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SCUTTLEBUTTNo. 1003 - February 8, 2002Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
VOLVO OCEAN RACE "A severe storm gust from a snow squall pushed us over and made us whipe out, and in that moment we lost the rig. The mast had to be cut away and disappeared overboard. We managed to save the broken boom though" skipper Gurra Krantz reports from the boat. "We have looked into a number of logistical options for quickly getting our spare mast to the boat. On some occasions, the small town Ushuaia in Argentina has been used as change-of-mast port and most likely it will be suitable for us too" says Pelle Norberg, Managing Director of the syndicate company within Team SEB. SEB has managed to increase her boat speed to an average of 6.5 knots topping 8 at times, even though the jury rig is made up of the man-high stump of the mast which was left on the boat, a broken boom and a broken spinnaker pole. The spare mast, stored in Gothenburg, Sweden, will most likely be flown to Ushuaia in South Argentina. In the prior race, in 1993/94 no less than three boats were dismasted; Tokio, Fortuna and New Zealand Endeavour, who eventually won the race overall. During the 1989/90 race Swedish The Card lost her mizzen overboard during the Auckland restart and the maxi Creighton's Naturally lost the top of her mast during on the second leg, across the Southern Ocean. Even though fewer ice reports have been received from the Volvo Ocean Race fleet in the last 12 hours, the boats are still at risk from icebergs and small fields of growlers and must remain alert as they head south again towards the latitude 60 degrees south. With winds decreasing slightly to around 20 AD 25 knots over the last few hours, it is also important to take advantage of the next weather change, and navigators will be studying weather models to decide on their next move and their approach into Cape Horn. Although most of the models give a similar overview, it is the detailed pattern of the fast changing conditions of the Southern Ocean, which is important to them, to gain that extra few miles.
Positions on February 8 at 0358 GMT:
ILLBRUCK Illbruck is making the sponsorship search his personal priority and is prepared to grant a major backer with title sponsorship and branding of the America's Cup team and boat. "Significant additional investment is required to ensure that Germany's first America's Cup entry makes it to the starting line in October in New Zealand and we recognize the need to deliver a valuable return on such an investment," Illbruck said. "Our first priority was to succeed in the Volvo Ocean Race and to date we are on track toward that goal," Illbruck said. "The America's Cup Challenge for 2003 was always intended to get Germany into the America's Cup because we believe that only a long-term vision on the America's Cup will bring the Cup to Germany. "The team has proven it has what it takes to win on the water as skipper John Kostecki and crew are demonstrating with their leading performance in the Volvo Ocean Race," Illbruck said. "To carry this winning formula into the America's Cup, we need the support of preferably one but maximum three additional commercial partners. If we are not able to secure funding in addition to the illbruck GmbH commitment, we will not be able to continue with preparations for Germany's first entry into the America's Cup beyond April 1. The German team is well underway in its America's Cup preparations. The hull of the first-ever German built America's Cup racing boat, GER 68, is nearing completion in Bremen, Germany. The America's Cup base camp in Auckland, New Zealand's Viaduct Basin is fully outfitted with a sail loft, boat shed, mast shed and offices. illbruck Challenge meteorologist Chris Bedford has been running an extensive weather program in Auckland, collecting weather data critical to America's Cup preparations. Most important, illbruck Challenge has a team of people in place from race crew to shore operations. "Since announcing the America's Cup Challenge in November 2000, we made it clear we would need additional partners to continue with a winning America's Cup program. While we are in serious discussions with several sponsor candidates, we have yet to sign a cash partner," Illbruck said. "After all the work the team has invested into this campaign, it would be a huge disappointment if they were unable to compete in October." Jane Eagleson www.illbruck-challenge.com/en/
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CARL SCHUMACHER Prominent among the many custom boats he's designed were National Biscuit, Wall Street Duck, Summertime Dream, Heart of Gold, Swiftsure II, Recidivist, Surprise and Q. Four of Schumacher's designs have also won Boat of the Year awards, the latest being the Synergy 1000 which won the Sport Boat category in the 1999 BOTY contest. He also has been a long time member of the Northern California PHRF Committee. The curmudgeon was privileged to race offshore with Carl recently and quickly learned that he was one of good guys in our sport. He was a totally respected and extremely competent competitor. But more importantly, you simply could not a find nicer, more caring or giving person than Carl. He was a gentleman and a gentle man who will be missed for his always-friendly manner, his positive attitude and his freely given advice. Schumacher's family has asked that he be remembered by support of the junior sailing program at Encinal Yacht Club.
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Cole Price: Win, lose or draw, my hat is off to Hamish Ross and Team Alinghi for doing the ethical thing regarding the use of sliding center boards and keels in the America's Cup. Team Alinghi easily could have consoled themselves that they were legal in designing a boat that would have been faster than the other competitors who complied with the IAC rule thereby giving themselves a significant advantage. I just wonder what the other syndicates would have done if they were in a similar circumstance. Could this mean that the America's Cup is heading down a road where the outcome is settled on the water rather then the protest room or courthouse? * From: Ted Jones (re Team Alinghi's dilemma regarding the America's Cup deed of gift provisions about sliding keels and centerboards, and edited to our 250-word limit): This provision is not as obscure as it is ignored. Team Alinghi has found the America's Cup's Achilles Heel and a legal determination -- should an AC-Boat show up with a sliding keel, for instance -- would have to adhere to the unequivocal and unambiguous language of the deed of gift. The cost of such a challenge makes a test case an unattractive option, and besides we can't know if such devices would produce a speed breakthrough, although the boats would surely be different from today's. Although the centerboard is an English invention, it took root in North America, the only major sailing area in the world where a deep keel can be a hindrance to safe navigation. Presumably, the framers of the America's Cup Deed of Gift sought to protect this type of indigenous vessel. Should their insistence that centerboards or movable keels be allowed unmeasured continue to be ignored or the Deed of Gift be modified to align it with recent practice, then many prospective challenging clubs from the Bahamas or the Gulf Coast or any other areas surrounded by shallow water will forever be excluded from competition, and yet another nail of prejudice will be driven into the centerboard's coffin. I derive a small measure of satisfaction that, 30-some-years after being shouted down from my soapbox, this issue is raised again in a forum where it is unlikely to be ignored. * From Ron Baerwitz: I have to agree with Roger Neiley. Reading the updates of the Volvo Ocean Race are amazingly interesting. However, I wouldn't want to be in their shoes right now. It just seems excessively dangerous especially without the availability of immediate aid should something happen. This is the first time I'd rather be sitting in my office than out doing that race! * From Ryan Werner: For me, the America's Cup pales in comparison to the Volvo. I don't understand all the talk about the anticipated demise of the race. With only 8 boats, no one gets lost in the crowd. It's easy to know all their crews, their performance, and (perhaps most importantly for the long term viability of the race) their sponsors. Sponsors take note: lots of people who otherwise might never have heard of you are tuning in and seeing your name every day and associating it with very robust images. * From Kathy Clark: Many of us arm chair sailors find that reading this news is the only way of experiencing the southern ocean. We sit with our cup of coffee and a roaring fire in the fireplace and read this stuff on the edge of our seats. Somehow it helps getting to work driving through rush hours traffic seem easy. * From Paul Zurbrugg: Before everybody gets too upset regarding the increased Piracy. It should be noted that most of the Ships taken are large commercial vessels taken for their cargos. Sir Peter blake's tragic event was a sad exception to the rule. Details of all reported cases can be found in Lloyds Maritime report. * From Mark Green (edited to our 250-word limit) Sensational reporting may not be the best solution to increasing piracy. Peter Blake's killers were not "well-orchestrated teams of hired mercenaries who will often murder an entire ship's crew rather than risk leaving witnesses." They were local. Recent magazine articles and postings on web sites fall into two schools of thought about how yachts should deal with piracy: 1) arm yourself for self defense or 2) do not arm yourself and, if the situation arises, let yourself be robbed and hope for the best. Tough choice. Those that promote the latter point out that a) the chance of successfully defending yourself against a determined group of armed bandits is slim, b) fire will bring return fire and greatly increase the chance of injury or death, c) most yacht pirates are after money, equipment, liquor and other things not risking your life over and are not after your boat or your life, and d) the hassles of going in and out of customs with firearms are daunting. One could argue that, notwithstanding the determined bravery of Sir Peter, if he had put his hands up and not gone for the rifle, he might still be with us. Can 12 yachtsmen with a couple of rifles take on 6 armed thugs? What about a family of four on a long cruise? * From Bob Perry: I was deeply saddened and shocked to read that Carl Schumacher died this week. We were not close personal friends but I had nothing but admiration for Carl's design work. It still seems impossible to believe.
PRADA CURMUDGEON'S COMMENT: Ken McAlpine, ACC Technical Director also announced that Sail number 73 was issued to the Victory Challenge Sweden Syndicate on Wednesday.
ARE YOU RIGGED AND READY?
QUOTES FROM THE VOLVO BOATS * We have had some amazing rides over the past few days, right on the edge stuff where a slip up driving or trimming could be very expensive. We logged a 123-mile run in six hours this morning, not bad considering we had a spinnaker down for 45 minutes of that. The leg is taking its toll physically on the team, Nipper [Guy Salter] is recovering after stitches to the eye, Dave [David Endean] has taken a good hit on the knee and has a lot of fluid gathering there. Not a lot of sleep at present in these conditions with the manoeuvres somehow being more labor intensive and time consuming." - Kevin Shoebridge, Tyco. * "Yesterday afternoon things came to a head when another iceberg was spotted on the bow and this time we weren't going to be able to get to weather of it and stay clear of the dangerous growlers that lurk below the surface. All hands again, but this time we were so close to the iceberg that tiredness was forgotten as we all enjoyed the stunning view. Off the leeward side however, we found ourselves amongst hundreds of smaller chunks of ice, from as small as a football up to as big as a truck! It was a matter of picking our way through the maze of ice, all done at breakneck speed of course." - Jamie Gale, illbruck Challenge. * "We launched off the mother of all waves and on the GPS we were doing 32.8 knots before we hit the bottom. We were out of control, totally. One wrong move at that speed and we could have done ourselves a lot of damage. It was pitch dark, very cold and there was a lot of ice around. The bow buries itself into the wave ahead, perhaps 1.5 metres and a wall of water crashes along the deck. The only the thing to do is bend in half like you're going into a rugby scrum and hang on. In conditions like this one guy stands behind the helmsman, bracing him so that he's not washed off the helm" - Grant Dalton, Amer Sports One. * "I get up on deck and immediately I am pelted in the back by a wall of water. I work my way to the back and acclimate for three minutes. Then grab the wheel. The boat is very much under control and I am able to weave in and out of the 30-foot seas easily while we sit on 25-28 knots. My top speed was 32 knots for the two hours. At one point, two or three waves had come together to make one huge wave. We got up on it and looked down a 120-foot runway that was about 30 degrees. Everyone's eyes were huge. It was a phenomenal wave that Dalton said was the biggest he had ever ridden. The water was coming down the deck so hard and deep when we would plow into the back of the waves that Bouwe Bekking was pushing against my back to hold me forward. It just went on and on. There were endless waves to surf, endless amounts of fun. It was simply the reason I came to do this leg." - Paul Cayard, Amer Sports One * "This is the third time I have been down here and each time I have thought never again. This time I really mean it! Once you've seen an iceberg, you've seen enough and we have seen many, maybe over a hundred this trip. We were all prepared for 'bergs', but none of us imagined anything like this, let alone crashing through growlers at speed." - Nicholas White, News Corp.
RANKINGS
GBR CHALLENGE David Barnes admits that most of his sailors had until recently never been on a Cup-class boat before. "Britain has skipped a whole generation of America ' s Cup sailing," Mr Barnes said. "Our expectation is to do as well as we can and put in a good showing for this campaign. Making the semifinals would be a fantastic achievement. "We are under no illusions about the competition - a lot of syndicates have more money and more resources than we have." Backed with $20 million from UK hi-tech entrepreneur Peter Harrison, developer and former owner of computer networking and Internet integration company Chernikeeff Networks Ltd, GBR is the vehicle carrying his dreams to rebuild top-level British yachting and create a solid base to eventually take the Cup back where it started 150 years ago. Mr Barnes, one of New Zealand's most experienced yachtsmen who has been involved in the past five America ' s Cup campaigns, was operations director and helmsman for America True in 2000 and was looking for a new position in this year's regatta when Mr Harrison phoned him 18 months ago about mounting a challenge. "I told him he was mad," Mr Barnes said. "I tried to explain how hard the game was and advised him to put a design team together, try to understand how the boats were developed, analyse the new boats for 2003, see where the next Cup would be sailed and then be first cab off the rank for 2006. "I explained the costs, what was involved in fund raising, sponsorship and what had to be achieved. "After several months of talking to other people and thinking about what I'd said, he came back to me and said he knew it would be hard but the UK had to start somewhere and he asked me to help. The last thing I wanted was someone saying he was going to win - people are sold something that is not achievable and then get disappointed and I didn't want to be involved if the backers didn't understand that, but Peter is very realistic. "And this has got to be an on-going thing - there's too much money to throw at a campaign and then end it all. We've got to retain the knowledge, the experience, set up a corporate structure and infrastructure and retain all that for future campaigns. - National Business Review.
THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION |
