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SCUTTLEBUTT 3047 - Friday, March 12, 2010Scuttlebutt 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. Scuttlebutt on Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Scuttlebutt on Facebook: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/facebook Today’s sponsors: Interlux and North U. MEDEVAC FOR CLIPPER RACE SKIPPER (March 11, 2010; Day 10) - The last 24 hours have brought another reminder that the ocean gives no quarter to the crews taking part in the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race on their leg from Qingdao to San Francisco, as 30-40 knot winds and towering seas have required teams to measure their limits. Said leader ‘Spirit of Australia’ skipper Brendan Hall, "Last night was black as the ace of spades and windy enough to blow the hair off a wet dog. The waves were large and very powerful and their white, foaming crests loomed up ominously over our stern. Several of them broke over the transom, filling the cockpit up with white water. The critical decision for me was saying when to back off and slow down, so as not to over-stress the sails, rig and deck gear.” Not faring well is the skipper of ‘Hull & Humber’, Piers Dudin, who sustained an open fracture to his right leg Thursday morning. ‘Hull & Humber’ was situated 400 nautical miles east of Japan at the time of the incident. As a precautionary measure, ‘Spirit of Australia’ is currently shadowing ‘Hull & Humber’ as both boats make their way west towards Japan. Over the next 24 to 36 hours a decision will be made on whether the skipper will be evacuated by helicopter or boat, depending on conditions and range. -- Race website: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com BOAT HANDLING BLUNDER SINKS BRITS Auckland, NZL (March 11, 2010; Day 3) - Racing at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland regatta moved closer to the city front today as the southwester funneled down the harbour, with puffs into the low 20-knot range as the day wore on. The weather mark was between the container wharves and the Devonport Dockyard. Tipped as the highlight match of the day, the opening race between Emirates and Britain’s TEAMORIGIN came to a sudden end at the first leeward gate as a late tactical call on the British boat escalated into a firedrill that left spinnaker and jib draped over the foredeck and a broken spinnaker pole over the side. Ben Ainslie at TEAMORIGIN’s wheel held a 14 second lead at the end of the first beat after a fierce nine-tack duel up the short 1.2-mile weather leg in a puffy and shifty 13-16 knot southwesterly breeze. But at the leeward mark with the Kiwis bow to stern with TEAMORIGIN, the British hopes evaporated as Ainslie issued new last-minute orders. “It was a bit of mess,” Ainslie said. “Things change very quickly at the bottom, but a big shift made us change the call and there wasn't enough time for the guys to react." Day 3 Match Results Emirates Team New Zealand def. TEAMORIGIN, Ret. All4One def. Azzurra, 00:46 Mascalzone Latino Audi def. ALEPH Sailing Team, 00:55 Artemis def. Synergy Russian Sailing Team, 00:41 Live streaming web coverage of the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Auckland is available on the event website. Complete report: http://tinyurl.com/yf5j84v Provisional leaderboard after Flight Three: 1. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), skipper Dean Barker (NZL), 3-0 2. All4One (FRA/GER), skipper Jochen Schumann (GER), 2-1 2. Artemis (SWE), skipper Paul Cayard (USA), 2-1 2. Azzurra (ITA), skipper Francesco Bruni (ITA), 2-1 5. ALEPH Sailing Team (FRA), skipper Bertrand Pace (FRA), 1-2 5. Mascalzone Latino Audi Team (ITA), skipper Gavin Brady (NZL), 1-2 5. TEAMORIGIN (GBR), skipper Ben Ainslie (GBR), 1-2 8. Synergy Russian Sailing Team, skipper Karol Jablonski (POL), 0-3 Team lists: http://www.louisvuittontrophy.com/teams/EN/ BACKGROUND: The Louis Vuitton Trophy series is designed to be a cost-effective format for match racing competition in Version 5 America’s Cup Class boats. Teams will take turns on the two Emirates Team New Zealand yachts NZL 84 and NZL 92 that have been fitted out, optimized and rigged after a year in storage. They will race four matches a day to complete a round robin seeding series before a ladder elimination culminating in the finals on March 21st. The 2010 series continues on to Sardinia (May 22-June 6) and Dubai (Nov. 13-28). CANCELLED: The Race Committee of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland Thursday evening announced that all the matches scheduled for Friday will be cancelled due to a forecast of SW winds gusting to 30-plus knots. The decision to cancel racing will help the two 2007-generation America’s Cup boats withstand the wear and tear of over 55 matches to reach the end of the Louis Vuitton Trophy which includes one round robin, semifinals and finals. HOW FAST IS YOUR BOTTOM? Winning is what Interlux is all about. Fast bottoms are what we do, performance is who we are, and speed is what we sell. Learn more about the high performance yacht and marine coatings from Interlux here: http://www.yachtpaint.com/usa HOLA FROM PARADISE By Chuck Allen, North Sails One Design Hey everyone - our North Sails J/24 Team is down in Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit, México this week sailing The Regatta Copa Mexico. Observed top J/24 skipper Mike Ingham from Rochester, NY, “When the government wants to promote something, watch out! The President of Mexico has decided Nuevo Vallarta is a great place to run a regatta and he is right. Rumor has it that Mexico has invested 2 million dollars into this multifaceted event, and from what I have seen so far I believe it. Each night there is a different sponsor treating us all very well.” It is Thursday, March 11th, and we just completed Day 3 of the event. I have found sailing here is much like Valle de Bravo: the real breeze does not form until 12:30pm and the R/C knows the drill, so the mornings are relaxing with a late morning boat arrival, 1:00pm starts are the normal in these parts. You do not get in from sailing until 6:00pm but that seems to be just fine as everyone here eats dinner around 9:00pm or later… Most of the teams are housed at The Hotel Marival where you can basically live, eat, swim, etc… without a worry. They provide busses to the sailing facility about 15 minutes away each day running on the half hour-great set-up! The weather here is mid 80’s most of the day, lots of sun block and UV Protective are in order, we are sporting some UV Henri Lloyd Gear, which is working out nicely. There are around 55 boats sailing in the regatta and we have found ourselves fortunate enough to be in the top group. The results were not posted yet but I believe we are tied with Mauricio Santa Cruz and another Brazilian Team (BRA 33) for the front lead. There seems to be a gap from the top three boats to the next grouping, but there is tons of sailing left to go… we are off to one of the famous Mexican Dinners, cannot wait, and remember: Cerveza - Good, Agua - Bad… More later! -- Forum, full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9385 FOR THE RECORD (Day 40 - March 11, 2010; 17:21 UTC) - Franck Cammas and his nine crew are navigating through a difficult zone between a stormy low and the E'ly tradewinds of the Saint Helena High. “Groupama 3 has been sailing into the wind since Cape Horn and they're going to have to wait till Friday night or early on Saturday before they track down more favourable winds,” explained team meteorologist Sylvain Mondon. “As such the next 36 hours will continue to be difficult, as they'll have to traverse a ridge of high pressure. After the Doldrums, the NE'ly tradewinds are well installed in the North Atlantic and, following on from that, a depression will need to be created over the North American continent so as to propel the giant trimaran towards Ushant at high speed. There's a strong likelihood of this happening too!” "We had some difficulties last night and since then we've had to deal with squalls every ten minutes, but we're now beginning to escape this unstable zone!” noted skipper Franck Cammas. “We've pretty much had it with upwind sailing as the time goes slowly in these kinds of conditions. However, we're going to have to be patient before we find ourselves in a steadier and more favourable system. The passage of the equator is set for Sunday morning and in the meantime we're going to flirt with the light airs. We're going to have to make as rapid headway as we can to hold onto our chances of beating the Jules Verne Trophy record." -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/ylccu7x Current position as of March 11, 2010 (22:00:00 UTC): Ahead/behind record: -356.0 nm Speed (avg) over past 24 hours: 11.3 knots Distance over past 24 hours: 272.4 nm Distance to go: 4,473 nm Data: http://cammas-groupama.geovoile.com/julesverne/positions.asp?lg=en Map: http://cammas-groupama.geovoile.com/julesverne/index.asp?lg=en * After their start on January 31, 2010, Franck Cammas and his nine crew on Groupama 3 must cross finish line off Ushant, France before March 23rd (06:14:57 UTC) to establish a new time for the Jules Verne Trophy (21,760 nm) for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by any type of yacht with no restrictions. Current record holder is Bruno Peyron and crew, who in 2005 sailed Orange 2 to a time of 50 days, 16 hours, and 20 minutes at an average of 17.89 knots. WHEN BOATS ARE TOLD THEY ARE OCS AT WINDWARD MARK By Jos M Spijkerman, International Umpire/Judge Here is something every sailor, who's ever been or will be in a regatta where the race committee is posting ‘OCS - boats at the windward mark’ should read. It can make the difference between getting a place in the race or being scored points as DNF or OCS. Even if you successfully request redress in which you can prove that your boat was not OCS, the wording in the sailing instructions can make a BIG difference. That is because getting a result does not depend solely on the fact that you must convince the PC that the Race Committee made a mistake, it also depends on what you did (or did not do). Most sailors seeing their number posted at the windward mark will leave the race. That is normal practice. That is what is expected, they claim:"If I don't do it I will get a DNE!" It all depends on the wording in the sailing instructions. Posting numbers is not something that is written in the rulebook. There is a guideline how to do it in Instruction 14.6 of Appendix LE (Expanded Sailing Instruction Guide available at the ISAF website) and normally restricted to a boat that failed to start or has broken rule 30.3, where a clause requiring such boats to retire immediately is included in the sailing instructions. But if that clause is written badly and does not place an obligation on boats to leave you MUST not leave the course and should finish the race. If you don't finish the race, redress cannot be granted because it is partly you own fault that you did not. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/ycx7v5b NORTH U DIRECTOR BILL GLADSTONE... ... invites you to the 10th annual Performance Race Week: “I should tell you to come to improve your tactics, strategy, sail trim, spinnaker handling and helming. I could draw you in by detailing how much you'll learn from our team of instructors. I might entice you with the combination of onboard coaching, on-the-water clinics, shoreside seminars and video review. But the ‘closer’ is the fun!” Come to Captiva Island, Florida April 18-24 for an incredible racing vacation, and as a bonus, go home a winning racer! Call Offshore now at 888-454-7015 or visit http://www.offshoresailing.com BACARDI MIAMI SAILING WEEK Miami, FL (March 11, 2010) - Continuing a run tempered by cautious optimism in a field of highly skilled Star Class teams, Skipper Andy Horton and Crew James Lyne once again remained on top in today's overall standings after the fourth day of the BACARDI Cup. " Luckily, James and I were able to get past a bad start where we struggled a bit at first, and were able to make a good comeback.," comments Horton. "We're pleased but also know after Friday’s race, everyone gets to throw out their poorest finish, which is really going to change the field dramatically. After tomorrow, everyone's going to get a whole lot closer." In addition to the Star Class competition for the BACARDI Cup, the Viper 640 Pan-American Championship at BACARDI Miami Sailing Week continued with American Skipper Lee Shuckerow and Crew Brad Boston and Eric Vigrass edging out Wednesday's winners for the top spot overall in the twenty-one boat Viper field. As for other classes out for their first day of sailing on Biscayne Bay, Skipper Jeff Ecklund was able to get the top spot in the Melges 20 standings in his boat STAR, among fifteen competitors while Donald Wilson and crew were able to take their boat Convexity to the top of class in Melges 24 with ten teams competing. In the J/24 class, Scouts' Pride skipper Patricia Walker and crew were able to steer their way into the top spot in a six boat field. -- Event website: http://www.miamisailingweek.com Star Class - preliminary results (top 5 of 84) 1. Andy Horton/ James Lyne, USA. 8-5-4-6, 23 pts 2. Peter O'Leary/ Stephen Milne, IRL, 15-10-1-3, 29 3. Rick Merriman/ Phil Trinter, USA, 4-2-23-2, 31 4. Lars Grael/ Ronald Seifert, BRA, 21-1-8-8, 38 5. Peter McChesney/ Shane Zwingelberg, USA, 5-12-14-10, 41 Complete results: http://www.miamisailingweek.com/results.html PHOTOS OF THE WEEK Some of the random photos from the sport received this week at Scuttlebutt include the new Pendragon, big J/24 fleets in Mexico, marina disaster in Chile, spring sailing in March, Louis Vuitton Series in New Zealand, boardsailing in Florida, good genes in SoCal, and good kit in match racing. If you have images you would like to share, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor. Here are this week’s photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/10/0312/ Here are photos from the PUMA International Moth World Championship by Thierry Martinez, which is in action this week in Dubai, UAE: http://tinyurl.com/yk36eup 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 SAILING SHORTS * The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) confirmed the receipt of the Regatta Report Forms from the ISAF Race Officials appointed to the 33rd America's Cup Match. The Regatta Report Forms were received from the ISAF appointed Principal Race Officer Harold Bennett and the Chairman of the International Jury David Tillett. They will be sent to the ISAF Race Officials Committee who will review the contents and make recommendations if deemed necessary. The purpose of the report system is to provide an assessment of the ISAF appointed officials and to learn from incidents or exceptional situations that happened during an event. -- Full story: http://www.sailing.org/news/32042.php * Nestle Nespresso S.A., the worldwide pioneer and reference for highest quality premium portioned coffee, has announced the launch of the Nespresso Cup, a new international regatta gathering for the very first time exclusively the Wally Class. To be held in Portofino, Italy from the May 7-9, 2010, a total of 15 Wally yachts will battle it out on windward-leeward courses, with sailing notables Loick Peyron (FRA), Paul Cayard (USA) and Francesco de Angelis (ITA) participating. -- http://tinyurl.com/yzr3jmp * CORRECTION: In Scuttlebutt 3046 it incorrectly stated that the BMW Oracle Racing team would announce their venue decision by the end of March. The team’s aim is to have a timetable by the end of March as to how and when they will make the venue, etc., decisions after consulting over the next months with the other America’s Cup teams and stakeholders. Said team spokesman Tom Ehman, “SNG/Alinghi won the 2003 Cup at Auckland in March and announced Valencia as the subsequent venue in late November 2003. We, too, hope to have the next venue, etc., sorted by November if not before.” VIDEO OF THE WEEK It is fair to say that there was a lot of suffering that occurred during the 33rd America’s Cup. After the exceedingly close racing that was offered in 2007 during the 32nd Match in Valencia, we were ready for the good times to keep rolling. However, that’s not what we got. After nearly three years of legal wrangling, we only got two races of maxi multihull frostbiting last month. Not good. But that’s not to say it can’t get good again, and what better way to energize the soul than to look back to the way we were. This week we feature two videos, one which features the call by T2P Tucker Thompson of the most amazing Race 7 between Alinghi and Emirates Team New Zealand. And the other video by Barbra Streisand, belting out her legendary 1975 song, “The Way We Were”. Click here for this week’s videos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/10/0312/ Barbara Streisand: The Way We Were lyrics Mmm. Mmm. Memories, light the corners of my mind Misty watercolor memories of the way we were. Scattered pictures of the smiles we left behind smiles we give to one another for the way we were. Can it be that it was all so simple then or has time rewritten every line? If we had the chance to do it all again tell me would we? Could we? Memories, may be beautiful and yet what's too painful to remember we simply choose to forget So it's the laughter we will remember whenever we remember the way we were. The DN North Americans were held last week in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and while the event was plagued by light winds, the high quality of this video footage and editing more than make up for it: http://vimeo.com/9980313 Yachting World editor Elaine Bunting “turned us on” to this video, which provides key ingredients on how to popularize sailing among the 25-35 year old demographic. As Elaine states, “Forget learning schemes and qualifications. It's about sun, parties, alcohol and hot, hot chicks wearing very, very little. This raunchy and wildly successful promotion video for charter company The Yacht Week has been viewed over 200,000 times. Watch it and you'll see why.” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wC721zLZz4 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 LETTERS AND FORUM Please email your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, ‘The Curmudgeon’). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). One letter per subject, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- To submit a Letter: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- To post on the Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Craig Fletcher: Yes, pro sailors add to sailing, but what they mainly add is cost. Dividing pros and amateurs would save the majority of us a lot of money and I guarantee as the fun factor increases the number of sailors will as well. * From Christopher Bulger: (re, amateurs and professionals thread) Today’s regattas feel more like a trip to the Mall. A walk down the docks or through the party is like walking into men’s department at Saks Fifth Avenue. Instead of having a clothes salesman tell this balding, pudgy, middle-aged guy how fabulous I look in this year’s $2,000.00 sport coat that was made for an anorexic teen - I have a 100 salesmen extolling the virtues of this year’s “one-design” which is soooo much fun BUT..........BUT...... “we need to throw away the keel and rudder and get proper foils (+25%), the silly lines supplied by the factory go in the trash too (+10%), the sails that we need are made of plutonium and only last a week (+100%)....which is a good thing, cause I can only be your best friend and join your Corinthian program if you buy a new set from me once a month, but of course I am not a ‘paid hand’ so if you want me to like you I expect to be flown first class and don’t look for me to help you wash down the decks.....as a matter of fact if you want to “win” we really need to hire a guy to hire guys to wash the boat etc ....oh and one more thing - old friend - about 11 months into the program we need to start planning for the next boat or I need to find a new best friend. -- Excerpt from Forum, full post: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9382#9382 FINAL DAY - DONATE HERE Last week, the University of New Hampshire sailing team suffered an arson fire that resulted in the total loss of their equipment and boats. The blaze destroyed 55 boats, five motors, three coach launches, trailers and additional equipment - totaling a complete loss for both the sailing team, the UNH Community Sailing Program, a summer program for youths between 6 years old and 18 years old, and a combined junior and senior high school sailing team. The damage is estimated to exceed $600,000. Here is a recent update: http://tinyurl.com/yks8fz9 Friday is the final day to submit funds to Scuttlebutt’s dedicated UNH account. Contact the Scuttlebutt editor if you want to wire money, or use this link to submit your donation by Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, or PayPal: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/store/ CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift. Special thanks to Interlux and North U. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
