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SCUTTLEBUTT 3556 - Tuesday, March 27, 2012Scuttlebutt 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: North U, North Sails, and Soft Deck. THE PLACES WE GO - "AWAY" REGATTAS By Dave Reed, Sailing World A friend recently shared a photo on his Facebook wall. The photo was taken at the Mardi Gras Regatta in New Orleans, a one-design event that's blossoming as the Gulf sailing scene hustles to reclaim its former glory as the ultimate Southern regatta destination. What struck me about the photo was that it didn't have anything to do with the racing: it was a heaping pile of crimson crawfish splayed out on a newspaper-covered banquet table. Other friends at the same regatta shared photos of them frolicking on Bourbon Street and other iconic tourist traps. And yet even after it was all over, there was not a single report of what actually happened on the racecourse. I guess that's because when it comes to "away" regattas, the memories that stick, or are worth sharing with friends back home, are usually about the destination more than the races. That's what I love about our sport: Wherever we go to play, our playground is enviable. We are a privileged lot. When I explain to people what I do for work and for play, I always get the same response, "Wow, that must be cool going to all those nice places." It is. I've never been to a regatta venue I didn't like. By virtue of being on a little slice of waterfront, the view is always good, the sounds soothing, and the lifestyle desirable. The host yacht clubs, fancy or not, are little Shangri-Las where visiting sailors get to feel like members. We get to mingle on the manicured lawn, have drinks on the deck, ride the launch, share the showers, and when we're young, maybe stir a little mischief. When the nightly regatta party is over, we hit the town with a good buzz and mingle with the locals. The big-city yacht clubs are nice, but my favorites are offbeat venues. There's something special about regattas run out of public sailing facilities, state parks, and campgrounds. Maybe it's because there's no pretense, no expectations of white linen buffets and massive clubhouses filled with trophy cases. At a lakeshore campground, the racecourse is your view, and there's just you, your neighbors in RVs, cars, and tents, a simple campfire to stoke, and the hope your tent's seams keep the inevitable summer downpour at bay. Regardless of where our sailing travel takes us or how plush our accommodations, the point is it's essential to experience sailing in new venues: commit to an out-of-town class championship or to a regatta that's new and different. I'm looking forward to a few new destinations this year. -- Read on: http://www.sailingworld.com/racing/the-places-we-go WHEN NOT RACING IS OKAY TOO There is a short list of venues that can host a four day event, have severe conditions that permit only one day of sailing, but still keep the glass half full. Enter Southern Yacht Club in New Orleans (LA), which hosted the 2012 Flying Scot Mid Winter Championship. Here's the story: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- On Tuesday 3/20, our PRO Wallace Paletou tried hard to figure out a way to get us on the water, but with winds blowing 24+ gusting to over 30, it was just not possible to do that safely. Our top sailors still held the Top Gun session - Paul Abdullah, Ryan Malmgren, Dave Bolyard, Kelly Gough and Al Terhune gave us all some great tips to try to make us better sailors. Then we all went off to various areas of the city - French Quarter, walking along the Mississippi River, the malls, the casinos, the garden district, the WWII museum and other venues and enjoyed a little New Orleans hospitality. Try, try, try again on Wednesday - well, that was not much better, with winds at 22+ gusting to over 30 again. So we called it a day, went off shopping and other places and came back at night for the seafood boil with a boatload (in a real boat) of all the shrimp, crawfish and oysters, boiled potatoes and corn on the cob that anyone could eat. Thursday morning was a breakfast surprise, coffee and beignets courtesy of Cafe du Monde, the premier coffee in New Orleans. Can you believe it? Thursday the storm front continued with thunderstorms that we hoped would subside. They actually did, and we decided to get out on the water. But along with the storm went the wind, and we all agreed there was nothing we could do, so we went back in and hoped for the best on Friday. Finally on Friday, there was a chance to get out on the water. And Wallace and his crew used every ounce of wind they could to get off four good races in lots of sunshine, something we had not seen for several days! Who won? Read on: http://www.fssa.com/content/2012-flying-scot-mid-winter-championship RACE & WIN We can show you how, working with you and your crew aboard your boat. Stop Guessing. Rig tuning, spinnaker handling, mainsail shape, helming. We will answer all your questions. For Your Crew. After all you have put into your boat and equipment, get North U coaching for your crew. On Your Boat. Can you think of a better place? Within your budget. Let us design a program to match your needs and interests. Learn More. Our training covers every facet of racing trim, tactics and boat handling. Call or visit to Learn More. 800-347-2457. http://www.northu.com IRC RATING RULE UPDATE Mike Urwin, joint Chairman of the IRC Technical Committee, comment on some detail technical aspects of IRC. * One objective of IRC is to provide a rating that will allow the existing fleet to be competitive while not being a disincentive to development - a delicate balancing act and one that is more important than ever in the current environment. Would you like to comment on the 2012 rating changes designed to change the balance between boats with non overlapping headsails and designs with overlapping headsails? MU: Recent years have seen a steady trend towards new designs having non-overlapping headsails. This, and the trend among some boats originally designed with overlapping headsails to convert to a non-overlapping configuration, has prompted sail designers to develop improved designs for these sails in lighter airs. Allied with the fact that modern sailcloth is better able to deal with the higher loads in tall, high aspect ratio sails, this has changed the balance slightly in favour of the non overlappers. The changes this year are twofold. We have firstly taken a fresh look at the efficiency of different styles of headsail going back to fundamental physics and recognising also the sail design and cloth improvements. As a result, we have made some detail changes in this area. Secondly, historically, IRC has taken no account of leech hollow meaning that any boat with a hollow leech headsail (sailmakers want to build hollow in to improve sail longevity and to minimise leech curl and 'motoring') was paying a small amount for area that they did not have. Reviewing this, we could see no reason not to properly account for leech hollow. * There is always a question with new sails regarding size versus the rating and getting the balance right for a particular boat. What kind of help and information can be obtained from the rating office, e.g. Trial certificates. MU: A trial certificate tells an owner/designer/sailmaker what the TCC (Time Corrector) would be for the proposed change. It is then up to the owner/designer/sailmaker to decide in the particular circumstances of that boat and the racing that she does whether the change is worthwhile. We do not and cannot give consultancy in this respect. But (without giving away secrets!) the sort of questions that owners might perhaps be asking themselves are related to in what wind speed do we change down/reef? Is my crew generally underweight? Do we do lots of reaching? Do we race in predominantly light/heavy airs? Are we more competitve in light/heavy airs? Upwind? Downwind? What sort of courses do we do? All windward/leeward? Passage races? Etc, etc. Answering those, and all the other issues, then helps in deciding how to configure the boat. Full interview: http://tinyurl.com/IRC-032612 ADVERTISING. FREE ADVERTISING The Scuttlebutt Classified Ads provide a marketplace for private parties to buy and sell, or for businesses to post job openings. For free. As a bonus, each week the Scuttlebutt newsletter includes some of the recent classified ad postings. View/post ads here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/classified_ads TELEFONICA JOINS THE INFIRMED (March 26, 2012; Day 9) - As the current overall leader of the Volvo Ocean Race, skipper Iker Martinez and his Telefonica team have been slippery good on the distance legs. Nearly flawless. But if luck has been in their recipe, it seems to be running thin these days. Last week it was reported the International Jury will hear a protest during the next stopover in Itajai regarding the legality of sails carried by Telefonica during Leg 4 from Sanya to Auckland. And now the team, which has been bleeding miles the past couple days, has admitted they have damage to the bow serious enough for the crew to slow the boat. "We're battling on and making sure we don't do any more damage. We could push harder, but we think that could lead to further problems," said watch leader Neal McDonald earlier today. The team has had two crewmembers in the bow for a week, patching up a repair. McDonald says they will continue as they are and monitor it carefully. "Time will tell. It looks stable at the moment and, at the pace we are going, we are in good shape," he said. Groupama (Franck Cammas/FRA) and PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG (Ken Read/USA), the only two teams to have avoided serious damage to their boats so far on Leg 5, continue to hug the ice exclusion zone to the south as they aim for Cape Horn. CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand (Chris Nicholson) remains bound for Puerto Montt in Chile, though is concerned about a low-pressure system forming in their path. Their aim is to make the repairs to the bow without hauling the boat out of the water in Chile and return to the racetrack as quickly as possible to complete the leg. Team Sanya announced today that after exhaustive enquiries, the boat will be shipped to re-join the fleet for the in-port race in Miami and the start of Leg 7. The team are due to arrive in Tauranga on Tuesday evening, where they will immediately prepare the boat for shipment to Savannah in the United States. Once the repairs have been completed, the team will sail the boat the 350 nm to Miami, arriving in early May. For the leaders, it will be a further six or seven days of liquid hell before they are in range of the notorious Cape Horn. -- Event media Leg 5 - Auckland, NZL to Itajai, Brazil (6,705 nm) Standings as of Monday, 26 March 2012, 22:04:21 UTC 1. Groupama 4 (FRA), Frank Cammas (FRA), 3396.4 nm Distance to Finish 2. PUMA Ocean Racing (USA), Ken Read (USA), 35.5 nm Distance to Lead 3. Telefonica (ESP), Iker Martinez (ESP), 260.5 nm DTL 4. CAMPER (NZL), Chris Nicholson (AUS), 660.1 nm DTL 5. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (UAE), Ian Walker (GBR), 1258.9 DTL 6. Team Sanya (CHN), Mike Sanderson (NZL), Retired Tracking/Standings: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/racetracker/rdc.html Schedule: http://tinyurl.com/VOR-2011-12-schedule Video reports: http://www.youtube.com/user/volvooceanracevideos BACKGROUND: During the nine months of the Volvo Ocean Race, which started in Alicante, Spain (Oct. 29) and concludes in Galway, Ireland during early July 2012, six professional teams will sail over 39,000 nautical miles around the world 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 ONE YEAR FREE SAIL CARE & REPAIR FROM NORTH SAILS North Sails proudly offers one year of sail care & repair FREE with the purchase of a new North cruising, racing or one design sail.* Honored anywhere in North's worldwide network of sail care locations, you will be in good hands no matter where your travels take you. * Sails MUST be registered online within 30 days of receiving your new sail & some restrictions apply. So whether you're 25 miles or 25,000 miles away from home, North Sails has got you covered! http://www.na.northsails.com/tabid/17679/Default.aspx STARTING DRILL A good start is one of the most important ingredients of racing, and head coach Rulo at the Laser Training Center in Cabarete, Dominican Republic describes this drill to help sailors develop better starting skills. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- During the first three months of this year more than 100 sailors practiced the 'no time' at the start. In this drill only one sailor gets the time personally from the coach. All other sailors have to start by watching the position of the sailor who has the time on his watch. The objective of the other sailors is to line up bow to bow and accelerate faster than the boat with the time when the start signal is given. We learned quite a few interesting lessons from the 'No time' drill. - The sailor with the time rarely had the best start. - Sailors who usually struggle in other starting drills had the best start when focusing on lining up bow-bow and on accelerating first. - The sailors who start well with a watch, start well without one. We don't want you to leave your start-watch at home on a regatta day. Just remember that at the start line you should focus on how to beat the boats next to you. Awareness to their position and timing your acceleration based on the bows next to you are essential. -- http://ymlp.com/zjbZeG SAILING SHORTS * With interest building toward the 2012 A Class Catamaran World Championship this October in the Florida Keys, 37 boats competed in the 4th Annual Admirals Cup Regatta hosted by Davis Island Yacht Club in Tampa, FL on March 23-25. The winning formula in the eight race series for Houston Yacht Club's Bruce Mahoney was hockey sticks, who posted a double in the first race (11th) and then rolled through seven singles (1st) to take the title. -- Full story: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=13480 * The Laser Midwinters West was hosted by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club on March 23-25 in Long Beach, CA. The title among the 43 Laser Full Rigs came down to the last race, where American Olin Paine sailed his drop race to finish in second behind winner Canadian Alexander Heinzemann. The racing among the 62 Laser Radials was not as close, allowing American Cooper Weitz to win with a race to spare. -- Event details: http://www.abyc.org/event.cfm?id=477 * The 29er Mid-Winters West was held hosted by Coronado Yacht Club (CA) on March 23-25, with racing held in the South Bay of San Diego. Twenty-two teams from Canada, Pacific North West, Florida, Connecticut, Northern and Southern California competed, which included the current U.S. Youth and European Champions. The full range of winds over three days provided for 12 races. Zach Downing and Andrew Cates of San Diego, won the event, followed by Dane and Quinn Wilson of Santa Barbara; third place went to Patrick Snow and Storm Brown of San Diego. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=13493 * (March 26, 2012) - The Maserati VO70 reached the Ambrose light station in New York today at 11:50 am GMT (7:50 am EDT), destination point of the Miami-New York record attempt. However, Giovanni Soldini and his team have decided not to submit their route time to the World Sailing Speed Record Council, as they felt the adverse weather conditions (tropical storms, sudden blasts, windless zones) Maserati encountered did not warrant an official record. There is no recorded time reference for monohulls from Miami to New York. Maserati set sail from Miami on March 22 at 06:28:16 GMT (02:28:16 ETD). -- Full report: http://www.oceanracing.org/?p=8313 * A large fishing boat swept away by the tsunami that devastated Japan last year was spotted adrift off British Columbia in western Canada. An airplane contracted by the government spotted the 50-foot-long boat recently about 160 miles west of Haida Gwaii, slowly drifting toward shore, according to media reports. The boat was identified as coming from Hokkaido, Japan. The vessel is one of several Japanese ships swept away by the March 11, 2011, tsunami that authorities are tracking as the debris field edges closer to North America. -- Trade Only Today, read on: http://tinyurl.com/TOT-032612 * CORRECTION: The photo link in Scuttlebutt 3555 for the International Rolex Regatta was incorrect. Our apologies to photographers Leighton O'Connor and Ingrid Abery, and everyone that clicked on it. Here is the correct link: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/12/0325a/ SOFT, PEEL AND STICK NONSKID DECKING SOLUTION Easy to use, great traction even when wet, barefoot friendly, installs over existing nonskid in minutes, and makes your crew happy! Soft Deck is pleased to announce SD Boatworks as our official custom installer for Southern California. For more information: http://www.SDBoatworks.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 Bob Colpitts: Regarding Volvo 70 casualties (in Scuttlebutt 3555), with 50 years experience in thundering seas, I've seen a lot of sprung floors and delaminated bulkheads, and have had ample opportunity to learn what kind of bow crumples first. As any designer will tell you, the flatter the entry, the bigger the problem. A crane once dropped my displacement Roberts 38 sloop with its generous 30 degree deadrise 12 feet into the water. There was a huge splash but not a hint of damage. The same fall in a flat bottomed modern design would probably have sunk it. * From Pete Slaughter: Amen to the Scuttlebutt editor and his directive (in Scuttlebutt 3555) for the AC organizers to stop playing with house money and start focusing on realistic objectives. Their initial plan was dream-like, and criticism occurred when they wanted to re-tool the event into something clearly unsustainable. Hopefully they have given pink slips to all their soccer 'experts' and can now focus on hosting a sailing event. Because that is what it is. * From Bob Marston, Newport RI: I really hope Oracle and SF can work together to make hosting the Cup as good as it can be. If done right it can be a great boost to the local economy and future of the Sport. Just look at how it transformed Auckland and Valencia. Reading between the lines, I worry that it could fall short of what was expected and therefore sponsors will be less enthusiastic. I hope the city of SF can keep the big picture in focus. If not, all of us in Rhode Island would sure like to have another shot at it! CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION If you stand in one place long enough, you make a line. Think about it. SPONSORS THIS WEEK Dieball Sailing - Camet - New York Yacht Club - North U North Sails - Soft Deck - US Sailing - Doyle Sailmakers - Henri Lloyd Point Loma Outfitters - Ullman Sails - New England Ropes - Summit Yachts Need stuff? 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