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SCUTTLEBUTT 3585 - Monday, May 7, 2012Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors,providing a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: BIC Sport North America and New York Yacht Club. KITING REPLACES WINDSURFING FOR RIO 2016 Stresa, IT (May 5, 2012) - The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) has confirmed the final event and equipment selections for the Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition. The ISAF Council voted that Kiteboarding will replace windsurfing for the men's and women's board events and confirmed the equipment that will be used for the Women's Skiff and Mixed Multihull Events. The Mackay FX, referred to as the 49er FX, was selected yesterday as the two person women's skiff and today the Nacra 17 joins the Olympic equipment family after being selected for the two person mixed multihull event. The 49er FX received the majority of votes from the ISAF Council in the first round after the six evaluation trial entries were narrowed down to just three; the 29erXX, the RS900 and the 49er FX. After discussing the recommendations from the Evaluation Panel, the Equipment Committee and the Events Committee, Council voted between the Nacra 17 and the Viper, with the Nacra 17 securing the majority for the mixed multihull event. The final discussion on the events and equipment for the 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition was about the men's and women's board events with Council voting in favour or kiteboarding. In November 2011 an evaluation group was appointed to examine kiteboarding formats with the board events for Rio 2016 defined as 'windsurfing and/or kiteboarding'. The Evaluation Group recommended that kiteboarding be included in the ISAF Event family including the ISAF Sailing World Cup and the ISAF Sailing World Championships but Council went one step further and selected Kiteboarding for the Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition as well. The ISAF Windsurfing and Kiteboarding Committee will consider and make further recommendations to Council on the implementation of the inclusion of kiteboarding at their meeting in November 2012 at the ISAF Annual Conference. The sailing events to be contested at the 2016 Olympic Games are confirmed as: Men's Kiteboarding Women's Kiteboarding Men's One Person Dinghy - Laser Women's One Person Dinghy - Laser Radial Men's One Person Dinghy (heavy) - Finn Men's Two Person Dinghy - 470 Women's Two Person Dinghy - 470 Men's Skiff - 49er Women's skiff - 49er FX Mixed Two Person Multihull - Nacra 17 Full report at: http://www.sailing.org/news/38281.php GOOD FOR SOME NOT FOR OTHERS Scuttlebutt spoke to Bay Area-based Kristen Lane about the significance of the selection of the 49erFX as the women’s skiff for Rio 2016. Lane, one of the top female sailors in the US, recently sailed her Team Brickhouse to second place at the 2012 Melges 24 Gold Cup and has been a champion of the 29XX class for the past few years. “I’m excited about this on a couple of levels,” Lane said. “First, this means women will be sailing the same equipment as men, which I think is a great statement for our sport. I’m excited to get hold of one and see how it sails. Plus, it’s an entirely new class that’s being created by ISAF’s selection, born of course from the original 49er with Mackay developing a new rig and sail so it’s suitable for a women’s team.” When we’ll see boats available is a good question, as Lane explained that it’s entirely dependent on how quickly Southern Spas and Mackay can deliver a rig and sail. According to Lane, ISAF is going to require Mackay deliver the first 50 or so rigs to member nations of ISAF on a schedule. Joe sailor wanting to buy a 49erFX will be looking at the time that rig #51 comes available. Lane’s acquired a 49er and is doing, “whatever she can” to get hold of an FX rig. “I’ve taken up sailing on the standard 49er rig until I can get hold of the actual equipment but assume there are many sailors in the same situation as me who want to participate so they’ll start now to take the steps now to acquire the equipment - there are lots of hulls around.” Meanwhile, the international windsurfing community is not happy at being dumped by the ISAF selection committee and this is surely not the last we’ll hear of the battle that this well established class will fight in defense of its place in Olympic competition, as sailing journalist Stuart Alexander reports: http://tinyurl.com/78fytbv IT’S NOT TOO LATE It’s not too late to jazz your junior sailors. Several prominent Yacht Clubs, Community Programs, and Camps are taking delivery of their O’Pen BICs and/or windsurfing fleets in May, June, and July. As retention rates in sailing programs remain an issue, it’s no coincidence that modern alternatives for kids are hot topics at the National Sailing Program Symposium and the Yacht Club Summit. You can join the fun too. See why more Junior Programs are successfully adding excitement at O'Pen BIC and Techno 293 One Design (videos below). Contact info@bicsportna.com or 508-291-2770. BIC also offers great Stand Up Paddleboard programs! O'Pen BIC: http://youtu.be/B9_botWb8KU Techno 293: http://youtu.be/ju3HpUvBOPI BOATING ACCIDENTS - A SIGN OF THE TIMES By Rob Nye, nearly 50 years old I believe that to understand the recent tragedies in California, we need to look at the entire sport of sailing and how the competitive side is managed and promoted. As harsh as it may sound, both events are the result of a lack of good seamanship. Webster's defines Seamanship as: the art or skill of handling, working, and navigating a ship. In modern times it appears that it is possible to be a professional sailor and not be a good seaman; it used to be that seamanship was a requirement to get invited in the first place. Now it's what do you weigh, or how hard you can you hike. To navigate, it is to have superior computer skills. Following these accidents, Gary Jobson, president of the U.S. Sailing, has said "we need to take a step back and take a deep breath with what we're doing. Something is going wrong here." On one hand, I take offense at Gary's use of "we" as if all sailors bear some responsibility for a boat being caught inside the breaking surf or another apparently running into an island while motoring at night. Yet on the other, speaking as President of the governing body of our sport, perhaps US Sailing does share some blame for the lack of basic seamanship exhibited today. I hope the "what we're doing" he refers to isn't simply holding races; as if the event itself is to blame. It isn't. When I was growing up, the summer calendar was full of short, medium and long distance races that included sailing to fixed marks. Even day races used fixed marks, and once in a while, we'd put the kite up to get to the windward mark after drifting off the starting line. Once in a while, we even anchored. Navigation was more than "putting the pin in the box" and entering a range and bearing to the windward mark. On any given leg we might drift, beat to windward, reach, change sails and if we were lucky, even broach or at least enjoy a good knockdown. It was during this era we learned to use harnesses, sail in the fog, keep an eye on each other and stay sharp when drifting around at 3am on Long Island Sound. Day races were sometimes another opportunity to practice seamanship as the decision to race was left with the skipper, not some government agency. I remember leaving the dock for a fall series race with two reefs, the #4 jib and harnesses on for a "casual" race. Now race committees postpone if the line isn't perfectly square, or the inflatable mark isn't directly to windward, or they cancel the race if it's blowing over 25 at the dock or worse, forecast to blow later in the day. Why get a crew that's seen heavy weather when we don't sail when it blows, and if we do all we're going to do is sausages? -- Read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=13715 MIAMI HIGH PRESENTS NEW OPPORTUNITIES (May 6, 2012, Day 15) - The North Atlantic’s flat seas are creating a wealth of opportunities and risks that CAMPER skipper Chris Nicholson is hoping to play to his advantage to win valuable points from overall race leaders Team Telefónica. At 1900 UTC Nicholson’s CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand team were making ground on Leg 6 leaders PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG and holding firm on Telefónica’s advances from third place. As predicted, the entire fleet are making gains and closing in on PUMA as the longstanding leaders stall in the face of a high-pressure system that is blocking the course to the finish. “With a bit over 600 miles, it’s still going to be over three days, so it’s quite slow going and there’s a lot of single figure wind strengths,’’ Nicholson said. “There are pretty significant light zones ahead, up to 100 miles across, so they’re going to take a while to navigate.” Meanwhile, Amory Ross, aboard PUMA Racing, commented in his blog on last night’s SuperMoon phenomena, “The so-called SuperMoon is, in fact, super. Man was it big and bright coming up over the horizon! Blinding. Sailing last night was no different than sailing during the day: you could see waves and wind on the water, and the sails were lit well enough for strobe-free trimming. We wondered what affect, good or bad, it might have on the tides and currents through the countless Caribbean and Bahamian islands we’ll be passing over the next couple of days.” The latest ETA for the fleet’s arrival at the Downtown Miami Race Village is May 9. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/6vsbahv Leg 6 - Itajai, Brazil to Miami, USA (4,800 nm) Standings as of Sunday, 06 May 2012, 22:04 UTC 1. PUMA Ocean Racing (USA), Ken Read (USA), 539.1 nm Distance to Finish 2. CAMPER (NZL), Chris Nicholson (AUS), 27.7 nm Distance to Lead 3. Telefonica (ESP), Iker Martinez (ESP), 40.5 nm DTL 4. Groupama 4 (FRA), Frank Cammas (FRA), 113.1 nm DTL 5. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (UAE), Ian Walker (GBR), 135.6 nm DTL 6. Team Sanya (CHN), Mike Sanderson (NZL), Did not start Tracker/Standings: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/racetracker/rdc.html Schedule: http://tinyurl.com/VOR-2011-12-schedule Video reports: http://www.youtube.com/user/volvooceanracevideos BACKGROUND: During the nine months of the Volvo Ocean Race, which started in Alicante, Spain (Oct. 29) and concludes in Galway, Ireland during early July 2012, six professional teams will sail over 39,000 nautical miles around the world via Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya, Auckland, around Cape Horn to Itajai, Miami, Lisbon, and Lorient. Teams accumulate points through nine distance legs and ten In-Port races. - http://www.volvooceanrace.com SCUTTLEBUTT SAILING CALENDAR Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar RACING FOR EVERYONE AT NEW YORK YACHT CLUB There will be racing for ALL levels of competition in New York Yacht Club’s two major regattas this summer in Newport, RI - the 158th Annual Regatta on June 8-10 and NYYC Race Week on July 14-22, both presented by Rolex. In addition to hard core racing in IRC and One-Design classes, each will hold an Around-the-Island Race, Classics racing and low-key “Navigators” Races. Navigators Races - using government marks, one race per day, later start, and no crew limitations - will be offered in PHRF and IRC-NS classes. Great racing, great parties, open to all…come be a part! Details and entry: http://www.nyyc.org SAILING SHORTS * (May 6, 2012) - Racing in the Final Round of the U.S. Olympic Team Qualifying Regatta began today with five flights competed. Anna Tunnicliffe’s “Team Maclaren” with Molly Vandemoer and Debbie Capozzi took an early lead over Sally Barkow’s team of Elizabeth Kratzig Burnham and Alana O’Reilly. Current standings are Tunnicliffe with four wins, Barkow with one. The format is a “first-to-win-six” match-up where the winner will qualify to represent the USA at the 2012 Olympic Games this summer. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/787yqz3 * Hyeres, France (May 6, 2012) - The Star World Championship 2012 - probably the last as an Olympic class - began on Friday with a practice race in the Bay of Hyeres, with 78 teams from 31 nations competing. The usual favorites lined up for the prestigious title include: Scheidt/Prada BRA, Percy/Simpson GBR, Loof/Salminen SWE, Kusznierewicz/Zycki POL and Rohart/Ponsot FRA, all former World Champions. The battle for the remaining four Olympic berths will be exciting. After two days of racing, Peter O’Leary (IRL) is in first place with 7 points. -- Full report: http://www.starclass.org/search.cgi?Action=view&Event_id=1851 * Falmouth Harbor, Antigua (May 6, 2012) - At the Final Awards Ceremony in Nelson's Dockyard, Richard Wesslund's J/120 El Ocaso was awarded the Lord Nelson Trophy for the best overall performance of any yacht during Antigua Sailing Week 2012. El Ocaso scored seven straight wins in CSA 4 but it was far from easy. Most of the races were decided by less than a minute and on several occasions just a few seconds. El Ocaso is based in Florida but the crew comes from all over the United States. -- Antigua Sailing Week reports and results: http://www.sailingweek.com/v3/index.php * (May 6, 2012) - The 49er class has returned to Zadar, Croatia to dispute the SEIKO 2012 World Championship. 78 teams representing 32 nations will compete, not only to claim the remaining 5 country slots for the 2012 Olympics but to test their skills for the upcoming Games against the best sailors as well as claim the title of 49er World Champion. Australians Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen who sit atop the ISAF rankings are competing, with Outteridge attempting to win his 4th title as skipper, the first in the 49er class. -- Report at: http://tinyurl.com/7a7kd94 * Lake Geneva, Switzerland (May 6, 2012) - On the final day of the Grand Prix - Les Ambassadeurs Vulcain Trophy, with winds again at 10-12 knots gusting to 16, Alinghi and Realstone tied for first. Alinghi won the tie breaker with more first place finishes. Paul Cayard and Artemis Racing finished third. Cayard said, “Catamarans are fast and fun but also a lot of work. Sailing a D35 with six gives one a good appreciation for the AC45 which is sailed with just five, and the AC72 with its 40 meter wing which will be sailed with just 11.” -- Read on: http://www.cayardsailing.com/cs_Reports.cfm?evtID=151&csRpt=1066 GUEST COMMENTARY Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community. Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted comments chosen to be published in the newsletter may be limited to 250 words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Cleve Hardaker, President, Recreational Boaters of California: Recreational Boaters of California (RBOC) works closely with BoatUS on Legislative issues. Both Organizations consider that the California Department of Boating and Waterways is a critical resource for Boaters in the State. To this end, BoatUS has distributed an alert to their California members. RBOC invites all interested Boaters in California to utilize the link http://tinyurl.com/7mpmsuw to contact the Governor, your own Legislators and the Little Hoover Commission to express your opinion. For sample text that may be copied and pasted in the message section go to: http://tinyurl.com/7g8cwo3 * From Donald Street: Reading of the Volvo Ocean Race in Scuttlebutt 3584, and the fact that they are 200 miles east of Barbados and are heading for Miami, I say the navigators are NUTS. At about 1200 on Friday, Dave Reed of Sailing World showed me that they were north of St Martin/Anguilla area, heading almost due west, dead downwind!!! He pulled up the course description which shows they must use... the NE-NW providence channel at the end of the leg. I still say they are nuts!!! My views are based on 55 years sailing in the Caribbean on Iolaire and L'll Iolaire, both engineless, and talking to sailors who have sailed up the Guiana coast coming from South Africa and other points south. That I know something about the Caribbean is illustrated by the following story. About eight years ago, I wrote "Hitchhiking in the Caribbean" for Sailing World. I sailed the Antigua Classic and Antigua Week - a different boat each day. One day I sailed on Tom Hill's Titan with Peter Isler as navigator/tactician. After the race we were all having sandwiches and beer on the mother ship when Campbell Field arrived onboard, saying to Peter: "I have raced almost a dozen Antigua weeks and there has always been a westerly set to the current but today I discovered an almost 1 kt easterly set." Peter stated he found the same situation and also had never before encountered it. I pointed out that while having coffee at 0700 I figured out that there would be a fairly strong easterly set to the current while we were racing. This took Peter and Campbell by surprise. -- Read on: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt/posts/10150818767708839 From Jim Gardiner, Washington, NC I remember quite clearly when hurricane Paul drove many yachts ashore at Cabo San Lucas in 1982. The debris field sounded all too similar to the most recent accident on North Coronado Island, even though it was a more sandy beach there. Only two boats were re floated. Most famously Bernard Moitessier's Steel vessel Joshua. Joshua was well battered and then given away to some young people. The other sailing Yacht re floated was a Cabot 35 built in Canada. My friends bought one of the few sister ships and I surveyed it for them. The hull was 3/8 inch fiberglass, over 3/4" Airex linear foam core, then an inner skin of 3/8" fiberglass. From photos, the Cabot in Mexico only looked slightly worse for wear and was dragged back into the sea. They don't build them like that anymore. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION How did a fool and his money get together? SPONSORS THIS WEEK BIC Sport North America - New York Yacht Club US Sailing - North Sails - Pure Yachting - Doyle Sails Summit Yachts - Soft Deck - US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider Ullman Sails - Beneteau Yachts - The Pirates Lair Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
