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Editorials, Opinions And The Rumour Mill
The Olympic Classes - Paul Henderson
Olympic Classes:
Having been involved in the selection of the Olympic Classes for 30 years at ISAF it is interesting to see that nothing has changed. Personal bias always prevails. If the vote goes your way the ISAF Council is brilliant. If your personal or those of your country's medal chances are not served the ISAF Council are dysfunctional. Here goes on my bias. Deja Vu!
Overview:
TV and Media: No matter what sailing does we will never get much live Olympic TV. The feed is there but the individual country broadcasters usually do not pick it up as Athletics, Football, Basketball etc fills their broadcasts. Sailing gets very high niche market internet hits especially live mark-by-mark roundings. The print media loves heroes and human interest stories. The equipment is secondary. The many daily E-Mail newsletters have added another dimension to sailing journalism.
Heroes: In both Sydney and Athens the international print media followed the Star #1 as that was were the heroes were: Grael, Cayard, MacDonald, Loofs, Rohart, Percy, Bromby etc. Whether a boat goes 18 kts or 10 kts is unimportant. Sailors do! The heroes from the Boards usual evolve into Tornado sailors. The Laser and Finn heroes move up into the Keelboats Men or Women. The IOC wants the heroes and the best which is why Baseball was dropped because the Major League players are not at the Olympics.
Elite: The Olympics are for the best and should not become a Junior Regatta. The IOC has addressed this issue by initiating a Youth Olympics and those who want to promote youth sailing should focus on that regatta in Singapore.
High-Performance: All Olympic Classes are high-performance. No one has ever been able to define that term. This is especially true with the sailors as they must perform at the highest possible level in all events. Call them Cats or Skiffs but do not insult other classes by tagging them low performance in comparison. Paul Elvstrom once said: "It is harder to build a class then design a new one". The Star, Laser, Tornado and Finn have proven this.
Classes:
Keelboats must be kept both for Men and Women. It also provides the infrastructure for the Paralympics. Yesterday I was in Miami and there were over 100 Star boats at their WC. I thought it was a Laser Regatta.
Women must have a keelboat class. I prefer Fleet as that is inclusive but Match is acceptable also. Fleet or Match is format not the event and keeping the Keelboat is the key.
The singlehanders are the essence of the Olympics and the now 5 should be kept.
Boards have diminished greatly in acceptance over the last two decades but should remain. Laser is unchallenged. The Laser Radial has been a great success and the number of nations at their Worlds was the best ever for women. The Finn is essential as it provides a singlehander for larger men.
That leaves 3 Events of 10. If ISAF is held to 10 then my bias really comes out. I like Cats and Skiffs because they must be sailed not Air-Rowed around the course with Kinetics.
The problem then arises is what to do with the 470? Fortunately I am no longer on that hot seat. 470 is excellent women's boat and the 29er should be first put into the new Youth Olympics. It is sad that the IOC is holding Sailing to an agreement made to reduce from 11 as the reasons originally invoked 4 years ago are no longer valid.
Hopefully someone with influence will get to Jacques Rogge to delay the erosion till 2016. If that could happen ISAF should then keep both Men and Women 470 hosted for 2012 in the #1 sailing nation today.
Sailing would then have relative peace for at least another 4 years.
More To This Than Meets The Eye? - Andy Rice
Not everyone has welcomed ISAF's new submission with open arms. The UK Catamaran Racing Association's Simon Morgan sent SailJuice this response to the submission, and Simon questions some of the language used by ISAF in this new document.
Here is Simon's interpretation of things:
This is a welcome move in the right direction by ISAF, but it may sadly turn into a public relations disaster, the more closely it is publicly examined, because the leadership's proposal is legally imprecise and open to suspicion of bias, to which its Members have now become highly sensitised.
Firstly, ISAF Members (MNA's) should be congratulated for responding to the public concerns of the sailing community. It is impressive not only how widespread but also how comprehensive are their initiatives in seeking a better solution. They include submissions from 15 countries and 2 international classes on the selection of Events. Should a majority of Council vote in favour of change, but fail to reach the additional two-thirds hurdle that the leadership seeks to impose, (perhaps unnecessary at this juncture) they also include a further dozen submissions for multihull equipment to be considered alongside monohull equipment for the currently approved Events.
Strategically, there are also proposals to ask IOC for an 11th Event and to set up a new Multihull Committee, like Windsurfing. These are from nations rich and poor, large and small and all around the world.
They all should be thanked, especially those who have had to back on their original decision for doing the decent thing in saying, sorry we simply did not think about the multihull community because you were politically unorganised. Having read your lengthy report and listened to the enormous body of public opinion against the Estoril Events decision, we see that you are a significant part of the sport we all love and have organised yourself and we want to find a place for you somewhere in our "big church".
But has ISAF leadership got that message?
Remember the November Council Meeting where Charley Cook "proposed that the voting process could be simplified...by making a slight modification".
Remember Arve Sundheim's letter to Members in November which excused the failure to advise Councillors of the 2002 IOC document on guidelines for Olympic Events entitled "Recommendations" on the basis that this was not "a policy of the IOC to recommend that if any events are to be removed from the Olympic Programme for sailing that it could be keelboat"
Remember the Minutes of the February Executive Meeting that responded to the host nation's concerns by describing the choice of Events as "closed", but now "recognizing the level of concerns over the decision as per the submissions received" the selection of Events is no longer closed.
If the leadership were genuinely open-minded why propose that Council "reaffirm" rather than "review" and why continue "upon reaffirmation", rather than "if reaffirmed", when such alternative neutral language is available? The accompanying press release continues in similar manner "The Executive Committee intent in making this submission is to bring to a close the current speculation challenging the Council decision".
The proposal is even more grudging in that the Executive oddly asks Councillors to reaffirm rather than reject their decision. This raises questions about impartiality. -- More on sailjuiceblog.com/2008/04/07/more-to-this-than-meets-the-eye/
Eight Months, Minimum
In light of the current dilemma regarding Alinghi and Oracle disagreement on a Match date, Sebastien Destremau decided to speak with one of the most successful maxi multihull builder/designer's in the World, Gilles Ollier from Multiplast who openly insists "It is impossible to build a 90 ft multihull in less than 8 months!"
Excerpts from that interview:
SD: How long did it take you to build some of your profile "beasts"?
GO: You are always pressured by external concerns like late sponsors's decisions or last minute changes from the skippers or the design team. It took us 18 months to build Groupama 3 keeping in mind that we were not the designers (VPLP) and this tends to extend the building process.
Orange 2 was completed in 14 months. We are very proud of this achievement but we needed to employ 50 peoples to work the 100 000 hours necessary to build her.
With our experience track record in delivering these boats, we are very confident in our technology and process. To give you an example: We test each bucket of resin used and keep a record of it. I could give you the test results of the resin used to build Groupama 3 aft cross beam if need be. We also test each boat in the yard during one month before their sea-trial.
SD: 14 months for Orange 2?
GO: Yes, from conception to delivery. Bear in mind that three months are required to build the tools and moulds. This period of time can be reduced, if you are extremely well organized and plan in advance.
Also, some parts of the construction can be outsourced but again this takes a fair bit of forward planning and project management. Outsourcing has never been easy in our business and I personally try to avoid it for quality control purposes.
SD: I believe that Team Dennis Conner built not one, but two cats in 6 months twenty years ago. How did he manage to do that then when it took you 14 months to build Orange 2?
GO: You are right. Firstly they were only 60 foot long and extremely simple in design. A bit like a Tornado: two hulls and two cross beams, period, done, finished. The only developments were in the sails with a soft and a rigid mainsail but these were outsourced. It is definitively not comparable with an Orange 2, Groupama or Geronimo!
SD: So if I was to provide you with a complete set of plan's for a 90 x 90 ft multihull today and asked you to build my boat for the America's Cup match. What would you say?
GO: I would be very pleased especially if money is not an issue! (laugh) More seriously, I wouldn't be ready to start building tomorrow that's for sure! I would have to study the design, talk to your people, have meetings, and develop the tools etc before I can even consider laying the first piece of wood to build the pre form. Think about the carbon's supply? Four to six weeks minimum for such high tech Carbon. And it comes from Japan too!
So lets say that your design team is extremely well organized and they give me the best set of designs I've ever seen. I would hire a large group of technicians and organize them on two eight hours shifts within a 24hour period.
SD: Two shifts? Why not three and work around the clock?
GO: Three x eight hours is not an option for us. The carbon has to dry and cure from time to time!
SD: Ok two shifts. What then?
GO: It is absolutely impossible for me to build a boat like this in less than eight months. Six if I can outsource to already contracted boat builders. Eight months would be a major achievement to deliver a boat like this keeping in mind that she wouldn't be ready to sail within this time frame.
SD: Six to eight months and she is not even ready to sail? So how long before I can have my boat ready to race then?
GO: Ok, you can have your boat in eight months. Sailing? Maybe add another few weeks if all goes well. Now if you are talking about racing then think twice. Your boat is not going to be race ready until several months later.
Trimarans are extremely powerful, super light and rigidity is key to performance in multihull's. This equation is like dynamite and it is very common to have serious breakages with this kind of boat when they are first launched. Remember Groupama 3's accident last month? Well, how long did it take for Franck and his boys to build and develop her? Years!
Let me put it this way. It is easy for me to build a nice piece of art inside eight months for you. HOWEVER it will be a boat for a show room and certainly not a boat ready to race!!
After a couple of weeks of sea trials, you'll probably loose a part of the hull, or break a mast or destroy a foil or maybe all of these altogether. This will set you back another month or two... so on and so forth.
These boats are a nightmare compared to an America's Cup boat. A Cup boat is so easy to engineer, to build; there is nothing inside them! But a 90 x 90 foot multihull built for Grand prix type racing is a completely different ball game! Especially if your boat has to be very light (10 tones?) and has an expected life span of three to four months.
I'd love the challenge, though with all our knowledge and experience I honestly don't see how this time frame can be reduced. We've been doing it for over 25 years now and I would be extremely surprised if anyone can beat me on a job like this!
SD: So what if the America's Cup was sailed in 2008 then?
GO: You must be joking and you'll have to find someone else to build your boat (laugh).
Seriously, I don't know where the American Team is at with their building program, but I believe they are a couple of months off from launching so their boat is not going to be anywhere near ready to sail in July 2008.
October? Maybe. But they'll have to pray they don't have any major breakages before the event and for the wind to blow under 10/12 knots.
As for the Swiss, even if they start building right now, they are stuffed for 2008 anyway!
Full interview at www.adonnante.com
10 Days At 100%
In Lorient, Brittany since 31st March, the BMW Oracle team have just completed a 10 day sailing session aboard Franck Cammas' Groupama 2 trimaran this Friday. During this training period a dozen Anglo-Saxon racers were able to discover the pleasures of sailing, which were as intense as they were enthralling.
"It was great for all of us to sail on a large boat and make good progress in our multihull sailing skills. The Groupama team knows the boat like the back of their hand. We sailed in all kinds of conditions, from light wind with flat seas to breezy conditions with big seas and it was fantastic to see that Groupama 2 always performed well" commented James Spithill, helmsman on BMW Oracle sailing team.
After an initial week spent on our own so as to learn how to sail a multihull, Groupama 2 did battle with the Banque Populaire IV trimaran for three days: "We worked a great deal on the starts as well as the manoeuvres on some short courses. We learnt more than we'd hoped" said tactician John Kostecki. "We saw that we still had a lot to learn if we want to be ready to race later this year".
As to whether or not multihulls are adapted to match-racing, Franck Cammas replies: "The start phases are certainly different but, as regards the rest, it's a fairly similar process: to get ahead and then control your adversary".
The Cup guys are returning to Valencia in Spain, while Franck Cammas and his team are now setting their sights to the west where Groupama 3 is currently powering towards them on the deck of a cargo ship which has just adopted the Panama Canal: "In around two weeks, she will be unloaded and will make for the Multiplast yard in Vannes to undergo repairs. The aim then, if all goes well, is a second attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy next winter". -- Translation courtesy Kate Jennings
www.cammas-groupama.com and www.bmworacleracing.com
The Quest For Fifty Knots
Pascal Maka being chased by Yvan Bourgnon. Photo by Francois Van Malleghem / Pixsail.com
Pascal Maka, Masters of Speed coordinator and race director, tells Windsurfjournal.com his side of the 5 months spent on the canal at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Excerpts:
Windsurfjournal.com : The Masters of Speed has just closed down, what do you see as the result of these 5 months of record attempts ?
Pascal Maka : As the coordinator of the Masters of Speed, I think it was generally a good result on the pure sport side, we didn't miss a single opportunity of good conditions and we ended with that exceptional run of 49.09 knots by Antoine Albeau, plus the other two records, Productions boards for Patrik Diethelm and British record for Farrel O'Shea. The big thing missing from the session would have been a new women's record. The girls waited too long. On March 5th the run was open from 8.00am and I told them it would be a good idea to go early, but they lost too much time and didn't get there 'til conditions were really radical. On the organization side it's a positive result too, the team of Christophe Simian and Fabrice David is experienced and gets the job done. Plus this year we had a chauffeur, David, who helped the riders get back to the start ; plus we had two trained life saving swimmers on duty, plus the local emergency services! for big, radical days like March 5th. As for the press coverage, Tanguy Blondel did an excellent job, we've been working with Tanguy for media stuff for the last 3 years. He's basically had them all on standby ever since and called them up again on 3rd January. And they came good when he called on the 5th March, without doubt it was all helped by Albeau's nationality compared to Finian Maynard, a Frenchie breaking the record is much more interesting than a foreigner doing it, specially at an event in France. And Thierry from SEMIS also helped a lot with press relations on the MoS.
WJ : So, windsurfing gives way to the Hydroptere and the kitesurfers who are both about to kick off attempts, how do you feel about that ?
PM : To be perfectly honest, back in September I hoped to see a windsurfer break the 50 knot barrier, be it Finian, Antoine or anyone else, but definitely a windsurfer. The Hydroptere isn't exactly in the same category as us, but they're making great progress and their performances will enable multi-coque boats to go much faster in open sea conditions. The kitesurfers, who are much closer to us, have the advantage of being able to ride in just 5cm of water. That gives them a bit of an advantage. The board pressure on the water gives them a kind of grip that reduces their drag. But the potential is obviously there...Maybe they'll beat the 50 knots, maybe the Hydroptere, we'll see.
WJ : Do you feel the 50 knot mark is as close as people seem to think ?
PM : It's close and far off all at once ! It won't be easy but Albeau's 49.09 knots and Maynard's 48.70 give me confidence. We need all the elements to be ideal then we'll get there.
WJ : After that new world speed sailing record on the 5th March is the canal more than ever the ultimate speed weapon for record breaking... ?
PM : Once again the canal has proved itself as THE place for breaking records, and there's still room to improve it. And it's no coincidence that the big names come to ride here, that means they believe it to.
WJ : What are your future plans, can we hope to see another Masters of Speed in 2008/2009 ?
PM : It's a bit soon just now to be announcing an MoS 2008/9, but I'm seriously thinking about it, I want to see that 50 knot mark beaten. Even if the kitesurfers do manage to break 50 knots this year, that just means we'll have to go and try for 54 knots, which is 100kph..
Interview by www.windsurfjournal.com
www.mastersofspeed.com
Thirty Six Hour Blackout
Photo at right from the 1988 race by Roel Engels/PPL:
Going....Going....Gone! Circa 1988 OSTAR singlehanded transatlantic race from Plymouth to Newport, USA. Dutch competitor Roel Engels pictures the sinking of his 34ft yacht 'Doortje' from the comparative safety of his liferaft after the yacht had hit an unknown object in mid-Atlantic. The Dutch sailor was rescued by a fishing boat.
Just a month until this year's race:
Where are the fleet? For a period of 36 hours the positions of the boats will be kept secret:
Position blackout to add intrigue, speculation and strategic options...and remind us how it used to be.
In the first editions of this classic solo race, competitors left Plymouth and little was heard from them until they appeared over the horizon on arrival in the USA and only then would it be revealed the final positions in the race. With today's modern technology it is possible to track the position of the fleet as they cross the Atlantic 24/7. OC Events have decided to add some extra intrigue to The Artemis Transat and to remind us of the days when little was known of the exact positions on the race course, by providing no positions to anyone at all on one of the days of the race.
Since there is already a daily 12-hour blackout between 1800 and 0600GMT, this one-day blackout will effectively mean 36 hours without any positions (eg from say Friday 1800 to Sunday 0600). This means there will be one day in the life of the race with respect to daily media output, where it will be a question of speculation, of skipper's theories, of team's guesses, of everyone becoming an expert in trying to workout what is happening and of course an opportunity for boats to really take some different options without their competitors knowing.
From a safety perspective, there will be only two people who will have access to fleet positions during this period, Rene Boulaire who manages the tracking (all position information as per BWR is already on his secure server), and Sylvie Viant (Race Director). Clearly in times of any crisis the position of a boat may be communicated, and obviously there is nothing to stop boats communicating their own positions during this period between them, or if for some reason a team wishes, via their own communications (although clearly they could be putting their skipper at a disadvantage). Boats will continue to have access to their own OC Tracker during this period, but at no time will anyone anywhere have access to the fleet positions exactly as it is overnight.
1988 - The record time - Poupon's return
With 95 entries, the trend was towards on board electronics, weather files and automatic pilots. It was no longer enough for the solo sailor to be an excellent mariner and a tough racer, he also had to be a computer wizard and manage his tactical and strategic options on board. 1988 proved to be a record-breaking race as multihull designer Nigel Irens stated: "The record is bound to be broken. The evolution in multihull design is taking place at a phenomenal rate. Today's 60ft trimarans have 25% speed advantage over boats raced four years ago." Philippe Poupon's (Fleury Michon) demonstration was exemplary with exceptional conditions on the Atlantic allowing the Breton to virtually sail a direct route the whole way. Mike Birch (FujiColor) and Olivier Moussy (Laiterie St Michel) were sailing similar Nigel Irens-designed trimarans. But, unfortunately, Birch hit a whale, while Olivier Moussy had problems caused by a late launch. Philippe Poupon set a stunning new record of 10 days, 9 hours and 15 minutes or the equivalent along the Great Circle route of 11 knots average speed.
An exceptional disaster befell skipper David Sellings on board his monohull Hyccup. A pod of whales, up to 50 or 60 at one point, had surrounded his boat for three days and finally attacked, holing the boat. Sellings only had time to grab a few belongings and inflate his life raft before Hyccup sank.
www.thetransat.com
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The Last Word
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