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SCUTTLEBUTT 3411 - Tuesday, August 23, 2011Scuttlebutt 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: Hall Spars & Rigging, North Sails, and J/Boats. HORSESHOES AND HAND GRENADES Francis Joyon wasn't even close, getting to sail only 7 hours in to his transatlantic record attempt from New York to the western tip of Cornwall before he capsized his 30 meters long trimaran IDEC. The French sailing legend did not get hurt in the incident and will most likely stay in the inverted hull until a tug comes to tow him back. Joyon passed the start line off the Ambrose Light at 00:08:10 GMT Monday morning. At the time of capsize IDEC had been sailing in 25 knots form the south when allegedly she was hit by a violent squall. Joyon was not injured and has been in contact with his router Jean-Yves Bernot. This afternoon from IDEC's upturned hull Joyon, calm as usual, explained what had occurred. "I was in my seat to watch what was going on outside the boat. I was in the process of extricating myself from a meteorologically disturbed area close to the American coast. Since starting I had managed to sail about 90 miles in very irregular and highly unstable wind, shifting in direction and fluctuating between 10 and 30 knots. I went through some very intense squalls, marked by violent gusts, but it was when I thought I was leaving this area that I was hit by a massive gust that blew the boat on its side. "At the time I was sailing under triple reefed mainsail and with the small storm jib up. The violence of the squall was such that the sensor, and the anti-capsize alarm did not have time to go off. I found myself under water and beneath the nets. I tried to swim back to open air in the night and chaos. Eventually, I made it to one of the floats. I'm not sure how I reached the forward beam but I was able to climb up onto the platform. I then got inside the boat through the escape hatch." Joyon reports that the trimaran is in relatively good shape, and that he managed to save all the electronics from the salt water. He spent the whole night sitting on top of the upturned hull signaling to boats in the shipping lane with a torch as he didn't want to get run over as well. As soon as the tug arrives he will cut away the broken rig and try to get the boat turned back again. Joyon needed to make the trip in less than 5 days, 19 hours, 30 minutes and 40 seconds to break the record set three years ago by Thomas Coville aboard Sodebo over the same distance estimated to be 2980 nautical miles. SOURCE: http://explorersweb.com/oceans/news.php?id=20309 SHORE TEAM - THE UNSUNG MARVELS Having proved a dynamo in water, this week Azzam - the VO70 that will compete in the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race - will segue into dryness, a state most uncommon for the ocean-going craft. Her caretakers will greet the yacht's arrival on the Portuguese coast by giving it a welcome lift - out of water, with a crane - and a tireless refitting as Azzam will abide once more the expertise of one of the more unsung marvels in all of sport: the Shore Team. Diligent, capable, creative and mighty, the Shore Team seemingly could deconstruct and reassemble the entire world, and apparently would do so willingly, without audience or plaudits. "Everybody sees the 10 sailors," said Mike Danks, the technical shore manager for Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing. "It's more than the 10 sailors by a long, long way . The guy who sweeps the floor is just as important as the guy who steers the boat." As Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing's sailing crew savours their win in the monohull division of the Fastnet race and aim in earnest toward the Volvo Ocean Race, beginning on October 29, they will hand over the 70-foot Azzam to the Shore Team at the marina in Cascais. A different bustle will ensue. A tent village will reappear adjacent the water after the usual two to three days of assembly. Tools and machines will rev up until the place looks and sounds like some cross between a shop-class workshop and a Formula One garage. All-nighters will beset some, and anyone happening by the famous marina in the pretty resort town at midnight might see lights burning and hear gadgets grinding. An array of hardware will materialise with such breadth that at one point Ian Walker, the skipper, pointed to an implement of some sort and joked, "I thought it might make a nice table lamp for me after the race". At some point, the sailing crew might take the Shore Team out gratefully for a thank you evening, as it did on the last Thursday of July. And every sailor, if asked, or sometimes without being asked, will extol the crucial nature of the Shore Team. "The guys on shore are just as important as the guy sailing the boat," Justin Slatter, the bowman, said. "All the preparation work we do now, it's 80 to 90 per cent of the battle. If you can prepare well and have a really nice shore structure, you increase your chances of making sure everything's right on the boat." -- The National, read on: http://tinyurl.com/The-Nationals-082211 HALL SCR PRODUCT LINE EXPANDS Hall SCR carbon rigging is up to 70% lighter than metal rod rigging. Upgrading to Hall SCR is the best way to improve performance, and one of the easiest. Hall is introducing an SCR retrofit package to replace conventional stainless rod rigging simply and easily. The system is "plug and play" with no mast or spreader work required. The SCR retrofit package will be on display at the Monaco, Genoa, and METS boat shows. Not traveling to Europe? Watch this space for links to our news. Also coming soon: SCR Airfoil continuous rigging. http://www.hallspars.com WALL OF WEALTH TO BLOCK VIEWS San Francisco has an awkward relationship with extreme wealth. City politics tilt to the left end of the spectrum, yet such civic treasures as the Giants' ballpark and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass exist because of private largesse. The challenge is to accept the benefits but also know when to say no - as is now the case with the most blatantly elitist aspect of the America's Cup scheduled for 2013. If Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison and organizers of the high-profile regatta get their way, the Embarcadero's widest stretch of open water would be turned into a parking lot for two dozen spectator yachts at least 100 feet long. The rich and famous would have access to this watery perch not for a matter of days or weeks, but for the months leading up to and including the storied regatta. Nor does the imposition end there. If the basin alongside Rincon Park requires dredging to accommodate a class of ships where size most emphatically matters, regatta organizers have the option to turn the basin into a commercial marina. Today's wide-open views might never return. America's Cup boosters say spectacle is a big part of the show, and they're right. But no short-term private event is worth the long-term loss of irreplaceable portions of our public realm. Read more: http://tinyurl.com/SF-Chronicle-082211 COMMENT: My guess is there are more beloved billionaires in the world than Larry Ellison. -- Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt THE NEW REALITY THAT IS AC 34 By Kevin Hall, Artemis Racing Artemis Racing has just finished being a part of a watershed two weeks in the history of sailboat racing, at the first America's Cup World Series event in Cascais. I was once-in-a-lifetime fortunate to have a front row seat at the event, racing on the AC45 in the Camber position. Here are a few thoughts about what makes this different to everything we've ever done in our sport, and why I'm thrilled that this is the future of sailing. I was terrible at ball sports as a kid. Pretty much the last one picked unless it was the County Science Fair team. So I never got to be a part of a basketball starting five. Which means I have less experience picking myself up after bouncing a bad pass or missing a catch in the endzone than most athletes. But picking yourself up off the tramp, or supporting a teammate who is running late to get over the spine and under the wing to the windward daggerboard is exactly what you better be able to do if you want to succeed in America's Cup World Series racing. Sure, I've called too much time to kill in a semi-final in a Version 5 boat and gone on to sail a good race, and I've overstood a few laylines in the TP52, and sat myself down that night with my notes to figure out what I missed and how to increase my percentages next time. But none of that was meanwhile exerting at at 100% of max heart rate, with an average HR over 20 minutes of over 90% of max. And in those races, one little mistake - a half step shy of a perfect race - is about all you got if you wanted to win. There was plenty of time to plan ahead and not make them. The AC45 feels onboard like the last 2 minutes of a basketball game that has had no subs, with the court bucking under your feet, everyone on the other team taller than you, and sometimes even the fans themselves between you and the hoop. There's grease on the ball, the backboard is changing from spongy to hard and back again, and don't forget the noise of three helicopters making the oxygen-starved space between your ears feel like the director's cut of Apocalypse Now. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/ACUP-Artemis-082211 KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR LEEWARD GATES By Steve Hunt, Sailing World magazine Having followed our advice of last month's installment in this Fundamentals series ("A Low-Risk Run"), you should be sailing downwind in clear air and on the headed jibe, approaching the leeward mark with a plan for the next leg. Now it's time to get around the leeward mark with minimal drama. As boats converge on the mark, traffic is inevitable, and it's here where you can make immediate gains or leave a lot of points on the table if you don't have a clean rounding. It's critical to make a few smart decisions before you hit traffic. If the rounding is through a leeward gate, the decision-making process starts with selecting the gate mark that will allow you to execute your game plan for the next leg. As you approach the bottom of the run, ask yourself the following questions: Which side of the course is best for the next upwind leg? Which gate is closer? And what traffic issues, if any, will come into play? The first two questions help you determine which gate is best in the absence of other boats. The third question considers how the presence of other boats will affect your ability to execute a nice rounding. Regardless of which gate is favored, it's often best to avoid congestion and go for the fastest rounding. First, pick a side During the run you should think about where you want to go after the rounding. I usually consider what happened on the previous beat and how the run is currently playing out, trying to identify the conditions of the day and which side will most likely pay. I stick to the basics, mostly identifying where the most wind is, and which tack will be the long tack after rounding. I also factor in any influential racecourse features. Assuming the gate marks are square to the wind, round the mark that sends you the way you want to go. If you want to go left upwind, for example, you should round the right-hand gate (looking downwind), and, if you want to go right upwind, you should round the left-hand gate. If you're unsure which way to go on the next leg, round the best available gate based on which one is favored (if they're not perfectly square) or has the least amount of traffic. Once you've rounded, look at your compass to figure out the lifted long tack, and get on it. - Read on: http://www.sailingworld.com/experts/gain-at-the-gate COMMENT: Steve regularly 'walks the walk', this summer as winning tactician for Bill Hardesty at the 2011 Etchells World Championship. BLUE IS GREEN! ONLY 12 DAYS LEFT TO SAVE ON A NEW NORTH SAIL Recycle your old sail and SAVE. From July 1st-September 3, 2011, you can save 20% on a new North Sail. Register on our Web site to return your old sail and download our 'Blue is Green' trade-in voucher*. Present this voucher to your sails representative before September 3rd to receive savings. Once your old sail is received, we will also send you a free recycled sail cloth tote bag from Sea Bags, Inc. If you're looking to elevate your sailing, now is the time to buy a new North sail and save 20%! http://www.na.northsails.com/tabid/14313/Default.aspx *Some restrictions apply. JUSTICE Two Somali men were sentenced Monday to spend the rest of their lives in a U.S. prison for their roles in the pirating of a yacht that ultimately resulted in the death of two American couples. Ali Abdi Mohamed, 30, and Burhan Abdirahman Yusuf, 31, were sentenced to the life prison terms in federal court in Norfolk after they pleaded guilty earlier this year to piracy of the S/V Quest vessel off the Somali coast. "Today's sentences send a message to all those who participate in piracy that armed attacks on the high seas carry lifelong consequences," U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride said in a statement. A group of Somali and Yemeni pirates seized the yacht on February 18, and two went aboard the U.S. guided-missile warship USS Sterett to negotiate a possible ransom. But shooting broke out on the private yacht and the four Americans were killed. The pirates were captured by U.S. military forces and brought to Norfolk for prosecution. -- Reuters, read on: http://news.yahoo.com/two-somalis-life-prison-pirating-ship-204534204.html IN SUPPORT OF DISABLED SAILING Newport, RI (August 22, 2011) - Conditions were wet and wild on Narragansett Bay as the second day of racing got underway at the C. Thomas Clagett Jr. Memorial Regatta . The ninth edition of the premiere event for sailors with disabilities has attracted over 60 competitors racing in four classes of boats: the three-person Sonar, the two-person SKUD-18, the singlehanded 2.4 Metre and the four-person J/22. The J/22s wrapped up their series today with a total of nine races to determine the Sail Newport Blind U.S. National Sailing Championship. The seven teams, coming from as far away as Texas and California, sail with two sighted guides assisting the two blind sailors. The Texas team of Karen Penrose (Shore Acres) and James O'Laughlin (Clear Lake), with sighted guides David Atkinson and Scott Tuma (both Shore Acres) are not only at The Clagett for the first time but also taking home the championship title after a solid effort. "It's pretty overwhelming since I am a rookie to sailing," said Penrose of the championship win before explaining that the team only had a few months to prepare. After making a last-minute decision to enter the regatta, they were fortunate to arrange to practice in a friend's J/22. "I've only been sailing for the last couple of years and I was amazed, very happily, that we ended up doing so well." Racing for the Paralympic classes concludes tomorrow, Tuesday, August 23, followed by the awards presentation. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=12462 SAILING SHORTS * (August 22, 2011) - A series of environmental circumstances over the past several days has led to a major algae bloom of the coast of New Jersey. Satellite images from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) show a large bloom of algae stretching much of the 127-mile length of New Jersey's coastline. The bloom is noted to be nearly 50 miles wide in some locations and is particularly dense between Barnegat Inlet and Cape May. Warm water, which the Jersey Shore has experienced for most of the summer, provides algae with ideal conditions to bloom. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/Algae-082211 * The first hurricane of the Atlantic season is forecast to begin affecting South Florida late Thursday night into Friday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center. The center of Irene will continue to move away from the north coast of Puerto Rico this morning and approach the northern coast of the Dominican Republic this afternoon and tonight, according to the hurricane center. -- Soundings, full story: http://tinyurl.com/Irene-082211 * Sailing teams from Australia, Japan, United States, Thailand, Italy, Spain and Ireland will converge on Schull, Ireland next week to contest the World Team Racing Championships at both open and youth level. This is the first World Sailing Event to be hosted by the Fastnet Marine and Outdoor Education Centre located on the campus of Schull Community College at the edge of Schull Harbour. -- Details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=12461#12461 * CORRECTION: In the Nantucket Race Week Celebrity Invitational, the third place Celebrity Tactician was Dee Smith, not Karl Anderson as originally reported. Karl's team finished sixth. -- http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=12452 J/111 HIT PARADE GOES ON Designed for speed before ratings, the J/111 is proving slippery on all courses. In the last month J/111s have won Chicago-Mac (KASHMIR in ORR-3), Bayview-Mac (NO SURPRISE in IRC-3), and Cowes Week (SHMOKIN JOE in IRC-2). WICKED even notched 20.5 kts in her last-race win at Buzzards Bay Regatta. Wow! http://www.jboats.com/j111 FREE CLASSIFIED ADS The Scuttlebutt Classified Ads provide a marketplace for private parties to buy and sell, or for businesses to post job openings. Here are recent ads: For Sale - * Nautica 16.5 RIB Deluxe Inflatable for sale * Boat charter for the America's Cup World Series in Newport, RI Now Hiring - * Jr. Program Director - Long Beach, California * San Francisco Yacht Club Head Coach & Youth Director View/post ads here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/classified_ads 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 Blue Robinson: Australian yachting mourns a good mate. Farewell to Australian chopper pilot Gary Ticehurst, who regularly covered the Sydney-Hobart race race for the ABC and played a significant role in the rescue of 14 crew members from stricken yacht Business Post Naiad during the 1998 race. Ticehurst and two other colleagues were killed when the helicopter they were flying in crashed near Lake Eyre in South Australia. In almost 40 years as a chopper pilot, Ticehurst logged more than 16,000 hours of flying time and played a vital role in the search and rescue in the 1998 race, where he was out spotting boats and relaying their position. Stephanie Hagger, from marine search and rescue met Ticehurst after the 1998 Hobart and summed up how Gary calmly did his job "I know the cameraman in the back of the helicopter was getting the shots, but Gary was creating the shots through the way that he would fly the helicopter, coming in low over the top of masts, twirling around them, sometimes in high seas even hovering the helicopter beneath the crest of a wave and then revealing the yacht behind it when the wave went down." Gary will be sadly missed by all who knew him. A good fella, with a big heart. From Scuttlebutt 3410: - http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=12438#12438 - http://tinyurl.com/abc-net-au-news-2011-08-19 CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Now that the National Football League is back on the field, I've been wondering about the team names. If the Jacksonville Jaguars are known as the 'Jags' and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are known as the 'Bucs,' what does that make the Tennessee Titans? SPONSORS THIS WEEK Point Loma Outfitting - New England Ropes - Hall Spars & Rigging North Sails - J Boats - Atlantis WeatherGear - Morris Yachts - Ocean Racing Ullman Sails - APS - Premiere Racing - Quantum Sails - Sailors for the Sea Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
