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SCUTTLEBUTT 2058 - March 24, 2006Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.ONE OF THE KIDS In the Volvo Ocean Race, seven of the eleven crew members on ABN Amro Two had been chosen through a selection process that began with 1,800 resumes. 80 candidates were invited to try out, which was eventually narrowed down to these seven. Scuttlebutt caught up with one of the ABN Amro Two crew who emerged through the selection trials, American George Peet, to find out how this unique team was doing at the midpoint of the race. Scuttlebutt: Did the crew selection process prepare you for what you have experienced thus far? George Peet: The crew selection was really pretty weak, especially the first trial in Miami. Hans Hoorevoets (who now sails with us), Maurice Pardenkooper (Dutch Olympic coach), and Roy Heiner were our selectors, and I think they were mainly looking for raw sailing talent but also personalities. Both Roy and Hans having done the Volvo in the past, and I think they realized the need for a group of people who could get along and would share a common goal, as well as the idea that most of the sailing can be learned as long as the fundamentals were in place. Hence the selection of a team of nearly all dinghy sailors. So at the end of the day, the selection period really had no bearing at all on the preparation for the Volvo, but only the selection for the second team. Scuttlebutt: At this stage of the race, some of the other teams seem to be having trouble with their crew chemistry. Do you think your crew trials have helped to insure that ABN Amro Two meshes as a team? George Peet: The crew selection didn’t “insure chemistry.” I mean, we have had two guys quit since the beginning. I do think it was advantageous, however, to have a team of unproven guys. We all want to be here, so I think we do a better job of not only sailing but also making sure that we get along. We realized early on that it would be a long trip around if we hated each other, so we have all made a big effort to become friends and know each other really well. Being very close in age also helps. Even though we have a very international group, our interests are very similar. Scuttlebutt: What has been your biggest surprise so far? George Peet: I think the biggest surprise is how well we are doing. During our two boat testing we performed a lot 8 minute tests where ABN One would always be 60 meters up and 300+ ahead or downwind 80 down and 200 ahead. Sometimes it was really bad and we would hear Stan Honey say, “Abort, we have lost telemetry, we’ll need to re-do this pair.” These testing periods, coupled with our crew mistakes while learning to sail the boat, plus having the likes of Paul Cayard and Bouwie Bekking show up, was pretty intimidating. However, the best thing about our team is that there was never any self doubt. We knew that we had a fast boat and good sails, especially after the first leg. ~ Read the rest of this interview: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/06/gp GOING TO THE BENCH ABN Amro Two confirmed two crew changes for both the Rio de Janeiro in port race and Leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race, due to crew injuries sustained on previous legs. Nick Bice, 28, watch captain and one of the original four ‘professionals’ aboard ABN Amro Two sustained a broken hand during the last leg from Wellington to Rio de Janeiro and will be replaced until Baltimore by Yves Leblevec, a French Figaro sailor and world record holder with maxi catamaran - Orange II. Gerd Jan Poortman, upon visiting a specialist in the Netherlands, was diagnosed with a fractured vertebrae, sustained when he was thrown down the deck and collided with the daggerboard during a rough night on leg 3. Poortman missed the last leg from Wellington to Rio and is now expected to rejoin the crew in Baltimore, a little later than previously anticipated. Lucas Brun, 22, from Brazil, who was the first Brazilian to sail into home soil and the youngest competitor on this race remains onboard ABN Amro Two in Poortman’s place. As the crew still have a vacant 11th man position for the in port race, on Saturday 25th March Neil Cox, Team ABN Amro’s boat captain will take up the final place on board. ~ www.abnamro.com/team TRENDS The World Tour Match Racing is more than halfway through its season and a noticeable trend is the high participation rate. Through five of nine events 39 teams have competed at least once. Four teams have done three events and only two teams have done four events. No one has raced all five. The end result is that the world championship is still wide open. Peter Gilmour (AUS), PST, leads with 48 points, but Ben Ainslie (GBR), Emirates Team New Zealand, is just 3 points behind in second and Staffan Lindberg (FIN), Alandia Sailing Team, is 9 points behind in third. Gilmour was scheduled to compete in Brazil, but visa problems kept him at home in Perth. It was an unfortunate problem for Gilmour, the two-time, reigning tour champion, but one that will keep the leaderboard tight. It was Gilmour’s second drop of the year, leaving him vulnerable to overtaking if he falters in a few events. ~ http://www.worldmatchracingtour.com/default.asp?m=da&id=32960 JOIN THE WORLD'S LARGEST SAILMAKER North Sails is looking for motivated and reliable people to join their service team in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Sailmaking experience is preferred, but not required - they will train the right people. North Sails offers a competitive salary, excellent benefits (health insurance, 401k, paid vacation time, etc.) and a fun work environment. If you would like to join the North Sails family and are ready to work hard during the busy sailing season ahead, send an email to: dolph@service.northsails.com or visit http://na.northsails.com CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE COMMUNITY Anacortes, Washington -- Carmel Whitham uses her fingers and pencils to help third-grader Nathan Rude work through a subtraction problem. “Excellent, that was great,” she says as he writes down the correct answer. She praises Rude as he completes the worksheet of math problems, helping him when he gets stuck. Whitham, a volunteer at Fidalgo Elementary School, is planning to bring flash cards next week to do some practicing. Whitham, who is from New Zealand, is one of several international volunteers in the school district whose partners are here working on the BMW Oracle America’s Cup boat. The first hull was transported to Spain in late February and work on the second will begin soon. “Not only are they here building a boat, they’re making a contribution to the community,” said Jayne Branch, volunteer coordinator. “We feel really blessed these women have stepped forward and are willing to help in any way they can.” While parents with children in the district jumped in to help, four volunteers without children and backgrounds in teaching also stepped up. The ones that didn’t have children to automatically connect them to the community now feel connected in a unique way,” Branch said. ~ Excerpt from a story by Kimberly Jacobson, Anacortes American, full story: http://www.goanacortes.com/articles/2006/03/22/news/news01.txt CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar DANIEL AND STUNZI TOP CATS Pensacola Beach Yacht Club, FL -- Robbie Daniel (Clearwater, Fla.) and Hunter Stunzi (Marblehead, Mass.) have won the 2006 U.S. Multihull Championship for US Sailing’s Hobie Alter Cup. Competition was close throughout the five-day event and the team fought vigorously for its win. With the top three finishers posting consistently solid results, second place finishers Nigel Pitt (Harwell, Ga.) and Alex Shafer (Eustis, Fla.) had been in contention for the top spot from the beginning of the regatta. Last year's winners Greg Thomas and Jacques Bernier finished third overall. The winners clearly enjoyed sailing the Nacra 20, a powerful jib, main and spinnaker platform they felt was similar to the Tornado in many respects. Like the rest of the fleet, they also expressed an appreciation for the rotation format that has been developed to self-seed the competitors from heat to heat. This modified round-robin keeps the top sailors sailing head to head as they rotate through each one of the provided boats. Final results (9 races with 1 discard - 20 boats): 1. Robbie Daniel/ Hunter Stunzi, 15; 2. Alex Shafer/ Nigel Pitt, 19; 3. Greg Thomas/ Jacques Bernier, 24; 4. John Casey/ Kenny Pierce, 31; 5. John Tomko/ Ian Billings, 36; 6. Robert Curry/ Bret Moss, 36.2. ~ http://www.ussailing.org/championships/adult/usmhc/ PETER HOLMBERG RULES There was beautiful weather for the first flights of the Marseille International Match Race where the wind was 15 - 20 knots with a heavy swell in the morning which fell off slightly in the afternoon. 30 matches - 10 flights - were raced with the following results: 1. Peter Holmberg, 7-0 2. Philippe Presti, 5-2 3. Dimitri Deruelle, 4-3 4. Sébastien Col, 3-1 5. Mathieu Richard, 3-3 5. Eugeny Neugodnikov, 3-3 7. Paolo Cian, 2-4 8. Jes Gram-Hansen, 2-5 9. Staffan Lindberg, 1-3 10. Matteo Simoncelli, 0-6 Follow the racing live on www.ycpr.com ICEBOATING With all the recent talk about Olympic sailing, there is a new thread in the Scuttlebutt Forums that has us wondering: why not iceboating? Here is the post: "If they can do freakin' curling, then how about Iceboating as a Winter Olympic Sport? It’s got it all; thrills (over 50 in a DN and close to 100 in a Nite), chills (wind chills that is), and spills (occasionally). It would be a great TV sport and on-board cams would give you the shake and the thunder and the incredible crossings. So, what d'ya think?” Read the thread and post your comments here: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/0323 NEWS BRIEFS * Melbourne, FL -- Sunfish Midwinters final results (9 races with 1 discard - 74 boats): 1. David Mendelblatt, 19; 2. Derek Jackson, 49; 3. Donald Martinbrough, 54; 4. Chip Clifton, 58, 5. Jeff Olson, 61; 6. Todd Edwards, 73; 7. Nancy Heffernan, 75; 8. Chris Williams, 83; 9. Tom Whitehurst, 85; 10. Dick Tillman, 91. ~ http://www.sail-race.com/dinghy/2006midwinters-results2.htm * US Sailing has named Roy E. Disney as its US Sailor of the Week. When the Olympic Sailing Committee began its Medalist Donor Program to raise money for our US Sailing Team, Disney had already been a long time supporter of junior sailing and individuals campaigning to compete in the Olympics. Recently retired from racing, Roy’s racing career included campaigning his yachts, Shamrock and Pyewacket, worldwide, setting records including the 2002 Newport to Bermuda Race and the 1999 Transpac. Disney is US Sailing’s first Gold Medalist donor. ~ www.ussailing.org * Two new marina facilities just minutes from the America's Cup race courses will add over 600 new berths to the Port America's Cup. This is in addition to more than 40 'Superyacht' berths already set up in the Port. The North and South marinas are currently under construction and will be opened separately, with the 160-berth North Marina ready to receive boats for the Valencia Louis Vuitton Acts 10 & 11, beginning on May 11. The South Marina (approximately 500 berths) will open by January 1 2007. The two facilities are designed to accommodate 12 to 29-metre boats. ~ www.americascup.com * The 110-foot maxi-trimaran Geronimo has been hauled out of the water at Driscoll Boat Works in San Diego in preparation of skipper Olivier de Kersauson’s attempt to add another record in April as they sail from San Francisco to Yokohama, Japan. Check out the images: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/06/0323/ * The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy is hosting a Bermuda Race Seminar on Sunday, April 9th in Kings Point, NY. This is not a Safety at Sea Seminar, but instead a seminar designed to get your team to Bermuda faster! The speakers on hand were chosen for their accomplishments on the Offshore and Ocean races as well as their ability to present their knowledge in a captivating, concise manner. ~ http://www.usmma.edu/waterfront/RaceSeminarflyer.swf * After 60 days and 5 hours, Mike Horn and Borge Ousland are the first men ever to walk 1000km to the North Pole unassisted in the Arctic winter. On January 22nd, they set off on the first ever attempt to walk to the North Pole in the sunless Arctic winter, unassisted by machines or dogs. Thursday at 1600 GMT they arrived at the North Pole. We had to walk days on end in complete darkness, had several encounters with polar bears, and swam many times across open leads, all this in extremely cold temperatures getting as low as -50°C. ~ http://www.mikehornnorthpole.com * The third day of the Volvo Extreme 40 Grand Prix in Rio provided an exciting spectacle for the Volvo Ocean Race Village. Sailing close to shore in 10-14 knots of wind the five Volvo Extreme 40’s enjoyed close racing with plenty of jostling for the podium positions and each race saw a different team take line honours. Standings after 11 races: 1. Basilica, Alister Richardson (GBR), 91 pts; 2. Motorola – CHR, Leigh McMillan (GBR), 79 pts; 3. Tommy Hilfiger, Randy Smyth (USA), 66 pts; 4. Holmatro, Mitch Booth (AUS), 64 pts; 5. Volvo Ocean Race, Diogo Cayolla (POR), 63 pts. ~ www.volvoextreme40.org * The NZL Yachting Trust is supporting the introduction of IRC into New Zealand with an incentive offer for boat owners. Owners can receive a subsidy of up to $300. Yachting New Zealand has offered IRC since January this year following a decision from the Keelboat and Offshore Racing Committee to introduce the measurement based rating system to New Zealand. The NZL Yachting Trust is behind the move to the IRC system and believes we should move with other nations as IRC continues to become adopted more widely internationally. ~ Sail-World website, full story: www.sail-world.com/news.cfm?Nid=22435&SRCID=3&RequestTimeOut=180&hasFlas h=1 * Entry applications for the Centennial Bermuda Race are now up to 256 and still climbing. The previous record entry total was 182 set in 1982 and 2002. The amateur driven St. David’s Lighthouse Division, formerly called the Cruiser/Racers, leads the fleet with 128 applicants. The Cruiser Division, an amateur racing division for boats designed and used more for offshore passage-making rather than racing, is the second largest with 54 applicants. Next is the Double-Handed Division with 18, followed by the professionally crewed Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Division, formerly the Racing Division, with 17. ~ http://www.bermudarace.com/ * The United Internet Team Germany will kick off the new regatta season clad in a brand-new outfit: Italian company Murphy & Nye will supply the German challenger of the 32nd America's Cup with clothing. As their official clothing supplier, Murphy & Nye provides the team with functional sailing wear as well as leisure and evening clothes. The partners have also agreed that Murphy&Nye will manufacture a replica line of the team collection that will be available to all fans of the first German America's Cup campaign. ~ www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j6,Fh/?Bw * With more boats pre-registered than ever before, the 33rd annual International Rolex Regatta is counting down to the start of competition, which runs from Friday, March 24, through Sunday, March 26. To date, over 80 boats are signed up, with a good number hailing from the U.S. mainland, Canada, England, France, Holland, Ireland, Italy and Switzerland and the balance coming from St. Thomas, Antigua, Tortola, St. Martin, Puerto Rico and other nearby islands. ~ www.rolexcupregatta.com SALSA IN SOUTH BEACH NER congratulates the recent Miami Race Week winners! Most boats using NER's Salsa, Endura Braid, and V100 showed exceptional speed as the result of precisely controlling sail shape by reducing or eliminating stretch. Next on the horizon is the US Women's Open in Marion, MA. New England Ropes is official cordage supplier to this inaugural event for the J/24 class. Look for Team NER at your next race event, or ask for their products by name at your favorite rigger or retailer. Others make line, we make line perform. http://www/neropes.com WHERE IS IT NOW The Jayhawk has been moored above the Arkansas River for 12 years now, and the Kansas sun and wind have taken their toll. The high-tech sailing yacht, used by former Wichitan Bill Koch during his successful 1992 America's Cup campaign, needs about $150,000 in repairs. Koch left enough money - about $226,000 remains - to cover that expense. The Jayhawk was the first boat built for the team led by Koch. Although it raced in the America's Cup trials, it didn't perform as well as his subsequent yachts. Koch donated the Jayhawk to the Boathouse a few months after he retired it. It has sat behind the Boathouse, near the river, since the building opened in 1994. The Boathouse became city property in 1997. The wind strains the mast and has worn out the rigging, according to a city report. The Wichita City Council will consider ordering the repair sometime in the next few weeks. - Dan Voorhis, The Wichita Eagle, full story: http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/14127263.htm LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. And please save your bashing, and personal attacks for elsewhere. For those that prefer a Forum, you can post your thoughts at the Scuttlebutt website: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi) * From David Redfern: Here's a bit of trivia - where did this expression first appear? "When you are tired of the sea, put an oar on your shoulder and walk inland. When someone says, 'what's that', you can settle down". Answer: The Greek Odyssey by Homer - 800 BC, * From V. C. Jones: Joshua Slocum's vessel in Sailing Alone Around the World was just plain "Spray" not "The Spray". There is a photo of her transom with the name Sprat - Boston in one of the books about his voyages (by Walter Magnes Teller). Her design has been much copied by folks looking for a comfortable, sea-worthy and traditional sailing craft, but she will cost much more than the $553.62 that he mentions for materials, plus 13 months of his own labor. His voyages have inspired hundreds if not thousands of adventurers. * From Bill McNaughton: Although your trivia question is just over a month early-- Joshua Slocum started his voyage on April 24, 1895,--in the midst of the current Volvo and with competitors building boats for the next solo circumnavigation race it is an interesting reminder of how "far" sailing has come since Slocum accomplished his voyage and in a sense "started" one aspect of our sport. Over 100 years later his book recounting his voyage,"Sailing Alone Around the World" is still in print and an interesting read. * From Dave Moores: Paul Kueffner (Scuttlebutt Letters) thinks PHRF is every bit as good as IRC. In my own local region there is mounting concern about PHRF, and this surrounds the whole process, not necessarily the ratings. As applied here the process of setting ratings and judging appeals is opaque and byzantine. And, you know, this is not the fault of the people running things, it's inherent in the way PHRF works. IRC is way less subjective, the ratings seem generally fair, and that's what people like. So far it has avoided the pitfall of being type-forming, which measurement rules can fall into. Once the price of IRC comes down, and I trust that over time it will, PHRF will be quietly laid to rest, because now there is a better way: Just the opinion of an ordinary club racer who has no affiliation to IRC. * From Robert Hughes: I was very surprised to see the story about "Genuine Risk" having better days. I do not see the value or newsworthy status of pointing out when a owner decides to not sail a boat? I'm sure that Mr. Pittman has spent an incredible amount of money in the sailing industry that supported many people. The fact that he was brave enough to push the incredible new sailing technology benefits us all. We need more owners in this sport, not less, so why publish negative stories that are not really news? CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION Panhandler's sign observed in Washington DC: I'm not lazy; I'm waiting for my disability. Special thanks to North Sails and New England Ropes. |
