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SCUTTLEBUTT 2085 - May 2, 2006
Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary,
opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.
IT’S GOING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION . . .
His role in the race diminished, his enthusiasm dampened, (Gary) Jobson
was on the outside looking in, telling anyone who will listen how
disgusted he is with the evolution of a (Volvo Ocean) race that was
founded 32 years ago. Pervasive commercialism, and a lack of national
identify for the boats, has, in his view, converted an event that should
be a contest of seamanship among nations into a global hospitality tent
for multinational corporations which threatens to alienate fans. "When I
did the America's Cup, the name of the boat was Courageous. It wasn't
Bank of America," he said.
Jobson spent most of the 1990s lobbying to bring the race -- then called
the Whitbread Round the World Race -- to Maryland. The first two times
the Volvo race came here, Jobson was involved with its management. New
leadership took over in 2002, and Jobson wasn't asked to be part of it.
Now, his participation is limited to Ocean Race Chesapeake, the local
organization in charge of the three-week stopover in Baltimore and
Annapolis.
In the Volvo Ocean Race, the nationalist element is missing. The top
"Dutch" boat, ABN Amro One, has no Dutch sailors. The "American" boat,
Pirates of the Caribbean, has two Americans on board -- a U.S.-born
skipper and one of the crew members. Brasil 1, the only yacht carrying a
national name, includes five Brazilians in the crew of 10.
"I think sailing will take off if we can get back to our nationalistic
roots," Jobson said. Part of the problem, he said, is that the Volvo
race has become too expensive for even millionaires to bankroll. "The
whole thing needs to cost less so there can be more participation," he
said Race organizers say sponsoring a Volvo yacht costs $12 million to
$18 million. Privately, representatives from syndicates say the racing
costs much more than that, and the figure does not include elaborate
client hospitality events that sponsors host at ports.
Volvo Ocean Race Chief Executive Officer Glenn Bourke said his corporate
bosses at Volvo are pleased with the way the race is going. He pointed
out that the last race produced 15,000 press clippings. This time, there
were 10,000 in the first three months of the eight-month competition.
Bourke said that nationalist branding wouldn't work for the sponsors.
Their priority, he said, is to get a roughly equal amount of news
coverage in all media markets. An American boat, he argued, would make a
big splash here but would be overshadowed in other ports. The pitch to
the sponsors is that they receive global, not national, coverage. --
Excerpts from a story by Annie Linskey, The Baltimore Sun, full story:
http://tinyurl.com/nvuvn
A NEW KIND OF RACE
Marcello Burricks is not your typical America's cup yachtsman. Raised in
a rough, mixed-race township on South Africa's Cape of Good Hope
peninsula, he had to prove himself as a street fighter long before he
ever climbed aboard a sailboat. In his early teens, he fraternized with
local gangs and got in knife fights. These days, however, he puts his
strength into grinding winches and helping to trim the mainsail of a
sleek, 25-m America's Cup–class racing yacht.
Burricks' journey from local tough guy to élite sailor is just one of
the remarkable stories to come from Africa's first-ever entry in the
154-year-old America's Cup, yachting's most prestigious — and the
international sport's oldest — prize. Burricks is part of Team
Shosholoza, a young, racially diverse South African crew defying the
odds by taking on sailing's biggest names and deepest pockets — and
scoring impressive victories.
Africa's yachting tradition is limited, to put it kindly. Shosholoza
lacks just about everything conventional wisdom holds that a team needs
to be successful. They can't compete with the experience, technological
prowess and $100 million-plus budgets of teams like U.S. entry
BMW-Oracle (put together by software billionaire Larry Ellison) or some
of the European entries. The team has broken a mast and collided with a
whale during a training run on Cape Town's Table Bay. Lacking
sponsorship, they spent their first year racing in an obsolete,
secondhand Cup vessel bought on the cheap.
For Burricks, sailing provided an escape from the violence of township
life. "You grow up thinking that's your way of living," he says. "But if
you give kids something else to do, like sailing, most will stop being
naughty." Ask any kid here what he wants to do when he grows up, and
he'll say he wants to sail on Shosholoza. "They've proved that they have
the passion and the inspiration to take on such a tough challenge," says
Alinghi's helmsman and sports director Jochen Schümann, who was in Cape
Town recently to attend a Shosholoza charity auction. "It's an open
question how far they will get." For many of South Africa's young
sailors, blazing a trail for the next multiracial generation of sailors
is victory in itself. -- Excerpts from a story by Magan Lindow, Time
Europe, full story: http://tinyurl.com/g2ms6
LISTENING TO THE OWNERS
Following the Boat Owner’s Forum held at the Cruising Yacht Club of
Australia earlier this year, the Club’s Sailing Committee and Board have
been considering the issues arising with participation in the Club’s key
handicap events of boats with canting keels and boats using stored power
to power winches. The CYCA Sailing Committee has reviewed recent results
and trends in IRC time correction factors for boats, and undertaken a
comprehensive test during the recent Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race. The
Committee and the Board believes that a workable new approach can now be
implemented.
CYCA has for some time embraced the concept of divisions in each
handicap category, so that boats of similar speed may be grouped
together. Divisional wins are regarded as the key achievement in the
Club’s long races, more so than an overall handicap win. In the IRC
handicap category, boats with movable and variable ballast have in
recent years been incorporated in divisions with conventionally
ballasted boats. The TCC bands for each division have not been fixed,
and changed from one race to the next. For the 2006–2007 sailing season,
starting with the Sydney Mooloolaba Yacht Race in July, the CYCA has
announced it will introduce a new fixed division-based system that will
apply to all CYCA rated events. All boats will compete in these
divisions and be eligible for a divisional win. (See website for splits)
At this time CYCA is not making a change with respect to boats using
stored power for winches and other accessories. It is noted that the
issue of stored power is being addressed by RORC and that from 1 July
2007 (in Australia) all boats using such power will receive a rating tax
that will increase their handicap against a yacht not so using stored
power. -- http://www.cyca.com.au
DO YOU REMEMBER “THE PROVING GROUND?”
Bruce Knecht, author of the best-selling book about the Sydney to Hobart
Race, has a new book: “HOOKED: Pirates, Poaching and the Perfect Fish.”
Part high seas adventure, part thought-provoking expose, it describes
how an Australian patrol boat chased a pirate fishing vessel halfway
around Antarctica, through building-size waves and an obstacle course of
icebergs. It also describes how “Chilean Sea Bass” (the pirates’ target)
became the fish everyone in America had to have. Tom Brokaw says:
“HOOKED is a fish story, a global whodunit, a courtroom drama, and a
critically important ecological message all rolled into one.”
http://tinyurl.com/oaq6g
MEASURING IN
The measurement period has begun for the Valencia Louis Vuitton Acts, as
all boats, old and new, have to pass muster with the America’s Cup Class
Technical Committee before being cleared to race. Ken McAlpine, Chief
Measurer for the 32nd America’s Cup says it’s just a matter of ensuring
each of the boats are ready for racing, and in class before racing
begins in May.
“Almost all of the boats have been modified or changed since racing in
Trapani last year. So to make sure we have what we think we have, we
make some checks. The boats with minor modifications don’t have to go
through a full measurement, but we check off some key places. For
extensive modifications, the boats will be fully measured again,” he
says.
The measurement programme started on the 26th of April and concludes the
day before the first race of the Valencia Louis Vuitton Acts 10 & 11,
the 10th of May. “We have a programme where we open our doors for
business and work with the teams to assign measurement slots” McAlpine
says. “We spend these days going from compound to compound and working
with the teams on everything from sail measurement to flotation
measurements with the boat in the water.” -- America’s Cup website, full
story: http://tinyurl.com/mfool
GOING PUBLIC
In a "going public with the Confidentials", Ken McAlpine published
Monday morning 13 "Confidential Interpretations". To be in full
compliance with Version 5 of the America’s Cup Class Rule, teams may ask
the Measurement Committee for interpretations of the Class Rule to
validate their design innovations. Generally, all questions result in
"public interpretations" (which become public as soon the Measurement
Committee issue them), unless the nature of question is such that by
making it public a secret would be revealed.
In this particular case, the ACC Rule allows teams to seek and receive
"Confidential Interpretations" from the Measurement Committee, but only
through March 31 of this year. Thereafter teams can only seek "Public
Interpretations". The Class Rule also provides that any "Confidential
Interpretations" that were issued individually to teams must be made
public by the Technical Director not later that 1 May 2006. It was the
same in the previous versions of the ACC Rule. In the past, however,
CI's only became public just before the start of the LVC. -- Cup in
Europe website, full story:
http://www.cupineurope.com/NewsEN/2006/RegleNews.htm
SCUTTLEBLOG: CAN’T BLINK
Seems like you can’t blink these days, or you just might miss out on
some new means of communicating or collecting information. Email and the
web still rule, but gaining control of our information seems to be an
increasing priority. Scuttlebutt has been offering the RSS feature since
last year, which allows the web-version of the Scuttlebutt newsletter to
be delivered to special “reader” software that collects new information
from websites that have been subscribed to.
A twist to the RSS subscription concept is Bloglines.com, which is a
web-based reader that searches for items that you have indicated. No
software to download - simply register as a new user and you can instantly
begin accessing your account any time, from any computer or mobile
device. One of the features of Bloglines.com is that you can have your
email subscriptions go to your Bloglines.com account rather than your
email client, so as to help minimize some of the email that comes to
your inbox each day. Instead of the Scuttlebutt e-Newsletter going to
your personal or business email account, it can now go to your
Bloglines.com account.
While we haven’t tried out the Mobile version of Bloglines.com that is
optimized for handheld computers and cell phones, we imagine it could
provide another resource for sailors to get their daily fix of
Scuttlebutt, regardless of where they are. Given that RSS readers and
bloglines.com are free, the growth of these ideas are only limited to
whether you happened to blink at the time they found you. - Craig Leweck
Details on RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss
Details on Bloglines.com: http://www.bloglines.com/about
Reprinted from Scuttleblog: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog
PRIZE WINNERS
Two thousand people came together at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore
Sunday night to congratulate the prize winners from leg five of the
Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06. As well as presenting the top three finishers
from the leg, three additional awards were also presented. Making a
change from tradition, for the first time one of the prize giving awards
was presented to two people who have spent very little time actually
onboard a boat.
The media prize, normally awarded to a crewmember for capturing a
fantastic account of the sea via email or pictures, went to two people
who spent very little time on boats this year. Movistar’s media team of
Maria Bertrand and Javier Sobrino work tirelessly to encourage and
coerce news organizations to cast the limelight on their campaign. They
contentedly remain in the shadow. But their work has so far earned live
television coverage of the Sanxenxo and Rio de Janeiro In-port races on
TVE, a national station in Spain, led to the printing of 5,800 articles
and seen their team featured 670 times on various television shows. It
has amounted to a level of exposure worth €21.88million so far.
“Fantastic work and invaluable to our sport,” said Gary Jobson, the
emcee, as he called them to the stage to collect a cheque for $1,000. --
http://www.volvooceanrace.org
MUST HAVE GEAR
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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Very happy to report that Donna Lange landed safely in Opua, New Zealand
after a 168 day non-stop solo voyage from Rhode Island. She and her 28
foot Southern Cross boat handled the journey quite well. The
significance of this sailing venture might better be appreciated by
comparing it to Sir Francis Chichester’s 107-day solo sail from
Plymouth, England to Sidney, Australia (as the first half of his 1966-7
circumnavigation.)
Donna sailed in an aged, much-repaired stock boat she called “Inspired
Insanity.” Sir Francis custom-designed and custom-built a new 53-foot
boat he called “Gypsy Moth IV” – to beat the100 day record set by the
famous clipper ship Cutty Sark. Although the two journeys were separated
by 39 years, the basic new technologies Donna used were GPS and
satellite telephone. She did not have long-range radio or other
electronic tools Chichester used. Donna Lange was on the water two
months longer in a boat half the size of that Sir Francis used.
Donna's friends are scouring sailing books, seeking information on
longer, non-stop solo sailing ventures. Did she set a record of any
kind? -- Will Barbeau, http://www.donnnalange.com
SAILING SHORTS
* After winning gold medals at last week’s French Olympic Sailing Week
in Hyères, four members of the US Sailing Team continue their European
campaigns. Laser Radial winner Paige Railey now travels to Austria for
the ISAF World Sailing Games which start next week. Meanwhile, the Gold
Medal Yngling team of Sally Barkow, Carrie Howe and Debbie Capozzi are
switching from fleet racing to match racing to defend their World Match
Racing Championship title in Denmark later this month.
* Free online video reports of ‘Volvo Ocean Race: Life at a Jaunty
Angle,’ plus the ‘Baltimore Stopover & Finish of Leg 5’ are now playing
on http://www.t2p.tv
* The Stanford collegiate sailing team made program history during the
recent Pacific Coast Conference Championships, which are the regional
qualifying regattas for the ICSA National Championship, to be held May
31-June 2 at College of Charleston, SC. The Cardinals won the Women's
event April 22-23, hosted by UC Santa Barbara, then this past weekend
won the Team Race event and finished second to USC in the Dinghy event,
with racing hosted by the Cal Sailing Team at their home waters in
Treasure Island. Photographer Glennon Stratton has two great galleries
of images from the racing:
Team Racing: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/06/teamracepcc
Dinghy: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/06/dinghypcc
* Klaartje Zuiderbaan (NED) upset the odds in the Calpe, Spain over the
weekend, starting with a come from behind victory against World number
one Claire Leroy (FRA) in the semi-final. The Dutch star then scored a
3-1 final victory over Nina Braestrup (DEN) to retain her ISAF Grade 1
International Women Match Race Criterium title. After the disappointment
of the semis, Leroy came back strongly to take third place, controlling
both matches in the petit final, thanks to excellent pre-starts. --
http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j6qFh`p7?
* While most local Antiguans enjoyed the national holiday of May Day
today, crews aboard the 194 boats competing at the Rolex Antigua Sailing
Week worked hard for results. Battling tropical downpours and shifty
wind - when it eventually showed up, some three hours after the
scheduled 0900 daily start - the two divisions went separate ways.
Division A was sent six miles offshore for windward/ leeward racing that
was eventually cancelled for lack of sufficient wind and Division B for
a 21-mile point-to-point tour along the coast. For results, photos and
daily highlights video, visit the event's official website
www.sailingweek.com
* Dee Caffari has ‘extracted’ her 72-foot Aviva from the doldrums and we
had found the Northeast trade winds on her attempt to become the first
woman to sail solo and non-stop westwards round the world. “I had to
learn what sail plan she wanted for the conditions again,” Caffari
explained. “It felt good to be on the breeze and putting reefs in the
mainsail again.” With 2665 still to go on this voyage that began on
November 20, Caffari advanced 170 miles in the last 24 hours. ~
http://www.avivachallenge.com
*With just 10 left before the Louis Vuitton races begin again, Valencia
Sailing cruised inside Port America's Cup for the last time in order to
check each team. You’ll enjoy the images:
http://valenciasailing.blogspot.com/
WEATHER SUPPORT
Experienced yachting meteorologists at Sailing Weather Services are
ready to help your team succeed. Proven race weather support packages
for all major North American and European events. Med TP52,
Newport-Bermuda, Mac Race, etc. Exclusive high-resolution GRIB data.
Complete meteorological support for competitive sailors worldwide.
mailto:info@sailwx.com or http://www.sailwx.com
Curmudgeon’s Comment: Sailing Weather Services is the Official
Meteorologist for the 2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race, and will be providing
Scuttlebutt with an exclusive weather breakdown later this week for the
VOR Leg 6 from Baltimore to New York City, which starts this Sunday, May
7th.
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON
(Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may
be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. You only get one letter
per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others
disagree. And please save your bashing, and personal attacks for
elsewhere. For those that prefer a Forum, you can post your thoughts at
the Scuttlebutt website:
http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi)
* From Adrian Morgan (edited to our 250-word limit): Here we go again;
bleating on about the health (or ill-health, is what they actually mean)
of the sport. No-one came to see the end of the Volvo Race in Baltimore;
US Olympic medals are becoming scarcer, and so on. Sailing is losing
ground, maybe because no one has found a way of building a dinghy that
would plane under the average hamburger-raised child? Certainly, on a
recent visit to Florida, the size of the average American at Newark
airport was about 33 per cent bigger than those at Schipol.
I was en route to the new Florida Maritime Museum where I found sailing
alive and thriving, but in the hands predominantly of the over 50s (and
bearded). It was a far cry from the dizzy level of round the world
racing, but as a measure of health, it rated A1 for enthusiasm,. When
people bemoan the ill-health of a sport it's usually because they envy
other sport's 'media coverage', as if that defines the health of
anything these days. It does strike as ironic that in the days when
yachts were out of sight for weeks on end, and reports were scarce, the
reception when they returned battered and bruised to port was
proportionately huge. Maybe the answer is to ban onboard reporting
altogether; let the guys race without the constant need to communicate
with an increasingly apathetic audience. As for health; in a competitive
world, sailing is as healthy as it deserves to be, no more no less.
CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION
“Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back.”
-- Will Rogers
Special thanks to Bruce Knecht, Camet Intl., and Sailing Weather
Systems.
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