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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 620 - August 7, 2000KENWOOD CUPWith the Trades slightly eased to between 14 and 16 knots and the sun warm on the Hawaiian seas, Australia re-gained control - though not yet ownership - of the Millennial series with a second solid performance against New Zealand to go eight points up at the end of the day's racing. With only the triple-scoring Molokai Race left to conclude the regatta, eight points is a cushion of three places: like most cushions it is comfortable - but not something you could use a collateral. The converse of the arithmetic is that the Kiwis have only to beat the Australians boat for boat in the 148-mile Molokai Race to wrest the Cup from the Aussies grasp and put it back in the cabinet at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron - alongside the other one. Meanwhile, in the individual points table, New Zealand's Sea Hawk (Farr 47, Naohiko Sera, NZL, Ray Davis steering) is running away with the Racer division but the IMS Cruiser/Racer Division is less than settled. Simon Whiston's Beneteau 40.7 should have had things wrapped-up by now, but four firsts in a row has brought Kenny Read and his team aboard Makato Uematsu's Farr 50 Esmeralda back into the frame, just four points adrift of the title. The beach ball must stay no more than one place away from the lady through tomorrow night to make sure of the prize. Esmeralda won again this afternoon, with Smile again second, while Philippe Kahn's Orion had her revenge on John Kilroy Jnr's Samba Pa Ti in the Farr 40 division, winning her class while finishing 10th overall (6th in Racer division). Kilroy, however, looks good in the overall table because Orion lost two races after her collision with Liberte Express. Orion can at least keep racing, but it looks like Doug Taylor's Zamboni is out of the regatta for good. As the pictures on the Kenwood Cup website show (www.kenwoodcup.com) Zamboni has a classically Vee-shape gash in her port side from deck almost to waterline, and another from deck edge across the deck almost to the cockpit, between the cabin top and the sheet winch. The Sydney 41 Glama! (Seth Radow, USA), T-boned the Zamboni in what appears to have been a classic port-and-starboard-gone-wrong. Glama! apparently saw Zamboni and tried, but failed, to bear away, hitting the Farr just where the cabin and cockpit join and bashing a considerable hole in both topsides and deck. More seriously Zamboni's owner Doug Taylor, steering, was flung from the wheel to the front end of the cockpit and suffered a bad gash to the head. He was taken off and delivered to a waiting ambulance, but was reported in satisfactory condition on arrival at hospital. In the J105's the only European entry in this year's regatta, Chris Brown's chartered Puff, had her best result so far with a third this morning, but slipped again to fourth in the second race. Thomas Coates' Charade is in an almost impregnable position in this class, with a 12-point lead - not quite enough to be able to sit-out the 150-miler. - Susan McKeag Kenwood Cup team scores after 9 races. 1 AUS 391, 2 NZL 383, USA RED 302, 4 JPN 208, 5 USA WHITE 173, 6 USA BLUE 67. For full results, photos and latest news: http://www.kenwoodcup.com A REALLY FAST DELIVERY A pair of Kenwood Cup-bound J/105s - Sam Hock's 'Jose Cuervo' and Jaren Leet's 'Irrational Again' - had an excellent adventure on Saturday, July 29. After the two boats failed to roll off the container ship in Honolulu last Wednesday (oops! someone left them in a back corner of the Matson yard in Oakland), things looked pretty bleak for the two boats' chances of participating in the already small (30 boats) Kenwood Cup, which began on Tuesday, August 1. After almost a year of planning and who knows how many dollars, the skippers and crews of both 105s were devastated. The four J/105s remaining in the Kenwood Cup weren't exactly thrilled either, as they were now faced with losing their one design start. After a bunch of presumably heated phone calls (and the threat of a rather large lawsuit), Matson - to their everlasting credit - quickly came up with an alternative arrangement. For something like $225,000, they contacted HeavyLift Cargo Airlines and chartered a gigantic Russian-built Antonov AN-124 plane - one of just three in the world - to 'airmail' the two boats to Hawaii. 'Jose' and 'Irrational' were the only cargo, hardly denting the plane's 120-ton carrying capacity. The only people on board were 16 Russians (9 pilots and 7 crew), an English representative from HeavyLift, and two local J/105 sailors ('Jose' crew Erik Schumann, who was meant to accompany the delinquent sisterships, and a spur-of-the-moment 'stowaway', Karen Rosenbaum). The story ends happily, with the two boats arriving safely in Hawaii and being reassembled in time for the regatta. Kind of gives a whole new meaning to the expression 'planing to Hawaii', doesn't it? - Latitude 38, http://www.latitude38.com/LectronicLat/LectronicLat.html SOLUTIONS Wish your spinnaker would dry off after dunking, hold its shape after a few heavy air days of sailing, and resist tearing during complicated maneuvers? Next time, ask your sailmaker to use AIRX, a revolutionary new spinnaker fabric from Bainbridge International. AIRX is stronger, lower in stretch and has an ultra water repellent finish. With zero porosity and less tearing, it has a wide range of use for both racing a cruising sailors. AIRX is exclusively from Bainbridge International, where power and performance are cut from the same cloth. For more information, visit: http://www.sailcloth.com COURTENAY BECKER-DEY (Courtenay Becker-Dey felt sad about losing for the Olympic 470 trials for about a week. Then she jumped back into her accustomed Europe dinghy and now is headed to her second Olympiad. Following is an excerpt from Cynthia Goss's piece on the Quokka website about this Olympian.) When Courtenay Becker-Dey lost the 470 Olympic Trials in October 1999, she was left - for the first time in a while - without a clear goal. After that regatta was over, a family friend's home in the Bahamas was where she went with her husband, Jim, to regain her bearings. "We just took time to think about what we wanted to do next. We were on an island, and I'd look out over the water and I'd say, 'You know, I kind of want to go sailing,'" said Becker-Dey. There was a Sunfish on the island, so she and her husband - who is also her coach - sailed every day. "It was easy to realize, once I stepped away from it, that I should just keep sailing." For Becker-Dey, second chances came in the form of the Europe Dinghy. At that time, the Olympic Trials in the Europe class were some six months away. Becker-Dey won a Bronze medal at the '96 Games in the Europe, so she knew what it took to win in this single-handed dinghy. For one thing, she would need to radically change her physique in a short period of time. "When I'm training in the Europe, I go to the gym two hours a day and try to get as big and as strong as I can. In the 470, I am on a diet all the time. I am either eating everything in sight, or eating lettuce. It's a pretty radical change in your body," said Becker-Dey of the schizophrenic training regime for these two different boats. For the Europe Trials, she needed to gain at least 20 pounds and focus on building strength in her legs, abdomen and back. She went to the Europe Worlds in Brazil and used that regatta as a test, a last-chance opportunity to change her mind. "I went to check it out and to ask myself, is this something I really want to do? Do I want to go through the pain again, the body pain? Because the Europe is a pretty painful boat." She finished the Worlds in 14th place, out of 107 boats. An American named Meg Gaillard was third, but that didn't faze Becker-Dey. "I was pleased that an American was doing well internationally. I figured if I could beat her, I was probably up to par internationally." After the Worlds, she didn't look back. In April 2000, Becker-Dey won the U.S. Europe Dinghy Trials in San Francisco. Gaillard, who'd been on the circuit for four years, finished second. Becker-Dey launched her point scores so far ahead in her early races in the 23-boat fleet that she didn't have to sail the last two races. - Cynthia Goss for Quokka Sports Full story: http://sailing.quokka.com/stories/08/SLQ__0804_s_courtenay_WFC.html 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 Jesse Falsone - Jim Teeters account of the IMS was excellent. With all the harsh criticism that the IMS receives, it's a wonder what drives Jim and many others to continually refine the rule, especially when much of the work is done pro bono. Many of these guys don't design racing sailboats for a living, yet their love of sailing and superior technical knowledge drive them to seek a more equitable solution. IMS racers should be applauding the efforts of the ITC and other professionals and students working to make handicap racing better. I would also submit that many people have been leaving handicap racing for one-design because they grew weary of hearing or using the excuse "our boat doesn't rate well under IMS". If you keep blaming poor performance on the rating, I suspect you really haven't scratched the surface yet on boat preparation and teamwork. -- From Russ Lenarz - I have been fallowing the discussion on the IMS Rule very closely and feel that many good points have been brought out. I also feel that IMS is sitll one of the best rating systems there is. It has gone through an evolution over the past few years that has helped improve the rule. There is no way one will ever be able to satisfy everyone and no rating rule is perfect, but IMS has allowed boats to compete at the top level of our sport on a fairly equal basis. However it is not for the weak at heart. I disagree with Mark Gaudio and Ron Baerwits in there suggesstion that we should all race one design. If we take away handicapp racing from the sport we reduce a whole aspect of sailing which limits the sport and reduces participation. The sport does not need that IMS is not for everyone and there will always be those who complain and are critical of the rule, but for now I feel it will continue to be the Grand Prix level rating system here at least for the near future. -- From Robert Wilkes - Top sailors - are they born or made? Recent preliminary research by the Optimist Class shows that well over 30% of dinghy skippers at the upcomimg Olympics had gained selection for their countries by the age of 16, and some as young as 12. For details see http://www.optiworld.org/exop2000.html DOCK TALK Malcolm McKeag, sometime yachting scribe and now Chief Sailing Officer at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in London, England, is here in Hawaii helping Susan run the Kenwood Cup press office. He tells me that later this year, possibly in September, the Royal Thames Yacht Club are going to be announcing a new match racing series for Twelve Metres. The initial idea was to give some early practice for Twelves going to the great Heritage regatta, but since its inception the idea has had such a warm reception from British Twelve owners (more or less all of whom are members of RTYC) and from several of the European Twelves that the plan has grown and the series is likely to become a permanent fixture. Sadly for them, the US Twelves are on such a tight shipping schedule (so as to lose as little as possible of their Newport charter income) they will probably miss this one. Two enormous pots have been unearthed from the Thames's cavernous cellars: they comprise a pair of superb German turn-of-the-century cups, practically four feet high, each with lids and the de rigeur German Imperial spike and each embellished with a picture of Kaiser Willhelm IV. The plan is to re-name them the Royal Thames Yacht Club Imperial Trophies, and use one for Twelve Metre match racing and one for fleet racing. The first RTYC Imperial Trophy will be incorporated in the Bethon Source Regatta (both Brian May and Don Wood, the promoters of that regatta, are RTYC members), and with the present revival of interest in Twelves it seems that the event, originally conceived as a one-off, could become a bi-ennial event. British 12s that McKeag knows of: Ecosse (ex-Tom Blackaller's USA [the Geek]) - Irvine Laidlaw RTYC - refurb almost complete; Italia - Don Wood - RTYC - sailing; Crusader - Richard Matthews - RTYC - sailing and rumour is Richard will put it back in class for next year; Victory 83 - owner unknown - lying ashore at Burnham marina.
PRAMS TO PROAS, MAXI'S TO MINI'S
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