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SCUTTLEBUTT 3582 - Wednesday, May 2, 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: Team One Newport, North Sails, and JK3 Nautical Enterprises. CONCERNED ABOUT SAFETY The US Coast Guard has requested that US Sailing, the National Governing Body for the sport of sailing, conduct an independent review of the sailing accident that occurred during the 2012 Full Crew Farallones Race in San Francisco, CA that resulted in the deaths of five sailors. US Sailing has appointed an Independent Review Panel for the 2012 Farallones Race, who are responsible for researching the factors involved in the accident, determining what lessons can be learned, and making recommendations for future consideration. "All of us at US Sailing are shocked and saddened by the recent tragedies that occurred during the Farallones and Newport to Ensenada Races," said Gary Jobson, President, US Sailing. "These accidents represent an extraordinary set of events in the sport of sailing, which historically has a very strong track record of safety. Like everyone, we are very concerned about the safety of sailors. "At the request of the US Coast Guard in San Francisco, we have assembled a panel of offshore sailing, safety and medical experts to lead a review that will help identify what occurred during the Farallones Race and more importantly how to insure we avoid these tragedies in the future. US Sailing is involved not only to lend our expertise in safety and offshore racing but to insure that the perspective of offshore racers is being brought to the table. "We have identified a similar review panel for the Ensenada accident and are working with the US Coast Guard in San Diego to outline that review." Competing in the Newport to Ensenada Race, four people died this past weekend off the coast of the USA and Mexico border. The members of the Independent Review Panel focused on the Farallones incident are Sally Honey (Chairwoman, Palo Alto, CA), John Craig (San Rafael, CA), Jim Corenman (Friday Harbor, WA) and Bartz Schneider (Crystal Bay, NV). Offshore Special Regulations Consultant on the panel is Evans Starzinger (Milford, CT). The Safety at Sea Committee Chair and Review Panel Liaison is Chuck Hawley (Santa Cruz, CA). Medical Advisors are Dr. Michael Jacobs and Dr. Kent Benedict. Jim Wildey (Annapolis, MD) will advise on investigation procedures and formats. Full report: http://tinyurl.com/USS-050112 THE 2012 FOOTWEAR QUESTIONNAIRE Are your current boots or shoes just not cutting it? Can you smell them from across the room? Do your crewmates avoid them on the rail and/or launch? Does your crew forbid you from being upwind? Are your shoes to blame for slipping and sliding across the deck? If so, it's time to throw them out and get a new pair! The experts at Team One Newport have exactly what the active boater or yachting enthusiast needs. Choose from over 16 different brands and over 60 styles of technical, lifestyle and fashionable footwear. Shop our website and retail store before the season gets started. Trust us, it's for the best. http://tinyurl.com/tonfootwear or 401.VIP.GEAR (401.847.4327) SPOT TRACKING Tracking devices have gained acceptance in the sport, providing online updates for competing boats in a race. These trackers are often provided by the race organizer, but the option of tracking exists for personal use too. From backpackers to offroad enthusiasts, pilots to snowmobilers, the safety of carrying a tracking device is available for purchase from most electronic retailers. Sorting through the tragic incident involving a 37-foot Hunter 376 Aegean during the Newport to Ensenada Race, it was learned they were carrying a personal SPOT tracker. The final moments of their race clearly show on Google Maps their path sent them directly into North Coronado Island, one of four islands 8 miles off the northwest coast of the Mexican state of Baja California. Aegean was entered in the cruising division which allowed motoring. Their progress, presumably under sail, had slowed by Friday evening. Just before 10pm, their progress increased, presumably now under power, and remained steady until the tracker stopped at the Coronados at 1:36am on Saturday. "From their SPOT position reports," explained San Diego navigator Artie Means, "I was able to plot their coordinates and determine their speed. Looking at this track, it appears they drove right into North Coronado. Pretty consistent course and velocity (+/- 7 knots), and definitely in one piece under motor until it stopped." While that would seemingly end the mystery, and dispute the theory that Aegean collided with a large ship, questions remain about the condition of the boat and bodies. Eric Lamb, Master Captain for Vessel Assist, was the first to find the wreckage Saturday morning, describing how it looked as if the boat had "gone through a blender" - too small to suggest a collision with rocks. The San Diego County medical examiner said Monday night that Kevin Eric Rudolph, 53, of Manhattan Beach, died of blunt force injuries to his head and neck; William Reed Johnson Jr., 57, of Torrance, Calif., died of multiple blunt force injuries; and Joseph Lester Stewart, 64, of Bradenton, Fla., drowned. The boat's skipper was missing. So the question remains...with winds under five knots, could a collision with the island cause such a significant result? Artie's plots: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=13678#13678 DRAMA, BABY, DRAMA (May 1, 2012; Day 10) - Just when PUMA pads its lead on Leg 6, the plot reels them back in. If Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad was major network executive, he'd be accused of influencing the outcome to spike viewership. Just like when mere minutes separated the top two boats at the finish of Leg 5 in Brazil. Drama, baby, drama. "We hate clouds, and even the pretty ones too," shared PUMA media crew Amory Ross. "They ruin our days and plague our nights, and they've just done it again. One massive, unavoidable green glob on the radar and an ominously dark splotch of horizon indicate imminent doom, but nothing can prepare you for the gut wrenching conclusion once it's run its course and stolen your wind, hopes, and in this case, your hard fought lead." With the wind in the teens, just behind the beam, there is 13 miles of lateral separation among the leaders. PUMA is to windward with Telefonica manning the low lane, and all bows are aimed at the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean. CAMPER's bowman Mike Pammenter said the tight racing was adding weight to the theory that the Leg 6 victory would come down to the final 100 miles. "It's been well advertised that we don't seem to be the fastest boat in pressure reaching, but in the light breeze reaching we've been doing well so we've been pleasantly surprised about that,'' he said. "We're most of the way around the world but we're very much still learning about the boats and our competitors. It's been an interesting ride. The last couple of hundred, it's looking like light VMG and light reaching, so you never know. As long as we're in touch anything can happen." -- Event media Leg 6 - Itajai, Brazil to Miami, USA (4,800 nm) Standings as of Tuesday, 01 May 2012, 22:02:48 UTC 1. PUMA Ocean Racing (USA), Ken Read (USA), 2218.2 nm Distance to Finish 2. CAMPER (NZL), Chris Nicholson (AUS), 2.2 nm Distance to Lead 3. Telefonica (ESP), Iker Martinez (ESP), 5.8 nm DTL 4. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (UAE), Ian Walker (GBR), 76.0 nm DTL 5. Groupama 4 (FRA), Frank Cammas (FRA), 83.1 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 GOOD TEMPLATE The beer can racing schedule is upon us. Start planning your early work exits, and focus on the reason for the season... camaraderie. Here's a good template for getting your team on the same page: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This Wednesday is the premier start of the 2012 season. Boat Call is at 5:00 PM, with dock departure at 5:30 and racing at 6:00ish. Boat is at Slip #___ at __________ Marina. Come on along and have some fun. If you do not know the 6 Ws (When, Where, Why, What, Who, and How), send a reply. Bring a friend, no worries. IF you have your own PFD, that might be good to bring too if we have casts of thousands. No need to reply to this unless you are looking for an answer from me. Typically, we get back to the dock around 8-8:30. There are burgers for $3 at the yacht club after or we can just party on at the dock. Snacks are always good, BYOB. I will see you at the boat. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends. Life is too short and friends are too few. LET NORTH SAILS PAY YOUR SHIPPING & TAX ON NEW OD SAILS! Summer is here! Get your new one-design sails in time for Memorial Day and North will pay for the shipping and sales tax! Promotion valid for one-design sails ordered and delivered in the continental US only. CSD classes not included. Must order your sails online at http://www.onedesign.com by May 15, 2012. NOT GOING SMOOTHLY What will the ten sailing events for the 2016 Olympic Games look like? While the event types have been confirmed, the equipment to be used in three of the events - Women's Skiff event, the Mixed Multihull event, and the Board event - has not yet been decided. To review the options, ISAF hosted an evaluation event March 17-25 in Santander, Spain. It was there that six skiff entries, seven multihull entries, and elite kiteboard sailors were on hand to impress the review panel. ISAF has since released the Evaluation Panel Reports and Recommendations, which will be used to provide guidance for the ISAF Council to make the equipment decisions at the ISAF Mid-Year Meeting in Stresa, Italy on May 3-6. The process has not gone smoothly, at least not for the skiff and multihull. There have been questions concerning the methods used to evaluate the equipment, and the bias held by committee members. One variable, cost of equipment, is not included in the reports. Evaluation reports: Women's Skiff and Mixed Multihull: http://www.sailing.org/news/38219.php Kiteboarding: http://www.sailing.org/news/38220.php Meeting details: http://www.sailing.org/2012-Mid-Year-Meetings.php With the meeting to begin this week, here are recent comments that question the process: Kristen Lane (USA), 29erXX class... As a skiff sailor, I would like to ask ISAF to: Be realistic about the optimal racing weight for the FX and RS. Be precise about what the ideal team weight is that you are aiming for. Understand that any discussion of a weight limit is proof of a heavier ideal racing weight and will exclude normal sized women's teams. Be accurate about what skills the selected skiff will reward: Finesse? Strength & Weight? Acknowledge that an equipment cost of $30,000 will have a chilling effect on the entry of sailors from emerging nations. Darren Bundock (AUS), Viper class... I understand from a number of people you have your minds made up about the Nacra 17 and I can respect that, but I cannot accept incorrect comments in the report. I hope you have not been sold just on a flash paint job and curved boards. 1. Curved boards cater for a wider crew weight range? Can you explain how this works? I have run this by a number of designers in Oracle Racing and they are a bit bewildered by this comment as the righting moment, sail plan (power) of the boat is not changed by the curved boards. In fact the comment was if anything it will reduce the weight range as the wetted surface area of the boat downwind will be reduced and removing the advantage for lighter teams downwind. So it will be an advantage to be heavier upwind for increased righting moment with no penalty downwind. As you wrote it in the report, can you please provide me with a clarification? Read more from Kristen and Darren here: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=13684 SAILING SHORTS * (May 1, 2012) - The Kiwi-Australian duo of Conrad Colman and Scott Cavanough took first place in Global Ocean Race (GOR) Leg 4 from Punta del Este, Uruguay, to South Carolina with Akilaria RC2 Class40 Cessna Citation, crossing the finish line off Charleston at 05:45:00 GMT (01:54:00 local) on Tuesday morning. Colman and Cavanough took 28 days 11 hours and 45 minutes to complete the 5,700 miles from Uruguay to Charleston. The final GOR leg from the USA to Les Sables d'Olonne, France starts May 20th. -- http://globaloceanrace.com * Falmouth Harbour, Antigua (May 1, 2012) - After two days of big breeze, day three of Antigua Sailing Week saw similar conditions for the competitors. However the Ocean mark laid for today's big boats was a new addition. It took over 300 feet of line to lay the mark four miles off the leeward coast of Antigua. The sizeable yachts in CSA 1 were an awesome sight today, smashing through the start line to windward through the Caribbean surf and after coming off the wind at the Ocean mark, the yachts speared off downwind, bow up, accelerating off big waves to surf at speeds of 20 knots plus. -- Read on: http://www.sailingweek.com/v3/news.php?id=199 * America's Cup groundbreaking use of Liveline, the technology that makes competitive sailing accessible to home viewers worldwide, has been awarded an Emmy for extraordinary technical innovation. LiveLine technology, which is used for American football and NASCAR car racing broadcasts, is being recognized for making the sport welcoming to new fans and providing precise data for race management. The George Wensel Technical Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences was presented on Monday, April 30, 2012 at the Frederick P. Rose Hall at the Lincoln Center in New York City. -- Full report: http://media.americascup.com/pressreleases/?id=668 * The USA's top Olympic hopefuls in Women's Match Racing will begin competition this week in the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Qualifying Regatta, in Weymouth, England. Organized by US Sailing, the event is scheduled for May 4-9 at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, site of the 2012 Olympic Sailing Regatta. The event will determine the women's match racing representatives for the 2012 Olympic Team. Competing skippers are Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, FL), Sally Barkow (Nashotah, WI), Genny Tulloch (Sausalito, CA), and Stephanie Roble (East Troy, WI). -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/USST-050112 * The Nominating Committee of the Canadian Yachting Association is calling for nominations from interested individuals who are prepared to help shape the future of the sport of Sailing in Canada. Candidates for election to the Board must be at least 18 and be a member in good standing of a member club, class or other member organization. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/CYA-050112 WE JUST PLAIN OLD WORK HARDER Searching for the perfect boat? Or looking to sell? We invite you to contact JK3. Why? JK3 just plain old works harder, we go the extra distance in promoting and marketing to sell our brokerage boats. JK3 exhibited four different boats at Strictly Sail Pacific including "Soozal", a King Summit 40' with Scott Easom of Eason Rigging aboard to explain all the systems that make this boat so special. Check out our newest listing "Katana" a Kernan Custom 47'. If you are looking to buy or sell and want a broad spectrum marketing effort that includes: Online, Print, Social Media, and Boat Show presence - contact JK3...because we just plain old work harder. See listings here: http://www.jk3yachts.com/article.asp?id=172 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 Ian Lineberger, St. Petersburg, Florida; Regarding your Sport and Marriage story (in Scuttlebutt 3581), I would like to add another couple who have both qualified for the Olympics: Mark and Carolina Mendelblatt. Mark, along with crew Brian Fatih, will represent the USA in Star boats while Mark's wife, Carolina, will represent Portugal in RSX Women's Windsurfing. They have been very supportive of each other's campaigns. After coaching both of them last year, I had an insight on the dynamics of running two campaigns out of one household. In Perth for the 2011 ISAF Worlds, the schedule allowed me to coach Carolina first and then Mark and Brian the next week for the final of the US Olympic Trials. What I didn't know was Mark's plan to have Carolina in the coach boat with me. I wasn't keen on the idea at first due to my "no riders" policy but agreed to give it a try. As it turned out my fears were unfounded as Carolina was a huge help in keeping them in their shoes when things didn't go our way. It is a testament to the strength of their relationship to not let emotions get in the way of clear thinking. Mark has since coached his wife to an Olympic berth in Cadiz and I am honored that they have asked me to work with her at the Games. * From Tink Chambers, Farr 40 Class Secretary: As you may or may not know, John Thomson is having a rough go of it with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). John is well known for his long support, participation and success in racing sailboats and was one of the original Farr 40 owners (# 4 Solution and # 135 Infinity), winning the first two North American Championships in 1998 and 1999. We plan to honor John's contributions to the sport and the Farr 40 Class by making him honorary Chairman of the Rolex Farr 40 North American Championship and have him present the trophies. The following is from his daughter Victoria: "Unfortunately there is nothing anyone can do for him as at this point there is no cure. So my brothers & I have put together a team to do "The Walk to Cure ALS" in his honor in New York this coming weekend. We have been recruiting family & friends to help in this endeavour & while I wouldn't have taken it upon myself to contact the Farr 40 Association to get the word out, he asked me this weekend if I would go ahead & get in touch with you. "It's kind of funny, he's such a private person and really tends not to tell anyone what has been going on with him, so we weren't sure how he would feel about us doing this. So we put the team together & quietly got to work on it. When we took the opportunity to mention it to him, he was so touched it brought him to tears." -- Read on (and donate): http://tinyurl.com/F40-050112 FREE CLASSIFIED ADS The Scuttlebutt Classified Ads provide a marketplace for private parties to buy and sell, or for businesses to post job openings. In addition to several job openings, here are recent for sale ads: * Formula windsurfing rig complete & race ready * Custom 33' Carbon Ultra-Performance Catamaran * Hobie 33 Lift Keel 1983 View/post ads here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/classified_ads CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Take my advice. I'm not using it. SPONSORS THIS WEEK Quantum Sails - APS - Atlantis WeatherGear North Sails - J Boats - Team One Newport - North U JK3 Nautical Enterprises - Ullman Sails - Gowrie Group - Southern Spars Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
