America’s Cup and Louis Vuitton Cup Sailing

Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker beat former boss Russell Coutts in the final of the Congressional Cup in California yesterday in their first encounter since the disastrous America’s Cup defence.

Following on from Emirates Team New Zealand’s success in last year’s pre-cup regattas in Europe, Barker edged out Coutts and his Danish crew 2-1 in the final sailed off Long Beach.

With a race each in the best-of-three series, Barker clinched the decider by a comfortable 19 seconds.

Barker gets one back on former boss Coutts

The team, skippered by New Zealander Dean BARKER (NZL), who is currently competing in the ISAF Grade 1 Congressional Cup in California, USA, has used the southern hemisphere summer to test hulls, appendages and sails.

By the end of next week, the programme will have been completed and the team will pack up and prepare for the move to Valencia for the 2005 pre-regattas which start on June 15.

Data collected from the summer programme with NZL81 and NZL68, the yacht built for the 2003 Louis Vuitton Cup by the Illbruck Challenge, has provided valuable input as the design team works towards the first new yacht for 2007.

Emirates Team New Zealand is winding up it’s summer testing programme on the Hauraki Gulf

The world’s second-oldest match-racing series has something the next America’s Cup won’t.

Russell Coutts is among the 10 skippers entered in this week’s 41st Congressional Cup being sailed out of Long Beach Yacht Club.

America’s Cup’s loss Congressional Cup’s gain

Former Team New Zealand boss, Tom Schnackenberg, has taken legal action against the team, claiming it has deliberately shut him out of the next America’s Cup.

The veteran sailor and boat designer, who held the syndicate together when Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth defected to Alinghi in 2000, has lodged papers in the High Court at Auckland claiming Team NZ’s new leadership hired him only to stop him from moving to another team.

His lawyer said yesterday: ‘Any of the syndicates would have him if they could.’

Schnackenberg, 59, was the syndicate head of the disastrous 2003 Cup Defence, after which an independent report identified the management structure as the most important reason for the failure to retain the cup.

When round-the-world helmsman Grant Dalton was brought in to manage the next challenge, Schnackenberg was demoted to the design team.

Schnacks sues Team New Zealand

After months of speculation and wrangling, Bertarelli says that he and Coutts “have amicably settled their past disagreements. As part of this settlement, Russell Coutts shall not sail for another team in the 32nd America’s Cup.” But that was last week. This week it has been learned that the door to Coutts participation in the next Cup is not completely closed. Even though the two have “reached a settlement”, the agreement is banning Coutts from “sailing.” The unanswered question is whether the change in protocol prevents Coutts from joining a syndicate in a non-sailing capacity. With Coutts sailing ability, his engineering knowledge and technical know-how, he would be a tremendous asset to any team.

Coutts not to sail

Sacked America’s Cup skipper Russell Coutts will not compete in the 2007 event after “amicably” settling his differences with team Alinghi.

The New Zealander was dropped by Alinghi boss Ernesto Bertarelli in July 2004 after a row over the running of the team for the defence in Valencia.

As part of the deal, Coutts will be blocked from joining a rival syndicate.

Coutts agrees to sit out 2007 Cup

Luna Rossa sets sail again with the president of the Democrats of the Left on board. Massimo D’Alema will comment live on the regattas, which will be broadcast by La7. The unusual new initiative aims to relaunch the America’s Cup challenge of the Luna Rossa team, which is hoping to extend interest and raise awareness of yachting in general, and of the America’s Cup in particular.

Luna Rossa Sets Sail Again With D’Alema On Board

Pavilion Technologies, a world leader in advanced process control (APC) and environmental compliance solutions, announced on Monday, 14th March, 2005 that it is an official supplier for Emirates Team New Zealand, challengers in the 32nd America’s Cup which will take place in 2007 in Valencia, Spain.

As part of the agreement, Emirates Team New Zealand will license Pavilion’s technology to visualize, analyze and model navigational, structural and meteorological data. Harnessing data about weather conditions, ship design and sailing course means the crew can make model-based predictions that will improve overall team performance in its bid for the Cup.

“Technological innovations have always been a key contributor to America’s Cup success and we are pleased to have Pavilion Technologies as an Official Supplier for the next Cup challenge,” said Grant Dalton, Managing Director of Emirates Team New Zealand. “We believe that Pavilion’s software, through its ability to model performance, identify improvements and provide predictive guidance, is a valuable contributor to our success.”

Pavilion’s modeling software recognizes complex patterns in data, applies models to incoming data and generates the best course of action to achieve the desired result. The software resides on the Emirates Team New Zealand yacht and continuously monitors more than 125 sensors capturing real-time information related to navigation, weather and overall ship conditions. By collecting and analyzing these data points the crew can model “what-if” scenarios in real-time during the race. Predicting the outcome of numerous potential actions — such as the ideal position for crossing the starting line — will maximize the yacht’s performance in competition.

Emirates Team New Zealand is relying on the same software Pavilion’s manufacturing customers use every day for advanced process control. Companies such as BP, Chevron Phillips and Nestle depend on the same solutions to increase yield, enhance product quality and reduce costs in manufacturing operations.

“Pavilion is proud to be an official supplier to Emirates Team New Zealand,” said Pavilion CEO Ralph Carter. “It is interesting to see the same technology applied to competitive sailing that leading manufacturers around the world use to generate production improvements for their companies. The same advantages that manufacturers experience in overall business performance through our technology, Emirates Team New Zealand experiences on the water in a sailing environment.”

The race for the America’s Cup includes a series of qualifying rounds that began in 2004 and will culminate in the America’s Cup match in 2007 in Valencia, Spain. Emirates Team New Zealand hopes to claim the Cup from Team Alinghi, which won the 31st America’s Cup race against then Team New Zealand in 2003.

The GBR Challenge British America’s Cup Team announced today that it is to suspend current operations. Peter Harrison, Founder and Chairman of the team, who has managed so far to gain a commitment of £20m from himself and private investors, conditional upon securing additional corporate funding to complete the budget, has made this decision due to the lack of significant corporate partners committing funds to support the venture at this stage.

Founder Peter Harrison, who totally funded GBR Challenge for the 31st America’s Cup event in New Zealand during 2001 to 2003 (the first British America’s Cup Team after a lapse of 15 years), has continued to fully fund the team in its preparations for the 2007 event. The syndicate has been designed to promote continuity, build on the experience of the last challenge and place the campaign at the highest competitive level and give Britain the best possible chance of winning the trophy. The 32nd America’s Cup takes place between 2005 and 2007 across a number of regattas in various European venues culminating with the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series and America’s Cup Match finals in Valencia, Spain during April to July 2007.

Peter Harrison commented, “It is with great disappointment that we have to make this announcement today. We were confident that with the combination of the event coming to Europe and evolving in its format to grow its already huge television audience and general profile as an event. We have spent 18 months promoting the team and the event and obviously we had hoped that we would have attracted major corporate backing by now to enable us to compete at the highest level.

“The America’s Cup is a very valuable marketing opportunity in terms of brand awareness, association and media coverage as well as offering hospitality opportunities in over 10 pre-regattas as well as the 2007 final events. With over 10m visiting spectators expected, I believe that the ‘World Cup of Sailing’, offers a guaranteed return on investment for any organisation to tap into. It is tragic that no corporate partner has yet come forward to take on this exciting and valuable opportunity.”

Peter Harrison and the team’s vision has always been long term. At the launch of GBR Challenge in January 2001 Peter set up a business model whereby he would provide the backing for the first challenge and build up the continuity for others to join in and possibly take the lead in the future. Since April 2003, the GBR Challenge Management Team has created a highly competitive, commercially viable operation. The team has successfully completed full planning and budgeting phases and carried out further developments on GBR 70 ‘Wight Lightning’ during an 8 week sailing programme in summer 2004. The team has also completed three rounds of tank testing and has instigated the process to convert GBR 70 and 78 to Version 5 design for the 2005 season of official America’s Cup racing regattas.

Most recently additional momentum has been gained through the involvement of Charles Dunstone, CEO of Carphone Warehouse, who confirmed that he was assisting GBR Challenge to secure the necessary additional funding. Charles, together with Peter Harrison’s input, has also introduced an innovative proposal, which focuses on using the team’s campaign and profile as a vehicle to promote and benefit a leading humanitarian charity. Over the last three weeks this proposal has received significant interest and support from potential corporate partners and charities alike. The GBR Challenge commercial team will still continue to focus all of its attention on progressing those discussions to a positive conclusion.

With technical development costs increasing in line with the planned programme, a full review of team strategy has been held and an agreement was reached by all that, as from today’s announcement, Peter Harrison should not carry these substantial development costs on his own without the support of additional partner funds.

Leslie Ryan, Head of Sponsorship and Marketing for the team remarked, “Peter Harrison has single-handedly got Great Britain back into the America’s Cup. His generosity and vision are appreciated by this team and by sailors and supporters throughout the country. However, he and the Management Team have concluded that without additional corporate partners willing to commit funds at this crucial stage, Peter should not continue to solely fund the GBR Challenge development programme. The team fully supports this view.”

The final date to enter the 32nd America’s Cup is April 30th 2005, so there is still time for interested parties to contact the team, examine the benefits and help ensure the future of this challenge.

Peter Harrison closed by stating, “The past four years have been both immensely enjoyable and extremely frustrating. Seeing a British boat back competing in this ‘World Cup of Sailing’ was, perhaps one of the proudest moments of my life, having to issue this statement today, one of the saddest. Sailing is currently Britain’s most successful Olympic sport with 5 medals won in each of the last two Olympic games and, as a sport, is definitely on the increase in terms of participation, media coverage and general profile. I am still hopeful that corporate partners with vision and imagination will come forward to support this team and gain valued return on their investment in what is sure to be a major world class event.”

Vodafone’s sponsorship of Team New Zealand, announced on Tuesday, is worth “well north” of seven figures and will see the America’s Cup team’s telecommunications supplied exclusively by Vodafone New Zealand until 2007.

For the first time, Team New Zealand boats will be able to transfer data in real time to analysts on the shore, rather than having to wait to come in from sailing to download information, as has happened in past years.

Vodafone pledges big bucks for boats

Massive global sponsorship for Shosholoza - South Africa’s America’s Cup contender - has taken the highly-motivated team to a new level.

Now, Durban-based Capt Salvatore Sarno, the managing director of Team Shosholoza, which will be competing in the big race in 2007, is starting to “seriously think” that if the crew approaches the level of their rivals, they could well win the highest-profile competition in international sailing.

Sarno - the chairman of the giant Mediterranean Shipping Company in South Africa - said the team had humbly accepted that, even if there were some experienced members in the crew, they were still the “little boys” in the America’s Cup.

Other international teams include Olympic medallists, while the fully-representative South African team is a development crew, which has never competed in the big race before.

Team Shosholoza is, in fact, the first African team to compete in the 153-year-old race.

However, the team is infect-ed with what Sarno calls the “Shosholoza virus” - and that, he explains, means they are driven by a huge vision, passion and commitment.

The campaign embodied the typical African spirit and passion to succeed and also aimed to showcase South Africa as
a modern, dynamic, exciting country with skills and technological expertise equal to the best in the world, Sarno said.

Team Shosholoza is the only national team competing in
the America’s Cup. Rival teams are made up of sailors from several countries.

And this gave the team the edge that could make all the difference to the outcome, Sarno predicted.

“Shosholoza is our home and we’ve got the home-town advantage. And the crew is more mature and stronger than last year,” said a proud Sarno.

He said the new R100 million sponsorship had given the team a “huge boost” and would not only make them feel more important, but also more relax-ed, in the knowledge that they were in good hands.

One of the largest international investments in a South African sports team and one of the biggest sponsorships in local sailing, the welcome boost comes from T-Systems, one of Europe’s leading providers of information and communications technology, which is associated with German Telecommunications.
Click here

T-Systems, now the chief sponsor, is also in South Africa, has almost 1 000 employees and boasts many blue-chip clients.

T-Systems’ worldwide image campaign is centred on competitive sailing, as it epitomises “a perfect interplay of strategy, tactics, perseverance, flexibility, speed and mastery of state-of-the-art technologies”.

When the company decided to sponsor one of the 11
yachts competing in the 2007 America’s Cup and several pre-race regattas, it commissioned two international marketing companies to advise them which was the favourite and had the potential to do well.

Both companies said that it was the Shosholoza - a firm favourite with the international media.

When Team Shosholoza competes against the best teams in the world, they will be watched by a live television audience of more than one billion people.

The new sponsorship will pay for a new Shosholoza yacht that is being built - it will be launched on April 27 - and also for the crew to go to Europe to compete in several regattas ahead of the big challenge in two years. Sarno has also res-erved the worldwide rights, for the name will go on to a third yacht, Shosholoza RSA 94.

He is still hoping to get an-other R55 million from other sponsors.

“I don’t think some big corporations realise the magnitude of this project. I’m not looking for big numbers anymore, but would like to get the backing of some of the well-known businesses. This is a national effort and this is the chance for them to have a stake.”

Portnet has just agreed to give Sarno a straddle carrier
- similar in function to a crane - which will be modified, then shipped to Valencia in Spain for a regatta, where it will be used to lift the Shosholoza in and out of the water.

Long before Marcello Burricks was born, South Africa’s apartheid police swept his mother and her family from their home in Simon’s Town, a period-piece village on the Cape of Good Hope, and dispatched them to an impoverished ghetto called Slangkop, or Snakehead. Their sin was being of mixed race in a place reserved for whites. Slangkop is where Marcello grew up, where his parents separated and where he hung with gangs and watched men die on the streets. When he was 8 a classmate stabbed him. When he was 14 he was arrested for beating a high-school teacher.

Today, 19-year-old Marcello Burricks helps trim the mainsail on a 25meter racing yacht in this city’s stunning Table Bay. The only people he wants to beat are Larry Ellison, Ernesto Bertarelli and a host of other billionaires in the next America’s Cup.

In South Africa, Yachting Erases a Racial Barrier

A plan to take the yacht Shosholoza out of the water to assess damage after a collision with a whale in Table Bay had to be put on hold when the crane to lift her out broke down early on Tuesday.

Shosholoza skipper Geoff Meek and navigator Marc Lagesse were injured during the sail training session in Table Bay on Monday when the America’s Cup yacht hit a Southern Right whale while sailing at 10 knots under spinnaker.

Auto electricians worked flat out on Tuesday to repair the mobile crane and managed to fix it before noon, after which the Shosholoza crew planned to haul the boat out to inspect her for possible damage to her keel.

The sudden impact on Monday brought the yacht to a dead stop, crew said.

Olympic sailor Ian Ainslie, who was on the helm at the time, fell forward over the port steering wheel, breaking the wheel clean off its mount.

Crane mishap delays inspection of Shosholoza

Team Shosholoza will be given a major injection of America’s Cup sailing and technical expertise following the arrival last week of a top German international yachtsman who has joined the team in a professional capacity.

Tim Kruger, who crewed on the French Le Defi Areva Challenge in the 2001-2003 America’s Cup in Auckland and again in the opening Acts of the America’s Cup in Europe last year has a star studded CV developed over 25 years of international competitive sailing.

Kruger’s appointment forms part of the R100-million sponsorship investment in Team Shosholoza announced last month by T-Systems, an IT multi-national which is the business customer brand of Deutsche Telekom.

Top German joins Shosholoza

A pair of whales roaming the Southern Hemisphere damaged an America’s Cup bid and an around-the-world attempt at a speed record during the past two weeks.

Of Feb. 15, South Africa’s first America’s Cup challenger suffered internal structural damage and three crewmen were injured when the 75-foot sloop Shosholoza had a head-on collision with a southern right whale while sailing at 10 knots off Cape Town.

Then last Saturday night, the 121-foot French catamaran Orange II, which is seeking to break the around-the-world sailing speed record held by American Steve Fossett, hit a killer whale off Argentina.

Whales get in the way of around-the-world try

Most people dream at night, but visionary Captain Salvatore Sarno dreams with his eyes open.

That’s what former Durban veteran sailor, Ian Ainslee, a world-class yachting champion, told Sarno, who had been considering buying a second-hand racing yacht.

For Sarno, the Durban-based shipping tycoon - he is the chairman of the Mediterranean Shipping Company (the second largest container carrier in the world) - had a dream to send a South African team to compete in the 153-year-old America’s Cup series, the most prestigious yachting event in the globe.

If Sarno could pull it off, it would be the first time that a team from Africa had risen to the challenge.

The Shosholoza dream

A Chinese investor has announced a pioneering 32 million euro ($42m) bid to challenge for sailing’s most prestigious trophy, the America’s Cup.

“China Team” is joining forces with French outfit Le Defi for the 2007 event, Wang Chaoyong, chief executive of a Beijing-based investment company said.

The joint venture will “create a vehicle to prepare ourselves to join the ranks of the America’s Cup challengers,” Wang added on Tuesday in Geneva.

Xavier de Lesquen, who led Le Defi’s unsuccesful challenge for the last two editions of sport’s oldest trophy in 2000 and 2003, said he hoped to join the formal list of challengers with China Team by the deadline of April 29.

De Lesquen, who will be the co-director with Wang, said the team was budgeting about 32 million euros for the bid.

The bid will be based in Qingdao, the site for the sailing events at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

China Team has its sights set beyond the 2007 Cup by aiming to train a small pool of emerging Chinese sports sailors and harness local engineering and design competence.

Chinese team unveils cup challenge

A press report on CNN.com reports that Wang Chaoyong - chief executive of a Beijing-based investment company - has announced a pioneering 32 million euro ($42m) bid to challenge for the America’s Cup.

Apparently China Team, as it will be known, is joining forces with Le Defi to hopefully embark on a challenge for the 2007 event in Valencia.

Xavier de Lesquen, who led Le Defi’s unsuccessful challenge in the last two ACC events, will be the co-director with Wang, and the challenge will be based at Qingdao - the site for the sailing events at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

China embarks on ACC campaign

The America’s Cup is coming to Sweden! Malmö, in the Skåne region at the south of Sweden, will be the Northern European location for the Louis Vuitton Acts 6 7, with racing beginning on the 25th of August, 2005. The back-to-back events, featuring both Match and Fleet Racing are among 14 opening Acts of the 32nd America’s Cup.

Malmö, supported by the regional district of Skåne, is a tremendous location for sailing in Northern Europe, as the America’s Cup continues holding events across Europe in 2005, before settling in its Host City of Valencia, Spain for 2006 and 2007.

Sweden will play host to Louis Vuitton Acts 6 7

K-Challenge, French Official Challenger for the 32nd America’s Cup, is back on the water for testing and training.

The team didn’t stop the work since the end of the Louis Vuitton Act 3 in Valencia last October, and after more than four months at the Gandia base in Spain with a busy design and shore program, FRA 57 is the first boat modified according to the ‘Version 5′ of the ACC Rule ready, and she has been launched today.

Thierry PEPONNET, K-Challenge’s Skipper: ‘this first day has been very positive for us. First of all, we were all very happy to go sailing again to begin the 2005 season. This was the first time we started to test the new version, so it gave us a better idea of the work directions we will choose to improve the whole configuration. We will go sailing again tomorrow, and there will already be changes made to start the process’.

FRA 60 will also be ready soon to join FRA 57. The two-boat testing and training program will now start in a few weeks in Gandia, with the goal of the next Louis Vuitton Acts 4&5 in mind. Those next Acts will take place in Valencia in June, then the teams will go to Sweden in Malmö at the end of August for Acts 6&7, and to Trapani in Sicily in October for Acts 8&9.

Dawn RILEY, K-Challenge’s General Manager, was also on the boat today: ‘we sailed for about two hours. This was mainly to ease into the new systems on the boat. We had perfect conditions today for our first sail out of Gandia. The cold and rainy temperatures of the past couple of weeks were worth it when we saw the snow on the mountains in brilliant warm sunshine and about 10 knots of wind. On the way in and the way out, we exchanged waves with the Real Club Nautico de Gandia junior sailors’

K-Challenge is now starting a new step in its program, as testing and training are crucial on the way to the 2005 season competitions, and the team is motivated more than ever to prepare the best boats as possible for the next Acts, where every team will compete for the first time under the Version 5 Rule.