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SCUTTLEBUTT 3649 - Tuesday, August 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: Vineyard Race, North Sails, and J Boats. 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES - SAILING EVENTS Weymouth and Portland, U.K. (August 6, 2012; Day 9) - The 2012 Olympic Sailing Regatta completed two more events today, with the Laser event offering redemption for one sailor while the Laser Radial event concluded what could be the closest of all ten sailing events. Tom Slingsby (AUS), the five-time Laser world champion, laid to rest the ghosts of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, where he also started as the favourite, but had a disastrous regatta and did not even make the Medal Race, finishing 22nd. Pavlos Kontides (CYP), finishing with the silver, became Cyprus's first ever Olympic medallist since they first competed as an NOC in their own right at Moscow 1980. Slingsby, 27, won gold by holding onto his lead going into the Medal Race, being 14 points ahead of the Cypriot at the start. "Who would be feeling better in the world right now? No-one," said Slingsby. "I've worked for 12 years to get there. I put everything I had into it and I've done it. I couldn't be happier. I think going to watch the Stars and the Finns yesterday (Sunday) was a very smart idea in the end. I saw how easily it can slip through your fingers and today I was pretty brutal, but I had to be. I knew Pavlos couldn't lose second so I didn't want to give him an inch all day." Laser Results - Top 5 of 49 1. Tom Slingsby (AUS) - 43pts 2. Pavlos Kontides (CYP) - 59pts 3. Rasmus Myrgren (SWE) - 72pts 4. Tonci Stipanovic (CRO) - 77pts 5. Andrew Murdoch (NZL) - 87pts China's Lijia Xu sailed her way to the Laser Radial gold medal by taking the bullet in a winner takes all Medal Race. Just one point had separated the top four Laser Radial sailors entering the medal race, with Xu and Marit Bouwmeester (NED) level on 33 points each and Annalise Murphy (IRE) and Evi Van Acker (BEL) tied on 34. Murphy led around the first mark, but Xu overtook her before being given the penalty turns by on-the-water umpires for illegal propulsion. Remarkably though, the Beijing 2008 bronze medallist Xu then regained the lead before the end of the second leg and was never challenged from then on. "I just give it my all," Xu said immediately after racing. "I really enjoyed today's race. I gave it my best for my country China. So long as I kept calm and did my best the end result would not be bad. Everybody was nervous; it just depends on who has the best mental side. Bouwmeester, who had dominated the class throughout the last two years, was less than impressed with second place, "The gold is always the main goal," said Bouwmeester. "If you ask me tomorrow I will be fine; today I'm a bit disappointed." Laser Radial Results - Top 5 of 41 1. Lijia Xu (CHN) - 35pts 2. Marit Bouwmeester (NED) - 37pts 3. Evi Van Acker (BEL) - 40pts 4. Annalise Murphy (IRL) - 44pts 5. Alison Young (GBR) - 60pts On Monday, the 49er completed their final two qualifying races, with Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen (AUS) having won the gold prior to the Medal Race on Wednesday, whilst Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (NZL) clinched silver. The Men's 470 had two races as well, with Mathew Belcher/ Malcolm Page (AUS) and Luke Patience/ Stuart Bithell (GBR) now only a point apart, distancing themselves from the field, with two more races on Tuesday before their Medal Race on Thursday. Women's 470 and Match Race, and Men's and Women's RS:X had a layday. NORTH AMERICA: The 49-boat Laser event concluded with David Wright (CAN) in 23rd, Cy Thompson (ISV) in 25th, Rob Crane (USA) in 29th, and Ricardo Montemayor (MEX) in 38th, while the 41-boat Laser Radial event saw Paige Railey (USA) finish in 8th, Tania Elias Calles (MEX) in 10th, Danielle Dube (CAN) in 27th, and Mayumi Roller (ISV) in 40th. TUESDAY: Qualifying races continue for the Men's and Women's 470, the Women's Match Race begin the Quarter Finals, with the Medal Race to be held for the Men's and Women's RS:X. Southwest winds of 12 to 16 knots are forecast. CORRECTION: In Scuttlebutt 3648, incorrectly listed Zach Railey (USA) as 8th in the Finn. Railey finished 12th overall. ISAF news: http://www.sailing.org/olympics/london2012/news/latest_news.php Canada report: http://bit.ly/Mp3iDv USA report: http://bit.ly/RtU9Ad Results/schedule: http://tinyurl.com/2012-Olympics-Results-Schedule Canada broadcast: http://tinyurl.com/bs5wqoj USA broadcast: http://www.nbcolympics.com/sailing/index.html WHY SHOULD YOU ENTER THIS YEAR'S VINEYARD RACE? Take part in an East Coast classic. Three courses; huge awards party; cruising division; multihull division; race tracking; Corinthian challenge; NORT qualifier and much more. Join Bruce Nelson at our skippers' meeting. Start date: August 31. Register today: http://www.stamfordyc.com. Follow us @vineyardrace IS THIS THE WAY FORWARD? British journalist Mark Chisnell, in his commentary for Sail-World, offered his thoughts on the Medal Race. Or specifically, the Medal Race venue. Here is an excerpt... --------------------- "Ask any group of sailors whether the medal race concept is a good idea and there will be marmite responses - people either love it, or hate it. Put the medal race very close to a shoreline, tucked into a corner with land on two sides and the marmite effect is amplified ten-fold. "On the pro-side, the 10,000 or so people who watched from the shoreline got a great show, as did anyone watching on television. Two medal races with the prizes changing hands in the last couple of hundred metres. On the anti-side, these intense, short races with big shifts of breeze are a lot more random than almost everything that goes before it. Should it really all come down to this?" --------------------- Mark goes on to describe the drama, the ups and downs which occurred during the Medal Race on Sunday for the Finn and Star, and then closes with this thought... --------------------- "It would be hard to write a more dramatic script. It was an extraordinary way to end a great story, and it will be told over and over again. Nevertheless, I'm not sure I'd stake four years, never mind the twenty it's taken (Ben) Ainslie to rack up his medal tally, and all the money, time and energy that goes with it on a race like that - but then, maybe I'm just getting old." Full story: http://bit.ly/QFTwo8 QUOTE / UNQUOTE "'It can be cruel; it feels that way at the moment. That's the problem when you end up racing in ridiculous conditions, but we'll have to take it on the chin." - Iain Percy (GBR), after losing the Star gold medal on Sunday, concerning the Medal Race venue. -- Sail-World, http://bit.ly/RSDm5V OVERHYPED Sometimes, when the Games are held in great coastal cities - a Barcelona, a Sydney, an Athens - sailboat events can occur near the center of the action. Other times, at an Atlanta or a Beijing, the racing takes place an inconvenient distance from the running and swimming and fighting. Weymouth (the site of the sailing events) is 136 miles south of London, a three-hour train ride to what is known as the Jurassic Coast, a fossil-rich World Heritage site on the English Channel. For the Olympics, it has been primped with fresh paint, newly planted flowers, carnival rides and a 174-foot-tall revolving tower. This high perch offers magnificent views while a narrator encapsulates 185 million years of geological history into a succinct 15 minutes. The main esplanade, which extends along a fetching stretch of beach, is fronted by stately Georgian buildings with iron terraces that look like eyebrows over the ground floor. Gulls swoop through the sky. The air is a mixed scent of sea breeze and fish and chips. The sand is soft and clean. August is a busy month here, with one bus after another dropping off families and retirees. The climax ordinarily comes on Carnival Day, the third Wednesday of the month. The Olympics were supposed to fill the town with a record number of visitors: a two-week-long Carnival Day! "Well, you had to be a fool to believe that one, didn't you?" said Andrew Bryan, a merchant in a souvenir shop, who numbers himself among the fools. Many of the hoteliers on the esplanade believed it. They saluted the coming Games by doubling their rates, a move predicated on presumptions of high demand. Instead, many front windows now display hastily posted "vacancy" signs. Rooms are offered at a discount. "I've never seen this place so quiet, never, never, never," Janet Polden, the desk clerk at the Russell Hotel, said. "This ought to be our busiest time of the year. The schools are on holiday." Zara, the "renowned" palm reader and clairvoyant with a hut on the beach, spent her days in the past week talking on her mobile phone instead of peering into the future. "They hyped this Olympics way too much," she said. -- NY Times, full story: http://nyti.ms/MXLpBU CONGRATS OLYMPIC FINN MEDALISTS AINSLIE & CHRISTENSEN! Congratulations to Ben Ainslie and Jonas Hogh-Christensen for winning Gold and Silver respectively in the Finn Class at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Both powered by North sails, Ainslie and Christensen sailed an exciting 10-race series and both finished with a total of 46 net points. A special congratulations to Christensen who is the son of North Sails director Jens Christensen in Denmark. "It was simply a fantastic event and I believe a lot more now understand how physical the Finn class is," Jens said after Jonas earned his Silver Medal. When performance counts, the choice is clear: http://www.northsails.com ELVSTROM STILL THE GREATEST By Bruce Kirby The yachting press, like most of the Fourth Estate, loves the superlative and the all- encompassing assertion of infallibility. So we have Ben Ainslie, who squeaked into his fourth Gold Medal, largely because a competitor who was well ahead of him in the Medal Race made a dumb mistake and had to do his circles. So Ben is now - particularly in the British press - "the greatest sailor who ever lived." He has four Gold Medals and a Silver. He is certainly the 'Greatest Gatherer of Olympic Sailing Medals' in the History of the Sport. But surely not the 'Greatest Racing Sailor Who Ever Lived'. The man who probably will always deserve that title lives in Copenhagen, he's 84 years old, he suffers from early stage Parkinson's disease, and he has recently become a widower. We all know that along the way he won four Olympic Gold Medals. As he grew older he competed in four other Olympics, finishing well in all but one of those, but not mounting the podium. But there is so much more... - He has won the World Championship of the Finn, the 505, Snipe, Soling, Star, Flying Dutchman, 5.5 and Tornado. - He taught us all how to hike our small boats so we could sit out far longer than we ever thought we could. - He designed us a bailer that really worked. - He wrote four books to make us better sailors. - He made great sails and a host of superior sailing equipment. - He helped us understand the rules. - He pointed out ways to improve our courses - such as upwind and downwind gates. - He was named Danish Sportsman of the Century. - He smiled a great deal, and probably still does, and he was the consummate gentleman, on and off the water. So let's put the question to Ben Ainslie: "Who is the greatest sailor who ever lived?" I'll bet Ben will say Paul Elvstrom. FINAL REPORT ON FARALLONES RACE TRAGEDY Portsmouth, RI (August 6, 2012) - A US Sailing independent review panel has released the report on its investigation of the sailing accident that occurred on April 14, 2012 during the Full Crew Farallones Race out of San Francisco, Calif. The accident resulted in the deaths of five sailors from the sailboat, Low Speed Chase. The crew of eight aboard Low Speed Chase encountered larger than average breaking waves when rounding Maintop Island, the northwest point of Southeast Farallon Island. These waves capsized the vessel, a Sydney 38, and drove it onto the rocky shore. Seven of the eight crew members were thrown from the boat into the water. Only two of those sailors in the water made it to shore and survived. As a result of the panel's research and analysis, they determined that the primary cause of the capsizing was due to the course sailed by Low Speed Chase, which took them across a shoal area where breaking waves could be expected. During the course of the analysis, multiple track lines from other racers that day were obtained and are provided in the report. It is noted that the Low Speed Chase was not the only vessel which crossed or sailed very near this shoal area. Although the course sailed was the direct cause of the accident, there were additional safety issues that came to light during the investigation. -- Read on: http://media.ussailing.org/Latest_News/2012/USS_Farallones_Report.htm SAILING SHORTS * The lines and sail plan of the AC72 launched by Emirates Team New Zealand on July 21 have been posted online by Jacques Taglang, along with a comparison of the Kiwi wing to the rig that had been tested by Artemis Racing on their modified trimaran prior to its destruction in May. Details here: http://bit.ly/Mp3yT7 * A 47-year-old man from Nassau County, N.Y., was arrested Sunday and accused of operating a 22-foot boat while intoxicated with 16 minors aboard. Charles Miller, 47, of Manhasset, was charged with boating while intoxicated, endangering the welfare of a child and reckless operation of a vessel, according to The Suffolk Times newspaper. -- Soundings Trade Only, read on: http://bit.ly/NkyVyZ * The man accused of causing last month's deadly boat accident on Georgia's Lake Lanier was charged with homicide in the deaths of the two brothers who were killed. A 13-count indictment showed that Paul Bennett, 44, of Cumming, Ga., was charged with homicide by vessel in the first degree, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He could face three to 15 years in prison if convicted of that charge. -- Soundings Trade Only, read on: http://bit.ly/NfmUMI LEAVING ROOSTER TAILS ON BOTH SIDE OF THE POND In just the last 10 days, 25 J/111s were racing between J-Cup (UK), Rolex NYYC (Newport) and Harbor Springs. In Chicago-Mac, J/111s took 6 of the top 9 spots (out of 121) for the Mackinac Cup. Whether sprinting around the buoys or daysailing with friends, the J/111 is all about sailing fast with less effort. http://www.jboats.com/j111 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 Don Bedford, International Snipe Class Commodore: The Snipe class recently learned the Pan American Sailing Federation decided that for the 2015 Pan Am Games to be held in Toronto Canada, the Snipe has been replaced by the 49er. This change would br a major blow to the Snipe sailors in the Western Hemisphere, and to a class which has been in every Pan Am Games. Since the initial announcement, the outcry has been significant, and last week I received a letter from Scott Perry, President of the Pan American Sailing Federation, stating that they've received an "overwhelming reaction" to their decision and will be reconsidering the matter after the Olympic Games conclude. This is good news, though change will only occur if interested parties continue to express to their national authorities how the Snipe benefits their country at the highest levels of sailing as well as in building the base of the sport. To that note, the 2012 Snipe North American Championships will be sailed at the venue of the 2015 Pan American Games (in Toronto Canada on September 14) and I ask that all who can sail to please support the class by showing how great our participation can be. Support by Canada and the US will certainly be important for the Snipe to remain in the Pan Am games. Oh, and the regatta will be a fantastic time as well! NOTE: The events announced for the 2015 Pan Am Games are: RS:X Men RS:X Women Laser Standard Men Laser Radial Women 49er Men Sunfish Open Lightning Mixed Hobie 16 Mixed J24 Open Details: http://bit.ly/OfZOIU * From Kimball Livingston, BluePlanetTimes.com: I hope that Pacific Cup organizers will rethink their proscription against accessing tracking data when they write their next NOR (as reported in Scuttlebutt 3648). Delayed reporting of tracking keeps a long race strategic rather than tactical, while allowing family, friends, and fans to keep up. Given sufficient delay, navigators cannot use positions to cover or copy opponents. There is no need to forbid access. Pac Cup now has now done the necessary. The rule against accessing tracking was clear, and the crew of Double Trouble -- the apparent race winners, and then not -- admit they did exactly that. Second guessing the jury's penalty is beyond my pay grade, but no one who knows anything thinks that Double Trouble intended to seize an unfair advantage. They are not cheaters. They sailed a terrific race. To see it swept away from them -- this was a comeback after being put out of the 2011 Transpac by a mechanical -- is heartbreaking, and that's how I see it. That's how they see it, too. But, I will also state the obvious: Dang, guys, you f'd up. Did I mention they sailed a great race? And while I'm on the soapbox, I'll say that I find it regrettable that clueless newspaper stories (SF Chronicle in Scuttlebutt 3648) alleging a down-spiraling America's Cup are presented to a sailing readership as if that's what we need to know. I went to the same press conference, and I have a theory. The America's Cup is going to be fine. * From Pat Healy I know it's tough when a reporter doesn't have media accreditation to an Olympic sport's venue, but is anyone else disappointed with the NY Times coverage of Olympic Sailing? First it was a report of a sausage seller having to change his interlocking wurst logo, and then today (Monday), there is a half page on Weymouth B&Bs being forced to discount their inflated room rates. Now that four of the classes are complete, perhaps the US team could arrange for the NY Times reporter, Campbell Robertson, to meet some of our sailors in a Weymouth pub to talk their Olympic experience. He might even buy the pints and our athletes might get some coverage of their Olympic journey. SELLING. BUYING. HIRING. The Scuttlebutt website provides a marketplace for private parties to buy and sell, or for businesses to post job openings. For free. As a bonus, each week the Scuttlebutt newsletter includes some of the recent ad postings. Have an ad? Post it in the Classified Ad section of the Forum. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION "Dear Optimist, Pessimist, and Realist, while you guys were busy arguing about the glass of water, I drank it." - Opportunist SPONSORS THIS WEEK Kaenon Polarized - Vineyard Race - North Sails - J Boats APS - IYRS - Ullman Sails - Point Loma Outfitting Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
