America’s Cup and Louis Vuitton Cup Sailing

China Team will race in the Louis Vuitton Acts of 2006 under the sail number CHN79, the second boat of the 2003 DEFI generation which the technical team are working flat out on to bring up to the Version 5 standards and hope to be ready to be sailing in the spring.

Meanwhile, the site that has been allocated to China Team is still being used by Valencian fisherman. It is expected that renovations will begin once the site becomes available in early 2006.

The Spanish Challenge syndicate of the 2007 Americas Cup have inaugurated their new base in Valencia Port in front of 500 invited guests despite the intensely cold weather.

The base is one of the largest in the area with approximately 5000 square metres of space.

The high speed train tracks being laid through the Cuenca Province towards Valencia and Alicante will be stopped next year between March and June to allow several species of birds to breed.

The completion date for this project was expected to be ready for the Americas Cup in 2007 but 2010 is now being touted as the eventual opening. Critics of the Socialist government are saying that it is more likely to be 2012.

Emirates Team New Zealand became only the second syndicate to launch their new generation yacht on the weekend after South African team Shosholoza.

According to the NZ Herald, Emirates Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton said the boat’s maiden voyage went well.

“We have had no problems and you can’t deduce anything other than that.

“We have just been loading it up to check that it is okay structurally and we haven’t had any issues.”

The syndicate had aimed to get their new boat in the water by Christmas and now that that has been accomplished the team are right on schedule.

America’s Cup rules stipulate that teams must not skirt their boats until January 1 and as a result, NZL84 will be locked away in the boat shed away from the prying eyes of the kiwis from other syndicates at home for Christmas.

With the Louis Vuitton 6th Act over the series is proving to be a great programme for the bottom of the table teams in preparation for the Louis Vuitton Cup and America’s Cup in 2007.

Current America’s Cup holders Alinghi maintained an unbeaten record throughout the regatta to come out on top with 11 points one point ahead of their Louis Vuitton opponent in 2003, BMW Oracle Racing. Emirates Team New Zealand had a surprise loss to the Italian +39 Challenge syndicate seeing them finish on 8 points along with the other Italian syndicate, Luna Rossa Challenge.

New comers to the America’s Cup, China Team, managed a win over the French K-Challenge meaning no team left Act 6 without a win.

The competition rounded out as follows:

1. Alinghi - 11 Points
2. BMW Oracle Racing - 10 Points
3. Emirates Team New Zealand - 8 Points
4. Luna Rossa Challenge - 8 Points
5. Desafio Espanol 2007 - 6 Points
6. +39 Challenge - 6 Points
7. Mascalzone Latino - 5 Points
8. Victory Challenge - 4 Points
9. K-Challenge - 3 Points
10. United Internet Team Germany - 2 Points
11. China Team - 1 Point

Team New Zealand will try out some different sailing combinations but are still looking for results in the next phase of America’s Cup pre-regattas starting in Sweden on the 25th of August.

With the regattas now counting towards the 2007 challenger series, the Emirates-sponsored syndicate are the top ranked challenger after the opening two-race series in Valencia in June.

The afterguard will remain the same in Sweden - Dean Barker will drive, Terry Hutchinson call tactics, Kevin Hall navigate and Adam Beashel and Ray Davies will be strategists. Syndicate boss Grant Dalton said changes would be made in other positions.

Team New Zealand’s new Yacht is currently under construction.

The South African Team Shosholoza has become the first team to launch a new generation America’s Cup Class boat, built to Version 5 of the class rule. At a ceremony in Valencia, Spain on Thursday evening, RSA 83 was christened ‘Shosholoza’ by Rita Barberá, the Mayor of Valencia.
Team founder and leader Captain Salvatore Sarno was beside the Mayor as she broke the traditional bottle of champagne over the shiny bow of the glistening new boat. For Captain Sarno, this is the latest step on a long journey towards the America’s Cup that has captured the hearts of sailing fans around the world, so much so that his team is being called ‘the soul of sailing’.
After the formalities were completed, an emotional Sarno stood alongside the glistening new boat, and spoke of the affection he feels for his team.
“My biggest satisfaction is that tonight, after I spoke, my sailors came up to me and said thank you…we will never let you down. And that’s all that I want. Of course I want to win the America’s Cup, but this has already given me immense satisfaction.”
The new boat appears strikingly narrow, but principal designer Jason Ker says he doesn’t expect it to be extremely different from the other boats it will be competing against. In fact, Ker says he looked to many of them for inspiration.
“It’s similar in some ways to the better boats from the last America’s Cup. There are bits that are similar to Team New Zealand, some bits that are like Oracle and some similarities to Alinghi. We’ve taken a pretty good look at those three in particular. We haven’t tried to re-invent the wheel.”
For Ker, a first time America’s Cup designer, the ceremony was a special moment.
“As a designer, to see your first America’s Cup boat in the water is pretty special. I’ll probably have to pinch myself for the next few days,” he said. “It’s been a whole lot of hard work for the past nine months and now we’re just really seeing it all take shape for the first time.”
Although the hull was lowered into the water for the ceremony, RSA 83 won’t be sailing until the middle of next week, giving the team just over two weeks to get it up to match pace. Skipper Geoff Meek says there is still plenty of work to do on the final fit-out. But he’s excited about the prospect of being more competitive in the six Louis Vuitton Acts this year, with a faster boat.
“It’s a fantastic moment for us. Now we have a boat that, while it might not be that quick in June – as we don’t have a lot of time to get it up to speed – by Sweden we expect to be fast,” Meek said. “I think that will help us in the sense that the better teams will have to be more aggressive with us on the starts if they think that we’re faster than in the older boat, and that’s how we’re going to learn.”
Team Shosho loza sailed in all three Louis Vuitton Acts in 2004, using an older generation boat than the rest of the fleet, and as a completely new team, they struggled at times to keep pace with the bigger, more experienced squads. Now, with RSA-83, they will be the only team competing with a new boat in 2005, and that should help the South Africans compete on a more equal footing with the mid-fleet teams. Shosholoza RSA 83 will sail its first race on the 16th of June when the 2005 America’s Cup season begins with the Louis Vuitton Act 4 in Valencia.

When Alan Bond’s winged-keel Australia II ran off from Newport, R.I., with the America’s Cup 22 years ago, five U.S. teams followed the tracks to Fremantle to get it back, like a posse after the Dalton Gang.

And, when Dennis Conner returned in triumph waving the Auld Mug, that’s when the aircraft carrier off San Diego should have flown the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner because it really meant something then.

The 1986-87 America’s Cup was mainstream news. Americans who didn’t know port from starboard stayed up late to watch an unknown commentator named Gary Jobson describe the wild and windy action for a fledgling cable TV company called ESPN.

It would never be the same again.

Conner’s Stars & Stripes team brought it back for the San Diego Yacht Club for two conventional defences, but those followed an aberration involving a big, beautiful New Zealand boat against a 60-foot catamaran.

After umpteen trips to the New York Supreme Court to thrash out the dispute, nobody outside of sailing seemed to care.

Conner wasn’t even the main player anymore.

Looking for Americans in the America’s Cup

Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton is miffed by suggestions that double Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie is unhappy with his role in the syndicate.

Ainslie has chosen to forfeit his position as strategist on the race boat in favour of developing his skills as a helmsman on the B boat - a position he shares with New Zealander Kelvin Harrap.

It is a move that seems to have surprised some sectors of the British media, who are now sceptical about whether Ainslie is happy at Team New Zealand.

It has even been implied that he may now wish he had followed the same path as his good mate Iain Percy, who is the skipper and helmsman of the low-budget and less-fancied Italian syndicate +39.

Dalton backs Ainslie move

BRITAIN’S two young aspiring match racers had contrasting fortunes at the Toscana Elba Cup yesterday. Ben Ainslie was knocked out in the first-round repechage having won four matches, while Iain Percy went through in the other half of the draw with only three victories.

Ainslie, sailing with four crew from Emirates Team New Zealand, including Andy Hemmings, of Britain, started in impressive form, beating Francesco de Angelis, of Team Luna Rossa, and Hamish Pepper, of Team Capitalia, to give the triple Olympic medal-winner four wins in six starts.

However, Ainslie, having tied with James Spithill, Ed Baird and Magnus Holmberg, was forced into the repechage and found himself in a sail-off against Team Shosholoza, from South Africa. What could have been an easy win went awry at the start, when Ainslie and his crew misjudged their approach to the line and were at least two seconds early. By the time they had spun their boat and recrossed the line, the South African boat was away to a five-length lead. It proved a deficit they could not make up.

False start leaves Ainslie’s hopes washed up

The challenge has been laid down for Team New Zealand with 10 other syndicates in the fight to take the America’s Cup off Alinghi.

The final deadline for syndicates to enter the 32nd event passed on Saturday morning.

Just hours before the deadline two new teams, from countries that have never before sailed in the Cup, scraped in.

The United internet Team Germany, representing the Deutscher Challenger Yacht Club, was accepted as the 10th challenger and organisers received the paperwork from China Team which will be evaluated over the next few days before the team is fully accepted as a challenger.

The German syndicate, formerly known as the Fresh 17 project, will be led by Danish skipper Jesper Bank, a two-time Olympic gold medallist and previous America’s Cup skipper in 2002/2003 with Victory Challenge.

China Team, as it will be known, is joining forces with Xavier de Lesquen, who led France’s Le Defi in 2000 and 2003 and will be the co-director with Wang Chao Yong. The challenge will be based at Qingdao, the sailing venue for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

With 11 challengers representing nine countries, America’s Cup Management chief executive Michel Bonnefous said it was not just one of the biggest America’s Cups in history, but by far the most diverse.

Big America’s Cup fleet most diverse ever

Team New Zealand will seriously fear just two of the 10 other challengers confirmed for the 32nd America’s Cup in 2007.

That is Peter Montgomery’s take on the final makeup of the Louis Vuitton fleet ready to fight for the right to challenge Swiss holders Alinghi for the Auld Mug in Valencia, Spain.

The defending Swiss yacht club, Societe Nautique de Geneve, accepted late “challenge dossiers” from German and Chinese syndicates before the official entry deadline on Saturday.

It will mean a Louis Vuitton challengers’ series comprising 11 syndicates from nine countries with South Africa’s Team Shosholoza joining United Internet Team Germany and China Team by Le Defi as America’s Cup rookies.

But Montgomery, the voice of world sailing, is confident Team New Zealand’s campaign for a dream rematch with Alinghi will be seriously tested only by the Larry Ellison and Chris Dickson-led BMW Oracle Racing and Italy’s equally well funded Luna Rossa Challenge.

Two main threats to Kiwi cup challenge

Dennis Conner is all but finished with the America’s Cup, unable to raise the staggering amount of cash needed to fund his own team and too old to steer someone else’s boat.

Conner, the man most identified with the oldest trophy in international sports, has said for more than a year that he likely would be priced out of the next America’s Cup. With the entry deadline for the 2007 regatta just hours away, Conner made if official on Thursday that he would not have a team in the cup for the first time in 30 years.

2nd U.S. team barely hanging on

Emirates Team New Zealand is fielding three crews on the international match racing circuit this year, skippered by Dean BARKER (NZL), Kelvin HARRAP (NZL) and Ben AINSLIE (GBR).

Emirates Team New Zealand join the list of America’s Cup teams to confirm their line ups for the major ISAF Graded Match Race events of the European Spring season.

The team have already had one success at the ISAF Grade 1 Congressional Cup, which was sailed off Long Beach, California, USA earlier this month. BARKER and his crew won the event from stiff opposition from the likes of Chris DICKSON (NZL) and Russell COUTTS (NZL).

America’s Cup 2007

Team New Zealand is close to securing another major sponsorship deal which would all but complete their funding for Valencia 2007.

Rumours abound the new backer is a giant Spanish brewery.

Team boss Grant Dalton is giving little away, apart from saying the deal is nearly done.

However, Dalton admits the contract negotiations are the most difficult he has ever been involved in.

It is understood the brewery is after a tax break from the Spanish government, should they fork out some sponsorship for Team New Zealand.

Deal nearly done for Team NZ

Germany will have a representative in the America’s Cup for the first time after United Internet Team Germany beat the entry deadline by hours.

The German team, sponsored by internet provider United Internet, was the 10th syndicate accepted to challenge Swiss holders Alinghi in 2007.

Germany make America’s Cup debut

Despite winning three Olympic sailing medals - two of them gold - it looks as if there will not be any place for Ben Ainsley in the next Americas Cup.

The Briton has been part of the Team New Zealand afterguard but looks set to miss out on a place in the actual sailing crew in 2007. He is one of the hottest properties in sailing, after winning his second Olympic gold in Athens last year.

Ainsley had been squaring off against other team members in testing races, but Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton says he is happy with Terry Hutchinson, Kevin Hall and Dean Barker in the afterguard, and it would take something major to happen for him to change his mind.

Three Olympic medals not enough for Ben Ainsley to secure place in the Team NZ afterguard for 2007 Americas Cup

Kevin Shoebridge, the day-to-day boss of Emirates Team New Zealand, chuckles at the irony of Auckland’s fickle weather. Two summers ago, sailors sat and waited for days on end for a fair wind to blow on the Hauraki Gulf to race in the America’s Cup. Now, with the silverware elsewhere, the summer winds have been superb. In the four months of Team New Zealand’s first full-blown testing session towards the 2007 regatta, the team lost one day to the weather.

Team New Zealand wrapped up its summer sailing programme this week and Shoebridge, the operations/sailing manager - or the guy responsible for the day-to-day running of the syndicate - is a satisfied man.

Stage set for Act 4

Emirates Team New Zealand are ready to embark on the next part of their mission to reclaim the America’s Cup.

The syndicate’s summer training programme in Auckland has ended and the team are now packing up and heading to Europe for this year’s six pre-cup regattas or “acts”.

NZL82 will be shipped to Valencia next week for the first regatta in June. Most of the sailing crew will compete in various regattas until they are required in Spain.

While main rivals Alinghi, Oracle and Luna Rossa are set up and sailing in Valencia - the host city of the 2007 event - Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton is confident it was in his team’s best interests to conduct a training programme in Auckland during the European winter.

Team NZ ship out for Valencia

Former America’s Cup insider Sean Reeves is continuing his fight against having to pay nearly $2 million after a United States court finding that he broke a OneWorld Challenge secrecy clause.

Mr Reeves, a former Team New Zealand and OneWorld Challenge member, was sued for allegedly retaining and disclosing OneWorld’s confidential information.

Yesterday the Court of Appeal at Wellington reserved its decision on Mr Reeves’ appeal against a New Zealand High Court ruling that he did not have an arguable defence to avoid enforcement of the US judgment here.

If Mr Reeves wins in the Court of Appeal the case will probably go back to the High Court for an airing of his allegation that the judgment should not be enforced in New Zealand because through it OneWorld is trying to suppress evidence of its own wrongdoing.

America’s Cup court battle continues