Waiting on the Jury, Winter series, Airlie Beach and more

by The Sail-World.com Team on 1 Jul 2013 Today we have news from the CYCA Winter series, Airlie Beach Race Week and the Seawind Whitsunday Rally but the major news is from San Francisco so today we have a guest editorial from Richard Gladwell our New Zealand and America´s Cup Editor. If you´ve not figured it out yet, Sail-World´s coverage of the America´s Cup 2013 is the most detailed there is.

The news during the week has been dominated by the build-up to the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup, in San Francisco, the issuance of the Coast Guard Permit, the Rule Changes, and the issues, statements and commentary surrounding those events. We don’t propose to summarize the situation here, as there are several very detailed stories in this edition which set out the state of the play and the issues.

The matters will go before an International Jury on July 8 – after the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup a day earlier.

Essentially the situation is the same for all involved parties – in that they accept the Decision of the International Jury, or exit the America’s Cup. A situation where outside bodies can make decisions which affect the competition a few days before it starts, is intolerable for the medium and long term confidence of the event.

Short-term anyone can live with anything. It’s only a yacht race, albeit a high stakes one. But whether a Challenger would come back for more beyond the 34th America’s Cup is question that may be answered after July 8.

On the positive side of the America’s Cup, we have several excellent long play videos (20 minutes) from John Navas, who is resident in San Francisco. For sailing aficionados his video is a big improvement on that released by the teams and organisers, due to the fact that it is not heavily edited and shows sailing sequences of significant duration, including tacks and gybes and other maneuvers.

Those interested in the technical side of the AC72 class should not miss the two videos from Genny Tulloch of 'America’s Cup UnCut' where she talks with Oracle Team USA designer Joseph Ozanne about how the daggerboards are designed to work, and then Luna Rossa’s Max Sirena about the delivery and expectations of their new set of boards.

This week past, was also a significant event for the 34th America’s Cup, in that it is the first time that two AC72’s from the same team have sailed together. Oracle Team USA achieved this milestone when their Boat 1.5 and Boat 2 took to the waters of San Francisco Bay on Thursday. Both skippers rated it highly but the logistics of getting the two boats on the water by the one team was significant.

The America’s Cup Regatta gets underway on this Friday, July 5 with the Opening Ceremony, followed by a Fleet event on Saturday, July 6, the Defenders have course access on July 7, and the first real race of the regatta will be on Monday July 8, at around 0900hrs NZT, between Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand. The second race between the two will take place on Sunday July 14, the third on Monday, July 22, and the fourth on Thursday July 25, and that might be it for the Louis Vuitton Cup. If Luna Rossa and Emirates Team NZ do race again in the Round Robin it will on Monday July 29.

Sweden’s Artemis Racing have announced they will not be competing in the Round Robin until late in July at the earliest, and may skip that phase of the Regatta. This means that the other two teams will have to sail the course alone to get the point. It remains to be seen if the Round continues once the first Finalist is found.

The other news item of note is the search for the classic schooner, Nina, missing on a passage to New Zealand. Nina built in 1928 to a design by W.Starling Burgess, who is best remembered for designing three successful Defenders of the America’s Cup, Enterprise, Rainbow and Ranger – the latter in conjunction with Olin Stephens in 1937.

We did some research on the Nina and present a history of the yacht, based on a compilation by Rosemary Dyche – listed amongst the missing crew. There is also a gallery of images taken above and below decks on the classic yacht.

We also update on the search for the yacht and crew. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and the searchers at this time.

Stay tuned to our www.Sail-World.com website for all the latest news.

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