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You can’t make this stuff up: Kiwi grinder Joe Spooner had US Marshalls “arrest” OTUSA’s AC45x development boat after claiming he was unjustly terminated. The boat was already in containers, ready for shipment from San Francisico to Bermuda. Read more.
The team’s base at Dockyard in Bermuda is under construction. The team plans to begin training on the Great Sound in May.
Emirates Team New Zealand suffered almost two weeks of media frenzy after leaks that 24 year old Peter Burling would replace Dean Barker as helmsman.
Ten days after the initial reports, ETNZ confirmed Burling as helmsman and Australian Glen Ashby as Sailing Director. Barker was offered the position of Performance Coach but turned it down. He has since left the team.
At the beginning of March, 50 staff began work at ETNZ. One of their first tasks is to modify their AC45 to the one design foiling version that they will race in the AC World Series, beginning in June. The team will then convert a second AC45 into a development boat for testing AC62 design ideas.
The ETNZ design team has likely been working during the past few months, but the team is clearly in catch up mode, given that OTUSA, Artemis Racing, Luna Rossa and Ben Ainslie Racing have all been sailing in their AC45 development boats. Read more.
Ben Ainslie Racing continues to recruit from the world of Formula 1, naming Martin Whitmarsh CEO. Whitmarsh was the McLaren team boss until about a year ago. BAR has also agreed to work with Adrian Newey of Red Bull Advanced Technologies.
Newey is well known as one of the top designers in F1. He worked with Whitmarsh at McLaren before joining Red Bull almost 10 years ago.
Also on board at BAR is James Roche from McLaren Advanced Technologies where the first advanced F1 simulators were developed. Roche leads the development of BAR’s simulator, which will allow them to validate design ideas and give the sailors an opportunity to train with the sophisticated control systems for the wing and the daggerboards on their AC62.
In January, BAR took two foiling Nacra 20 catamarans to Bermuda to build their foiling skills and to explore the race area on Bermuda’s Great Sound. This video report includes BAR sailing team manager Jono Macbeth’s impressions: the course will be tight and require a lot of maneuvers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSWqZeiZU3o&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Artemis Racing and Oracle Team USA sailed their AC45 test boats and are already training the maneuvers they will use on their AC62’s. These boats are strictly for development – they will not race in the AC World Series, as I explained here.
In this video, watch Artemis Racing foiling upwind. At about 30 seconds into the video you’ll see them do a roll tack, and another one at about 60 seconds. This is the maneuver that Oracle Team USA did not master until half way through the America’s Cup Match in 2013. See my explanation of the roll tack here.
Video: John Navas
Oracle Team USA has also been working on maneuvers. This video shows them on San Francisco Bay in late February. At about 25 seconds into the video you will see a foiling gybe. At 45 seconds you’ll see them foiling upwind. At 1:15 watch them do a roll tack. At 2:42 you’ll see them foiling downwind and then turn upwind going right into a tack. In match racing in the AC62’s this will be an important maneuver to be able to chose at the last moment which mark to round at the leeward gate. Remember that we will not see match racing until the AC Qualifiers in 2017 – all of the AC45 one design racing in 2015 and 2016 will be fleet races, as I explain here.
Stuart Alexander reported over the weekend that the America’s Cup Competitors’ Forum would meet on Monday 16 March 2015, presumably to finalize the venue for the AC Qualifiers.
Originally due by February 15, 2015, the announcement of the venue for the AC Qualifiers was delayed to this month. What are the AC Qualifiers? Under the Protocol, all competitors, including defender Oracle Team USA, will race in a double round robin called the America’s Cup Qualifiers. The top four challengers then to move to Bermuda for the America’s Cup Challenger Playoffs which will determine who faces OTUSA in the America’s Cup Match in June 2017. Details of the competition format here.
Commercial Commissioner Harvey Schiller hinted in December that Auckland would be chosen, and sources in New Zealand have recently claimed that the announcement is imminent. Will Auckland be confirmed? One of the deciding factors is funding from the New Zealand government – for venue fees to ACEA, for harbor infrastructure and for sponsorship of Emirates Team New Zealand. The other important factor will be getting approval from the European challengers. Moving their operations to New Zealand for several months would add millions to their expenses. Time lost moving from New Zealand to Bermuda could give Oracle Team USA an important competitive advantage, unless the Protocol is modified to restrict OTUSA from training in their second AC62 while the competitors’ AC62’s are in transit.
Potential sponsors will clearly be waiting for the announcement, making life difficult for ETNZ, Ben Ainslie Racing and Team France, all of which are counting on commercial sponsorship.
Where will the AC Qualifiers be held? Stand by for more information from ACEA.