America's Cup - fun and games, Moths and a Smoke test
by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World team on 23 Jul 2014
Team Australia AC45 Andrea Francolini
http://www.afrancolini.com/
On Monday we published the Sail-World interview with Iain Murray following the shock withdrawal of Hamilton Island Yacht Club as the Challenger of Record from the 35th America's Cup.
As our AC editor Richard Gladwell writes today, it was a delicate piece of timing and more is to come. It could be that HIYC might rejoin the fray if the building pressure on the defender delivers a seismic shift.
If matters play out as expected then the Italian Challenger Luna Rossa is expected to be installed as the new Challenger of Record in early August.
Under the Protocol, Hamilton Island Yacht Club was required to confirm that they would be an Entry in the 35th America's Cup, even though they had already made their Challenge in September 2013. Their decision announced in the weekend was that they would not be making that Confirmation.
Hamilton Island is also required to give 90 days notice of its intention to withdraw as Challenger of Record, and presumably that has also been done. The Protocol also provides for the outgoing Challenger of Record to stay in place as CoR, for the duration of that 90 day notice period.
So there is some order in the transition process, and the Protocol that has been negotiated stays in place for the time being at least. The fun and games are expected to start after entries close on August 8.
The Moth Worlds continue at Hayling Island in the UK, after a disasterous first race DNC, Nathan Outteridge is currently third ahead of Josh McKnight and Scott Babbage. Beau Outteridge continues to entertain with his video interviews. The fleet was mothballed today but Beau gave us the dirt.
And on the shameless self promotional front
Sail-World.com continues to hold its place as the most popular sailing website in the world according to the independent ranking organisatio Alexa.com.
We've been beavering away on a complete new front end version and last night successfully completed a 'smoke' test across 31 sites world-wide.
Called a 'smoke' test because you switch it live and look for smoke and even flames. Fire extinguishers were not needed and we will progress toward Beta testing in the coming days.
As soon as that is ready we will put a big Beta button on the existing site and you will be able to play with the new site, which has a host of new features.
Lots of interesting news as always, enjoy.
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