South Beach nightlife

Okay, we're guilty of putting up a video that has nothing to do with sailing. But it's Friday, and this video follows three hotties as they dive into South Beach (FL) nightlife. Join them for lemon-drop shots, dancing on tables and hopping club-to-club in a stretch Hummer limo.

Internet brings Cup to life

“I am sick of the America’s Cup.” Yes, we have heard this before, often when folks find that there is too much attention given to the event in Scuttlebutt. We admit that our interest wavers at times, and it doesn’t help when there is a lot of negative energy surrounding the event, i.e., the winds are bad, the city is a sewer, ACM is a pain, the national teams are full of foreigners, the event is elitist, the boat’s are ridiculous, match racing is boring… yada, yada, yada. However, the breeze is blowing again, the boats are racing, and admit it, any one of us would give our full kit of sailing gear to be turning the handles in an America’s Cup race.

What is saving this event, in our eyes, is the Internet. Live television isn’t yet available in the U.S., and that’s okay. Sailing is a slow game to watch, and following some of the Challenger series’ mismatches won’t heighten your interest. TV also has a bad habit of dumbing down the sport, and their on-air broadcasters are often too proper. But the Internet is changing this, bringing the fun back, and letting us appreciate the game. Reading the on-course updates by Mark Chisnell and James Boyd, and listening to the radio commentary by the team of Dee Smith, Geordie Shaver, Matthew Sheahan, and Peter Rusch is… entertaining. Races like the one between Luna Rosa and Emirates Team New Zealand on Thursday are coming alive online. Give it a chance. And, btw, if ACM legal counsel Ana Gil-Robles is offended by anything in this post, you know where to find us. -- Scuttleblog

Here is a list of the Internet links: www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/acup

Coast Guard rescue

Just another day at the office for Coast Guard Air Station Houston, who are shown in this video hoisting 4 people to safety after their boat goes over the Colorado River dam in Bay City, TX.

Done Wrong

After 4 days of postponements, and seeing countless photos of high-priced America’s Cup talent sitting all day under cockpit biminis, lounging in the stern cut out, or napping on the foredeck, it makes you wonder why it is done this way. How come these teams don’t side-tie to some sort of floating compound – like a sweet 100+ foot yacht – and wait there? Set-up some work stations, get indoors and away from the sun, maybe even a conference room with a projector.

SAIL scribe Kimball Livingston posed this question to Johan Barne, navigator for Sweden's Victory Challenge, who replied, "There's no rule that requires the crew to stay on the raceboats while we're waiting for wind, but that's how we do it. We're a team. We can't afford to stop thinking about what we're there for, and everybody wants to be ready to go in minutes if something happens." There’s got to be a better way. How about when the postponement flag drops, you have the back-ups on the boat, they raise the sails while the first string finishes their final debrief? Now that’s a team!

Google gets you there

We suspect that once most of us settle into a city, we develop a pattern of where we go. We go to work, school, favorite restaurants, friend’s homes, etc. When we deviate from this pattern, getting directions has never been easier. The Scuttlebutt website has a banner link for Google Maps, which is not there because Google is paying big bucks to the Curmudgeon, but rather for the convenience of the Scuttlebutt website visitor. A reader suggested that we check to see if Google Maps could provide directions from New York to London. No problem, but we were a bit shocked at how many steps it took to complete the route - 63 steps. Heck, the simplest step was #24, which said, “Swim across the Atlantic Ocean - 3,462 miles.”

Media Frenzy

With eleven teams in contention, the winner of Tuesday’s race was the Luna Rossa Challenge 2007. Sure, the wind no-showed again, but that is not what the 32nd America’s Cup is all about. This event is going to be known for its immense Internet media presence, and the press release people for the Italian team were the first to send Scuttlebutt their daily email update. The other teams were soon to follow, and it is this stack of minutia that we filter through daily now that the event has officially started.

Each team’s media departments are part of the food chain for all the press outlets that are following this rendition of the America’s Cup. While Scuttlebutt’s regular online media sources have all ramped up for the event, there are plenty of newbies on the scene. Blog sites have made it inexpensive to enter the print field, and if the TV commentators can be half as amusing as some of the observations being provided, we are all in for an entertaining twelve weeks. Here are a few:

=> Rule 69 Blog (rule69blog.com) Yachting commentator Magnus Wheatley has launched his site along with the start of the Cup, but expects to be around long after it. Look for his views to be lively and engaging, whilst not avoiding anything uncomfortable.

=> Got Live (sailmagazine.blogspot.com) SAIL West Coast editor Kimball Livingston is now in Valencia providing entertaining and informative posts that will undoubtedly help to paint the complete picture for the faithful cup followers.

=> Mark Chisnell (markchisnell.blogspot.com) Professional sailor and writer Mark Chisnell provides daily play-by-play in his 'Tack by Tack' site (see below), and then nicely ties it together in this blog.

=> Tack by Tack (tackbytack.com) Professional sailor and writer Mark Chisnell is following the races, and typing minute-by-minute updates where he interjects his humor and experience to make for a good read.

=> Sail Juice (sailjuice.blogspot.com) Journalist Andy Rice is among the writers contributing to the official event site, and has also started this blog to provide his additional personal insight.

=> Thoughts from the Blue (peterlester.co.nz) This is the personal website and blog of Peter Lester, New Zealand based sailing consultant, Americas Cup commentator and elite yachting coach.

=> Valencia Sailing (valenciasailing.blogspot.com) Among the grand daddies of the 32nd ACUP bloggers, Pierre Orphanidis' photos and reporting have helped to keep the event alive during the long training and preparation cycle.

=> BMW Oracle Racing Team Blog (blog.bmworacleracing.com) BOR team member Tom Ehman has taken on the task of providing both insightful posts on his team along with an insider’s glance at the event.

=> AC 32 Challenger Commission (challengercommission.com) Tom Ehman’s role with the Challenger Commission includes updating this site with postings of "official" documents to alert team and cup followers of their existence and nature.

=> Cup in Europe (Cupineurope.com) Formerly the Hauraki News, this site posts news from various sources on all America's Cup related subjects.

=> Cup Info (cupinfo.com) Providing numerous links for America's Cup news and information, along with updates from third party media outlets.

If we left out any sites, don't hesitate to send an email.

Coach Boat Accident

The priority given to coaching at Olympic-level events (or even some junior events) is evidenced by how many RIBS are now seen at these events. The entourage-factor is alive and well, and the logistics of dealing not only with the competitors and their gear, but now also with the extra support people and their boats/ trailers, has likely stretched most event organizers.

There are other problems with this new reality, as was relayed by American Anna Tunnicliffe, who commented on a RIB-related accident that occurred in her Laser Radial fleet last week at the 38 Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofia – Mapfre in Palma de Mallorca, Spain:

“I want to send my best wishes to Poland’s Katarzyna Szotynska for a fast and speedy recovery from her accident half way through the (Palma) regatta. Katarzyna spent four days in hospital after her hand was jammed between two Lasers while towing. Two coach boats sped past either side of a line of towed Lasers and their wash flung the Lasers together trapping and injuring Katarzyna’s hand. It should never have happened and it’s a very important lesson for all coaches and support boats to control their wakes and stay clear of towed boats.”

It was August 2002 in Greece when the United States' top female boardsailor, Kimberly Birkenfeld, suffered severe brain and spinal injuries when she was run over by a coach boat. Szotynska, who is a 3-time Laser Radial Womens World Champion, was injured after the second race in Palma, and God knows how many other folks have been injured or otherwise affected in the years in between. Hmm…maybe change is not always a good thing.

Permission Denied

When the +39 Challenge lost their rig in the second day of ACT 13 last week, the noise of the mast breaking was nearly simultaneous with the sound of their balloon popping. For a team that has so much talent but so little money, they had been walking a tight-rope for months, and it now appears that they have fallen off as they approached the weather mark on that breezy Wednesday afternoon. When United Internet Team Germany misjudged their port/ starboard duck with +39 - and their rigs clipped - it led to the destruction of the Italians only competitive mast.

Following the foul, the Germans have done everything possible to right their wrong, including the gift of a replacement mast to the +39 team. When masts cost more than a half million dollars, and take months to build to the very custom standards of each team, this gift was the only means to keep +39 on pace with the field. However, true to the rules of the Cup, this was a breach of the Protocol that requires all equipment to be designed by the team. Changes of the Protocol occur all the time, and to get +39 back on the start line, a Protocol change would be required.

However, when the Challenger Commission met this past weekend to decide on this change, the graciousness that had been implied prior to the meeting whistled clear nearly as fast as the breaking of the mast. Self-interest won out on this day, and with the Protocol change denied, the group found a way to narrow the field of challengers from eleven to ten even before the first race of the Louis Vuitton challenger series. The +39 Challenge will step an old, out-dated mast in the boat for the beginning of the trials - the one that helmsman Iain Percy claimed to be half the speed of the mast they broke - and will attempt to repair their fractured spar. And for those of you following the action, the America’s Cup has officially begun.

A-Cup crew positions

(Valencia, April 3rd 2007) Below is the crew list for the Luna Rossa Challenge 2007 on the first day of racing in Act 13. What stood out was that there were seventeen people on the boat, with 5 of them in the afterguard. That’s nearly 30% of the team in ‘thinking’ positions, and the other 2/3 in ‘doing’ positions.

Here a Curmudgeon’s Observation from the past:
Committee meetings - Dark alleys into which good ideas are led and strangled

Crew
Skipper - Francesco de Angelis
Helmsman - James Spithill
Tactician - Torben Grael
Navigator - Michele Ivaldi
Afterguard - Ben Durham
Traveller* - Francesco Bruni
Runners - Magnus Augustson
Main Trimmer - Jonathan McKee
Main Grinder - Gilberto Nobili
Trimmer - Joey Newton
Trimmer - Christian Kamp
Grinder - Emanuele Marino
Grinder - Andrew Taylor
Mast / Pit - Simone de Mari
Sewer - Shannon Falcone
Mid-Bow - Massimiliano Sirena
Bow - Alan Smith

* When we saw a position called the ‘traveller’, we figured that the mainsheet traveller on an America’s Cup boat was such that it needed a dedicated person to adjust it. Now we understand that is only partly true. As is the case with each position on the typical AC two-boat team, there are at least two people who can man it, providing adequate back-up for injury, illness, rest, or performance. On the Luna Rosa team, the ‘traveller’ job is also handled by American Andy Horton, and the position’s responsibility includes being the ‘weather spotter’ at the top of the mast on light days or manning the mainsheet traveller and standing behind the helmsman with the tactician when the wind and/or wave conditions do not allow someone to be up there. In ACUP parlance, 'traveller' is the noun form for 'travel' as in one who travels up the mast or to the back of the boat.