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Brought to you by boats.com Europe, Yachtworld.com Europe, 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
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Editorials
* Uncertainty? I'm over it.
Enough already with wringing our hands over the uncertainty of a "normal" match for the America's Cup.
Alinghi is clear, without being formal, they're talking 2011.
BMW Oracle is clear and formal: 2011.
A catamaran match (or not) is irrelevant to that outcome.
Both sides propose to set races in Valencia in 2011 with multiple challengers in 90-foot monohulls. If there is a catamaran match first, the 2011 match will be AC 34. If not, 2011 becomes AC 33.
One side or the other will be holding the America's Cup come 2011. They're far apart in how they propose to organize the racing, but that will sort as events unfold. Damaged or perhaps not, the game will go on. Remember how the end of the world was declared when the breeze failed to show up for Round Robin One in spring, 2007? And a few months later we were talking about the best racing ever? There are a lot of people who have switched off the ongoing static, but you can't kill this thing. Show those folks a race and they'll come back. It's time now to be locking in sponsors (Louis Vuitton, we know why you left, but we miss you). And maybe, just maybe, both sides could find it in themselves to declare their intentions in a fashion that would dramatically help the process. Loudly declare, to wipe the fuzz off the edges, something that reads real solid-like in a sponsorship proposal.
2011 is three years off, but it avoids competing with the apparently sacrosanct World Cup of football, and with a new class to put on the water, 2011 is not so far away. It's time to get cracking.
Go ahead, pray aloud for common sense to erupt and spare us the quagmires of the interim, but don't waste your time expecting it. -- Kimball Livingston, sailmagazine.blogspot.com
USA’s Selection Conundrum
How many reigning 470 World Champions have been left behind, not even able to represent their nation, let alone win a medal?
A lot, by my reckoning.
When I was campaigning 470s in the early 90s, I remember Jordi Calafat and Kika Sanchez winning the 1992 Worlds just a few months before the Games, and noting at the time that this would be the first time that a reigning 470 World Champion would actually be competing at the Games. For example, Kiwis David Barnes and Hamish Willcox won three Worlds in the space of four years, leading up to Long Beach 1984, only to finish fourth (I think) in the New Zealand trials. Four years later, reigning Pre-Olympic and World Champions Nigel Buckley and Pete Newlands could only manage fourth at the British trials in Weymouth. New Zealand didn’t come close to winning a medal in 1984, and Great Britain didn’t come close in 1988.
For reasons like these have some sailing nations moved to a more subjective, selection-based system.
At times like these, with Maxwell and Kinsolving riding high (they also won the Sail Melbourne regatta in the build-up to these Worlds), US Sailing must be ruing its decision to hold to the one-week trial system. It used to serve USA so well. After all, Team USA used to be the top sailing nation by a long, long way.
But not these days. US Sailing has long been playing catch-up, and when it enjoys the sort of success that it is in Melbourne, it needs to make the most of it.
Of course, this is all assuming that winning medals is what it’s all about. A subjective, selection-based system can end up becoming very political. It also tends to discourage the have-a-go heroes who get their old 470 out of the garage, hose it down, and go to the trials in the hope of sailing the week of their lives. You can’t do that in the Skandia Team GBR system, where you need to have been on the campaign trail for at least two or three years before the Games (as even reigning Olympic Champion Shirley Robertson has found to her cost).
So, if encouraging participation in Olympic classes - as opposed to winning medals - is what US Sailing is about, then it can rest easy. Otherwise, time for a trials rethink, perhaps. -- Andy Rice in his SailJuice blog: sailjuiceblog.com
A Magic Day On Sydney Harbour
by Peter Campbell
Photo at left: Reverie.
There is no other description. It was a magic day on Sydney Harbour as thousands of Australians celebrated their National Day afloat, including more than 800 sailors crewing some 120 yachts and skiffs that contested the 172nd Australia Day Regatta.
The warm and sunny day drew an estimated 2500 leisure craft, ferries, fire tugs, square-rigged tall ships, racing yachts and skiffs, even a P&O liner, on to the magnificent harbour that 220 years ago saw the First Fleet sail into Farm Cove.
The Regatta yacht fleet was the largest in recent years and, particularly pleasing to the Australia Day Regatta Management Committee, was the number of boats that had not raced before in this historic regatta.
A light east-nor’easter gave the fleet a testing beat to windward down the western shore of the harbour followed by a reach down the eastern shore into Rose Bay, finally a run under spinnakers, or poled-out headsails in the non-spinnaker division, past Shark Island to the finish, again near the Flagship.
Aboard Kanimbla, Regatta President Sir James Hardy entertained the Regatta sponsors, Commonwealth Bank Private, Defence Force chiefs, civic leaders and yacht club commodores to lunch.
Biggest fleet of the 172nd Australia Day Regatta was the Classic Yacht Division with 18 starters and, as such, the winner also receives the H C Dangar Memorial Sponsor’s Trophy as well as the Centenary of Federation Medal, first won back in 1901.
The winner of the Classic Yacht Division was John Barclay & retired Read Admiral Nigel Berlyn’s gaff-rigger Reverie, with John at the helm.
Designed by English naval architect Maurice Griffiths, Reverie started life as a bilge keeler designed for the shoal waters of England’s east coast and with a Bermudan rig.
The current owners gave her a single keel and a gaff rig, the result being a comfortable cruising boat that goes exceptionally well close reaching and downwind – as was proved today.
Adding further nostalgia to the Regatta were the eight Historical Skiffs, replicas of the some of the spectacular 18-footers that raced on Sydney Harbour in the 1920s and 1930s.
Identified by the same emblems on their mainsails and crew rugby shirts as the original skiffs, they turned on a close race, with honours going to Mistake, helmed by colourful Irish international yachtsman and America’s Cup helmsman Harold Cudmore, a devotee of the historical skiffs.
Ethereal
The 58 metre Ethereal began as an evolution of the design for the 43 metre Juliet. Our client, a good friend of the owner’s, had sailed on board Juliet on many occasions and considered her the perfect concept on which the design of his own yacht would be built.
Ten years after Juliet’s launch, the client brought together the original team of Royal Huisman Shipyard, Pieter Beeldsnijder and Ron Holland Design to work with him and his family in creating Ethereal. The client’s brief included using new technologies and research in fields such as bioengineering to create an energy efficient and eco-friendly superyacht.
Once upon a time there was a thing called a battery boat. One could lie at anchor, sail for long periods and have total quiet - only the sound of water and wind. Lights and navigation equipment were the prime electrical consumers on board. Then along came bigger boats with less crew and the need for powered winches evolved. Soon followed air conditioning, power hungry refrigeration and a lighting plan fit for the most exotic home. The generator became the focal point and source of all manner of discussion relating to capacity and especially sound insulation. Whilst it was admitted that generator power had become indispensable, it had to run whisper quiet.
But a new dawn comes, and with it the reinvention of silent operation on board large yachts. In close co-operation with Ethereal’s owner, plans are afoot to incorporate a new form of battery technology which will equate to the possibility to allow a vessel such as Ethereal at 58m to literally motor out of the harbour electrically – stealth mode. A day of light sailing can also be accomplished on battery power as well as 8 hours of overnight silent operation with air conditioning. Battery technology has come a long way in recent years and with this new technology comes incredibly high power to weight and power to volume ratios, along with dramatically extended high power discharge and two hour recharge capabilities. Ethereal’s entire battery system will fit in a compartment of around 9 cubic metres while providing even more peak power than a similar size generator installation.
www.ronhollanddesign.com/ethereal.php
Daubney Ruled To Have Not Infringed Anti-Doping
Photo at right courtesy Seahorse magazine.
The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) has been informed of the decision by the Disciplinary Chamber for Doping cases of the Swiss Olympic Association, in the Case of Mr Simon Daubney.
The decision of the Chamber is that Simon Daubney has not infringed
the Anti-Doping Rules and that the Chamber has withdrawn any sanctions
against Simon Daubney.
Effective immediately, ISAF has lifted Simon Daubney's provisional suspension of ISAF eligibility, in accordance with the ISAF Anti-Doping Code described in ISAF Regulation 21.
On 27 September 2007, the following statement, attributed to Simon Daubney, was posted on the Alinghi website, following an International Jury Hearing:
(London, 27 September 2007) 'Yesterday I went before the five-man 32nd America's Cup Jury in London regarding a positive doping test taken on 23 June 2007. While Anti Doping Norway did find traces of a recreational drug in the urine sample, the Jury found that there was no fault or negligence on my behalf. This comes as a relief to me as I have never knowingly taken a banned substance however, until this matter is completely resolved, I have resigned from Alinghi, so that they can go about their business without distraction. I hope to return to the team once my name is cleared.
I was found in breach of the America's Cup Anti Doping Rules after a routine urine test taken by Anti Doping Norway on 23 June 2007. The urine sample returned a positive test for a recreational drug on 13 July 2007. Then the B sample returned a positive result on the 8 August.
I have been bound by confidentiality rules up until now and want to take this opportunity to thank Alinghi and my family and friends for their enormous support during this extremely difficult time. I have done everything in my power to prove that I have never knowingly taken a banned substance of any type and to this end underwent and passed a polygraph test conducted by the UK and European Polygraph Association. I am heartened and relieved that the Jury agrees with my contention that I was a victim of contamination and or drink spiking.'
Simon Daubney is now residing in New Zealand. It is not known whether he will re-join Team Alinghi. -- ISAF, and Sail-World
Seahorse Sailor of the Month
This month's winner:
Justice Herman Cahn (USA)
You don’t mess with Coutts’ new boys, do you? With a day remaining a deluge of mail and votes poured in to support the man who refuses to swallow all the guff about ‘barges’ and ‘twin-keel cats’. If his Honour keeps his nerve through February we are in for some mighty fine new multihull machines. Sir, we will contact you about your prizes...
This month's nominees:
Francis Joyon (FRA)
First a reminder to Sailing Anarchy and Rule 69 bloggers that you now get a voice in picking our nominees - please take advantage and be heard... That said, we’re sorry but this one was maybe just a bit of a no-brainer. What is there left to say? Great guy, quiet, modest, runs his programmes on a shoestring (and, yes, he often really does paint his own boats, last time on a disused tennis court). Fantastic.
Ian Williams (GBR)
We honestly wonder how many of those who should, yet even know who Williams is. Well, he’s the World Match Racing Champion, and he won the 2007 World Match Racing Tour outright, seeing off a string of fully funded America’s Cup skippers along the way. Ian Williams is now racing full-time, but only thanks primarily to the largess of perennial enthusiast Andrew Pindar. Another great sailor, whose time will come... Patience.
Seahorse Sailor of the Month is sponsored by Harken McLube, Dubarry & Henri Lloyd.
Cast your vote at Seahorse magazine
20 Years Later... A Message In A Bottle
by PerthNow/Sail-World Cruising
Painting of Patanela at right by Jack Wood, his gallery at seapainting.com
One of the South Pacific's greatest sea mysteries was the disappearance of the Patanela, a 19-metre steel schooner, which vanished without trace while approaching Sydney Harbour in November 1988. Now, just under 20 years later, a ghostly 'message in a bottle' has been found from one of the crew on a beach in the Great Australian Bight by a beachcomber.
Patanela was one of the sturdiest yachts afloat and was famous for her Antarctic voyages and circumnavigations of the globe. She was considered by those who sailed her, and by the man who built her, to be virtually unsinkable. Instructed of steel with four watertight bulkheads, Patanela carried the latest safety and navigational equipment. During her three decades sailing the roughest seas in the world, Patanela did not falter.
She disappeared on a calm November night, within sight of the lights of Botany Bay. There was no mayday call, no distress flares sighted, no debris, and no bodies as evidence of her sinking.
The 'message in a bottle' is from Patanela crewman John Blissett. In faded blue handwriting inside a Bacardi bottle, it was found on a secluded beach near Eucla on the southern coast of Western Australia, by Esperance woman Sheryl Waideman on New Year’s Eve.
It was written by John Blissett, 23, of Taree, NSW, as he and three others sailed Patanela from Fremantle across the great Australian Bight on October 26, 1988.
Less than two weeks later, Patanela simply vanished as she sailed some 18km off Botany Bay in the early hours of November 8, 1988. The crew planned to enter the harbour at dawn. The solitary trace was a barnacle-encrusted lifebuoy found floating off Terrigal seven months later.
The note in a bottle sheds no light on what happened. Rather, it offers a sailing holiday to the lucky finder.
“Hi there - out here in the lonely Southern Ocean and thought we would give away a free holiday in the Whitsunday Islands in north Queensland, Australia,” John wrote.
“Our ship is travelling from Fremantle, Western Aust, to Queensland to work as a charter vessel.”
The note invites the finder to call one of a pair of phone numbers to claim the prize.
An inquest which started in 1992 concluded that Patanela foundered in the early hours of November 8, 1988 some time after a final radio contact with Sydney Harbour. Nothing remained to explain the vessel’s fate.
The disappearance sparked wide speculation and a variety of conspiracy theories including claims of piracy and drug running. There is no evidence to either substantiate or disprove any such claims.
The Last Word
The Beatles saved the world from boredom. -- George Harrison
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