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SCUTTLEBUTT 2061 - March 29, 2006Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.TECH REVEALED America's Cup racing is a sport that's won by tenths, even hundredths of a knot of boatspeed, so anything that makes a boat faster-especially anything new and innovative that nobody else has-is, to put it lightly, very closely guarded. These guys make the Pentagon look like a billboard. And so it was with great anticipation and fanfare (literally, there was a trumpeter), that BMW Oracle unveiled their new weapon in the battle for the America's Cup: The at-the-very-least-$5-million USA 87-or at least some of it. In typical hypercompetitive America's Cup fashion, the "unveiling" only revealed the bow of the U.S. team's boat, covering everything aft of the mid-bow (and, of course, everything under the waterline) to protect from the prying eyes of rival teams whatever bizarre hydrodynamic sculptures the engineers dreamed up. With the 32nd America's Cup over a year away, teams are taking no chances of giving away their edge. Except for one: As the new boat emerged from behind an artificial waterfall it was immediately clear that the new boat's bow is very, very different from every other AC class boat. USA 87 has a bowsprit. A really short bowsprit, and angled down, and structurally reinforced. And the whispers began. 3,000 gallons of Moet & Chandon later, the details began to trickle out. Skipper Chris Dickson told me that, yes, the new boat would still use a spinnaker pole. But it was another-and to remain unidentified-member of the crew who clewed me in on the real significance of the sprit. "Look at the forestay," he said. - For the inside scoop behind the bowsprit, be sure to read the rest of this article: http://www.popularmechanics.com/blog/outdoors/2535851.html GRABBING THE GAUNTLET The trimaran known as Geronimo was built for a single purpose - breaking speed records. "We would like to break as many records as we can," Rob Stirling said last week. "If there is no record, we want to set a benchmark that other boats will challenge." Mind you, Geronimo is no ordinary boat. The main hull has a length of 110 feet. And Geronimo is 71 feet wide from the outsides of its two trimaran outriggers. The mast soars 141 feet and carries 1,000 square meters of sail. At the moment, Geronimo is at Driscoll's Boat Works being prepared for a series of speed runs. In April, skipper Olivier de Kersauson and crew will sail Geronimo from San Francisco to Yokohama (4,500 miles), Japan. Then from Yokohama to Hong Kong. Then back to Japan. And a return to San Francisco. The idea is to set speed records across the Pacific that will attract other trans-oceanic record-setters such as Bruno Peyron (his Orange II holds the around-the-world record of 50 days) and American Steve Fossett (his Cheyenne-Playstation sailed from San Francisco to Yokohama in 19 days, 15 hours, 18 minutes and nine seconds). "We're setting the gauntlet," said Stirling, who is in charge of the complex logistic and support efforts needed to keep the one-of-a-kind boat sailing along at high speeds. "We want the big boats, the world's fastest boats in the Pacific. We'd love to create a Pacific Rim Challenge. That is why we are here. Our goal is not to set records that will never be broken as much as it is to create records that people will want to break. We want boats to challenge us." - by Bill Center, Union-Tribune, full story: http://tinyurl.com/pxfgs SETTING THE PACE IN THE NEW X-35 CLASS X-Yachts recommend B&G for the new X-35 class. 90 boats, geared up for exciting one-design racing, are expected on the water by mid 2007. The first X-35 to hit the water in Italy was fitted with a B&G Hercules system, as is the UK based 'Cool Runnings,' currently leading IRC 2 in the local series. Jochem Visser, Project Manager, said, "We stretched our lead with good speed and excellent navigation, showing the great potential of our B&G system and Deckman in the challenging tides of the Solent." Look for more success for B&G in the X-35 class. - http://www.bandg.com MATCH RACE RANKINGS Peter Gilmour (AUS) just manages to hold on to the top spot in the latest release of the ISAF World Match Race Rankings, but after victory in Brazil, James Spithill (AUS) is now within a whisker of uniting the World title and World number one spot. There is plenty more breathing space for Claire Leroy (FRA) in the Women's Rankings, with another victory for the Frenchwomen keeping her well clear at the top. 2005 ISAF Match Racing World Champion James Spithill (AUS) was a fitting winner for the ISAF Grade 1 Brasil Sailing Cup, the inaugural event of the newly minted World Match Racing Tour (formerly the Swedish Match Tour). Victory for the Luna Rossa man lifts him above Alinghi's Ed Baird (USA) and Russell Coutts (NZL) to within just 261 points of World number one Peter Gilmour (AUS). Gilmour missed out on Brazil, due to visa problems, and consequently has seen Spithill gain almost 500 points on him and move into second place. However after a disappointing sixth place in Brazil, Baird, previously Gilmour's closet challenger, has fallen back, dropping behind Coutts into fourth place. Claire Leroy (FRA) remains at the top of the Women's ISAF World Match Race Rankings for the ninth consecutive release, maintaining a dominant lead above second place of nearly 700 points. LEROY retained her title at the ISAF Grade 3 JPMorgan Fleming Women's Challenge in Great Britain to consolidate her number one spot, whilst neither Marie Björling (SWE), nor ISAF Women's Match Racing World Champion and World number three Sally Barkow (USA) have competed in match racing events this year. American Betsy Alison is currently ranked. - ISAF, full story: http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j6~Fh/AvD&format=popup INTERVIEW WITH MITCH BOOTH (Mitch helped initiate and design the Volvo Extreme 40, which has events taking place at several stop-over venues of the Volvo Ocean Race. Here are excerpts from an interview by Diana Bogaards of the two-time Olympic medalist.) In Rio de Janeiro, the Volvo Open 70's and Volvo Extreme 40's were brotherly moored next to each other. The fleets and competitions were separated, but the passion for speed was shared. That is why many Volvo Ocean Race sailors ended up as guest crew on the multihulls. The second Volvo Extreme 40 Grand Prix series in the Guanabara Bay showed again some exciting races. The Britons predominated as Team Basilica won convincingly, followed by Motorola - CHR. Tommy Hilfiger (USA) took a third and Team Holmatro (NED) a fourth. Holmatro skipper and class' initiator Mitch Booth gave his retrospective view on last week's Grand Prix. "The interest in the class is overwhelming and comes from all over the world", said Holmatro-skipper Booth. "There is an enormous information request, so we expect more boats by Rotterdam. There are three more multihulls in production at the moment." The Volvo Extreme 40 class will move to Baltimore, Portsmouth and finally to Rotterdam. Booth: "We expect to announce the new Grand Prix series over the next two months. It will be more that just a one-year program during the Volvo Ocean Race." The ultimate goal is to create a World Grand Prix series with ten to fifteen teams racing in a professional circuit. - Complete interview: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/06/mb FROM THE BLOG The Curmudgeon continues to report on Scuttleblog about his team's progress on the Jeanneau 52, 'Between the Sheets,' in Balboa Yacht Club's 800-mile race from Newport Beach to Cabo San Lucas Their ETA is later on Wednesday, and so far they remain near the top of their fleet. But as he says, there are few assurances near the end. "Our strategy for rounding Cabo San Lazaro simply could not have worked out better. After only 90 minutes, we had worked through the transition zone and were off again -- heading for the final potential parking lot at Cabo Falso, which marked the bottom of Mexico's Baja California peninsula. It now looks like a dawn arrival, which could mean we will be starring at the lighthouse for a lot of hours." - http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2006/cabo FUN IN THE SUN - BUT DON'T GET BURNED Sailing is fun in the sun, but beware of the sun's harsh rays. You can protect yourself by wearing the right gear and you can get protective sun products at Team One Newport. Check out the Railriders Hydro-Zip tees, Camet Code Zero shirts, Patagonia Silkweight capilene, Magic Marine Rash guards, and the Dry Shirts. Don't forget your quick dry shorts like the Henri-Lloyd Octagon shorts, Camet Aruba shorts, Railrider Hemmingway shorts, and Sailing Angles Breaker shorts. Remember to protect your eyes with our selection of Kaenon sunglasses, Native Eyewear and Maui Jim's. Call 800-VIP-GEAR for the 2006 catalog or visit http://www.team1newport.com MORE TECH Just like the Formula One pit lane where one team's advance is immediately spotted by the others, Chris Dickson, chief executive and skipper of BMW Oracle Racing, knows his America's Cup rivals are convinced that the new USA 87 has a radical keel configuration. "They know as of a week ago what we've done," he says. The word in Valencia is that a member of Italy's Luna Rossa caught a glimpse of a rudderless twin keel soon after USA 87 was flown in from Washington State where it was built. Even with the skirts concealing the underwater part of the hull, the mast position is 6-8ft further forward than the team's previous boats. Given a yacht's need to balance the sail forces in the rig with the resistance and righting forces in the keel, the mast's location gives a good clue to what is below the water. "This boat is not a refinement of something we've done before, it's a big leap in many areas,'' says Dickson, neither confirming nor denying talk of an unusual keel. - Tim Jeffery, The Daily Telegraph, full story: http://tinyurl.com/mggak NEWS BRIEFS * Balboa Yacht Club of Newport Beach, CA is now accepting entry applications for the 40th Anniversary Governor's Cup U.S. International Junior Match Racing Championship to be held July 17-22. The Governor's Cup is a yacht club based challenge and BYC encourages bids from clubs worldwide with competitive three person match racing/small keelboat teams of members under 20 years of age. Housing and boats are provided. Bids are due May 12, and selection of the twelve chosen teams will be by May 30. Information at http://www.balboayachtclub.com * Race entries are still being accepted for the 2006 Victoria to Maui race, which starts on July 3, 2006 from Victoria, BC, and is a 2,308 handicap mile race held biannually since 1968 The current record holder is "Grand Illusion" skippered by James McDowell of the LYC, who completed the race in 9 days, 2 hours and 8 minutes in 2000. For more information, go to http://www.vicmaui.org * US Sailing, national governing body of the sport, has determined its 2006 schedule for Adult and Youth National Championships. The 17 events, which begin in March and continue through November, will be hosted by different sailing organizations across the country and raced in a wide range of classes of boats. Sponsorship for these events will be provided by Rolex Watch U.S.A., Vanguard Sailboats, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, Nautica, and Dry Creek Vineyard. Additional event information at http://www.ussailing.org * America's Cup team Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team has added four new members to its team. Derek Clark will be the team's Technical Advisor, Nicola Sironi comes on board as Design Coordinator, Paolo Massarini will be the team's Operations Manager, and America's Cup veteran, Alberto Fantini, has joined the crew as bowman. - http://www.mascalzonelatino.it * The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) reported that wholesale dollars for the "traditional" powerboat segment (outboard, sterndrive and inboard boats) rose almost 6 per cent for 2005, compared to the previous year, while wholesale unit shipments declined by 5 per cent for the year. Other segments showing positive wholesale unit growth in 2005 include: personal watercraft (3 per cent); kayaks (4 per cent); and sailboats (2 per cent). The NMMA's 2005 boat control group represents about 77 per cent of the overall boat marketplace in the US. - by IBI Magazine/Michael Verdon, full report: http://tinyurl.com/kcw8s COMPOSITE EXPERTS UNITE IN NEW BOATBUILDING CO Composite Marine International (CMI) produces both series and custom composite yachts 5 - 25m, sail and power, for mainly third party clients. Located in Thailand, CMI partners include world leaders Cobra International and Green Marine. The company has extensive new facilities, a professional workforce, and now offers new build opportunities. http://www.composite-marine.com Curmudgeon's Comment: We have a photo and details on a production run of IRC 46s by Rogers Yacht Design, where the first hull just came out of the mold: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/06/cmi 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 thoughts at the Scuttlebutt website: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi) * From Skip Ely: (edited to our 250 word limit) IRC is type forming and there are optimized designs on the water. Also, there was a discussion awhile back about using IRC to rate the slight differences in J/120s. It won't work. If you assume that J/120s are identical in hull shape and that they have the same appendages, there can only be three differences: displacement, stability, and gyration moment (assuming there could be differences in what equipment is installed and where it is located). IRC only measures one of these factors: displacement. Example: J/120 A is 200 pounds heavier than J/120 B, but otherwise identical. Let's assume the displacement difference is due to manufacturing variance in the keel (not unlikely). In this situation, IRC will consider the heavier boat (A) to be slower. However, because the extra weight is in the keel, A will be more stable than B. While B might be slightly faster on a light, downwind course, A will be faster in most other situations. Americap II (ORR) would rate these two more fairly because it takes into account the stability and to a certain degree, pitching moment. PHRF ratings might also be more fair given time and an objective local committee. The above is why some boats can improve their IRC rating versus their performance by adding lead to their bilge. In my book, adding lead inside the boat is bad and any rating system that promotes this practice is bad. Remember bumps? Measured rating systems should be based on complete measurements and accurate VPPs. * From Jan McCollum: While everyone is pimping IRC, has anyone noticed the type-forming that has begun in boats built to IRC? Since when has it been a good thing to build a racing boat without a bulb keel? It will be interesting to see if RORC fixes the rule to make these sorts of boats less desirable. If this sort of problem is not addressed quickly then IRC will quickly follow IMS down the path to oblivion. Curmudgeon's Comment: We be thinking that this thread is better served in the Forums. If you have an opinion, here's your chance to be heard, as you can bet that the IRC brass will be monitoring this discussion: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/2006/irc * From Rhett Roback: (regarding his Forum post seeking crew positions) I got an email this evening from a boat owner, and he said he read the paragraph about me, and I immediately went to the front page of Scuttlebutt. Low and behold, you mentioned me. Hopefully (it will) be the first of many. I just wanted to say thanks for mentioning me. * From John Sherwood: I just completed the safety survey mentioned in 'Butt 2060. I regard it as an interesting effort in an area that could benefit from research. However, I think the survey instrument needs some reworking in order for the results to be meaningful. For instance, I sailed about 50 days the past year (one of the questions), but a lot of that was frostbite racing and evening racing, which is one reason I used sunscreen only 40% of the time. The survey doesn't address the type of sailing done by the respondent. I wore a PFD only 5% of the time because most of my sailing is in a predominantly light air, warm water area. But for more testing conditions, such as frostbite racing, I wore my PFD regularly. The survey questions do not differentiate. Finally, I had no injuries this past year, but five years ago I was knocked unconscious and off my Star boat in a heavy air Bacardi Cup race. That one probably would have killed me if I hadn't been wearing a PFD and a chase boat had not been nearby. Seems to me the survey should ask the question: "Have you ever.... etc." to surface the serious incidents that should be, but frequently are not, part of our contingency planning as sailors. I estimate that, despite the difficult conditions, only about 20% of the 80 or so skippers were wearing PFDs the day of my Bacardi Cup accident. Fortunately, I was one of them! (Survey link: https://live.datstat.com/RDR-Collector/Survey.ashx?Name=sailing10) * From Rodger Martin: (re, Allison Starling, who provided yesterday's poem) I heard a lovely story on NPR a while ago about a kid who was flying for his first time. After the plane had taken off and was climbing out, he turned to his mother & asked: "Mum, when do we start getting smaller?" * From Todd D Orrell: I've been a follower of Scuttlebutt for some time and love the platform for dialog and news. Especially love the openness for debate and correction, that is why I find it important to tell you I believe Allison Starling may have been mistaken on the author of "What is Dying," one of my favorite quotes I send loved ones when suffering from a loss. The true author I believe is Bishop Brent and noticed on the Internet that Henry Van Dyke likes to quote others, though I have also seen the poem attributed to Henry Scott Holland. Please check my information but if it is a mistake then the recognition should go to the right place and also maintain the credit of your forum. Curmudgeon's Comment: We liked the poem too, and had used it ourselves within a eulogy we once gave for a loved one. As for the three authors that Todd lists, we were also unable to confirm who wrote it. * From Gregg Hedrick: (re, yesterday's Bermuda race story) That was the third Pyewacket, not the first, and she was a R/P 75. The maxZ 86 was the fourth Pyewacket. * From Christian H. Jensen: (re, George Bailey's letter in Scuttlebutt 2060) Regarding your comments about Handicap vs OD - please stick it in - It is such a thoroughly overused comment that it is not even close to bring a smile to anyone's lips. People choose different approaches to racing based on geographical location, size of pocketbook, sailboat preference and other parameters - if that means OD fine - if that means handicap racing - fine. I have raced both - probably 50/50 and will say this: both have advantage and disadvantages - neither is better than the other - so stop your infantile bashing. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Pain and suffering are inevitable but misery is optional. Special thanks to B&G Instruments, Team One Newport, and Composite Marine. |
