The Flintstones are back

It was on September 13, 2010 when the plan for the 34^th America’s Cup was revealed, and a "new era" was promised by the boss of the defending team, Russell Coutts. The boats will be "cool", he said as he showed an impression of a 72-foot catamaran with a wing sail. “This will be a competition for the Facebook generation, not the Flintstone generation,” promised Coutts.

The Facebook-Flintstone comment, which had innocent intentions to highlight the trend toward a younger competitor and audience, proved to be miscue. Not only was it a slap at the generation most connected to the Cup, but it failed to realize that Russell Coutts himself was in the largest Facebook age range (35-54), and that his parents were in the age range experiencing the greatest Facebook growth (55+). So much for cute comparisons.

Love it or hate it, the America’s Cup remains the most recognizable event for the sport, and it would be regrettable for the format to fail. But now there is cause for real concern. Is it possible that Sir Russell, the master tactician on the race course, is completely out of phase with his appeal to the younger generation? Guess what...  The Flintstones are back!

This animated, prime-time American television sitcom that ran from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, is back in production and is gearing for a 2013 premiere on the U.S. Fox network schedule. And if you’re paying attention, its fall release will now be competing for the same television audience as the 34^th America’s Cup.

The irony is overwhelming.

Story sources: The Independent, iStrategyLabs, and Deadline.com.

Gettin’ Air

One of LONGOBARDA’s afterguard is flung into the air when the collapsing rig snaps the backstay taut. Who is that ‘daring young man on that flying trapeeze?’

Although it happened nearly 20 years ago, Sharon Green easily recalls shooting the Maxi Worlds off Newport, RI. “It was a distance race and they were approaching the finish after a full day of sailing in extremely rough seas.” In fact, says Sharon, “We had no right going out there ourselves: there were huge seas, and walls of water ... every time we’d come off a wave the boat slammed down and water flew everywhere. It was impossible to shoot.”

Longobarda and another yacht were sailing aggressively, and close. “I instinctively knew something was going to happen and grabbed my camera, and started firing through the walls of water. I heard the ‘Bang!’ of the rig as it started to come down; zoomed out and just kept shooting. I didn’t know I got the rig breaking, and this guy catapulting off the back of the boat, until I got the film back from the lab the next day.”

This is just one of the thousands of images Sharon is poring over, from three decades of the Ultimate Sailing Calendar. As she works to create the newest collection of images (“Sharon Green’s 30 Years of Ultimate Sailing” will release in October), Sharon has a few mysteries she wants to unravel. And the first is: who IS this airborne crew member? What happened to him in the aftermath?

Please post your information in the comments section.

Communication

With the sailing season started in the Northern Hemisphere, or at least the warmer season for the hearty frost biters, I suspect everyone is eager to see strong participation in the sailing events they plan to attend. There are a lot of variables that lead to strong participation, but I fear that the days of ‘if we build it, they will come’ might be behind us. Motivating people is more vital than ever.

On occasion I reminisce about communication, or at least, how communication has changed. Before the Internet, fleet and class communication was by letter and phone call. One provided a physical reminder and one provided an active reminder. While both were costly in terms of time and/or money, they had key qualities that motivated people. With the Internet, we have made communication so much easier, but I think, much less effective for motivating people.

Our society has shifted from personal communication to passive communication. If your mission is to get boats on the water, this might be a shift worth avoiding.

Dancing

Not sure what the motivation is for Sailing Anarchy’s frequent attacks on Key West Race Week. Maybe it's influenced by how Charleston Race Week hires SA to provide media for their event.

SA's latest attempt to diminish KWRW was in April when they posted a ‘report’ that the Melges 32 class would not return to KW and would have their own January event at another venue.

Apparently the class was only looking at alternatives in the event that KWRW did not occur. And as KWRW now announces their confirmed plans for their 2012 event, SA dances their way out of the earlier 'report'...

Good intentions get trashed

It can be frustrating when good intentions get trashed.

People ask for merchandise from Scuttlebutt, so when we found time to order t-shirts, we picked one of the Curmudgeon’s Observations that spoke positively of the sport. We then decided to donate any proceeds toward the fight against breast cancer, a disease that had entered Scuttlebutt editor Craig Leweck's family. The shirts are for sale in the Scuttlebutt Store.

Never in our wildest imagination did we anticipate this project would be strongly criticized. But this week Scot Tempesta of Sailing Anarchy blasted the project on his website. He called the effort “lame” and “patronizing”, and in his forum he justified his criticism because he found Leweck to be “a whiny douche”.

Usually Scot’s comments are not promoted here, but the level of misinformation and hatred within his posting pissed us off. However, the reality is comments like this are typical from Scot, so for anyone ever charmed by him, this is who he really is.