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SCUTTLEBUTT 2150 - August 2, 2006Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.GUEST EDITORIAL Before too much of Scuttlebutt is taken up on unsympathetic race management at Skandia Cowes Week, may I as the PRO involved inform the discussion, already begun, with a few facts? Your most recent correspondents seem unaware that at Cowes the line is fixed, not laid. One end is a 200-year-old Castle, the other a 2-ton buoy on a permanent mooring. It would be possible but difficult (not to say unpopular) to move the Castle, and is time consuming to move the buoy. My decision had nothing to do with teaching anyone a lesson about who is boss, and everything to do with getting on with a fixed-schedule start sequence involving 1,030 boats in 37 classes that already takes a minimum of two-and-a-half hours to complete. At Cowes, the classes start every five minutes during that two-and-a-half hours: the big boats go at 10, 20, 30 etc past the hour, the small boats at 05, 15, 25 etc. The mathematics are as inescapable as they are inflexible. The minimum a general recall adds to this start sequence is 10 minutes – and that is 10 minutes to the whole of the group affected. Two general recalls thus put the starts of the waiting classes back by a minimum of 20 minutes, three by 30, and so on.. However, because only the boats in the Group of the class Generally Recalled are held up, the other group is continuing to start on time. This group will need the start-and-finish line when they return from the race already under way. One thus, quite literally, does not have all day to let one class get it right On the day in question the angle of wind and fixed line conspired to bunch all 84 SB3s at the windward, inshore, end. The length of the start line was not a factor: the outer third of the line was virtually unoccupied, but the SB3s ranked themselves four or five deep at the inner end. In such a circumstance it is indeed small wonder that there was an enormous bunch pushing the line and even less wonder that there was a general recall. So obvious was it, in fact, that after two attempts I called it a day. There was no evidence to suggest the situation would be any better at any subsequent attempt, but ample evidence that further delay would simply, and surely unfairly, curtail the racing for the other 946 boats. Immediately, we met with the class to find a remedy. We shifted the 2-ton buoy, and laid on a committee boat start (offered to and declined by the class before the Week began) should the situation on the fixed line repeat itself. -- Malcolm McKeag TRYOUTS SCHEDULED Long Beach, Calif.---An intense regimen of sailing and bonding is in store for the 30 final aspirants for Roy E. Disney's Morning Light crew when they arrive Saturday from around North America. By next week's end 15 will be selected to train in Hawaii for the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race in 2007. The tryouts are the first phase of a true film documentary by Disney's Pacific High Productions planned for theatrical release in 2008. The 30 young men and women were chosen from among 538 applicants. Eleven or 12 will race the Transpac 52 Morning Light from Los Angeles to Hawaii, without coaches or advisors on board. They will be the youngest crew ever to sail Transpac. Their current ages a year away from the race range from 17 to 22. In the 1969 Transpac Jon Andron's victorious Cal 40, Argonaut, averaged 22.57 years of age. The tryouts will be based in downtown Long Beach at Rainbow Harbor and at the adjacent Hyatt Hotel. Selections will be announced before the candidates depart on Sunday, Aug. 13. The 30 will rotate daily sailing on four Catalina 37s chartered from the Long Beach Sailing Foundation. A member of the selection committee will be on each boat. Executive producers Disney and Leslie DeMeuse and sailing team manager Robbie Haines will observe from a chase boat. Selection committee members are Stan Honey of Palo Alto, who recently navigated ABN AMRO 1 to its Volvo Ocean Race victory; Carol Buchan, Seattle, a world and national champion in various classes; Scott Ikle, sailing coach at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, as well as the 2003 U.S. Olympic Committee Coach of the Year in sailing; and Andrew Campbell, San Diego, a four-time all-American and College Sailor of the Year at Georgetown University. Also scheduled each morning is a three-hour "team building exercise" session with Bill Applebaum, actor, writer and filmographer who will measure the candidates' comfort levels with one another as well as with cameras and microphones in their daily lives. The final selections will be determined by Disney, DeMeuse and Haines, based on input from the selection committee, -- Rich Roberts, http://www.pacifichighproductions.com/ LASER RADIAL WORLDS Marina del Rey, CA - The brisk breeze on order for the 2006 Laser Radial World Championships finally arrived Tuesday after 2 1/2 days of single-digit zephyrs, but it wasn't universally welcomed. The combination of a 30-degree shift to the right, winds revving up from 6 to 16 knots, and a drop race have shuffled the standings. With 6 of 12 races completed, the Women’s fleet will now be divided into Gold and Silver fleets, with qualifying scores rolling into the finals. The 71-boat Men’s fleet will continue sailing together, and will gain a second drop race once 10 races are completed. The Women’s fleet will gain a second drop race as well after 10 races, however, no more than one score will be excluded from the finals series races and only when two or more finals series races have been completed. Provisional scores: Women's Radial Worlds 1. Solenne Brain, France, 16 pts 2. Anna Tunnicliffe, USA, 21 3. Lijia Xu, China, 21 4. Katarzyna Szotynska, Poland, 23 5. Petra Niemann, Germany, 27 Men's Radial Worlds 1. Steven Le Fevre, The Netherlands, 26 pts 2. Fabio Pillar, Brazil, 31 3. Steven Krol, The Netherlands, 40 4. Jon Emmett, Great Britain, 44 5. Leong Koh Seng, Singapore, 54 Event website: http://www.calyachtclub.com/cms/index.cfm?mainid=10&vNavID=18&vSubNavID=0 SAILING COACH NEEDED The United States Coast Guard Academy (New London, CT) is seeking to hire an assistant offshore sailing coach for the fall 2006 season (August 15-November 15). This is a full-time temporary position. This position involves coaching cadet offshore sailors in all aspects of keelboat sailing and racing. Applicants should have experience sailing, organizing, maintaining keelboats ranging from 24’- 44’. Duties include but are not limited to assisting in daily practice sessions, serve as coach/safety officer in selected one-design, PHRF and IRC events. Send resume and three references to CGA Offshore Sailing Coach, Karl Knauss: mailto:KKnauss@exmail.uscga.edu or 860-444-8574 (fax). TOUR EXTENDED The eighth season of the World Match Racing Tour began last week with the Portugal Match Cup and will count 14 events in an extended season through the end of 2007 when the next world champion will be crowned at the Monsoon Cup. The new Tour season will be the first full season of an extended series awarding an ISAF world championship. ISAF, sailing’s world governing body, and the World Tour last January entered an extensive partnership that crowns the match-racing world champion through the series of events on the World Tour. For the third year the winner will receive a new BMW from Tour partner BMW. “The decision was taken unanimously that the world championship should be a tour championship,” said Nucci Novi Ceppellini, ISAF Executive Committee member from Italy. “A Tour can define a champion better than a single event.” There’s a chance the schedule could expand. Tour organizers are in final negotiations to host an event in San Francisco, Calif., later this year. Also, event organizers in Argentina, Australia, England, Morocco, Spain and the Ukraine have expressed interest in hosting a stage. Some events will be contested twice this season because the Tour plans to move to a calendar year schedule in 2008. For more information on the World Match Racing Tour, its competitors and events: http://www.WorldMatchRacingTour.com SHORESIDE SPECTATOR SPECTACLE Skandia Cowes Week 2006 Day Four Report -- With a forecast of strong and blustery south-westerly winds and gusts reaching 29 knots a lumpy Solent greeted competitors this morning. Principal Race Officer John Grandy of the Royal Yacht Squadron rightly urged his course setters to adopt a "safety first" attitude by sending all the classes on the Castle start line to the more sheltered eastern Solent and ensuring their courses were suitably short enough to get all the fleets safely home before the tide turned. Running starts with the tide, therefore, were the order of the day and provided a fantastic spectacle for the shoreside spectators as the day boats streaked off the start line setting myriad shades of colorful spinnakers for a long first leg down to the Hill Head Shore. -- Yachting World, full story: http://tinyurl.com/epfad Curmudgeon’s Comment: Cowes Online's live streaming video from the Royal Yacht Squadron's start line and their daily video reports on Skandia Cowes Week have proved incredibly popular with their web site receiving 130,000 hits on Monday alone. Find all the live and recorded video, together with the Skandia Cowes Week video reports at: http://tinyurl.com/jyq8n SAILING SHORTS * William Petersen and Ryann Hall from the California YC scored a two point victory over Chris Segerblom and Alexis Scott from the host Newport Harbor YC to win the 10-race, 54-boat CFJ National Championship. The remaining spots in the top five went to: 3. Cole Hatton & Kayla McComb (NHYC), 4. Ryan Ramming & Cameron Stuart (NHYC) 5. Oliver Toole & Aubrey Toole, Santa Barbara YC. -- http://tinyurl.com/jvlnf * Five previous national champions sailed in the 40th Cal 25 National Championship at Long Beach YC -- which also hosted the first-ever National Championship for that class. After very close racing on Saturday, the wind simply did not make an appearance on Sunday, which resulted in Steve and Jane Horst’s ‘Jane's Addiction’ (sailing for the Scuttlebutt Sailing Club) claiming the title in a tie-breaker with Mark Gaudio’s ‘Xiphias’ after just three races. ‘One Time’ sailed by Art and Scott Melendres’ was just one point further back in third place. -- http://tinyurl.com/jymy2 * Farr Yacht Design has completed rule research and is designing a STP65 for Roger Sturgeon, who has campaigned several boats under the Rosebud name over the past years. "The 4.8 meter deep lifting keel, 13 ton displacement and ample sail area will make this boat an exceptional all-around performer. It will be also very competitive under IRC as a full program of worldwide events is planned", said Jim Schmicker, Senior Naval Architect at Farr Yacht Design. Construction is due to start at Westerly Marine this month; launch date is expected to be end of April 2007. -- http://www.farrdesign.com WE'RE GETTING CLOSE... So when is Team One Newport having their Warehouse Sale? It’s in the planning sessions, but we have some teasers right now: Magic Marine 1/4 Zip Boot are 30% off, the Musto Inshore Jackets are 40% off, and Teva shoes and sandals are 50% off. With prices like these, they will go fast. If the sale item you order doesn't fit, don't worry as you have 30 days to return it. You can't go wrong with these bargains! Visit the Sale Page online and also check out the incredible selection of the best sailing clothing in the world: http://www.team1newport.com BAY WEEK There are two types of people this week: those that are at the West Marine I-LYA Bay Week being held at South Bass Island on Lake Erie, and those who wish they were there. Skip Dieball of Quantum Sails has filed another report for Scuttlebutt after the sailing on Tuesday, where his team on their T-10 earned themselves Boat of the Day honors. Their "Work Hard, Play Hard” approach is well suited for this event, particularly due to the warm weather. As Skip says, it’s “hot in the morning, hot on the course and hot in the bars and restaurants. Of course we seek out any/ all air-conditioned establishments, but even for early August, this is really hot!” Read on for Skip's full report: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/06/pib 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 thought at the Scuttlebutt website: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi) * From Brian Richards: After reading of the young sailor DSQ'd for rounding both gates, an angry indictment of yacht crews failing to yield to basic racing rules (then swearing about it), arguments of tiller extension materials, a black flag after 2 general recalls when a line is biased and short with an 89 boat fleet and a few of my own experiences in 30 years of racing when I went home mad; I am seeing a trend. Superimpose over this the threads expressing concern over the falling participation in our sport. If I keep getting angry at my chosen avocation I might as well take up golf. Seems sportsmanship and camaraderie would bring people back. Adhere to the rules and even if it costs you dearly in a regatta - do your turns. It's not like there is something desperate at stake here. I'm sure my "have fun at all costs" attitude is what kept me out of the elite ranks of sailors (well maybe lack of skill too) but boy am I glad of it. * From the Forums (sailing_chick; regarding the story “When Rules Aren't Followed” in Issue 2149): After reading your story and considering recent "rule infractions" I have witnessed, I'm convinced there is a small group of individuals that will always break rules to get what they want. I think they not only sail this way, they probably live their lives that way as well (and raise their kids with the same tendencies). The only way to address rule breakers is for fair-minded sailors and orginaized classes to enforce rules, follow through with protests, and participate in some good, old-fashioned shame (it works for Catholics). BUT, eventhough I think these people should be held accountable for their behavior, I also now understand that THERE IS NO JUSTICE IN THE PROTEST ROOM. Curmudgeon's Comment: More responses regarding this incident can be found on the Forums: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/2006/dilemma * From Tony Chamberlain (edited to our 250-word limit): Here's a question that arises several times every summer, and this year during the Women's J24 Nationals in Marion. A course was set just west of Bird Island, with a weather leg southwest of the start, taking the fleet directly across a busy navigation channel. With around 500 sailboats, Marion Harbor is quite busy most days of the summer, and the most common route is just about due south between the harbor entrance buoys and Woods Hole for sailors bound for the Cape islands, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. With a prevailing SW, most sailors set close-hauled on a starboard tack on a fetch as close to Woods Hole as possible. You can visualize the problem here, when the port tack boats in the J24 fleet cut across the Woods hole bound cruising boats, many of the sailors became apoplectic, screaming such things as: "Get off the course! We're racing!" Even if a non-racing boat tried to comply, the shadow of his larger sail could not be immediately removed from the course, unless the sailor dropped his sails and motored around the fleet, taking him perhaps 20-minutes out of his way to Woods Hole - no small margin if he's hurrying to make the favorable tide. Should the racers expect that their race has priority over every other marine operation on or near the race course? Or should they simply make such obstacles as other boats (especially ones with starboard rights) as challenges to be dealt with during a race? * From Chris Ericksen: In 'Butt 2148, David Barrow, in conjunction with the carbon-fiber tiller incident in the Etchells class, asks if the problem is "the way the class is going." He goes on to say that "the amount of money being spent (in the Etchells fleet) in a seemingly escalating arms race seems disproportionate" and he wonders "what will happen to class numbers in the Etchells fleet over the next few years." As a member of that fleet, I wonder, too. Our team had the privilege of having our heads handed us at the 2005 Etchells Worlds on San Francisco Bay last September by an incredibly tough fleet; how tough it was is evident in the fact that several past world champions--including Dennis Connor, Dirk Kneulman and Stuart Childerly--finished out of the money. But it is also true that nearly all the top teams had one or more paid hands aboard. One of them confessed to me that his pay alone exceeded my team's entire budget for the regatta--but his team finished in the top five. I fear that the old adage of "He who pays the piper calls the tune" already applies to the Etchells Class. Mark my words: no decision made hereafter in the class will be made in a way that reduces the cost of competing at the highest level. In the end, money will talk and the rest of us will have to learn to walk. * From Bill Munster: As past class and US chairman, the thing that has made the Etchells class so great is the sticking by class rules re. sails, hulls, weight etc. This is what builds the strength of the class. One only has to look at the Star Class which has a strict enforcement to its rules. I'm sure Skip Etchells took this under consideration when the original rules were written. He was also a Star World Champion. Our sport has grown and its strength is that its rules should be followed - no matter who is sailing or the boat. At any World or National Championship there is strict measurement of every boat racing, and the SI's can usually address the coach boats etc. It is still the sailor who has to helm the boat and the crew aboard to put themselves in a position to win, and Mr. Chiderly is a fine sailor and won on the course. I am sure the Class will work this out just like we did the weight issue and others over the years. One Design Rules are there for the sailors to follow...if they want a change there are ways to cause that to happen. The World Champions of the Etchells Class show what a great class it is, and will remain. * From Bob Carlen: Beside the Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie from Britain competing in next months Olympic Test Events in China on August 18 - 3, 06, we have two America's Olympic Finn Sailors, Darrel Peck and Zach Railey that are on our USA Sailing Team that will also be competing in this event in preparation for the Olympics in Beijing in 2008. Curmudgeon’s Comment: While the Brits have announced their roster for this Olympic Test event, to date, we’ve have not been advised as to who will represent the USA in China. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATIONS Everybody lies but it doesn't matter because nobody listens. Special thanks to the Coast Guard Academy and Team One Newport. |
