All that's wrong with the sport

The idea of community sailing centers seems like such a magic potion for instilling growth in the sport. Void of the exclusivity that keeps the public from enjoying the sailing facilities of private clubs, these municipal facilities seemingly provide the bridge to fulfill the interest of potential participants.

So when the city of Clearwater, FL, which operates the Clearwater Community Sailing Association, assigned a construction company to build a two-story, 3,300-square-foot addition, you think that good just got better, right? Well, a quote from the City Council justifying the expansion is less than encouraging:

“This addition is the minimum necessary to meet the space demand of our Sailing Center’s many community programs and will significantly enhance their ability to increase revenues by providing a larger rental area for weddings and corporate meetings.”

Ugh!

Original story

America's Cup meeting

This week, America's Cup Defender SNG/Alinghi and the "new and improved" Challenger of Record, GGYC/BMW Oracle Racing, have proposed to meet and determine the date and site of the 33rd Cup. Given the acrimonious relationship between the two teams, we suggest the following gag:

Team race tricks

Frequent team race umpire Bryan McDonald has been given permission by author Steve Tylecote to provide a page from Steve’s book (below) that provides some great info on how to handle weather mark situations.

St. Patrick's Day story

Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody!


THE GOLDEN PHONE

On vacation in Rome, I noticed a marble column in St. Peter's with a golden telephone on it. As a young priest passed by, I asked who the telephone was for. The priest told me it was a direct line to Heaven, and if I'd like to call, it would be a thousand dollars. I was amazed, but declined the offer.

Throughout Italy, I kept seeing the same golden telephone on a marble column. At each, I asked about it and the answer was always the same: a direct line to Heaven and I could call for a thousand dollars.

I finished my tour in Ireland. I decided to attend Mass at a local village church. When I walked in the door I noticed the golden telephone. Underneath it there was a sign stating: DIRECT LINE TO HEAVEN 25 cents.

"Father," I said, "I have been all over Italy and in all the cathedrals I visited, I've seen telephones exactly like this one. But the price is always a thousand dollars. Why is it that this one is only 25 cents?" The priest smiled and said, "Darlin', you're in Ireland now. It's a local call."

Boat sinks - letter stinks

We were thrilled to find on YouTube the video from the 1995 America's Cup when One Australia sunk. It was an amazing moment, and viewer traffic has been huge, which also earned us this love letter:
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In your Scuttlebutt #2552, there was video of the sinking of One Australia from the 1995 America's Cup series of races in San Diego. This "Video Of The Week" appears to have been provided to you by Dannews.co.nz. (Editor note: We were not provided with the video. We were merely linking to YouTube, where the video was hosted).

Neither this person, nor you have any rights to provide this for viewing and we ask that it be removed from your archives and that the person that provided the material also be informed of the violation of rights.

Those rights belong exclusively to ACTV, which was the Host Broadcaster for both the 1992 and 1995 series of races held in San Diego. On that particular day, weather kept us from getting our choppers in the air for live coverage and also prevented us from transmitting the feeds from our chase boats on the water. Since racing was still held, we shot on tape and happened to be in the right stop when the incident took place.

When we returned to shore, we provided the material to our rights holders, including ESPN in the United States and TVNZ in New Zealand. We also provided news material with specific embargoes. Usage was limited to 48 hours following conclusion of the race and no one was permitted to archive the material. In addition, we provided still pictures from our coverage for newspapers.

I'm certain that you were provided the material without any knowledge of the restriction that were placed on this material and we have also informed Dan that he must immediately remove the material from his site. We also ask that you do the same.

Thanking you, in advance, for your cooperation.
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Scuttlebutt completely understands the position of this letter writer (name withheld), but we are far down the road on this one. The source of the video is YouTube, which has an account holder that posted it on their site. By using the code provided by YouTube, Scuttlebutt (or anyone) can show their videos, but we are only linking back to the YouTube site. To get this video off the internet, they need to get it off of YouTube.

A tribute to rednecks

This week, the Curmudgeon's Observations were a tribute to rednecks. They were:

* You know you're a redneck when you've been involved in a custody fight over a hunting dog.
* You know you're a redneck when you go to the stock car races and don't need a program.
* You know you're a redneck when your working TV sits on top of your non-working TV.
* You know you're a redneck when you know how many bales of hay your car will hold.
* You know you're a redneck when a tornado hits your neighborhood and does $100,000 worth of improvements.

Here's a bonus feature:

Sunday Papers

If you can remember Elvis Costello, then you should remember Joe Jackson. In Jackson’s 1979 debut album ‘Look Sharp’ was the song ‘Sunday Papers’, which had the classic line, “They wouldn't print it if it wasn't true.” In fairness to Jackson, he couldn’t have anticipated the Internet.

Below is a screen shot from Sailing Anarchy today. The top story is a press release from Groupama 3. The middle story concerns a rumor that the Rule69Blog.com likes to distribute. The bottom is a smack against Scuttlebutt about press releases. This last bit is a hoot given the inclusion of the top story, and in how SA uses BYM News as their sailing news source, but fails to recognize how they are largely a re-publisher of press releases.


Wikipedia.com defines a press release as a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something claimed as having news value. Scuttlebutt gets a lot of these, as does every member of the sailing media. For the releases that have actual news value, we will consider them for publication, often rewriting them to fit our format. The others get deleted.

Scuttlebutt also included the story today about Groupama 3, but rewrote it. SA did not. Considering that SA has made a career of taking jabs at people and companies that it feels has disrespected them (him), it is hard to imagine that any of this matters to us. It doesn’t, but occasionally, we just wish Jackson was right.

The "Entry Fee"

Just because it’s the Star Bacardi Cup, arguably one of the class’s most prestigious events, that doesn’t mean that every entrant is at the Olympic-level. Quite the contrary. One-design events rely largely on those sailors that can be affectionately termed, “the entry fee”, otherwise known as those boats that fill the middle and later positions, but whose entry fee is largely responsible for the nice parties and trophies. They compete for reasons other than winning, but without them – or specifically their entry fee – the bells and whistles would be gone.

Before anyone gets their underwear bunched up, it should be said that everyone at some point has been an “entry fee.” Heck, a quick look at the Star Bacardi Cup results and you can find a long list of celebrated sailors who qualified. No shame in being the “entry fee”, particularly if you know it from the onset. Stay up late, become pals with the YC bartender, meet a regatta girlfriend… the benefits are endless.

Anyway, among the entry fees at last week’s Bacardi Cup was a team from Montreal who maintained a blog during the event. These guys have a great attitude, probably had a lot more fun than most, and their commentary on starting in a 118-boat fleet is precious. Here is an excerpt:

“Almost all the fleet set up between the RC and the mid line boat, which made for quite a stacking of boats. We wound up in a decent spot, until the JPN boat decided that we had won the prize for ‘muffin of the day.’ They set up just to leeward of us and proceeded to luff us into irons about 20 seconds before the start. At that precise moment, we attempted a start which I had never seen or read of before: the ‘stand-still and pounce start.’ Let me explain how it works. First the leeward boat takes you up into irons. You then react quickly (okay, maybe not quickly, but really in a panic…) by backing the jib to avoid the boat from tacking into a horrible mess. This will inevitably stall the boat to a stand still with about 8 seconds to go before the start. You then settle down, listen to the gun go off, and start accelerating (barely). Next thing you know, you’re in a typical fourth row start. Not pretty.”

Links to their posts:
Intro, Day 1 and 2
Day 3, 4, and 5
Day 6

Still amusing to share

Here are some Observations that won't make it into Scuttlebutt but are still amusing enough to share:

Medical terminology in Layman's terms:

Artery -- Study of paintings
Bacteria -- Back door of cafeteria
Barium -- What doctors do when treatment fails
Bowel -- Letter like A.E.I.O.U
Caesarean section -- District in Rome
Cat scan -- Searching for kitty
Cauterize -- Made eye contact with her
Colic -- Sheep dog
Coma -- A punctuation mark
Congenital -- Friendly
D&C -- Where Washington is
Diarrhea -- Journal of daily events
Dilate -- To live long
Enema -- Not a friend
Fester -- Quicker
Fibula -- A small lie
G.I. Series -- Soldiers' ball game
Grippe -- Suitcase
Hangnail -- Coathook
Impotent -- Distinguished, well known
Intense pain -- Torture in a teepee
Labor pain -- Got hurt at work
Medical staff -- Doctor's cane
Morbid -- Higher offer
Nitrate -- Cheaper than day rate
Node -- Was aware of
Outpatient -- Person who had fainted
Pelvis -- Cousin of Elvis
Post operative -- Letter carrier
Protein -- Favoring young people
Rectum -- It almost killed him
Recovery room -- Place to do upholstery
Rheumatic -- Amorous
Scar -- Rolled tobacco leaf
Secretion -- Hiding anything
Seizure -- Roman emperor
Serology -- Study of knighthood
Tablet -- Small table
Terminal illness -- Sickness at airport
Tibia -- Country in North Africa
Tumor -- An extra pair
Urine -- Opposite of you're out
Varicose -- Located nearby
Vein -- Conceited