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SCUTTLEBUTT 1574 - May 3, 2004Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is adigest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere. PEYRON THROWS DOWN THE GAUNTLET "I challenge the skippers and owners of 'Giant Cats' this Summer to enter into a truly honourable fight, where fair play is the rule," proclaimed Bruno Peyron, skipper, Orange II. "One of the lessons that has been learnt from Geronimo's difficult trip is certainly the deep frustration caused by attempting a record attempt in very different weather conditions from her virtual competitors, which clearly does not allow for a fair fight. The only way to eliminate this element of chance is to agree to a direct confrontation and therefore to accept a truly competitive race. "I'm thus taking advantage of the finish of the circumnavigation by the latest Giant to throw down the gauntlet to all the G-Class boats, on the date of their choice and on the route they decide on, between the First of June and the 15th of August in Northern Europe or between the First and 30th of September in the Mediterranean. I hope that the first to accept this challenge will be one of the two fastest 'Giants' in the world, so that this duel will live up to the high ambitions of these exceptional craft." Peyron went on to explain the specific plans and goals for the Orange II team. "We now have a clearly defined task ahead of us for the winter of 2004-2005: that is winning back the Jules Verne Trophy and trying to beat the absolute WSSRC record. The whole of the Orange II team is up for it and the countdown has already begun." RUSSELL COUTTS After a year on the money trail, Alinghi skipper Russell Coutts is getting back to what he does best - sailing. Following the 5-0 whitewash over Team NZ in March last year, Coutts has spent much of the past year trying to secure money for the defense. However, now that Alinghi's budget, estimated to be around $190 million, is all but assured, Coutts is ready to get back behind the helm. In the next few months, Coutts who lives in the Swiss city of Lausanne, will compete in several major sailing events. First up is the Elba Cup in Italy, then the Farr 40 North American championships early next month, the Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand in July and the Nations Cup in Trieste in July. In between, Coutts will reacquaint himself with Alinghi's America's Cup-winning race boat, SUI64, in the UBS Trophy in June in Newport, Rhode Island, where Alinghi will battle Chris Dickson's Oracle BMW Racing in a series. It is there that Alinghi will officially launch their 2007 campaign. Coutts said it had not been decided who would helm the boat in the regatta. - Julie Ash, NZ Herald, full story: http://tinyurl.com/28tew T-SHIRTS FOR YOUR REGATTA Get your gear designed, printed and delivered by the leader in regatta supplies: * Tees from $5.00 * Hats from $4.00 * Polos from $15.00 Ask about our giveaway swag and keg sponsorships. For info and catalog, log on to http://www.pirateslair.com/ sailing AUDI STAR WORLDS Gaeta, Italy - A gloves-off last race of the 102-boat Star World Championships saw Freddy Loof and Anders Ekstrom of Sweden race Britons Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell down the fleet. Their eventual 27th and 28th places hurt the British pair more as they finished third overall while the Swedes added the world title to their recent European crown. - Tim Jeffery, http://tinyurl.com/2kscn Paul Cayard and Phil Trinter climbed the mountain from their dismasting in the first race to finish a very creditable fifth, three points ahead of Peter Bromby & Lee White from Bermuda. Unfortunately, the website does not go deeper than 10 places in the final standings: 1. SWE8141 Frederik Lööf & Anders Ekström 3 2 7 3 8 (27) -23 points 2. SUI8085 Flavio Marazzi & Enrico De Maria 4 (56) 8 13 3 4 - 32 points 3. GBR8025 Iain Percy & Steve Mitchell 1 22 2 9 4 (28) - 38 points 4. NED8028 Mark Neeleman & Peter Van Niekerk 10 1 1 19 11 (29)- 42 points 5. USA8159 Paul Cayard & Phil Trinter (103) 8 14 15 2 3 - 42 points 6. BER7988 Peter Bromby & Lee White 16 3 5 11 10 (103\DNS) - 45 points 7. DEN8179 Stig Westergaard & Vann Neergaard 9 12 17 (36) 20 2 - 60 points 8. FRA8107 Xavier Rohart & Pascal Rambeau (103\OCS) 26 20 2 9 6 - 63 points 9. NED8170 Roy Heiner & Alex Breuseker (20) 11 13 12 13 15 - 64 points 10. IRL8110 Mark Mansfield & Killian Collins 2 16 (37) 6 19 22 - 65 points Event website: http://www.starworld2004.com/ Some really amazing Carlo Borlenghi photos of the event have just been posted in our gallery: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/04/starworlds/ MATCH RACING Lake Garda - Perfect sailing conditions and warm sunshine for the last racing day of the ISAF grade 1 Garda Trentino open Match Race, organized by the Fraglia Vela. Jesper Radich (Denmark) won the event, defeating Ed Baird (USA) by 3-2. It was a tough and exciting duel - with shifting winds, a change of course, gear failure and a protest against the Race Committee discussed on the finish line. In the fourth match of the finals, Baird's mainsail halyard broke during the first beat and Radich, ahead by one boat length at the time, sailed to his second win. The Race Committee was forced to re-position the course for the decisive match of the finals. Radich was able to cross the finish line ahead of Baird, gaining in theory the final victory. Baird, however, protested the Race Committee for the starting procedure. While the crews returned to shore, the Jury and the Committee stayed out on the water to decide the outcome of the protest. Finally, Radich was able to celebrate with his crew - Rasmus Winston and Michael Arnhild. - Alessandra Ghezzi Final results: 1. Jesper Radich, DEN; 2. Ed Baird, USA; 3. Mathieu Richard, FRA; 4. Mark Campbell-James, GBR; 5. Paolo Cian, ITA; 6. Johnie Berntsson, SWE; 7. Ian Williams, GBR; 8. Michael Dunstan, AUS; 9. Andres Arbuzov, RUS; 10. Maxim Taranov, RUS. http://tinyurl.com/22h2e * The next stop on the Match Racing circuit is the Toscana Elba Cup (Swedish Match Tour) which starts today in Porto Azzurro, Elba Island, Italy. The players are: Ed Baird/ USA; Gavin Brady/ NZL; Paolo Cian/ ITA; Russell Coutts/ NZL; John Cutler/ NZL; Michael Dunstan/ AUS; Peter Gilmour/ AUS; Magnus Holmberg/ SWE; Karol Jablonski/ POL; Bertrand Pacé/ FRA; Philippe Presti/ FRA; Jesper Radich/ DEN. - www.swedishmatchtour.com/ SEMAINE OLYMPIQUE FRANÇAISE Hyères, France - A total of 16 countries are sharing the 33 medals at the huge Hyeres Olympic Week, including two USA teams. The Brits won a total of five medals, one gold (Shirley Robertson - Yngling), one silver and three bronze, and four American sailing teams finished in the top five of their events. Top U.S. finishers: Tornado 2. Lovell/ Ogletree; Yngling: 3. Barkow/ Howe/ Capozzi. 49er: 4. Wadlow/ Spaulding; 470 Men: 5. Foerster/ Burnham; 470 Women: 34. McDowell/ Kinsolving; Europe: 21. Gaillard; Laser: 12. Mendelblatt; Mistral Men: 10. Barger. - www.ussailing.org/ Event website: http://hyeres.ffvoile.net/ TEAM MAGIC MARINE PREPARING FOR ATHENS Olympic hopefuls Meg Gaillard, Mark Mendelblatt and Tim Wadlow/ Pete Spaulding are competing in Europe this spring to train against the world's best in preparation for the Olympics this summer. View their progress or find a dealer at http://www.magicmarinegear.com You don't have to be headed to Athens to own Magic Marine! ANTIGUA SAILING WEEK The 200-boat Antigua Sailing Week ended with a bang Friday. Rain and cloud greeted the fleet but as the day wore on the clouds gave way to Caribbean sunshine. Winds moderated slightly and averaged 23 knots but 28-knot gusts were seen after the start. Big seas made it hard going for even the big boats let alone the small ones. In Big Boat Racing I, Roy E. Disney's Pyewacket took the gun today after a week of being Morning Glory's bridesmaid. Unfortunately it was too little too late and Dr. Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory took the class prize leading Pyewacket by six points at the final tally. In Big Boat II, Clay Deutsch's Swan 68 Chippewa won the class by one point over Alex Hoffmann's Swan 86, while Robert Sturgeon's Transpac 52 Rosebud won the final race and a one point Racing III victory over Nick Lykiardopulo's Kerr 55 Aera from the UK. Complete results: http://www.sailingweek.com/asw2004/news2004.html Curmudgeon's Comment: Professional photographers Rick Tomlinson, Thierry Martinez and Daniel Forster have provided the 'Buttheads sixty reasons why we should all attend Antigua Sailing Week next year. Enjoy the new additions to this great gallery: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/04/antiguasw/ NEWS BRIEFS * More than 1,400 sailors competed this past weekend in the largest field ever in the 17-year history of Sailing World National Offshore One Design Regatta. Maryland sailors won 13 of the 19 classes in this three-day stop in Annapolis with record 292 boats. Annapolis' Scott Nixon had the biggest challenge of the local winners as he survived the J/ 22 fleet, which had the largest field of any class with 81 boats. Nixon never relinquished his first day lead to win his class by 13 points over David Van Cleef. Complete results: www.sailingworld.com * There will be 140 teams from 43 Nations racing this week at the 470 World Championships at the S.C. Uskok, Zadar Croatia. This is the final 470 Class Olympic Qualification regatta for 2004 with six Olympic slots to be decided in the Men's division and five in the Women's competition. http://www.uskok.biz.hr/470wc2004/index.htm * A press conference is scheduled for Wednesday, May 12, to launch a new project of French syndicate for the 32nd America's Cup. Christened Grand Sud Challenge, the new team should to be leaded by Alain Fédensieu who was member of the K-Challenge (he was head of logistics and "Sport Consultant"). Winner of the 1994 Tour de France à la Voile (15 participations in the event), Alain Fédensieu was part of the Corum Sailing Team (with Pierre Mas, Bertrand Pacé and Luc Gelluseau) which have represented the French International keelboat scene for several years. - Cup in Europe website, full story: www.cupineurope.com/LatestNews/2007-SudEN.htm * The Commodore of the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria, Colin Johnston, today confirmed that prominent club member and successful racing yachtsman Graeme Paul had died after falling overboard from his yacht during yesterday's second heat of the Association Challenge Cup on Melbourne's Port Phillip. As a mark of respect, the RYCV cancelled today's third and fourth heats of the Association Challenge Cup. - Sail-world website, full story: http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?SEID=0&Nid=13354 * During the month of April, the Club Library on the Scuttlebutt website put forty-seven more books on the shelves, raising the library inventory to 207 titles. Need a good read? Check out the new entries or any of the books listed by both title and author. http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/books PAIN-FREE SPRING SAILING Bruised shins, skinned knees, dinged butts and burned fingers can be more annoying than a foul tide under the Golden Gate Bridge. Sore is slow! Start this year's sailing season with Sailing Angles Knee Sleeve and shin protectors, Fanny and Knee Fenders™ and the great sailing shorts and long pants that they fit into. Kontrol gloves with palm wrap will offer aggressive gripped line control and exquisite palm and finger protection as no other. New Aloha Navy and Aloha Silver shorts have just arrived! Start a bruise-free sailing season - order today at APS, Layline, and http://www.sailingangles.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com) (Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is not a chat room nor a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Ted Jones (former USYRU offshore director): It's "deja vu all over again." U.S. Sailing seems bent upon recreating the 1970s when a few establishment types were able to scuttle the IOR in the U.S. Only Olin Stephens' prestigious chairmanship of the International Technical Committee got the Americans to the table at all, yet the presence of a few non-believing U.S. delegates was akin to having the fox in the hen house. Among those expressing opposition to the obstructionist's views was Mark H. Baxter, late father of U.S. Sailing President Janet Baxter. Mark was an ORC committee delegate and chairman of the USYRU offshore administrative committee. I reported to Mark, and when our views -- shared by several other ORC committee members -- were perceived to have become a threat, I was fired and Mark was relieved of his chairmanship. With dissent neutralized, IOR and the (international) ORC soon were rendered impotent as the USYRU Offshore Committee foisted IMS upon the rest of the world with predictably disastrous results. Here we are 30-odd years later, still looking for an internationally based solution and the U.S. is opting out of the discussions. Please Janet, don't let the disasters of 30 years ago be visited upon us again. Grab your organization by the spreaders and shake some sense into it. Stay engaged before U.S. offshore sailors find themselves, once again, on the outside looking in. * From Antony Barran: Over the last several weeks scuttlebutt has had several members of the US Sailing Offshore Committee either deriding the decision to become the US agent of IRC or IRC itself in letters to the editor. Now we've learned that they've gone so far as to pull from the RWP. I find this shocking. It seems to me as though there is a vacuum that the Offshore Committee is not filling: the demand that currently exists. Americap is now a three race rule; and lacks a popular base of support. IRC, on the other hand has over 5,000 certificates in the UK alone. Instead of worrying which rule is technically better, maybe we should join the rest of the world and play using rules that are truly International. But to do that would mean a significant change in the Offshore Committee. Frankly, they need to stop the internal court politics and actually find out what the owners want. I am planning on attending the Big Boat Series in the fall and am very concerned that they are more focused on proving that their ideas are the better than everyone else's, than they in growing measured rule racing in general, and great sailing at one of the West Coast's premier regattas specifically. * From John McNeill: With all this talk of the proper training regimen, the thought occurred to me that there are some specific differences to perfect operations under any particular point of sail, and perfect transitions from one to another. To achieve the best possible skills in the tactics of tacking, jibing, or surfing downwind, it would seem one could benefit from long repetitions of the action, just to hone the 'basics'. On the other hand, to perfect the transitions that occur in real racing, such as jibing and rounding a downwind mark, it requires practice of a more realistic simulative nature. As with most of life there is no room for extremes. Both exercises are important to honing skills. * From Andy Colloton: Practice does not make perfect, practice makes permanent. Whichever way you practice, that is what you will learn. * From David Munge (edited to our 250-word limit): It was very interesting to read Dick Schmidt's article, plus the revered Gus Miller's response. Of course Kevin Hall would not use the Miami/ Lauderdale track as training unless he felt there was a gain to be had. Time in the boat has always been a vital ingredient to all serious sailors, for one it is very difficult to replicate, in a gym, the exercise that you get whilst sailing. The immediate gain on such a long course, that I could see, would be the constant supply of similar waves, on any given day, and in between the waves is time for introspection/ feedback, that Dick Schmidt talks about. Finn/ Laser sailing has always had a element of sack cloth and ashes about it, so essential to building stamina. Top Class marathon runners apparently will run 150/ 175 miles a week in training, a marathon a day, so that on race day they are replicating just another day in the office. Kevin Hall, as we now know has overcome Cancer, and it might well be that the personal disciplines needed to overcome Cancer, and the discipline required to work really hard on the Miami to Lauderdale track, might in some way be similar. Lance Armstrong only started to win The Tour de France after surviving Cancer. Just as I am sure Dick Schmidt is right, Kevin Hall is also right, as for certain Kevin will adopt other training methods to sharpen up other areas, tacking, and gybing for instance. * From Simon Smith. Auckland New Zealand (edited to our 250-word limit): I have followed the seventh race of the 1983 America's Cup commentary on Scuttlebutt with much interest. It was a tremendous race as people have pointed out, two divergent yachts in design, two superb crews, and three all with the seventh and final race the decider. It had everything! However what has not been mentioned was the interest it created for and how it captivated the non-yachting public. The 1983 campaign created hundreds of thousands of couch yachties who in their post race analysis argued over each and every tack, gybe, wind-shift, kite hoist, cover etc and oh why so and so won or lost. The reception in Aussie Rules Melbourne after the Aussie Two victory was absolutely unbelievable- thousands on the cities streets and in cars celebrating.... and only one in 1000 would have had any real, sailing knowledge and this is my point. That race and indeed the whole campaign boosted sailing to an all time high in Australia. It really brought (in a cliche) sailing to the forefront of a sports mad country. That can only have been tremendous for our sport. I too saw the same reception when N.Z. won the Americas cup and returned to Auckland. Estimates of 300-450 thousand people lining the streets of a city of 1 million people. The two crews of the 1983 Cup campaign delivered one of the true highlights of sailing history and showed to non believers how exciting sailing can really be. Curmudgeon's Comments: Those who have enjoyed this journey back to 1983 will want to see the drawings and photos and comments we've just posted on our website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/04/1983acup/ Another Curmudgeon's Comment: I thought if I was patient enough, this thread would simply die of natural causes … but once again I erred. So let me correct that mistake now and declare this thread officially dead. Enjoy the photos and drawings. THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning. |
