With two weeks to go until the start of the Extreme Sailing Series the Ecover Sailing Team have announced an all British line up for the season ahead.

British Olympic Tornado sailor Leigh McMillan is one of two new crew announcements, as he takes on the helm of the Ecover Extreme 40 in 2010. America’s Cup and TP52 sailor Jonathan Taylor also steps onboard in the role of bowman when they line up for the first event in Sète, France at the end of May. Skipper Mike Golding takes on the role of trimmer, with 2009 Ecover crew member Will Howden remaining in the joint role of mainsheet and tactician.

The new line up reunites McMillan and Howden, who competed together at World and Olympic level in the Tornado class from 2004 until to 2008. As one of the world’s top dinghy and multihull sailors, Leigh is no stranger to Extreme 40’s. In 2009 he took charge of Oman Sail Masirah during the 2009 Extreme Sailing Series Asia, steering the team to victory during this inaugural event.

“Since the Tornado class was withdrawn from the Olympics the Extreme 40 seemed an obvious choice. I did some coaching for the Ecover Sailing Team during the European season in 2009, and then jumped onboard Oman Sail Masirah for the Asian series. These boats are multihull sailing at its best, it’s fast, intense and the standard of competition is very high. It’s great to be sailing again with Will, and the experience Mike and Jonathan bring from the world of IMOCA and the America’s Cup is invaluable. I’m looking forward to getting some strong results and mixing it up with the top teams from last season,” Ecover Sailing Team helm, Leigh McMillan.

After a small refit on the boat, the team has been training out of Hamble in the build up to the first event.

“Training has gone really well. Will and Leigh have a great synergy onboard, so it has been a very smooth process working in the role changes. 2009 was a learning curve for all of us, and I hope this year will see us raise the bar in terms of performance on the water. Leigh will be fantastic on the helm, and we intend to make an impact on the leaderboard this season”. Ecover Sailing Team Skipper, Mike Golding (GBR)

Despite its position in the Mediterranean, Sète has a history of being a great location for sailing. The town of Saintes-Maries-de-Mar (commonly known as ‘the trench’ in France) is close by, which has been the location for many speed records most recently in 2009 when l’Hydroptère set a new World Sailing Speed Record there. As a result the region can provide a perfect backdrop for spectacular sailing, but with the Mediterranean on the doorstep there is always the threat of a high-pressure system coming into throw the racing off track.

“We have a fantastic team in place and the series will take us to some brilliant locations for racing. I am sure the competition will, as always, be very close. I hope to attend some events and I am looking forward to seeing the Ecover Sailing Team in action. Good luck for 2010!” Michael Bremans, CEO Ecover

Ecover Sailing Team Crew:

Mike Golding (GBR) Skipper/Trimmer
Leigh McMillan (GBR) Helm
Will Howden (GBR) Mainsheet/Tactician
Jonathan Taylor (GBR) Bow

2010 Extreme Sailing Series Europe Calendar:

Sète, France 27-30 May
Cowes, UK 31 July – 5 August
Kiel, Germany – 26-29 August
Trapani, Italy 23-26 September
Almeria, Spain 9-12 October

We've got an interview with Leigh about how to muscle a multihull downwind without capsizing. It's on SailJuice here:  www.sailjuice.com/articles/McMillan-cat-running-windy

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via photoshelter.com

Nice on-board work from Ian Roman

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The current Audi MedCup champions proved they have lost nothing from their competitive edge as they both opened their respective 2010 season with resounding wins in the Portugal Trophy, Cascais.

After another day of muscular breezes which produced fantastic racing conditions off Sintra, just to the west of Cascais, Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) and Puerto Calero (ESP) had both set up unassailable regatta leads, clinching their respective trophies with a race to spare.

Through the five events of the 2010 Audi MedCup season, regatta trophies are a bonus, and this is Emirates Team New Zealand’s fifth successive regatta title in a row, but the dominant Kiwi crew will be even more content to leave Portugal with a comprehensive lead of 20 points over Franco-German Circuit newcomers AudiA1 powered by All4ONE.

AudiA1 powered by All4ONE may have finished with a sixth in the final race of the regatta, but the team which is headed by four times Olympic Jochen Schuemann (GER), finished consistently in the top half of the fleet through the second half of the regatta to prove they have the talent and the tools to be podium contenders. It is Schuemann’s best podium finish on the Circuit, bettering his third in Puerto Portals in 2008 with Platoon Powered by Team Germany.

The tough conditions produced a typically bruising final day which placed big demands on crew work and equipment. Emirates Team New Zealand proved, once again, a cut above the rest in the breeze but there were gennakers shredded again today and several teams not managing to convert on the final day, due to mechanical or sail failures, whether or not they were the product of crewing errors.

The British America’s Cup crew lost their gennaker sheet under the boat during the first race to finish 10th. For some of the time today Ben Ainslie (GBR) and the TeamOrigin (GBR) crew looked like an truly exceptional unit, leading again during the first race of the day, but they still have a speed deficit downwind which needs rectifying.

Ainslie summed up the event for the team, "A tough day on the water but the overall result was a good one for our first regatta with limited preparation time. There is plenty of scope for improvement which is promising for the rest of the season."

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Ed Wright claimed sailing silver for Great Britain at the Finn European Championship on Sunday (16 May) after a testing week of light wind racing in Split, Croatia, with Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Ally Martin also returning with silver from the Women’s European Match Racing Championships in Hard, Austria.

At the Finn Europeans, the 32-year-old Wright was in second place heading into Sunday’s final 10-boat medal race, where a third place from that race was enough to keep hold of the silver medal, with victory going to local hero and defending European champion Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic.

Poor wind conditions dogged the six-day event for the Olympic heavyweight dinghy class, with just two of the intended six races having been possible by the halfway stage of the regatta.

But some late racing on Friday, with the sailors returning to shore in almost darkness, helped get the championship – and Wright’s medal assault – back on track.

Skandia Team GBR’s 2006 European Champion Wright had seen an indifferent start to the week in the light wind conditions, with 10,11,10 from his opening three races before fighting his way back through the fleet, making the most of the improved breeze for Saturday’s two races to start Sunday’s double-points scoring medal showdown just two points behind Spain’s Rafael Trujillo.

Trujillo suffered in the 10-boat final, finishing seventh in the race and outside of the overall medal positions in fourth, while Kljakovic Gaspic took second to Wright’s third in the medal race to finish equal on points with the British sailor, but with his better placing in the final race handing him the European title.

“Having won the Europeans in 2006 I really wanted to get gold again here, but with the conditions we’ve had this week and considering where I was at the beginning of the week, I’m happy with silver,” Wright explained. 

“The medal race was a tricky race, just as it’s been all week,” he continued.

“The wind was off the land so we had very shifty and gusty conditions.  I got a pretty good start but I couldn't really tack because there were a lot of boats on my hip.  The Croatian, Mate, managed to tack and cross and he was away for the race.

“On the first run [Mate and Ivan] just got away really and we were just trying to catch them the rest of the race.”

Fellow Skandia Team GBR sailor Giles Scott also featured in the final medal race, finishing his regatta in seventh, with teammates Mark Andrews and Andrew Mills ending their Europeans campaigns in 14^th and 17^th places respectively.

“It’s certainly been a week for smart sailors,” surmised Skandia Team GBR Finn coach Matt Howard.

“It’s incredibly tiring and mentally draining on the sailors being on standby for so many hours each day, and then having to raise your game to start racing at 6 or 7 o’clock in the evening.

“It’s great for Ed that he’s managed to come away with silver after such a testing event, and he still remains the most consistent performer in the class this year.”

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Emirates Team New Zealand has stretched out their lead in the Portugal Trophy after winning the coastal race for the first time in their Audi MedCup history.

Dean Barker and his crew on board NZL380 dominated the 38-mile race running between Cascais and Lisbon, relishing the strong northerly winds which gusted over 25 knots.  

Today’s victory – Emirates Team New Zealand’s first in a coastal race in six Audi MedCup regattas – has given the defending champions a 14-point lead going into tomorrow’s final two races.

“We’ve got a nice little buffer now,” said Barker.

“It was a perfect course for us today, and we were determined to come out of the blocks firing.”

Emirates Team New Zealand was second off the startline behind closest rivals TeamOrigin, but took the lead around the first mark off Cabo Raso, the western tip of Cascais.  But as they rounded, their gennaker exploded, allowing TeamOrigin back into the battle.

“We blew out the chute on the hoist, but the guys did a fantastic job to recover, and we passed TeamOrigin again,” Barker said.

NZL380 then established a sizeable lead at the end of the run, continuing to build on that, gib-reaching to the eastern end of the course at the historic Belem Tower on Lisbon’s River Tajo.

At the finish directly off the Marina of Cascais breakwater, Emirates Team New Zealand crossed line one and a half minutes ahead of the next boat, Matador, of Argentina, which had Italian Francesco Bruni calling tactics.

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Weird Coastal Race for Team Origin

Today saw the spectacular coastal race take place on day four of this Audi MedCup series, a 38 mile battle with winds forecast between 15 and 25 knots. This was an important race in the series as the results hold a 1.5 point multiplier. TEAMORIGIN started with great promise, yet again an awesome start and leading for the first lap, but then appearing to struggle for speed in the long downwind legs, ending up in a disappointing 9th position. Emirates Team New Zealand took a comfortable race win consolidating their position at the top of the leaderboard with two races to go. TEAMORIGIN now lie in a very close 4th place going into the last day.

For full story go to www.medcup.org

TEAMORIGIN quotes from today:

Mike Sanderson, TEAMORIGIN Team Director : “We had an awesome start, led from the outset and had a great first lap. Near Cape raso mark we seemed to slow, maybe foul tide and ETNZ got ahead of us, they then blew a spinnaker and we passed them again and from then on we were completely off the pace. We are not sure why, maybe we caught a bag or something but it did not feel right so we are spending the time to analyse and work it out.

All in all a very disappointing day for the guys, for sure you do not expect to be leading for a whole lap after an awesome start and then finish in 9th place, pretty unheard of so something is wrong for sure and we will find the way to put it right and move on.”

Juan Vila, TEAMORIGIN Navigator, added “We had a pretty good first beat and 1st run and going into Cabo Raso mark we felt a bit slower there, from then on other boats overtook us and we couldn’t really find the pace to get back into it, now we need to find the reason why.”

Coastal race results from today:
1. Emirates team New Zealand
2. Matador
3. Audi A1 powered by ALL4ONE
4. Artemis
5. Bribon
6. Bigamist 7
7. Quantum
8. Cristabella
9. TEAMORIGIN
10. Synergy
11. Luna Rossa

TP52 Series results – overall after Day 4
1. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), 27.5 points
2. Audi A1 powered by ALL4ONE (FRA/GER), 41.5
3. Artemis (SWE), 42
4. TeamOrigin (GBR), 42.5
5. Synergy (RUS), 49
6. Matador (ARG), 52
7. Quantum (USA), 53.5
8. Cristabella (GBR), 55
9. Luna Rossa (ITA), 61.5
10. Bribon (ESP), 64.5
11. Bigamist 7 (POR),75

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Iain Percy, Tactician, “We almost had a very solid day, but one little misjudgement cost us. I was very pleased at how we responded to that mistake though, it is making the most out of those bad races that this long series is all about.”

So said Iain after Day 2 of the Audi MedCup Circuit event in Cascais, Portugal. It’s early days for Team Origin and their brand new TP52, but so far so good.

To read more about Iain’s tips on how to get out of a bad spot, check out the SailJuice exclusive interview with the gold medallist here: http://www.sailjuice.com/articles/Iain-Percy-Start-Recovery

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Ed Baird (left) with Rodney Ardern

With apologies to The Kinks for that shocking headline…

But anyway, Ed Baird is going to do some sailing next month at the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Sardinia. With Prada.

Not yet clear what Alinghi is going to do next, whether they’ll be back for the 34th America’s Cup, or there’s any substance to that rumour of Ernesto Bertarelli’s team having a go at the Volvo Ocean Race.

With Gavin Brady now skippering Mascalzone Latino, some of the Italian teams are looking less Latin than they used to, with the notable exception of Azzurra, sticking resolutely to the idea of a one-nation team.

There were some priceless moments, some pithy comments from the players in America’s Cup 33.

Here, in no particular order, are some of my favourites from Valencia….

“Sailing’s a lot harder than running a software company.”
Larry Ellison

“A grinder can produce about 1/4 horsepower for a few minutes then the muscles tie up with lactic acid. So when you’ve got eight grinders on board you’ve got about 2 horsepower, which is about the same as a sewing machine, I think.”
Mike Drummond, design team director, BMW Oracle Racing, comparing the power of eight grinders with a 100 horsepower engine.

“It wasn’t just an email from Russell saying, ‘We’d like to build a wing!’”
Larry Ellison, on the decision to build the biggest wing ever constructed.

“We might have to add a de-icing system.”
Russell Coutts, commenting on the arctic conditions which the sailors encountered in Valencia in February.

“The wing seems to be quite a weapon.”
Ernesto Bertarelli, after being soundly beaten in Race 1.

“You have to hand it to Oracle. What they wound up with is like a plane, not a boat. So they deserve to beat us.”
Brad Butterworth, team skipper and tactician of Alinghi

“I am very proud to be part of this team and I am exceptionally proud to bring the America’s Cup back to the United States of America for the first time in a very long time.”
Larry Ellison

“Of course we would like to see Alinghi back as a challenger. They are one of the best teams in this business, and they have proven that. I think that for the Cup boats we should reach consensus with the rest of the America’s Cup world. I think it would be irresponsible for one party to make try and make a decision on behalf of the everyone else. You need to put a lot of thought into this. This is a 159 year old trophy and let’s look after it.”
Russell Coutts

“One thing I would like to assure people about the 34th America’s Cup. There will be a completely independent jury, there will be completely independent umpires. It will be an independent group which manages the next America’s Cup and there will be a level playing field for all competitors.”
Larry Ellison

“You can’t win all the time. That’s the law of sport.”
Ernesto Bertarelli

33rd America's Cup winners: Coutts, Ellison, Kostecki, Spithill

Went to parties at the bases of BMW Oracle, the new holders of the America’s Cup, and Alinghi, who have just had to wave goodbye to it.

Won’t tell you whose party was best, that would be rude to my hosts. But was a good send-off for the 33rd Cup. A strange, bizarre but fascinating contest between two extraordinary boats.

Getting on a train to Barcelona today, and flying back to the UK tonight.

Valencia, as always, has been fantastic. But will it come back here? Larry Ellison was hedging when asked that question last night. But I can’t see it. Even Pierre Orphanidis of ValenciaSailing.com has gone out and bought a new domain name, NewportSailing.com! What has he heard that I haven’t?

A funny moment when despite Larry’s best efforts to keep the identity of his Challenger of Record secret for just a while longer. But a well-worded question from a Spanish journalist suggesting that Vincenzo Onorato of Mascalzone Latino had already gone public on it, brought wry smiles from Russell Coutts and an admission from Ellison that Vincenzo “is a friend and a truthful man in everything he says”. That brought a laugh.

If Alinghi had won, by the way, Team Origin from Great Britain would have been the Challenger of Record.

For a great round-up video by Rick Deppe and the BMW Oracle production team, and also our own podcast analysis from the end of the America’s Cup, click on the link below:

VIDEO AND AUDIO ROUND-UP OF THE CUP AT SAILJUICE.COM

© Jose Jordan/AFP/33rd America's Cup: BMW Oracle on the way to victory

Larry Ellison is the new holder of the America’s Cup.

“Absolutely an awesome feeling, very proud to be part of this team,” said Larry, who had ridden with his team on BMW Oracle Racing’s trimaran for a resounding, decisive victory in Race 2 of the 33rd America’s Cup. “I couldn’t be more proud. Alinghi fought really hard today.”

Alinghi certainly did fight hard. After the strangest of pre-starts, picking up a penalty for venturing into the start box before the 5 minute gun, the catamaran looked a lot more competitive today. Upwind at any rate.

Downwind Alinghi 5 just didn’t have the legs to hold on to USA 17 down the two reaching legs. At the windward mark Alinghi trailed by 28 seconds. By the finish it was 5 minutes 26.

If Alinghi had managed to round ahead of BMW Oracle at the windward mark, what sort of action could we have seen on the reaches? Could Alinghi have defended against the powerful trimaran? Questions to which we’ll never know the answer.

Still, at this evening’s press conference we can at least ask some of the things to which we’d like to know the answer. But word is that it will be separate conferences for the two teams. Still no opportunity for public reconciliation between the billionaires. Would be nice for two and a half years of warring over a yacht race to be resolved by a hand shake. But that might be too much to expect.

After seeing the glint of success in the eyes of James Spithill, Russell Coutts and Larry Ellison at the BMW Oracle press conference, it was an altogether more sombre affair for Alinghi.

Fair play to Brad Butterworth, Rolf Vrolijk and Ernesto Bertarelli for fronting up under difficult circumstances.

But it looked like the fight had gone all out of them. Rolf was putting a brave face on it, saying they’d analyse the data to see what they could do to reconfigure. Going to take some reconfiguring to overcome the sort of speed deficit we saw today.

Ernesto said there was still a race to go – actually in theory there are two. But he kept on talking about the next race as if it was the final race. The repeated faux-pas surely revealed something of his dying hopes for a successful Cup defence.

And Brad didn’t even try to disguise his belief that it was all over bar the shouting. Pierre Orphanidis of Valencia Sailing threw a tough one at Brad: “You have often stated that the America’s Cup is a design race. Would you say after today that Alinghi has failed to design?”

A long pause, and then titters of laughter from the audience as the silence becomes ever more uncomfortable….

Brad (eventually, with a shrug and a smile): What do you want me to say mate? They sailed from behind us – to in front of us.

“Did you see what happened? Then you can work it out.

“Today, they certainly showed how fast they can get their boat going. They couldn’t have come off the line in a worse position, and wound up in a very strong position. When you’re sitting in front of them and they sail up and around you, that’s speed. With an ‘S’.”

That was about the frankest assessment of the whole evening. BMW Oracle Racing weren’t prepared to count their chickens, paying a lot of respect to Alinghi. But bar breakage, it’s hard to see the Auld Mug doing anything other than head back to the USA for the first time since 1995.

We’ve done a Sailing Talk podcast looking back on an extraordinary day.

DOWNLOAD THE PODCAST HERE…

© Gilles Martin-Raget/ BMW Oracle Racing: Three Hulls Good

So now we know. Wing rigs rule. After months of speculation, it wasn’t even close.

I was sitting at the BMW Oracle team base all day next to Peter Lester and Martin Tasker, the TV boys working for the American team.

What about that pre-start! Before the start Alinghi was flying around, looking the nimbler of the two boats in the light airs.

But come start box entry time, BMW Oracle flew into the start box at double speed, James Spithill gunning for Ernesto Bertarelli from the moment the gun fired.

A penalty! Less than a minute into the 33rd America’s Cup. Who could have foreseen that? Who said that multihulls make for dull match racing?

Then the next twist as Spithill, controlling the slow-speed dial up, finds himself stalled above the line as Bertarelli – the wealthy owner – outsmarts the world’s best match racer at his own game. As Spithill commented afterwards: “There is stuff we can do to improve. Obviously downspeed we need some practice!”

I had a chat with Ian Walker, the British Volvo and AC skipper, who had driven up that morning from Mar Menor (where he’s been learning to sail a foiling Moth – pulled off a foiling gybe at this third attempt!) on the off-chance of there being a race today. “How many matches did we have to go through in the last Cup to see a race that good?” he said. “Even I thought it was boring most of the time, and I was racing!”

Today’s race was not boring.

The start was sensational action, but that was not the defining moment of this match. It was the 10 minutes afterwards, when USA crossed the start line more than 600m back from Alinghi, behind and to leeward. As USA climbed up onto one hull, metre by metre the American boat moved forward AND climbed to windward of Alinghi. It was noticeable how much Bertarelli was having to steer A5 to keep the windward hull flying, whereas Spithill was barely turning the wheel. He was in a groove that Bertarelli never seemed to find.

Perhaps downwind would be Alinghi’s redemption. But no. Peter Lester did an off-the-top-of-his-head estimate that BMW was about 6% faster upwind, whereas downwind that figure was more like 16%, maybe more.

It was chalk and cheese. And it was Cheese (Dirk de Ridder) with his hands on the controls of the world’s biggest wing – bigger than any aeroplane wing ever built. A wing that flew like we couldn’t have imagined.

CLICK HERE FOR JAMES SPITHILL’S ADVICE ON HOW TO GET YOURSELF OUT OF A FINE MESS….

Ed Baird explains the match racing moves for America's Cup 33

I went to a match racing presentation at the Alinghi base today (where Richard Branson was getting the royal tour from Ernesto Bertarelli, by the by). Ed Baird offered some excellent insights into the daunting task of match racing these giant multihulls in the 33rd America’s Cup.

WATCH ED BAIRD VIDEOS ON MATCH RACING MOVES HERE….

Alinghi’s helmsman (although he won’t be on the boat for the 33rd) pointed out that the race course is a massive 450 square miles, compared with just 9 square miles for the previous Cup in monohulls.

But there won’t be the same aggressive manoeuvres in the big multis, certainly no repeat of the famous ‘dial down’ which saw the Kiwis cop a penalty from Alinghi in the final race of the 32nd Cup match.

Baird also pointed out that if a crew man falls overboard during the 33rd Match, not only is the team not obliged to pick up the man overboard, but it is also possible for the soggy crewman to be picked up by a chase boat and put back on board for the remainder of the race! Can’t wait to see that one.

Although whether anyone would be in a fit state to keep on sailing is another matter. Not only would the impact of hitting the water at 20-plus knots be a bit of a shock, but it is freezing cold in Valencia right now.

It was also pretty windy in VLC today. We can console ourselves with the fact that even if today had been a race day, nothing would have happened anyway. It was probably too windy for Version 5 boats, let alone these fragile multihulls.

BMW Oracle Racing’s trimaran was swinging around on her moorings in the gusty breeze, although they are growing increasingly confident in the boat’s ability to do this without any harm to the boat. “The boat is moored at the buoy with the wing sail vertical and we’ve seen more than 30 knots,” said Max Sirena (ITA) who is in charge of the wing sail logistics. “It looks scary, but all is good so far.”

The team remains eager to race. The main reason for leaving the wing sail up is so that the boat is ready to go racing early Friday morning. “Over the last couple of weeks we’ve built up heaps of confidence,” mast man and boat director Matthew Mason (NZL) told the media in a Q+A session.

“We’re very satisfied. Logistically this thing (the wing sail) is hard. At one stage we thought we’d be lowering it down all the time, but as of today, we’ve got it up in nearly 35 knots.”

The forecast is for the strong winds to persist into Thursday night. Friday morning brings a significant easing trend. Cold temperatures are expected for several days.

Journalists and spectators are already getting frustrated by the lack of action in Valencia, after a seemingly perfect day’s sailing was called off.

However, principal race officer Harold Bennett put us right on the suitability of the conditions. It might have been flat water inshore, but as he motored more than 20 miles offshore, the seas got lumpy and everyone is heaving off the side of the race committee catamaran. Although the breeze was only up to 17 knots, Bennett canned racing due to the sea state, with waves kicking up higher than 1.5m. Bennett reminded us that he’d said we’d need to be patient. “This is not the best time of year to be trying to do this,” he said, adding that he reckoned he’d seen just five or six suitable sailing days in the past three weeks in Valencia. Not good.

So no action, something we’re going to have to get used to. Instead it was another day of press conferences and interviews. Jimmy Spithill played to a packed crowd in the BMW Oracle cinema. Just as well the seats are comfy, as I suspect we’ll be spending quite some time in this room.

Spithill is a class act, by the way, refusing to be flustered by journalists’ questions designed to get him to say more than he should, while still actually having something interesting to say.

Then at the Alinghi base I got a few words with Ed Baird, who isn’t on the boat but is always good for an interview. More from him and others coming soon over on SailJuice.com.

Meanwhile here’s today’s Sailing Talk podcast that we put together at the Alinghi base. And if you find it a bit noisy, well, that’s because Alinghi 5′s engine was being fired up just 20 metres away. Not a great advertisement for engines on sailing boats!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE PODCAST….

john Kostecki next to an image of the wing rig against a jumbo jet

A very interesting visit to the BMW Oracle Racing base this afternoon, to hear the skipper, tactician and navigator explain various aspects of the American campaign for the 33rd America’s Cup.

John Kostecki, tactician for BMW Oracle in the 33rd America’s Cup, talked about the potential advantages of the wing rig – acceleration, manoeuvrability – in the match against Alinghi’s catamaran. And James Spithill looked at the advantages of trimarans v catamarans.

I posted some videos here:

CLICK HERE FOR AMERICA’S CUP VIDEOS….

Topics discussed include: The Weather, Rocky The Movie, and Armageddon The Movie. And a bit about sailing, or lack of it…

http://www.sailjuice.com/articles/sailing-talk-podcast-day-1-americas-cup

No racing.

Not even a sniff of it. After the whoop-whoop send-off for the two protagonists this morning, the building excitement seeped away as Day One of the 33rd America’s Cup turned to a damp squib. Alinghi 5 did their best to demonstrate the potential for racing, hoisting their sails and driving the boat as hard as possible in whatever gusts came their way, the Swiss catamaran generating 15 knots’ boat speed and raising a hull in just 5 knots’ breeze. BMW Oracle weren’t playing that game, preferring to bob around and wait for the wind to settle, which it never did.

“I heard it was 20 degrees and 14 knots’ breeze in RAK today,” was the dry comment from Alinghi’s engineering guru Dirk Kramers standing in the spitting rain of Valencia. The sodden spectators and photographers who shivered their way back from the 54-mile round trip to the start line were probably also wishing that Alinghi had got their way and that we were all sunning ourselves in Ras Al-Khaimah.

BMW Oracle’s meteorologist Chris Bedford summed up the weather: “We had a southerly breeze well offshore that was occasionally filtering into the start area. But closer to shore we had a westerly breeze for most of the afternoon. At times it was showing up to 14 knots at the top mark. So there was pressure trying to make it onto the course, but because of these two winds converging, we never had enough breeze over a 20-mile leg to get going… I think the Race Committee did a good job today.”

Now with the strict Deed of Gift rules to be abided by, we can’t look at a race until Wednesday, when the weather prognosis is not much better. Still, if you remember back to the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2007 it was nine days before the first race got away. So we might just have to learn to be patient a while longer.

© SailJuice.com: Andy Rice & the Wing Rig

Got up at 5am to see the BMW Oracle Racing dock-out.

Larry, Russell, James and the gang emerged from one of the tents like Bruce Willis and the astronauts who saved the earth in ‘Armageddon’. Larry high-fived the team. The atmosphere was pumped up. It felt like we were watching a team that believes it’s going to win, but then I didn’t see the Alinghi dock-out and maybe it was the same there.

The star of the BMW Oracle show was definitely the wing itself. It is a breathtaking sight. Can’t wait to see it in action.

YOU CAN SEE THE DOCK-OUT VIDEO HERE…

© Carlo Borlenghi/ Alinghi: preparations on Alinghi 5

What they’re saying on the eve of the America’s Cup.

Harold Bennett (NZL) Principal Race Officer:

His thoughts on the weather for Race 1 day:

“At the moment it looks like a very light offshore breeze early, which will fade away and begins to look like coming from the south. That was an earlier forecast and so we don’t have a straight answer on that just now.

Does he have clear ideas in his mind about what the wind limits might be?  
“We will take the day as it comes and work it our from there.”

Is there any step change in technology they are using for race management since 32nd Americas’ Cup:
   “I think probably there is no much of an advance in terms of technology in what we are using, we use the same methods as before.”

Alain Gautier (FRA), Alinghi, on the start: 
“The priority boat will try to put a penalty on the other. And on these boats that can be very expensive.”
“It is less important to break the start line on the gun than to start well launched with speed and without a penalty.”

James Spithill, (AUS), BMW ORACLE Racing:
 “It is all new to us. The boats have completely different characteristics and obviously we only have the one boat each and so we have not really been able to go out there and try as hard as we usually do. I think it will be interesting. I think they have tried to set up the start line so there will be no ‘dial-up’. I think we will see the boats turn back quite early and really try to fight for the side. The first cross is so important in match racing, however I think this time you really want o be going the right way. To do any manoeuvre in a multihull is quite expensive. I am quite excited myself, because I just can’t wait to see what happens. “