Emirates Team New Zealand

April 28, 2015 By Jack Griffin

Emirates Team New Zealand’s Burling and Tuke Take Another 49er Title

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have won another important 49er regatta, this time the ISAF World Cup event in Hyères, France in April. This is the eighteenth 49er event in a row that they have won since taking silver at the 2012 Olympics. London gold medal winners Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen of Artemis finished second in Hyères. Burling was named helmsman for Team New Zealand in March, replacing Dean Barker.

America's Cup Peter Burling and Blair Tuke won the 49er event at the ISAF World Cup event in March. — America’s Cup Peter Burling and Blair Tuke won the 49er event at the ISAF World Cup event in March.

ETNZ’s AC45 Underway to Europe. Development Boat is the Next Project.

Emirates Team New Zealand has shipped their one design foiling AC45 to Portsmouth for the first AC World Series event, which will be held 23-25 July 2015. Previously ETNZ had announced that they would soon start work on their development AC45x, converting a boat they acquired from Team Australia.

April 2, 2015 By Jack Griffin

America’s Cup Qualifiers in Bermuda?

exc-552176a4e4b07d5916cd18f9 — AMERICA’S CUP COMMERCIAL COMMISSIONER HARVEY SCHILLER

America’s Cup Commercial Commissioner Harvey Schiller informed Emirates Team New Zealand that the round robin phase of challenger selection – the America’s Cup Qualifiers – would not be awarded to Auckland. ETNZ boss Grant Dalton said in interviews that ACEA had previously accepted ETNZ’s bid to hold the AC Qualifiers in Auckland, and that all teams had been informed on 15 February 2015, the deadline for the announcement set in the Protocol. Schiller was quoted by Bernie Wilson of The Associated Press that the biggest reason for pulling the event from Auckland was Team New Zealand “bouncing back and forth on support” for changing the class of boats from AC62 catamarans to a new, 48 foot America’s Cup Class.

Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton — TEAM NEW ZEALAND BOSS GRANT DALTON

Last Tuesday, 31 March 2015, the Challenger Committee voted 3-2 to approve changes to the Protocol to move to the new class of boat, and to change the date for announcing the venue of the America’s Cup Qualifiers. The deadline is now set for 15 April 2015. ETNZ has protested to the not-yet-appointed Arbitration Panel, claiming they have a signed acceptance of their bid, subject to the Host Venue Agreement, terms of which Dalton claims were agreed. But… apparently it was not signed.

While these changes came at the same time, the decision process is different for each:

changing the class of boat to be raced is done by changing the Protocol. This requires approval by the defender and a simple majority of the challengers. Note that changes to the class rule for the boats would require the unanimous consent of all competitors. But this is not a change to the class rule, it is a change to the Protocol.
ACEA selects the venue of the America’s Cup Qualifiers and need only consult with the challengers. The only thing the Challenger Committee voted on last week was changing the Protocol to change the date of the announcement from 15 February to 15 April 2015.

Holding the America’s Cup Qualifiers in Bermuda would dramatically simplify things for the competitors and dramatically reduce costs:

the new race boats may not be launched until 150 days before the first race of the AC Qualifiers, and teams will want all 150 days for test, development and crew training. This means they will launch their boats at the site of the AC Qualifiers. If the qualifiers were held in Auckland, teams would need a base there to assemble and launch, and another base in Bermuda for the America’s Cup Challenger Playoffs and the America’s Cup Match.
if the AC Qualifiers were in Auckland, the four top challengers would lose about a month of race preparation while their boats were shipped to Bermuda. During this time OTUSA would be permitted to train with their second boat in Bermuda. (OTUSA is permitted to build two boats; each challenger may only build one.)

Tripling Bermuda’s ROI on the America’s Cup?

Bermuda’s Great Sound – America’s Cup race area-compressed — BERMUDA’S GREAT SOUND – AMERICA’S CUP RACE AREA

Holding the America’s Cup Qualifiers in Bermuda would also dramatically improve Bermuda’s return on investment as host venue of the America’s Cup, tripling the time teams would spend there. The teams would arrive in Bermuda in Summer 2016 and launch their America’s Cup Class race boats there in September 2016. They would train in Bermuda before the AC Qualifiers. Then they would continue sailing there through the America’s Cup Challenger Playoffs in May 2017 and the America’s Cup Match in June 2017. If the America’s Cup Qualifiers were held in Auckland, the teams would not arrive in Bermuda until March 2017, and spend less than four months, through mid-June 2017.

Yes, the America’s Cup format is complex!

Read here “How to Win” and I’ll explain how it works.

April 1, 2015 By Jack Griffin

New “America’s Cup Class” Catamarans Replace AC62 for 2017 America’s Cup

img11-compressed — OTUSA’S “TURBO” TEST BOAT FOR THE 2017 AMERICA’S CUP

The America’s Cup challengers voted 3-2 to change the Protocol and race in “America’s Cup Class” 48 foot catamarans instead of the AC62 class that had been announced 10 months earlier.

As is often the case, politics were part of the mix. Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand voted against the change. After the vote, Luna Rossa carried through on their threat to withdraw from the America’s Cup. They complained that it was too late in the cycle to change the class of boat used. ETNZ claimed that the decision was linked to the choice of venue for the America’s Cup Qualifiers, saying that ACEA offered to hold the AC Qualifiers in Bermuda rather than Auckland if the new class were to be accepted – european teams were reportedly strongly against holding the AC Qualifiers in Auckland.

Reasons given for making the change were cost savings and the surprisingly good performance and manoeuverability of the test boats that Artemis Racing and Oracle Team USA launched on San Francisco Bay. OTUSA reportedly has hit over 46 knots. Artemis has been seen foiling upwind and executing roll tacks, even attempting foil to foil tacks.

In depth look at the test boats –
Members Only Content for the Cup Experience Club

Cup Experience Club members can take a closer look at the AC45 “Turbo” boats. Five marked up photos and two videos show the details and the impressive performance that convinced ACEA to propose moving to the new, smaller America’s Cup Class. Bronze level member ship is FREE – all we need is your email address.

Earlier articles about the AC45 “turbo” test boats:

March 29, 2015 By Jack Griffin

High stakes dealings at the America’s Cup

the-cincinnati-kid-compressed

Showdown

There will be a showdown at the Competitors’ Forum meeting on Tuesday 31 March 2015. Negotiations over changing the boats to be raced and the venue for the first phase of America’s Cup have reached a climactic moment. Luna Rossa has threatened to withdraw. Team New Zealand may lose a major funding source. The Protocol may be changed drastically – abandoning the split venues for challenger selection and scrapping the AC62 in favor a a new class of boat.

What caused the showdown? Where do things stand?

On Wednesday 25 March, Commercial Commissioner Harvey Schiller announced plans to abandon the AC62 in favor of a smaller boat.
On Thursday, Luna Rossa announced their opposition to the change, stating that they would withdraw if the change were made, and that they would cancel the first America’s Cup World Series event in Cagliari in June.
Also on Thursday, Emirates Team New Zealand announced their support for Luna Rossa‘s position.
Within hours, Schiller informed ETNZ that the America’s Cup Qualifiers (the round robin phase of the challenger selection) would not be awarded to Auckland. The New Zealand government reconfirmed that without the Auckland regatta, they would not renew as a sponsor of the team.
On Friday 27 March, ACEA CEO Russell Coutts confirmed that the current proposal is to abandon the split venue for challenger selection, and instead to hold all 2017 racing in Bermuda.
Coutts explained that America’s Cup World Series racing will be in foiling one design AC45’s, as previously announced.
Coutts also repeated that he expects to have one Asian challenger (widely rumored to be from Japan) and possibly another Asian challenger. Coutts made it clear that he only wants competitive teams and criticized China Team for being uncompetitive in the 2007 America’s Cup in Valencia, Spain.
The class rule for the new, smaller America’s Cup boat will be presented to the teams. It is likely to be a scaled down AC62, possibly an AC54, with a crew of six instead of the eight man crew on the AC62.
This would be a change to the Protocol, not a change to the AC62 Class Rule. The distinction is important, since only a majority of the five challengers is required to change the Protocol, while a change to the AC62 Class Rule would require unanimous approval.
Artemis Racing, Ben Ainslies Racing and Team France have all expressed their support for the change

What happens next?

A Competitors’ Forum meeting has been called for Tuesday 31 March to vote on the changes.

March 24, 2015 By Jack Griffin

ETNZ: Peter Burling replaces Dean Barker as helm

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.