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More America's Cup News: June 27: Lines plans of ETNZ's new AC72 catamaran, launching in July: Chevalier-Taglang Blog June 25: Extreme
Sailing Series sold to OC Sports: June 20: Fire in San
Francisco damages historic Pier 29, future home of America's Cup village.
Plans for next year not expected to be affected: June 15: Please Hammer:
Legendary musician MC Hammer on the Helm of Oracle AC45 Race Yacht in San
Francisco: June 13: San Francisco
reaches settlement with local opponents over Environmental Impact Report suit: June 12: Oracle Team USA's wingsail arrives in San Francisco: Press Release and Photos June 11: Marine artist
Willard Bond dies at age 85: June 9: Sailors try to prepare for the demands of the new America's Cup cats: Watch America's Cup Uncovered #42 June 5: Russell Coutts
will helm Oracle5 in America's Cup World Series Newport, add Matt Mitchell to
crew: June 1: LVMH's Yves
Carcelle and his passion for beautiful yachts: June 1: Bill Koch's America's Cup collectibles exhibit opens at Museum of Yachting/IYRS through Oct 1 May 30: "Expect 40
knots," says Grant Dalton. Sneak peek at Emirates Team New Zealand's first new
AC72 catamaran, nearing completion: May 26: Artemis Racing's new wingsail sees "significant damage" in testing: Artemis Team Site May 23: USA Team for
Youth America's Cup Series forming: May 16: Oracle Team USA adds Cup vet Grant Simmer: Oracle Press Release May 16: Youth Series announcement with sponsor Red Bull expected Thursday in SF: SF Gate May 15: Red Bull to
Sponsor Oracle plus Youth AC45 Series?: May 9: J-Class Regatta
in England this summer, with five or more J-Class boats expected, plus a race
over the original 1851 course around the island: Apr 30: America's Cup wins Emmy Award for Stan Honey's LiveLine system: Press Release Apr 25: The hunt for
real estate with prime views of the 2013 America's Cup/Louis Vuitton Cup race
courses on San Francisco Bay is heating up: Apr 18: Oracle Racing
will test their new AC72 in New Zealand: April 13: Moët &
Chandon becomes Official Champagne of the America's Cup: Apr 11: America' Cup
Hall of Fame to induct Gerard Lambert, Patrizio Bertelli, and Jonathan
Wright in Newport this June: Apr 9: Pixel-Pushing:
"AC 500 Speed Trials - The Game" is released. Free for your iPhone, coming
soon for Android: Apr 8: Local video of
the AC45s warming up for Naples: Apr 5: China Team hosts
Russell Coutts in Sanya: Apr 4: Artemis Racing
names crew for ACWS Naples: Apr 3: Aleph is out of the 34th America's Cup, GreenComm will be sidelined in Naples: Press Release
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(June 30) Patrizio Bertelli, Jonathon Wright,
and Gerard Lambert -- The 2012 America's Cup Hall of Fame Class was celebrated
in style Friday night in Newport: Black Magic II Comes Home (June 30) NZL-38, one of the two ACC yachts from Team New Zealand's historic first win of the America's Cup in 1995, is coming home to Auckland after a narrow escape from the scrap heap in Valencia. Black Magic II will be restored and sail again, joining her sistership NZL-32 at the Maritime Museum. ETNZ AC72 Arrives
(June 26) The major components of Emirates Team New Zealand's new AC72 catamaran arrived at the team's Auckland Harbor base today for final assembly beginning this week. The boat is expected to be sailing by the end of July. Going Home Again
(June 24) "In 1930 the America’s Cup abandoned New York Harbor for the open waters off Newport. From 1930 until 1937, some legendary yachts raced there: Enterprise, Shamrock V, Endeavour, Rainbow, Endeavour II, and Ranger. The legend of the fabulous and short-lived J-Class era of the Cup is forever attached to Newport."
Read more at Chevalier-Taglang Blog Rebuilding Reliance (June 22) Reliance, the 1903 Defender of the America's Cup was one of the most extreme sailing yachts ever built. A project in Rhode Island is underway to recreate her at 1/6 scale. Even reduced by that ratio, the boat will be still 33 feet in length over all. Team Korea is Go for 2013 (June 18) Team Korea has paid their entry fee and joined Artemis Racing, Emirates Team New Zealand, and Luna Rossa sharing official status as Challengers for the 2013 America's Cup, making a total of four teams currently set to compete against each other for the right to face Defender Golden Gate YC, represented by Oracle Team USA, for the Cup. Iain Murray, America's Cup Regatta Director: "The challenges faced by any America's Cup team are immense; it's just a massive project, so to see the Korean team tick another box and move to the next stage is very encouraging." Six weeks remain until the extended August 1st deadline for teams to pay their $200,00 USD entry fee. The real question for potential challengers isn't the entry fee itself, but whether they have the resources to complete the design, construction, and testing of their AC72 yachts in time for the beginning of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection beginning next July.
Read America's Cup Press Release Stars & Stripes
Another neat piece of the design history of the America's Cup, historians Jacques Taglang and François Chevalier take a look at the first wingsail multi-hull to compete in a Cup match, 1988's Stars & Stripes, launched 24 years ago this month. The cat defended the America's Cup against the "big boat" New Zealand KZ-1, winning 2-0 with an average margin of nearly 20 minutes at the finish.
Read more at Chevalier-Taglang Blog Christmas in June at Pier 80
See Oracle Team USA Delivery photo gallery Wing Lands in San Fran
Major components of Oracle Team USA's first AC72 yacht were unloaded in San Francisco Tuesday, fresh off the boat from New Zealand. Delivered to Oracle's base at Pier 80, they will soon be joined with the locally fabricated hulls for the new multihull, and the boat should be sailing on the Bay by August.
Read Oracle Team USA Press Release Innovations in Racing Design
Twin-fin keels, ballast bulbs, and high-performance catamarans on San Francisco Bay. It sounds like highlights from the bleeding edge of the last 20 years of America's Cup yacht design, but actually it's the radical thinking of the 19th century.
Read more at Chevalier-Taglang Blog Learning by Doing (and Breaking) (June 5) CEO Paul Cayard has given a few short interviews about about Artemis Racing's recent wingsail incident, with the team's first design becoming damaged during testing off of Valencia. Paul Cayard: "Yes, it’s a setback, but better it happened in May 2012 than in May 2013. We have time on our side now that we wouldn’t have had if this had happened later. We were the first team to have an AC72 wing up for testing (and we carefully read the Protocol to see if what we proposed doing was within the rules) and in the 12 days of sailing we learned an awful lot. Even the breakage can be construed as part of that learning curve." Read more from Bob fisher at Sail-World Paul Cayard: "We can look back at the whole
thing and say, 'Wow! We were super lucky!' We learned about this in May
2012, it was a critical thing and changed the way we built our wings. We
had the time to incorporate that in Wing 2 and Wing 3 and we might be sitting in
San Francisco in May 2013 and someone else’s wing might fall down. That
will be a lot more devastating because it will be just one month before the
Louis Vuitton Cup starts." Wing Spotting: Oracle
Oracle Team USA's new wingsail, which was
partially revealed to curious eyes last Friday, is depicted above by America's
Cup historians Jacques Taglang and François Chevalier on
their blog. The wing will be mounted on the new boat, and launched as
early as July 1. Oracle Shows Wing
(May 25) Oracle Team USA has rolled the first wing for their new AC72 yacht out of the build shed. The wing sail and other components will be shipped from New Zealand, where they were constructed by Core Builders, to the US to be assembled with the hulls and begin sailing. All teams are permitted to launch their first AC72 on or after this July 1, and their second boat next February 1.
Read Oracle Team USA Press Release Pier Deal Goes to NBA
(May 22) Will an NBA deal for new stadium on Piers 30-32 just south of the Oakland-Bay Bridge affect America's Cup Plans? Race organizers and the City of San Francisco officially removed the decaying piers from the re-negotiated hosting agreement as announced in a February 27 press release, citing time and financial pressures that cast doubt on the feasibility of rehabilitating the piers in time for next year's races, but a scaled-down plan locating the America's Cup team bases on the structurally viable portions of Pier 30-32 was part of the City's unanimously approved development agreement with ACEA which finally passed the Board of Supervisors a month later, as announced in this March 27 Press Release. The NBA team's moved was announced Tuesday. See renderings and related NBA information at nba.com SFGate reports that the new NBA stadium is projected to open for the 2017-18 season, provided that approvals proceed as expected. Building the arena triggers the same EIR process plus Board of Supervisors approval that the America's Cup agreement required, a sequence which seems likely to consume at least 12 months before any resolution could be in sight. That delay could provide a window for the 2013 America's Cup defense to use the Piers 30-32 site, but probably not subsequent Cup regattas in San Francisco, if there are any. Also remarkable is that the deal points for the Golden State Warriors stadium are very similar to the public-private development structure that the City and America's Cup organizers had framed. Aside from the cost of the stadium itself, the Warriors would invest over $100 million upfront to restore the piers in exchange for a 66-year lease on the site, offsets via rent credits, and control of a nearby two-acre site. A small but vocal opposition was increasingly critical of these terms when they were on the table for the 2013 Cup. Local opposition is certain to add a focus on
impacts like parking that were not primary concerns for the regatta, as well as
issues of what additional uses might take place in the facility on the 260-plus
days that the Warriors would not play at home even in longer post-season
scenarios. But bringing it back to the AC, however, is the future role
Larry Ellison may play. Ellison has often been mentioned as a potential
buyer for various NBA teams, including the Warriors. The deal for Piers
30-32 isn't set in stone yet, as
San Jose's Mercury News reports in noting that the Warriors could yet
explore the possibilities of instead developing their new stadium in partnership
with the nearby San Francisco Giants baseball team. 2013 Entry Deadline is Being Extended (May 22) June 1 had been the deadline for 2013 challengers to pay their $200,000 USD entry fee. France's Energy Team, winner of the America's Cup World Series regatta in Venice this past weekend, has been one of the teams working to put together a financial package supporting completion of their new AC72 race yacht, thus providing the confidence to ante up the non-refundable fee. Comments on the official America's Cup website appear to confirm that the payment deadline will be extended by two months. Bruno Peyron, interviewed at americascup.com : "Energy Team, along with some of the other teams, requested to move the entry deadline by two months to August 1st. Fortunately, the other challengers and the Defender agreed and voted through a Protocol change, so we now have a little bit more time to secure everything we need for our challenge." Artemis Racing, ETNZ, and Luna Rossa all appear to have their financial backing in place, and have shown progress on their new boats with some rollouts probable within a month's time. Artemis in fact have already been sailing their first AC72 wingsail mounted to test-platform ORMA 60 trimaran in Valencia, Spain. White Tiger Challenge from Korea and China Team have also been working to secure necessary sponsorship for 2013, though little information about build progress, if indeed there is any, has been available. Energy has announced a partnership with Defender Oracle Racing for technical support until design and technology-transfer restrictions of the 2013 Protocol kick in at the end of this year. Time to build, launch, and tune an AC72 yacht will be tight for an August 1, 2012, commitment date, and it's likely that if a new race yacht isn't underway at that point that any chances of being competitive in the 2013 Louis Vuitton Cup will slip away regardless of whether the entry fee deadline holds firm this time or not. Also: ACWS Venice Sunday
Sunday Outlook May 20: Speed Trial start expected 1:50 pm Venice/7:50 am ET US, Match Race start expected 2:40 pm Venice/8:40 am ET US, and Fleet Race start 3:10 pm Venice/9:10 ET US. Conditions: Results: Match Race Final: One Race Artemis Racing beat Luna Rossa Piranha to win the Venice Match Race Championship! Fleet Race 7: Oracle Team USA Spithill now leads the season
standings by 4 points over Emirates, followed by Artemis, Energy, and Team
Korea. Quotes of the Day: Loïck Peyron, Skipper Energy Team: “I think the lighter conditions were good for us,” Peyron said. “I’m used to this kind of tricky game, trying to be as cool as possible. The pressure was in the red zone, but it made for an exciting race for sure. This was a big victory for us. We are a small team, and hopefully this is just the beginning.”
Outlook: A win for Artemis would help them cut into Oracle Spithill's season lead, shaving two points off a 13-point deficit. Coming late to the season, Luna Rossa is not in striking distance for season honors, but a match race win in home waters would be a great reward for the tens of thousands of Italian racing fans who have flocked to Venice. Fleet Race: Aside from the issue of deciding the Venice champion, the other big impact from Race 7 is likely to be on teams that run into trouble, finish at the back missing out on the Sunday points bonanza, and end up with only a small contribution toward the season standings. This scenario tripped up ENTZ in Naples, letting Oracle Team USA Spithill edge past them in the combined standings. Losing ground on the field now with only the Newport regatta remaining will be hard to recover from. Should the competitors sail conservatively then, not to lose too painfully? Or for the teams mid-pack and lower is a
high-risk high-reward strategy worth trying? Team Korea's Nathan
Outteridge said as much yesterday, promising to dial things up and go for it.
Venice is proving to be a good test for the AC45 crews, and Sunday's action
should show whether a bold Race 7 attack can beat the fleet on the Grand Canal. Youth America's Cup Series Announced (May 17) Energy drink Red Bull will Sponsors a new Youth America's Cup Series to be raced on AC45 multihulls by sailors ages 19 to 23. Up to ten teams will be formed. Sailors must meet nationality requirements and one team per country will be permitted. The series is a chance for young racers to compete on the same boats that some of the world's best are using in the America's Cup World Series, and is intended to help serve as a conduit for new talent.
Read Red Bull Youth America's Cup Press Release Golden Gate Anniversary
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ACWS Newport Thursday: Day 1
Day 1: Nice wins for Artemis, Oracle, and Luna
Rossa Piranha; tough losses for Team Korea and Luna Rossa Swordfish; and an even
tougher break, literally, for Emirates Team New Zealand. America's Cup World Series Venice
Daily Results, previews, photos, and links to
more:
Bundock vs. Spithill
(May 15) Oracle4, James Spithill's AC45 boat, was damaged during training on Tuesday in a collision with teammate Darren Bundock's Oracle5. Despite some rather visible damage, Spithill's boat was expected to be back on the water Wednesday to continue preparation for the start of ACWS racing on Thursday.
Oracle Team USA's Spithill looks on as Kyle
Langford conducts a digital simulation of the incident. USA-17 vs. AC72
(Mar 30) François Chevalier and Jacques Taglang have posted a comparison between Oracle Racing's America's Cup-winning monster trimaran USA-17 from 2010 and the new AC72 wing for the 2013 America's Cup. It takes a 223-foot (68m) wing on a 90-foot LWL platform to make an AC72 rig look normal. USA-17 was more than 90 ft. (28m) taller than an AC72, higher than an AC45 and an AC72 wing stacked on top of each other.
Read more at Chevalier-Taglang Blog J-Class Hanuman for Sale (May 16) The J-Class yacht Hanuman is for sale, the modern replica of famed 1937 America's Cup challenger Endeavour II. Owner Jim Clark's asking price is $18 million USD, along with his 295-foot Athena which is also on the market for $95 million. Read more at
Forbes.com and
J-Class Association World Series Regatta in Venice Heats Up Thursday (May 15) The America's Cup World Series stop in Venice, Italy, gets serious on Thursday with the seeding fleet races and the start of the match race eliminations. Emirates Team New Zealand and Oracle Team USA Spithill are locked in a tight race at the top of the standings, just one point apart with two regattas left in the 2011-2012 season. Venice will also feature the debut of 25-year-old Phil Robertson as skipper of China Team. Robertson is playing catch-up in terms of AC45 experience, but is working hard on improving his team: “We're the youngest team. Our average age is about 26 on board, so for us it's all about focusing on boat handling and trying to take the small steps to get to the level of these guys.” For more quotes from Tuesday's Skipper's Press
Conference:
Read ACEA Press Release €50,000 in Prizes for Venice
(Apr 30) The opening weekend in Venice will feature fleet races as part of the "City of Venice" Regatta. The official ACWS races that will count toward season championships don't begin until later in the week, but interest in the City of Venice races will be heightened by the lure of €50,000 in prize money, including €30,000 alone to the winner of the point-to-point race from the outer race area to a finish in front of Piazza San Marco. GreenComm Withdraws (Apr 17) GreenComm Challenge, the Spanish entry representing El Real Club Náutico de Valencia, has withdrawn their challenge for the 2013 America's Cup cycle, according to reports in the Spanish press and communications via the Official ACEA Twitter account. Read report at Nauta360 (in Spanish) The news is not entirely unexpected after GreenComm sat out last week's America's Cup World Series Regatta in Naples, Italy, and ACEA plans released for Venice in May did not mention the team. With a deal announced recently for technical
support for France's Energy Team, along with Artemis Racing, ETNZ, and Luna
Rossa there are four likely challengers for 2013, plus Team Korea and China Team
who are still seeking the funding needed to commit to building their new AC72
yachts. June 1, 2012, is the deadline for the $200,000 entry fee to be
paid, a milestone which will also help clarify the status of the remaining
teams. Additionally, the new Ben Ainslie Racing (BAR) will join the World
Series circuit after the London Olympics this summer, with aims of becoming a
challenger candidate for the following defense of the America's Cup. AC45 Lines
(Apr 13) Through careful study and talented draftsmanship, historian François Chevalier has produced a detailed lines plan and sail plan for the wingsail AC45 multihull. Not that you are likely to build your own cat, but the comparison between the high-performance boat, with both regular and extended-height wing, is instructive.
See AC45 Drawings at Chevalier-Taglang blog Coming to Terms with Sportsmanship and TV in Sailing (Apr 7) The New York Times examines the consequences for Ben Ainslie in the aftermath of his Rule 69 incident at the Finn Worlds, and the larger context of regulating sportsmanship in competitive sailing. “Ultimately, it’s about someone in my position should be setting an example for young people and what’s acceptable for the sport at the highest level,” Ainslie said. Energy and Oracle to Cooperate on AC72 Design (Apr 5) Energy Team will license a "base-line" AC72 design package from Oracle Racing, allowing the French entry to launch a wingsail cat by March of 2013 and compete in the Louis Vuitton Cup selecting the challenger for the 2013 America's Cup. The deal firms up Energy's ability to be the fifth team making it to the starting line with an AC72. Importantly, securing the French team as a fourth challenger will permit two LVC races to run at the same time, greatly increasing valuable race experience and preparation for all challenger candidates. Oracle and Energy join ETNZ and Luna Rossa in pursuing a technology-sharing agreement as permitted by the rules. From Energy Press Release: Bruno Peyron: “Our strategy is realistic. With the best design at our disposal, we really think we can surprise everyone in the finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup with a budget of around 15-16 million Euros for the 2012-2013.”
Read Energy Team press release Luna Rossa Introduces Team
(Apr 4) At a press event in Palermo the Italian challenger introduced a sailing team that includes Max Sirena (skipper), Paul Campbell-James and Chris Draper (helmsmen), and crew Francesco Bruni and Manuel Modena. Other personnel from the design team and shore crew include Roberto Biscontini, Andrea Casimirri, Steve Erickson, Antonio Marrai, Umberto Panerai, Matteo Plazzi and Luis Saenz. Patrizio Bertelli, Team Principal of Luna Rossa Challenge 2013, stated: “This team brings together some of the “historical” Luna Rossa team members, and a strong new group of young sailors. The Circolo della Vela Sicilia has a very long and strong history in the world of sailing and we are proud to be representing it.” Max Sirena, Skipper of Luna Rossa Challenge 2013, stated: “We have been working very hard in the last few months and the whole team has proved to be ready to meet the challenges of the upcoming AC45 competitions. We are pleased with the status of our work on the construction of the new wing-sail catamaran AC72 that we plan to launch in autumn.” 34 and 35: Aleph is Out, GreenComm is Sidelined (Apr 3) With the America's Cup World Series in Naples beginning April 11, confirmation has come from the Event Authority that two teams will not be competing. One of the French teams, Aleph Équipe de France, has withdrawn from the entire 2013 America's Cup and the ACWS. GreenComm's prospects as a continued presence in this Cup cycle appear uncertain, though team representatives in recent months had reaffirmed the team's intentions to complete their AC72 yacht. Philippe Ligot, CEO of Aleph-Equipe de
France: “We fought hard, with all our drive and enthusiasm, to find a budget
allowing us to participate in the final phase of the 34th America’s Cup. We did
not want to compete with resources that would not allow us to credibly challenge
the best teams. France has, without a doubt, all the sporting, technical
and managerial talent to win the Cup but the current economic environment makes
funding a commercial team extremely difficult." From ACEA Press Release: "While two
crews from Luna Rossa Challenge join the field, two of last year’s teams will
not be competing in Naples. France’s Aleph has withdrawn from the AC World
Series and the 34th America’s Cup, and Spain’s GreenComm Racing has informed
Regatta Director Iain Murray that it will not be participating in Naples." Aleph's withdrawal comes just as Luna Rossa is
about to announce the crews for their two AC45 yachts, along with other details
of their America's Cup challenge. America's Cup Cuts Costs in Half
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