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SCUTTLEBUTT 2550 – March 11, 2008Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors. A CUP IN LIMBO CASTS LONG SHADOW ON WMRT by Herb McCormick, Sailing World Last fall, during a swing through Southeast Asia, I found myself in Malaysia covering the Monsoon Cup, the season finale for the ISAF World Match Racing Tour (and the subject of a feature story in April's Sailing World). I'd never attended a tour event and the wild Monsoon Cup was not only otherworldly, it was incredibly entertaining. So, with the 2008 season beginning to ramp up--the kick-off regatta takes place in Brazil this April--I called tour director Scott MacLeod the other day to get a preview of what to expect. MacLeod is a sailor and an entrepreneur, and he's pieced together an interesting career promoting sailboat racing, particularly match racing, and you don't hear that every day. He started out by creating the Bermuda Gold Cup; eventually merged the disparate events in the circuit into a dedicated series with a flush sponsor, Swedish Match; and ultimately convinced ISAF to come aboard and sanction the racing under its banner as a true World Championship. In other words, he's gotten things done. Perhaps even more startling, he's managed to maintain an upbeat, positive disposition while doing so. This year's tour, in many respects, should be off the charts. MacLeod and his team have introduced a dedicated slate of 20 qualifying regattas, the winners of which will earn an invitation to one of the 10 major tour events. They're making serious inroads into what has the potential to become a booming Asian market, with a new tour event in Korea in June and an exhibition event in China in May (which will become a tour event as well in 2009). They're injecting new talent into the tour with the addition of up-and-comers Adam Minoprio, from New Zealand (who's found support from Emirates Team New Zealand), and young Aussie ace Torvar Mirsky. -- Read on: http://forums.sailingworld.com/blogs/?q=node/132 ISAF, MULTIHULLS, AND HOW TO PLAY THE GAME by Paul Henderson, past president, ISAF I like multihulls. It is a unique discipline and they must be sailed, as the use of kinetics is of minimal advantage. Additionally, I fully understand the militancy of the Tornado class as they work to change the current slate of 2012 Olympic events that does not presently include a multihull class. However, I consider their attacks on the ISAF Executive and especially the President Goran Petersson to be unwarranted. The voting held at the ISAF Annual General Meeting (AGM) in November 2007 by the 39 Council members was open and transparent with how each delegated voted. The voting parties are ultimately the ones who are responsible. The ISAF President must now support positively the results, no matter what his personal position might be. With regard to reopening the issue at the mid-year meeting, this is not the forum to do so as it is not an urgent decision at this time and the Mid-Year meeting is mainly for financial subjects and not major policy discussions. The AGM in November is the proper and Constitutional time to address the classes for 2012. The Executive is right in deciding this. Many times the November meeting has reversed decisions previously made after due diligence, especially after listening to the sailing community. It is at the AGM when the real in-depth decisions will be made. November 2008 is when the final and binding decision on the 2012 events will be held. The Tornado has a very good case to remain Olympic, and they should continue to make their case in a positive manner and avoid the personal attacks. The IOC required sailing to reduce the number of events from eleven to ten, with the resultant vote leading to the dismissal of the multihull event. However, the reason for doing so is now not relevant with the deletion of Baseball and Softball, and it would be my suggestion to positively lobby IOC President Rogge (Belgium) and his IOC sailing colleagues who are still IOC Members such as Peter Tallberg (Finland), Ng Ser Miang (Singapore), Fernando Lima Bello (Portugal), Prince Albert (Monaco), Barbara Kendall (New Zealand) to delay the deletion of the eleventh sailing event until 2016. This coupled with the fact that the 2012 Games will be in London, the home of the now #1 sailing nation, makes this request sensible. It is a positive solution to a very disruptive problem. TRUST OPPOSES MUSEUM SITE The Maryland Historic Trust has recommended against allowing the state to approve the National Sailing Hall of Fame on a waterfront property in Annapolis because of the site's significance in city history. Director J. Rodney Little advised the Department of Natural Resources, the property owner, not to negotiate a lease unless the museum backers could come up with plans that preserve the Burtis house, one of the few remaining vestiges of the state capital's blue-collar maritime roots. While the DNR does not have to follow the trust's recommendation, Little said, Maryland law requires the agency to take it under consideration. Little said the Hall of Fame should look into incorporating the site at 69 Prince George St. into the museum. "My own sense is that in order to make that happen, they would probably have to scale back the scope and size of the project," he said. -- Baltimore Sun, full story: http://tinyurl.com/25jwch * The hall of fame is proposed for a site on Prince George Street now owned by the Department of Natural Resources. The house on it was built in 1897 by Capt. William Burtis, who ran a boat charter business. It has most recently been used by the DNR for a marine police facility. Now the DNR has abandoned the deteriorating building. Historic preservationists don't take kindly to razing 19th-century buildings, and aren't much happier with the idea of moving the structure to a public park, as suggested by Mayor Ellen Moyer. Yet given the Burtis House's current condition, it's hard to picture incorporating it into an attractive display area - that's the challenge for the architects. -- Excerpt from http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2008/03_07-18/OPN STILL GOING.... Chicago, Detroit, Long Island, New Jersey, Boston, Rhode Island, and New London are the upcoming locations where Dave Perry, David Dellenbaugh, and Brad Dellenbaugh are teaching Rules and Tactics Seminars. Good seats are still available. Enrollment is limited. Sign up now (risk free) and receive Perry’s Rules Quiz book and Dellebaugh’s Rules DVDs with the course. Learn more at NorthU. Call 800-347-2457 or http://www.northu.com LIGHTNING SOUTHERN CIRCUIT: STARCK DOMINATES SAVANNAH The Deep South Regatta at Savannah Yacht Club, held last weekend as the first event of the three stop Lightning Southern Circuit, saw racing started and finished across Sunday, with three races snapped off in a brisk, mostly breezy day. The racers got an early start (10 am), in the kind of chill that most of the fleet came South to avoid. What Mark Taylor calls Oompa Loompa weather, with human silhouettes snowmanned with multiple layers of fleece. No one can sneak up on anyone else because of the din of foul-weather fabric shush-shushing against itself. David Starck gave a brief seminar about the challenging conditions at Savannah after the Skipper's meeting on Saturday, but with strong winds canceling out that day, he had to wait until Sunday before offering a longer tutorial to the fleet of 49 Lightnings. Sailing with his brother Joe and Jared JD Drake, Dave Starck took a commanding lead off the start in Race 1, stayed in the hunt for a 4th in Race 2, and then took 1st in the Race 3. Dave's team seemed to have the challenging conditions - where a new moon made the currents even more powerful - well in hand. Final results (top 5 of 49) 1. David Starck, 1-4-1, 6 2. Jeff Linton, 8-2-1/RDG, 11 3. Dan Moriarty, 3-6-3, 12 4. Neil Fowler, 12-1-5, 18 5. Jed Dodge, 10-5-8, 23 * Curmudgeon’s Comment: A reminder that Scuttlebutt will be following along on the Lightning Southern Circuit, with the fleet now traveling from Savannah to Miami for the ILCA Midwinter Regatta, and then back up Florida for the St. Petersburg Winter Championship. This all fits into a long week, with stories along the way. Look for the ongoing report here: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=5875 MEXORC IS BAAACK by Kimball Livingston, SAIL WEST So tell us, John MacLaurin, is the MEXORC back? "It's back." And I believe the man, because I was there. The 7-day series that wrapped over the weekend in Nuevo Vallarta was a rescue mission for a Mexican racing tradition of thirty-some years, a tradition that was hanging by a thread after a rough-edged series two years ago. As co-chair Mike Danielson put it, "We couldn't just do a facelift. MEXORC had to be new." Ernesto Amtmann, who "built" the series decades ago, was called upon by the Mexican Sailing Federation (five months ago) to redefine the game for 2008 as regatta chairman. Amtmann said, "John MacLaurin is a bulldog. He's always racing, always in there, and he is an important example because he came here this year to give MEXORC one last chance." He's not sorry. MacLaurin's red Pendragon (at left) won some races but couldn't break the top three overall in the final tally. The housekeeping: Twenty-one boats raced (I'm expecting more next time, 2010, given the renewed credibility), and top-three placings went, in order, to Bill Turpin's 77-foot Akela (Southern California), Jim Gregory's 50-foot Morpheus (Northern California), and Amtmann's 43-foot IOR classic Bandido (Acapulco). -- Read on: http://sailmagazine.blogspot.com/2008/03/mexorc-its-its.html IN TO THE ORC INTERNATIONAL YEAR By the end of 2008, the Offshore Racing Council (ORC) will know if they made the right decision when they launched ORC International. “So far so good,” concludes Bruno Finzi, ORC Chairman, and Alessandro Nazareth, Chairman of the International Technical Committee. Here are a few excerpts from an interview with these two key ORC players: * What was the goal and task for ITC when they got the job to make the new ORC International rule? “ITC was addressed by ORC Management Committee at the beginning of 2007 with a very hard task: Deliver by 2008 a new VPP that will finally further correct the IMS typeforming factors in the direction to encourage fast and fun to sail boats; full compatibility with ORC club should still remain and IMS will stay only as the standard measurement system.” * Do you believe in a future with one common international Grand Prix rule? “We at ORC are fully convinced that if an International Grand Prix rule should be adopted it must be VPP-based and fully transparent for Designers, Skippers and Owners. We therefore trust that ORC International can be the one.” * Does such a rule in your eyes need to be VPP-based? “Yes, a VPP-based rule avoids the possibility to design special boats for just one event, the so-called ‘horses for courses’. It must be clear that the cooperation of very professional Race Organizers and Race Committees is very important to avoid any mistake in the application of any VPP rule, but when talking of a Grand Prix rule this should be a standard requirement.” Complete interview: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/08/0310/ J/122 FULL SPEED AHEAD The J/122 is one of J Boats’ hottest introductions ever. Just ask Andrew Weiss, owner of the J/122 "Christopher Dragon," who followed up his American Spring Series win with a Greenwich Cup win. For more information on how Doyle can power your boat to victory, contact your local Doyle loft, 800-94-DOYLE, http://www.doylesails.com SAILING SHORTS * Dinghy sailing on San Francisco bay can be like bike riding on a BMX dirt track. Typical conditions are unforgiving, and this was the case last weekend during the annual St Francis Yacht Club Spring Dinghy Regatta. Combine a 4.3 knot ebb tide with a steady 18 knots – gusting to 24 – and you have a landfield looking for victims. Photographer Chris Ray found many and has shared some images here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/08/0310 * The prizegiving ceremony for the 18 skippers of the first edition of the double-handed Barcelona World Race came to a conclusion on Saturday night after a spectacular and emotional hour-long ceremony amid a 2,500-strong audience and in the presence of the Mayor of Barcelona Jordi Hereu at the Auditorium of the Barcelona Forum. The second edition of the race starts winter 2010. -- http://www.barcelonaworldrace.org * Three weeks after the 103-foot maxi trimaran Groupama 3 capsized off New Zealand on February 18, 2008 in pursuit of the crewed, around the world record, it has been loaded onto a Dutch cargo ship for a five week trip to France. During this crossing, construction of a new mast will begin at Lorima, along with the construction of a new float at Multiplast in Vannes. However, conclusions still need to be determined as to the cause of the damage suffered to the port float, and what relevant modifications can be made to the starboard float, which was spared. -- http://www.cammas-groupama.com/en * Sailboat production declined by 5 per cent or 787 boats in 2007 to 14,158 units, compared to 14,945 units in 2006. The Sailing Company's annual North American Sailing Industry Study, compiled by Rick Walter MarketResearch Associates, also reported that production of sailboats below 20 feet dropped to five-year lows. Overall, this is the seventh straight year of decline for North American builders. The industry hit a high note in 2000 with 22,164 boats. -- IBI Magazine, read on: http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20080210155403ibinews.html LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or simplicity (letters shall be no longer than 250 words). You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot, don't whine if others disagree, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Doran Cushing: (RE: Keeping on the pressure to let multihulls race at the Olympics) Imagine NASCAR racing 40-year-old cars (i.e. Star keelboats). Imagine Tiger and the other pros using wooden shafts and "mashies" (470s). Ask how sailing is keeping up with the fastest growing sports...then ask why we're promoting 20th century technology in the 21st century. Dump the Laser, keep the Finn (if it carries more weight in ISAF, no pun intended). Put the women into skiffs for match racing. Yuengling is a likable beer, not a likable (Yngling) boat. * From Stephen A Van Dyck: Having known, worked, and sailed with billionaires, I continue to be amused by the pervasive astonishment among sailors regarding Mr. Bertarelli’s conduct. To me there is nothing surprising happening. It has been pretty clear since the Kiwi’s were excluded from the victory AC Press Conference that Mr. Bertarelli was going off course. There are all types of billionaires, but this one seems to have a gigantic ego. (And while Mr. B may or may not be a billionaire, his conduct sure fits that mould.) Particularly noticeable among billionaires is that they often want and get EVERYTHING their way. And they do not listen very much to anybody else. “Anybody else” is either on their payroll, is the enemy, or worse, a nobody. And, when faced with big/complicated challenges they love to unilaterally create a whole NEW simplified solution (change the game), rather than work cooperatively to improve the existing system. In this case it seems that his personal redesign of the event makes it all about him, his total control. Sure it is simple, he makes all the rules. It looks to be an attempt to transform him from a custodial winner of the Cup to “Mr. Americas Cup.” I have never met Larry Ellison, but I do admire his willingness and commitment to prevent a hijacking of the Cup. Likewise I have to admire Grant Dalton and his backers for saying enough is enough. Disappointing, yes. Sad, yes. Ugly, yes, but necessary. * From Kate MacDougall: This whole debacle currently known as the America's Cup is quite simple & straighforward if it were looked at from a logical perspective. Both Alinghi and Oracle should be thrown out of the competition under "Rule 69 - Gross Misconduct" as they are, quite simply and unquestionably, in "gross breach of good mannners or sportsmanship". Can't some governing body for the sport of sailing enforce this rule in order to maintain a positive reputation of sportsmanship, not only for sailing's highest and most sought after match racing competition, but for the sport of sailing in general. Enforcing this rule should have been done years ago, but now is as good a time as any to introduce and impose this rule upon the so-called sailing regatta known as the America's Cup. * From Ben Fuller: The first truly successful modern canting keeler is Red Herring, the late Van Alan Clark's Tony Hubbard (I think) design. Her current owner, Van's son Steve Clark told me that on the trial sail in November, Van put the boat about without shifting the keel. It was ugly and the angle was ferocious but she stayed upright which is what she was designed to do. And she was rigged with a pair of big winches to crank the keel over which we did some when her crew was young and stupid. Electricity has made that a little easier, but it is stored energy. As for Gary Hoyt’s innovative rig (from ‘Butt 2544), this looks a lot like a modern version of a balanced lug, which by the nature of the yard, is offset, has a clean leading edge etc. The Chinese use full battens with it. The interesting thing here is that the offset appears to be enough so that there is no bad tack: on one tack the sail is to weather of the mast, the other it's to leeward. Gary does not say it on his site, but perhaps should. There is a lot to explore in the land of the lug; Nigel Irens has done some with full batten standing lug rigs. The cleanest rig is a dipping lug but its not very handy. * From Chris Welsh: I love technology, but the canter motors are now computer controlled with different modes including roll tacking. At a talk about match racing 30 meter boats (Alfa Romeo and Wild Oats I think) in the Sydney- Hobart, the presenter described how they won the tacking duel because their keel came over 1-2 seconds faster than their sistership… bigger motor, better batteries, you win. The fair cure for canting keels is manual movement - hook the grinders to a hydraulic pump and get out the whips. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION You know you're a redneck when you go to the stock car races and don't need a program. Special thanks to North U and Doyle Sailmakers. A complete list of preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
