|
Brought to you by YachtsandCruisers.com, Scuttlebutt Europe is a digest of sailing news and opinions, regatta results, new boat and gear information and letters from sailors -- with a European emphasis. Contributions welcome, send to
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Damned Fools
by Chris Caswell, originally published in Sailing magazine
I don't know about you, but I tend to sleep fairly peacefully. By that, I mean that I don't have many nightmares and I can usually trace those few nightmares to an overdose of Shakey's pizza, a Dunkin' Donuts hyper-caffeinated frappe right before bedtime, or the heebie-jeebies two days before income tax deadline. But if I did have a nightmare, it would go something like the following.
I am alone in the middle of the ocean, perhaps 1000 miles from the nearest land. No one knows where I am and I have no way of contacting anyone.
I am aboard a 20ft. Tornado class catamaran, which is a handful for two competent sailors on an afternoon race, let alone single-handing in mid-ocean. I am sailing in 30-40 knot winds and rough seas, not for a few hours, but for days on end. I have no water, no food, and no medicine. It is night, but there is cloud cover and no stars. I have only a toy compass, but no flashlight to see it.
Oh, yes, I have poor vision but I have no glasses, so I can barely see the end of the catamaran, let alone the sails.
Get the picture? This is clearly a Technicolor nightmare that would have you sitting bolt upright in bed at three in the morning, covered with sweat and trembling.
This is a nightmare that wasn't a dream. It was reality for a 40-year-old Italian idiot named Francesco Di Benedetto who decided that he wanted to cross an ocean, the Atlantic Ocean to be precise. His website notes that he has ten years of offshore experience, but he has something even more important: a mutant gene in the family pool.
His older brother is also one of this merry band who set out alone on weird ocean voyages and, in fact, Alessandro set a record for sailing from Yokohama (as in Japan) to San Francisco (as in California) in 62 days. He did it aboard a 19ft. plywood catamaran that you, dear reader, would be too smart to sail across a calm bay.
Back to Francesco, however. He fitted out his Tornado catamaran with all the basics: plenty of food, water, a GPS system, an autopilot so he could sleep, headlights so he could sail at night, medicine and, because of his ocular issues, both glasses and contact lenses.
Francesco set off the day after New Years on what his website calls "a breathtaking challenge" from Gran Canaria bound for Guadeloupe. All went well for the first three days, but his support team on shore lost contact with him on day four.
They waited a bit, and then sent a message to all ships in the Atlantic to keep an eye open for either a Tornado or a short Italian swimmer, since they thought he might have capsized and been unable to right the boat. A few more days and search and rescue aircraft from the Canary Islands were called into play, covering vast areas with no success.
Seventeen days later, our village idiot finally activated his EPIRB and a cargo ship bound for Barcelona was diverted to look for him. But the story doesn't end here. It turns out that his GPS was sending out the wrong position coordinates (??), so the ship spent hours searching 10-20 miles from his actual position. By chance, they picked up a tiny blip on their radar and, five hours later, managed to hoist him and his Tornado on board.
It turns out that he had lost everything in a storm and, as he describes it, "I had nothing, imagine myself, the boat, the mast, and two sails". He'd lost all the water, food, GPS, and of course, his glasses". "I had a small compass with no light and the EPIRB in my pocket, that's it".
Some of you may be thinking that I'm being pretty tough on a guy who just went through a harrowing survival ordeal but you know what? I think he's a self-centered jerk.
In the process of trying to set a record that would be approved by the World Speed Sailing Record Council, which seems to be as much a magnet for nautical wackos as the Guinness Book of Records is for landlubbers, he put a whole lot of people in harm's way, not to mention running up a pretty expensive tab for his rescue operation.
That said, I will defend his decision to set sail in an inflatable wading pool if he wants. I do believe in freedom of choice and we all have challenges that we want to tackle. But do it by yourself.
Everytime a search and rescue aircraft goes aloft, it puts a crew in danger. Sure, they need training exercises, but every SAR pilot I've met always pushes the envelope when he thinks there is someone in danger.
And that cargo ship had a schedule to meet that didn't include stooging around in mid-Atlantic looking for some damfool trying to get his name in the record books.
Of course, Francesco isn't going to reimburse the Canary Islands for the fuel used by the aircraft, nor is he going to compensate the cargo ship for lost time or wasted fuel. No, he's making this sound like a great adventure so that he can get sponsors for his next epic foolishness.
As long as I've got a good rant going here, I might as well tackle the World Speed Sailing Record Council, which was set up by the International Sailing Federation to handle speed record attempts over a 500-meter course. But then they were asked to start providing certificates for long-distance sailing voyages, and that's where Francesco and Alessandro and the other loonies get their inspiration.
If there was no certificate for sailing your kiddie pool across the ocean, there would be no one attempting it. Or, at least, there'd be a lot fewer and I think that nature would tend to weed them out fairly quickly.
But once you have the WSSRC giving these bizarre "record voyages" some sort of respectability, then you can bring in sponsors (as did Francesco, who had a long list of sponsors who anted up money and gear) and the whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket.
The unwritten law of the sea is that all sailors will go to the aid of other sailors in distress. But let's add a clause to that law: if you're doing something really dangerous and really stupid, you're on your own. The rest of the sane world doesn't have to put itself in danger to save you.
I know that would put an end to most of these voyages.
Benedetto's website: www.francescodibenedetto.com
Looking At The Bright Side
by Mark Chisnell, his complete editorial at www.markchisnell.com
It's a wintry New Year for the America's Cup community, although in reality, things aren't that much worse than last time. There's still every chance that there will be a multi-challenge Cup in 2011 - a four year gap, as there was between 2003 and 2007, and shorter than the endless wait between 1995 and 2000, when the Kiwis defended for the first time. But it could have been so different, and so many plans have been laid and lives altered, only for this to completely derail it all…
From the sailor's point of view, the great thing about the Cup has always been the vast sums of money that some people are prepared to spend to win the thing. It doesn't just mean good salaries; it means money for research and learning stuff about boats that doesn't happen anywhere else. But the billionaire bloated budgets come at a price - the whole game is played at the whim of the owners, and every so often, something like this is going to happen.
But there is a danger that the influx of out-of-work Cup sailors into other areas of the sport - like the TP52's for instance - might have the same impact as during the last Cup hiatus in 1988-90. There was a marked increase in professionalism in the old International Offshore Rule (IOR) boats, as the AC class of '87 looked around for somewhere else to cut their competitive teeth. And the 1989 Admiral's Cup turned out to be the beginning of the end for both that regatta and the IOR (guilty as charged, m'lud).
But I think things are different now - the Fremantle America's Cup was a step change in the numbers and outlook of professional sailors. And while both the numbers and the professional standards have been growing steadily ever since then, I don't think the 2007 Cup had a comparable, paradigm-shifting effect like the event twenty years earlier. So while you can expect to see the TP52 fleet gear up another level this summer, with Cup sailors and some teams focusing on it as an alternative outlet for their activities, hopefully the class and the sport have developed sufficiently for that to be a good thing, not a bad one.
And things are still bright-ish from the perspective of the America's Cup spectator. I suspect a catamaran challenge is going to be well worth watching. Not for very long, mind you, but for those first few minutes of the first race, it's going to be must-see, water-cooler entertainment of the highest order.
Round the World in a One-Design?
by Lyn Hines, her blog in Sailing World for the full article
The SolOceans project, a one-design monohull designed for shorthanded ocean racing, is aimed at opening up this expensive and predominantly French pursuit to the international sailing community.
The concept of international, round-the-world one-design has been pitched before, most recently by Yves Parlier, the innovative French offshore sailor. "I really think one-design is the solution," said Parlier, "but it is really hard to get all the sponsors, owners, and organizers to agree. SolOceans is a still a prototype, so we'll see."
The current SolOceans crew - Charles Caudrelier (skipper), Liz Wardley, Erwan Tabarly, and Erwan Lebec - is sailing a pre-preg carbon boat built at France's JMV shipyard. The boat has many features found in the IMOCA 60s racing in the Vendée Globe and Barcelona World Race: a 40-degree canting keel, twin daggerboards, water ballast, and a rotating mast. The design targets the perceived void between Class 40s and IMOCA 60s, and could serve as a stepping stone for solo sailors wanting to move up or provide a long-term solution for those solo sailors with tighter budgets.
How many angels can be impaled on the head of a pin?
by Kimball Livingston, full editorial in his Sail magazine blog
And if that doesn't strike your fancy, I ask:
Do we really think it's going to be hard for Oracle Racing's designers to stick a "keel" on a 90-foot multihull should the judge buy into the sophistry of Alinghi's new crop of lawyers? They contend that Oracle is challenging in a monohull 90 feet wide because the Notice of Challenge refers to a "keel yacht." They further contend this is contradictory and therefore invalid (my phrasing and interpretation).
The last time I checked in with IMS, or the remnants thereof, IMS boats were sailing with wooden keels for a ratings advantage. Are we going to have to sit through a court determination of the difference between a keel and a daggerboard?
What if Oracle sinks a 6-inch keel below each hull? Or adds a few kilos of lead at the bottom of each "lifting keel?" Or more likely, do we just go away on a shrug of the judge's shoulders and get on with whatever comes next? The next round of arguments is likely to turn on timeliness and the stringent requirements of life in court, not the definitions of the elements of sailing. Oracle contends that its challenge is valid; more than that, it argues that the defender, having requested summary judgment on arguments that included being challenged by a 90-foot multihull, now rejects that summary judgment by alleging that the challenger's vessel cannot logically be a 90-foot multihull.
If it all comes down to legalisms, the case is beyond me. But who can resist the fascination of sin, and it surely is a sin, to impale those poor little angels for the sake of mere sport, ego, or both of the above. And money. Gosh, I almost forgot money.
Tugging On Superman's Cape
With more than 22,800 miles on the clock, covered at high speed and relentlessly, IDEC is beginning to look rather tired. Following a hellish night struggling in squalls in the Doldrums, Francis Joyon today has to cope with two pieces of equipment damage, which are slowing down his progress on the route back towards Brest.
Firstly, there is the damage to the mainsail halyard, which forced the skipper of IDEC to risk a dangerous night-time climb up the mast. Then, it was at the top of the mast that Francis discovered a much more serious problem concerning the starboard shroud attachment. This heavy, thick cable, which holds the mast in place sideways is fixed to the mast on a shaft. It was in fact this shaft that began to unscrew and come out of its housing. Francis was thus obliged to go back up again to the top of the mast, to try to secure the shroud and screw back up this vital shaft. Meanwhile, he was forced to slow down the trimaran's speed, sailing simply under staysail and three reefs. The danger is of course that he will lose his mast.
Following the tricky climb up the mast in extreme and dangerous conditions, which caused him to suffer several blows to his body, Francis noticed his ankle was injured and initially decided to take a rest and wait for the steady NE'ly wind to calm down the seas: "I injured my ankle during my second climb, as the boat was all over the place," he added. "I'm taking some time to get some rest and work on a solution." Under staysail and three reefs, IDEC was making slow headway at lunchtime, as she moved away from the Doldrums.
Just two hours yesterday afternoon after climbing twice up the mast, Francis Joyon tackled the climb again, in spite of a painful ankle, in order to secure as best he could this shaft, to which the starboard shroud is fixed. What needed to be done was to block the spindle from working loose, as if it fell off, it would certainly lead to the collapse of the mast. "I blocked it as best I could with some Spectra" explained Francis, after trying in vain to screw it back up. This large spindle requires special tools and work conditions, which the single-handed yachtsman at sea does not have. "I'll certainly have to go back up again to strap it with some ropes," continued Francis, who found the time to chat with the makers of the mast, as well as the yacht's designers, Nigel Irens and Benoit Cabaret. From their conversations, there was some slightly reassuring news: "In the current state of play, the 32 mm spindle still in place is enough to bear the load," summed up Francis. "But we need to stop it from unscrewing at all cost..."
On the starboard tack in a very northerly trade yesterday, which is gradually veering, IDEC is becoming a little more adventurous and throughout the day will bring her bows around towards Brest to get back on the direct course. "The wind was due north yesterday, as we left the Doldrums," explained Joyon, "And I was heading for Bermuda. The wind is gradually veering towards the east at around twenty knots and I'm slowly luffing." The competitive spirit is alive and kicking in spite of the difficulties and Francis admits: "I let out a reef this morning. I'm currently sailing with two reefs and staysail, which is exactly the canvas required in this weather..." Correctly configured on a route that is getting better and better, IDEC, may be a bit down, but she is certainly not out. "I'll be sailing now trying constantly to find the compromise between risk and performance," stressed Francis. "I should be experiencing t! hese conditions for three or four days. Then it will be time to take the crucial decision about changing tack to get around the Azores high and pick up the westerlies..." A crucial moment, as the manoeuvre required to change tack will impose some strain on the shroud. "It is when it is no longer under strain that the spindle risks moving."
http://www.trimaran-idec.com
200 Windsurfers From 48 Countries
Despite being on the other side of the world for many competitors the 2008 RS:X World Championships at Takapuna Boating Club has attracted maximum entries including the best of the best. This is an Olympic year and consequently this World Championships is a 'don't miss' regatta.
48 countries are represented at the event which starts on Sunday 13th January and runs through until Saturday 19th January.
France, China and Poland are the nations which have the largest teams competing here in New Zealand outside the 22-strong local kiwi team. France has 15 sailors, China 13 and Poland 12.
Current Olympic Champions…
Faustine Merret won gold in the women's windsurfing at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004 and has been selected to represent her country in Qingdao. Merret has a number seven current world ranking and highlights in 2007 include a fourth place at the Olympic Test Event in Qingdao in August, and a third place at the grade one Breitling Regatta in May.
Both Faustine Merret in the women's fleet and Julien Bontemps in the men's, along with others on the French windsurfing team such as Charline Picon and Nicholas Huguet will be strong contenders at this event.
Current men's Olympic windsurfing champion Gal Fridman of Israel is also in Auckland and will line up in the men's division.
Current World Champions…
Current world champions Zofia Klepacka of Poland and Ricardo Santos of Brazil are both in New Zealand to defend their world titles.
The young Klepacka from Poland had an impressive year in 2007 with a string of top five results at major regattas and topping it off with a win at the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Cascais, Portugal in June. She has a current number two world ranking.
Ricardo Santos also performed well in 2007, not finishing outside the top ten in all the year's major events, Santos won not only the ISAF Sailing World Championships but also the ISAF grade one Breitling Regatta. The Brazilian's current world ranking is at number seven. -- Jodie Bakewell-White
Event site: www.rsxclass.com/worlds2008.html
The Last Word
Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors.
Try to be better than yourself. -- William Faulkner
|
