Sail-World.com : Louis Vuitton Cup Media Conference: Sirena says Kiwis ahead
Louis Vuitton Cup Media Conference: Sirena says Kiwis ahead
|
'The Louis Vuitton Cup is a crucial part of the build-up for the America’s Cup,' declared Dean Barker, the Emirates Team New Zealand skipper in his opening remarks at the pre-final press conference.
For the past 30 years, winning the Louis Vuitton Cup has been an essential step in the dethroning of the defender. It was in 1983, when for the first time in 132 years, the New York Yacht Club was toppled from its pedestal.
So it was in 1995 when Team New Zealand, skippered by Sir Peter Blake and steered by Russell Coutts, beat Dennis Conner on his home water, and again eight years later when Coutts, at the helm of Alinghi, took the Cup to Switzerland. Now, Coutts as CEO of Oracle Team USA, will face the winner of the up-coming match between Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa.
The Italian team has been in the final of the Louis Vuitton Cup on two previous occasions – in 2000, when it beat AmericaOne (and then went on to meet the Kiwis in the America’s Cup), and in 2007, when it lost to Emirates Team New Zealand in Valencia. Can this third meeting of the teams produce a different result perhaps?
There was much on the minds of both skippers, but Max Sirena of Luna Rossa realised that his team was very much behind the eight-ball. 'While we have improved much in the past two weeks (while beating Artemis Racing in the semi-final), I still believe that Emirates Team New Zealand is the strongest team in the water today,' he said. Later he added: 'Today, New Zealand is ahead of Oracle.'
Glenn Ashby, the Kiwi team’s wing trimmer believed his team had improved too: 'The biggest change,' he said, 'is in the sailing of the boat – it’s in the boat handling.' Obviously there are others who agree as a new 170 degree angle television camera has been fitted to the king-post of each of the finalists. This will enable viewers to see exactly what goes on during a foiling gybe, and not everyone is happy about this.
'Camera 7 (as this one is called) has been planned from the beginning,' said Denis Harvey, the Head of ACTV. Max Sirena sees it as yet another intrusion to help Oracle Team USA: 'Why now? I can only see this as another advantage to the defender. They already have access to our telemetry on the racecourse and we have nothing from them to balance the scales.'
On the question of what possible sanctions might be levied on Oracle Team USA by the International Jury for cheating in the AC-45 World Series, most were tight-lipped. Barker said: 'We have every confidence in the International Jury.' Sirena, privately, was more direct, saying that he believed the sanction should be strong, possibly even the ultimate of dismissing the team from the America’s Cup. If that were the case, the winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup would, by default, take home the America’s Cup.
by Bob Fisher
Click on the FB Like link to post this story to your FB wall
http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?nid=113254
6:44 PM Thu 15 Aug 2013GMT
Click here for printer friendly version
Click here to send us feedback or comments about this story.
Click for further information on
2013 America's Cup
Related News Stories:
MORE STORIES ...
|
Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - A fleet made up of 94 yachts, including 22 international entrants, five 100-ft Maxis, seven former winners and the current race record holder, is arguably the strongest in recent race history. Running for the 69th uninterrupted year and sponsored by Rolex since 2002, the 2013 edition of the 628-nm race starts – as is tradition – on 26 December from Sydney Harbour.
...
[more]
Rolex Sydney Hobart Yact Race - In this city, if you played your cards right, when you were born your old man owned a boat, or was very good mates with someone who did - so your earliest memories were of sun, salt air and a summer sea breeze - messing around on Sydney Harbour with the nonchalance of someone born to it.
...
[more]
With all hands on deck during the 'off season', Bella Mente Racing is preparing for its next action-packed campaign in 2014. Under the leadership of owner/driver Hap Fauth (Minneapolis, Minn./ Naples, Fla.), Bella Mente’s team of 22 will take on eight of the year’s most exciting racing events in North America and Europe aboard Fauth’s 72-foot custom designed and built mini maxi.
...
[more]
Clipper Round the World Yacht Race - After a triumphant finish yesterday which saw Henri Lloyd claim the line honours and 12 points, the remainder of the fleet is focused and upbeat as the race to Sydney, Australia is far from over.
...
[more]
2013 Audi Melges 20 World Championship day 2, hosted by the Ocean Reef Club, started with a brief postponement and ended with a blast. Travis Weisleder aboard Lucky Dog/Gill Race Team still sits firmly in the lead, ahead of second overall Jason Michas on Midnight Blue by a whopping 30 points. In third overall, behold is Jim Richardson's world-famous Barking Mad.
...
[more]
Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2013-14 is on day 10 of Race 5. Henri Lloyd crossed the finish line into Sydney, Australia at 0315 local time (UTC+11), claiming its fourth consecutive podium result and its first win in the Race.
...
[more]
Racing has been staged in 12 invited classes at the Sail Melbourne regatta, held in conjunction with the ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne 2013.
...
[more]
The time is now for the hundreds of talented young sailors across the country to start looking ahead to the 2014 U.S. Youth Championships. US Sailing has determined the selection process for next year’s premiere youth racing regatta in the United States. This US Sailing Youth Championship regatta will be hosted by the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club (Mich.) on August 10-14.
...
[more]
Hobartians will see a spectacular re-start of the international fleet contesting the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race on January 1, only days after the twelve Clipper 70s finish the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
...
[more]
Audi Melges 20 World Championship 2013 opening day ushered in three great races leaving Travis Weisleder, tactician Scott Nixon and bowman John Bowden aboard Lucky Dog/Gill Race Team in first overall.
...
[more]
Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2013-14 is on day 9 of Race 5. After racing over 2,000 miles from Albany, Western Australia and with less than 20 miles to the finish line, will Henri Lloyd be victorious or will OneDLL and Qingdao be able to challenge its competitor for those all-important 12 points?
...
[more]
On Wednesday, December 11th, at the Nautic Paris Boat Show, Franck Cammas, Michel Desjoyeaux and Olivier de Kersauson presented Team France, which is dedicated to the next America’s Cup as well as the training up of young engineers and racers.
...
[more]
A healthy line-up of entries is expected at the very first Mount Gay Round Barbados Race Series that runs from 15-24 January 2014. With its warm Caribbean waters, miles of gold sandy beaches, and constant 12-18 knot east to east-north-east trade winds, there couldn’t be a more perfect location than Barbados to kick-start the Caribbean racing season.
...
[more]
In an interview published in a leading Australian newspaper, the CEO of of the Hamilton Island Yacht Club challenge, which is operating under the name of Team Australia, has said they will stay out of the bidding war for the leading Australian proponents of the most recent foreign Cup campaigns and will build a new young team from scratch
...
[more]
Artemis Racing has announced that 2012 Olympic Gold medalists Nathan Outteridge and Iain 'Goobs' Jensen are continuing with the team, which is currently preparing its bid for the 35th America’s Cup. Nathan and Goobs will be once again joining forces with existing sailing team members triple Olympic medalist Iain Percy and legendary grinder Chris Brittle.
...
[more]
An America’s Cup on foiling catamarans, a one-design class for the Volvo Ocean Race and key elements of the traditionally liberal IMOCA Class standardised: those are only some of the radical changes sailing has gone through in 2013, and that have been debated with passion over the last two days by the delegates of the World Yacht Racing Forum in Gothenburg, Sweden.
...
[more]
In the Mini Transat, with the successive arrivals on the pontoons of Pointe-à-Pitre, one thing is clear. Although all competitors have crossed the same ocean, each of them has experienced a unique Mini Transat.
...
[more]
In only five years, the New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup has become the world’s premiere international Corinthian sailing competition. Competitors from around the globe were effusive and unanimous in their praise of the third running of this event, in Newport, R.I. last September.
...
[more]
The Volvo Ocean Race picture desk has prepared a series of images to illustrate the construction timeline of the new boat to compete in the next two editions of the Race.
...
[more]
A jury made up of specialists from the yacht racing and photographic industries chose Abner Kingman’s photograph taken during the 34th America’s Cup for the Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image award 2013. The delegates from the World Yacht Racing Forum chose Rick Tomlinson’s photograph for the «Public Award».
...
[more]
Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2013-14 is on day 8 of Race 5. It’s set to be one of the closest finishes we’ve seen so far in the Race, with less than 200 miles left to Sydney, Australia the teams continue to battle it out for those coveted podium positions and those all important points.
...
[more]
Grant Dalton says Emirates Team New Zealand's future is looking positive and, importantly, he will be a part of it.
Dalton has been busy. He's just returned home from Europe where he met with sponsors and launched a recruitment drive.
...
[more]
The 2013 Audi Melges 20 World Championship, hosted by the Ocean Reef Club in full coordination with the International Audi Melges 20 Class Association, Coconut Grove Sailing Club and Melges USA is set and ready to welcome a record-breaking 52 teams to the starting line. Racing commences Wednesday, December 11 and concludes Saturday, December 14.
...
[more]
In the ISAF Match Race Rankings for Wednesday 11 December 2013 Taylor Canfield (ISV) holds top spot in the Open Rankings for the fourth consecutive release whilst Lucy Macgregor (GBR) holds World number one in the Women's Rankings.
...
[more]
The most outstanding sailing performances of the year are being celebrated by US Sailing with the announcement of its shortlist of nominees for the Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year awards. The 2013 shortlist of nine men and six women, which includes 10 world champions, encompasses athletes racing cutting edge hydrofoils and kiteboards alongside stellar performers in one-design sailing.
...
[more]
Following a terrifyingly close race start to Race 5 in the Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Yacht Race, the fleet continues to put on one of the most competitive shows to date as each of the 12 teams battle to extend its lead in the overall race standings.
...
[more]
For the second consecutive year, a first since the creation of this title awarded by the French Sailing Federation for the past twelve years, Franck Cammas, the skipper of Groupama, has been voted Sailor of the Year.
...
[more]
Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2013-14 is on day 7 of Race 5. It has been yet another eventful 24 hours for clipper race fleet with OneDLL momentarily reclaiming its crown. however, with just 10 miles separating the top four competitors the fight to win the coveted podium positions into Sydney continues, as the ocean sprint gets underway.
...
[more]
SOLAS Big Boat Challenge, hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia was held on Sydney Harbour. It has been a long time coming - but at last we have seen Bob Oatley’s six time Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours winner, Wild Oats XI, go head to head against Perpetual LOYAL, widely tipped as the boat most likely to rain on Bob Oatley’s parade in 2013.
...
[more]
SOLAS Big Boat Challenge images by Andrea Francollini. The CYCA's SOLAS Big Boat Challenge, one of Sydney's most spectacular sporting and harbour fixtures, has for 19 consecutive years marked the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart lead-up events
...
[more]
|
|
Our Advertisers are committed to our sport, please support them!
This site and its contents are © Copyright TetraMedia Pty. Ltd and/or the original author, photographer etc. All Rights Reserved.
Photographs are copyright by law. If you wish to use or buy a photograph you must contact the photographer directly (there is a hyperlink in most cases to their website, or do a Google search.) with your request.
Please do not contact
Sail-World.com
as we cannot give permission for use of other photographer’s images.
Only if the photographer named on the image is Sail-world.com, Powerboat-world.com, Marinebusiness-world.com or NZBoating-World.com.
Contact us
.
Ph: +61 2 8006 1873
or complete our
feedback form
Contact us
.
View our Privacy Policy.
[ Go Home]
[ Banner Advertising Specification]
[Bot Archive ]
Customised news feeds -Marine Industry companies, Clubs and Associations have their own customised version of our news feed on their website.
Look_here_to_see_examples
|
| | |
.jpg)
