America's Cup Champion forced out of Practice Race session + Video

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com NZ on 28 Apr 2017 Five-time America's Cup winner, Russell Coutts' comments following the conclusion of Practice Session 4 will be illuminating.

After the conclusion of four days of the five days scheduled racing in Bermuda, the Oracle Team USA CEO may find some of his comments on previous sessions coming back to haunt him.

After the last Practice session which concluded on April 12, Coutts remarked: 'Softbank Team Japan needs to address their reliability issues, but with Dean Barker and Chris Draper in charge – I’d fully expect them to. '

So far in the current Practice Session which wraps up today in Bermuda, according to Sail-World's sources and video this time it is Oracle Team USA which has the reliability issues.

On Tuesday the team apparently cut short a practice session, with a broken rudder.

On Wednesday the Defender actually made it onto the course in despite strong winds - the only team to do so. The Kiwis tried to exit the marina at the Royal Dockyard, but were caught unaware by a wind gust when sailing at low speed, and were lucky to escape with a shake-up, a spot of submarining and minor damage.

That day, winds were probably more than the upper wind limit of 25kts which can be tempered due to safety at the call of the Regatta Director Iain Murray, who has completed in four America's Cup campaigns.

On Thursday, Oracle Team USA was well into a Practice Session and again pulled up short as they were chasing Artemis Racing the form boat of the regatta to date. The cause of the issue appeared to be dagger board related as a shower of spray erupted from the starboard side of the boat which is likely to have come from a daggerboard, triggered by its adjusting ram.

In a video from MyislandhomeBDA, (2m 45 sec in the second video at the bottom of the story) the AC50 slows completely, a crew member can be seen to leave the cockpit look at the starboard slot and mechanism and then return to the cockpit. After which a comment appears to have been made, and one of the afterguard cross the trampoline at walking pace, and sits in the opposite hull, with the session clearly at an end.

OTUSA sailed away on starboard tack and returned to base assisted by the team chase boat when they tacked onto the starboard hull.

It is not possible to tell from a distance as to whether they had a daggerboard (broken or intact and retracted) in the starboard case, and a busted ram would probably be the lesser of the two setbacks.

Only four teams contested the Practice Session on Thursday, with Land Rover BAR and Emirates Team NZ remaining ashore.

The cause of the British absence is not known, however given the conditons they may have decided to install more newly developed features into their AC50 ahead of a lighter air Friday, than having another day in winds at the top end of the range.

Emirates Team NZ are believed to be close to using a set of proper AC50 daggerboards rather than the daggerboards and rudders from their AC45, which got pulled into play a few after they started sailing Auckland.

The fresh winds which have been a feature of the racing in this session are expected to ease for the final day, and winds are generally expected to be lighter for the America's Cup Regattas which get underway on May 26.

Russell Coutts' comments on his own team after Practice Session 3 don't seem to have much effect. 'Oracle Team USA didn’t have a great series,' said the Oracle Team USA CEO. 'Jimmy Spithill and Tom Slingsby will be looking to improve their consistency in manoeuvres and figure out better strategies to keep themselves in the race when they get behind.'

In the racing that has been completed, Artemis Racing is clearly the form boat. The Swedish team emerged with a nine-win no loss record from the third Practice session, taking four wins off the Defender. Add to that the two wins they extracted from Oracle Team USA in the final two days of Practice Session, and that is a 6-0 record against the Defender, and that doesn't include race wins from the current series.

While the Practice Sessions have been termed 'pre-season' by Oracle Team USA skipper Jimmy Spithill, one would have probably expected a better scorecard than six losses on a trot by the defending champion, given that they have been on-site at the regatta venue longer than any other team, have a fleet of AC45S development boats. At some stage, Oracle Team USA have got to start winning.

Their lucky break is that the Defender wrote themselves into the Qualifier Series for the first time in America's Cup history. Without that opportunity for further target practice and a further seven days and seven races, OTUSA would have just two Practice sessions left or seven race days. The Qualifier Series doubles that number of Race Days - and will be serious racing for the opening stanzas anyway - with only one boat being dropped from the Regatta with the other four going through to contest the Play-Offs.



The situation with Emirates New Zealand is that they have had to undergo measurement this week, along with all the other teams. They are still using a set of AC45S foils (daggerboards and rudders) as a temporary measure. They have also indicated that there is still more development to come. If the wind is lighter (8-11kts from the SE) , then they may race for the first time on Friday

In an interview published on America's Cup.com Oracle Team USA skipper Jimmy Spithill described practice racing as the America's Cup version of a 'preseason' in the NFL where teams get to line up in a race environment and put their boats and sailors to the test.

'It is an indicator of how the teams are going - there is no question about that'. Spithill doesn't believe the teams are 'showing their full colours' at this stage. 'But this series is showing just how tough this regatta will be - and it will be one helluva boat race,' the two times America's Cup champion added.

Land Rover BAR skipper Ben Ainslie commented that he thought each team was at a different stage with their development. 'Our team certainly has a huge amount left in the tanks in terms of upgrades to the boat and its performance. We are clearly going to need that given how the racing has gone for us so far. That's the nature of being a new team in the America's Cup. It's a challenge, but we are confident that we have a lot of potential gain between now and the Cup.'

Artemis Racing skipper Nathan Outteridge said their focus was 'a little bit about a speed check-in, but mostly about race performance and analysing our racing decisions'. Of all the teams Artemis Racing appear to be top of the class of 2017 - in the moderate to heavy conditions that have prevailed for the last two sessions, at least, and are where a team would be expected to be with just 28 days left to the start of the regatta.

Emirates Team New Zealand is obviously yet to show its hand. But for the teams that have been in Bermuda for several months, they are off the pace.

The fourth Practice Session concludes Friday local time, with the next session not being until mid-May with a five-day session set down from May 15-19. Until that time, under the terms of the Protocol, Emirates Team New Zealand, and indeed all other teams will not be allowed to sail against each other in a 'co-ordinated' manner.

After that there are just three days of competitive sailing allowed before the start of the Qualification Series on May 26.

Practice Racing Day 4 - April 27 Groupama vs Artemis :



Practice Racing Day 4 - April 27 - Artemis Racing vs Oracle Team USA :



Practice Racing Day 4 - April 27 Oracle Team USA :