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SCUTTLEBUTT 2538 – February 22, 2008Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors. MOST UNENVIABLE JOB IN OLYMPIC SAILING Meet Rod Davis, the man with most unenviable job in Olympic sailing at the moment. New Zealand has qualified for Beijing 2008 in the Yngling class and Sharron Ferris' crew is the designated team. It now falls to Davis to tell Ferris whether she will be going to China or not. Ferris finished 9th at the recent Yngling Worlds, comfortably beating the last four nations (Norway, France, Greece and Italy) to qualify for China, but this may not be good enough to get her to the Olympics. You see, the Kiwis are taking a very hard-nosed view of who they send to race at Qingdao in August. Unless considered a serious medal prospect, Yachting New Zealand won't say yes and it falls to Davis as Olympic Director to exercise Solomon-like judgment. Who better? Davis has his own Gold and Silver medal around his neck, winning in the Soling class in 1984 in his home state of California when he raced with Robbie Haines and Ed Trevelyn. By 1992, he was steering the Star for New Zealand with Don Cowie as crew, having married Kiwi Lizzie Schnackenberg and settled there. Pound for per capita pound, New Zealand's sailors dominate the yacht racing world, but their offshore and America's Cup success has come at the expense of Olympic results – with the honorable exception of windsurfing's Barbara Kendall, with three medals already and going to a fifth Games – sucking talent and dollars out of the system. It's fallen to Davis to put the Silver Fern back on the podium. And talent and dollars is want it comes down to. It's thought the Kiwis would have liked to see if Ferris could finish in the top 5-6, the so-called medal zone, at the Yngling Worlds. She came up short, as she did at the preceding Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta (result: 19th). Compared with the First Class Olympic sailing programs such as China, Holland, Britain, Australia, Spain, Denmark and Italy, the Kiwis are definitely Economy Class by comparison. There is very limited cash and resource available. -- Tim Jeffery, The Telegraph, full story: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/timjeffery/ ARE WE HAVING FUN YET? Fedor Konyukhov sailing his 85ft (27m) yacht Trading Network Alye Parusa on his Antarctica Cup record attempt is now half way to Cape Horn from his starting point at Albany, Western Australia. "There is less than 3.000 miles left to the Horn – sounds like a Transatlantic race distance and no-longer looks so far-far away." he said. "I know it is full moon now, but I am sailing in complete darkness. I have thick cloud, constant rain and frequent snow showers which makes it very unpleasant to work in the cockpit. All my gear is wet and I can only change one wet foul-weather jacket for another which ‘dry out’ for 2-3 hours on the hook in my cabin. It is just as wet inside as it is out on the deck. “Condensation is everywhere. My sleeping bag feels like it has been washed but not dried out. I have several sleeping bags and this helps, but I wish I had 10 of them. With the rolling seas we have now, I can at last think to open the deck hatch for ventilation." Here in the Southern Ocean you are always fight something. Now that the storm has passed I’m fighting the cold. I have to put plastic bags on my feet to keep them warm and not lose body temperature. Obviously hat and gloves are on, but basically I am sailing inside a refrigerator." -- http://www.antarcticacup.com/ VALENCIA MULTIHULL REPORT Alinghi's two Extreme 40 catamarans were spotted this afternoon on the water in front of the team's base. Now that construction of the Formula 1 race track I n that part of America's Cup Port has ended, the Defender of the 33rd America's Cup seems to be able to fully use its base once again. We suppose that it is only a matter of days before the Swiss team resumes training after a pause of some weeks, weather conditions allowing of course. After a week of very cold, windy and especially rainy weather, Valencia is enjoying sunshine, clear skies and notably higher temperatures. While the Swiss are back on the water, a few hundred meters away BMW Oracle's only catamaran is back on dry land and has been there for quite some time. After some intensive sailing activity that saw various sailors helming the yacht, with Russell Coutts and James Spithill the most notable, the Americans seem to have paused. – Excerpts from a report posted on the Valencia Sailing website; full story: http://tinyurl.com/2pomb7 ACCELERATE YOUR RACING: You can spend a lifetime learning to be a better racer, or you can accelerate the process with a NorthU Coach. On Your Boat: Because there is no boat like your own; Stop Guessing: Rig tuning, spinnaker handling, mainsail shape, helming. We provide answers; For Your Crew: After all you have put into your boat and equipment, get NorthU for your crew; Learn More: Our training covers every facet of racing trim, tactics, and boathandling; NorthU: Turning sailors into racers and racers into winners since 1980. -- 800-347-2457, http://www.NorthU.com LASER MASTERS DOWN UNDER Day 4 of the Laser Masters Worlds in Australia and some decent wind, a south/south-easterly breeze that finally reached as much as 14 knots, off Terrigal, New South Wales, Australia, in what has been very much a light weather affair so far. With bullets in races 4-5&6, James Liebl (USA) now has a 7-point lead over Australia’s John Jagger in the Radial Apprentice class. After five races in the Radial Masters, American Chris Rabb is in fourth place with Canadian Al Clark in fifth. Andy Roy (CAN) holds down third place in the Standard Masters while American Tracy Usher has slipped to 13th ahead of Charles Tripp (USA) in 14th. In the Standard Grand Masters Doug Peckover (USA) is in eighth and Ken Brown (CAN) is in ninth. And the USA’s Peter Seidenberg is still the main man in the Radial Great Grand Masters with four bullets and a deuce – and a six point lead in this 30-boat class. - http://aus08.laserinternational.org/resultsMaster.php DEBBIE CAPOZZI - A COMMITMENT TO SUCCESS by Lynn Fitzpatrick If you want to meet someone who has been involved in winning sailing programs, here’s your opportunity. Debbie Capozzi of the 2008 US Olympic Yngling Team of Barkow, Capozzi and Howe is a winner. She was captain of the Old Dominion University sailing team for two years and a key contributor when the team won the ICSA National Championship title. She has traveled the globe with Sally Barkow and other phenomenal women sailors helping Sally steer her way up the charts of the ISAF women’s keelboat and match racing rankings. During the past four years, Debbie has had sailing successes independent of the Yngling team. She has been part of Jeff Eklund’s winning Melges 32 campaign aboard Star and has taken the helm at various match racing regattas. Debbie earned a BA in education at ODU, but learned “how to win regattas and events” from her ODU sailing team coaches which included Mitch Brindley and Mark Zagol. Situated on the water, ODU attracts talented sailors and seems to be a significant part of the US Sailing Team’s feeder program. With Sally Barkow, Corrie Clement and Anna Tunnicliffe as her team mates during her college sailing career, Debbie skippered and crewed her way to ICSA All-American status. -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/08/lf VIDEO OF THE WEEK The International Moth might only be 11-feet long, but the class has shown the world that if you fasten hydrofoils to the tip of your daggerboard and rudder, and that they allow the boat to be sailed a couple feet up into the air, you are going to get a lot of attention. Now that the class has landed in North America and that racing has begun, it will be an interesting year to see what kind of growth they can sustain. To help stoke the fire, we have a video of world champ Rohan Veal working with one of Scuttlebutt’s favorite photographers, Thierry Martinez, on an underwater photo shoot, with another video showing Rohan’s boathandling practice before last year’s worlds. Both videos are well-edited, and provide a great look at this developing class. Also, if you have a video you like, please send us your suggestions for next week’s Video of the Week. Click here for this week’s video: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/08/0218 MAKE IT PERSONAL Monogram your name or initials on a True Wind sailcloth bag and call it your own. True Wind’s monogramming service gives you a variety of type styles and colors to choose from, and all of our duffel, tote and accessory bags can be personalized. Individually handcrafted in the U.S.A., True Wind bags feature new Dacron sailcloth from Hood Sailmakers, solid brass hardware and authentic sailing accents. Great for the boat, beach or anywhere in between, all True Wind bags are made to last a lifetime and come with a full warranty. View the collection at http://www.truewindusa.com SAILING SHORTS * Franck Cammas and his crew were unable turn the capsized trimaran Groupama 3 right-side-up during their salvage attempts off of the New Zealand coast. Consequently, they are towing the maxi-trimaran up-side-down to Dunedin, over 70 miles away, making just 3 knots of headway. -- http://www.cammas-groupama.com/ * With just over two weeks to go before the start of the 28th edition of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta on March 7-9, race organizers have already received some 224 entries. The field is comprised of a vast cross-section of yachts ranging from flat-out Grand Prix racers, to laid-back bareboat cruisers, to an ever-expanding fleet of multihulls that come to this regatta in search of “serious fun.” There are 123 entries in the bareboat classes, 19 catamarans and trimarans, a big contingent of Swans and more than a dozen big boats topping 65-feet in length. Event website: http://www.heinekenregatta.com. * All Blacks fitness trainer Graham Lowe has quit New Zealand rugby to join Larry Ellison's BMW-Oracle America's Cup team. Lowe, 34, a father of three boys, will start work in Valencia next month after more than a decade in rugby that began with the Otago rugby union in 1996. -- http://tinyurl.com/38essa * Principal sponsor of the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta, Audi Australia, will give away a second car - an Audi A3 - as a major prize at the Regatta from March 1 to 3 in order to drive up entries for the event to a new record of 300 yachts. All yachts that enter the ASHR will go into a lottery and one will win the new Audi A3. – http://www.sydneyharbourregatta.com * Apparently J/Boats are hot in Europe. J Europe shipyard, set in western France resort Olonne sur mer, is now building 12 J/80s each month and they’ve doubled their tooling so they can now pop out a 40-foot J/122s every four days. The Vendée based company delivered 220 boats in 2007. * Six inches from the ice and cruising at 100 mph ... no, there really isn’t anything else like ice boating. “It’s like sailing on steroids,”said Steve Schlak, a member of the Northwest Ice Yachting Association race committee. Friday through Sunday, Geneva Lake will host the Northwest Ice Yachting Association regatta. It’s one of the oldest ice boating regattas in the world, dating back to the late 1800s. “The Northwest is the granddaddy of them all,” said soft water and hard water sailing legend Buddy Melges of Zenda. Organizers expect between 85 and 120 boats with racers from throughout the upper Midwest. -- http://tinyurl.com/yw3nww * Bremerton, WA - The new Bremerton Marina is expected to be completed by the end of March, with work about 70 percent done by mid-January. The $30 million marina will have 235 permanent slips and 100 guest slips. The old marina, which was closed in June, only had 41 slips for visitors and no permanent space. -- Full story: http://kpbj.com/headlines/articles/2008-02-02-HED-11.html JOB VACANCY – RACING DIRECTOR VOLVO OCEAN RACE Following the recent resignation of Andy Hindley as Race Director of the 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race, the event is actively seeking to fill this position. Reporting to the CEO, the Race Director runs the Race Management team and is responsible for managing all aspects of delivering the on-water operations for the race both before and during the event. Closing date for applications is March 14, 2008. Complete details at http://www.volvooceanrace.org/racehqpersonnel/vacancies/racingdirector/ PHOTOS OF THE WEEK Some of the random photos from the sport received this week at Scuttlebutt include the new 29erXX, the St Pete NOOD, local snow in Southern California, the Aussie 18 “Worlds", and the latest America’s Cup imagery from Don Allen. If you have images you would like to share, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor. Here are this week’s photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/08/0222/ LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or simplicity (letters shall be no longer than 250 words). You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot, don't whine if others disagree, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From By Baldridge (re the discussions of butt rash remedies for offshore sailing – ‘Scuttlebutt 2536-7): Everyone from Louisiana and Texas knows that Boudreaux’s Butt Paste and silk boxers are the way to go. For your feet, mohair socks can be worn forever and will never smell or change shape. => Curmudgeon’s Comment: On this ‘high note’ we declare this thread officially dead. * From Derek Blancke: A quick AC rant from London. In Scuttlebutt 2537 Brian Kfoury writes using Formula 1 car racing as a reason to go unrestricted in the AC. This is not the case. F1 is capping the expenditure and has very strict design rules in place. The problem is not everyone can win so to increase the number of participants and gain more sponsor money an event has to show value for money by making it worthwhile to participate - not just for the winner. Since M Schumacher retired from F1 the viewing figures have greatly increased because there is a chance of up to 6 drivers being able to win the Championship = exciting. In AC the boat is a big billboard, the sailors should be feature personalities. F1 is a circus. It is entertainment as well as sport. The Volvo Ocean race tries to adopt this model to retain and maintain TV viewing figures thereby generating sponsor dollars. If the AC is to avoid becoming an anachronistic historic ego battle between the mega rich and dieing through lack of interest it will have to become something else entirely. Or just let evolution take its course. Does anyone care that much - time will tell! CURMUDGEON’S CONUNDRUM How do crazy people go through the forest? They take the ‘Psycho Path.’ Special thanks to North U and True Wind. A complete list of Scuttlebutt’s preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
