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SCUTTLEBUTT 2653 - Tuesday, August 5, 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. SUCCESSFUL RESCUE – SANTA BARBARA TO KING HARBOR RACE The Santa Barbara to King Harbor race was held August 1-2, 2008, and is a 81 mile race from Santa Barbara, CA, through the Channel Islands, to King Harbor in Redondo Beach, CA. Here is a story by Sue Senescu regarding an MOB incident on her boat: “I was the skipper onboard Rattle & Hum, our Antrim 27, with crew Judy Rae Karlsen, Betsy Crowfoot, and Valerie Navarro. All of these women are experienced offshore racers with 8 Transpacs and numerous Cabo and PV races between them. We have trusted each other with our lives many times, but this time we called in the card. “We were having an absolutely awesome ride past Anacapa Island to King Harbor (Redondo Beach) in 25 gusting to 31 kts of wind running at upto 16 kts boat speed when we had a violent roundup that tossed Judy and I overboard. None of us were wearing our inflatable harnesses and tethers. We thought about it, as we were surfing like a spray ball of water, pumping and grinding. We had been burying the bow into the waves in front of us every fifth wave or so, taking on green water over the deck. We were mesmerized by that need for speed. The thrill is addicting. “We had made the time to move every bit of interior cargo and our bodies to the aft of the boat, but we didn’t take the time to get ourselves tethered. BIG mistake number one. At the moment the accident occurred I was driving and Judy was on main, Betsy was on the weather aft stanchion (blessing number one as you will see) and Valerie was on the winch. The boat was pinned, with our largest running spinnaker flailing in the wind. I was lucky enough to pop up and grab the aft stanchion, but Judy Rae was drifting away. I’ll never forget looking at her as she said ‘I’ll be OK’.” -- Read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6180 * Results: http://www.sbyc.org/KingHarborFinalResults.pdf COMMUNICATION IS KEY TO INTRODUCING WINDWARD GATES When the idea is to introduce an innovative course configuration to a premier field of one-design racers at one of their largest events, you better have done your homework. Rather than surprise the entrants at the Etchell Midwinters with the information in the Sailing Instructions, here was the approach taken by PRO Dave Brennan: “With 80 Boats registered for the 2008 Jaguar Etchell Series, and the Etchell Midwinters (held February 29 - March 2 in Miami, FL) we knew we would have numerous challenges to deal with. In the first couple of regattas in the series, it was clear with the boats setting up more than .5 mile from the windward mark (same length as the starting line) on the starboard lay line and so many boats trying to jam in where there wasn’t any room at the mark, with numerous collisions we needed to do something. I thought it would be a good time to try the windward gate again; it wasn’t a new idea. “I started by selling the idea to the Etchell Class & Etchell fleet 20 representatives with no problem. I then made a series of phone calls to other race officers friends that I know that have experience with big one-design fleets, and they all thought it was a good idea and each had many good suggestions on course management. I next checked in with my Chief Judge for the series and laid out my plan, very excited about trying something new and progressive, and fine-tuned the Si’s for the change. Next, I started calling some of sailors in the series that I knew well, shared my plan, and asked their thoughts, each had suggestions and ideas on how to implement the windward gate.” -- Read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6179 * Midwinters photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/08/0303 GENUINE RISK, RAMBLER, SPEEDBOAT… All ask for CAMET Hobart Extreme Sailing Shorts. The lightest shorts on the market, they weigh in at only 9 ounces, and are designed with offset side seams to reduce chafing. The improved design provides extreme flexibility, while the Titanium silver nylon fabric has a durable water repellent finish that dries quickly with a UV rating of 40+ and so much more… Ask for it by name! Also check out the new color in the 3000 model. http://www.camet.com/?Click=960 OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN: 4 DAYS TO GO * US 470 rep Sarah Mergenthaler sent to Scuttlebutt an assortment of images from the Olympic village. Sarah gives us a tour of the boat park and some of the sailors, plus a panoramic view from her 15th floor accommodations. View here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/08/0802 * Regarding US Finn rep Zach Railey’s plans for after the 2008 Games, “First, I am going to take about two months off. Then I will start to look for sponsors and funding for 2012 and will kick off my Olympic Campaign for the Olympic Games in London. I want to continue to sail the Finn for 2012 – for a guy my size the Finn is really my only option to sail at the Olympic level and that is why it is such a perfect boat for the Olympic Games.” -- Full interview: http://xrl.us/zachattack * US Men’s RS:X rep Ben Barger on recent training in Qingdao: “It was the first day for me to line back up with all the best guys and see how my abilities stack up. Fortunately I did as well as hoped, if not a bit better. This is good news, but not getting ahead of myself, training races with these guys isn’t the Olympic Games, but I was just behind the guy that won the event last year, and if I would have potentially pushed harder, well we’ll see. But that wasn’t the purpose today, it was to get the cobwebs out of the lungs and get ready for the feeling of pumping hard for 30+ minutes at a time.” -- Read on: http://bentobeijing.com/?p=151 * US Laser rep Andrew Campbell on pre-Olympic measurement: “What is there to measure in a class of boats where the organizing authority of the event provides all the equipment to the sailors? As laughable as it is, the Laser class does have to go through a measurement, even at events where equipment is provided, mainly to check the rigging systems, to confirm that nothing has been tampered with, and to sign a contract that you don’t intend cheat.” -- Read on: http://campbellsailing.com/index.php/2008/08/03/measurement * Twice, American Morgan Larson has missed going to the Olympics. Twice, he's come about as close as you can get without actually making it. But there is little room for error in one-boat show of Olympic sailing where one team qualifies for each of the seven different craft divisions. Larson sailed in the 49er skiff division during the 2000 and 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials and finished second and third each year, respectively. The difference between him watching the games and participating in them came down to a few simple things. "Nervousness, and a bit of luck," said Larson, a 37-year-old, Capitola native. -- Read on: http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_10091284?nclick_check=1 * The US Olympic Sailing Team has set up a dedicated email address to enable the ‘buttheads to send messages to the whole team or anyone within the team. Emails can be sent here: mailto:GoodLuckTeamUSA@ussailing.org REALLY HIGH – TRULY OPEN Dillon, CO - Dillon Yacht Club commodore Jeff O’Neill compares sailing on the Dillon Reservoir to going through a boxing match. “It’s fun but it can really beat you up out there,” he said. This is why some may have found it strange when 12-year-old Jordan Nelson stood in the Dillon Marina Saturday morning trying to talk his way onto one of the 86 crews that raced in the Alpine Bank Dillon Open this past weekend. Nelson wandered around the herds of sailors, most of which were more than 25 years his senior, with a sign that read, “Jordan Nelson wants to crew. Is experienced.” “There are actually a lot of junior kids that sail on bigger boats,” said Nelson, who has been sailing for two years. “So, I was hoping that someone would want me on their crew.” It didn’t take too long for Nelson to find a boat, as Susan Strasia of the the Kachina picked him up to fill a traveler position she had open. Nelson was just one example of how the 35th running of the world’s highest regatta (at 9,017 feet) was truly an “Open” event. -- Read on: http://xrl.us/omp9v TACKING THROUGH 150 DEGREES By Cory Silken, Silken Photography & Publishing My participation in the final ‘race’ at the Nonsuch Rendezvous 2008 was most certainly the silliest yacht racing experience I’ve had on the water in a long time, possibly ever! I hope these images will give the 'buttheads a chuckle, as we were bawling with laughter. Our first laughs came with the announcement of the start. The downwind start was a unique technical maneuver, the likes of which we’d not previously practiced. The starting moment was on a whim, about as random as Captain Jack Sparrow’s compass in Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It was denoted only by the untimed and unannounced lowering of a flag on a committee boat, which was underway, making way downwind! Further, all boats were allowed to use their engines until that moment. – Complete story with images: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/08/0803 EXCITING TIMES AT MELGES The Melges 20 has been introduced and is sailing with fantastic success – see a new video now at melges20.com. A very successful Melges 32 National Championship held recently at New York Yacht Club was the buzz on Narragansett Bay. Melges just unveiled a new look website for Melges.com, with an expanded parts section for their one-design racers that is sure to expand over the coming months. Whether you sail a Melges 24 or one of the Melges Scows, you can get detailed information on the new Melges.com site. Look for the Melges 20 up close and live at the boat shows! Race to http://www.Melges.com EXTREME 40 EVENT OR MINI-AMERICA’S CUP? With the threat of multihull racing in the next America’s Cup, and the bitter litigation between cup defender Alinghi and the BMW Oracle Racing Team, much had been made of the two teams meeting recently at the iShares Cup Extreme 40 catamaran event at Skandia Cowes Week in Cowes, UK. Challenging conditions of brisk winds and confused sea played havoc on the fleet, with three of the 11 entrants failing to finish the series. Alinghi was only one of two teams to complete all of the 16 races, making skipper Ed Baird’s group a worthy winner of the event. Following the event, each team supplied the media with their press release, and it was interesting to note the strategic differences taken in the message that was presented. Here are the first quotes from each: * “We improved each day in our performance,” BMW Oracle Racing helmsman James Spithill said. “The teams that have spent time in the class showed in their consistency.” -- Complete release: http://xrl.us/bor070408 * “This is where we prefer to compete to win: on the water, rather than in court,” declared Alinghi team skipper Brad Butterworth. “There was a brief glimmer of hope last Tuesday – when Société Nautique de Genève won the appeal reinstating the Spanish Yacht Club as Challenger of Record and kicking off a multi-challenger event – that there might be a return to some normality and that the 33rd America’s Cup could get underway again with the teams that had signed up last year, but that has been snatched away.” -- Complete release: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/08/0804 * iShares Cup report: http://www.isharescup.com/container.asp?id=17227 SAILING SHORTS * Fort Lauderdale, FL (August 1, 2008) - The Southern Ocean Racing Conference (SORC) announces the official opening for entries in the 29th Pineapple Cup - Montego Bay Race. Schedule to start on February 6, 2009 just outside of Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades, the race – known affectionately by sailors as ‘Mo Bay’ – runs 811 nautical miles to Montego Bay, Jamaica and offers navigators, tacticians and crews a challenging all-points-of-sail blast to a fabled destination. The current race record is held by Titan 12, set in 2005, with an impressive elapsed time of 2 days, 10 hours, 24 minutes and 42 seconds. -- http://www.montegobayrace.com * Malaysia will host the IODA (International Optimist Dinghy Association) World Sailing Championship (WSC) in 2010 at the National Yachting Training Centre. Malaysian Yachting Association (MYA) general manager Mohd Afendy Abdullah said China and Thailand were the only two Asian countries to host the WSC in 2001 and the 80s respectively. Brazil will be hosting WSC 2009," he told Bernama here Sunday. Afendy said the MYA will need RM5 million (1.5 million USD) to host WSC, mostly for buying 300 boats for the championship and 30 boats for the trainers. – Complete story: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news_sports.php?id=350263 * The final entry in the Singlehanded TransPac fleet finished last Saturday, with the official results of the event from San Francisco to Hanalei Bay, Kauai as follows: Multihulls: Hecla, Hammerhead 54, Jeff Lebesch (1 boat); Large Monohulls: Alchera, J/120, Mark Deppe (4 boats); Sport Boats: Polar Bear, Olson 30, Eric Thomas (4 boats); Medium Monohulls: Haulback, Spencer 35, Jim Kellam (6 boats); Small Monohulls: Wildflower, Wylie Custom 27, Skip Allan (5 boats); First to Finish: Dogbark, Open 60, Al Hughes; First Overall (corrected time): Wildflower. -- Latitude 38, full report: http://xrl.us/lat080408 * Port Washington, NY - Twelve teams will be converging on Manhasset Bay for the Knickerbocker Cup on August 20-24 to match race in Colgate 26’s. This 26 year old event is now a World Match Tour Qualifier Event, with the winner gaining an automatic entry to compete in the Bermuda Gold Cup this fall. In addition to last year’s winner Chris Van Tol (USA), the contenders will include top-ranked Andrey Arbuzov (Russia), Keith Swinton (AUS), Sergey Muskihin (RUS) Evan Walker (AUS), Juan Ignacio Grimaldi (ARG), Phil Robertson (NZ), Takumi Nakamura (JAP), Robbie Allam (GBR), Francesco Bruni (ITA), and Elizabeth Baylis (USA). -- http://www.kyc.net/cup.asp * Danish sailmaker Elvström Sobstad is to revert to its original name, Elvstrøm Sails, as of August 1, 2008. The re-naming of the company follows the completion of the merger between Elvström Sails and US sail manufacturer Sobstad in 2002. Since then, the company has used the joint name of Elvström Sobstad. -- IBI Magazine, read on: http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20080701153455ibinews.html * Correction: Since Issue 2652 was published, corrections have been made to the 2008 Buzzards Bay Regatta results for the Club 420 class. The actual winner of the 123-boat fleet was Ian Liberty and Jane Rew, with Matt Wefer and Alex Herring coming in second. -- Results: http://www.buzzardsbayregatta.com/2008results/index.html TIM HEALY JOINS QUANTUM NEWPORT Quantum Newport welcomes Tim Healy to their team! Tim, winner of over 15 National and Continental Championships, will be working with Quantum One Design in a variety of classes. As one of the best One Design sailors in North America, he will make a wonderful addition to the team! http://www.destinationonedesign.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Reader commentary is encouraged, with letters to be submitted to the Scuttlebutt editor, aka, ‘The Curmudgeon’. Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). You only get 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 Damian Christie, Melbourne, Australia: Let me get this straight. In a Monty Pythonesque ruling, the Appellate Division of New York’s Supreme Court has handed back the mantle of Challenger of Record for America's Cup XXXIII to CNEV - a purported yacht club with no members, no vessels, no annual regatta, no telephone number or website and, most importantly, no team to represent it at the next regatta! The Appellate Division has erred. Justice Nardelli correctly argues that challenges for the Cup should come from yacht clubs with the experience to organise regattas of the Cup’s magnitude. Even if GGYC’s challenge is invalid, at the very least the court should have dissolved CNEV’s “challenge” on the available evidence and declared, in accordance with the Deed, that fresh challenges be reissued to SNG within 30 days. It would then have been up to the cleverest challenger to get their notice in first and seek robust negotiations with Alinghi for a fairer, equitable protocol. The Appellate Division’s decision effectively enables any Tom, Dick or Harry to challenge for the Cup. In fact, I’m tempted to issue one on behalf of the Alice Springs Yacht Club – a club which hosts its annual regatta on a dry riverbed in central Australia, but has at least been represented in past ocean races such as the Sydney to Hobart. ASYC has more credibility than CNEV ever will – and all it needs to do is ‘promise’ to hold an annual regatta in future on the open sea! * From John Longley: I wonder who will be first to launch a yacht called "Having..." * From Doran Cushing St. Petersburg, FL: (re, story in #2652) Wonderful to hear about the major numbers of participants in the Buzzard's Bay Regatta. However, it is unfortunate that again, a repeating theme with regatta organizers, that the multihull participants end up the bastard children. For whatever bizarre reason, the multihull boats are listed at the bottom of the PHRF Cruising results. Garbage in/garbage out. The "sport" can continue to ignore the multihull community but the fastest growing segment of recreational sailboat sales are large, somewhat expensive catamarans. And the next America's Cup, if it ever happens, may be sailed on multihulls. And the last America's Cup reflected technology innovations which came from the multihull fleets - square-top mains, asymmetrical spinnakers, screechers...just look at any performance monohull and see the reflection of a multihull from a few years past. But don't go out of your way to get our results posted...we don't matter. CURMUDGEON’S CONUNDRUM Can absence make the heart grow fonder AND familiarity breed contempt? Special thanks to Camet, Melges Performance Sailboats, and Quantum Newport. A complete list of preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
