 |
 Current Issue
|
‘The people who read Scuttlebutt are at the top of the sport. Does Alinghi’s Ernesto Bertarelli read it? Larry Ellison? Paul Cayard? Sure. When you start getting e-mails from Olin Stephens, you say to yourself, “Oh, I’d better start acting responsibly.’”
|
Consider yours will be one of 200 e-mails The Curmudgeon receives daily. To get on the pages of Scuttlebutt (exactly six pages, or 3,200 words per issue) consider the following:
• “Send me 175 words of rifle-shots. The guys who can write tightly are going to get their letters published. But if I’ve got to edit it down, it’s probably not going to happen.”
• “No bashing or personal attacks.” The Curmudgeon prefers to take the high road. “We’ve passed on a couple of stories and inevitably I’ve found myself saying, ‘Thank God we didn’t get into that fight.’” No unsigned letters either.
• “I won’t waste news space promoting events.” Post your regattas and events on the Event Calendar at www.sailing
scuttlebutt.com.
• The Curmudgeon’s Observations are culled from a 70-page list of axioms sent by readers, which he randomly scours and selects from each day. Contributions are welcome.
• Scuttlebutt is typically issued around 6 p.m. (PST) on weekdays but if late-breaking news is expected, give The Curmudgeon a “heads up” and he may choose to delay publication.
• Scuttlebutt is posted on the Web at www.sailing
scuttlebutt.com. And a new forum is available that provides another outlet for reader opinions. To contact The Curmudgeon, write editor@sailing
scuttlebutt.com.
Sailing Magazine subscription special for Scuttlebutt readers!
|
|
|
 Tom Leweck pleads to be relieved of his duties as The Curmudgeon much the way Rodney Dangerfield offered to relinquish his wife. “I hope someone comes and buys Scuttlebutt and the new owner fires me,” he said of the popular electronic sailing newsletter he founded in 1997. “Would I shrivel up and die if I didn’t have to spend five hours a day at my computer? I don’t think so!”
Such is the cynical nature of The Curmudgeon—a self-appointed moniker that by definition is a crusty, ill-tempered and usually old man.
Sailing Magazine subscription special for Scuttlebutt readers!
But despite his curmudgeonly designation (or perhaps, because of), Leweck has a cult-like following among sailors.
“Even my 70-some-year-old mother reads Scuttlebutt,” said yacht designer Alan Andrews. “Who doesn’t?”
“It’s like a wire service that gives everyone the quick, late-breaking summary of what’s going on,” said record-setting navigator Stan Honey. “Everybody subscribes, so there’s a common, shared knowledge that brings the sailing community quite a bit closer.”
“Our mission is to deliver bite-sized news to yacht racers who are interested in what’s happening to the sport, and that’s what we do,” said Leweck, who reaches roughly 20,000 readers each weekday via e-mail, plus thousands more on the Web site at www.sailingscuttlebutt.com. The Web site has recently added a forum where readers can chat.
But Scuttlebutt is more than gossip and race results. Leweck’s years of experience as yachtsman and administrator; his taste for controversy; his candor, intellect and wit, have made Scuttlebutt a morning ritual as common as brushing your teeth.
“You get a taste of a lot of different things,” he admitted. “It’s a buffet table. I know full well no one reads every story except my wife Barbara.”
“Sometimes I cheat,” she interjects from across the room.
Scuttlebutt’s popularity came as “a big surprise” to Leweck. “I was just having fun with my friends, sending jokes. I wasn’t looking for money. Did I want it to grow this big? No. It was never a goal.”
It was after an early retirement that he began to collect jokes from various sources and send a compilation to friends each morning. He was an early “computer geek” he says, thanks to a lofty public affairs post with GTE—where he also earned his business acumen and ultrasmooth demeanor. “I sent the jokes five days a week to a list of 20 friends, then 25, 30, and soon 40.”
After a while Leweck pulled the plug on the joke distribution but still had the mailing list, and seemingly, an itch to communicate. He would gather newsworthy tidbits from the somewhat primitive Web sites of the times and send these to friends in a newsletter form.
“I called it Scuttlebutt and it went out once or twice a week. We had contests like ‘How long will Craig Fletcher keep his new job?’ ‘How many boats will be in the San Diego NOOD regatta?’ ‘Who will be the final four in the Congressional Cup?’ And it was a lot of fun.”
Soon there were names on the distribution list he didn’t recognize, while other recipients, like Bob Dellingham and Terry Hutchinson, forwarded Scuttlebutt to their friends. But as Tom’s list topped 1,500 readers, the task became daunting. “I was doing it all manually and every time someone would change an e-mail address, I’d have to change it by hand. It was drudgery.”
Relief came surprisingly from Charlie Barthold, then-editor of Yachting magazine. “Charlie said, ‘I understand you’re publishing this thing and picking a lot of copyrighted stuff off our Web site.’
“I wrote back, ‘Don’t sue!’” As is currently his practice, Leweck wasn’t charging for the newsletter, and provided links and attribution for all stories. Still, he offered to halt publication.
“Don’t stop,” was Barthold’s reply. Instead, Yachting asked if it could publish Scuttlebutt on its Web site.
That liaison brought Scuttlebutt to the attention of Boats.com and Stuart Johnstone. “Stuart sounded like he just got out of MBA school yesterday: We spoke for an hour and I understood nothing.” Leweck’s humor is commonly self-deprecating and wry. “I got the feeling he was putting together the most magnificent boating Web site in the world and they needed my newsletter to complete the package.”
They signed a deal in September 1999. “I got to edit the newsletter, lose all the drudgery (Boats.com would automate the mailing list and produce ads) and make money. Still less than the guy who pumps gas at a filling station, but something,” Leweck said.
That same month, Leweck and his wife Barbara had barely touched down in their new Marina del Rey home when he took off for Auckland, New Zealand, as press officer with Team Dennis Conner. “I continued to publish Scuttlebutt. Dennis was a fan and read it a lot, and thought it was fine to have the editor as part of his team.”
By the end of the year Scuttlebutt’s distribution had climbed to 4,000—a trend that continues today. “Every time the America’s Cup comes, the circulation goes up. It doesn’t go down at the end of the Cup but the growth flattens out. The next Cup it went up again, then flattened out. I would expect before this America’s Cup we’ll see an increase again and after that it will level out.
“We delivered America’s Cup news to your door, firsthand,” he said of the 2000 bid. Some publishers tried to impose limits on how much of their material Leweck could pick up, but inevitably when they didn’t see their stories in Scuttlebutt, they relented.
Soon Leweck was back home, saying his gig with Team Dennis Conner was not a good fit. “We are much better friends when we’re not working together. And I wanted to be back here in my new home.”
Understandably so. The Lewecks’ home is peaceful and bucolic: overlooking a man-made pond where several ducks and a coot (which Leweck named “Russell” after Kiwi sailor Russell Coutts) roost. From here it’s a five-minute bike ride to California Yacht Club, where this remarkably fit 74-year-old remains an active member.
Scuttlebutt was published by Boats.com through 2002, with David McCreary (“wonderful to work with”) filling in while Leweck was gone. Subsequently SAIC, a Fortune 500 information and technology firm, approached him with an opportunity to distribute and host Scuttlebutt (this relationship ended in April 2005). “I realized I was leaving a lot of money on the table, although, money was not what I was doing it for.”
This time Leweck approached his son, Craig, a 41-year-old San Diego-based sailor, saying, “‘If you want the business, take it.’ So he quit what he was doing and became my partner—actually he owns the business and I work for him.”
Leweck’s edge softens when he talks about Craig. “This has been a great
bonding experience.
“First of all, I’ve always liked him. More importantly, I’ve always respected him. His value system is really strong and he has a lot of talent. We can talk about how we deal with certain subjects, and if he takes exception to something, we talk about it—all day long if we have to, for free, because we both have Verizon phones,” he added smugly.
“That’s why I think it’s pretty transparent when I disappear and he takes over. We are both focusing on Scuttlebutt every day.” Even longtime colleague David McCreary can’t tell who’s saying what anymore.
“I still edit 90 percent of the time, but Craig is there to bail me out,” especially on Wednesday nights when Leweck sails in beer can races. And Craig is credited with developing the Web site www.sailingscuttlebutt.com with reams of pertinent sailing content including a library, gallery, archive, classified ads and games. “I go there occasionally to play the Goldminer game,” Leweck said, boasting a top score of 63,000.
Despite these ongoing developments, Scuttlebutt’s focus has changed little since its inception.
“We have always maintained a focus on things happening in North American, and what North American sailors might be interested in, like Ellen MacArthur, the Vendee Globe, America’s Cup. There are a lot of regattas going on in the Mediterranean and the China Sea that will never get covered & I don’t think my readers give a darn.
“What do I decide to print? Things that are of interest to me. And people who have similar interest as me are going to enjoy it a lot, and people who don’t, won’t. It’s as simple as that. It’s my hobby. I can do what I want.
“I make the rules, I break the rules,” he said. When friend Mike Priest wanted to propose to his now-wife Kelly, on Scuttlebutt, Tom relented saying, “I was there and saw the incubation of the relationship at Bitter End Yacht Club.” But more typically, Leweck says, “the news has got to be of interest to 20,000 people.
“I like it when issues crop up, because controversy adds excitement.” It also adds e-mail, he groaned, an average of 200 a day. “You get a controversial issue and you’ll get hundreds of letters. I have to do some selecting and editing and show all points of view.
“In my mind, I know by my experience that we absolutely changed behavior on the part of the yacht clubs in Southern California, and possibly other places as well, on the calling of over-early boats on VHF radio.
“A lot of people were resisting that. Rich Roberts sent out a story about Key West having no general recalls; handling individual OCS recalls on the radio. Most race committees looked at it as ‘It’s us against them,’ but Key West was helping racers, and set the bar real high. I love doing stories like that, because it tells others in the community what’s going on and what you can do with good race management.”
Other issues regarding PFDs, handicap systems and safety standards come up frequently. “Stupid policies, or shall I say short-sighted policies, get discussed. I work hard to balance the opinions. I provide the forum and the readers change the attitudes from there.
“Another thing we may have had a real hand in changing was a couple of years ago, when the rules required everyone on a boat to be a member of the national governing body or a yacht club. So if you were going out on a Wednesday night and wanted to introduce your neighbor to sailing, you couldn’t, because he’s not a member of a yacht club. It was a foolish rule; the rule makers really got beat up in my publication about that.”
To further get around the rule, Leweck organized the Scuttlebutt Sailing Club as a legitimate, free yacht club.
“Tom does a nice job of letting controversial issues get exposed and discussed,” Stan Honey said. “He lets the discussion run long enough to get all the issues on the table but he cuts it off before it gets too ugly or boring or tiresome.”
And Leweck has made a point in the past to right wrongs, and even-out unbalanced comments. “We used to print anonymous letters, and derogatory letters, and at one point I finally said, ‘This is going the wrong way.’
“I have always wanted to be a force for good, not evil; to help the sport, not take away from it. Occasionally I will let a reader go too far and I’ll hear about it, and I’m sorry about it. I’ve never been sorry when I’ve thrown a letter away, only when I print a letter that was not constructive criticism.
“Do I like controversy? Sure. But we don’t have to beat up on people. For a long time we were perceived as an enemy of US Sailing... a role I don’t enjoy and don’t want to play. I’ve been a member of US Sailing for 40 years and am on the advisory council. They have an impossible mission. They don’t have a lot of money and they don’t always do things as everyone would like them to. But they’re the national governing body and we’re going to support them.”
Dan Nowlan is one of Leweck’s original joke recipients and longtime friend. As Offshore Director for US Sailing, Nowlan finds Scuttlebutt “a great barometer” for sailing issues.
“People who write in tend to be the more vocal sailors. I look at what topics come up and which ones get legs and of those, what are the messages coming out?” Nowlan said. “Many times I know the people who are writing and what the burr under their saddle is. But sometimes the person has a really good point that needs to be recognized. I definitely make sure all of the US Sailing people I deal with who are decisionmakers are in that loop and know what’s going on.”
“The people who read Scuttlebutt are at the top of the sport,” Leweck said. “Does Ernesto Bertarelli (the principal behind the Alinghi Cup team) read it? Larry Ellison? Paul Cayard? Sure. When you start getting e-mails from Olin Stephens, you say to yourself, ‘Oh, I’d better start acting responsibly.’
“These days my role is gatekeeper of what we’re going to say, or not going to say. I did that for decades at GTE and I like to think of myself as being responsible.”
And if anyone doubts his capability, consider this: a six-time national champion in various one-design classes, Leweck is also a North American MORC victor; past commodore of California Y.C.; and has also led the ULDB 70 and TurboSled associations, PHRF of Southern California and the Cal 20 Class Association.
A certified senior judge, he received US Sailing’s President’s Award for contributions to the advancement of the sport from David Rosekrans and has been honored as Yachtsman of the Year.
Leweck, a renowned navigator and tactician in both offshore and buoy racing, embarked on his 57th Mexico Race in November. He said he has spent a solid year of his life racing to Mexico, if you add them all together.
“For years Tom has been one of my toughest competitors, and the navigator to beat, to Mexico. I’ve had lots of fun racing against him,” Stan Honey said.
Flattery will get you everywhere with The Curmudgeon. “I like to have people tell me I’m doing something nicely: everybody does. It’s like I deliver a child every morning, and when people tell me they like it and appreciate it, it’s very satisfying. I could make more money at Starbucks, but would it be as satisfying? No.
“And I have the flexibility.” In 2005 alone Leweck visited Puerto Vallarta, Antigua and Tahiti, wrapping up the year at the Bitter End Yacht Club, where he defended his title at the annual Pro-Am Regatta. “I shamelessly promote that event and they make it possible for me to go down there every year,” he confessed boldly. “If I ever screw that up I’ll lose my wife!”
Does it ever go to his head? “You can’t help but feel kind of good when people get all excited to meet you, like Elizabeth Meyer (who restored the J-class yacht Endeavour) who I met when I was on the Oracle VIP boat … and how would I get invited to do that, other than as editor of Scuttlebutt? It’s opened doors, which is very satisfying to me.
“Three times a day I’ll get a note from some person, saying something nice. The people out there who appreciate it make it all worth while. And those who don’t: we’ll gladly refund their money,” he said.
Nowadays, Leweck says Scuttlebutt cuts too much into his sailing. “There are nights I don’t want to go home to work. Sunday night, after I’ve been sailing really hard, everybody else is going to the bar for a drink and I’m looking at my watch saying, ‘I’ve got to go to work now.’
“I hope someone comes and buys Scuttlebutt from my son, and gives him enough money, and the new owner fires me! If Craig were to sell it tomorrow and put me out of work, I would applaud,” he said.
To his fans, he added with an impish smile, “Thank you for being so supportive & now go away.”
Sailing Magazine subscription special for Scuttlebutt readers!
|
|
