SW Pacific drama...Weymouth win...Minnows show the way in Chicago

by . on 14 Jun 2016 Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for June 14, 2016

Sad news unfolding from the SW Pacific, 24 hours ago with the reports that the 20metre Ron Holland designed yacht Platino had run into trouble in heavy weather, with one crew member being killed in an onboard accident and another lost overboard.

In this edition, we have the latest reports as of this morning and will expect an update later today after a container ship has made a rendezvous with the stricken yacht.

From what we know and assume the yacht was well found, and that is backed up with their communications with people in New Zealand.

It appears the whole episode is just a dreadful accident of which more details will be revealed in due course.

In the meantime, our thoughts, condolences, and prayers are with the families and friends who have lost mates in tragic circumstances and for the safe return of those who remain.

As we know from other incidents that the arrival of a container ship or another large vessel on the scene is not a simple matter of stepping up onto a ladder and the conditions in the area of 3-4 metre seas and 25kt SSE winds, make that exercise even more fraught.

It seems likely that the crew will be taken off, and the yacht abandoned, with maybe a salvage operation undertaken using suitable vessels and equipment.

We will bring reports and updates as they come to hand.

Over the weekend, the America's Cup World Series held another round in Chicago.

For Emirates Team New Zealand the regatta was a mixed bag. The official spin is that the veteran team had extended its lead in the series, which takes on a more serious tone with the winner taking two points into the America's Cup Qualifier Series getting underway in May 2017, or in 11 months time.

Six events have been sailed in the Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series, and there are just three events left in Great Britain, France, and Japan - with a fourth mooted for early 2017, but so far no venue has been announced.

The way the game is played out is that the winner of the ACWS takes two points into the Qualifiers, the second placed boat takes one. The other three teams take no advantage into that regatta.

Out of the Qualifiers, the winner takes one point into the America's Cup Match if the top team from the Qualifiers is either the Defender or a Challenger. And for the Challengers side of the draw to get the point, the top Challenger must win both the Qualifiers and Play-offs (Semi-finals and Finals).

To get the point from the Qualifiers to carry into the Match, the Defender must emerge as the winner of the Qualifiers.

From an Emirates Team NZ perspective, the team has led from the second event of the series, and in our view should have won the first but for an incident at the final mark on which was a marginal umpiring call at best.

From there the kiwi team has not dominated, but has been consistent and done what they needed to do to remain at the top of the points table.

In the context of the just completed event the Emirates Team NZ objective was to do as well as they could, but more importantly, beat Oracle Team USA, the second-placed team on the overall points table. By achieving the second objective they should increase their lead in the ACWS, and that is what happened.

But both the Defender and Challenger from the 2013 America's Cup in San Francisco had poor showings in Chicago, which on the final day had the best conditions yet for an ACWS.

Both teams had capsizes within 10 minutes of each other on the Practice Day.

Their racing on the Sunday was not their top-shelf performance with Team New Zealand getting away to a poor start in two of the races - being seriously stalled in Race 1, copping a pre-start penalty in Race 2, and then sailing over a boundary line in Race 3.

Oracle Team USA got good starts in each race, but let their advantage unravel soon afterward.

For sure the America's Cup minnows improved their performance in Chicago - although none would have come away entirely happy with their performance and all report cards from the event will carry the comment 'Can do better'.

Artemis Racing, Softbank Team Japan, and Land Rover BAR showed their potential and ability to win through smart sailing.

To their credit, Emirates Team NZ won the second Substitute race - the downside from their perspective is that the wind showed up on the final day, and their win wasn't a counter.

For the two senior teams, Chicago was a comedy of errors, with the only real laugh for the Kiwis coming from the fact that Oracle Team USA was even worse. Placing fifth in a six-team event is not where you want to be as America's Cup Defender and the message for Oracle Team USA has to be that if they are to win in Bermuda in June 2017, then they will need a very quick boat, as from what we saw in Chicago they won't be doing it on sailing ability.

It is early days in the 35th America's Cup and being sat on their butts in Chicago may spawn some changes in the USA team - of which we know from September 2013, they are more than capable.

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Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

sailworldnzl@gmail.com

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