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SCUTTLEBUTT 3023 - Friday, February 5, 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.sailingscuttlebutt.com/facebook Today’s sponsors: NorthU and e Sailing Yachts. THREE HULLS ARE BETTER THAN TWO By Charles Mason, SAIL Ian Campbell of the University of Southampton’s (UK) venerable Wolfson Test Unit takes data provided to him by SAIL and runs it through their velocity prediction programs and the WinDesign VPP developed in conjunction with Clay Oliver’s Yacht Research International. His detailed analysis, which begins on page 14 of SAIL’s February issue, suggests that BMW Oracle’s trimaran, USA, can fly a hull in just 8 knots of true windspeed, can sail to windward at twice the true wind speed (TWS) and can reach VMG speeds about 50 percent higher than true wind speed. Downwind, Vmg speeds with a Code 0 headsail can produce apparent wind angles of just 22–28 degrees. But because of more sail area and the ability to carry water ballast effectively, USA could be 20 seconds/mile faster than A5 in 8 knots of wind. In fact anytime the boats are flying a hull, says Campbell, the data shows that USA is the faster boat. Because USA’s wing mast can quickly produce camber coming out of a tack, that will help it to fly a hull more quickly. And even though large Code 0 headsails on A5 could reduce slightly the speed advantage downwind, any time the boats are flying a hull USA should be faster. Of course with large and staggeringly powerful boats like these, anything might happen. But if the engineers and builders have done their job, and the USA crew can avoid breakdowns, they should prevail over A5, in the 33rd America’s Cup Match, and possibly by a considerable margin. -- Complete report: http://sailmagazine.com/cup_watch/americas_cup_33 * TABLE FOR TWO: The New York Supreme Court has set a date of February 25 to hear the “constructed in country” case concerning the sails being used by Alinghi 5. The Golden Gate Yacht Club contends that the Deed of Gift requires the sails for each team to be built in their country, and that the Swiss team has not followed this rule. For the ‘buttheads tiring of litigation, a win by GGYC on the water will nix the need for this hearing. -- http://tinyurl.com/yj75ute * VIEWING: For the American audience, ESPN360.com will carry the coverage live with Gary Jobson and Randy Smyth commentating. The best of three races series begins Monday, Feb. 8th at 3:45 a.m. ET. All races will also be available for replay. The event website also claims that the races will be broadcast live free of charge on americascup.com. -- http://www.ESPN360.com * MORE VIEWING: If you were panicking that your internet provider would not deliver, BMW Oracle Racing announced that they will be hosting on their website the official live feed of the racing from the Host Broadcaster in addition to producing additional online coverage. The first live streaming event on the website is scheduled for Friday at 19:30 CET (13:30 EST, 10:30 PST) when team founder Larry Ellison (USA), CEO Russell Coutts (NZL) and skipper James Spithill (AUS) meet the media at the BMW ORACLE Racing team base in Valencia, Spain. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/oapdlw * SCHEDULE: The Match is won by the yacht to first win two races. Racing will be attempted every other day beginning Monday February 8th. If a race is not started on a given day, or is abandoned for whatever reason, racing will continue on the next scheduled race date, (Wednesday the 10th, Friday the 12th, Sunday the 14th, etc.). * EVENT WEBSITE: The website for the 33rd America’s Cup has been launched, which has posted event documents and recent jury decisions. Also look here for forthcoming details on all the television and Internet options on how to view the event: http://33rd.americascup.com/en/ * GEEK CENTER: For the engineer ‘buttheads that get excited at terms like “numerical simulations” and “finite-volume approach”, there is an interview in a tech publication with Mike Drummond, BMW Oracle’s Racing Design Director, on the computing tools used to develop their wing sail: http://www.cd-adapco.com/press_room/2010/01-28-10-americascup.html * GROUNDHOG DAY: While there are no reports of Punxsutawney Phil making an appearance in Valencia to predict the outcome of the 33rd Match, there will be a simulation race between a 50-inch model trimaran and a 50-inch catamaran scheduled for 1 p.m. Feb. 7 in Bellingham, WA. -- http://www.bellinghamherald.com/601/story/1270045.html * TEAM UPDATES: Here are the best links for team information: - Alinghi: http://www.alinghi.com/en/ - BMW Oracle Racing: http://bmworacleracingblog.blogspot.com/ THE 2010 PITTMAN INNOVATION AWARDS By David Schmidt, SAIL Sailors today live in an era replete with new equipment and innovation. Looking back on the state-of-the-art in February of 1970 - when SAIL’s first issue was unveiled - you’d find aluminum was still considered a pretty high-tech material. Wooden spars were still relatively common. Electronics were primitive: LORAN was top dog, and plenty of cruisers used radio direction finders when navigating out of sight of land. Sextants remained mandatory when heading offshore. Crosscut Dacron sails were still used on America’s Cup boats, and although carbon fiber existed, it was the stuff of spaceships, not sailboats. Forward thinking has dramatically advanced the state of sailing from the days when the fastest racing boats might see 20 knots when a puff coincided with a big wave. In 2009, the “flying” hydrofoil trimaran l’Hydroptère achieved a tooth-rattling top speed of 51.56 knots, and the 131-foot trimaran Banque Populaire 5 crossed the Atlantic in 3 days, 15 hours, 25 minutes and 48 seconds. In the process, it hit a top speed of 47.15 knots and logged a 24-hour run of 908.2 nautical miles. Amazing! Equally impressive is the fact that it is now common for even the most modest cruising boats to have everything from powered winches and fantastic electronics and communications gear to air conditioning and heating, roller-reefing sails, a carbon-fiber rig, a reliable autopilot and a watermaker. This sort of evolution requires technology, innovation and creative thinking. Few people understood this better than Freeman K. Pittman, who served as SAIL’s technical editor for 14 years before his untimely death from ALS. Pittman was widely respected throughout the marine industry for his insights on innovative equipment, and SAIL honors his memory with these annual Innovation Awards. Each fall, editor-in-chief Peter Nielsen (Cruising Gear), senior editor David Schmidt (Racing and Safety Gear), electronics editor Tim Bartlett (Electronics) and technical consultant Jay Paris (Systems) sift through boat shows in the United States and Europe to find gear that’s ahead of its time. -- Read on for the winners: http://tinyurl.com/ykscuew WING OR A PRAYER That’s how some folks approach boat speed. Another path to victory includes an upcoming North U TRIM Seminar where you learn fast fast. In one day you learn to control and balance power for better upwind performance, trim your spinnaker (A or S) to run faster and deeper, and how to set, jibe, and douse like a pro; plus you’ll take home the NorthU TRIM Seminar-on-CD for review and home study. Coming soon to a town near you. Visit http://www.northu.com or call 800-347-2457 for full info and schedule. ONLY NEWPORT AND MIAMI REMAIN It’s down to two. Bidding for the 2011-12 installment of the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) has reached its final stage - with Newport left competing only against Miami for rights to the sole North American stopover of this epic round-the-world sailing competition. In a posting on local boating website RIYachting.com, Sail Newport Executive Director Brad Read reported that Friday, Jan. 29 was the deadline for ports interested in hosting a stopover of the VOR to send a signed “Host Port Contract” to Volvo Event Management. The Host Port Contract details the commitments expected of a host city, and does not secure a stopover. But it does get you closer to achieving that end. “Nine months of effort negotiating these requirements has led us to today,” Read wrote. “Hours of pouring over the 100 pages of port requirements, rights and benefits that the stopover entails.” According to Read, WayPoint Rhode Island, the non-profit corporation set up specifically for ushering through the VOR bid, submitted the contract to Volvo Event Management late last month. Joining in the effort are the City of Newport, the State of Rhode Island, Newport Shipyard and what Read described as “dozens of advisers and friends.” “We have hit every deadline and have negotiated this contract in an attempt to bring the largest event to Newport since the LPGA Women’s US Open,” Read said. Newport was asked by Volvo to bid on the North American stopover back in the spring of 2009, just as the race was heading into a Boston. Initially there were six bidding ports that were in play. But at the end of the line, only Newport and Miami remain. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/yho5c86 FOR THE RECORD (February 4, 2010; 17:35 UTC) - After the giant slalom along the Portuguese coast, followed by a passage offshore of Madeira and the Canaries, the 103-foot Groupama 3 is now concentrating on her big descent towards the equator. It will be another good day and a half before they reach the Southern hemisphere, at which point they will be able to put in a long tack along the Brazilian coast, still on port tack, until they hang a left and set a course for the Cape of Good Hope. There will be at least five days on the same tack in prospect then, even though the crew will have to frequently manoeuvre as the wind gradually switches from the NE (Northern hemisphere) to the SE (Southern hemisphere). However, the weather situation isn't yet very clear off Brazil. "The Southern hemisphere isn't looking very rosy for the time being,” explained skipper Franck Cammas. “It has been worse though, so there's still a chance we can get through it... The weather window is pretty tricky, but we no longer have a lot of options. For the moment, things are going rather well: we should even cross the equator earlier than we'd hoped on setting out, after six days at sea! Following on from that it's more complicated in terms of strategy, but it's also very nice to have to puzzle over the best way of getting out of these successive ridges of high pressure, the next of which is located off Bahia.” -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/yk25kyo Current position as of February 4, 2010 (22:00:00 UTC): Ahead/behind record: +359.0 nm Speed (avg) over past 24 hours: 26.2 knots Distance over past 24 hours: 629.5 nm Data: http://cammas-groupama.geovoile.com/julesverne/positions.asp?lg=en Map: http://cammas-groupama.geovoile.com/julesverne/index.asp?lg=en * After their start on January 31, 2010, Groupama 3 must cross finish line off Ushant, France before March 23rd (06:14:57 UTC) to establish a new time for the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by any type of yacht with no restrictions. Current record holder is Bruno Peyron and crew, who in 2005 sailed Orange 2 to a time of 50 days, 16 hours, and 20 minutes at an average of 17.89 knots. SAILING SHORTS * Vincenzo Onorato (ITA) and his Mascalzone Latino team have teamed with Audi and have announced an ambitious racing schedule that includes the Louis Vuitton Trophy and the Farr 40 and Melges 32 classes. Onorato won the Farr 40 Worlds in 2007 and 2008, and his team finished 6th in the Challenger trials at the 32nd America’s Cup. The team will include New Zealander Gavin Brady as skipper and helmsman along with Morgan Larson (USA), Cameron Dunn (NZL), Mark Mendelblatt (USA), and Chris Larson (USA). -- Additional details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9042 * Beginning Friday February 5th, over 55 international athletes in two of the prominent Olympic singlehanded classes will be fighting it out in the Atlantic Ocean off Fort Lauderdale, Fl. This year, the focus during the Laser Radial North American Championship will be on an expected awesome battle between Gold medalist Anna Tunnicliffe and American teammate Paige Railey, who dominated the Radial fleet in Miami. Paige's brother Zach (Railey) will be competing in the Finn Midwinters for the spot last won by GBR's Ed Wright. Forecasted conditions on Friday are in the upper teens and possibly 20 knots by day's end. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9040 * Over 100 boats have already registered for the 102nd Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac, presented by Veuve Clicquot, which starts on July 23-24, 2010 in Chicago. Over 550 invitations were issued to past competitors on February 1, and with such a tremendous response in just days, Chicago Yacht Club anticipates another big fleet. Last year’s race saw nearly 350 entrants begin the 333 mile sailing adventure on Lake Michigan. Invitations to first time racers will go out on March 1. -- Details: http://www.cycracetomackinac.com/ * Stuart, FL (February 4, 2010) - Kiteboarder Stephen Schafer, 38, was attacked by a shark Wednesday afternoon a quarter-mile off South Florida's Atlantic Coast, dying shortly thereafter to mark the first deadly shark attack in Florida in five years, and perhaps a rare instance of a lethal attack by a swarm of sharks. While Schafer was out kiteboarding, when the winds lightened and his sail dropped, he found himself in the water, surrounded by the sharks. -- Complete story: http://tinyurl.com/yg9969n * The San Francisco based 60-foot-long catamaran Plastiki plans to sail across the Pacific to Australia, beginning in early March. What makes the Plastiki unique is that the boat's twin hulls are made of 12,500 plastic bottles that once held soft drinks or spring water. The bottles are filled with dry ice, which of course is a gas. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/yzr5fgn e SAILING YACHTS & LYMAN-MORSE: A BRILLIANT COMBINATION The new alliance of e Sailing Yachts and Lyman-Morse Boatbuilding Co. is the brilliant combination of a superior performance daysailer and a superior custom boat builder. Construction is underway on three e33’s slated for spring delivery with the e27 and e44 models not far behind. Cabot Lyman remarked, “This alliance makes so much sense because our companies share the same values. There is that ‘wow’ factor when an e33 sails by - and yet they are very practical and easy to sail.” e Sailing Yachts is hosting test sails at Miami Strictly Sail next week. Full story and more info: http://www.esailingyachts.com PHOTOS OF THE WEEK Some of the random photos from the sport received this week at Scuttlebutt include the J/111 hull plug, a 29erXX regatta, the latest from C.W. Hood Yachts, a 12,500 plastic bottle boat plus Moths in San Diego, icicles in Annapolis, three bridges in San Francisco, and commerce in Chicago. If you have images you would like to share, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor. Here are this week’s photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/10/0205/ VIDEO OF THE WEEK Commenting on the sub-freezing temperatures and near blizzard conditions at the Interclub Midwinter Championship almost seems redundant. This is winter in the United States, and the racing was hosted by Severn Sailing Association in Annapolis, MD. But to talk about is one thing - to live it was another matter. Boats were launched on the ramp without carts; they just slid them down on the snow. Icicles were chipped off the rails to keep them from dragging in the water. Ski googles were the chosen eyewear over Kaenon Polarized glasses. Good boat speed meant avoiding the frozen water. To be at the IC Midwinters, you were all in. If you are not clear on what it means to go frostbiting, this video will open your eyes: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/10/0205/ * The Scuttlebutt micro-site for Key West 2010 now includes a sailing highlight video plus a segment from the final trophy presentation: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/10/KW/ * After watching this Extreme 40 catamaran capsize, and seeing a crewman fall the width of the boat to slam into the hull, it is clear what a catastrophe it will be if the America’s Cup multihulls face a similar situation: http://tinyurl.com/yzy8634 * Teaser for the 33rd Match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9vqBL9FYcA * If you have a video you like, please send your suggestion for next week’s Video of the Week to editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com 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 Brian Morris: That was a wonderful story in the Scuttlebutt 3022 between Paul Henderson and Buddy Melges. It showed a funny side of our sport with two very serious sailors. Yet today you wonder with all the political correctness if the jury would have found a 69 case against both of them for “interfering with competitor’s boats”. I hope our future is not destroyed and people can still laugh and have fun. As the AC is talking all the fun of a great sport. You wonder how the sailors who compete in the 2010 event will tell their stores in 40 years. “Well we almost sailed but then the lawyer said ….” * From Jim Champ (re, Ernesto Bertarelli’s quote about speed in SBUTT 3022) It’s funny, we all seem to believe this don't we, and rant on about how fast our boats go: goodness knows I've come ashore with enough war stories about bouncing off waves at 20plus knots in my time. But look at it objectively: Messrs Bertarelli and Ellison have spent megabucks on craft that have roughly the same sort of level of performance as the hundreds of thousands of 125cc commuter bikes you see in every city round the world. You can buy this "speed" secondhand for a few hundred dollars. * From Frank Conway, Franklin Lakes, NJ: The article (in Scuttlebutt 3022) on the America' Cup being televised on ESPN360 Broadband, is a great example of how those clowns have ruined the Cup and everything it stood for... How a replay of the Magic vs. Celtics on ESPN or a replay of the Winter X games on ESPN2 and best yet a replay of 2006 World Series of Poker on ESPN Classic are on Cable TV over the Cup shows how far it has sunk in the minds of people in the USA and the media. As someone who always enjoyed watching the Cup on TV and getting friends involved to watch, I have to say this stinks and all those involved are a disgrace to the sport of sailing..... => Curmudgeon’s Comment: While the Versus coverage during the 32nd America’s Cup was some of the best television production we had seen, my understanding is that it did not pencil out for them, and that they would not have gotten involved in this Match if the circumstances were the same as in 2007. For those in the U.S. that watched the 2008 Olympic sailing on the Internet, the ESPN360 plan will be quite similar for the 33rd America’s Cup. The video feed gets sent to the ESPN studios in Bristol, CT where Gary Jobson and Randy Smyth will add their commentary before it then gets distributed to ESPN360.com viewers. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION “We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.” - Charles F. Kettering, inventor, philosopher Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
