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SCUTTLEBUTT 3481 - Friday, December 2, 2011Scuttlebutt 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. Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: Doyle Sailmakers and Quantum Sail Design Group. CONNECTING THE GENERATIONS By Gary Jobson, Sailing World The alarm clock rings at 0530. My father opens the bedroom door on cue. "It's race day," he announces. Within minutes I've gulped down some toast and juice, and we're out the door. On this Saturday, about 30 small boats are forming a long tow behind the Beachwood YC's launch. Promptly at 0600 we are on our way for the long ride up Barnegat Bay. The first race starts at 0900. There are Penguins, M Scows, Sneakboxes, Finns, Snipes, Comets, and Catboats. The sailors range in age from 8 to 90. Many boats are sailed by families. By noon the fleet is tied up all over the place at the host yacht club. Everyone is excited, talking about the morning race, and anxiously looking forward to the afternoon contest. The scene is the essence of sailing, where sailors of all ages - fathers and their daughters, couples, brothers and sisters, and a mother and her father - are all out on the water at the same time. It's a scene we rarely see today. In contrast, we see parents loading up a van and trailer with several dinghies. The caravan arrives at a distant club. The youngsters go race, watched by their parents and coaches. The goal is to help the youngster prepare for a career of sailing in college, and maybe the Olympics. It's an idyllic path to glory, but I think too many sailors are missing the real thing. The best sailing in my lifetime, and I bet, for many others, is the time spent racing with their families, and with people of different ages. When I sit around the holiday dinner table with my daughters, discussions of sailing are never about the Opti days when I discreetly watched from the shoreline. No, the conversations are about cruising our schooner Silver Heels in Maine, or racing on our Sabre 402 Whirlwind on the New York YC Cruise. One of the best attributes of our sport is that we can participate at any age. When I was 16, I hooked up with a 52-year-old champion named Sam Merrick. I spent five great summers racing with Sam on his E Scow. During these years I developed into a tactician, and the experience eventually helped me gain a berth in the America's Cup. And you can bet the lessons learned racing with Sam extended far beyond sailing. Now, many years later, I can see why he raced with teenagers. He learned from us, as well. -- Read on: http://www.sailingworld.com/connecting-the-generations COMMENT: I was asked last weekend how we can encourage participation among youth sailors toward non-youth types of boats. I paused, and then noted how junior sailing has evolved into a youth only sport much like other youth sports (soccer, etc). They're fun to do as a kid, but kids stop doing them when they're not kids anymore. At some point there became a line between youth sailing and life sailing, and that line needs to be erased. - Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt THE RACE BROCHURES LIED Various weather experts and coaches give you a pamphlet before the race that lists the most common conditions for each area on the course, but none of these happened," reported American Classe Mini skipper Emma Creighton (USA 574) about the conditions that she encountered during the 2011 La Charente-Maritime/Bahia Transat 6.50 (AKA, the Mini Transat). "There was nothing 'normal' about this year - the weather was unpredictable and the weather reports weren't accurate at all!" While this created its share of frustrations for the 79 skippers sailing in this infamous singlehanded transatlantic race, it didn't stop Creighton from accomplishing her personal objectives, nor did it diminish her accomplishment of becoming the second American woman to have finished this grueling ocean race since the Classe Mini was adopted as the event's official raceboat. Moreover, these unpredictable conditions certainly didn't deter Creighton from selflessly putting aside her own race for 13 hours to assist a fellow sailor who was involved in a serious collision with a super tanker en route to Brazil. Prior to setting out for her latest solo adventure, Creighton established three lofty goals: Finish in the Top 20 boats in her Prototype class; be the fastest woman across the Atlantic, and beat some of the fastest of the production-class boats. By the time her dock lines were made fast in Brazil, all of these boxes were ticked - impressive, given that she accomplished this sans a sponsor. "I'm really proud of how I did with the boat I have, and how I did against the other women," said Creighton who finished 19th out of the 32 boats in her Prototype class and was the fastest female skipper across "the pond". -- Read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=12953 DOYLE SAILMAKERS EXPANDS Doyle Sailmakers is pleased to announce its continued expansion with Yancy and Bucky Smith joining the group to run Doyle Sailmakers South East Queensland in Australia. Yancy and Bucky have been designing and making sails for 18 years having joined their father's sailmaking business, which was established in 1975. As part of the Doyle Group, Doyle Sailmakers South East Queensland will have access to Doyle's patented Stratis membrane technology, supplied exclusively to Doyle lofts worldwide. To contact your local Doyle loft, call 800-94-DOYLE or visit http://www.doylesails.com WHAT A DIFFERENCE A WEEK COULD MAKE Amongst the changes for the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race was to the format of the race stopover schedule. The concept was to make them shorter and more efficient, with most of the action loaded towards the final weekend, which is when the Pro-Am Race, the In-Port Race and the leg start will all take place. In short, there's about a week less to the stopovers than the 2008-9 edition... a lot of time when you are trying to rebuild a VO 70. Such is the reality now for half the fleet, which has only two weeks to repair the boats and boys before the December 10 start of the Cape Town In-Port race and the December 11 start of Leg 2 to Abu Dhabi. Here are some updates: * Team Sanya rebuilding their hull: http://tinyurl.com/TS-120111 * PUMA shipping their replacement mast: http://tinyurl.com/P-120111 Leg 1 - Final positions 1. Telefonica (ESP), Iker Martinez (ESP), Finished Nov. 26, 21:05:14:25 GMT 2. CAMPER (NZL), Chris Nicholson (AUS), Finished Nov. 27, 21:21:48:04 GMT 3. Groupama (FRA), Frank Cammas (FRA), Finished Nov. 29, 24:04:28:31 GMT Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (UAE), Ian Walker (GBR) - Retired from Leg 1 PUMA Ocean Racing (USA), Ken Read (USA) - Retired from Leg 1 Team Sanya (CHN), Mike Sanderson (NZL) - Retired from Leg 1 Overall Standings (In-Port 1 and Leg 1) 1. Telefonica (ESP), Iker Martinez (ESP), 31 pts 2. CAMPER (NZL), Chris Nicholson (AUS), 29 3. Groupama (FRA), Frank Cammas (FRA), 22 4. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (UAE), Ian Walker (GBR), 6 5. PUMA Ocean Racing (USA), Ken Read (USA), 5 6. Team Sanya (CHN), Mike Sanderson (NZL), 3 Tracking/Standings: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/racetracker/rdc.html Video reports: http://www.youtube.com/user/volvooceanracevideos BACKGROUND: During the nine months of the Volvo Ocean Race, which started in Alicante, Spain and concludes in Galway, Ireland during early July 2012, six professional teams will sail over 39,000 nautical miles of the world's most treacherous seas via Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya, Auckland, around Cape Horn to Itajai, Miami, Lisbon, and Lorient. Teams accumulate points through nine distance legs and ten In-Port races. - http://www.volvooceanrace.com BRINGING IT TO THE PEOPLE Sailing is not traditionally spectator friendly but that's all going to change this weekend when the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships begin off Fremantle. "You will get as close to sailing as you can," promised Perth 2011 chairman, Ian Campbell. "We hope that it brings sailing to a lot of people." For United States match racing skipper, Anna Tunnicliffe, the prospect of competing in a stadium-like arena in Fremantle's Inner Harbour is exhilarating. "It's going to be awesome for spectators", she said. "We're kind of excited." Tunnicliffe also believes the challenges of racing in a working port will add to the spectacle of the Women's Match Racing event. "There are going to be a lot of obstructions which is something we're not used to seeing," the 2011 ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year said. "So there are going to be a lot of rules we're going to have to pull out that we don't normally use. "It's not as tight or confined an area as we originally thought, but it's definitely going to make it shifty and if the wind is not from the right direction, it's going to be very interesting racing." With courses like Bathers Bay and Centre close to land and with grandstands purpose-built for the event, the Perth 2011 organisers are hoping to make the World Championships and the sport more accessible. "We know that only two per cent of people in Australia sail," Event Director John Longley said. "We do know that 40 per cent of people aspire to sail. We hope that a lot of people who don't have anything to do with sailing will turn around and say 'hey, my kids should be a part of this, I should be a part of this' and the sport will grow from there."-- Read on: http://www.perth2011.com BACKGROUND: The ISAF Sailing World Championships are held every four years, bringing together the Olympic class organization to host their most prestigious event. The 2011 edition will see over 1,100 sailors from 78 nations coming to Perth, Australia to compete in their class World titles and to qualify their nations for the London 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition. Here is the schedule: Women's Match Racing (Elliott 6m), December 3-16 Women's Windsurfer (RS:X W), December 5-11 Women's One Person Dinghy (Laser Radial), December 5-11 Men's One Person Dinghy Heavy (Finn), December 5-11 Men's Two Person Dinghy (470 M), December 5-11 Men's Keelboat (Star), December 11-17 Men's Windsurfer (RS:X W), December 12-18 Men's One Person Dinghy (Laser), December 12-18 Women's Two Person Dinghy (470 W), December 12-18 Men's Skiff (49er), December 12-18 THE 'DREAMLINERS' OF FLYING FISH (December 1, 2011; Day 10 - 23:45:00 UTC) - After a 24 hour run of 771.7 nm, Loick Peyron (FRA) and his team on the 131-foot maxi trimaran Banque Populaire V are now 708.6 nm ahead of the current Jules Verne Trophy - the non-stop circumnavigation record - of 48 days 7 hours 44 minutes 52 seconds set by Franck Cammas on the 103-foot Groupama 3 in 2010. Their descent in the south Atlantic finds BP V now able to make the left turn under the St Helena high and head east... at a 32.2 knot speed average over the past 24 hours. Brian Thompson, helmsman/trimmer, provides this onboard update: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- We have just entered the legendary Roaring Forties and are making good miles to the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope. The blue skies are back after disappearing this morning... fantastic fast sailing. It's Loick's birthday today, and there is a sign in the galley inviting anyone to our Beach Bar Terrace for a little celebration. Am catering for 14, as guests staying outside the resort will find the venue somewhat difficult, and parking a real nightmare. Saw probably the last flying fishes today. Both Pym and I saw different ones, each of them the biggest we had ever seen, and we have seen a few in our time - they were the 'Dreamliners' of flying fish - the size of small salmon! I wonder how old they would have been. Water temp was 15.7C, so that matches to the first flying fish seen off Lisbon in the N. Hemisphere in 16C water. In our 8 day traverse of the flight path of flying fish from 39n to 39s, I have concluded that they are born in the warm equatorial regions and can move outwards to colder waters as they grow older and bigger. Will have to do some reading about them on return; maybe there is a new aerial Moby Dick novel just waiting to be written...though prob not by me. -- http://brianthompsonsailing.com Tracking: http://tinyurl.com/PB-Tracking-2011-12 Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/VoileBanquePop QUANTUM SAILS SWEEP THE PODIUM AT MELGES 20 NATIONALS Quantum teams were firing on all cylinders and swept the podium with a solid 1, 2, 3 at the Melges 20 U.S. National Championship. Michael Kiss on Bacio earned his second U.S. National title with blazing speed. Congratulations to Michael, Chris Rast and Jamie Kimball for an outstanding regatta. Kudos also go to Marcus Eagan on his second place finish at his first class event and Travis Weisleder and his Layline/Gill Race team, which sailed solidly to take third. Contact your Quantum rep to get the fastest Melges 20 class sails and tuning information for the upcoming Melges 20 Gold Cup! Details at Quantum's M20 class page: http://tinyurl.com/6otf35e SAILING SHORTS * St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. (December 1, 2011) - Two skippers finished undefeated after the first day's round-robin racing in the 4th Carlos Aguilar Match Race (CAMR), presented by Ulysse Nardin/Trident Jewels & Time. Finland's Stefan Lindberg, who is currently ranked 15th in the world, sailed to 6 wins in Group A, while the USA's Dave Perry, world-ranked 36th, topped the Group B with 5 wins. The USA's Sally Barkow, the 4th-ranked woman match racer who has sailed this regatta twice as crew and now twice on the helm, lost her only match of the day to Lindberg. -- Read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=12952#12952 * (December 1, 2011; Day 3) - The five double-handed Class40s in the Global Ocean Race 2011-12 (GOR) are diving south to hitch onto the westerlies that will launch them into the Southern Ocean on this leg from Cape Town to Wellington, NZL. The Dutch duo of Nico and Frans Budel and their dismasted Class40 Sec. Hayai are investigating replacement rig options and aim to rejoin the race in Punta del Este, Uruguay, and compete in GOR Legs 4 and 5. -- Full story: http://globaloceanrace.com/?page=news&news_id=577&lang=en * The 2012 RC44 Championship Tour has been announced, which will remain in Europe for its five event circuit. The competing teams will see a mixture of lake, ocean and harbour racing in 2012. RC44 Class founder Russell Coutts also announced that some new teams are expected to join the Tour in 2012. -- Full report: http://www.rc44.com/news/view/2012_rc44_championship_dates_announced * The International Lightning Class Association is now accepting applications for the ILCA Boat Grant Program for the 2012 season. The program -- entering its sixth season with dozens of Boat Grant alumni -- offers a few select teams the opportunity to sail a race-ready boat for a season in one of the strongest one-design classes in North America. -- Read on: http://www.lightningclass.org/racing/boatGrant/2012/pressrelease.asp * (December 1, 2011) - The final environmental impact report for the 2013 America's Cup is out today. The report, required under the California Environmental Quality Act, is expected to go before the San Francisco Planning Commission Dec. 15. The commission will decide whether to certify that the report is a complete study of expected environmental impacts from the event. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/SF-Biz-120111 PHOTOS OF THE WEEK Some of the random photos from the sport received this week at Scuttlebutt include detours in the South Atlantic, turkey winners, moose hunters, champagne spillers, cowboy sailors, birds eye view, and historic sailing ships. Here are this week's photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/11/1202/ BONUS: This gallery comes with a warning. If you get uncomfortable looking at images of great sailing conditions in November, where talented sailors are combining fun and competition, than you might not be able to handle these photos by John Payne from Lauderdale Yacht Club: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/11/1126 SEND US YOUR PHOTOS: If you have images to share for the Photos of the Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com VIDEO OF THE WEEK The 2007 Transpac was a long race for John Wallner's Catalina 36, taking the 'Lady Liberty' team just over 19 days to cover the 2300 nm course from Los Angeles to Honolulu. That's a lot of male bonding, and lucky for us, these boys brought along a video camera. Someone who goes by the name 'Corkie the dog' produced a 12-part series on this ocean crossing camping trip. After careful review, we chose the segment titled 'Showers at Sea' for this week's video. Enjoy: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/11/1202/ BONUS: This week on Episode 19 of 'America's Cup Uncovered' 19 begins a three part review of all things America's Cup in 2011. From the celebration of San Francisco as the venue for the 34th America's Cup, to the first America's Cup World Series event in Cascais, Portugal. We check in with the America's Cup teams to to hear their thoughts on the revolution of sailing from the test event in Auckland, New Zealand to Russell Coutts' capsize in San Francisco. Online by Saturday December 3 approx 0800 PDT 1600 BST: http://www.youtube.com/americascup#p/c/915CDC8233C7B14E BONUS: In this week's "World on Water" Global Sailing News Report Dec 2, Week 48 we cover the ISAF World Match Race Tour Monsoon Cup from Malaysia, the Transat Jacques Vabre Class 40 finish in Costa Rica, the announcement for next year's Vendee Globe, Loick Peyron and his crew blast off in the race around the world to beat the current Jules Verne Trophy record in their huge Trimaran, Banque Populaire 5, the dramatic mid-Atlantic diesel fuel transfer to Puma in the Volvo while Telefonica blasts across the leg one finish first in Cape Town, South Africa and in "Fresh to Frightening" we show the Ice Sailors who scream across the frozen lakes at 100klms with no brakes. See all the dramatic footage on http://www.boatson.tv approx 1200 GMT 0700 EST. SEND US YOUR VIDEOS: If you have clips to share for the Video of the Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com GUEST COMMENTARY Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community. Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted comments chosen to be published in the newsletter may be limited to 250 words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Kimball Livingston: In my piece on the Artemis AC72 wing (in Scuttlebutt 3480), I described it as having three elements, two slots. I have since heard from a C-Cat designer Claudio Cairoli who points out that Yr Humble Reporter probably made a naive error: "As far as I know," Claudio writes, "C-Class wings have indeed three elements, but only one slot that can be called as such. In fact, the second element is like a trim tab on the trailing edge of the main element, while only the flap (3rd element) is hinged with a slot, meaning an opening that is meant to energize the leeward-side flow of the flap using flow from the windward side of the main element-tab combo. So is Artemis really building a two-slot wing? That would mean they are pushing for a high lift coefficient, more than for high efficiency." Yr Humble Reporter hasn't been able to unwind this with the Artemis team, but I'm believing I stand corrected. * From Seymour Dodds: Both Bruce Munro & Mike Schaumberg are right. In all the 'Leading Lady' stories this week in Scuttlebutt, the sadly over looked odd man out is Stanley Reisch who created Leading Lady. Tom Blackaller was driving Stanley's previous boat Entertainer (C&C38), kite up and coming home in the Lightship race, when she lost steering linkage. All I can remember is Tommy really enjoying himself spinning the wheel like a hula-hoop while the boat careened out of control. Stanley enjoyed the game and campaigned hard. My recollection is he only drove the boat to and from the fuel dock - even today not an uncommon occurrence. In victory Stanley Reisch never got his due in Jack Schmale's SF Chronicle column.When Entertainer won the 215 mile Waterhouse that year Monday's report was "DEISCH wins Waterhouse." Later after commissioning Leading Lady Schmale got it half right again with the headline "Bleading Lady wins Big Boats." BTW, Jack was the fellow who invented the term "IOR Battlewagon" which Leading Lady definitely was. SCUTTLEBUTT ADVERTISING IN 2012 Scuttlebutt provides a limited amount of text ad slots in each newsletter, and these are often sold out well in advance. Most of these ad slots for 2012 will be booked in the next two weeks, so if you are interested in advertising, contact us for details: 619-299-5678 or advertising@sailingscuttlebutt.com CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION The wise man, even when he holds his tongue, says more than the fool when he speaks. - Yiddish Proverb SPONSORS THIS WEEK Kaenon Polarized - West Marine - APS - North Sails North U - Melges Performance Sailboats - Ultimate Sailing LaserPerformance - Ullman Sails - Point Loma Outfitting J Boats - Doyle Sails - Quantum Sails Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
