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SCUTTLEBUTT 2829 - Thursday, April 23, 2009Scuttlebutt 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. Today's sponsors are Ullman Sails and Annapolis Performance Sailing. THE REALITY OF BEING A FAIR-SKINNED SAILOR by Lynn Fitzpatrick, World Regattas “One of the first skin cancer screenings that I did at a regatta was during the 2001/02 Miami stopover for the Volvo Ocean Race,” said Dr. Steve Horwitz. Steve is sailing’s skin doctor. He has been practicing dermatology in Miami for over three decades and has been sailing on Biscayne Bay for longer. “What surprised me was that only one of the crop of Volvo sailors that I screened had a precancerous growth on his lip,” reflected Dr. Horwitz. “As it turns out, most of them were Australian or Kiwis. There is such a high incidence of skin cancer down under that there is a huge amount of public information and awareness. Everyone wears rashers, protective clothing and sunscreen.” As someone who grew up sailing, swimming and skiing in the US, I didn’t have the benefit of the Oz’s information campaign and am living with the consequences. Many of Biscayne Bay’s sailors seek Dr. Horwitz out for advice because he is their dermatologist and he has seen far too many of us end up with prematurely leathery and sun damaged skin. Last month, when I was in town for the Bacardi Cup, I was fortunate enough to run into Dr. Horwitz. I did what I usually do when I have something on my skin that gives me cause for concern. I had him take a look at it. “That’s precancerous. You ought to have it taken care of,” he said. -- Read on: http://www.worldregattas.com/ViewInfo.php?ContentID=215 => Curmudgeon’s Comment: This article is the first of a three part series. And while I have your attention, let me remind you of the sunscreen information recently posted on Scuttlebutt: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=7198 SAILING’S STIMULUS PLAN: THE ROARING TWENTIES Last year the Viper 640 circuit included Charleston Race Week for the first time. They had such a good time that they promised to spread the word and bring back their friends. Did they ever! Last weekend, 32 Vipers showed up on the start line at Charleston making the Viper 640 the largest class at the regatta. Charleston Race Week is fast becoming a Mecca for smaller sport boat racing on the East coast, with the combined fleets of sport boats under 26 feet accounting for over half of the 162 participants. Race Week organizers view the 20-foot sport boat category as one of the fastest growing and most exciting niches in sailboat racing so they put the Viper fleet, the 6 boat Laser SB3 fleet and the 6 boat Melges 20 fleet together on circle one and the PRO called it “The Roaring Twenties Line”. Scuttlebutt caught up with Justin Scott, Viper 640 Class Association president for an update on the Roaring Twenties and the Viper 640 Class. * Great Viper 640 turnout in Charleston. Nine boats in 2008 and 32 in 2009. What is behind the growth? Justin Scott: “Well first of all, Charleston Race Week is a fantastic regatta. If you want to see how much the competitors adore this event you should see the emails I have received over the last two days. I will post some of them on your forum. It’s a gorgeous vacation destination with the regatta headquartered at a beautiful resort. The sailing is superb. The combination of tides, currents from 2 rivers and oscillating breeze make it very tactical. April always seem to bring at least one day of really big breeze which of course the smaller sport boats love. Even on a lighter day, a 10 knot sea breeze kicks in from the South in the early afternoon. This year we had it all. Friday was blowing 18 to 22 knots out of the North East and we were on screaming planes all day. Saturday was light air in the morning with a sea breeze in the afternoon. Sunday was something in between with some of the best tactical oscillating breezes of the regatta.” -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/0422 => A photo gallery from Charleston Race Week is now on the Scuttlebutt website, with contributions from Allen Clark/PhotoBoat.com, Sam Sharpe, Priscilla Parker, and Brian Bennett: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/09/crw ULLMAN INSHORE CHAMPIONSHIPS KICKS OFF The fifth year of the Ullman Sails Inshore Championships kicked off in Southern California over the weekend in Newport Beach with the first of four regattas, the Ahmanson Cup hosted by Newport Harbor Yacht Club. PHRF and one design classes from all over the region competed in light breezes Saturday, and were rewarded for their patience on Sunday with 12-18 knots of sea breeze. Sailing a total of five races, top Ullman Sails customers include Geoff Longenecker’s Melges 30 “Nemesis” and Steve Arkle’s Schock 35 “Power Play.” Ullman Sails has the full report - visit our website at http://www.ullmansails.com WILL THERE BE NEW OPPORTUNITIES BEFORE BOSTON? (Apr. 22, 2009; Day 12) - The bleeding should have stopped by now. Volvo Ocean Race leader Telefónica Blue should be in good breeze and her margin increased to a safer distance from the hounds that are on her tail. She should have been looking ahead to a clear win in Boston. However, nothing has gone according to plan. The Weather Gods are not playing fairly and Ericsson 4 is continuing to close. Ahead, the weather is due to change. According to race meteorologist Jennifer Lilly, low pressure has been moving slowly over the east coast this week, leaving wet and cool conditions for the shore teams in Boston. This same low will move off the coast Thursday and will pass over the fleet sometime on Friday giving gusty winds and squalls. If the fleet is near the Gulf Stream, it will cause rapidly building seas. According to E4 skipper Torben Grael, this will mean a tack onto port, the first time since the fleet passed Cabo Frio at the start of the leg near Rio de Janeiro. “The poor boat has been on starboard tack the whole time! We will then have different wind, which will bring us some new opportunities.” Speeds are high across the whole fleet, which routing software is predicting will finish in Boston on Sunday afternoon. -- Excerpts from event website Crewed around the world race in VO 70’s, with ten distance legs and seven In-Port races. Leg Six from Rio de Janiero, Brazil to Boston, MA, USA is 4,900 nm, with the finish estimated on April 26th. Current positions (as of Apr. 22, 22:15 GMT): 1. Telefónica Blue (ESP), Bouwe Bekking/NED, 1,093 nm Distance to Finish 2. Ericsson 4 (SWE), Torben Grael/BRA, 14 nm Distance to Leader 3. Ericsson 3 (SWE), Magnus Olsson/SWE, 26 nm DTL 4. PUMA (USA), Ken Read/USA, 39 nm DTL 5. Telefonica Black (ESP), Fernando Echavarri/ESP, 73 nm DTL 6. Delta Lloyd (IRL), Roberto Bermudez/ESP, 82 nm DTL 7. Green Dragon (IRL/CHN), Ian Walker/GBR, 134 nm DTL Team Russia (RUS), Andreas Hanakamp/AUT, Did Not Start Event website: http://www.volvooceanrace.org Race tracking: http://volvooceanrace.geovoile.com Overall scores: http://www.volvooceanrace.org/rdc/#tab4 LIGHT WINDS CONTINUE IN HYÈRES Hyères, France (Apr. 22, 2009; Day 4) - It was another day of light and patchy conditions at the Semaine Olympique Française, the fourth of seven International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Sailing World Cup events. With light and shifty northerly breeze coming in early afternoon, racing got underway behind schedule, a first attempt to race was quickly hampered by a big shift that cancelled racing for the Stars, 49ers and Lasers. The wind came back from the south west and allowed for two races in most classes and three for the 49ers and the Stars. Racing ended after 7 pm. For the North Americans, Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) remains in second, but her 4-4 now brings her within 8 points of the Laser Radial lead. The wheels fell off for Americans Stu McNay and Graham Biehl, as their 31-33 may have eliminated their chance at medaling in the Men’s 470 class. Paralympic Gold Medalist Paul Tingley (CAN) has moved up to second in the 2.4m, while Molly Carapiet/ Molly O’Bryan Vandemoer (USA) also moved up, and are now in 7th in the Women’s 470 standings. New Finn sailor Brian Boyd is also finishing strong, with a 2-1 over the past two days moving him up to 15th. Nine countries now share the top places at the end of the fourth day of racing in Hyères. The final day of series racing is on Thursday, with the top ten from each event then moving on to the double-point, non-discardable Medal Race on Friday. Event website: http://sof.ffvoile.net Event video: http://www.sailing.org/worldcuptv.php BUILDING A BRIDGE OF SUPPORT Sailing Team America 2012 is a new foundation formed to support U.S. Olympic hopefuls. Its specific focus is the “twenty-somethings” who have the burning desire to represent their country in the Olympic Games in 2012 and beyond. It recruits and nurtures a development squad of sailors to help them qualify for national sailing teams. The organization formed out of the United States of America Finn Association (USAFA) this past Miami after silver-medal winner Zach Railey and USAFA president Scott Mason sought candidates for the USAFA’s Finn development program. It was recognized that there needed to be a transition from post-college level sailors into the world of Olympic sailing. The program expanded to include 49er sailors and 29er sailors in recognition that skiff sailing will be increased in the Olympics. “Once sailors qualify for the US SAILING Team, they receive training, funding, logistical support and so on,” said Sailing Team America 2012 Executive Director, Charles Heimler, veteran of the Laser, Snipe, and Finn classes. “And in the US, college sailing grooms the best coming out of high school. What we’re doing is building a bridge of financial support, coaching, gear and so on to move our best prospects to the next level.” -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/d62qnt IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS With over 300+ boats starting racing today for the NOOD and 80+ on the line May 4th for the J/24 World's, Annapolis is once again abuzz with the world's best sailors. In the middle of it all you'll find APS, the World Leader in Outfitting Performance Sailors. Whether you need some last minute gloves or hi-tech rigging, we'll be opening our doors early every day just for you. If you don't need anything we still invite you stop in anyway and see what makes APS the sailor's candy store. Not coming to Annapolis? Come check out our new website... http://www.APSLTD.com CLASSIC ANTIGUA The 22nd edition of the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta finished up this week, the pre-cursor to Antigua Sailing Week - the next event in the increasingly competitive Caribbean racing circuit (Apr. 25-May 5). However, according to history these two events used to be one. Back in the 60’s Classic yachts, which were gathered in English Harbor Antigua, had begun chartering and the captains and crews challenged each other to a race down to Guadeloupe and back to celebrate the end of the charter season. From this informal race, Antigua Race Week was formalized in 1967, and in those days all of the yachts were classics. As the years grew on, the classic yachts were slowly outnumbered by the faster sleeker modern racing yachts and 20 years later the Classic Class had diminished to a few boats and was abandoned in 1987. However, this same year seven classic yachts turned out and were placed in Cruising Class 3 with the bare boats. The class was so unmatched that it was downright dangerous, so Captain Uli Pruesse hosted a meeting onboard Aschanti of Saba with several classic skippers and in 1988 the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta was born, with 7 boats. This year’s Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta had 62 entrants from 24-feet to 140-feet, with photographers Amory Ross and Ian Roman sharing with the ‘buttheads over 30 “classic” images from the event: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/09/0422/ RECORD AFLOAT WHILE SINKING HOPELESSLY INTO DEBT Where in the world is Zac Sunderland? Outposts' radar detects the 17-year-old adventurer breezing briskly across the Atlantic, making remarkable progress while covering as many as 170 miles a day, approaching Grenada in the southeastern Caribbean. He should reach the island nation by Wednesday of next week. "It feels like I should be seeing land by now I've been out here so long," Zac reports on his blog. Overall, Zac has been at sea or in far-flung ports since last June, when he set out to become the youngest person to solo-sail around the world. After Grenada he'll sail to Colon, Panama, then travel nearly 3,000 miles to his Marina del Rey starting point (in Los Angeles, CA). But this has not been easy on Zac's parents. Laurence Sunderland, a shipwright whose business has suffered because of the recession, reluctantly conceded in an interview that the odyssey has cost about $140,000, and that the family is sinking hopelessly into debt and now must pay for Zac's passage through the Panama Canal. -- LA Times, read on: http://tinyurl.com/d5osl8 SO NOW, LET’S NEGOTIATE Tomorrow (Thursday), Commodore Pierre-Yves Firmenich's delegation from Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) will sit down with Commodore Marcus Young's delegation from Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) to discuss next steps for America's Cup. This is the biggest America's Cup event since July 2007. That's when Alinghi successfully defended the cup against Emirates Team New Zealand, SNG accepted Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV) as challenger of record for AC33, and the leadership of GGYC and their sailing team BMW Oracle went ballistic. Soon after, all legal hell broke loose. Hopefully, sanity will prevail when club delegates meet tomorrow (Thursday). But this is America's Cup. Whether we like it or not, a multitude of issues surrounds the participants -- and all of these issues will be in the room tomorrow, some of them elephantine. Taking a cruise through the oceans of stimulus… read on: http://americascupview.blogspot.com/2009/04/so-now-lets-negotiate.html SAILING SHORTS * In the Sailing World College Rankings as of April 22, Boston College comes within three votes of being a unanimous No. 1 selection in the coed rankings while Yale leapfrogs over Charleston to take control of the top spot in the women's rankings. Full rankings here: http://tinyurl.com/d42853 * Cagliari, Italy (Apr. 22, 2009) - The first day of the Cagliari RC 44 Cup proved to be tricky as big black clouds started building up over Cagliari early in the afternoon, forcing Race Officer Peter Reggio to send everyone home after the two first flights. The nine RC 44’s then sailed back out once the shower and thunder were gone, but only for a short time as the next threatening weather system was arriving fast. Remaining unbeaten are Team Puerto Calero Islas Canarias, Team Aqua, Artemis, and BMW ORACLE Racing. -- Full story: http://www.rc44.com/en/regattas/news/index.php?idContent=1999 * The Environmental Protection Agency is accepting comments on a proposal to increase the allowable ethanol content of gasoline to 15 percent, a move opposed by many in the marine industry. In March, Growth Energy and 54 ethanol manufacturers submitted a petition for a waiver to allow ethanol blends of 15 percent, or E15, compared to the E10 currently in use as part of the EPA's renewable fuels standard. Both the National Marine Manufacturers Association and the Marine Retailers Association of America oppose the petition. -- Soundings Trade Only, read on: http://tinyurl.com/dj4gzt CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Here are a few of the events that are coming up: Apr 24-26 - Annapolis Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta - Annapolis, MD, USA Apr 24-26 - FARR 40 Regatta - Porto Rotondo, Sardinia, Italy Apr 25-26 - 19th Annual Jack and Jill Race - Vancouver, BC, Canada View all the events at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar WEST COAST TURF WAR BEGINS FRIDAY The annual Newport-to-Ensenada International Yacht Race has long been to competitive sailing what Olympic swimming would be if Michael Phelps shared the pool with a gaggle of guys in inner tubes towing a keg of beer. Some take what's billed as the largest international yacht race seriously. Most, however, treat it as a floating party. Running out of wind at sea is an obstacle second to running out of adult beverages. Not this year. The sinking economy and a fear of Mexico's drug violence have buffeted the 62nd annual race. The number of entries is down -- about 270 are expected compared with nearly 400 last year -- and the crowd of people who have traditionally driven to Ensenada for a weekend of partying is expected to be considerably thinner. If the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and spiraling narco wars weren't enough, organizers are dealing with a third headache: a long-simmering feud between a handful of sailors that will boil over into public view at 11 a.m. Friday, an hour before the race begins. That is when more than 100 boats will take off from Newport Beach in the inaugural Border Run. Billed as the beginning of a "new tradition," the race, which finishes with a party in San Diego, is the outgrowth of a dispute between a Huntington Beach boat designer and the nonprofit Newport Ocean Sailing Assn., which denied him entry into its Ensenada race. -- LA Times, read on: http://tinyurl.com/d2ypdd CURMUDGEON’S CONUNDRUM Why is it funny when men wear women's clothes, but not when women wear men's clothes? (If you know, post comments here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2009/04/clothing-conundrum.html) Special thanks to Ullman Sails and Annapolis Performance Sailing. A complete list of preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
