Many America's Cup fans say this is their best source of information.
Team France acquired an AC45 from Oracle Team USA. They have now added the one design foiling package and plan to be on the starting line at the first AC World Series event in Portsmouth, England in July. Franck Cammas’s long-time sponsor Groupama are funding Cammas for this year’s AC45 racing, but they will not continue the sponsorship through the America’s Cup. Team France continues to look for sponsors.
Oracle has performed the traditional Bermudian roof wetting ceremony with a bottle of Gosling’s Rum – the main ingredient in a Dark’n’Stormy.
While the Dark’n’Stormy’s were popular, the main attraction at the ceremony was the team’s AC45x “Sport,” apparently on schedule to sail on May 1st.
Here’s an index to several articles on the Cup Experience website that give more background about each team’s development boats. Note: Neither Team New Zealand nor Team France has a development boat yet.
Recent decisions by ACEA, Oracle and three of the challengers (Artemis, BAR and Team France) have mystified close followers of the America’s Cup and the two other challengers (Luna Rossa and Team New Zealand). The class of boat has been changed. The AC Qualifiers have been pulled from Auckland. One or two mysterious Asian teams have been announced as potential challengers. There is a deadline on May 1 for all teams to pay the balance of their entry fee ($900K) plus the $1 million performance bond. Read my summary here and here.
“The natural conditon is one of insurmounta
ble obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.”
“So what do we do?”
“Nothing. Strangely, it turns out well.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. It’s a miracle.”
Impresario Fennyman explains the theater to his financial backer Henslowe.
Shakespeare in Love
Our timing was good: On March 31st, the very day the competitors were voting against Luna Rossa and Team New Zealand, and replacing the AC62 with the smaller, almost one design “America’s Cup Class,” an enthusiastic group gathered online to watch and discuss videos and photos that show why the new class will be exciting to race.
We looked at five photos and two videos showing the Artemis and Oracle boats. You can see the photos and watch the videos here. Thanks to John Navas for the great footage of these boats training on San Francisco Bay. I’ve taken highlights from John’s videos to show the manoeuvers the teams have been drilling.