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SCUTTLEBUTT 3098 - Monday, May 24, 2010Scuttlebutt 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. Scuttlebutt on Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Scuttlebutt on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt Today’s sponsors: West Marine, Summit Yachts, and LaserPerformance. SAILING IN THE DARK "Up two degrees ... hold it there," says tactician Al Spector to Mitsuhiro Iwamoto, steering a J24 race boat sailing a beeline toward another boat. "Tack on a long count. Three... two... one... tack!" "Good call," says Danette Davis. "Good call to avoid collision?" answers Al. "Right. Hiro, beautiful driving." It sounds like typical regatta chatter. But these tactical calls are especially important. Iwamoto is blind. That boat they just missed - with four other boats bearing down? All driven by blind crew members. The event was the first California Invitational Blind Sailing Regatta, organized on the Oakland-Alameda Estuary by the Marin Sailing School and Island Yacht Club. Teams represented Boston, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, the Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors and Iwamoto's team, called California 1. Under international blind-regatta rules, the person at the helm is blind. A second blind or vision-impaired person handles the mainsail. There's a fully sighted tactician and a fully sighted crew member handling the foresail, but neither can't touch any other controls except in an emergency. Crewmembers build a mental map of the boat with a systematic, hands-on tour, and they race on virtually identical boats loaned for the occasion. They turn their heads to feel the air on their nose and ears to tell them which way the wind is blowing. Despite maneuvers just feet apart, collisions are rare. There's not even extra insurance required, though the boat owner or a rep was allowed aboard for this regatta. -- SF Chronicle, read on: http://tinyurl.com/2b6nvkb TECHNICAL VERSUS TACTICAL INFRINGEMENTS In the Racing Rules of Sailing, Rule 42 (Propulsion) addresses the limits placed on a crew when sailing their boat by methods other than by using only the wind and water (ie, rocking, pumping, sculling, etc.). For racing administered by the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA), the College Procedural Rules have revised Rule 42 to provide college sailors with a little more ‘freedom of expression on the race course, but even college sailing has its limits. With the ICSA Nationals beginning this week in Madison, WI, Chief Umpire Bryan McDonald has distributed to the competitors the guidelines that the umpiring team will be following to ensure that there is no confusion. Here is an excerpt from this document, which presents an interesting analysis of the various scenarios captured by Rule 42: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- There are two kinds of violations of Rule 42. ‘Tactical’ breaches “are of short duration and committed in order to achieve an immediate advantage. They typically occur at the start, while crossing a right of way boat, near the zone from a mark, or at the finish.” ‘Technical’ infringements are part of a competitor’s style of sailing, and can occur anywhere on the course. The most common place for technical breaches is on the downwind legs (rocking, pumping, too many gybes, etc.) but they can occur upwind (pumping, tacking improperly or too often, etc.) The issues below are both common and controversial in college sailing: - The College Roll: Just before or at the start, a boat heels to leeward and then flattens. - Tactical Roll: Other than at the start, a boat’s crew or skipper causes the boat to heel to leeward or windward and then flatten in such a way as to propel the boat. - Technical Rocking: Other than at the start, a boat is rocking (rolling repeatedly), induced by body movement, repeated adjustment of the sails or centerboard, or steering. - Transition To A Reach (Unwing): A boat sailing wing-on-wing heels to leeward and then flattens while transitioning to a reach. - Roll Tack: A boat’s mast leaves vertical more than once during a tack. - Too Many Gybes/Tacks: A boat tacks or gybes often in light air. - Sculling: A boat sculls the rudder either forcefully or in a way that propels the boat, or both. - Pumping: A boat pumps her sail. - Ooching: Sudden forward body movement, stopping abruptly. Complete Guidelines: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/10/0523/ College Procedural Rules: http://tinyurl.com/2eo9fua MEMORIAL DAY SAVINGS AT WESTMARINE.COM Gear up to go sailing with a super selection of on-sale items from safety, electronics, boat maintenance and more! Now through May 31st you'll save on the best selection of products you need for a full season of smooth sailing - it's all just a click away! -- http://bit.ly/bDcErO FINAL FOUR AT MATCH RACE GERMANY Langenargen, Germany (May 23, 2010) - There were a series of Quarter Final fights for first place today on Day 4 of Match Race Germany. Two previous ISAF Match Racing World Champions, Peter Gilmour (AUS) and Ian Williams (GBR) were eliminated from the field that now finds the Semi Final lineup to be Adam Minoprio (NZL) vs Torvar Mirsky (AUS) and Jesper Radich (DEN) vs Mathieu Richard (FRA). Following three days of round robin racing, Mathieu Richard (FRA) and his French Match Racing Team led the field with an 8-3 record, which provided them an automatic slot in the semis. To fill out the Semi-Final bracket, the next six teams from the round robin series faced off in the quarters to advance. Joining Gilmour and Williams in elimination was Magnus Holmberg (SWE). Of the semifinalist, Radich is the only surprise after having been out of match racing for two years. “It’s great to be back behind the wheel, I can definitely feel that I’ve taken time out but it’s all coming back to me. My crew have been amazing”, said a satisfied Radich. With daylight and wind remaining, the race committee cracked straight on into the best of five race Semi Finals. Minoprio came out on top against Mirsky 2-1 while Radich is up 2-0 on Richard. Racing concludes Monday. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/2dsn64s BACKGROUND: The World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) is the leading professional sailing series featuring 10 World Championship events across the globe, sanctioned by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). The tour website provides live event blogging along with daily videos and images: http://www.wmrt.com/ NEW TEAMS LEAD FIELD Sardinia, Italy (May 23, 2010) - The savage gusts and roiling waves of last week's mistral were a distant memory Saturday as just two races were sailed in light and benign conditions at the opening day of the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena. The anticipated match on this day between Emirates Team New Zealand and BMW Oracle Racing will be rescheduled for later in the series. Conditions were better today as four matches were completed. Two of the newer teams lead the field with 2-0 records at this early stage. Skipper Gavin Brady (NZL) and his Mascalzone Latino Audi Team have beaten Azzurra and TeamOrigin while skipper Bertrand Pace (FRA) and Aleph also has beaten TeamOrigin along with BMW Oracle Racing. Yet to race is Emirates Team New Zealand, who won the last Louis Vuitton Trophy event in Auckland, NZL. Commenting on their chances, skipper Dean Barker was cautious. “La Maddalena is an interesting venue. Race courses will be laid inside a number of islands so we are expecting conditions to be tricky. We will be racing in two Mascalzone Latino and two BMW Oracle Racing boats. The challenge for us is to discover in a short space of time just what makes these boats go . . . and what they don’t like.” Current standings 1. Aleph, FRA, skipper Bertrand Pace (FRA), 2-0 1. Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, ITA, skipper Gavin Brady (NZL), 2-0 3. All4One, FRA/GER, skipper Jochen Schümann (GER), 1-0 3. Artemis, SWE, skipper Paul Cayard (USA), 1-0 5. Emirates Team New Zealand, NZL, skipper Dean Barker (NZL), 0-0 5. Synergy, RUS, skipper Karol Jablonski (POL), 0-0 7. BMW ORACLE Racing, USA, skipper James Spithill (AUS), 0-1 7. Luna Rossa, ITA, skipper Ed Baird (USA), 0-1 9. Azzurra, ITA, skipper Francesco Bruni (ITA), 0-2 9. TeamOrigin, GBR, skipper Ben Ainslie (GBR), 0-2 Racing is scheduled to start each day with a warning signal at 10:00 local time (GMT+2). Racing concludes June 6th. Complete coverage, including live streaming Virtual Eye tracking of each race of the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena is available at http://www.louisvuittontrophy.com BACKGROUND: The Louis Vuitton Trophy series is designed to be a cost-effective format for match racing competition in Version 5 America's Cup Class boats. For the La Maddalena event, teams will take turns racing on four equalised America’s Cup Class boats: two have been provided by BMW Oracle Racing (USA 87 and USA 98) and two by Mascalzone Latino Audi Team (ITA 90 and ITA 99). After La Maddalena, the 2010 series continues on to Dubai (Nov. 13-28). MIKE, YOU’RE FIRED If you follow sports, you have seen this situation play out before. A team is performing poorly, and the coach is fired as a result. One might think that this decision is based on the exact cause of the performance problem, but often the coach or general manager is the easiest piece of the puzzle to remove. With the British America’s Cup TeamOrigin program underperforming in two high profile events earlier this year, the choice of change came down to Team Director Mike Sanderson of New Zealand or a sailing crew of famous homegrown Olympic medalists. Here’s a report from multi-medaled Ben Ainslie, skipper of the team: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike was one of the key people responsible for putting TeamOrigin together at the end of the 32nd America's Cup in 2007. In January 2008 we had more than 100 top people in our team for what was scheduled to be a multiple challenge event in 2009. We were ready. The history of the 33rd Cup is now well known, with Alinghi defending against only BMW Oracle Racing after multiple legal actions. This was an incredibly difficult time for all the teams that weren't involved. Mike successfully steered our team through this dark, two-year period whilst we all waited for the America's Cup to resolve itself. If we are still here today, in a state ready to do business on the race course, it is in no small part due to his tenacity and efforts. But ultimately when the light turned green the team did not gel as we had all hoped and the situation grew progressively worse. It would be fair to say that there was a difference of opinion as to how to build the team and turn things to face forward towards the future. Something had to change. Someone of Mike's calibre with his vast experience at the top of the sport, both as a manager and a sailor, will always be in demand. I know that it won't be long before we are reading about his next exciting project. Along with everyone else in the team I wish Mike all the best for those future campaigns. -- The Telegraph, read on: http://tinyurl.com/29zbggw => Curmudgeon’s Comment: Sometimes a change like this can energize a team to excel, but that’s not yet the case as TeamOrigin lost both of their early matches in ugly fashion at the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena. One race saw a gybing error require their spinnaker to be dropped to untangle it, while the other race saw them hook a lobster pot during the start sequence. SOOZAL STRAIGHT BULLETS 2010 STONE CUP Dan Woolery’s Summit 40 Soozal continued her run of strong IRC performances by winning the 2010 Stone Cup with straight firsts. Run by the St. Francis YC, the event provided classic cool but breezy San Francisco city front conditions. In a fleet including the RP 45 Criminal Mischief and the A40RC Ciao!, Soozal’s four point total was almost a third of the second place finisher, Brad Copper’s Tripp 43 TNT. Check out the Summit 35 and the Summit 40 at http://www.summit-yachts.com TEEN BEAT NEWS * Teen sailing sensation Jessica Watson, who last week became the youngest person to sail solo and unassisted around the world, has revealed her new boyfriend, British sailing mate Mike Perham, intends to stay in Australia as their romance blossoms. Perham, who made headlines last year when he officially became the youngest person to sail around the world at 17, and Watson were in constant contact by satellite phone during her seven-month journey. Said Perham, "Just this connection that felt as though we had known each other forever. I think it comes from sharing some of the same dreams and knowing that we are pretty unique teenagers. The biggest attraction is realising you have so much in common.” -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/23qdlu9 * Jordan Romero, a 13-year-old from Big Bear, California, has become the youngest person ever to climb to the top of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak (at 29,035 feet). The teen reached Everest's peak today (May 22, 2010) with his father, his father's girlfriend and a team of three Sherpa guides, breaking the record previously set by a Nepalese 16-year-old. Everest has two approaches used by climbers. The path in Nepal has age restrictions, so Romero climbed from the China side, which has no age minimum. In his quest to climb the seven continents' highest peaks, Everest was his sixth summit, and he plans to attempt the final mountain, the Vinson Massif in Antarctica, at the end of the year. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/24xyghx SAILING SHORTS * Marina del Rey (May 23, 2010) - Brack Duker sailed his Santa Cruz 70 Holua to his third consecutive Cal Cup victory in a series shortened by big wind and even bigger seas. The eight boat sled fleet completed two races on Saturday in 25+ knot winds that shredded sails and sent 9-foot breaking waves over the bow of the California YC’s anchored RC boat. Harsher conditions saw all races abandoned on Sunday. A five boat i52 fleet was also racing for their West Coast Championship. By winning both of Saturday’s i52 races, Jim Madden's Stark Raving Mad was declared the champion. -- Results: http://tinyurl.com/2vnt964 * (May 23, 2010) - Twelve high school teams competed for the Interscholastic Sailing Association (ISSA) Team Race National Championship (Baker Trophy), held this past weekend in Seattle, WA. After winning the qualifying round robin series, Point Loma High School (San Diego, CA) finished the championship round with a 4-2 record, taking the championship ahead of Tabor Academy (Marion, MA). This is a return to the title that Point Loma HS had held from 2003 through 2005. -- Results: http://www.nwisa.org/bakerresults10.htm * An auction benefiting youth sailing at Greenwich Bay Sailing Association will spotlight the opportunity to win an afternoon of sailing for two aboard PUMA’s il mostro, the Volvo 70 that captured second place in the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race. The winning pair will join Ken Read and the Puma Ocean Racing team for an afternoon sail around Newport and the surrounding area. -- Details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9923 * The America’s Cup trophy will visit Rhode Island July 1, officials confirmed. Details on the trip are still scant, but the BMW Oracle Racing team, the defending Cup champions is set to bring the storied trophy to Newport for a daylong cameo following a visit to the White House. “We are told they will at the White House on the 29th of June,” said Keith Stokes, director of the state Economic Development Corporation and head of Rhode Island’s America’s Cup 2013 Planning Committee. “We believe the next day they will be on ‘Good Morning America.’ Then they will bring the Cup here on Thursday, July 1.” -- Read on: http://www.projo.com/outdoors * The 2010 U.S. Multihull Championship (USMC), a US SAILING National Championship event, starts Monday, May 24 in Shoreacres, Texas at the Houston Yacht Club (HYC), where multihull racing’s finest will clash on Galveston Bay in C2 F-18s for the right to hoist the Hobie Alter Trophy. Topping the 20 team field is defending champions John Casey (Longwood, Fla.) and John Williams (Long Beach, Calif.), who also won the event in 2007 and finished second in 2008. Also in the field are Olympic medalists Pease and Jay Glaser (Long Beach, Calif.). Racing concludes on Thursday, May 27. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/2fbyskr * US SAILING is accepting applications for the 2010 U.S. Team Racing Championship, which will be held in September at Seattle Yacht Club in Seattle, Washington. Sponsored by Rolex Watch U.S.A. Inc., LaserPerformance, Gill NA and Dry Creek Vineyard, the U.S. Team Racing Championship is hosted by a different sailing organization every year and raced in Vanguard 15s. Teams interested in competing have until July 16th to apply. Up to 16 teams will be invited by the U.S. Team Racing Championship Committee. -- http://championships.ussailing.org/Adult/USTRChampionship.htm LASERPERFORMANCE WORLD OPEN REGATTA The World Open Regatta is fast approaching and we want everyone to join in the fun. Race your Laser, Radial or Sunfish, or sail a Bug or Pico in our “Fun Race”. June 26-27 will be a great weekend in Newport with plenty of on water and on shore activities. For more details: http://na.laserperformance.com/special-events/worldopen Sail Legendary LaserPerformance.com GET SICK: The LaserPerformance Sick Day Fleet Grant Program provides a brand new ‘fleet boat’ at 50% off. The program offers Lasers, Sunfish, and Vanguard 15s to worthy fleets to help recruit sailors off the couch and onto the starting line. Application deadline is May 28th, 2010. -- Details: http://tinyurl.com/24qluhc SCUTTLEBUTT SAILING CALENDAR Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar LETTERS AND FORUM Please email your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, ‘The Curmudgeon’). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). 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 E. Eric Matus: (US SAILING president Gary) Jobson’s declaration that USA needs to reboot its sailboard program can be applied across the board. US SAILING needs to reboot their sailing program. Refocus it on expansion of beginning sailing opportunities across the country. De-emphasize professionalizing instructing and racing. Re-emphasize fun, camaraderie and sportsmanship. Find ways to lower the cost of beginning and instructor classes or bring in a two tiered system of low cost beginning and higher cost advanced sailing and instructor classes. The larger the pool of sailors; the more talent there will be to compete; the more awards Americans will earn. * From Forum (pjohns8 regarding imbalance in college racing) As the ICSA coaches will meet this week, they should not take this forum's opinions as so one sided. It is time the other side is heard. For the last three years I have participated in College Sailing as a Judge and Umpire In NEISA and MAISA and at the National Championships. The Coed Semi Finals format has allowed the less experienced teams to get to an event which can have significance for their program. The scene in Boston (2009) was a great tribute to how well this format works. We should carry this through to the Team Race event to insure we get the best 16 teams to the Team Race Nationals. The recent NEISA Team Race Qualifier saw a fierce battle to get the top 3 slots for Nationals. But the next 3-5 teams would be much more competitive than some of the teams represented out of the the weaker districts. The argument for districts just perpetuates the weaker districts and does nothing to raise the level of the game. The coaches in NEISA have been ahead of the game. Three years ago they undertook to raise the level by adding a Judge and Umpire Coordinator to get high level officiating to their major events. Since that time, many former college sailors have taken and passed the US Sailing Judge and Umpire tests and have begun to give back to the entire game of sailing. With the cooperation of US Sailing and the NEISA coaches they have raised the level of officiating and competition for everyone. We would never want the NBA to have Washington Wizards (sorry DC) playing the LA Lakers just to get geographic diversity, let's not do it in college sailing. It is time to give the best sailors a ticket to the Team Race Nationals by enacting a Semi Finals format for Team Racing as well as the other two disciplines and let the best teams sail for the National Championship. -- Forum: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9921#9921 CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness. Special thanks to West Marine, Summit Yachts, and LaserPerformance. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
