America’s Cup, Jules Verne, Sydney Hobart and World Sailing

by Guy Nowell, David Schmidt and Richard Gladwell on 18 Dec 2015 First up an apology that the steady flow of Sail-World newsletters has been interrupted over the last three weeks. An upgraded version of our mailing software proved to be less than reliable, driving the suppliers and their thousands of customers world-wide nearly crazy, including us!! However, with a bugfix version installed problems appear to be fixed and so our newsletters are flowing again.

Lots has been happening…

America's Cup: After a rough ride for the past two years, Emirates Team New Zealand took their first sailing steps in the 35th America's Cup in New Zealand, last week.

In this edition we feature a long interview with skipper Glenn Ashby, looking at where the team is up to, what they have achieved, and what lies ahead in the next 18 months, until the 35th America's Cup.

The fact that Team Zealand are still surviving is a minor miracle. Their competitors have tried very hard to get Team New Zealand out of the America's Cup game. They succeeded with Luna Rossa, and now the two teams have come together to pool some resources.

As we note in the story, and other coverage, the Luna Rossa AC45S appears to be rather innocuous viewed at ground level. But viewed from above the AC45S presents quite a different picture, and it would seem to be more advanced in the areas such as foils and controls, which are currently free design areas in the Cup rules.

Of course, the irony of this America's Cup is that while the Defenders talk cost constraint, and sell the line that cost is all about boat size. They have omitted to put any limit on the number of development boats that can be built, using AC45 below water hull sections. So far Oracle Team USA has sailed three of the AC45S test boats. They will also be launching two AC50's. That's five boats and counting.

The other irony of this America's Cup is that for the first time in 160 years the Defender will pass one of their test boats onto a Challenger to use. Softbank Team Japan will be given Oracle Team USA's first AC45s to use as their development boat.

Add to that the change to the Construction in Country rules where only 2.7 metres of the external skin of the AC50 is required to be laid up in the country of the challenging club. Few of the parameters remain that have previously been givens in the America's Cup competition.

The move by Luna Rossa to both withdraw and then work with another team, from another country, is equally unprecedented. But of course, it was part of the Cup tradition for an eliminated team to place their resources at the disposal of the remaining Challengers.

That was in the day when the Challengers worked together to relieve the Defender of the burden of the America's Cup. Now the motives of some Challengers seem to be quite different.

Round the World – Open Speed Record- the Jules Verne Trophy record for the fastest all-out circumnavigation.

The current Jules Verne Trophy record was set by skipper Loick Peyron and his capable crew in 2012 aboard Banque Populaire V (now Spindrift 2), and this exceedingly fast team managed to lap the planet in just 45 days, 13 hours, 42 minutes and 53 seconds, by way of the world’s great capes

Right now, two of the world’s most sophisticated maxi trimarans, are doing what they have both done before blasting around the world.

The 131-foot Spindrift 2, sailed by co-skippers Dona Bertarelli and Yann Guichard and their crew, and the 105-foot IDEC SPORT, sailed by skipper Francis Joyon and his crew, both left Ushant, France on November 22 with created a scenario where Spindrift 2 and IDEC SPORT are not only (informally) racing each other but also shadow boxing with Banque Populaire V’s reference time, which represented an improvement of almost three days over the previous record, held by the always-quick Franck Cammas and his crew aboard Groupama 3 (now IDEC SPORT).

Rolex Sydney Hobart 2015 The build-up continues.

Last night in the 2015 SOLAS Big Boat Challenge Bob and Sandy Oatley’s rebuilt super maxi Wild Oats XI showed she could again dominate the upcoming Rolex Sydney to Hobart race, with an impressive win.

After a perfect start, Wild Oats XI steadily drew away from the bigger, wider, more powerful 100 footers, Ragamuffin 100 and Perpetual Loyal, on every leg of the 14 nautical mile course.

Only the much lauded American 88-foot speedster, George David's Rambler, looked a potential threat to Wild Oats XI’s dominance of the annual Challenge (she can count eight wins from 10 starts, beaten only by her virtual sister ship Alfa Romeo).

The eight-time Sydney to Hobart line honours champion rounded the first mark with George David’s Rambler 88 but powered away to win in one hour two minutes and 23 seconds. Rambler (1:06:13) and Perpetual LOYAL (1:08:13) took the other podium places.

Sail-World was at the Yacht Racing Forum in Geneva Switzerland last week.

The most important feature of the Yacht Racing Forum is that it really is a Who’s Who of the Sailing Industry, event managers, designers, builders, administrators, media and more, the people who actually make it happen.

While the sailing private industry sector has been vibrant and innovative, by comparison the sports peak body World Sailing, (ISAF with a coat of paint) has appeared to be dysfunctional by many in the industry, for decades.

In Sail-World’s opinion, the presence of World Sailing Vice President Gary Jobson and two key staff, Head of Events Alistair Fox, Head of Technical and Offshore Dr. James Smithick at the forum was a very positive step forward for World Sailing and certainly gained their organisation some respect.

In fact, the most potent symbol that World Sailing is now committed to serious reform would be the presence of World Sailing President Carlo Croce, and his seven Vice Presidents, at the 2016 Yacht Racing Forum, along with the new CEO or Secretary General and World Heads of Events, Marketing and Technical and Offshore - all interacting with the movers and shakers of our sport.

Lots more news, read on