sailing. The highlight's include: - 101 countries are now valid members of the association, double the number in 1989. - Over 800 different sailors from 75 countries participated in its six official championships, with the numbers up in five of the six events. - Over 3,000 new boats were built by 33 builders in 25 countries on five continents. - Over US$25,000 was spent on development and training activities. www.optiworld.org/2003review.html IT'S ALL ABOUT YOU Get personal, on-site attention from Hall Spars & Rigging during Terra Nova Trading Key West 2004. Our display is in the thick of things in the Industry Partner Area, and Ben Hall and Corey Butlin will be there after the racing to answer your rigging and mast-tuning questions. Get there early! We'll have the latest from Maffioli ropes and Equiplite soft shackles on display, as well as our newest spinnaker pole end fitting. There's still time to order the rigging you need for the racing: visit http://www.hallspars.com SKIFF CHAMPIONSHIP Five times world 18ft Skiff champion Trevor Barnabas steered Omega Smeg to victory in Heat 3 of the Giltinan International Championship on Sydney Harbour. After trailing RMW by over 90 seconds in the early stages of the race, Barnabas won by two minutes and 36 sec over RMW with Asko 22 secs further back in 3rd. The Defending champions Howie Hamlin, Mike Martin & Andy Zinn's finished 6th in Heat 3 which leaves them in 8th position overall with 29 points. Standings after three races: 1. RMW Marine, Rob Greenhalgh (UK), 4 points; 2. Asko Appliances, Hugh Stodart (Aust), 8; 3. Yandoo, John Winning (Aust), 14. - http://www.18footers.com.au/ NEWS BRIEFS * Norman Davant and his business partner Pat Nolan have purchased Sail California, the Northern California J Boat dealership located in Alameda. Davant will remain affiliated with Quantum Sails as a U.S. partner, a major stockholder and as a senior consultant, but will step aside from his day to day management responsibilities at the Quantum Sails operation in Pt. Richmond, California. Davant's replacement at the Pt. Richmond loft is expected to be announced soon. *Later in the year, Stuart Thwaites' new maxi Zana, designed by Auckland-based architect Brett Bakewell-White, is likely to head for Europe to take part in a number of the Rolex-sponsored events in the Med such as Giraglia race and the Maxi Worlds and also probably Cork Week. With Zana and the two new maxZ86s Pyewacket and Morning Glory threatening to attend, Cork Week is lining up to be one hell of a regatta this year. - The Daily Sail, www.thedailysail.com * Mikee Anderson-Mitterling & Graham Biehl (San Diego) finished in second place at the 420 Open World Qualifiers in Melbourne Australia - one point behind Nathan Batchelor & Joe Crabbs (GBR), with current ISAF Youth Sailing World Champions, Nathan Outteridge & Ayden Menzies (AUS) on equal second points, but relegated to third place on a count back. - www.sailmelbourne.com.au * Two seminars for International Judges have been scheduled in North America: February 27 - 29 at the San Francisco YC, in Belvedere, California and March 26-28 at the Royal Hamilton YC in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. http://www.ussailing.org/calendar * The full text of the letter from ISAF President Paul Henderson, excerpted in Scuttlebutt 1490, can be found online at: http://www.sailing.org/Article_content.asp?ArticleID=6100 IT'S FREE Organizers of Atlantic Sail Expo® (ASE) have decided to add a new twist to their annual sailboat show held each January in Atlantic City. This year's four-day show will feature a prize giveaway worth tens of thousands of dollars. Among the prizes in the giveaway, the largest-ever at a Sail Expo show, are sailboats produced by Hunter Marine and Hobie Cat, a Yanmar 18-horsepower diesel engine, Caribbean sailing vacations with The Moorings and Sunsail, learn-to-sail vacations and keelboat courses with Offshore Sailing School, Baysail School and Charters and New Jersey Sailing School, and other prizes such as a storm jib from North Sails, foul weather gear, magazine subscriptions, nautical jewelry, and more. The largest prize in the giveaway is the Hunter 216, a 21-foot sailboat worth nearly $14,000. The awarding of prizes will be a daily happening at the show. A grand prize and second and third prizes will be awarded each day during ASE. Attendees will have to sign up for the giveaway drawing once they arrive at the show, but they can enter their names at exhibitors' booths where individual prizes are displayed or at the show entrance or the information booth. For more information on rules and a complete list of prizes: www.sailamerica.com/prizerules The 12th annual Atlantic Sail Expo opens Thursday, January 15 and runs until Sunday, January 18. It will draw some 200 exhibitors and the latest in boats and equipment and there is a full slate of seminars that are free with the price of admission. Sessions cover a wide range of topics: from how-to lessons and sessions on sailing technique to entertaining tales of cruising adventure and victory on the racecourse. - www.sailamerica.com GOLD FOR GOLDING, GOLD FOR MUSTO Mike Golding struck Gold in the Defi Atlantique transatlantic race from Salvador, Brazil to La Rochelle, France. Sailing his new Owen Clarke Open 60 Ecover, it took Golding 16 days, 14 hours, 24 minutes and 10 seconds to complete the single-handed 4,100-nautical mile race. "My Musto clothing was great," says Mike. "Musto don't just wave you off and wish you luck. They're effectively with you all the way - which is a great advantage in a single-handed race!" You don't need to sail an Open 60 to experience Musto. Give it a try next time: http://www.musto.co.uk/ CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar 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 nor a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Larry Suter (edited to our 250-word limit): Sailing is a beautiful sport which is most fun when we have our boats in perfect balance and tune so they almost sail themselves. The Olympic Classes are composed right now of a collection of great boats, and anyone who has ever sailed the Hobie 16 knows that it does not rival the beauty, grace and sail ability of a Tornado. As people are built different, so too must their boats be balanced to them. A lighter skipper might have a bendier mast and flatter sail. This does not work when you have every mast and sail the same. The talent to tune sails and rig to the way you sail levels the playing field. When a boat takes away this skill, the weight of the skipper/ crew becomes a bigger component, and talent loses. The ISAF Ranking system allows your best seven regattas to be counted, over two years with the regattas over 12 months old worth half value. To go to one major ISAF regatta, transportation, new sails, regatta fees are $3-4,000 USD for a single handed boat and $5-6,000 USD for a double-handed boat. A new 470 costs about $12,000.00 USD, and after 2 years you can sell it for about $10,000.00 USD, a cost of $1,000/year, not even close to the cost of one regatta, and you need seven to be ranked correctly. The fact is that you can buy a new Star, Yngling, 470, Tornado or Europe fresh from the factory and win with it. * From Sandy Marsters: Getting in the car and going to the mall to buy a useless kitchen gadget is risky behavior, but we pay for the rescue vehicles when the car hits a tree. Far more essential to our culture is challenge, pushing the boundaries, exploration, living on the edge, and it shouldn't only be available to the Forbeses of this world who can pay for their own rescues. It's too complicated to define when we will or when we won't help, and when you compare the costs of the rescue to the costs of all the other ridiculous behavior in this society (see mall trip above) the cost of the rescue isn't going to break the bank. Not that many people are willing to subject themselves to those kinds of risks. * From Craig Coulsen: There does not seem to be any doubt that the Racing Rules of Sailing (the RRS) are destined to be an irrelevant embarrassment so far as the RRS applies to yacht racing due to legislative changes and commercial reality. In most jurisdictions the local legislation adopts the International Collision Regulations (Col Regs) as a local law applicable to all vessels while providing no exemption from such regulations for yacht racing. If you breach the Col Regs you breach a local law. Your insurance policy will have a exclusion for damage caused in breach of a local law. Your obligations under the Col Regs are not always the same as the RRS. In my local jurisdiction the local legislation provides for a $25000 fine or one years imprisonment if you are involved in a marine incident.(note: not cause the incident) A marine incident is defined as amongst other things a collision, man overboard or damage to a vessel or breach of the Col Regs. So as an owner when in doubt I am now always go with the Col Regs which means that as master I place my vessel out of danger regardless of my rights under the RRS or the competitive disadvantage that is suffered. The RRS only apply where the application of the Col Regs or local law is exhausted so perhaps the RRS need to be redrafted accepting this fact * From Petty Officer Anne F. Jaeschke: I am a very proud member of the United States Coast guard and I am extremely upset by the comments made by Lou Morgan II, Graham Byrnes and George Morris. First of all the USCG is one of the finest organizations out there. We are here to keep sailors safe and educate them as much as possible. To me wearing a life jacket is the same thing as wearing a seat belt in a car. You are required by law to wear a seatbelt and for a very good reason. The same thing should be required for life jackets. For those of you who complain about how uncomfortable they are buy the ones that inflate upon contact with water and also have a harness built into it. Saying that the coast guard will eventually make surfers wear life jackets is just ridiculous and frankly a very immature comment. You three are not out there everyday dealing with the boating public. You do not see the extreme disregard for safety that the coast guard sees - even with very experienced sailors. We are an organization that is almost as big as the NYPD and we are responsible for the entire US coast. Give us a break! We need your support now more than ever. We have limited resources and the more cooperation we get from the boating public -- wearing PFD's for a start -- will help us immensely. * From Brad Wheeler: I find it interesting that the Aussie18 Skiff sailors are not wearing PFDs. Most of them sail other classes and wear PFDs in them all the time, but when the s*#t really hits the fan, like they do on the 18's, this group has opted for the ability to move and get out of trouble rather than being forced to wear bulky PFDs that must be the cause of some problems. I don't see helmets on the track runners, yet I heard about one of them falling once… * From Rob Henderson (RE: Butt 1490) A question comes to mind as to why Paul Henderson wants 25% the council to be female. Has he already determined that 25% of sailors are women? If he has, then great. I have yet to be at a national or NA event that women made up even 10% of the competitors. * From Dierk Polzin: It is well known in the upper Midwest of Mr. Blake Middleton's credentials. He is the most fair and exacting Race Officers in the region. He not only runs hundreds of races a year but also teaches his techniques to assistants of all ages. He does not have time nor funds to attend the US Sailing National Meetings. If he did, the arm-chair judges of US Sailing would be well advised to listen to him. We need more top sailors like Mr. Middleton to transition to Race Officers. * From Marcy E. Fleming: Is Cy still sailing? Not only does he continue to win races, but we actively seek out his knowledge, insight and wisdom in handling day to day club activities, interpretation of convoluted rulings on and off the race course, and the Cy Gillette day regatta at Kaneohe Yacht Club remains one (if not the) most popular races of the season -- this year there were 29 boats competing ranging from juniors on Laser's to the J-44 Kaimiloa. I think it is fair to say that Kaneohe Yacht Club, and the sailing community in Hawaii and across the country treasure Cy and Camille as an active and dynamic resources. We look forward to toasting them both -- and sailing with Cy in many more regattas on the bay at his 90th next weekend. * From John Jourdane: In the "old days," Lowell North was lovingly called the "Pope." In Hawaii, Cy Gillette was called "God." Happy Birthday Cy! To not only one of the best sailors I've raced against, but to a true gentleman and friend. CURMUDGEON'S COUNSEL Never lick a steak knife. |
