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SCUTTLEBUTT 3682 - Monday, September 24, 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: Summit Yachts and Doyle Sails. VOLVO OCEAN RACE: DRIVEN TO CHANGE By Ken Read I've spent the last six years living, working, sailing, and selling the Volvo Ocean Race. I'm part of the family, now. It's in my blood. And that's why I'm involved both physically and emotionally with decisions involving its future. I can tell you this: If this race is to carry on, it needs more entries. It is that simple. To attract more entries, the overall cost to compete must come down. Not just a little down, but 25 percent down. I know the powers-to-be in the Volvo Ocean Race have been working hard on reducing the cost of entry. Knut Frostad (the race's CEO) told me specifically that the Volvo Ocean Race Board of Directors gave him a mandate on the number of boats for the next race. If he fails to fulfill that mandate, there may not be another Volvo Ocean Race. So what to do? My first inclination was to give it another go with the Volvo Open 70. The race's DNA is in the Volvo Open 70. I've spent a lot of time on these boats. They're awesome, brutal machines. When we pull into the harbor - any harbor - the fleet turns heads. Sponsors love them because they are incredible platforms for sponsor days, and fabulous floating billboards. And, because they're custom built, teams can utilize home country expertise and employment - which is often another key criteria for a sponsor. The sailors love them because they separate the men from the boys. So when I first heard that race organizers were considering a one-design for the next race, I cringed. There were all kinds of rumors floating around, including one about a dumbed-down monohull similar to the old Whitbread 60, with fixed keels and water ballast. That, for sure, would've been a huge mistake. High performance is crucial when you are talking about the best of the best, especially if we're to deliver the type of jaw-dropping footage that the media crewmembers delivered during the most recent lap. Then there was talk of hybrid canting-keel boats, simplified and quite a bit slower than the current class, and even talk of multihulls like the current fleet of MOD70s. But the race's decision makers correctly identified that the VOR is a monohull race. Completely changing that part of the DNA was of no interest to them. Besides, who would ever be crazy enough to change a successful monohull event into a multihull event? (Said with a wink.) -- Read on: http://www.sailingworld.com/racing/volvo-ocean-race-driven-to-change 12 METRE NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS Newport, RI (September 23, 2012) - Each of three racing days at the 2012 12 Metre North American Championships (Sept. 21-23) started out chilly and overcast but gave way to sunshine and wind ample enough to conduct eight races off Newport, R.I., where the America's Cup took place for over five decades and from 1958 to 1983 was sailed in the illustrious 12 metre yachts. Taking overall victory in the event, with a performance in Modern Division that topped all others from the Grand Prix and Traditional Divisions and earned them the Pine Brothers Trophy, was Dennis Williams (Hobe Sound, Fla.) and his Victory '83 team. Victory '83 won all of its races over Ralph Isham's (New York, N.Y.)/Alex Aursberg's (Newport, R.I.) Courageous and Jack Curtin's (New York, N.Y.) Intrepid, which took second and third in the Modern Division, respectively. In fact, Victory '83 could have sat out the last day's final two races and still won its class, but that would have made for one less day of satisfaction and disrupted the team's "take no prisoners" enthusiasm for the competition. "We want to be the best boat in the regatta," said Williams, the two-time defending North American Champion and 2009 World Champion in this class, before sweeping clean on Sunday to seal his perfect score line. Upon receiving the Pine Brothers Trophy, he elaborated on his team's performance: "I'm not sure anyone has ever done that (all firsts) in this regatta. The difference was crew work and tactics, which were virtually flawless. It's not by accident those things happen; we spend a lot of time putting this together." -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/94jb6kw SUMMIT YACHTS WINS ON BOTH COASTS The Summit 40 "Soozal" owned by Dan Woolery topped the IRC 2 class at San Francisco's Big Boat Series this past week, while on the East Coast, "Down Time", a Summit 40 owned by Ed Freitag took the top spot in IRC 2 at the Long Island Sound IRC Championships. "Soozal" just keeps adding to the impressive list of wins that she has amassed since being built several years ago, and "Down Time", a much more recent build, is on its way to a stellar list of successes. Check out the Summit 40 and the other great boats in the Summit line at http://www.summit-yachts.com FIRST US MATCH RACING CHAMPIONSHIP WIN FOR CANFIELD Marblehead, MA (September 23, 2012) - After finishing second at the last two U.S. Match Racing Championships, Taylor Canfield and his crew rose to the occasion on Sunday and defeated two-time champion Dave Dellenbaugh in the Finals, 3-2. Canfield's team was representing the Chicago Match Race Center. This year's U.S. Match Racing Championship was hosted by the Boston Yacht Club in Marblehead, Mass. "This has always been a championship I've wanted to win and it feels great to get it this week," said Canfield. "I've been coming to this event ever since I started match racing." It was an exciting Final as Dellenbaugh nearly overcame a 2-0 deficit. Canfield (St. Thomas, USVI), who is sailing this week with crewmates Stephanie Roble (East Troy, Wis.), Maggie Shea (Wilmette, Ill.), and Janel Zarkowsky (Annapolis, Md.), had big leads early in each of the first two races with Dellenbaugh to take a 2-0 advantage. Dellenbaugh and crew Rebecca Dellenbaugh (Easton, Conn.), and US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider members Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.) and Stuart McNay (Boston, Mass.), sailed their way back into the series with back to back wins In race three, Canfield had a lead at the gate, but Dellenbaugh came from behind for the win. In race four, Dellenbaugh took an early lead when Canfield was tagged with an OCS. Dellenbaugh tied the series at 2-2. However, Canfield answered and took a commanding five boat length lead upwind and coasted to victory. Team Dellenbaugh was representing the Pequot Yacht Club this week. -- Report at: http://tinyurl.com/9ru9uaz MAURICIO SANTA CRUZ CROWNED J/24 WORLD CHAMPION Rochester, NY (September 22, 2012) - Mauricio Santa Cruz snatched the lead on day one of the Quantum Loop Solutions J/24 World Championship and never looked back. He is now the reigning J/24 World Champion. Bruschetta with trimmer Daniel Santiago, tactician Alex Saldanha, mastman Sergio Bittencourt and bowman Alfredo Rovere, Santa Cruz earned his fourth J/24 World title. At the Rochester Yacht Club in New York, Bruschetta achieved a remarkably consistent performance of seven top-ten tallies, a 13 and 19 in the ten-race series (including one discard). The team stacked up a 42-point advantage heading into Friday's final race and was able to stay ashore and let the others fight it out for the remaining podium spots among the 96-boat fleet. American John Mollicone's 11th Hour Racing gained momentum throughout the week and seized second place with 101 points, followed by fellow American Tony Parker's Bangor Packet with 108 points. The 96 teams represented 12 countries-Argentina, Barbados, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Peru and the United States. "The venue was very shifty, and the team worked hard to stay on top of them. We had good sails and good speed," Santa Cruz summarized. "We used an old boat, but the old and new boats are fairly equal. The mast, keel and rudder have a good shape so we knew we would be fine. Our team has sailed together for eight years, and that is a big help." -- Report at: http://2012j24worlds.com/press/day5.shtml Top Five 1. Mauricio Santa Cruz (BRA) 58pts 2. John Mollicone (USA) 101pts 3. Tony Parker (USA) 108pts 4. Mike Ingham (USA) 111pts 5. Matias Pereira (ARG) 111pts View highlights from the J/24 Worlds on the ISAF TV Player: http://www.sailing.org/matchdaytv US SAILING ISSUES STATEMENT ON DINGHY CAPSIZE REPORT Portsmouth, RI (September 21, 2012) - In response to a 2011 fatal sailing accident in Annapolis, Md., members of US Sailing recently conducted three days of intensive on-water tests of dinghy safety methods and equipment. Held in California and New York, the tests evaluated ways to recover people in the water and right dinghies from capsize and inversion. Sailor entrapment and the causes were also addressed. The tests were organized by Chuck Hawley (Santa Cruz, Calif.), Chair of US Sailing's Safety-at-Sea Committee, and Timmy Larr (Oyster Bay, N.Y.), member of US Sailing's Training Committee National Faculty. They were assisted by John Rousmaniere (New York, N.Y.), author of the U.S. Sailing report on the Annapolis accident and Safety-at-Sea Seminar moderator. Hawley, Larr, Rousmaniere and the 25 other volunteers participated as individuals, not in their official capacities. An illustrated report of these tests, written by John Rousmaniere describes and evaluates each of the methods and equipment that were tested, and offers recommendations for policies, rules, and further testing. Gary Jobson (Annapolis, Md.), President of US Sailing, said, "The volunteers who undertook these rigorous tests deserve our thanks. Anything we can learn that advances our understanding of the causes and solutions of sailing accidents is important." -- Full story: http://media.ussailing.org/Latest_News/2012/Dinghy_Report.htm * Dinghy Capsize report: http://offshore.ussailing.org/AssetFactory.aspx?vid=19214 SPEEDDREAM27 CHRISTENED AND TESTED (September 19, 2012) - Finally, after eight months of construction SpeedDream 27's bright red keel made contact with cold Maine water after being launched and christened last week. Brian Hancock, author of seven books, himself a multiple circumnavigator and currently the Creative and Media Director for SpeedDream, describes in his blog where the SpeedDream team is at in its quest to build the world's fastest sailboat. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Earlier (last) week SpeedDream27 was fully rigged with all sails hoisted and all the lines, sheets and deck hardware put through their paces. There is an elegant simplicity to the entire layout that will allow the crew to manage the boat at high speeds and in a very wet and fast moving environment. The intricate keel canting mechanism was fully tested in a dry run without the keel attached, and it went off without a hitch. The mechanism is push button controlled from the helmsman's station and allows minor adjustments to the keel angle as well as a single button push for a complete side-to-side cant through a tack or gybe. With the christening and dry sailing completed the next phase is a series of in-the-water tests that will place increasing loads on the keel mechanism and the rest of the boat. This critical area of the overall SpeedDream design is truly revolutionary and while in theory and in dry sailing it has performed as designed and engineered, there will be a need for refinement over the next couple of weeks. With the leaves changing in Maine and crisp, cool fall breezes blowing it's tempting to cut the lines and leave the dock for a sail, but despite the temptation to do so these next few weeks are the most important to the success of the project so it's slow and steady with careful step-by-step analysis before the maiden sail. -- Full report: http://speeddreamblog.blogspot.com/ HOWELLS WINS 2012 UK ETCHELLS NATIONALS James Howells, David Bedford and Mark Lees dominated the 2012 UK Etchells Nationals. In conditions ranging from light wind to gusting over 25 knots, Team Gelert sailed a remarkably consistent regatta posting four wins in the 9-race event to win by 14-points. Whether your goals are racing, cruising or anything in between, teaming up with Doyle will deliver the results you need. http://www.doylesails.com PHOTOS OF THE WEEK If you thought we left out part of our photo selection from last week, we did and our apologies. Some of the random photos from the sport received last week at Scuttlebutt include stadium sailing, motherly advice, nicest day, small meters, sweet sixteen, sweet catamaran, aerial view, long day, and double up. Here are those photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/12/0921/ SCUTTLEBUTT SAILING CALENDAR Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar WHAT ARE YOU MARKETING THIS WEEK? The Scuttlebutt website allows marine companies to post their personnel, product and service updates. For free. As a bonus, each week the Scuttlebutt newsletter includes some of the recent updates. Are you in the marine industry? Post your updates in the Industry News section of the Forum. SAILING SHORTS * Milwaukee, WI ( September 23, 2012) - After three days of racing, it was the Canadians who took the podium in the top three places at the 2012 Soling World Champions. Reigning champions Peter Hall, Paul Davis and William (CAN 225) Hall easily scooped first place with 8 points after 8 races sailed (1 discard). In second was Billy Abbott, Joanne Abbott and Tom Freeman (CAN 001) with 20 points, and Hans Fogh, John Finch and Gordon Devries (CAN 230) in third with 22 points. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/94h8jcx * (September 21, 2012) - Artemis Racing announced today that Australian gold medalist, Nathan Outteridge has joined the Swedish Challenger for the 34th America's Cup. Outteridge will begin training with the team next week in Alameda in advance of the upcoming America's Cup World Series in San Francisco where he will helm Artemis Racing-Red. -- Full story: http://artemis-racing.americascup.com/news/2959 *Newport, RI (September 23, 2012) - With a record-breaking fully confirmed thirty-three Melges 32s representing eight countries, the International Melges 32 Class Association (IM32CA) is proud to present its largest World Championship ever, hosted by the New York Yacht Club (NYYC). Boat measurement came to a close early Saturday morning, while registration, crew weigh-in and sail measurement is scheduled to wrap up on Monday afternoon. -- Event website: http://www.nyyc.org/melges32worlds-sep20-29/ * The 2012 Open 5.70 North American Championship took place from September 21-23 in San Francisco, CA, hosted by the Golden Gate Yacht Club. 20 boats competed for the coveted Open 5.70 Keel perpetual trophy. Tom Baffico on his boat The Maker entered this regatta as Northern California's point leader and took the championship title with a score of 16, just one point ahead of the 2012 Pacific Coast Champion Tracey Kenney and her team aboard SoCal-based Mor Shenanigans, with 17 points. NorCal Fleet Captain Marc Finot rounded out the leader board with 25 points for a third place finish. -- Full results: https://www.jibeset.net/racedoc/GGYC_T006163977fh.html?t=1348371841 * San Francisco, CA (September 22, 2012) - Blustering winds served as a catalyst for a highly-competitive first day of action at the 2012 Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta San Francisco, which saw each boat class complete multiple races, the stiff competition paving the way for a pivotal day two of sailing. Among the most competitive fleets today was the Melges 20, which saw four neck-to-neck races. Leading the way was Atlas out of Chicago Yacht Club. However, two local boats, Funner and Diamante, finished in second and third place respectively and look to figure into the equation for tomorrow's finals. Racing concludes Sunday. --Full story: http://tinyurl.com/9uw3f48 * Weymouth Speed Week, the oldest and longest-running speed sailing event in the world, will celebrate its 40th anniversary October 6-12. Held annually since 1972 in Weymouth, UK, it has challenged sailors of a wide variety of wind-powered craft to sail as fast as they can over a distance of 500m, with competitor's speed recorded as the average speed over that distance. Competitors comprise kite boarders, sail boarders and boaters. -- Event website: http://www.weymouthspeedweek.com/ * Due to popular demand, the ISAF Sea Survival Course will be held again at the San Francisco Yacht Club in two courses of two days each November 10th and 11th, and November 17th-18th. Courses are limited to 16 people and cost is $240 per person. Participants receive a certificate valid for 5 years from ISAF and US Sailing. Most offshore races including Pac Cup, Fastnet, Sydney Hobart, Newport Bermuda require that 30% of the crew and the skipper have this certificate. For registration and further information, email: amperrin@racingyachtmanagement.com * The Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission has announced that the graceful yacht Weatherly, which successfully defended the America's Cup 50 years ago this month, has been honored by a listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The Weatherly is now one of three vessels in Rhode Island waters to achieve the distinction, listing the others as the O.K., a sailboat in Wickford Harbor, and the yacht Coronet. Weatherly is significant as an early and notable example of the 12-meter class of racing yachts and of wooden and laminate yacht construction. -- Read on: http://www.preservation.ri.gov/news/press.php * ISAF has published the qualification system for the sailing competition at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games, the second Youth Olympic Games (YOG) which will be held in Nanjing, China from August 16-24, 2014. Each of the four sailing events are open to sailors aged 15-16 years old born between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 1999. For each of events, there are seven Youth Olympic Qualification Events. Details of the qualification system including the continental quotas are available in the full qualification system document at: http://www.sailing.org/regattainfo.php?rgtaid=13407 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 * Kimball Livingston, Sailing Correspondent, blogs on the latest America's Cup changes: I can't count it as good news regarding Team Korea's prospects that Nathan Outteridge has moved out of the Team Korea camp and into the Artemis Racing camp. No doubt that means more salary and more certainty for Outteridge, but it's imaginable that this year's 49er gold medalist would have stuck with Korea if he saw himself at the helm of an America's Cup challenger in 2013. To say that in another way, four participants in the Louis Vuitton Cup is qualitatively more than the quantitative difference between four and three. Slotting in behind Outteridge on the Team Korea helm is this year's 49er silver medalist, Peter Burling. One thing remains the same. With Outteridge hailing from Australia and Burling from New Zealand, the Anzac thing is humming right along. And Oracle Team USA is back on the water with their AC72...Read at: http://blueplanettimes.com/?p=9904 CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION "A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually." - Abba Eban, Israeli diplomat (1915-2002) SPONSORS THIS WEEK Summit Yachts - Doyle Sails - North Sails - Gowrie Group Soft Deck - Team One Newport - Harken - Pure Yachting Camet - Ullman Sails - Henri Lloyd - Hall Spars & Rigging Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
