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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 619 - August 4, 2000KENWOOD CUPAs the numbers crunched at the end of the blister-paced 51-mile middle distance race of the 2000 Kenwood Cup, John Kahlbetzer's on-the-water winner Bumblebee 5 slipped to 11th position overall, while the so-called 'beach-ball' boat of the fleet, Simon Whiston's Smile, bounced through to first. Smile and her sister-ship Fruit Machine are matching Beneteau 40.7 cruiser/ racers, radically optimized for acing, and know affectionately in their native Australia as 'the beach-balls' partly because of their rounded appearance and partly because of their bouncing motion going upwind in a sea-way. These beach balls, however, pack a mean punch. Sailed by brothers Simon and Neil Whiston they have been cleaning-up in Australia, and here in Hawaii there seems no stopping their wining ways. Not only was Smile first on corrected time, Fruit Machine came fourth. Between them were the USA's Esmeralda (Farr 50, Makoto Uematsu, skippered by Ken Read) and New Zealand's Sea Hawk (Farr 47, Naohiko Sera with Ray Davis in charge). The result is enough to keep the Kenwood Cup interestingly open, but at the same time confirm that Australia is this year's team to beat. With Yendys (Farr 49, Geoffrey Ross) finishing in 8th place Australia held on to and slightly improved their lead in the overall points table, and New Zealand with 3rd, 4th and 5th consolidated second. Sadly for the USA Red team, Esmeralda's second place could not be matched by her team-mates, the Farr 40s Samba Pa Ti (John Kilroy, Jr.) - 6th - and Orion (Philippe Kahn), 9th. - Susan McKeag RESULTS SUMMARY RACE 5. Class A 1 Esmeralda (Farr 50, Makoto Uematsu, USA), 2 Seahawk (Farr 47, Naohiko Sera, NZL), 3 Air NZ High 5 ( Farr 47, Mick Cookson, NZL), 4 Big Apple III (Farr 45, Hideo Matsuda, NZL), 5 Yendys (Farr 49, Geoffrey Ross, AUS), 6 Bumblebee 5 (Sydney 62, John Kahlbetzer, AUS), 7 Andiamo (Davidson 55, Andrew Taylor, NZL). Class B 1 Karasu (Judel/ Vrolijk 43, Yasuo Nanamori, JPN), 2 G'Net (Farr ILC 40, Shizue Kanbe, JPN), 3 Cha-Ching (Sydney 41, Scooter Simmons, USA), 4 Maupiti (Farr 39, Hiroshi Yamagishi, JPN), 5 Liberte Expres (Beneteau First 47.7, Yasumasa Kawamura, JPN), 6 Glama! (Sydney 41, Seth Radow, USA), 7 Tower (Lidgard 45, Daisuke Kimura, JPN). Class C 1 Samba Pa Ti (Farr 40 OD, John Kilroy Jnr, USA), 2 Orion (Farr 40 OD, Philippe Kahn, USA), 3 Zamboni (Farr 40 OD, Doug Taylor, USA), 4 Foundation (Farr 40 OD, Masato Fujumaki, JPN). Class D 1 Smile (Beneteau 40.7, Simon Whiston, AUS), 2 Fruit Machine (Beneteau 40.7, Neil Whiston, AUS), 3 Matador (Aerodyne 38, Jason Khoury, USA), 4 Mojo Rising (Beneteau 40.7, Clayton Craigie, AUS/HKG), 5 Bondi Tram ( Frers 41, John & Margaret Haig/Chris Austin-Harmes, USA).. Kenwood Cup Teams 1 AUS 218, 2 NZL 208, 3 USA RED 173, 4 JPN 113. 5 USA WHITE 101, 6 USA BLUE 36 For full results, photos and latest news: http://www.kenwoodcup.com THE RACE - Sean McNeill, for Quokka Sports Few competitors in The Race contest the argument that it'll be a race of attrition. Although the start is more than four months away, two boats have suffered bow damage and a third is adding length to prevent it from pitch-poling. This raises the possibility that none of them, much less the projects under construction or waiting in the wings, will make it around the world in one piece. Four projects have been launched: Grant Dalton's Club Med, Steve Fossett's PlayStation, Pete Goss' Team Philips and Roman Paszke's Polpharma-Warta. Other than Team Philips, the other three have qualified for The Race. Another two boats, one for American Cam Lewis and one for Frenchman Loick Peyron, are under construction, while Briton Tony Bullimore prepares the former ENZA New Zealand for entry. When asked whether there would be only three starters come New Year's Eve, Dalton quickly supported those still working toward a launching. "To write (anyone) off would be wrong. They might be the only ones that finish," the New Zealander skipper said today in a satellite press conference with Fossett and Goss. "But this will be a race of attrition." The three new boats already launched can't boast reliability. So it's difficult to believe that those hitting the water for the first time in September will be combat-ready by the event's prologue at the end of November. When these fragile, 100-foot-plus machines hit the treacherous Southern Ocean, infested with growlers (chunks of broken icebergs), reliability may not matter. A crew has virtually no recourse when they hit the broken bits of iceberg at speed. But in light of recent events, it's hard to believe they'll even make it to the Southern Ocean. - Sean McNeill, for Quokka Sports Full story: http://sailing.quokka.com/stories/08/SLQ__0803_s_TheRace_WFC.html PLAYSTATION Skipper Steve Fossett revealed that the record-setting PlayStation maxi catamaran will soon have her hulls lengthened, taking the (currently 105') big cat to a total length of 125' - with the work being completed by the end of the October. "We're making no changes to the rig - we'll still have 11,631 sq ft (1,081 sq m) downwind sail area - but we need to address the tendency towards pitch-poling - we're basically overpowered and need to improve handling. We had planned to take up this option after The RACE - but we have made the decision to move ahead immediately - construction on the parts began last Monday." PlayStation will continue to sail at her current length for the August bid on the TransAtlantic (NY-UK) record, with additional Southampton/Channel-based testing and record activity planned through September, before going into the shed for the hull modifications in October. Relaunch is expected 26th October - http://www.fossettchallenge.com CLUB MED Newport, Friday 4th August 2000 - The maxi catamaran Club Med leaves Newport this afternoon on board a cargo ship which will take her to Quiberon within ten days. Having arrived on Thursday morning in the American port, Club Med and her crew immediately started to step the mast. Although she could have been repaired on the spot, Grant Dalton preferred to repatriate the catamaran by cargo ship to the Multiplast Yard at Vannes where it had already been planned to undertake a complete check of the boat at the start of September. Instead this will be done at the same time, to limit the impact of the damage on the programme. The team of architects present in Newport carried out a preliminary investigation of the damage. This revealed that the crash box ripped the piece of carbon where it was attached. Understanding now why this incident took place is a question to which the architects are going to attempt to answer by outlining different hypotheses. But for the moment, the question remains. The maxi catamaran will be put back into the water in mid-September. During the period of immobilisisation, the crew will take a holiday, in rotation, leaving a team of seven men permanently at the yard. The training programme will start again at the end of September. PROFITABLE REGATTAS Race Organizers: Here's a way to help offset your regatta costs. Pacific Yacht Embroidery has a program to supply race organizers with regatta apparel at a guaranteed profit. There is no risk to the race organizer. Call Frank Whitton (619-226-8033) for details on how to offset regatta costs while supplying high quality, affordable apparel for the racers. No event is too small to qualify for this program. pacyacht@aol.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net) Letters selected to be printed are edited for clarity, space (250 words max) and to exclude unfounded speculation or personal attacks. This is not a chat room - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. -- From Tucker Strasser - One design is not perfect either. People interpret the rules, and upon their beliefs they modify, optimize, their boats, sometimes for the better of the class sometimes for the worst. Then the personalities take over to debate the issue and much like this form the debate goes on and on and on until people either give up , move to another class or take a few aspirin and just go racing. -- From Peter Godfrey - As an IMS owner/skipper, I formed opinions about IMS that I think remain valid; they were reinforced by my recent experience on the IMS world championship RC. IMS rates disparate boats extremely well, but it and dynamic scoring are complex and technical, leading owners to defer to technicians, thereby abrogating their responsibility to govern. IMS boats are quick, easy and fun to sail with few, if any, of the unfortunate quirks of IOR boats, for example. While IMS is a measurement rule, it also creates a CLASS with many one-design characteristics: boat measurement; sail measurement; regattas at all levels; pros and amateurs; owners. There are two practical differences between IMS and one-design classes: 1. Boats are not one-design; 2. Governance. Successful one-design classes have governed themselves for a long time [e.g., Star Class]. International class governance is complicated by ISAF involvement, but in all cases the class's boat owners govern through an elected, representative body that takes technical advice from pros, but maintains control. IMS is governed by ISAF; owners are disenfranchised. Owners are in the best position to determine how and when to change rules governing their class. IMS owners need to take control of their class and govern it using a proven model, such as the Star class. In itself, this change would not solve IMS's problems, but it would create a system in which it would be possible to address them with a reasonable expectation of being able to arrive at widely accepted solutions. -- From Joe Ozelis - Jim Teeters writes: "Last, most of the recent Scuttlebutt commentary on IMS is from professionals and insiders. How about the owners, our clientele, weigh in with their opinions?" Interestingly enough, part of the answer can be found on the IMS 40 Class Association web page. "For whatever reason, a major part of the Great Lakes IMS racers decided to buy Farr 40s and race one-design," said Pipin. "This year we're racing with the Farr 40s with duplicate scoring, but it's obvious where the owners' interest is." Chicago and Lake Michigan had, up until recently, been the most active IMS fleet in the US. Dissatisfaction with subjective elements of scoring and the "arms race" mentality of a small minority of owners led to the decline and disintegration of the IMS fleet; I suppose those reasons could be considered capricious, as Mr. Pipin would like the reader to infer. The fact remains that the IMS fleet in Chicago has been almost entirely replaced by Farr 40s, which have provided the owners (go ahead, just ask 'em !) with a far greater level of satisfaction, enjoyment, and competition (not to mention camaraderie), without the necessity of changing keels, masts, bumping, re-measuring, etc., to remain competitive. There were those in Chicago who felt the IMS fleet there would continue to grow and flourish for many years, and buying an IMS boat (new or used) was a safe investment. With the donation of probably half of the Chicago IMS fleet to charitable organizations (since buyers were scarce), it would appear that such prognostications were in error. -- From Darren Mason - Congratulations to Bill Martin! His contributions to and participation in our sport are great, and I for one wish him well as AD at Michigan--certainly one of the top ten NCAA athletic programs. We sailors can only hope that Bill is able to elevate our sport while engaged in the NCAA system. I'm not sure where Cory Friedman is coming from. While the Olympic keelboats are not as fast as the dinghy's and Tornado, the idea that they are less athletic is absurd. Assuming that all sailboat racing is equally cerebral, what the keelboat sailors lack in agility, they easily make up in strength. Perhaps Cory should go for a ride with Magnus, Hugo or Stevie in a breeze and find out that the big boys are athletes too. Bottom line, some class(es) will be knocked out, but the boats should cover a cross section of the athletes in our sport. --From Pete Rowland (In response to keel boat racing not being athletic) - Having crewed on both Stars and Solings on the west coast, I can say that to sail these boats to their potential requires both excellent body control and strength - stamina comes into play very quickly once involved in tacking duels and reaches. Lastly, as in most sports, you must be able to think clearly while winded. If stamina, strength, body control, and "smarts" under stress are not qualities of an Olympic athlete; I don't know what would be. Who cares what they look like ? We might trick ourselves into thinking we are on par with the Olympic keelboat sailors after we win a few races at the local club. Try an afternoon out "head to head" with these folks to earn a new respect for their athletics. HOT WEBSITES Normally, Scuttlebutt focuses on North American yachting and yachties, but let me recommend you check out the website Transat Quebec to St. Malo Race. Regatta organizers take notice - it's a true masterpiece. And it would be well worth your while to watch the stirring videos of the Formula 1 Tris as they breakout of the St. Lawrence Seaway and into the Atlantic headed for St. Malo: http://www.transat2000.com/indexAn.asp AMERICA'S CUP The first session of tests at sea with the two IACC International America's Cup Class yachts Luna Rossa and Young America, on which team Prada started working in June, ends tomorrow in Punta Ala. Francesco de Angelis and his crew will now be able to take a break of four weeks. For team Prada - who won the Louis Vuitton Cup on 6 February 2000 after having completed 48 races (38 won) and officially announced on 2 March their intention to compete in the XXXI America's Cup as Challenger of Record - the activity has been full on almost non-stop since the day they left New Zealand. Starting on 4 September 2000, the team will be training again from the operations base in Punta Ala. New testing sessions will be carried out on Luna Rossa and Young America whilst two 28 ft one-design boats will be used for specific match race training. Francesco de Angelis, skipper of Luna Rossa, will be competing in some of the major international match race events from September/October onwards. - Alessandra Ghezzi, http://www.Prada-americascup.com CALENDAR * August 20 Sunday Skippers Regatta, Del Rey YC, PHRF, one-design, Americap. http://www.dryc.org * September 2-4: Annapolis Race Week, co-hosted by Mount Gay Rum and the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association. http://www.cbyra.org/raceweek/ * October 14-15: Puget Sound Sailing Championships (PSSC), Corinthian YC of Seattle, http://sailingsource.com/cyc/ BIGGEST YET The record fleet of 102 Swans with an average size of 58 feet will gather for the Swan Cup 2000 in Porto Cervo in the glittering azure waters of Costa Smeralda. The regatta which will span seven days from August 27th to September 2nd and will include five days of racing with one lay day. As part of the build up to the regatta a new internet site (www.swancup.com) is being launched on 5 August 2000 for use by both the owners, crews and the media to find valuable information about the regatta including a list of entries, the race and social programme, list of trophies and awards and valuable shoreside information for people travelling to Porto Cervo. During the event the website will carry all the daily results, the daily press releases including quotes from skippers and owners and also a gallery of copyright free photographs from each day's racing. LEITER TROPHY US Junior Women's Single Handed Championship for the Nancy Clagett Leiter Trophy, Ida Lewis Yacht Club. Final results - 1. Amanda Clark, (17.5) 2. Genny Tulloch, (65.75) 3. Lauren Bernsen, (72.75) Complete results: http://www.ussailing.org/youth/racing/jc/Leiter/2000/ THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS Suicide is the most sincere form of self-criticism. |
