Cup Experience

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America’s Cup Teams Racing in Foiling GC32’s on Lake Garda

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Nine foiling GC32’s sailed 19 races over four days on Italy’s Lake Garda.

Three America’s Cup teams went racing this past weekend on Italy’s Lake Garda in a fleet of nine boats in the GC32 Series. Not surprisingly, Franck Cammas and his Groupama Team France crew won the event, sailing under the banner of their America’s Cup sponsor Norauto. Cammas and Groupama Team France have been using the GC32 as their training and test boat in preparation for the America’s Cup. Artemis Racing had Nathan Outteridge, Iain Percy, Luke Parkinson and Christian Kamp sailing with young Swedish helmsman Gustav Petersson under team owner Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Gunvor label. Emirates Team New Zealand supports Switzerland’s Team Tilt, which will have an entry in the 2017 Red Bull Youth America’s Cup, and ETNZ skipper Glenn Ashby was on board trimming the wing and handling tactics. Team Tilt set the new speed record for the GC32 at 39.7 knots. And, like the America’s Cup, the GC32 series has its own connections European nobility – Pierre Casiraghi, skipper of “Malizia” from the Yacht Club de Monaco is the son of Monaco’s  Princess Caroline.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oimjym2FRtg

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Groupama Team Base

Lorient, France is the the home of Groupama Team France. Skipper Franck Cammas prepared here for his winning Volvo Ocean Race campaign and for his successful 2010 record-setting non-stop circumnavigation to take the Jules Verne Trophy. By the way, the navigator on board Groupama 3 for that record-setting run was Stan Honey, who led the development of the LiveLine augmented reality graphics for the the ACTV broadcasts. And, Cammas’s record was broken in 2012 by Banque Populaire, skippered by Artemis Racing’s Loïck Peyron.

Even with the smallest budget in this America’s Cup cycle, Franck Cammas and Team France are a force to be reckoned with. Cammas is just as ferocious a competitor as the other skippers in this America’s Cup cycle. Don’t be surprised to see Team France in the semi-finals of the Challenger Playoffs in June 2017.

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Big Enthusiastic Crowds in Spite of Gray Skies and No Wind on Saturday

Light and shifty winds combined with the Hudson River’s current to challenge both the Race Committee and the teams. On Saturday only a provisional race was held, after the TV window had passed. It was the third time in five regattas that a full day of racing was lost. The crowds in the AC Village and lining the river edge were excited just to see the AC45F’s even if they had to be towed to show off their foiling.

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The crowd loved seeing the race boats foiling, even when they had to be towed on Saturday in order to put on a show.

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Video: Race 2 Start and Leg 1

Oracle got caught in the current and were swept over the line early in Race 2. They fought back to finish the race in second.

Artemis won Race 1 but came in last in Race 2. France did the opposite – last in Race 1 but first in Race 2. With a 4th in the third race, Groupama Team France got on the podium for the first time in the ACWS.

 

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Nationality and the America’s Cup – Always Good for a Debate

The debate about nationality rules always stirs passions. Having a strict nationality requirement for the crew would probably boost audience interest, like for the Olympics and the football (soccer) World Cup. But it would also reduce participation and make it hard or impossible for new countries to compete.abd1f9d1-86ee-4d7d-83e1-0c2fd9e8a494

What few people realize is that crew nationality rules were introduced only in 1980 and were dropped 10 years ago. In 1895 and 1899 when American fishermen from Deer Isle, Maine were the crews on “Defender” and “Columbia,” they made news, since crews on US defenders before and after were often Scandinavians.

Charlie Barr, skipper of “Columbia” and later of “Reliance,” was Scottish born. Even “America” had a British pilot on board to navigate around the Isle of Wight in 1851. Barr was a pure professional. He didn’t hesitate to go back to Scandinavian crews for the 1901 and 1903 defenses. Barr would certainly agree with the current philosophy of hiring the best sailors, regardless of nationality.

For the 2017 America’s Cup we have three mostly national teams – Land Rover BAR, Groupama Team France and Emirates Team New Zealand – and three mostly international teams – Oracle Team USA, Artemis Racing and SoftBank Team Japan.

What do you think about nationality requirements? Send me your comments and in a few weeks I’ll report back on what I hear from you.