Typos

When we are writing and editing 3000+ words each day for the Scuttlebutt newsletter, typos happen. We don’t like it, we try to avoid it, but when we punch the SEND button on the e-Newsletter, we can’t fix them. Hopefully none of our typos are as bad as this.

Olympic heroics

Ben Ainslie’s road to gold generated an immense amount of press during this Olympics, with a Google search for his name generating 4,340,000 listings immediately following the medal ceremony. Not bad for a sailor, and at the time well ahead of British Yngling gold medal skipper Sarah Ayton (36,100) and American Finn silver medalist Zach Railey (25.600).

International Olympics chief Jacques Rogge might find Ben Ainslie's achievement in winning a third sailing gold to be the equal of Michael Phelps heroics – and god forbid his sentiment having to do with Rogge being a past Finn Olympian – but Ainslie was still far behind American swimmer Michael Phelps’s 11,100,000 listings.

Totally ripped

On the right we have Sarah Ayton, British Gold Medalist in the Yngling. On the left we have Bryony Shaw, another Brit, who is nearly as famous for cussing on the BBC after winning the Bronze in the RS:X, as for medalling at all (because all sailing Brits ARE supposed to medal).

Now she is famous - at least in our book - for being totally ripped. Hey Bryony, nice guns!

Charities or Olympics?

At least one British organization feels that their country has lost sight of the big picture in their support of Olympic sailing:

Lack of funds could sink sailing charity
A WELSH sailing charity launched just three months ago faces the prospect of going under due to a chronic lack of funding.

The Swansea Bay Sea School, backed by round-the-world yachts- woman Tracey Edwards, aims to offer character-building sailing trips for youths from deprived backgrounds on board the huge £1.2m Challenge Yacht.

But yesterday sailing expert Justin Cotter, who founded and now heads the charity, says it desperately needs an injection of corporate sponsorship and grant aid just to stay afloat.

Mr Cotter, 43, said the emphasis on Olympic success by big charity funders such as the National Lottery, was partly to blame for the sea school’s financial difficulties.

“The emphasis with sports-related grant bodies now is with centres of excellence and the Olympics,” he said. “But charities like ours, which aim to change people’s lives, are just as important.” -- Read on

Valencia and F1

From this report in Setanta Sports, perhaps Valencia should forget about the America's Cup:

Ron Dennis strongly believes that England has plenty to learn when it comes to staging major sporting events.

The McLaren boss has just returned from the 2008 European Grand Prix, staged on Valencia’s new city circuit, which made its Formula 1 debut over the weekend.

The event was deemed a success, for the most part, as the cars sped around the port area of the city, home to last year’s America’s Cup in yachting.

"When I go back into England and I go through Heathrow airport, I'm ashamed to be English,” Dennis is quoted as saying by PA Sport.

"Valencia is an area that is not the gateway to their country, and yet the local government showed vision to stage the America's Cup, to commit all the resources they did to turn it into a world-class venue.” -- Read on

Trimaran design

Assuming that BMW Oracle Racing wins its appeal, and forces Alinghi to compete in a multihull duel, the unveling of the BOR trimaran provides Alinghi with some key info. Remember, Alinghi has not said where the races would be held, if they needed to be held at all. Comparing the BOR tri (above) with the ocean going design that Francis Joyon sailed to gain the solo elapsed world record (lower, red), note the lack of volume in the BOR hulls. While Joyon had to be ready for the rigors of the Southern Ocean, BOR is counting on a smoother course. Will Alinghi be obliging?





The dimensions of the BOR tri are assumed to be 90 feet long by 90 feet wide, but that still needs to be confirmed. Joyon's IDEC is 97 feet long (floats are 80 feet) with beam at 54 feet.

Here are some additional photos from today's christening ceremony:

English lesson

I did it (again). Seems like everytime I want to write "parity" I mistakenly write "parody" instead (as occured in Scuttlebutt 2664 e-Newsletter). Typically too, it has some unintended meaning. Here are some other traps I will strive to avoid:

1. The bandage was wound around the wound.

2. The farm was used to produce produce.

3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4. We must polish the Polish furniture.

5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10. I did not object to the object.

11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13. They were too close to the door to close it.

14. The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18. Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.

19. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Thinking fast

This is probably an old joke, but it gave us a chuckle, and you can't have enough of those:

Some old men can still think fast.

An elderly man in Louisiana had owned a large farm for several years. He had a large pond in back. It was properly shaped for swimming, so he fixed it up nice with a few picnic tables, horseshoe pits, and some apple and peach trees.

One evening, the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn't been there for a while to look it over. He grabbed a five-gallon bucket to bring back some fruit. As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee. As he came closer, he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond.

He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end of the pond. One of the women shouted to him, “We're not coming out until you leave!'

The old man frowned, 'I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked.”

Holding the bucket up he said, “I'm here to feed the alligator.”

Offshore oil drilling

Scuttlebutt is on the Greenpeace mailing list. Why? We try to stay abreast of environmental issues, and Greenpeace's email updates are one way to do so. From an update we received today, it should come as no surprise that they are opposed to offshore oil drilling. Here are their top ten reasons why they are opposed:

10. Offshore oil drilling won't impact gas prices today, and it won't have a significant impact on gas prices in the future.

9. This is nothing more than a money grab by the oil companies - who are already making record-breaking profits.

8. We burn 25% of the world's oil here in the U.S., but we have only 3% of the world's oil reserves. So even if all offshore oil magically came to market today, the vast majority of our oil would continue to be imported, and we wouldn't see price relief at the pump.

7. The current moratorium was put in place decades ago to protect us from the danger of oil spills along our coastlines and beaches.

6. Burning fossil fuels like oil causes global warming, which causes stronger hurricanes, which will threaten the very offshore drilling rigs being proposed, which will contribute to even more global warming.

5. To avoid the worst impacts of global warming, we need to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy within the next 10 years. The billions of dollars that would be spent on offshore oil drilling just postpones the inevitable transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

4. Oil exploration requires massive seismic testing - which threatens whales and dolphins.

3. Oil prices are set on the global oil market, so American oil is no cheaper than Saudi oil. We won't get a discount for oil drilled in the U.S.

2. We can't solve the world's energy problems with the same drilling that created them.

1. Renewable energy is available now, so it's time to walk away from fossil fuels and toward a clean energy future.

Tyler Sinks

Tyler is a highly decorated youth sailor in the US, and will be starting his sophmore year this fall at Boston College. He is a past Snipe Junior National Champion, and while training for the event this summer in San Francisco, he figured he better brush up on his heavy air skills. Too bad there was a video camera watching him.

Sailing clothes

I don’t have the patience to host garage sales, and instead prefer to haul my unneeded items to the local Goodwill drop off. I am not a pack rat, and feel relieved when I can rid myself of stuff I don’t need. However, there is one thing that I am always weary of donating: unique clothes.

This category would include clothes I got from special events, or from boats I sailed on. My problem is that these clothes are very identifiable, and would reflect on the source if they got into the wrong hands.

I always thought this was a quirky hang-up of mine… that is until I read the following story from a San Diego, CA news source:

Police are searching for a man who raped a woman after breaking into her College Area home early Wednesday. The man entered victim's house through an unlocked window about 4 a.m., San Diego police said. The suspect is described as black, about 19 years old, over 6 feet tall, with a thin, muscular build and a mustache. He was wearing a white T-shirt with an America's Cup logo on the back and long navy blue basketball shorts.

I will continue to use my unique clothing for painting projects and other messy tasks.

Time difference

During the 2008 Olympics, we will all be doing our math for the next few weeks. For our offices in San Diego, CA, China is 15 hours ahead of us. This means that at 10pm tonight, the first start of the sailing events will be occuring on Saturday, August 9th. Assuming the winds cooperate, start times are at 1300 each race day in Qingdao.

Antivirus XP 2008

I had two computers infected this week by Antivirus XP 2008, which is a bogus program that is mostly disruptive with pop-ups and exaggerated claims of danger and destruction. One computer used Trend Micro software, and they promptly helped me remove it at no charge. The other computer uses McAfee ("Mack-A-Fee"), and I am forced to pay $60 for help, am now on minute 52 of waiting for tech support while being poisoned by Neil Diamond while on hold. Really painful!

Problem Name

The famous Olympic skier Picabo Street (pronounced Peek-A-Boo) is not just an athlete. She is now a nurse currently working at the Intensive Care Unit of a large metropolitan hospital. However, she is not permitted to answer the hospital telephones, as it has caused too much confusion when she would answer the phone and say, "Picabo, ICU".