Scuttleblog - Sailing News and Commentary

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2011-11-25T16:02:00.001-08:00

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Changing the lexicon of sailing

2011-11-21T12:17:00.000-08:00

Our sport is complicated. What sport isn't? But if you sail enough, the obstacles soon disappear...except this one: right and left.

Pre-start strategy includes assessing the upwind leg. "I'm liking the right. Definitely more wind to the right." And sure enough, half way up the beat, the boats on the right are ahead.

Nearing the windward mark, it's time to assess the downwind leg. "The right still looks solid. Puffs are coming from the right." After rounding the windward mark, the boats gybe to the left to get the wind from the right... looking upwind.

The course is viewed again during the run. "The boats behind are gaining on the left. More wind to the left now. We need to get to the right...looking downwind." So the leaders gybe to protect, heading to the right to get the wind on the left."

Soon it's time to choose which gate mark to round. "I think the right gate is closer. Yes, definitely closer." This is good as the wind is still strongest on the left... looking upwind.

And on it goes.

During the broadcast of the America's Cup World Series (ACWS) in San Diego, the commentators would have this same conversation. As the AC45s were zig-zagging throughout the bay, there would be confusion if their right and left references weren't followed by "looking upwind".

I was thinking how complicated it sounded. At a time when commentators need to be analyzing more and explaining less, they had to turn the listener's head for every reference to the wind. And this was assuming the listener knew how to "look upwind".

So what if we used green and red?

These colors have long been associated with right and left, starboard and port. Stan Honey, who has developed all the broadcast graphics for the ACWS, said he could stripe the sides of the course green and red. He could also paint the gates green and red at the upwind and downwind ends of the course. Could the lexicon of sailing be changed to colors?

"There is definitely more wind on the green side," said the broadcast commentator. "The leaders downwind are coming from the green side, and the key decision of the leg will be when to gybe. The tea

m that nails their approach to the green gate will have the advantage to own the green side on the next upwind leg."

I can hear it now.

If you were coming to San Diego...

2011-11-09T08:28:00.000-08:00

Attending sporting events is risky business. When to get there? Where to park? Where to sit? So what do you do with an event that has never been held before? You wing it, which is what spectators will be doing in San Diego for the third stop in the inaugural America's Cup World Series (AWS) on November 12-20, 2011.

Here are some tips to help enjoy the experience:

Schedule:
The first weekend has mandatory practice races. No races are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, but expect the teams to either be on the bay for practice or in the pit for prep. The planned competition is Wednesday through Sunday, so expect bigger crowds those days too. Click here for details.

Transportation:
For car parking, a pay lot is a block away from the Event Village and there are coin meter spaces on the adjacent street. However, get there early to avoid getting shut out. Safer options could be to use bikes, pedicabs or taxis, or drive to a San Diego Trolley station and take the train to the downtown station a couple of blocks away. Click here for details.

Viewing:
Specatator boats will be kept approximately 50-60 meters from the course boundaries. Click here for details. Watching the races from the Midway Museum, Navy and Broadway piers are closest to the course, but there may not be bleachers so prepare to stand in crowds (or buy a VIP package). The ends of the race course are adjacent to G Street Marina and Harbor Island, which both have limited parking and space to sit. Hot tip is to have lunch at The Fish Market (nice) and Top of the Market (nicer) at the leeward marks (SE of Navy Pier), or at C Level (nice) and Island Prime (nicer) near the windward marks on Harbor Island. Click here for details. Another hot tip is to listen to race commentary from the broadcast on your iOS mobile device (see below).

Entertainment:
The AC Village has closed Harbor Drive at Broadway and Navy Piers, and will be hosting live music, DJ's and local California cuisine and shops and specialty stands. The village will have a large screen for race viewing, plus host interactive entertainment such as the America's Cup Experience, a racing simulator that offers a taste of what it's like to sail on a high-speed catamaran. Prize giving and team interviews will be on the village stage. Hours are 10a-6p on Nov. 12-15 and 10a-10p on Nov. 16-20. To enter the AC Village, there is a requested $10 donation to support the AC Healthy Ocean Project. Click here for details.

Weather:
Despite the propaganda from San Diego Convention and Tourism Bureau, it does begin to get colder and wetter in November. And winter winds are hit or miss. The forecast currently calls for rain and big breeze on the first weekend, with clearing skies and calmer winds expected through the week.

Broadcast:
The America’s Cup YouTube channel will be streaming the event live online Nov. 16-20. Look for the broadcast schedule to begin 30 minutes before racing begins each day (see schedule above). And for the first time, there will be live streaming to iOS mobile devices through the AC YouTube channel. Also, a recap of the event will be broadcast on the Versus cable channel on November 22 at 5:00 P.M. ET. Streaming live here: http://www.youtube.com/user/AmericasCup

Preview:
Teams began training on Tuesday, and the America's Cup World Series Event Village will be open to the public on Wednesday, Nov 9th. Get an insider's look of the village after 3:30 pm and you'll also get to see the AMERICA'S CUP TROPHY. Unveiling the trophy will be Tom Ehman, Vice Commodore of Golden Gate Yacht Club, who will be joined by Ian Murray, Bruno Trouble, and Terry Hutchinson for 'Cupdates' at 4:00 pm (youth sailors) and 5:30 pm (open). No RSVP necessary.

Sailing is supposed to be fun

2011-11-01T16:17:00.000-07:00

It had been two years since I last raced Snipes. I have had a Snipe since 1983, twice won the U.S. Nationals and North Americans, but the time between outings had steadily increased in the past decade. I still liked the boat and the people, but had tired of the training needed to remain competitive. The problem with having success is that it becomes hard to settle for less.

Certainly family needs was vying for time, but I found the emphasis of windward-leeward race courses had magnified my problem. Gary Bodie, former US Olympic head coach, once said that the demise of one-design racing is partly a result of better race management. I agree. A perfectly set W-L course left little room for part-timers like me, as the fastest win and the less able give up and disappear.

I can already hear people saying, "But isn't the point of a race to provide the fairest test?" And to that I say yes, but while some races are to determine championships, most racing is for recreation. Some races should provide different challenges. Some races should provide variety. Racing should be fun, and when it isn't fun, people leave.

When I heard the annual fall Snipe regatta this past weekend in San Diego would not use W-L courses, I had to experience it. The races used the permanent marks in Mission Bay, and some legs were not perfectly in line with the wind. Courses criss-crossed the entire bay. One race went around an island. This thirty boat fleet was tested in new ways, and for me, it was exhilarating.

This coming weekend is the biggest event of the year for keelboaters in San Diego. It is the Hot Rum Series, where legs are not perfect to the wind, and the inverted start allows the smallest boats to begin first. But people support this event because it is fun. Like sailing is supposed to be. - Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt

They wouldn't print it if it wasn't true

2011-10-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

One of the changes with grand prix events is that they have drifted from competitions to paydays. There was a time when the people that competed in the America's Cup and the Whitbread Race invested their soul for the sake of a trophy. It was a significant sacrifice but their intent was honest.

But in current times, the true competitors are mixed with people pursuing paychecks, and the vociferous appetite of the media bites on everything. Here are two press releases:

September 22, 2009 - An Italian campaign led by Giovanni Soldini has been officially confirmed for the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race. Known as Italia 70, the team will race under the il tricolore with an all-Italian crew for the next two editions of the race. Soldini, 43, has completed two single-handed round the world races and has made over 30 Atlantic crossings. He is partnering with John Elkann and Carlo Croce on the project. Italia 70 has acquired the Volvo Open 70 Ericsson 3 which competed in the 2008-09 event. -- http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/Soldini-signs-on/2865/news.html

October 7, 2011 - Giovanni Soldini and his team of nine sailors will next year captain the yacht Maserati in an attempt to break the Cadiz-San Salvador (Bahamas), Miami-New York and New York-Lizard Point (UK) records. The three ocean course attempts will be monitored by the World Sailing Speed Record Council, the international body certifying the record times on the historic clipper routes. Soldini and Maserati will also attempt to break the record for the longest distance covered by a single-hull yacht in a 24-hour period. Maserati is a VOR 70 that participated in the 2008-2009 round-the-world race. -- http://www.boatpoint.com.au/news/2011/masarati-set-to-break-records-27148

While attempts to contact Soldini for comment have been unsuccessful, it is common for teams to announce their intentions to do something without the funding to actually do it. How many of the seven America's Cup challengers will actually exist this time next year? Maybe Maserati can be their Plan B too.

Finally, a real race track

2011-10-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

Let's be honest. Would you want the America's Cup if someone gave it to you? What a pain in the butt! Thank goodness Larry Ellison has a ton of money to take on the task of shining up this tarnished trophy.

You remember the legal delay after the 32nd Match. How about the obscene money spent on the farcical 2010 mis-match? Not the best of times. And with the 34th America's Cup not until 2013, the event was on a road to nowhere.

To create interest again, the America's Cup World Series was invented. But again, let's be honest. It's been a work in progress. The first event in Portugal wilted under the bright lights. And in the UK, only the 'crash & burn' angle rescued the show. If this was Broadway, it'd likely be a very short run.

What's been missing is a legitimate sailing venue. Thus far it's solely been about entertainment, and the actors have been performing on a sound stage. But now, with the circuit coming to San Diego (Nov. 12-20), the racers will finally get a chance to race their boats on a tested track.

And we're not talking about the track that hosted the Cup in 1988, 1992, and 1995. No, the AC45s will be competing on the same course as... the... annual... San Diego Bay Beer Can Series. Inside the bay, baby! And they're lucky that four-time America's Cup winner Dennis Conner has retired. Nobody went undefeated this past summer like DC did with his Farr 60 'Stars & Stripes'.

And the organizers of the San Diego event are for real too. Sailing Events Association San Diego is chaired by Chuck Nichols. Chuck has been Commodore of the world famous San Diego Yacht Club and was President of both the 1995 America’s Cup and the 1998 Super Bowl. And Chuck is bullish on the venue too.

"We have a natural amphitheater," said Nichols. "We have developed areas around the bay that will facilitate on-land spectating. We have Harbor Island with all the open space. We have Coronado Island, which we hope to have available with the Navy's cooperation. And then we have the city front area. All of this is close enough to be able to enjoy the races from shore.

"With the cooperation of the Navy and Coast Guard, we can push the sailing area to the edges. And the race management is really flexible on course layout. This isn't like the old America's Cup where everything is set in concrete. While we know the footprint of the sailing area, how the course gets set within that area will depend on the wind direction so that it provides for both good racing and shoreside viewing."

While most events are bleeders, Nichols sees this one in the black. "A study by a local university estimates that the event will induce $20 million in spending. And I think that's light. They were quite conservative in their analysis. Between the sponsors, and each team's sailors and staff, I think the estimate is 20,000 room nights. And then you have the people coming to watch. Hotels, restaurants, retail stores, rental cars, airport fees... people stay overnight and it all adds up."

With a proven race track and veteran administrators, the only other significant variable is the weather. While San Diego is known for its mild climate, it's also known that winds from November to March are hit or miss depending on storms. But there is reason for optimism, as rain has come early to California. And 'The Old Farmer's Almanac' has good news too. Their prediction for the event week is 'Rain and t-storms, then sunny, cool.' Sounds like a hit!

Sponsor brainstorm session

2011-10-06T07:25:00.000-07:00

Regatta organizers are already gearing up for the 2012 events, and the bigger events are on the hunt for sponsors. The following note sent to Scuttlebutt stirred up a brainstorming session:

"We are planning a North American championship in 2012 and need sponsors. Who in your opinion are sponsor friendly/willing in our sport? I have gotten a lot of interest in 'in kind' donations but we actually need money to do this right. Any advice?"

Here were some of our immediate thoughts:

- View sponsorship as a partnership rather than a donation.

- Seek advice from the previous North American event hosts.

- Determine the demographics of who the sponsor will be getting exposed to.

- How will the sponsor be exposed? (website, event comms, site banners, etc)

- Any sponsor perks? (ie, sponsor spectator boat with eats and treats).

- Can 'in kind' donations help reduce operating cost/participant expense?

- Everyone who advertises in the class publications are potential sponsors.

- Are there companies with a history of sponsoring the class?

- Are there companies with a history of sponsoring similar type events?

- Are there companies with a history of sponsoring events from host club?

- Are there people who make donations for important events?

Any comments or additions?

The Amazing Claim

2011-09-26T15:06:00.000-07:00

The Amazing Race is an eight-time Emmy Award-winning reality series that pits 11 teams, each comprised of two members, against each other on a trek around the world for approximately 25 days. Teams who are the farthest behind will gradually be eliminated as the contest progresses, with the first team to arrive at the final destination winning $1 million.

The show premiere for the 19th season was Sunday night, and this edition has Zac Sunderland and his father Laurence as one of the teams.

At age 16, Zac set off on an Islander 36 to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone. Sunderland departed from Marina del Rey (Los Angeles, CA) on June 14, 2008, completing the route on July 16, 2009. After many stops along his circumnavigation, he claimed that his thirteen months adventure set two world records: the youngest ever to sail around the world and the first under 18.

His successful trip - and the attention it received - opened the flood gates for other teenage attempts. Soon the two record keeping authorities - Guinness Book of World Records and the World Sailing Speed Record Council - chose to no longer ratify age-related records.

A key feature of record ratification is to insure that a common route is followed. There are shortcuts to take, and as Zac went through the Panama Canal rather than around Cape Horn, his route failed to meet the historic standard.

While you will not find Zac's name in any record books, it does not belittle his accomplishment. It takes some big stones to sail solo around the world. However, perhaps he should stop saying, as he does on the show's website, that he was "the youngest person to sail around the world."

Isn't it enough to just be able to say you sailed around the world at age 16?

Cast details: http://www.cbs.com/shows/amazing_race/cast/63367

FAMILY TREE OF VINCENT VAN GOGH

2011-09-21T15:22:00.000-07:00

His dizzy aunt: Verti Gogh
The brother who ate prunes: Gotta Gogh
The brother who worked at a convenience store: Stop N Gogh
The grandfather from Yugoslavia: U Gogh
His magician uncle: Where diddy Gogh
His Mexican cousin: A Mee Gogh
The Mexican cousin's American half brother: Gring Gogh
The nephew who drove a stage coach: Wells far Gogh
The constipated uncle: Can't Gogh
The ballroom dancing aunt: Tang Gogh
The bird lover uncle: Flamin Gogh
The fruit loving cousin: Man Gogh
An aunt who taught positive thinking: Way to Gogh
The little bouncy nephew: Poe Gogh
A sister who loved disco: Go Gogh
And his niece who travels the country in an RV: Winnie Bay Gogh

I saw you smiling . . .. there ya Gogh

Thanks, we think, to Eric Sorenson

'Doing' versus sitting

2011-09-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

So there I was, Saturday morning, watching the America’s Cup World Series racing in Plymouth, live on my computer. Very, very cool. I was totally enjoying the YouTube media platform and livestreaming capabilities, which offered me five different video and audio streams to choose:

Sports - A sports commentary for newer fans of the America's Cup
Sailing - Those seeking a more technical commentary.
Boat A - Ringside seat - selected on board audio and video
Boat B - Ringside seat - selected on board audio and video
Graphics - LiveLive and Virtual Eye providing a tactical graphics feed

The broadcast had seemingly improved from their inaugural ACWS event a month earlier, but after about 30 minutes, some of which was a race delay to allow a ferry to cross the course, I said to myself: “Craig, this is your weekend. You are sitting in your office... alone...on a beautiful day.” And that’s when I realized the hurdle for online viewing.

During this same weekend I was active outside, but I also watched some baseball, some football, and some tennis. Never did I watch a full game, but each time I was surrounded by people. Because watching sports is a social and entertaining occasion.

So while I am at work this week, I suspect my productivity will dip as I view the ACWS racing on Wednesday through Friday. But for their final racing on Saturday and Sunday, I will be choosing between watching the races online, or taking a break from the computer. Until I connect my hi-def 56” TV to the internet (or winter hits San Diego), I will likely be ‘doing’ versus sitting.

How are you handling this situation?

A reminder for U.S. viewers that the Versus cable channel will be broadcast a one hour highlights show on September 18 at 7:00 P.M. ET. -- Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt

Event communication

2011-09-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

We all have our soap box moments, when we’re passionate enough about something ... our emotions just can’t be contained. These moments are tolerated as long as they are brief. So I will try to be brief.

In the report 'Online Expectations' in Scuttlebutt 3414, it warned event organizers to avoid purchasing custom website addresses to use for their event. A case in point is the 2009 Snipe World Championship. When I went to look for some details from that event, I found their domain address (http://www.snipeworlds2009.com/) had not been renewed and all the information that was posted there was no longer available.

I have since learned that the entire website for the 2009 Snipe Worlds was moved, and is now an extension of the San Diego Yacht Club website (www.sdyc.org/snipeworlds2009). While it was good to hear that the information has been retained, it still did not change how every media report regarding the event was directed to the original site. And now those links are broken. Whether it is on the ISAF website or the Scuttlebutt website, stories about the 2009 Snipe Worlds link back to an event site that no longer exists.

But what really moved me to climb up on the soap box was a press release announcing that the Notice of Race for the 2012 Etchells World Championship was now available online at http://www.etchellsworlds2012.org/. Anybody want to take a guess what is going to happen to this domain address in two years?

Anybody want to guess what has already happened to the event website from the 2009 Etchells World Championship (www.audietchellsworlds2009.com.au)?

Tips to help event organizers with their event communication can be found here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/pr

Guys are struggling

2011-08-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

Not sure how much of a secret it is that women are better than men. They look nicer, smell better, and typically have better manners. In grade school, girls tend to be brighter and more mature than the boys. Other than being stronger and taller, guys are struggling these days.

This could be a continental thing. The struggles of men in North America are in full focus. If there are medals to be won at the 2012 Olympics, bet on a gal. The only medals won at the Pre-Olympic event this month were from the American women. In fact, for events with both men and women divisions (ie, RS:X, 470, and Laser), the North American women (in Canada, Mexico, and USA) beat their male teammate in six of the eight instances (plus one tie).

This trend has wheels. At the 2011 U.S. Youth Sailing Championship last week, girls won three of the four events. These were open events, where the only restrictions were size and skill. The lone event won by a boy was the Laser Full Rig. Golf clap.

Advocates for single-sex education find that it allows teachers to use techniques geared toward the gender of their students. Like a boy’s short attention span. Maybe they had really long race courses at the U.S. Youth Champs. Maybe the women better handled the two week schedule at the Pre-Olympics than the guys.

Maybe it is as simple as... girls rule - boys drool.

Just what the America's Cup needs

2011-08-01T18:10:00.000-07:00

Since Oracle Racing won the 33rd America’s Cup, their intent to revamp the 34th edition into a commercially sustainable model has led them to make drastic changes. At times ignoring the event’s base of sailing supporters, they contend their move to high speed wing-powered catamarans is the preferred platform to grow the much larger non-sailing audience. Their bottom line is, in effect, to fill the ‘seats in the stadium’.

To this point, it has been a ‘sugar over substance’ approach. They have sought to grow interest by creating an exciting boat, where the narrow line between control and disaster is often crossed. And it has worked, with the occasional crash being hot internet fodder. But can an all-candy diet be sustained? Not likely. At some point we still need to know what we are eating.

Regardless of the sport, we cheer for the people. Our tie to any sport is beyond the helmet, the hockey stick, the race car. We may favor certain sports because of the action, but the depth of our commitment is linked to our familiarity with the player’s experience. The closer we feel to them and what they are doing, the more vested we become as a spectator.

And from the looks of it now, the America’s Cup organizers know this too. They got our visual attention with the boats, and now they’re working on making the more cerebral connection. This past weekend was the launch of their new weekly video magazine program called America's Cup Uncovered. If the future shows can maintain the standard of the first edition, this program should succeed in heightening fan interest during the march toward the 2013 Match.

But heightening fan interest is also reliant on the watchability of the sport. Never a strength of sailing, significant investment has been made in this area too. The first public showing of the broadcast technology will be at the inaugural event of the America’s Cup World Series in Cascais, Portugal on August 6-14, 2011, which will showcase the AC45 wing-sailed catamaran in its first-ever competition. Viewing will be online at AmericasCup.com.

The course will be littered with cameras in the air and the water, plus improved graphics will detail the race area with imaginary reference lines to help follow the race. Each boat will have four onboard cameras with crew mic’s integrated into their personal flotation devices. Additional onboard mic’s will pick up the sounds of the boat.

While the similarities between the America’s Cup and the amateur roots of the sport appear to be decreasing, there is still hope that the event may be worth following. Here are some links to help...

America's Cup Uncovered: http://tinyurl.com/AC-072811
America’s Cup World Series: http://tinyurl.com/ACWS-Cascais

Television technology: http://tinyurl.com/SFE-080111

Chicken or the Egg

2011-07-31T17:42:00.000-07:00

Sprit boats and race course selection. Do you have an opinion? The sprit boat aspect invariably surfaces when suggesting there should be more reach legs offered to augment the current steady diet of Windward-Leeward courses.

While the relevance of this aspect is negligible in one design racing, the opinions get stronger when mixed boats - symmetrical spinnakers and asymmetrical spinnakers - meet in a handicap event.

But what came first: the sprit boats or the focus on windward-leeward race courses? Since the J/105 is considered the first production boat featuring a retractable bowsprit - allowing for an asymmetric spinnaker to be flown - Scuttlebutt contacted J Boats President Jeff Johnstone for some insight into this situation:

"The development of the J/105 in 1991 really had little to do with the style of courses being sailed at the time, and much more to do with finding new ways to sail faster with fewer crew. One-design keelboat racing was already many years into the W/L focused courses, especially in the international classes like the J/22, J/24 and Etchells. Handicap racing at top Race Weeks like Block Island and Key West in the early 90s were mostly on W/L courses. I remember racing on the last triangle course at Key West in 1994. It was a surprise to see it posted on the RC since we had sailed W/L all week. We were in a J/80 and it was blowing 20-25. It was an incredible ride, the highlight of the week, and Onne van der Wal happened to capture it in a picture that's still on the website 16 years later.

"In the more local and regional venues in the 90s, there was still plenty of triangle racing and it's probably a fair statement that the emergence of sprit boats alongside conventional boats probably helped encourage committees to "equalize" the set-up by going with more W/L. It was otherwise hard to establish handicap deltas for a W/L course that would hold up for a triangle course, and vice-versa. Of course, it wasn't long before A-sail shapes quickly evolved to the point where sprit boats were going downhill very well, so for handicap fleets the focus then became more on grouping boats of similar configuration (bowsprit vs. non sprit) as well as similar DSPL/L ratios (planing vs. non-planing) in order to get the fairest racing.

"Reaching is the most fun point of sail there is, so I'd welcome seeing more of it worked back into the RC course options. Besides a lot of us could use one leg in the race where we can just go fast without thinking and then be mentally refreshed to tackle that next beat and run."

COMMENT: In the past 30 months, Scuttlebutt has twice polled its readership on the subject of race course selection. In both polls, when asked if they would prefer more courses signaled that had reach legs, over 70% of the respondents said yes.

2009 poll: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/09/0131/
2010 poll: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/10/1130/

The Beauty of Waste

2011-07-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

The sport of sailing is lucky to have so many passionate people eager to share their experiences. And sometimes, in between these sailing experiences, they share their observations... which occassionally appear a bit random. This report comes from Lia Ditton (words) and Christophe Launay (photos).

Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain - Mamlakat al Baḥrayn (The Kingdom of Two Seas), is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf.

Arid, desert-like; the beaches bare the same dusty hues of the wind-swept plains. Yet all the same, nestled in the sand is the debris of careless modern living: trash. At times, colourful, patterned, (often enchanting once the sea and test of time has had it’s way with it,) Christophe Launay documents the offerings of Al Jazayer Beach.

More than simple portraits of forgotten objects, the images set the scene of untold stories. The beach seems barren and unpopulated, yet dug into the water’s edge is a brilliant crimson cloth, a woman’s garment. Caught among the rocks is a bust flip-flop, abandoned at the scene where it was probably broken. Then beside a white plastic spoon are a child’s set of plastic sea creatures – the absence of play and the people they belong to, quietly poignant. Cultural references abound – the “Hi-Tea” bag, flung onto the sand; the toilet for “disabled people only;” the empty children’s park and the family unit under the concrete pavilion, shot compassionately at a distance.

At the end of the day, the sea will cart off the remains – an assortment of shoes so varied and plentiful it begins to verge on funny, but it is the large stretches of plastic that are saddening. The enormous white tarpaulin with Arabic writing beached like a dying whale and the lasting vestige of what could have been a bag, simultaneously horrifying for it’s time at sea and beautiful for its frail viscosity.

He who has the gold makes the rules

2011-07-21T16:23:00.000-07:00

This report comes from the “can’t we all get along” department.

Ever since Oracle Racing became the defender of the America’s Cup, they’ve been working tirelessly to re-invent the 34th edition into an entertainment vehicle to grow fan and sponsor interest. Not exactly what George Schuyler had in mind when he deeded the event, but let’s not go there.

Among Oracle’s plans to build fan interest prior to the 2013 Match is to launch the America’s Cup World Series (ACWS) this summer. The inaugural event of the ACWS will be in Caiscais, Portugal on August 6-14. What is less clear is why the first event got put on that date.

The prominent conflict is with the nine event Extreme Sailing Series (ESS), which is now in its fifth year of providing a professional league with stadium type racing in forty foot catamarans. Sound familiar? For the ACWS to put their event directly on top of the fifth ESS event in Cowes, UK is more than an ‘oops.” It’s more like a ‘we’re coming after your audience’.

But that’s not the only conflict. The timing of the ESS event is to coincide with Cowes Week, which has been a key part of the British sporting summer calendar since 1826. One might think that the ACWS would give the largest annual multi-class inshore regatta in the world a little space, but apparently not.

And then there is another little event called the Olympics. Well, not exactly the Olympics, but the London 2012 Olympic Test Event (July 31-August 13, 2011) which is designed to replicate the Games atmosphere and will host 460 sailors representing 66 nations. This would seem to be of interest to some people.

But maybe the date scheduling was for the ACWS to avoid a conflict with the 2011 RC44 class Championship Tour, which has their next event in Marstrand, Sweden on August 17-21. In this Russell Coutts inspired class, the America’s Cup Defender and Challenger of Record hold three of the top five positions in the Tour standings.

It’s good to be king!

Scewed without a kiss

2011-07-18T18:27:00.000-07:00

Providing attribution is critical in the media. For online news, providing links is also standard. How closely a website follows these basic tents is the difference between a reputable organization and one that is less so.

When Sailing Anarchy is critical of other news sites that ‘cut and paste’, yet when they do the exact same thing...without proper attribution...frequently... an occasional bullshit needs to be called.

Today they posted what appeared to be an original report that Mike Sanderson wrote about sailing with Hap Fauth and the Bella Mente team during their winning Transpac race. Except Mike wrote the report for his website, and SA lifted the whole thing without any link to direct online traffic back to his website.

Screwed without a kiss.

Is this true?

2011-07-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

From the July 2011 issue of Latitude 38, that prominent monthly magazine distributed along the western U.S.:

“The 2011 Etchells World Championship regatta was supposed to be a nine-race series, but San Diego’s Bill Hardesty with crew Steve Hunt, Mandi Markee, and Craig Leweck needed only eight races to take the title. ...The win also marked the first time a full-time sailing journalist - Leweck edits the popular Scuttlebutt website - has ever won a legitimate world championship.”

Is this true? Am I the first full-time sailing journalist to win a legitimate world championship?

Freely pursuing all types of sailing

2011-06-14T15:49:00.000-07:00

This past week I was privileged to have won the Etchells World Championship in San Diego, CA. When Bill Hardesty asked if I would sail with him, he warned me that we would be putting in the training time needed to be fully prepared. I agreed, knowing that being physically, mentally, and technically ready would be vital for success.

After four days of racing, our team was reaping the benefits of our preparation, having won four of the first seven races in the 81 boat fleet. There was a party that night, and I had just collected another daily first trophy. As I was leaving, I met a nine year old girl who had also been racing in the regatta. I hadn’t realized someone that young was competing, but I thought it was pretty cool, and without much thought I gave her the trophy.

This week I received a note from her dad: “Thank you for giving your daily first trophy to my 9-year old daughter at the Thursday night Etchells party. It made her week and she has it prominently displayed in her room. She could not stop talking about it, and it appears that she is completely hooked on sailboat racing now (started sailing school this week in her newly acquired Optimist), which in turn will hook her 7-year old sister.”

Thinking back to the regatta, there were a few young people competing, but not many. I am now 48 years old, and the sport for young people has dramatically changed during the past 30 years. There was not such a division between youth sailing and open events for me as there is now, so my experience growing up included IOR boats, MORC boats, Hobie 16s, Snipes, Santana 20s, etc. While today’s young sailor has more opportunities now to compete against their peers in many different venues, they are lacking the diversity in boats and adult interaction that help them really connect to the sport.

The Worlds was an exhausting week, but meeting the young sailor and offering her that award was one of my personal highlights. I believe that seeing the handful of young people at the Etchells Worlds is something to build on, and I hope that parents allow their children to freely pursue all types of sailing, and not just what is offered on the youth sailing menu. -- Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt editor

The Flintstones are back

2011-05-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-23T15:30:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-10T11:04:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-03T06:36:00.000-07:00

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.

Royal party

2011-04-30T07:20:00.000-07:00

I just sent an email to a UK client. Here's the auto reply I received:

Our offices are currently closed for the Royal Wedding and bank holiday until Tuesday 3rd May. I will respond to any emails on my return.

Royal party!

Need to assess who the customers are

2011-04-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

I remember it well. The Snipe class had awarded the 1995 U.S. Nationals to Richmond Yacht Club on San Francisco Bay. Now, this is a great club with a one design tradition, and it was the hub of Snipe racing on the Bay. But the Nationals were scheduled for August. And on SF Bay, the wind snorts in August.

The Snipe class is main/jib only doublehander that’s popular on both coasts, but also quite popular in the interior of the country. I knew the top teams would welcome the venue, but big wind, waves, and current would be a bit much for the lake sailors. To get a good attendance at this event, the organizers would have to lie through their teeth about the conditions.

When I say lie, I mean it in only the savviest marketing sense. They just left out details. Their big pitch was that the race course would be close to the club, and positioned in the lighter winds to leeward of Angel Island. And this was all true. But the reality is that Angel Island could only do so much, and when the fleet got out to the reach mark (because we reached back then), it was a carnival of carnage.

Despite their marketing plan, the event only drew 41 boats, lowest turnout in 43 years. I recall the first couple days during qualifying, where my wife/crew and I raced only as much as we had to so as to save strength for the finals. We weren’t in good enough shape to sail full-on for five days, and this strategy helped us survive to finish second overall.

Why am I sharing this story? In two weeks, the Melges 24 World Championship will be held in Corpus Christi, Texas. This class has grown to be an exceedingly competitive fleet, and the conditions for this Worlds are going to be warm and windy, really really windy. For a well-sailed sportboat, this should be Mecca. So why have only 34 boats registered?

I believe the top teams will go just about anywhere to compete. Give them a decent location with decent conditions, and they will fight it out for the big pickle dish. But for the rest of the class, the Worlds should provide a convention of both competition and camaraderie. And this venue appears to have missed the mark. Said one professional sailor who preferred to remain nameless, “You couldn’t pay me enough to sail this year. That event is going to eat up the crew.”

No doubt, the sailing in Corpus is going to be off the hook, and I have every reason to believe the event hosts at Corpus Christi Yacht Club will show competitors a great time - because that’s how they roll in the south. But when the event only pulls 34 boats, half that of the previous year in Estonia and two thirds of the 2009 entrants in Annapolis for a dreary fall event, all class organizers need to assess who the customers are, and how can they best be served. -- Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt

Here's a training run by Bora Gulari, who has seen gusts to 35 knots, and is preparing for it to be a 'manly Worlds'.

Crew weight rules apply in handicap racing

2011-04-26T11:45:00.000-07:00

Certain one design classes include a maximum crew weight rule. The intent of such a rule is to help boat owners keep the same crew together regardless of the wind strength. And typically, it is best to be at the maximum crew weight.

Interestingly, this issue of crew weight for a class is not limited to the realm of their one design racing. When using IRC ratings, this rule states that “boats rated as one-designs shall conform with their one-design class rules in respect of crew number/weight limitations unless freed from this requirement by notice of race.” For boats other than one designs, IRC has crew number/weight rules as well. But for PHRF, this stipulation appears to vary.

US SAILING lists PHRF of Lake Ontario as its largest fleet, and their rules only refer to boat and sail dimensions. However, the second largest fleet is PHRF of Southern California, and their rules state that “when a boat is rated with the One-Design configuration, ..., the boat shall comply with all its One-Design class rules (including sail buttons, crew weight, etc.) Any modification to the One-Design class rules which might modify the boat’s PHRF One-Design rating shall be furnished to “the PHRF Regional Board immediately after the rule change becomes effective.”

Here is a partial list of keelboat OD classes with a crew weight rule:

Class - Crew Weight
Beneteau First 36.7- 1,550 lbs
Etchells - 628 lbs
Express 37 (NorCal) - 1,850 lbs or 8 crew
Farr 30 - 1,155 lbs
Farr 40 - 1,672 lbs
Flying Tiger 10M - 1,155 lbs
J/24 - 880 lbs
J/105 - 1,045 lbs
Melges 24 - 792 lbs
Melges 32 - 1,383 lbs

New York Yacht Club Swan 42 - 1,870 lbs

S2 7.9 - 1,100 lbs
Schock 35 - 1,750 lbs

One event that includes a crew weight rule is Key West Race Week, where regatta organizer Premiere Racing administers the Key West Performance Handicap Racing Fleet. The objective of the organization is to establish and maintain an equitable system of performance-based handicaps for boats participating at Key West, and one of the tools they use to level the playing field is to rate all the boats within their published Base Crew Weight Limitations.

Key West Race Week rules
IRC rules
PHRF-LO rules
PHRF-SoCal rules

Peter Corr's Warwick 82 Aiyana

2011-03-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

On assignment for Scuttlebutt in the USVI is action sports photography Leighton O'Connor who provided this report:

At the International Rolex Regatta (March 25-27) in St. Thomas is Peter Corr's Warwick 82 Aiyana. Features include sculptures, paintings, a bar that turns in a bed, transom door, computerized steering, motorized sliding ceiling, Sub-Zero Freezer, Sapelle mahogany, joy sticks for main trim, lifting keel, tons of carbon fiber, server for six TV's... and still a damn fast ride.

Built in Antalya, Turkey, Aiyana was a seven year project for Peter, with her launch in May of last year. Part of his crew of 14 for the regatta include sailing rock stars such as Steve Benjamin (USA) as the tactician, Mark Bartlett (USA) as the bow man, David Sampson (AUS) as the mast man, project manager and crew chief Mal Parker (AUS), Silas Nolan (AUS) along with navigator and captain Rosco Monson (GBR).

Her first race was the Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez Regatta last October in which she placed 13 out of 35. The warm up to the International Rolex Regatta was the International Caribbean Superyacht Regatta early this month in which they took a second behind Hanuman in the Spinnaker Division. Not bad. Next on her racing plate is the BVI Festival & Regatta.

Audi gets ripped

2011-03-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

Amid a backdrop of an amateur sport where pickle dishes and personal satisfaction remain the primary prizes, the continued growth of sponsorship and professional sailing leads to unintended consequences.

The Melges 32 class hosts the four event Melges 32 Audi Sailing Series in Italy. Audi has increasingly become a sponsor in a sport that does not have many prominent international brands. But at the first event of the 2011 series in Naples, Italy, the winner of the event protested their support.

The 22-boat event was won by Mascalzone Latino with Francesco Bruni and Paolo Masserdotti. This is the same team that is the Challenger of Record for the 34th America’s Cup, led by Italian Vincenzo Onorato. But Paolo was onboard in place of Vincenzo who refused to attend the event.

“I’m very sorry to not have seen you in Naples, I envied you very much for the fantastic races you had in my hometown,” said Vincenzo. “I personally apologize if we did not attend the price giving. This was not a lack of appreciation towards yourselves, with which I share the passion of this wonderful sport, but an open challenge against the organizing club, and more generally against Audi.

“The club has opposed the opening of our sailing school for disadvantaged children living in the slums and Audi has not honored its contractual obligation by paying the sponsorship for the Louis Vuitton Trophy (note: the team had been rebranded 'Mascalzone Latino Audi Team') that was due to us. We will not take part to any award of the circuit until Audi will settle his debt.”

American John Kilroy with tactician Nathan Wilmot (AUS) on Samba Pa Ti finished second. The second event of the Audi Melges 32 Sailing Series will be in Scarlino, Italy on April 29 - May 1.

Cash is king

2011-03-13T16:12:00.000-07:00

The entry deadline for the 34th America’s Cup is March 31st, after which a team would pay a late fee of US$200,000 if their entry is accepted. Thus far, the list of entries for the 2013 event includes six declared teams and two that have not wanted to announce themselves. Here is the payment schedule to enter the event:

By March 31, 2011, a notice of challenge and US$25,000.
By April 30, 2011, a performance bond of US$200,000.
By June 1, 2011, an entry fee of US$100,000.
By December 31, 2011 (or earlier if required by protocol), an additional performance bond of US$800,000.

Additionally, each team is required to compete in the America’s Cup World Series (ACWS) that will begin this year. The schedule of events is to be announced by March 31st, and there is a financial penalty for any team not competing in the ACWS.

To compete in the 2011 ACWS, each team will need to buy at least one AC45 from America’s Cup Race Management, which is the entity established to provide independent, professional, and neutral race management. A 50% deposit to purchase the 675,000 euro (US$940k) AC45 is needed by March 31st to guarantee timely delivery, with the balance due upon receipt.

Entering the 34th America’s Cup includes many conflicts. Those teams that have entered either have the funding or hope to gain it. Declaring their entry should help to establish teams but it is done without knowing the race schedule. And they have many financial hurdles ahead of them.

The fees listed are only some of the entry requirements. There is a long road from the initial US$25,000 entry fee and the estimated 100 million euros (US$140mil) needed to be competitive. As one group who is seeking to enter told Scuttlebutt, “Good luck to those teams that have ‘entered’ so far, but all I am saying is that at this stage, talk is cheap.”

Stadium sailing

2011-03-10T13:10:00.000-08:00

Sailboat racing as a stadium sport came to San Diego Bay on March 2-6 for the inaugural Oracle RC44 Cup San Diego. This was the launch for the 2011 RC44 championship tour, with 11, high-performance teams competing within the confines of the bay setting.

Olympic sailing should be hard

2011-03-08T09:09:00.000-08:00

Since the catamaran was eliminated from the 2012 Olympics, there has been more discussion than I can ever recall as to what types of events should be in the Olympics. I have endorsed the five discipline position, wherein the events should represent singlehanded and doublehanded dinghies, multihulls, keelboats, and boards. These are the main roads in our sport, and this approach provides the most talented sailors with the ultimate goal to seek.

Sailing is allowed 10 Olympic events, and the choice of which boats are to be used in each event is a harder choice - a choice that will be made in May for the 2016 Olympics. However, my contention is that whatever the choice, the ability to sail the boat must be hard too. Excellence in the Olympics must require extreme commitment, maturity, and skill. These tools take time to earn, and it is during this time when the audience gets to meet the sailors. If the sport is eager to broaden its audience, it must first allow the audience to meet and respect the competitors.

In January I was afforded the opportunity to observe nearly 800 sailors from 53 countries prepare for the Rolex Miami OCR, the elite Olympic and Paralympic event in the United States. During my limited time I came away with three distinct impressions:

THE STAR: Walking through the trailer park where the Star teams prepared is not unlike attending the America’s Cup, Volvo Ocean Race, or any other prestigious event in sailing. So many of the people working on their boats were some of the best known sailors in the sport. Pardon the pun, but this class has ‘star appeal’, more so than any of the current events. What is the attraction? The best attracts the best, partly because the boat is hard to sail.

THE FINN: This class gets more criticism than the rest. The design is old, and it looks it. But until you watch these singlehanded sailors in action, people should hold their comments. This boat is sailed by men... strong men. The athleticism to duck the boom and the power to push the boat is not for the timid. The boat is technical. And now that the class permits prohibited propulsion (pumping, rocking, etc) in 10 knots, the endurance required is epic. The offwind technique is borderline violent.

THE 470: This class has seemingly been the gateway for many of the top North American sailors... assuming they are the right size. And it is similar to what is commonly sailed as a doublehanded dinghy, except that it is an exceedingly technical boat. In fact, it is a huge step beyond what most young people in this continent are used to sailing. The ability needed to excel in this class is demonstrated by sailors such as Dave Ullman, Steve Benjamin, Morgan Reeser, Kevin Burnham, Paul Foerster, and Charlie McKee who all made their mark in this event, and continue to be leaders in the sport.

These three classes are the most senior of the Olympics events, and are the most commonly criticized in today’s effort to stimulate audience interest in the Olympics. I don’t disagree that the novelty of the foiling International Moth and the dynamism of the Kite event will provide stunning visuals. But I want substance too.

For me, I want the Olympics to be hard. I would prefer not to see teenagers on the podium, but rather seasoned athletes who have paid dearly for the privilege to wear the medal, to see their flag flown, and to have their country applaud them. That to me is what the Olympic Games is all about. - Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt editor

Cats and Dogs

2011-02-27T15:51:00.000-08:00

There are reasons for why sailboat racers don't like powerboaters.

As seen at the Etchells Jaguar Cup Series - Mid-Winters Regatta in Miami, FL on Feb 25-27, 201. Photos by John Payne

RC44 @ Key West Race Week 2011

2011-01-19T12:53:00.000-08:00

Scuttlebutt editor Craig Leweck rode in the media seat on the RC44 Mascalzone Latino on Wednesday at Key West Race Week 2011. “The boat is designed to race. And if you like going over 7 knots upwind in 8 knots of wind, this is the boat for you.” Here are some videos that he took:

Happy Birthday Tom Leweck

2011-01-13T14:08:00.000-08:00

When Scuttlebutt founder Tom Leweck launched this publication in 1997, he was a spry man in his mid-sixties, hell bent on turning the distribution of sailing news on its ear.

On Friday, January 14th, he will be a little less spry, and while the duties at Scuttlebutt World Headquarters have been handed off to the next generation, he remains healthy and as active as ever.

He will also be turning 80 years old. Happy Birthday Tom!

Uncertain future

2011-01-03T17:28:00.000-08:00

Since July of 2007, the America’s Cup has taken quite a tumble. Following the 32nd Match, the event has existed more in courtrooms than race courses. And when racing did occur, it was a forgettable series against two ill matched multihulls. It has not been the best of times.

But for the ever diminishing crowd of America’s Cup enthusiasts, the Golden Gate Yacht Club - the defender of the Cup - has assured us that good times are ahead. It was the GGYC that had taken the event on a nearly three year detour, but it was with the best intentions. And we wanted to believe.

Fast forward to today. As we dust off the holiday hangover, the future of the America’s Cup remains uncertain. Sailing fans wanted a return to monohulls, but GGYC said no. Sailing fans wanted a nationality rule, but GGYC said no. And finally, with what was assumed to be a no brainer, sailing fans were taken on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride before GGYC declared on Dec. 31st to host the 34th Match on their home waters - San Francisco Bay.

To be certain, it is only out of respect for the Deed of Gift that the defender of the America’s Cup is referred to as Golden Gate Yacht Club. The truth is that the club is a mere marionette of the Oracle Racing team that now holds the Cup. One can only imagine how somber the New Year’s Eve party would have been at GGYC had its members been told the venue had headed east.

But it’s a new year, and it’s time for renewed hope. As the Curmudgeon’s Observation notes below, “If you do not change direction, you are likely to end up where you are headed.” The inverse, of course, is that we currently have no idea where we are headed. The vision of GGYC is to create heightened excitement through high performance sailing. The fear is that what appears sugary and sweet on the outside will be without substance on the inside.

So as GGYC mixes their new batch of Kool-Aide for the 34th Match, engaged sailing fans are holding out their cup for a fill of needed hydration after a painful and historic drought. As for the disillusioned sailing fan, they are humming the title track of Kenny Rogers’ 1978 album, The Gambler: “You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away and know when to run.”

Hangover Bowl 2011

2011-01-02T08:40:00.000-08:00

Photographer John Payne shares some tradition from his club in Ft. Lauderdale, FL:

Lauderdale Yacht Club always rings in the new year by holding its New Year's Challenge Cup, a.k.a. The Hangover Bowl. Clyde Wright started the regatta in 1978 when he was sail master at the club. That first event was held on a cold, breezy day in full rig Lasers. Many top local sailors competed against a group of past Naval Academy sailing team members including Clyde's brother, now Rear Admiral Gar Wright. Participants now include members and guests, their children, sailors and coaches still in town after Orange Bowl, dock rats, and whoever else wants to jump into a boat.

This year's edition, the 24th, was sailed in Club 420's, in a double elimination match race format. Breeze was strong, and most importantly, warm, under mostly sunny skies with temps in the low 70's. The format starts with a random draw of the 36 skippers (the skipper grabs a crew off the dock), and where you land on the ladder might mean racing against three green fleet Opti sailors or Olympic medalist Anna Tunnicliffe. Against the former you may like your chances. Against the latter? Well, chalk it up to a learning experience.

Winning the 2011 New Year's Challenge Cup was Sarah Lihan, a recent graduate of Yale University where she was an All-American co-ed skipper. Of course having Anna as a crew didn't hurt her chances. Second place went to the defending champion, JP Wright from the University of Florida. The Oinker Award is presented annually to that skipper who is, well, an oinker. It is awarded to that skipper, of some considerable repute, who takes an early exit, or otherwise fails to live up to their reputation. Losing to your daughter, is a good way to qualify (see photos to determine winner).

Because the club is closed on New Year's, the parents put on a huge cookout, led by master chef and past commodore, Clyde Wright. Several flat screen TV's and a satellite dish are jury-rigged to provide full coverage of the day's football action. The "signal boat" for the racing is actually a corner of the junior sailing's floating dock, so everybody can watch the racing from the East lawn.

For the 24th time, it proved to be a great way to start the year.

Images by John Payne.

The Night Before Christmas

2010-12-23T12:40:00.000-08:00

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the town,
Not a creature was stirring, not even Jeff Brown;
The wet Atlantis gear was hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that The Curmudgeon soon would be there.

The junior sailors were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of Harken blocks danced in their heads;
And mamma and me tangled in New England Rope,
Had just settled down for a long evening grope.

When out on the docks there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed, and mamma less so.
To see what sailed in on the nor easterly blow,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should arose,
But a Melges 32, and eight hiking pros.

Up on a plane, the boat so well led,
I instantly knew it was the Scuttlebutt ed.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, Ullman! now, Dana! now, Doyle and Johnstone!
On, Reynolds! on Carroll! on, Craig and Gladstone!
I style you in Kaenons! You are wearing Camet!
Now get it together as the kite must be set"

With Interlux paint, the hull was so clean,
A coating of McLube providing the sheen,
So out to the pier end the coursers they flew,
With the boat full of swag, and The Curmudgeon too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard from a far,
The stumbling and bumbling of this internet rock star.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
In the door came The ‘Mudge with a bound.

His kit was complete, nothing to sort,
Pimped out with the best from Team One Newport;
No shortage of gifts he had flung on his back,
The elves at APS had filled up his pack.

His eyes -- a bit red! his dimples quite scary!
His cheeks, they were sagging; his nose -- a big cherry!
His loud little mouth, drawn up like a bow,
And his unshaven face was as white as the snow;

A Mount Gay and Tonic he held tight in his hand,
Already wearing his Key West Race Week wrist band;
Emptying his drink, he focused his stare,
On the shirts he had screened from The Pirates Lair.

The Flexofold prop had been straining his back.
Out came the Laser from his oversized sack;
With a wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Out came the O’Pen BIC that the Optis so dread;

He spoke not a word, sorting it all,
The rigging and carbon from Southern and Hall,
Stacks of gift cards came from West Marine,
Another great calendar from shooter Sharon Green;

His cocktail now gone, the gifts now dispersed,
Down the dock he went, at the crew now he cursed.
But to the ‘Buttheads he screamed as he planned out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

Santa Baby

2010-12-22T17:08:00.000-08:00

By Paul Fleming

Santa baby, just slip a GPS under the tree, for me
Been an awful good girl
Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa baby, a super fast sled too, light blue
I'll wait up for you dear Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight

Think of all the fun that I've missed
Think of all the sailors I haven't kissed
Next year I could be just as good
If you'd check off my Christmas list
Boo doo bee doo

Santa baby, I want a mega yacht and really that's
Not a lot
Been an angel all year
Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa honey, one thing I really do need, the deed
To the America’s Cup,
Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa cutie and fill my stocking with bar chits, and blank checks
Sign your 'X' on the line
Santa cutie, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Come and trim my Christmas tree
With some decorations from the chandlery
I really do believe in you
Let's see if you believe in me
Boo doo bee doo

Santa baby, forgot to mention one little thing, a ring
I mean with wind shift calls on my cell
Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight
Hurry down the chimney tonight
Hurry ... tonight

WISSA History

2010-12-19T07:49:00.000-08:00

From William Tuthill, President WISSA:

Either you have been to a World Ice and Snow Sailing Association (WISSA) event or you have not. If you have, then you know ... but if you have not ... then get ready. To describe a WISSA event is not easy, and words alone are not enough. Think about this:

The WISSA Ice and Snow Sailing World Championships is the oldest international event in the history of windsurfing. When windsurfing first became popular in the late 1970’s people living in cold climates discovered that windsurfing rigs were also ideal for sailing on ice and snow.

The sport of iceboating is centuries old, but “boats” for sailing in the snow always had problems because of the downward pressure from the rig- they would bog down. The windsurfing rig changed all of that. Standing on a sled and trapping the wind between the ground and the sail provided the lift required to make snow sailing possible for the first time in history.

So-the windsurfing rig made possible a whole new sport. Next came kites. Kites were developed for use on snow and land well over a decade before the sport of Kiteboarding [in water] was born. Around 1990, winterboard inventor Sami Tuurna of Finland came up with a new design for a wing to be used with skis, skates and land boards. Originally called the “Skimbat”, the first wing resembled the “Wind Weapon” that briefly came onto the windsurfing scene at the same time.

Fast forward to present, and the sport of windsurfing is in full recovery from a decline after its halcyon days. Kites have morphed into a new waterborne sport called Kiteboarding, and wings are more efficient and better refined than ever. All of these sports have seen their ups and downs, and each has their advantages and disadvantages. But here’s to you!

Here’s to you living life, and coming out into the winter winds to sail fast and take part in the most prestigious international ice and snow sailing event in history! Bring your flag, bring your culture, and represent your history at the 2011 Ice and Snow Sailing World Championship in Oravi, Saimaa, Finland on February 25 to March 6.

Ob Sea, Novosibirsk, Siberia 1978

Veranger, Norway May 200

Riga, Latvia. WISSA 2009

International Moth - Revolution or evolution

2010-12-13T16:10:00.000-08:00

A development class is not for the meek, and the development class that is getting all the publicity these days in the International Moth. When Rohan Veal from Australia electrified the sailing world in 2005 when he became the first person to win an International Moth World Championship on hydrofoils, it required everyone to either add foils to their boat or get beat by those that did. This is what development classes do. They develop.

The list of Moth class rules is short, limiting little more than hull length and width and sail area. They begin by stating their intention “is to give the designer and builder the fullest liberty in design and construction, within these rules to develop and produce faster boats.” And while the idea is to stretch the boundaries for better boat speed, this reality is not always well received.

The 2011 International Moth World Championship is next month in Belmont, Australia (Jan. 8-14), and the class Executive Committee is hurriedly trying to navigate the next big development: wing sails. Since Simon Payne (GBR) won the 2010 Worlds in March, which followed the domination of a wing sail at the 33rd America’s Cup, factions in the class went into the garage to make their own wing. And now they are coming out.

The problem is threefold. First, the class rules are not well suited to the wing, so interpretations must be made. The sticking point is that the rules permit one mast and one sail, and the naysayers find that all the flaps and elements amid the wing are over the limit. There is concern among the sail manufacturers who fear their livelihood is in danger, and are seeking to halt this development as not being in the “general interest of the class”. Then there are all the soft sail competitors who fear their kit will not be sufficient at the 2011 Worlds. And all this uproar comes before the wing sails have entered a race.

As Class president Mark Robinson (SIN) noted during the 2010 Annual General Meeting in March, “We’ve got a healthy class. The fleet is still on an up-turn, but the trick is to maintain this. The class philosophy is that as a development class just about anything goes. If it works, and the class members like it, it will be embraced, if not it may be banned. Thus ‘retrospective legislation’ is the philosophy. We also have to be careful how many revolutions we have within the class in a given period to ensure sustained growth. Hydrofoils have been a great success, but incurred a significant cost increase upon their introduction, so we have to be careful how many major revolutions we have, versus constant evolution.”

So will the class embrace the wing, or will self-interest kill it first? The clock is ticking, and the ethos of the class is set to be tested.

Additional reports on the subject:
http://mothchronicles.blogspot.com
http://www.yachtsponsorship.com
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/10/1201/

San Francisco vs. Larry Ellison

2010-12-12T11:09:00.000-08:00

It seems like a lifetime ago when yachting journalist Kimball Livingston reported on the love fest that occurred on February 20, 2010 at City Hall in San Francisco. Mayor Gavin Newsom handed BMW Oracle Racing team owner Larry Ellison the key to the city. Ellison gave the Mayor a team jacket which he promptly put on his back. And both made a lot of noise about finding a way to make it happen that the new defender, Golden Gate Yacht Club, would be hosting the 34th America’s Cup on their home waters.

“We will do whatever it takes,” Newsom said, “because of the magnitude of the opportunity.” To which Ellison replied, “We don’t need taxpayer support. We need access to waterfront land. The 2007 match brought 680 million Euros to the economy in Valencia. That’s almost a billion U.S., and this should be even bigger.”

Ten months later, and now less than three weeks from a vital deadline to disclose the venue location, the level of negotiations between the City and the Golden Gate Yacht Club have gotten rough. Some might say it was only a matter of time. Ellison, the sixth richest person in the world with a personal wealth of $27 billion, didn’t achieve that status by always playing nice.

It is hard to know what is really going on when it is not clear who San Francisco is bidding against to host the Match. Recent rumors are that the City realized it is not bidding against anyone, which may have affected how much they are willing to give up. Also, with the number of entries now looking to be less than projected, the City may have reassessed the value of hosting the event.

If Emirates Team New Zealand had won the 2007 match, a venue location other than Auckland would have been a non starter. And what no one disputes is that the City is able to host the event, or that Ellison declared his desire to defend in San Francisco. For the Bay Area sailing enthusiasts that have faithfully dedicated their support to the cause, let’s hope the deal gets down for the right reasons and not the wrong.

Barcelona

2010-12-06T06:02:00.000-08:00

Yachting photographer Christophe Launay will occassionally submit images from his travels. Here is his report from Spain:

La Barceloneta is a neighborhood in the Ciutat Vella district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The neighborhood was constructed during the 18th century for the residents of the Ribera neighborhood who had been displaced by the construction of the Ciudadela of Barcelona. The neighborhood is roughly triangular, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, the Muelle de España of Port Vell and the El Born neighborhood.

Barceloneta beach gained status as the best urban beach in the World and total third best beach in the World.

Images below or here.

Christophe Launay
____/)__
http://www.sealaunay.com/

Water or Coke

2010-12-03T08:46:00.000-08:00

Interesting infomation regarding Coke and water.

WATER

#1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated..
(Likely applies to half the world population)

#2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is mistaken for hunger.

#3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as 3%.

#4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.

#5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

#6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

#7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

#8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%., and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer. Are you drinking the amount of water you should drink every day?

COKE

#1. In many states the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.

#2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke and it will be gone in two days.

#3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the 'real thing' sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.

#4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers:
Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds
Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

#5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

#6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Apply a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

#7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.

#8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Coke into the load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle.. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION:

#1 the active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. It will dissolve a nail in about four days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase of osteoporosis.

#2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup! (the concentrate) the commercial trucks must use a hazardous Material place cards reserved for highly corrosive materials.

#3. The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean engines of the trucks for about 20 years! Now the question is, would you like a glass of water?

or Coke?

From sailing to song

2010-12-03T06:29:00.000-08:00

Nice story...

It began simply enough, a bit of wanderlust for a young couple in their early 20s. After saving up for six years, Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore could finally afford a modest boat and sail the seas for as long as their money lasted. Never mind that neither of them were skilled sailors; they bought and read instructional books for that.

At the beginning of last year, Riley and Moore made that plan a reality, setting out on an eight-month voyage that led them up the East Coast — and eventually to marriage — before they made their way home to Denver.

What happened next, though, they never could have predicted. Their ocean adventure gave birth to one of indie-pop’s most heavily hyped acts this year, all based on a few singles ahead of a full-length album. Read more

Holiday Party

2010-11-30T08:29:00.000-08:00

There was a time when the Lido 14 class in SoCal was an absolute whos-who of the top racers in the region. But time marches on, and the class has struggled to maintain the enthusiasm.

The success of local fleets rests firmly on the shoulders of its members, and the Lido 14 fleet in Long Beach, CA has recently found some sparkplugs to carry the load. The boats are back on the water, and the energy is packed into their weekly email updates.

This communiqué had us laughing out load and needed to be shared. While the names may not be familiar, we suspect your sailing area has these types too:

For the final race of the 2011 Fleet Six Twilite Season (otherwise know as Mark Ryan's Date Nights), any skipper who attends this year's Holiday Extravaganza will be allowed to start the second race 3 seconds early without penalty. As you know this will send all other sailors who did not see fit to attend the Holiday Party right out the back end of the fleet, sucking your stale gas.

Additionally, we have asked Chris Ericksen, ABYC Historian and Orator Extraordinaire, to give a small talk entitled "Sexual Misadventures of Those Not In Attendance". You won't want to miss this one! (It's a small club and an even smaller Fleet, and Chris has an memory like an elephant)

Contact Lori VanSkyhock to RSVP (ask her about her new lingerie).

Chris Ericksen with two ladies who will definitely be at the Holiday Party!

Forty Little Children

2010-11-30T07:27:00.000-08:00

To present his formal position on the junior sailing debate, Saving Sailing author Nicholas Hayes was compelled to poetry:

Forty Little Children
By Nicholas Hayes

Forty little children,
all in a row
Doing what daddy didn't,
but look dear what a show!

Twenty kids in team shirts,
awesomely prepared.

Half go for the fauxhawk,

the rest get Bieber hair.

Twelve ready tweeners,
hit the line on time.
Starboard looks favored,
but port!, dad yells, is fine.

Six near grownup ducklings,
quack, quack, quack.
Saying, "take to the air, sis,
and
don't
look
back."

Gram and Grandpa wonder,
where did they go?
Our kids?
And theirs, the ones like ducks
who lived to be the show?

The bay need not be empty.
It's fun from spring to fall.
But to share it,
really share it.
We need not some, but all.

Ice Cup in Sweden

2010-11-29T07:37:00.000-08:00

If people live in areas that get a real winter, are they more apt to get on the water in sketchy conditions? Like these below:

Attached are some images from the 10th edition of Ice Cup in Sweden. Minus 10 degrees C and snow was not a big problem for the 120 Vikings who turned up for the start. The 25 teams raced in J/92, however, spinnakers were not allowed due to too much ice on foredeck; winch handles were used to hack ice off deck.

Regards,

Oskar Kihlborg
Kihlborg Film AB
www.kihlborg.se

Rules conundrum

2010-11-28T12:10:00.000-08:00

There was commentary last week in Scuttlebutt regarding how certain one design classes include a crew weight rule. The intent of such a rule is to allow boat owners to sail with the same crew regardless of the wind conditions. A classic example is the Etchells class, which had allowed crew weight to be unrestricted. But when Dennis Conner dominated the 1991 Worlds in San Francisco with a combined crew weight of 818 pounds (818/ 3 crew = 273 average), they soon instilled a 285 kilo maximum (628.3 lb).

It was noted how competing teams in the Melges 32 class might diet before the crew weigh in, and then gain the body weight back during the regatta. Since the performance of a Melges 32 is closely connected to its crew’s hiking ability, being a heavy crew is a bonus. On the surface this practice of sailing over the class crew weight maximum would seem unethical. But what last week’s report did not note was how the class rules do not deem this practice illegal. Here are the two relevant sections in the Melges 32 class rules:

---------------------------------------

Section C - Conditions For Racing

The crew and the boat shall comply with the rules in this section before the preparatory signal and, when applicable, whilst racing. These rules may not be checked as part of fundamental measurement. It is the Owners responsibility to see that his boat complies with the class rules and relevant RRS at all times and that alteration, replacement or repairs to the boat do not invalidate the measurement certificate.

C.7.2. Weights

The total crew weight on board while racing shall not exceed 629kgs. This weight shall be taken with the crew dressed in normal underclothes only. Crews shall only be weighed during the registration period prior to racing. Re-weighing shall only take place if a valid protest shows that the pre-race weights were false. The Owner shall be allocated a weight of 104kgs., the Owner may choose to weigh in.

---------------------------------------

As was noted last week, the 2010 Melges 32 World Championship allowed for crew weight to be measured as far as nine days before the first race, allowing teams with the opportunity to increase their crew weight before racing began. However, based on the rule, as long as the crew weight information was accurately recorded, and the scale equipment was not found to be faulty, the time of weigh in was the ONLY time a crew had to weigh no more than 629kg.

There does seem to be a conundrum in the rules, as on one hand the class says there is a crew weight maximum, but on the other hand it states that it is in place only when the crew is weighed. As to one design regattas without a weigh-in, perhaps this rule is amended in the NOR or Sis. How PHRF handles it is less clear, as a Melges 32 using a class handicap would be expected to follow its class rules.

Thoughts?

Anglo - French Conflict

2010-11-23T12:09:00.000-08:00

It was in Scuttlebutt 3208 (Oct. 28, 2010) when Sailing World blogger Tim Zimmermann pronounced that the Route Du Rhum, the 3542 nm solo race from France to West Indies, would be “hands-down be the most exciting sailboat race of the year”. Speaking to his American audience (though the Internet knows no limits) that lacks the same passion as its western European ally, his words were equal parts information and persuasion.

Hopefully his words had some impact for those who witnessed them. The Route Du Rhum only happens once every four years, and it always delivers intense sailing action (which sometimes reaches the level of serious carnage). The last edition drew 1.2 million visitors to the race village and 250,000 people thronging to the coast to view the start. With 1,000 accredited journalists at the start, the event received over 88 hours of TV broadcasts, 5,200 press articles and 60 radio hours. Clearly, the event has an audience.

This year, the RDR had 87 registered skippers, and the event website brought us onboard with reports, photos, video, and tracking. The five divisions were filled with the elites of this realm. The maxi multihulls, famous for their speed records, shared the spot light with the IMOCA Open 60, clearly the dominant player in professional shorthanded competition. But it was the new kid on the block, the Class 40 with its 44 entries, which also warranted space on the stage.

WARNING: A Scuttlebutt rant is approaching...

So given the depth of competition presented by the Class 40, why would an event that had made a significant investment to share the action of this contest to a global online audience, stop providing event updates before the first Class 40 crossed the finish line? The final story - “Here come the roaring 40's!” - would report how the Class 40 fleet would start arriving in a day or two.

Funny thing happened in the world of this French produced event... they stopped translating the stories to English. The website has a French and English language option, and the English version of the website stops on November 16th (as of press time) while the French version continues on. So for any Anglo interested in the six Class 40 entries yet to finish, better luck next time. And we wonder why the Americans don’t follow this foreign affair.

Event website: http://www.routedurhum-labanquepostale.com/

Accident at da Harken factory...

2010-11-23T11:26:00.000-08:00

Olaf vas vorking on the die cutter machine at da plant las veek vhen he accidentally cut off all ten of his finkers.

So Peter (left in photo) took him to da emergency room in the Clinik and vhen he got dar Dr. Norsky looked at Olaf and said, "Okie dokie, let's have da finkers and I'll see vhat I can do."

Olaf said, "I haven't got da finkers."

"Vhat do you mean, you hafen't got da finkers?" he said. "Lordy - it's 2010 and Ive's got microsurgery and all kinds of incredible surgery techniques. I could hafe put dem back on and made you like new! Vhy didn't you brink da finkers?"

Olaf says........."How da fock vas I suppose to pick dem up?"

No good deed goes unpunished

2010-11-21T12:18:00.000-08:00

The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association has a mailing list system that allows for the communication of events and other ICSA information. But sometimes lists like this get messy with communication that, while well intended, gets presented to a larger audience than desired.

Here is a series of emails that were focused on the Match Race Nationals, or specifically, the event’s website. To protect the parties involved, we will use the names of the original Beatles lineup: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best.

JOHN
Not sure who is the creator/ designer/ decision maker behind collegematchrace.com but it is unfortunate that it looks like a pro-match racing web page that only has the skippers names and bio's and one needs to dig down to find the crews. Good effort with not much thought.

PAUL
JOHN wins the Unconstructive Criticism of the Day Award! Similarly, you did not give sending an email like this out to the list much thought either. In the future if anyone would like to give constructive criticism, please contact myself or someone on the ICSA board directly and we can pass it along to the appropriate recipients. If you want to give unconstructive criticism, just send those to me directly.

GEORGE
I think it was a perfectly fair point to raise. Every college sailing press release and results list makes it clear to list all the players, and for good reason. That we are dealing with match racing doesn't change anything.

JOHN
I thought if I put in the part about a good effort and using a soft word like unfortunate it would have been constructive criticism. Constructive criticism is criticism kindly meant that has a goal of improving some area of another's person's life or work.

STUART
It would be great to have JOHN’s email sent to you alone or a board member as it could be an easy fix rather than embarrassing the hosts or people who have worked so hard to get this event going. This is a great event and a great site I applaud the creators of the site and I know I'm glued to the coverage. What a great thing for ICSA!

PETER
No good deed goes unpunished these days.

Is this a POS 13?

2010-11-19T12:40:00.000-08:00

This is pretty funny. An email exchange between Matthew and Lisa was forwarded to me, which details how Matthew was trying to help Lisa with an ad she had placed. Enjoy:

Matthew: “Do you realize the boat you are selling in the pictures is not a Laser?”

Lisa: “No I don't. LOL! Thanks. Can you give me info on it please? I'm supposed to sell it.”

Matthew: “Most sailors would call it a POS 13.”

Lisa: “Thanks! Now I'll have to do some research and see what that means! Thanks much.”

Matthew: “No worries - hope you sell it.”

UPDATE: Lisa has updated the ad, which had first listed the boat as a Laser. She is now calling it a Banshee, but remains uncertain as to what it really is, and still considers that it could be a POS.

Dennis Conner Store

2010-11-18T16:54:00.000-08:00

A new 'must-see' stop in San Diego. I attended a launch party last night for the new Dennis Conner Store in San Diego. Part store, part museum with loads of DC's personal items on display. Very nice! Store and website to open next week: http://www.dennisconner.com/

R u a NYC 'butthead?

2010-11-15T11:57:00.000-08:00

Here is some information for all the New York City 'buttheads:

Come Race the Radio-Controlled Sailboats at Dennis Conner's North Cove

The summer season is always busy and exciting with great yachts stopping by. But when summer turns into winter, the yachts all fly south and we are left here in New York City with dreams and memories.

We also have a little bit of extra water with nothing happening.

Dennis Conner looked out over the marina and said, "Why don't we do something to liven up the marina and the community this winter."

So beginning this weekend and continuing through the winter, North Cove will be sponsoring radio-controlled sailboat races every weekend. If you live in or near Manhattan, we invite you to come down to the marina for some fun.

Now these are not bathtub-type boats. These are full sailing machines. The boats are over 4 feet high and they are super responsive. If there is wind, you will be thrilled by their performance.

There will be 2 sessions every Saturday and Sunday. The first session from 1 to 2 p.m. will be for beginners and practice sailing.

Then there will be a race series from 2 to 3 p.m. Scores will be kept and posted on the internet. There will be a series for November, December and as long as the sailing continues.

The cost will be minimal, $5 rental per hour (to help pay for batteries).

Reserve your boat today at http://www.thenorthcove.com/rc%20lasers.htm. Or if the boats are already filled, then just come down and sail on a stand-by basis.

When you get to North Cove, come to the south side of the marina and look for the dock master or a crowd of people playing with radio controls.

- Commodore Michael Fortenbaugh

Smaller is better

2010-11-15T09:37:00.000-08:00

They want to add lanes of traffic to Interstate 5 in San Diego to better handle commuter demands. Early estimates is that it will cost $4.1 billion, take nearly 20 years of construction, and require the condemnation of dozens of houses and businesses.

How about we all get smaller cars?

Henderson said

2010-11-15T07:53:00.000-08:00

Scuttlebutt founder Tom Leweck, who was one of the keynote speakers this past weekend at the U.S. SAILING One Design Sailing Symposium, shared an observation that he had gained from past ISAF President Paul Henderson about good club racing.

Henderson said:

“Unfortunately…we have taken the fun out of the game and made it too technical--too much emphasis on boat speed. Sailboats should be no more expensive than the cost of a second car…and the time spent fixing them should be one hour for every ten hours on the water. In my opinion it is the pro's desire to win at all cost without respect for the sport that has caused our problems.”

Henderson felt boats should be:

- Gender-equal

- Last a long time

- Keep their value

- Be tactical - not technical

- No trapezes

- Heavy one-designs--not sensitive to crew weight

- Sails that last at least a season

- Sailmakers should not be allowed to use their own sails

Henderson felt races should be:

- Geared to new reality of two income family & need for quality family time

- Races start from front of YC not requiring 10-mile sail for upwind start

- Should race on week nights, leaving weekends free

Henderson said:

“We all seem to have forgotten what sailing is all about. It should be fun--good racing, good food …and a drink at the yacht club. The best day you can have in your life is two great races, back to the club to smile a lot, rehash the races and join together with other sailors who will become your lifelong friends.”

Not so smooth sailing

2010-11-12T09:50:00.000-08:00

There is a growing development of yacht racing in the Middle East with the Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta, the RC44 circuit and the Moth Worlds, all taking place in the warm azure blue waters around the desert city of Dubai.

But with the real threat of piracy in the adjacent Arabian Sea, the threat of just about anything in neighboring Iran, and the occasional concerning news within the United Arab Emirates (recently considered banning Blackberry mobile phones because they were unable to monitor communications), smooth sailing remains a challenge in the Gulf region.

* November 2009: Five British yachtsmen and their Volvo 60 yacht ‘The Kingdom of Bahrain’ were held by Iran's Revolutionary Guard for a week after they drifted into Iranian waters mistakenly while sailing from Bahrain to Dubai to take part in the 360-nautical mile Dubai to Muscat Race. Muscat is the capital and largest city of Oman.

* November 2010: Last week the Sultanate, which sponsors two Extreme 40s and the 105-foot triamaran recently damaged in the Route du Rhum, banned competitors in the 2010 Dubai to Muscat Race from sailing through Omani waters. The race course was to be revised with a finish outside of Oman.

* February 2011: The first Extreme 40 regatta of the 2011 Extreme Sailing Series, which is expected to attract a number of high profile teams using the series to train for the America’s Cup, is expected to be in Oman in February.

* January 2012: The second leg of the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race will take the fleet from Cape Town, South Africa, north through the Indian Ocean, past the threat of piracy that extends off of Somalia and the Gulf of Arden, along the Omani coast, and turning the corner into the Persian Gulf to Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Virtual sailing

2010-11-11T09:08:00.000-08:00

I avoid Virtual Regattas like I avoid my kids teaching me how to use their PlayStation. While I prefer sticking with only the real thing, clearly there are a lot of other people that enjoy couch sports. Hopefully, that will not become their permanent sporting preference, but to each their own.

Here is the latest Virtual Regatta announcement:

BOLKI, winner of the virtual Route du Rhum La Banque Postale!

The virtual Route du Rhum La Banque Postale, which started on 31 October in St. Malo at the same time as the real race, has its winner! After a decisive last night during which he took advantage of a wind change to the west, BOLKI snatched the victory from more than 240,000 contenders! On his multihull, he was ahead of his follower DIOUCK56, by just under a minute. Story of a race full of suspense.

While Franck Cammas was celebrating his winning of the Rhum in Guadeloupe, BOLKI won the virtual version of the Route du Rhum La Banque Postale. This was a particularly enjoyable victory, since it was achieved with some pain and indecision after 8 days and 21 hours at sea and 4,257miles.

For his 16th virtual race, BOLKI went looking for his first honours in the Virtual Regatta after a dazzling comeback. In the last miles of the race, when the leader SECE RKN was forced to break tacks on the wind, between the islands to reach the finishing line, BOLKI and DIOUCK snatched the race lead from SECE RKN, with the help of a wind change to the West.

BOLKI’s exploit was then to set a layline more than 100 miles from the finish and to reach the south point of Marigot by tacking. At the same time, DIOUCK56, positioned further ahead, but a few miles leeward, had to tack to reposition his boat on the line, leaving the victory to BOLKI.

An experienced virtual sailor, BOLKI has regularly been ranked in the Top 100 of the competitions organized by Many Players these last few years. He achieved a very fine 4th place in the Transat Jacques Vabre and a 12th place in the Trophée Jules Verne in 2009. He will be a man to watch out for in the overall Virtual Regatta 2010 ranking!

Sailing Events Association San Diego (SEA SD)

2010-11-09T13:50:00.000-08:00

A slumping economy, compounded by a sport that struggles for commercial viability, has made large scale sailing events a hard sell in the United States. But a new initiative in San Diego - Sailing Events Association San Diego - hopes to serve the sport, while also benefiting a city that relies heavily on tourism. The first test will come in March when the professional RC 44 class launches its 2011 Championship season in San Diego.

The eating season - 3rd edition

2010-10-29T10:20:00.000-07:00

When the first edition of the Eating Season was posted in April 2009, the fat hangover clouded some of the details. The second edition in January 2010 included vital updates, and now with the third edition upon us, we need to be more wary than ever. Brain cells come and go, but fat cells live forever.

October - Halloween.
November - Thanksgiving.
December - Christmas
January - Holiday leftovers, Mount Gay in Key West and Girl Scout cookies.
February - Macking on the Thin Mints, plus Super Bowl snacks.
March/April - Bam… Easter treats.

Undoubtedly I will get a couple colds during the Eating Season that will derail whatever exercise I am doing to ward off the fat cells. As for the other months, they may seem harmless but beware of holiday cocktail weekends in May, July, and Sept.

Sage advice from Hill Street Blues:

Sailors Night Vision Cap

2010-10-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

Sailors Night Vision Cap

Relevance

2010-10-28T14:56:00.000-07:00

During the legal impasse following the 2007 America’s Cup, The Louis Vuitton Trophy series began in 2009 to help sustain those teams seeking a stage for their sponsors, and to provide them a platform to maintain their skills. It also offered Louis Vuitton the means to connect again with the America’s Cup brand, a relationship they began in 1983 by awarding the Louis Vuitton Cup to the top challenging syndicate, but had ended after the 2007 Match amid concerns over the increased event commercialization.

The LVT thrived through four events in New Zealand, France, and Italy, but by this summer it became clear the event had entered ‘lame duck’ status. With the February 2010 Deed of Gift match win by the Russell Coutts led BMW Oracle Racing team over defender Alinghi in the 33rd America’s Cup, promises of a new and improved Cup plan flowed. Teams that had looked to the LVT for shelter and salvation could, they were told, soon come home again to the America’s Cup.

With the pendulum ball now swinging, the LVT cancelled their January 2011 event in Hong Kong, but likely received sufficient team guarantees to hold onto what likely is a very well funded final event in Dubai beginning November 14. And the locals are excited. “There is a huge amount of activity surrounding the Louis Vuitton Trophy at DIMC and the arrival of the four America’s Cup Class boats certainly increased the enthusiasm of everyone involved,” said Saeed Hareb, CEO of Dubai International Marine Club.

“We have installed a very large, two-storey chalet between the clubhouse and the race department, which will house the event media, TV, VIP lounge, offices, shops and reception and forms a focal point of the village,” notes Hareb. “Watching it all take shape has been fascinating, especially as every day someone new is arriving on site from either the teams, the organisation or press and the scene is being set for a really exceptional event.”

And the locals should be excited. “We’re really looking forward to bringing top level sailing to Dubai and enjoying the great racing conditions on offer there at this time of year,” said Paul Cayard, the Chairman of the World Sailing Team Association, co-organiser of the event, as well as the skipper of the Swedish Artemis team. Joining the Artemis team is America’s Cup defender BMW Oracle Racing as well as Mascalzone Latino, the current challenger of record. Rounding out the field is the Russian Synergy team, the French-German team All4One, and of course, Emirates Team New Zealand.

So while the locals will enjoy this two week party, will the global audience be sufficiently interested? Now that the organizers of the next Match have decidedly moved away from a monohull format they deemed unmarketable, going instead to wing propelled multihulls, the relevancy of this event is clearly on display. Or is it? Guess it depends if you are a Flintstoner or a Facebooker.

Book Review: Lesson Plans Ahoy!

2010-10-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

When Scuttlebutt was asked to review the book, Lesson Plans Ahoy! - Hands-On Learning for Sailing Children and Home Schooling Sailors, we reached out to Nicholas Hayes, sailing dad and author of Saving Sailing, to do the honors. Here is his review:

A few years ago, while pitching early drafts of my own book, I received a rejection noteworthy for its sincerity from a popular nautical imprint. “Interesting project, but we’re only looking at 'how-tos’ in the sailing category these days.” It seemed logical at the time. The economy was in the can, and self-help books are an inexpensive and useful way to reach and enable aspiring sailors. I took note of the trend, jotting down recent titles, adapted here. I’ve seen “How-to sell everything and sail away forever,” “How-to live aboard with a large puppy,” and “How-to survive a sailing divorce (or two, or three).”

I must admit, I’m not one to read how-to books. I don’t even open the manual for my car to change the clock to spring forward and fall back. I adjust the time in my head six months out of the year. And faced with a sailing problem, I’m prone to give it a best guess first and think and apply later.

But when the book Lesson Plans Ahoy!--Hands-On Learning for Sailing Children and Home Schooling Sailors, from Slavinski-Schweitzer Press, came in the mail along with a review request from Craig Leweck at Scuttlebutt, my interest was piqued.

I daydream endlessly about casting off in a Deerfoot or a Swan to explore Patagonia or Alaska with my wife and kids. Besides small issues like not being able to afford a Deerfoot or a Swan, not having convinced my wife and kids, and needing to work to eat--the central thing holding me back is that I’m certain that I am vastly under-qualified to homeschool. I usually convince myself that we would return and the kids would be prepared for, well, nothing. And my daydream bubble bursts.

Author Nadine Slavinski was prepared. With a Harvard Degree in Education, experience teaching internationally, and a life of sailing, she took a year off to sail with her husband and their then four-year-old son in the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic.

In Lesson Plans Ahoy!, Slavinski assembles six units on subjects ranging from Earth and Space Science to Humanities to Biology. Each unit includes guiding questions and suggested materials, age-appropriate adaptations and assignments, and lists of additional resources, thoughtfully organized by a teacher for a parent. The plans neatly tie to the sailing aesthetic, as one would logically expect. And they suggest, in teacher-speak, an “integrated” curriculum, meaning that the plans are loosely related to one another. For example, in Unit 5 - Humanities, students are asked what they have in common with explorers like Columbus, and how Columbus’ discoveries mattered. A condensed history of Columbus’ travels forms the body of the work. Then, highlighting a peculiar event in which Columbus seizes on a coming lunar eclipse to con native Jamaicans into believing the darkness to be a sign from God and demanding food for the Spaniards as penance, Humanities and Science are coupled, albeit loosely and clumsily. So, I would suggest, are Religion, Philosophy and Politics, but there are not units on those.

And that’s my problem with this book. I hoped to learn about what might inform a parent’s choice to pull kids out of school and teach through sailing; the risks and the rewards for making such a bold and possibly honorable decision. And then once made, I wanted to know much more about how to navigate in the fog and around the hidden shoals of home-schooling. I wanted to use this book to build the confidence to start the conversation in the first place. I wanted more substantial lesson plans and a broader curriculum, and directions about writing new plans. I felt that I was reading a teacher’s first draft--something assembled on the fly and then reassembled for publication. And I was left pondering all of the other wonderful things that Slavinski’s four-year old had actually learned in that year on the water with mom and dad. There had to be more. Whatever it was, I’m sure it imprinted in large and meaningful ways.

So I hope this is a first draft book, even perhaps an outline for a more ambitious project. I think the foundation is great, and I sense Slavinski has the skills and the experiences to pull it off. I think the premise of parent-child blue-water sailing is fantastic, and that more people should do it. Think of the world-aware, well-rounded citizens it would make. But in terms of how-to books, well, this time, I wanted a lot more.

And I know a publisher looking for just such a thing.

- Nicholas Hayes

Diversity?

2010-10-25T13:49:00.000-07:00

At the US SAILING annual meeting last week in Phoenix, AZ, three new appointments to the Board of Directors were confirmed based on their election by US SAILING members. These three individuals came from a pool of five people that had been selected by the Nominating Committee, with all five people based in the upper right corner of the country.

The US SAILING announcement was included in Scuttlebutt 3205, which prompted the following letter from Doran Cushing of Sarasota, FL:

“If there is any one problem with sailing in the U.S. it is the persistent "old boy" network at the senior "management" levels. The latest appointments to US SAILING only confirm that long-standing trend. Where is the diversity? Where is the all-embracing flavor of a huge nation where we end up with microscopic regional "leadership?" Not that these people are not dedicated and talented. But it is a larger universe, even in the U.S. New England is NOT the center of the sailing universe in the U.S. The same old boy attitudes are reflected in the intolerance of multihull inclusion into the so called "real world" of sailboats. Seems like lots of old boys are missing the boat.”

This was the fourth year that US SAILING held elections to determine members of its board of directors. Board members serve for a three-year term in rotation, except for the Executive Director and the Chair of the Olympic Committee. Here is the US SAILING Board of Directors for October 2010- October 2011:

Gary Jobson (President), Annapolis, MD

Tom Hubbell (Vice President), Delaware, OH
Fred Hagedorn (Secretary), Chicago, IL
Leslie Keller (Treasurer), Kirkland, WA
Jack Gierhart (Executive Director*), Marion, MA
Dean Brenner (Olympic Committee Chair), Westbrook, CT

Ed Adams, Middletown, RI

Walter Chamberlain, Bay St. Louis, MS

John Craig, San Francisco, CA

John Dane III, Pass Christian, MS

Susan Epstein, Sharon, MA

Stan Honey, Palo Alto, CA

Maureen McKinnon-Tucker, Marblehead, MA

Dawn Riley, Oyster Bay, NY

Bill Stump, Venice, CA

Jim Walsh (House of Delegates chair*), Brick, NJ

*Non-voting members

It should be noted that Dawn recently moved to Oyster Bay from nearby Detroit, MI. Overall, is this diverse enough?

Bad things happen all the time

2010-10-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

Bad things happen all the time. Tom Kiley shares this report from earlier in October:

I got the call in the AM from one of our Concordia customers informing us that his yawl had broken free from its mooring in Bar Harbor and was now ashore in Hulls Cove. A team of five of us was sent to put a temporary plywood patch on the boat and re-float it at high tide later that night around 7pm.

If there was any silver lining in this dark cloud we found it. There was an excavator on the beach at the bottom of a 60 foot cliff where the boat was now lying. It righted the boat without a scratch allowing jack stands to be put under it and get the boat off the granite. It was being used to build the granite cribbing for a dock. Also there was a barge with twin engines and spuds nearby assisting with the new pier.

Our job was to patch the boat and get it to a ramp and hauled out ASAP. We had hired a boat hauler who was willing to haul us in the middle of the night if necessary. By 7pm we were floating on our own without a drop coming thru the temporary patch. We had no power or lights as the boat had been submerged on the earlier high tide and all systems were destroyed.

The barge towed us on the hip for 90 minutes to the Trenton ramp where the truck and hydraulic trailer were ready to load the wounded boat. By 9:30pm we were out on the hard and by 10pm the spars were out and secured and the boat went off into the darkness up Rte 3. I was home by midnight.

Check your ground tackle; it only was blowing 20 - 22 from the NE.

Guinness World Records

2010-10-20T09:58:00.000-07:00

The first edition of “The Guinness Book of Records” book was released in 1955 with the intent on being the definitive reference for superlative facts and answers of great use to the general public. Later renamed Guinness World Records, the book is for those people that like to know ‘stuff” like this:

The fastest time to eat a 12" pizza is 1 min 45.37 sec and was set by Josh Anderson (New Zealand) in Wellington, New Zealand, on March 22, 2008.

The fastest time to carve a face into a pumpkin is 24.03 seconds, by Stephen Clarke (USA) on July 23, 2006.

Vincent Pilkington of Cootehill, County Cavan, Republic of Ireland, plucked a turkey in 1 minute 30 seconds on November 17, 1980.

Ken Edwards of Glossop, Derbyshire, England ate 36 cockroaches in one minute on March 5, 2001.

During the recent rash of ‘youngest around the world’ record attempts, the Guinness World Records group became concerned with encouraging attempts by minors on records which are dangerous or potentially life-threatening, and this year made the decision to no longer accept any such ‘youngest’ sailing record claims.

But that does not mean GWR is out of the sailing business. They have enlisted the services of yachting author Mark Chisnell to help with their categorization, who in turn is seeking help from Scuttlebutt readers:

“I have been asked by Guinness World Records to research some of the other sailing achievements they have logged, and the next contentious one is the thorny issue of biggest sail boat race. I thought we might divide it up into categories:

Largest Single Sailboat Race by number of competitors

Largest Single Sailboat Race by number of boats

Largest multiple race event (regatta) by number of competitors

Largest multiple race event (regatta) by number of boats

Largest Single Trans-Oceanic Sailboat Race by number of competitors

Largest Single Trans-Oceanic Sailboat Race by number of boats

“If anyone has suggestions for claimants for any of those, I'd love to hear them. Please contact me through my website: http://www.markchisnell.com/email.htm

Your name here

2010-10-11T14:18:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from The Telegraph:

(October 11, 2010) Britain’s Ben Ainslie and Iain Percy bowed out of Team Origin with a resounding win in the Argo Group Gold Cup in Bermuda but are now searching for a new sponsor to enable them to continue their campaign for 2010 World Match Racing Tour crown.

Last week's shock announcement by Team Origin owner Sir Keith Mills that he was scrapping plans for the next America’s Cup has left Britain’s leading sailors Ainslie and Percy in limbo with one event of the tour still to go.

They have a strong chance of becoming 2010 World Match Racing Tour champions for the first time having competed in five of the eight events this year, in which they posted two outright wins and a high-scoring second place.

They are currently lying in third place overall with Mathieu Richard of France at the top of the leaderboard with 105 points and Kiwi Adam Minoprio in second place with 90 points, two ahead of Ainslie.

But to take the world title, Ainslie needs victory in the final event in Malaysia in December so is currently approaching sponsors to fund this final part of their bid.

Curmudgeon’s Comment: Let me be the first to jump into this bidding war. Hey Ben, remember me, we had good times in the BVI at the Pro-Am. Okay, mostly good times. Anyway, Scuttlebutt will help fund your team, and we’ll go after the non-sailing audience that is in such demand these days. Let’s re-do that photo campaign your country did prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where five of your team members posed naked, painted in ‘Olympic Gold’ body paint. We’ll call the photo collection ‘SHOWING SKIN TO WIN’.

Here’s the sample of Iain:

Glass half full

2010-10-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

There is a large segment of the sailing community that is frustrated right now with the America’s Cup. And I don’t blame them either. It was so good in 2007. The venue and design evolution had made the winner hard to predict. For sport to be entertainment, we don’t want to know the plot, we don’t want to know the ending. We want to meet the characters, and join them along for an unscripted ride. And we had that.

Now that the event has drastically changed, we are unsure of what lies ahead. To have close racing again in the first cycle of a new format seems optimistic. But I am an optimist. Here are my hopes:

- The 34th Match will be in San Francisco, which will provide stunning visuals and high wind excitement.

- The tides in the Bay, which dictate the favored side of the course, will keep the boats close to each other.
- That differences in wind speed will have dramatic effect on boat speed, which will make protecting a lead hard.
- That less maneuverability will make it hard to protect a lead.
- That huge upgrades in video production will make it all riveting to watch.

Of course, my biggest hope was that the 34th America’s Cup would have had a nationality clause for its sailing crew, but that didn’t happen. Speaking to past Cup winner and television commentator Gary Jobson on the new format: “It’s bold but I’m okay with the catamarans. What we want to see is even racing, but if they wanted to put audience interest through the roof, they would have made it a national event. When I did the 2008 Olympic coverage, viewership in the U.S. would increase by a multiple of 25 when an American was in a Medal Race. Passive viewers become passionate fans when they are cheering for their country.”

So with my glass half full outlook, I remain encouraged by how the event organizer, BMW Oracle Racing, has completely put themselves in a corner and now must deliver. Their legal delay was to rescue the Cup, but their plan now is so extreme that it would be an immense failure to fail. Team owner Larry Ellison has the resources to make this plan succeed. I hope it does.

Free hat

2010-10-03T16:01:00.000-07:00

Scuttlebutt's friends at Rolex sent us a box of classic caps from the America's Cup 12 Metre Era Reunion, held last month in Newport, RI. And we are giving them away.

If you are coming to the U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis on Friday, October 8th, stop by the Summit Yachts booth on D Dock at 2:00 pm for a free cap.

Scuttlebutt editor Craig Leweck will be on hand with a limited supply of the caps, so be on time, and if needed, get in line. Also, you have to say the key phrase: "Scuttlebutt - Summit - Rolex".

Shepler’s Mackinac Island Ferry Service

2010-09-30T12:52:00.000-07:00

Justin Bassett of Walstrom Marine in Harbor Springs, MI provides this Mackinac Island update:

While this story is not directly sail related, it will certainly affect your readers in the Great Lakes, especially those 300 plus sailors that participate in the Mackinac races yearly.

Over the years, Shepler’s Mackinac Island Ferry Service has been the preferred ferry for a majority of the people participating in the Chicago to Mackinac and Port Huron to Mackinac races. This is in part because they provide superior customer service with friendly staff on clean boats, and partly because Chris Shepler was a member of the Heart of America Challenge with Buddy Melges and sailed competitively for a number of years for a few Great Lakes programs, most notably, Bill Alcott and his various Equation yachts.

Sadly, the Shepler family, who has been providing ferry service to Mackinac Island for 65 years and three generations, is in a fight for their survival right now and needs all the help they can. The city of Mackinac Island is considering only renewing one ferry franchise; these franchises currently allow three companies to provide service to and from the island. Essentially, the city is considering buying all of one line’s docks and controlling the service via that one line, forming a city run monopoly.

In a time when the economy here in Michigan is in the toilet, it is unfathomable that a city government would want to run a ferry boat company out of business (and send 150 people to the unemployment line) to create a city run monopoly of the ferry service to the biggest tourist destination Island in Michigan. That should be news for many of your buttheads.

Here are some stories that have appeared recently in region press:

Michigan Live, Michigan Live, Detroit News, Petoskey News Review, and Chicago Tribune

Flintstone is on Facebook

2010-09-27T17:17:00.000-07:00

When BMW Oracle Racing CEO Russell Coutts made the announcement on September 13th that the 34th America's Cup would be for the Facebook generation and not the Flintstone generation, it was cute phrasing but not the best analogy. And he likely offended a huge section of the population that has money.

Here are the demographics from the Scuttlebutt fan page:

Flying fish

2010-09-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

Not sure how common it is, but it sure seemed pretty common to have flying fish boarding parties when offshore sailing. Here is some info on the critters:

FROM Leonardo da Vinci to the Wright brothers and among today’s aircraft designers, there is a fascination in studying the wings of birds, better to understand the mysteries of flight. But there are also more than 60 species of fish that have the ability to take to the air, and new research shows they could have a trick or two to help make aircraft fly more efficiently.

Flying fish can whip their tails back and forth with tremendous speed to propel themselves out of the water. Once airborne, they use long pectoral fins and shorter pelvic fins on the sides of their bodies to create lift, much like the wings of an aircraft. Sometimes the fish fly to escape fast-swimming predators like dolphins and tuna, but they may also take to the air because it is an efficient way to speed up their movement. Whatever the reason, once aloft they can glide for more than 40 seconds, cover 400 metres (1,312 feet) and move at about 70kph (43mph). Read more.

Coincidence?

2010-09-15T12:34:00.000-07:00

All the stars seemed to be getting lined up for the new reality of a multihull America’s Cup in 2013. The latest skyrocket comes from the Extreme Sailing Series, which announced today that their European series of Extreme 40 catamaran events is potentially doubling its schedule in 2011 with events now covering Europe, Middle East, Far East and the USA.

Now in its fourth year, this European circuit has focused on serving commercially run teams since its inception, and while it does not award prize money, organizer OC Group has sought to create spectator friendly events that provide a return on investment for the team sponsors. In 2010, the circuit visited Sete, France (May 27-30), Cowes, UK (July 31- Aug 5), Kiel, Germany (Aug 26-29), Trapani, Italy (Sept 23-26), and Almeria, Spain (Oct 9-12), with the race venue often held in challenging areas that focused more on shore side spectating than traditional racing.

As the only circuit providing large sized multihull racing, the Extreme Sailing Series gained notoriety in 2008 as America’s Cup teams Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing used the racing to help prepare for the 33rd Match in February 2010. The Extreme 40 was also used more recently by BMW Oracle Racing as they developed their new vision for the 34th America’s Cup.

The 2011 Extreme Sailing Series schedule is not yet announced, but there promises to be 8 to 10 events between March and December. And while Cup teams are required to compete in the three event America’s Cup World Series schedule, which also are not yet announced (but will commence in June), it would be “more than a coincidence” if both these circuits worked together to allow full participation in both.

SIDENOTE: The events for the America’s Cup World Series in 2011 will use a new BMW Oracle Racing designed AC45 wing powered one design catamaran. Why was the much more affordable Extreme 40 not chosen instead? Apparently, the Extreme 40s were part of the early plan but it was found they could not sufficiently handle the upper wind range (events are to be sailed in 3-33 knots), and could not support wings without extending the bows.

Newport, RI

2010-09-14T16:50:00.000-07:00

Photographer Christophe Launay, a frequent Scuttlebutt contributer, shares some images and descriptions from his recent trip to Newport, RI:

Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about 30 miles (48 km) south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions. A major 18th century port city, Newport now contains among the highest number of surviving colonial buildings of any city in the United States. Newport was known for being the city of some of the "Summer White Houses" during the administrations of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.

The restoration of the 1885 schooner yacht Coronet is an historic preservation project conducted on the campus of the International Yacht restoration School (IYRS)in Newport, Coronet is one of the oldest and largest schooner yachts in the world.

Harbour Court, overlooking Newport Harbour, is the New York Yacht Club's on-the-water clubhouse. Founded in 1844, it is one of the world's most distinguished and influential yachting institutions. Membership in the club is by invitation only.

Click here for additional images.

Top ten

2010-09-12T09:05:00.001-07:00

TOP TEN THINGS TO SAY WHEN CAUGHT SLEEPING AT YOUR DESK

10. "They told me at the blood bank this might happen."

9. "This is just a 15 minute power-nap like they raved about in that time management course you sent me to."

8. "Whew! Guess I left the top off the White Out. You probably got here just in time!"

7. "I wasn't sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new paradigm."

6. "I was testing my keyboard for drool resistance."

5. "I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve work-related stress. Are you discriminatory toward people who practice Yoga?"

4. "Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem."

3. "The coffee machine is broken..."

2. "Someone must've put decaf in the wrong pot."

And the #1 Excuse

1. " ... in Jesus' name. Amen."

Credit to the Count for this top ten list.

America's Cup at Oracle OpenWorld 2010

2010-09-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

The annual Oracle OpenWorld gathering is the world's largest and most important conference for Oracle technologists, business users, and partners. A real "kumbaya" for the techies, but not likely the place to share sea stories and Mount Gay rum drinkies. Or maybe it is.

This year’s conference in San Francisco, CA will also feature Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s latest acquisition, the America’s Cup. The opportunity to meet and greet with the Cup along with Tom Ehman, Ian "Fresh" Burns, and others from the BMW Oracle Racing team will be on September 19th at 7:45 p.m, the 20th and 21st at 10:15 a.m. and 3 p.m., and the 22nd at 10:15 a.m.

Normally you'd have to pay $75 to get into the "Discover" portion of Oracle Openworld 2010, which gives you access to OpenWorld, JavaOne and Oracle Develop. But the team is offering free admission to the event exclusively for readers of Latitude 38 and Scuttlebutt so sailors get a shot at seeing the Cup as well. To get your free admission, you need to do the following:

Go to http://www.eventreg.com/oracle/openworld2010/sanfrancisco/attendee

Then select "Discover" on the home page. On the login page you'll need to enter an email address, create a username and password and enter the code: ODS10. Then you'll fill out your contact info, and complete a short survey asking you about a bunch of things that were over our heads - we just checked "n/a" on all of them. Then you're good to go. If all the stuff on the surveys makes sense to you, then you'll probably want to stay for the other stuff!

Thanks to Latitude 38 and BMW Oracle Racing for the details.

Additional information added Sept. 16, 2010:

The America's Cup Pavilion provides an exciting showcase for the BMW ORACLE Racing Experience and the recently won, coveted America's Cup, the oldest trophy in international sport and sailing's pinnacle event. Oracle OpenWorld, JavaOne, and Oracle Develop attendees can view the America's Cup as well as a scale model of the winning yacht, USA 17, which will be on display daily. Periodically throughout the conference, BMW ORACLE Racing team members will be onsite to sign autographs for attendees. Stop by for a morning show and daily panel discussions hosted by BMW ORACLE Racing's Tom Ehman to learn about teamwork and technology. Sail in between sessions to lounge in comfortable seats and watch dynamic videos playing on LCD screens throughout the experience. Shop for technical sailing gear and fashion apparel from SLAM (official outfitter for BMW ORACLE Racing) at an exclusive retail shop.

Schedule of Events

America's Cup Pavilion/BMW ORACLE Racing Experience
Sunday: 7:45 p.m. - 9:45 p.m.
Monday: 7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday: 7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday: 7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Thursday: 7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

America's Cup and USA 17 Model Viewing
Sunday: 7:45 p.m. - 9:45 p.m.
Monday - Wednesday: 7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

America's Cup Morning Shows and Panels
Sunday: 7:35 p.m. - 8:05 p.m.
Monday/Tuesday: 10:15 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.; 3:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Wednesday: 10:15 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.

BMW Oracle Racing Team Autographs
Sunday: 8:05 p.m. - 9:05 p.m.
Monday/Tuesday: 10:45 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.; 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday: 10:45 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.

BMW Oracle Racing Team Q&A Sessions
Monday - Wednesday: 1:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Slam Retail
Sunday: 12:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Monday/Tuesday: 10:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday: 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Thursday: 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Blonde Brits hold key to success

2010-09-07T13:21:00.000-07:00

Boat Show season is just around the corner, which might be why Scuttlebutt World Headquarters received this bit of PR from the Exposure promotion company. This UK group believes the marine industry can do better to improve the return on their marketing investment, particularly at Boat Shows. While SWH has not closely reviewed their services, we did find a few images on their website that might reflect their ideas:

Mandy Oakshott, founder and Director of Hampshire based Exposure:

“Every time I walk around a Boat Show or marine exhibition, it frustrates me to see the money companies are wasting”. Claims Oakshott “Time and time again you walk past stands and see disinterested and apathetic staff, mostly untrained promotional staff drawn from somewhere within the company ranks, to “man the stand” for a shift during a trade event. The individuals might be good at what they do within their company but many are not trained in promotion and you can see their sense of unease engaging with the public. Not only is it a waste of money, time and effort, but if you are not generating leads or making sales, why exhibit in the first place? Perhaps the worst culprits are the small owner-managed businesses. For example the talented small boat builder who pays thousands of pounds for his stand to display his range of fine wooden boats who will just sit there on his stool, reminiscing about “the good old days” with like-minded passers-by. It is incomprehensible that you would not want to spend every second of the show, on your feet, engaging with passes-by, generating leads and trying to win business.

“None of us really like to engage in conversations with exhibitors at shows, in fact, many of us actively try to avoid contact completely. It is in your interest, and for the success of your company, that you engage with as many people as possible and convert those leads into sales. Members of a professional promotions team have the training and skills to do that for you.

“The main reasons businesses employ a professional promotions team like Exposure are primarily market research, product promotion, data capture, lead generation and increasing their brand awareness within the sector. We work closely with clients helping them to set realistic objectives against which they can evaluate the true cost of their attendance at a trade event. And ultimately that benchmark must be sales. Follow-up is as important, if not more so, than the exhibition itself and you can only do that by setting aside time and having a comprehensive set of leads to pursue.

“I have been running Hampshire’s only promotional company for 5 years now and I regularly provide trained promotional girls to major companies across a range of business sectors, but of them all, I think the marine industry needs the biggest change in its attitude. We are in a recession and times are tough. It is now that businesses must be looking at every aspect of their business to gain a competitive edge and if a business decides to exhibit at a trade show, then using professional promotion at the show must be a priority to gain that advantage.

“There is so much more exhibitors can do to improve their presence and capitalise on their investment that it would be foolhardy to ignore the possibilities.”

When Grand Prix Sailing Was New (and a Little Scary)

2010-09-07T10:56:00.001-07:00

Yachting author and historian John Rousmaniere reviews Bill Barton’s new book, The Legend of Imp: The Magical Yacht that Rocked the Sailing World:

“I used up my fourth life racing sailboats,” says Bill Barton. He could spend his next five lives looking back to his time in one of the most successful boats in the early years of modern grand prix ocean racing. Now he’s written an entertaining, provocative book that’s part-memoir, part-history. The Legend of Imp: The Magical Yacht that Rocked the Sailing World will appeal to anyone fascinated by our sport’s development, or, for that matter, anybody who likes good sea stories, of which there are a great many here.

In 1977 the green-striped 40-foot Imp, hailing from San Francisco Bay, won nearly half her races, including the Fastnet, and was top boat in ocean racing’s two most competitive series – the Southern Ocean Racing Conference and the Admiral’s Cup, the sport’s unofficial world championship. Everything came together in Imp, says Barton, who describes her campaign as “an alchemical oven, through the heat of design changes and technological advances, and through the crucible of competition and challenges by nature, transforming our elemental matter and melding it into pure gold.”

Imp was designed by New Zealander Ron Holland, one of the hot race-boat designers of that day, and was built light and rigid in Florida by Holland’s brother-in-law, Gary Carlin. Her highly innovative structure was more like a race car’s than a typical boat’s, with an internal metal tubular frame supporting a thin shell of a hull. All was supervised by the boat’s owner, David Allen, whom Barton describes as “the planner and organizer extraordinaire who left no stones unturned.” Allen was not new to the game, having campaigned widely in his Mull-designed, New Zealand-built downwind flyer Improbable. A Marin County real estate developer, he was as unique as his boats – impish yet humble, driven by what Barton calls a “warrior attitude and code,” and also a man of spiritual conviction. In one of his many nicely told anecdotes, Barton tells of coming below in the middle of the night during a wet, raw Admiral’s Cup race and finding Allen standing at the chart table. “No, we weren’t lost, as I feared. He wasn’t straining at the chart but rather was calmly reading his Christian Science lesson for the day, and he happily shared it, pushing the book toward me. ‘Here, you’ll like this.’”

No less remarkable is Imp’s skipper. “A good sailor is always anticipating the unexpected,” writes Barton, “and our captain, Skip Allan, was a master. Aboard Imp, we trusted Skip and responded along with his keen instincts, which improved our own.” Allan had already won the Transpac, the Congressional Cup, the Admiral’s Cup, and much more. In that pre-professionalism era, he raced as an amateur and worked as a boatbuilder and delivery skipper. Grand prix boats – even the experimental 40-foot Imp – routinely crossed oceans on their own bottoms to get to starting lines. (For more about this great sailor, see Scuttlebutt 2675.)

Bill Barton, our chronicler, came out to San Francisco from Rye, N.Y., as an aimless MBA hoping to find a calling and do some sailing. An aggressive competitor, he’d already gained the rough-weather experience that’s much prized on the Bay in the brutal 1972 Bermuda Race, and so he’s recruited to Imp’s mostly Bay-area crew. Barton tells his many war stories vividly and persuasively, with considerable humor and attention to detail about the racing, the weather, and his shipmates (Skip Allan expresses relief after tense moments by yelling “doggies!”). The ebullience ends at the start of the last race Barton sailed in Imp. “This is the hardest chapter to write,” he tells us in the first line of his very edgy story of the killer 1979 Fastnet Race storm. The boat handles the appalling conditions with only a few problems, but another storm intrudes dramatically when a panicky shipmate awakens Barton and says he can’t take it anymore and is harboring thoughts of suicide. By now Barton has made the reader aware that he has found his calling as a clinical psychologist. Setting aside Bill the sail-trimmer, he puts on his professional face as Dr. Barton and begins a full-on, successful intervention.

More troubling behavior arises after the finish. Even as the death toll mounts, a few race finishers get caught up in publicly telling stories about how easily they had managed. Barton comes down hard on this “annoying disconnect.” (To add a personal note, when David Allen, of all people, cheerfully told me he’d never had a better sail, the only sense I could make of it was that feelings of vulnerability can silence our better angels.) Barton himself was so stressed out by the storm that for weeks he was unable to think about it without throwing up. Extensive psychological counseling kept PTSD at bay (he was not alone).

Today, Imp is approaching age 35 and still winning silver, and Bill Barton is still racing hard and has written this unusual and engaging book, which he published himself at a high standard with 130 illustrations and a cover painted by Jim DeWitt of Imp and her confident crew under sail. The Legend of Imp: The Magical Yacht that Rocked the Sailing World is available at http://www.implegend.com.

Sailing and Golf

2010-09-02T16:23:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple videos with PUMA Ocean Racing skipper Ken Read, and 95.9 WATD's Goldie Bounce Golf host Liza Churchill. From watching these videos we learned that:

- Technology allows anybody to be an online media person, and
- Kenny has time to sit with blonde girls

Ron Holland is a genius

2010-08-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

There was a slew of hot designers during the IOR era, with the launch of each boat having exploited the rating rule slightly better than the boat before it. While I suspect it was exciting for them to be involved in such a dynamic period of the sport, it must have also sucked that their boats were so quickly outgunned.

So what is a smart naval architect to do. Ron Holland made a huge name for himself during the 70's and 80's, but this is what he is up to:

Ron Holland is a genius.

Beercanning with Bruce Golison

2010-08-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

Before Bruce Golison won the 2010 Etchells North Americans in San Diego, he was concerned that his schedule in the class was not enough to keep him sharp. Bruce's home waters are in Long Beach, CA, so Bruce took the step to join the Lido 14 fleet to stay active.

Wonder what it is like to ride in a Lido 14 with an Etchells champion? The videos below are from when Bruce donned a pair of video sunglasses during a summer beer can race in Alamitos Bay. By the way, his crew Dina Corsi also sailed in the Etchells NA win.

Part 1

Part 2

Vandals attack community sailing program

2010-08-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

It is hard to think of too many sports that are as equipment intensive as sailing. Then there is the issue of access to the sport, and the risks of participating. The reality is the list of sports that require the level of education needed to participate as sailing does is short. Really short.

What is the solution to opening the doors of sailing to more people? Some yacht clubs have programs, but they typically are available for only those people who have made the typically significant financial investment in club membership. And then there is Community Sailing Organizations.

One such sailing organization is Sail Martha’s Vineyard (Mass.), which was established in 1992 to offer programs for Island children in elementary sailing, seamanship and wooden boat building, and to attract historic vessels to the community. From modest beginnings, Sail MV has grown into an organization that has taught more than 2,000 children, produced a successful high school sailing team, and now offers an extensive range of programs in maritime education, rowing and sailing for young and old, seasonal and year-round residents.

However, Sail MV has recently suffered unusual and costly vandalism to its equipment, boats, and facility, estimated to be more than $9,000 in damages. The remote location of the facility combined with a limited police force has opened the door for what is believed to be the work of malicious teenagers. While Sail MV is fully insured, they are concerned that if claims are filed, the nonprofit organization's premium costs will rise. The board of directors must decide soon whether to file insurance claims.

The program recently invested in surveillance cameras and motion detection lighting to deter vandals, but the damage done has limited the ability of Sail MV to serve its patrons. “We're maxed out, we've got waiting lists for everything, said Director Brock Callen. “When you lose a boat it has an immediate impact."

Observed Scuttlebutt reader Ken Katz, “I hope that some among us will find Sail MV a worthy organization for donation. I would never have become such an avid sailor were it not for the opportunities offered to me by very similar organizations that bring sailing within the reach of the young and not yet wealthy.”

Donations can be submitted here: http://www.sailmv.com/support-sail-marthas-vineyard.php

Laura Dekker’s Misstated Mission

2010-08-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

Whenever these would-be youth circumnavigators reach out to mainstream media to announce their activity, I regularly question its relevance for the Scuttlebutt newsletter. But here I am, providing an update that 14-year-old Laura Dekker left Gibraltar, a British territory bordering the southwestern tip of Spain, on Saturday on the first leg of her global journey.

The Dutch sailor is aiming to become - big shocker coming - the youngest person to sail solo around the world. Mounds of criticism have piled on her dream, or whoever it was that planted the seed for her to take on such a mission. Without being judgmental, there are a few things I need to get cleared from my head before changing tacks:

- RECORD: Call it an adventure, call it an achievement, but just don’t call it a record. For there to be records, there needs to be record keepers. There needs to be guidelines to follow, and Laura’s route is unique compared to those that came before her. No honorable record keeping organization wants to administer this ‘youngest’ record category. The World Sailing Speed Record Council and Guinness World Record both say thanks, but no thanks.

- SOLO: I will give that Laura is the only person on the boat, but she will be far from sailing solo. She plans countless stops along her route, and may leave the boat in port for periods of time to fly home. Hardly a test of solo sailing. Of course when she is sailing, she will be connected to her supporters by all forms of communication equipment. Whenever Laura is feeling anxious at sea, she will scarcely be alone.

- SAILING: Maybe Laura should restate her mission to be the ‘youngest person to travel solo around the world’. Call me a skeptic, but will she be sailing through the Panama Canal? Or the Suez Canal? What about the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden. Will she utilize the engine during the countless stops along her route? Or, are we running loose with the term “sailing”? Is Laura onboard the ‘Disney Dream’ cruise ship that will “set sail” from port to port?

I do hope she is successful and is doing this for the right reasons. As for the inclusion of her updates in Scuttlebutt, I will continue to question their appropriateness, and I hope the ‘butthead community does the same. At least you will be aware of her, as the mainstream media will certainly expose your non-sailing friends to her, so perhaps you can provide them some insight too. -- By Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt

Thanks, Augie and Old Man

2010-08-16T15:13:00.000-07:00

You got to love stories like this one from Connie Bischoff:

Augie Diaz and his dad, Gonzalo Diaz, Sr. (affectionately known as “Old Man Diaz”) came to the rescue at the U.S. Snipe Junior Nationals hosted by Severn Sailing Association in Annapolis, MD. This regatta preceded the 2010 U.S. National Championships which are taking place this week in Annapolis. All year long, Coral Reef Yacht Club’s (Miami, FL) 420 youth teams has had the benefit of also sailing in Snipes. This opportunity came through two-time World Champion and CRYC member Augie Diaz and his dad, “Old Man” Diaz of Coconut Grove Sailing Club.

With the Junior Nationals coming up in Annapolis, they wanted to make sure that the young (ages 14-18) South Florida sailors could show off their sailing skills. In order to do that, they supplied and transported seven boats, paid the entry fees for six teams, and bought three sets of new sails for the teams to share. Prior to the regatta, Augie arranged for Kathleen Tocke to run a clinic for all of the junior Snipe sailors.

The Diaz team’s efforts paid off. Not only did all of the sailors have a great time and gain valuable experience in the 18 boat regatta, but one of the South Florida junior teams, Taylor Scheuermann and her crew Jackson Fadley, took second and qualified for the Snipe Junior Worlds next year in Denmark.

Augie showed again why he was named Rolex Yachtsman of the Year in 2003. They simply love Snipe sailing and want to share that passion with young sailors. Thanks, Augie and Old Man…. the Snipe class is stronger because of you.

* Winning the Junior Nationals was Nick Voss and Nicole Popp of Miami, FL. The U.S. National Championships are being held August 16-20. Event website: http://www.snipenationals.com

Russian Navy captures Somalian pirates

2010-08-16T12:49:00.001-07:00

Info and video submitted by a loyal 'butthead:

This videotape shows Russian Navy commandos on a Somalian pirate ship shortly after the pirates had captured a Russian oil tanker. The EuroUnion navy that patrols these waters would not interfere because they feared there could be casualties.

All explanations are in Russian with a single exception of when a wounded pirate says something in English. All conversations between the commandos are in Russian. If you don't understand Russian, the pictures speak for themselves.

The soldiers freed their compatriots, moved all the pirates to their own (pirate) ship, searched the pirate ship for weapons and explosives, and then they left the ship and exploded it with all remaining pirates on it.

The commandos sunk the pirate ship along with the pirates and without any court proceedings, lawyers etc. That is, they used the anti-piracy laws of the 18th and 19th centuries where the captain of the rescuing ship has the right to decide what to do with the pirates. Usually, they were hung.

I would think from now on, Russian ships will not be targets for Somalian pirates.

At about 4 minutes and 53 seconds into the video is when the Russians blow up the pirate ship.

World circumnavigation

2010-08-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

There now appears to be as many young sailors seeking to be the youngest to circumnavigate the world as there are routes to do it. In the past year we saw Zac Sunderland (USA) do it with stops, heading west from Los Angeles and using the Panama Canal. Mike Perham (GBR) did it with stops from England, going east and around all the Capes (correction: he went thru Panama Canal rather than around Cape Horn). Jessica Watson (AUS) also went east and around all the Capes, but began from her country in the southern latitudes and made no stops. Then of course there was the train wreck - aka Abby Sunderland - that tried to go solo non-stop from Los Angeles, but her failed easterly route around all the Capes was plagued by boat failure, and arguably, brain failure.

The latest seeking to join this party is Dutch teen Laura Dekker, who just arrived in Portugal from the southwestern Netherlands to complete a 10-day test cruise with her father leading up to her bid to become the youngest person to sail around the world solo. Sailing her red-hulled 11.5 metre (38 foot) ketch Guppy, the trip was meant to iron out any technical problems before launching her official solo bid, which will leave from Portugal sometime within the next week.

Dekker wants to break the record for the youngest world solo sail set in May by Australian teenager Jessica Watson. Watson completed a non-stop, unassisted round-the-world trip a few days before her 17th birthday. Dekker turns 17 on September 20, 2012, allowing her a little over two years to complete the trip, during which she intends to stop at several ports along the way.

And for the latest variation of world circumnavigation, Dekker has said her route from Portugal will take her across the Atlantic Ocean and into the Pacific via the Panama Canal. She plans to stop at the Galapagos islands before heading to Australia, Thailand then through the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, up the Red Sea to the Suez Canal, connecting to the Mediterranean Sea for her return to Portugal. -- Scuttleblog

Source: AFP

Sailing made easy

2010-08-10T07:39:00.000-07:00

Ron Lane of Fast Lane Sailing Center demonstrates the Hobie Mirage at San Diego Yacht Club.

2010-08-09T13:02:00.000-07:00

Photos and report from T.J. Perrotti of Perrotti Performance Design:

I had some fun last week with the junior sailor students (age 10-11) at Ida Lewis Yacht Club in Newport, RI.

We talked a bit about what makes a sailboat go, along with the basic concepts of things like stability, resistance, lift, and the like. Then, with a clean-slate whiteboard, the kids set out to design their own model sailboat, with just a bit of direction from me. They conceived the "Tritanic" ... a trimaran racer, which we then fabricated out of soda bottles, rigid insulation foam, bits of wood, hot glue, and shower-curtain sails. Bets were running 50/50 on whether it would sail or self-destruct, and I'm happy to report much of the former, and none of the latter.

The pics attached show the construction, launch, and inaugural sail, with Newport Bridge in the background. And smiles all around, of course ... lots of smiles! I think the kids did a fabulous job at putting their creativity into action. Future AC designers, builders, and racers?

Regards,

T.J. Perrotti
Perrotti Performance Design, LLC
107 Coggeshall Ave.
Newport, RI 02840 USA

On vacation

2010-07-29T17:23:00.000-07:00

Scuttlebutt World Headquarters is dimming the lights and taking a vacation. The editorial department will remain at their desk, but the rest of us will be getting a well-deserved break until August 9th.

Sailing in the third dimension

2010-07-28T12:08:00.000-07:00

Strap on your 3D glasses as photographer Daniel Forster takes us sailing in the third dimension. Click on images to enlarge.

Monohull or Multihull?

2010-07-27T16:21:00.000-07:00

The great debate for the next America's Cup - monohull or multihull - just received a reminder for why multihulls are exciting. They capsize. Peter Stoneberg's Formula 40 catamaran Shadow was racing on San Francisco Bay this past weekend when the wind cranked up to 30+ knots and the catamaran capsized a mile north of the Berkeley Pier.

BMW Oracle Racing skipper Jimmy Spithill (AUS) repeatedly said that a capsize of their 90-foot trimaran would have ended their campaign prior to their America’s Cup Match last February. Franck Cammas (FRA), who sailed his 103-foot trimaran Groupama 3 to a new round the world record, notes how he will be more relaxed when he skippers his entry in the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race because the VO 70 can’t capsize.

For sports fans, the possibility of disaster is often why we tune in. But when disaster means the elimination of teams, then a sporting event loses some of its meaning. After a capsize, big multihulls just don’t go into the shed at night and come out race ready the next day. And for the America’s Cup, which is seeking to maintain a “made for television” schedule, losing teams during the event - an event that might not have too many teams to begin with - could be a problem.

If BMW Oracle Racing is thinking about multihulls for the 34th America’s Cup, Shadow’s tumble during a nuclear episode on San Francisco Bay just gave them something more to think about. Could this prove to be a strike against multihulls, or a strike against SF Bay? Here is the time schedule that the defender had previously announced:

- Protocol for the 34th America’s Cup will be issued by 31st August
- Design rule released by 30th September
- Notice of Race & Sailing Instructions published by 31st December
- Venue confirmed by 31st December
- Challenge Period open from 1st October - 31st January 2011

Thanks to NorCalSailing.com for details on Shadow.

Boat tax

2010-07-27T08:04:00.000-07:00

US Senator John Kerry made the news this week. Here is the story as reported by IBI Magazine:

By berthing his new $7m custom built 23m (76ft) sloop Isabel in Rhode Island as opposed to his home state of Massachusetts, US Senator John Kerry is saving a tax liability of $437,000 in a one-time sales tax and some $70,000 on local boat taxes.

Built by Friendship Yachts in New Zealand, Isabel is being kept at the Newport Shipyard on Rhode Island and not at Nantucket near Kerry's summer house, or Boston, close to his city residence. Kerry's spokesman David Wade said that Isabel was being kept at Newport "for long-term maintenance, upkeep and charter purposes".

Kerry has been criticised for avoiding tax payments and for not having had the yacht built locally where a number of boatbuilders are experiencing tough times. Ted Fontaine, the Rhode Island-based yacht designer, designed Kerry's yacht.

Rhode Island abolished its boat taxes in 1993, which has resulted in a boost for the local yachting industry and made the state a sailing tax haven. If the yacht is berthed in Massachusetts within the next six months, then she will be liable for the taxes.

Is this a debate of how a government official should be held to a higher standard than the citizens he has been elected to govern? Or, is this an example of a person exhibiting the economic wits that are desired for a government official? Maybe just a big misunderstanding?

Here are the comments from the Scuttlebutt Facebook page:

Lorraine Stanley: If the Isabel is in Newport for "charters," does this mean he can write off part or all of his storage, dockage, and maintenance expenses? If so, that's just as big a dodge as the rest of this foolishness.

Michael Harnois: C'mon. He's not doing anything that the rest of wealthy residents of the Commonwealth don't do. If it's legal, then I don't understand what the problem is.

Rick Day: Good for him! If it's a legal loophole, he'd be silly not to use it. We are only under obligation to pay the minimum taxes we have to pay. Paying any more than you have to is silly.

Richard Clark: if you don'y see a problem then I guess you are part of the problem :)

Sven Finnis: Maybe he just prefers sailing out of Rhode Island, the sailing capital.

Willie Blevins: let's see, save a half million dollars, leave your boat in the sailing capitol of the US, if not the world, and do it legally? I would think even those with diminished mental ability could do that arithmetic...

Andrew Vare: If he takes that write off then he also has to stand up to the scrutiny.Sailboarding and dinghies rock!

Jeff Wilson: In the '80's I delivered several boats from SF bay area to Oregon, where the new owners took possession to avoid the CA sales taxes...nothing really new or illegal...

Tom DeSantis: ‎@Jeff: were all your owners United States Senators and former Presidential candidates from liberal Massachusetts?

Oren Beach: If a boat is built overseas, it cannot be used for chartering in the US. This is to protect US boat builders. I am sure plenty of people pay no attention to this and John Kerry will be one of them as well.

Johnny May: If he sails by me I'll give him a cross, he's just another sailor...

Robert Winess Not illegal nor unethical. Just something for people to bitch about. But if he gets caught with a Thai hooker onboard - whoa!!! There's a story!!!

Barrett Canfield: The loophole has always been there, but a U.S. Senator should lead by example....and pay taxes.

Robert Winess: It's not a loophole when it's open and apparent. It's simply the law. Kinda like companies that move to Florida because there is no State income tax. Call it fortunate luck that there is a State in close enough proximity that chooses not to charge tax. Go Rhode Island!!!

Johnny May: Yep to above ^

Michael W Dragon: Sounds like a prudent move...good for him. Maybe Mass will take the hint.

Saving Olympic Sailing

2010-07-19T11:59:00.000-07:00

The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) is concerned about the future of Sailing as an Olympic event. In May 2010, a special committee published their draft report that focused on the problems of Olympic Sailing, which are many when compared with other Olympic events. Solving the issue depends on what side of the fence you stand. From the outside, Olympic Sailing is a mess. It is hugely expensive for competitors and hosts, it provides very little revenue from spectators and media rights, and it is highly technical.

However, from inside the sport, Olympic Sailing has evolved to what it is based on what it was. An Olympic Sailing event isn’t that much different than most regattas, other than the parties aren’t very wild and there is nearly as many coaches (and RIBs) as entrants. Like most everything else in our world, success at the Olympic level has escalated, and now requires more effort and focus. For Sailing, more effort translates quickly to more expense, thus uncomfortably dividing the haves and the have nots. For the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which seeks to bring the world together through sport, Sailing is not the best component of their formula.

To the rescue, at least in their eyes, is the International Kiteboard Association (IKA). The IKA is an International Class Association of ISAF and is responsible for the global administration of this part of the sport. They believe that Kiteboarding has all of the things that the Olympic Sailing events do not, and provides the solution for all the problems that the IOC has with Sailing. To state their case, the IKA has published a strategy paper that highlights the following key issues:

- Make sailing accessible and affordable
- Make sailing attractive to the youth of the world
- Make sailing attractive to media and spectators
- Reduce costs at the Olympic Games
- Simplify qualification systems for the Olympic Games

The strategy paper states the shopping list of problems with Olympic Sailing, many of which are broad problems for the entire sport, and how Kiteboarding can provide the solutions.

Given how ISAF is not an organization known for its ‘visionary’ aptitude, it would be a shocker to see Kiteboarding become an Olympic event. However, given that the IOC provides ISAF with 65% of its income (2004 figures) so as to manage Olympic Sailing, keeping Sailing in the Olympics will prevent ISAF from having to drastically redesign itself, and may motivate them to think outside the box.

Click here for the IKA strategy paper.

Why the chicken crossed the road

2010-07-15T12:31:00.000-07:00

Not ESPY worthy

2010-07-14T16:42:00.000-07:00

The ESPY Awards is an annual awards event created and broadcasted by American cable television network ESPN, where top celebrities from sports and entertainment gather to commemorate the past year in sports by recognizing major sports achievements, reliving unforgettable moments and saluting the leading performers and performances.

Among the nominees at the 2009 ESPY Award Show was 2008 Paralympic sailing gold medalist Maureen McKinnon-Tucker, who was being recognized in the "Female Athlete with a Disability" category. There's was not another sailor in any other category, and while she did not win, it was an honor for Maureen and the sport of sailing to be rubbing elbows with all the other major sports in the world.

But for the 2010 ESPY Award Show, which was held Wednesday, July 14th, the ‘buttheads should not have been holding their breath for sailing to receive similar inclusion. Certainly an American team winning the America’s Cup would be a worthy performance for consideration, but apparently ESPN did not think enough of the 33rd Match - what Scuttlebutt analyst Cory E. Friedman referred to as ‘A Perpetual Cup for Not So Friendly Competition Between Lawyers’ - to be ESPY worthy.

Shocking!

100th birthday celebration of FAME

2010-07-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, July 11th, Dennis Conner hosted the 100th birthday celebration of FAME at San Diego Yacht Club. This 40 foot schooner has been Dennis’ latest project, saving her from near ruin when he brought her to San Diego from Chicago in March.

Now refurbished, she is perfect, really beautiful, and fully deserving of a party that used as its platform the replica of the 139-foot yacht AMERICA that won the historic, Royal Yacht Squadron's "100 Guinea Cup" race around the Isle of Wight.

As for his plans for FAME, Dennis only said, “I plan to sail her.”

AMERICA hosting the party

Dennis entertaining the guests

Daintry Conner blowing out FAME's birthday candle

She's ready

Crew wearing clothing from 1910

Lisa Leweck joining her husband in his laborous duties as Scuttlebutt editor

Photos by Bob Grieser

Not very worldly

2010-07-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

This week the bay of Portoroz, Slovenia on the Adriatic Coast will be centre stage for the Extreme 40 teams lining up for the inaugural Extreme 40 World Championship (July 13-18). The 40-foot lightweight and super-fast catamarans have been the platform for the professional Extreme Sailing Series circuit in Europe and Asia, where events typically host less than ten boats.

While some exceedingly exciting video has been generated from Extreme 40 events, it comes as a shock that this class would qualify for the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) to approve it to hold a World Championship. The ISAF Regulations (Reg. 18) describe what it takes to host a World Championship, with stipulations to insure that a class is ‘worldly’. The Extreme 40 is not worldly.

Regarding the event, Jerome Pels, Secretary General for ISAF comments, “The Extreme 40 has been granted this World Championship for this year by the (ISAF) Executive Committee, outside of being a class. The way this works out with the numbers is a very big concern, therefore the situation will be reviewed after the Event."

Two time Olympic medalist Mitch Booth (NED), who has been involved in the development of the Extreme 40 reports, “We are now at 19 boats in existence but to be fair, it was only six weeks ago that The Ocean Racing Club decided to have this World Championship, to actually commit and do the event which is a bold move at such short notice. It would have been great if we had more boats here but under the circumstances, six is probably a realistic low number, but a realistic number for the first event at such short notice. I see this as our chance to demonstrate that we can conduct a real good event and call it a World Championship."

With the genie now out of the bottle, it will be notable to see what ISAF does following the inaugural Extreme 40 World Championship, which has attracted six boats from five European countries.

Team Petras France (FRA)
Team IWC Holland (NED)
Team Nokia Hungary (HUN)
Red Bull Extreme Sailing (AUT)
Team Kempinski Great Britain (SLV)
The Ocean Racing Club (SLV)

PHOTO CREDIT: Crt Slavec/Extreme40Worlds2010/THEOCEANRACINGCLUB

Sunderland, Coast Guard Drop Bermuda Race Claims

2010-07-12T11:17:00.000-07:00

Yachting journalist and historian John Rousmaniere is a frequent contributor to Scuttlebutt, and recently spearheaded an outstanding media program for the 2010 Newport Bermuda Race. John loves the race too, and thus has been active in clearing up a false report that came from Laurence Sunderland, whose 16 year old daughter Abby this June failed in her attempt to solo circumnavigate the globe.

There has been heavy doses of criticism directed toward the Sunderlands, some of which had to do with Abby being dismasted while seeking to cross the exceedingly dangerous Indian Ocean during its most dangerous time of year. To deflect this criticism, Laurence Sunderland sought to tamper with the Bermuda race's reputation.

John Rousmaniere sets the story straight here:

Abby Sunderland’s father and the U.S. Coast Guard have retracted statements that a boat was lost in the 2010 Bermuda Race.

When the young singlehanded ocean sailor Abby Sunderland and her father, Laurence, and brother Zac appeared on NBC’s “Today” show on June 30, 2010, host Meredith Vieira asked Laurence Sunderland to comment on the extensive critical press coverage of his daughter’s recent rescue from her dismasted boat in the Indian Ocean.

Sunderland said that she had been singled out. “I mean, let's look at the Newport-Bermuda race. A boat tipped upside down, lost its keel, we don't hear any of that in the news.”

Nothing in that statement is true. There was no capsize, no loss of a keel, and no other serious damage in the Newport Bermuda Race fleet. Each of the 183 boats that started the race at Newport on June 18 finished safely at Bermuda.

“We take Laurence Sunderland’s charge very seriously because we take safety extremely seriously,” said Newport Bermuda Race Chairman Bjorn Johnson. “We won’t let a boat sail unless we believe that it and the crew are prepared to meet the demands of racing 635 miles across the Gulf Stream. Every boat is inspected. The list of required safety equipment and procedures is very long. Sometimes we tell captains they can’t race unless the boat is strengthened or the crew is more experienced.”

The Bermuda Race Organizing Committee concluded that Sunderland’s claim probably was based in part on an erroneous U.S. Coast Guard report that the committee had been trying to have corrected. According to this report, which was posted on the Coast Guard’s online publication On Scene on June 23, “a participant in the Newport to Bermuda Race” was dismasted on June 15 at a position in the Atlantic Ocean 1,050 miles east of Nantucket. The boat’s one sailor was rescued with the assistance of the international SARSAT rescue system. The Coast Guard report said nothing about a capsize or keel loss, both of which were mentioned by Laurence Sunderland in his “Today” interview.

“The Coast Guard statement was inaccurate and, in fact, implausible,” said Johnson. “The boat could not possibly have been a participant in the race, which started on June 18 – three days after the accident – more than 1,000 miles west of the location of the accident.”

The Bermuda Race Organizing Committee twice tried to have the inaccurate Coast Guard report corrected through On Scene’s online comments form, without success. Following Laurence Sunderland’s statement on the “Today” show, the committee, working through different channels, succeeded in having the Coast Guard retract the report.

On July 8 the Coast Guard issued the following statement at http://uscgsar-onscene.blogspot.com: “Corrections & Amplifications. The Newport Bermuda Race 2010 commenced on June 18, 2010 and On Scene is happy to report that all race participants successfully completed the race without incident. The On Scene Weekly SARSAT Rescue Report dated Wednesday June 23, 2010 incorrectly stated that the sailing vessel associated with the June 15th SARSAT Rescue was participating in the Newport Bermuda Race 2010 when high winds caused the vessel to lose its mast. Many thanks to the On Scene subscribers who pointed out this inaccuracy.”

Meanwhile, the Bermuda Race Organizing Committee was urging Lawrence Sunderland to retract his charge. According to a July 10 posting on Abby Sunderland’s blog, http://soloround.blogspot.com/, her father’s remark about the Newport Bermuda Race was based on the erroneous USCG report.

“I hope this settles the matter,” Race Chairman Johnson said after reading Sunderland’s statement. “Now we can move on and prepare for the next Newport Bermuda Race in 2012.”

In 47 Bermuda Races since 1906, 4,860 boats and nearly 50,000 sailors have raced through 3 million miles of blue water. In that time, two boats have been lost – one due to an onboard fire in 1932 and the other wrecked on Bermuda’s reef in 1956. The only life lost in the race’s history was in the 1932 fire.

For more information about the Newport Bermuda Race, go to www.BermudaRace.com.

Show them to me

2010-07-12T07:56:00.000-07:00

Check your pulse if this song doesn't put a smile on your face.