|
SCUTTLEBUTT 2129 - July 4, 2006Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.NEW WORLD RECORD 752 miles in just 24 hours -- that’s the headline to the incredible start Bruno Peyron has had on the maxi catamaran Orange II as he and his crew attempt to break Steve Fossett’s transatlantic record. That comes to mind-blowing average speed of 31.3 knots. Peyron and his crew are now 123 miles ahead of the pace set by Fossett in 2001. Peyron reports that since the start, there has been strong wind averaging more than 31 knots, fog and flat calm seas. Event website: http://www.orange-sailing-team.com Photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/06/0702orange A TOTAL FARCE (In a report just posted on thedailysail subscription website, James Boyd reports on the Rolex Commodores' Cup where the unimaginable happened when the powerful Irish teams were trounced at the last minute. Here’s an excerpt.) The offshore race of the Commodores' Cup, being important - it scores double points and yet was sailed in areas of no wind, was not without its dissenters. The Irish teams clearly felt aggrieved to have been robbed of victory for the second occasion on the trot. Colm Barrington, owner of the Ker 50 Magic Glove and the man behind the Ireland Orange team was particularly upset, as he was his previous boat Flying Glove that had been leading the Rolex Commodores' Cup two years ago prior to the start of the offshore race, only to see the event won overall by an English team. "It was a total farce. They sent us up the Channel knowing that the weather was going to crap out and it just threw the feathers in the air to see how they landed," he said on stepping ashore in the early hours this morning. "It is like it was two years ago and two years ago before that. And then they put the mark in the mouth of Poole Harbour where there was absolutely nothing twice. We had two total compressions there. So we have a whole week of good, very competitive racing and then whole thing comes down to a total lottery at the end." -- http://www.thedailysail.com JURY RULING At a hearing on Sunday morning, the Jury for the 32nd America’s Cup awarded repair costs arising from the collision between BMW Oracle Racing and Luna Rossa to the American team. Under the process described in Notice of Race for Louis Vuitton Act 12 (NoR 2.4d), the Jury is required to apportion responsibility for damage to the boats. The Jury ruled that Luna Rossa must pay its own costs, as well as 80% of the repair bill on the American boat. ‘Costs’ refer to ‘extra’ costs, like outside contractors, materials, etc., but not for in-house boat builders. Since the cost of repairs to Luna Rossa will be much higher than the cost of repairs to BMW Oracle Racing, the decision that Luna Rossa pays for all its own damage plus 80% of the damage to USA 87, indicates an even higher apportionment of responsibility for the damage caused by the incident. This is consistent with the penalty on the water from the Umpires, and the Jury ruling last night that saw redress awarded to BMW Oracle Racing, including one point which gave them the win in the petit final of Louis Vuitton Act 12. -- BMW Oracle blog, http://bmworacleracing.twoday.net/ ANOTHER NEW RECORD More than 350 of the world's best young sailors and a record 64 nations will compete at Great Britain 2012 Olympic venue this July for the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship. Here’s a listing of the nation that have entered: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, US Virgin Islands, USA. Further information can be found at www.rya.org.uk RISK REWARD RATIO Soaking up 58 000 hours of research, involving 11 people for 24 months, ITA 85 is not only the pride and joy of the Italian +39 Challenge, but the product of a long and detailed research program. Chief designer Giovanni Ceccarelli describes the new boat, which was recently christened at the team base in Port America’s Cup, as highly innovative. "We tested 110 hull shapes and 210 keel and appendage configurations. It was important for us to validate the every aspect and not just rely on the ideas from the minds of the design team. "We wanted an innovative hull. We started by reading the America's Cup Class rule and saw that there was not enough space on the structural side to develop a significant advantage so we went down the route of the shape of the canoe body and the appendages. This is where our research focused. You have to be very careful when you work with the structure. As these boats have developed, they have become more slender which means that you have to be very careful with the structure of the hull. In this area we have taken some risk but overall we've been conservative.” -- America’s Cup website, full story: http://tinyurl.com/oxehq BUSY SUMMER The (northern) summer school holidays will see some 550 Optimist sailors from 78 countries participating in five of the International Optimist Dinghy Association Continental Championships. The first is the newest. The 5th IODA African Championship will be held in Alexandria, Egypt from 1-8 July. Eight African countries will participate. Two days later begins the IODA North American Championship in Ponce, Puerto Rico. 180 sailors from 19 pan-American countries will participate, plus specially invited teams from Germany, New Zealand and Singapore to give a total of 192 sailors. Biggest of the five will be the IODA European Championship, this year on the Ijsselmeer in Holland. Latest entry figures indicate 228 sailors from 41 countries, a figure which reflects the recent decision to reduce entries per nation keep the event to a manageable size. The IODA Asian Championship in Chinese Taipei follows immediately. Entry figures are not yet confirmed but it looks as if around 60 sailors will represent at least 13 Asian countries. And finally in the remote and beautiful Cook Islands the IODA Oceanian Championship will have just 26 entries, limited by the availability of charter boats and the desire to keep this a closed event for the continent. Technically only seven nations will take part but IOC rules allows the far-flung French territories such as the Wallis & Futuna Islands to enter separate teams. Because of this and a similar IODA rule to allow the French Antilles to compete as North Americans, France shares with New Zealand the opportunity to participate (with different sailors) in three of the five events. The largest total number of sailors is the 33 entered by the U.S.A. As well as these IODA events, the same period is providing a large number of "open" regattas.The USA are sending over 50 sailors to the Flanders Youth Regatta and the Danish Open, with the latter event showing sailors from eight countries already entered. A key to this travel-fest is that charter boats are available (and competitive) at all events: indeed except at the Europeans they are mandatory. The willingness of IODA builders to supply nearly 400 boats, as well as 200+ for the Worlds in December, reflects the strength of the market which in the last two years has topped 4,000 boats per year. -- Robert Wilkes, http://www.optiworld.org/ioda-news.html A CONVERSATION WITH ED BAIRD Coach. Skipper. Commentator. Helmsman. Ed Baird has done it all. And in his 10-plus years in the America’s Cup, he’s pretty much seen it all as well. Now he's enjoying the view from the cockpit of defender Alinghi, with plenty of perspective on the journey that's brought him to this point. "The America's Cup has changed a lot since my first involvement. It's a much greater spectacle than it was in San Diego and it is going to be even greater in Valencia than it was in Auckland. The facilities, the teams, the budgets, and the technologies have grown, so it really has matured into an incredible international spectacle and that’s great to see." Like most participants, Baird enjoyed the new atmosphere surrounding the Acts –- in Sweden and Italy last year, teams were side by side, without huge compounds and high fences to separate them. With closeness came a new sense of camaraderie –- at a price. "It was a wonderful experience this summer with all the teams together. In ‘95, some teams told their sailors not to speak to other teams. Can you imagine? "Now there is a great open atmosphere -- the Acts created that. The flip side is that it became a bit of a free for all with people checking out each other’s equipment. We were surprised at the way some people behaved, taking pictures and sneaking around looking at stuff. That side of it is frustrating, but it’s part of the sacrifice of being able to chat over the fence to another team." "Here we are, a year away from the Cup, and I think focusing on a team that looks strongest right now gives you a tremendous risk of missing things that a less prominent team might be experimenting with. A good example is K-Challenge coming out and beating us in the match racing in Trapani and doing well overall with a boat that is two generations old. If that can happen, what could happen when they get a new boat? So I don’t subscribe to the theory that you need to watch out for one or two teams, I think you have to keep your eye on everybody and pay attention to the ideas that they have, even the ones that don’t seem to work, because they might work the next time." -- Excerpts from a story by Diane Swintal posted on the CupInfo website, full story: http://www.cupinfo.com/en/bairdinterview01.php COMING TO AMERICA America's Paige Railey and Anna Tunnicliffe, rated 1-2, will have their Olympic ambitions tested by 86 other of the world's best women in their class in the Laser Radial World Championships hosted by California Yacht Club July 28-Aug. 4. A fleet of 70 men also will compete for their world Laser Radial title simultaneously, and 180 teenagers will contest the World Youth Championships Aug. 7-12---in all, 338 sailors from 37 countries. They'll compete in a dozen races each on ocean courses set on Santa Monica Bay on the western edge of greater Los Angeles. The focus will be on the women, with the Olympics on their minds. Besides Railey, the defending champion, the fleet will include three-time winner Katarzyna Szotynska of Poland (2001, 2002, 2003), currently ranked No. 15, and 2004 champion Krystal Weir (No. 4) of Australia. They and the others share ambition stated by Railey in an interview on the ISAF Web site: "My goal is to represent my country in the 2008 Olympic Games and to one day win an Olympic gold medal." And: "I also plan to race in the America's Cup." -- Rich Roberts, http://www.calyachtclub.com SAILING SHORTS * Voyage to the Edge, a one hour recap of the 2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race Round the World, will air on ESPN2 on Thursday, July 6, at 3PM. The show produced and narrated by Gary Jobson, written by Roger Vaughan, features American skipper Paul Cayard, who won this race in 1998. He engineered an amazing comeback with Pirates of the Caribbean, taking second overall after sitting out Leg 1 with damage to his boat. * La Rochelle, France -- The first race of the 37-boat in the Women’s Yngling World took place on Monday with defending world champions Sally Barkow, Carrie Howe and Debbie Capozzi finishing second behind Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Victoria Rawlinson (GBR). Other North Americans in the top half of the fleet include: 8. Carol Cronin/ Kimberly Couranz/ Margaret Podlich and 10. Hannah Swett/ Liz Filler/ Melissa Purdy. -- http://tinyurl.com/ehyfq * The J/24 Women’s Open Championship at the Beverly Yacht Club (July 14-16) will be a ‘qualifier’ for the 2007 J/24 World Championships in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The event is expected to attract women sailors from throughout the US and as far away as Argentina. -- http://www.j24womensusopen.com * The construction of the second new boat Desafío Español 2007, the Spanish America's Cup challenger, will begin next week. The syndicate finished fifth in the just completed Act 12 of the Louis Vuitton Series. 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 Bob Billingham (Regarding Russell Bowler): I remember sitting down to talk to Bowler about beginning the design for the Oracle 2003 boats. The first thing he said to me is "Who is going to build them and where?" It was very clear that he was going to intimately involved in the construction process, including the selection of the build team. The Multiplast guys obviously have a great set-up but they are wrong about any disconnect between Bowler/Farr and the construction of the boats they design. * From Bill Menninger: It sounds like the lottery helps to support many sailors in other countries probably including NZ. As our lottery is supposedly used for education these potential funds have disappeared into a long black hole. Our corporations have supported our international efforts in the past and seeing the recent Americas Cup adds on TV with the starting sequence is quite good. Now we need to spice the coverage up with 49er sailing or some good youth sailing. Today’s young sailors are heaps better. And people like Roy Disney are doing their part in providing a training groiund for big boat sailing. Roy didn't get where he is without business success and neither did Larry Elison. Let's commend all of those great sailing benefactors we have here in the US for making us better. * From Peter C. McDonald: I’m not sure why you’re wasting space covering America’s Cup. The races and racers are meaningless for the average, and even better-than-average sailor. I, for one, grew up around America’s Cup 12-meters and crews every 4th summer from 1958 on, but lost all interest once it became a professional series between corporations, rather than the amateur competition between nations it once was. It’s the difference between Ivy League football and professional football. I can relate to the former, cheering madly. The latter leaves me cold. America’s Cup no longer belongs to us amateurs, no matter what country we’re from, and are of no interest. Thus, I’m not reading your America’s Cup reports. Is anyone? Curmudgeon’s Comment: Using your football analogy, something tells me that attendance and media coverage of the NFL is a bit bigger than that of the Ivy League, and I understand the Super Bowl may be the most watched TV show of the year - every year. * From Enrico Ferrari: Dennis Palmer is correct in the rooting for someone you know vs some national congregation. Look at the popularity of hometown school sports leagues for a huge participation of the population pool. However, for the great unwashed, (and with an eye for sport promotion to the public), I suggest the national affiliations for the AC would generate a bit more water cooler conversations and overall population awareness of the event. It seems the more press one can gather the more believable the spin and larger the perceived prestige. * From John Stovall: Having been a one-design sailor where all of the boats are always white I have become enamored with the great possibilities of paint on the topsides of race boats. I guess it all started when my partner and I brought a 30.5 IOR German Admiral's Cup boat over from Europe. I have to admit that it was a lot of fun to pull into a new harbor with a boat that was painted camouflage with the name Sudpak in spun gold on the side. It was even more exciting since Sudpak had no muffler (pragmatic Germans - mufflers don't make boat faster) and sounded like a machine gun every time it left the dock. I always look over the major European event entry lists just to see the breadth of the names. This years Rolex is no exception: Ireland’s Green Team “No Naked Flames”, as well as Lucy Macgregor’s “Civils with Flair”, Bernard Wilmet’s “Ship Shop Aquaholic”, Robert Jan Ronneveld’s “Fatboy” , and David Cullen’s third Exabyte (An exabyte (EB) is a large unit of computer data storage, two to the sixtieth power bytes- yeah sure!). Too bad we can't get a chance to understand the graphics: to wit the attached picture that came from the RORC site. I can only guess that this is a pic of Stephane Neve's Sinergia 40 "Paprec Recyclage" . . . but what is the Walrus all about? CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATIONS “Show me a guy who's afraid to look bad, and I'll show you a guy you can beat every time." -- Lou Brock, American baseball player |
