Scuttlebutt Sailing News

1. USA falls short for Paris 2024

   Alongside the 2024 French Olympic Week on April 20-27 in Hyères was the final opportunity for nations to gain entry to the Paris 2024 Olympics. While the USA has selected representatives for all ten Olympic events, the nation still needed to qualify in the Men’s Windsurfing (iQFOiL), Men's Kiteboard (Formula Kite Class), and Men’s One Person Dinghy (ILCA 7). After five days of racing, the Men's Windsurfing and Kiteboard athletes secured USA country qualification, but it is mathematically impossible to achieve country qualification in the Men’s One Person Dinghy, thus denying Ford McCann from his first Olympics. - Full report

2. America One Racing Performance Report

   America One Racing, as the largest private financial supporter of US sailing athletes campaigning for the Olympic Games, provides this First Quarter Report for 2024:

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   Q1 2024 was always destined to be very important for USA athletes. For the first time in 12 years, the USA held our Olympic Trials on home waters during the months of January and February. The trials were a great success on several fronts. We are certainly proud and excited for the Team that will represent the USA in Paris.

   Talent retention is important and many of our 2nd and 3rd place finishers are beginning their campaigns toward LA 2028 right now, which is very valuable to our future. Currently many of our athletes and coaches are in Heyers, France at the “Last Chance Regatta” working together to earn the USA Olympic berths in the Men’s iQFOiL and Formula Kite and ILCA7.

   In conjunction with US Sailing, A1R has paid for the completion of the “playbook” for Marseille with Meteorologist Chelsea Freas. Once complete, we will be providing this product to Team USA. This summer’s calendar of camps and clinics included in this report show the breadth of sailing A1R supports.

   There have been some misguided public distractions off the water during this quarter but A1R has not missed a beat on operations and support of our athletes. - Full report

3. Grooming the next generation of sailors

   by Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt Sailing News
   Youth sailing has followed the same path as other sports with increased coaching and intensity, which has led to attrition as kids either quit because of the heightened competition, or because they never got introduced to sailing opportunities beyond the youth bubble.

   However, don’t blame the coaches as most are products of the system and don’t know any better. And don’t blame the parents as they are drinking the Kool-Aid that has been handed them. But if the primary focus of youth programs is not to instill a lifelong love of sailing, club leadership is to blame.

   Thankfully, there are always exceptions which offer promise, with Mac deTuro sharing this recent experience: click here

4. What capacity pumps are large enough?

   The intent of a bilge pump is to remove water that enters the bilge, but at what rate? A bilge pump is most needed at the worst of times, and often that is when their inadequacy is discovered. George Day discusses a recent incident in the Cruising Compass report: The sinking of the Swedish-flag 46-footer [&hellip

5. Caribbean circuit shifts to Antigua

   First held in 1968, Antigua Sailing Week 2024 is back with 13 racing classes for teams representing 20 different nations. On April 27, the start gun will fire for the stand-alone Peters & May Round Antigua Race. Beginning April 28, the 55th edition of Antigua Sailing Week gets underway with five days of racing plus a midway Lay Day on May 1. On May 3, the Final Prize Giving Party follows the last day of racing. - Full report

6. Race to Alaska Podcast

   The Race to Alaska will hold its 8th edition in 2024, continuing with its 750-mile course from Port Townsend, WA to Ketchikan, AK. And now there is a podcast series prior to the June 9 start. In this episode, meet a trio of teams that each will require a blister-care technician: click here

7. Ep8: Road to the 37th America’s Cup

   Matt Sheahan and his PlanetSail team share the latest episode in a regular series of features about the road to the America’s Cup that will take us from the first official event in Vilanova to the Cup match itself in October 2024 in Barcelona, Spain. Here’s the episode synopsis: It’s a simple question – How [&hellip

8. Debut (sort of) for American Magic AC75

   Barcelona, Spain (April 25, 2024) - New York Yacht Club American Magic, Challenger for the 37th America's Cup, today slid its AC75 race boat, “B3,” outside of the shed as commissioning continues since its arrival on March 25.

   Previously hidden, it had traveled 3,500 miles from its construction at the build facility in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, to its current home in Barcelona.

   While the team did not release significant images, B3 made its public debut for structural and load testing at the American Magic base. - Full report

9. Broker peace for US Olympic Program

   It was in 2008 when Anna (Tunnicliffe) Tobias won the last Sailing Gold Medal for the USA, and she has been trying to change that for the past 16 years. She felt good about the chances for Paris 2024, but then had to deal with her national federation initiating distractions. Anna details her journey in this letter to the US Sailing Board of Directors:

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   I want to share my thoughts and experience from the perspective of a seasoned Olympic campaigner. This last month, I finished my fifth and final campaign trying to represent the USA at the Olympics in the Women’s Skiff (49erFX) event.

   The final months of the campaign have been overshadowed with the disruption of the leadership, the coaching staff, uncertainty on funding, logistics, and finally a lawsuit against what is widely regarded as the biggest supporter and sponsor of the US Sailing Team.

   I will recount this last quad; I started as the ILCA 6 squad coach for the first part of this quad before committing to a sailing campaign again. At that time, I had seen what the positive benefits of having America One Racing partnering with the US Sailing team was having for the athletes involved.

   I believed that the program was on the right track, both with a sound foundation, leadership, and financially viable. There were squads forming to train together to raise their level through the ranks internationally, which they have done. Successful examples are the 49ers (men’s fleet), ILCA 6, and iQFOiL.

   The other classes could and should have done better in my opinion, but without consistent leadership, this didn’t happen.

   One of the main reasons I rededicated myself to campaigning, and ignoring the financial consequences of giving up my coaching position, was because I believed in the process that was being put in place.

   The athlete financial support was finally getting better, and we were working towards a squad that would train together so that we would be two of the top teams in the world. Whichever team represented in Paris 2024 would be a medal favorite.

   I truly believed in this process and that it was the right path to get USA sailing back to the podium, having not won Gold since 2008 when I represented USA in the Beijing Olympics. - Read on

10. Curmudgeon’s Observation

    You know times are tough when a picture is now only worth 500 words. Providing wisdom since 1997, the Curmudgeon’s Observation has been a hallmark of the Scuttlebutt Newsletter which delivers a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk…with a North American focus. For newsletter information: https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/newsletter-read-or-subscribe