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American Matt Cassidy will race on board Oracle Team USA in New York this coming weekend. Before joining Oracle, Cassidy was a member of world champion crews in 2011 in the TP52, the World Match Racing Tour and the RC44. Matt grew up in Florida, raced in college in South Carolina and turned pro in San Diego, then moved to Chicago, where he spent seven years before joining Oracle.
Meet Matt Cassidy video.
#TeamThursday: Matt Cassidy
At Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute’s Fund Raising Gala, Saturday 23 April 2016.
Graeme Spence of ORACLE TEAM USA powers through a 60 second all out burst while BUEI’s Executive Director Mel Ferson counts down the time.
Each of the Bermuda-based teams competed in the charity grind-off. From left to right, Graeme Spence, OTUSA, Luke Parkinson, Artemis Racing, Simeon Tienpont (with daughter Sara) from SoftBank Team Japan. Graeme won the competition but everyone was a winner as the gala brought in over $100,000, including a hefty live auction bid for a ride on Artemis Racing’s turbo boat! A big THANK YOU to all three teams for their support.
Friday 22 April 2016 All three Bermuda-based teams training off the North Shore
Photo: Jack Griffin
I visited SoftBank Team Japan last Friday and got to spend the afternoon on their chase boat. The team has a real depth of experience from AC34: Dean Barker, Derek Saward, Jero Lomas and Winston MacFarlane were all onboard Team New Zealand’s AC72 in San Francisco. Wing trimmer and sailing manager Chris Draper helmed Luna Rossa. Grinder Simeon Tienpont was grinder and boat captain for Oracle’s AC72. General manager Kasuhiko Sofuku sailed on Nippon Challenge in 2000. The team is developing younger sailors including Japanese team members Yugo Yoshida and Yuki Kasitani and Australian multihull specialist Jason Waterhouse.
Although the team has purchased a design package from Oracle, Nick Holroyd, formerly head of design at Team New Zealand, is making his presence felt, especially with work on board design. Nick was at the cutting edge of the foiling breakthrough during the last campaign.
The team base at Dockyard is growing, with office space and a lounge and kitchen popping up quickly with modular construction.
On the water I saw all three Bermuda based teams out on the water – SoftBank Team Japan, Artemis Racing and, with two boats, Oracle. Looking for long stretches of open water, all four boats headed out of the Great Sound and did several straightline speed runs off Bermuda’s beautiful north shore. No one looked noticeably faster than the others. AC35 will be hard fought and every team is likely to be strong and competitive. SoftBank Team Japan did a few well-executed foiling gybes, but that is to be expected, given that Dean mastered that maneuver long before any of the other helmsmen. Of course, the other teams were also smooth in their maneuvers, but no one should think of SoftBank Team Japan as a “new crew.” A new team, yes, but one with lots of experience and strength.
Emirates Team New Zealand has a new web page showing the 79 members of their team, including their team principal, Swiss billionaire Matteo de Nora, who has backed the team for years while staying out of the limelight. The team counts 11 nationalities. Ten sailors are listed; half of them are grinders. One of those grinders is Gilberto Nobili who sailed with Oracle in the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco. Three of the sailors were on the winning New Zealand Youth AC team in San Francisco – helmsman Peter Burling, trimmer Blair Tuke and grinder Guy Endean. Those three, together with tactician Ray Davies and team skipper Glenn Ashby have been the crew on the AC45F in the America’s Cup World Series, which they currently lead.
We hope to have news soon about when the Kiwis will launch their AC45X experimental boat. They and the French are the only teams not to have an experimental boat with grinding pedestals and dimensions close to the AC Class yachts that will race in 2017. For testing, the team has been using a modified AC45 on loan from Luna Rossa.
Teams will need confident, precise boathandling to pull off maneuvers like this one from Race 13 of the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco. At the leeward (downwind) gate, Oracle Team USA waited until the last possible moment to decide which mark to round. After seeing which mark Team New Zealand wanted, they executed a perfect gybe, right in front of the Kiwis, leaving the New Zealanders two bad choices: either follow Oracle around the left hand mark or gybe a second time to split to the other side of the course.
Rather than continuing straight to the right hand mark Oracle has gybed in front of New Zealand to take the left hand mark.
The LiveLine augmented reality graphics show white dots marking Oracle’s single gybe and the red dots of the Kiwis’ track through two gybes. The clock shows Oracle rounded the mark 12 seconds earlier. The Kiwis are sailing slow and have yet to reach the right hand mark.
In this video, you can hear Oracle skipper Jimmy Spithill suddenly call, “Gybing – right turn, right turn, right turn!” when he sees the opportunity to gybe in front of New Zealand.
In Bermuda in 2017, the smaller race courses and shiftier conditions will make it even more important to execute last second maneuvers at the gates. The trailing boat usually wants to split away from the leader, but both teams will want the favored side of the course. The ability to make a quick maneuver or to react to one from your competitor will be essential to winning in Bermuda.
Images courtesy of ACTV.