| Spithill and the Kiwis, exclusive AC72 vision, SH Regatta and Etchells |
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The Australian sailors in the 2013 America´s Cup teams are making a very significant impact. Back in 2000 freckle faced James (Jimmy) Spithill at age 20 was the skipper of Syd Fischer’s underfunded Young Australia team. He campaigned thru various Cup iterations, won a match racing World title and in 2010 Spithill became the youngest ever winner of the America's Cup, with BMW Oracle.
We will be talking to the now 33 year regularly over the next six months leading up to the September event in San Francisco. We had a long conversation with him last week and today we publish the first part of that extended interview. How the expensive AC72 capsize has made his team tougher and how he has no desire to be a New Zealander. I admit to breaking up as he delivered those lines with a straight face. In Part 2 that we will publish later in the week, Jimmy tells us more about the two boat program and what he REALLY thinks about the Kiwis.
But they are not all bad, those sheep herders, on Friday afternoon the two America's Cup AC72's working out of Auckland, Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand, staged a series of semi-formal race training sessions off Takapuna Beach and as you´d expect Sail-World´s Richard Gladwell was right there. In this edition of Sail-World.com's newsletter we feature three image galleries and a long video clip of one of the sessions. All these were shot by RG from the seawall off Takapuna, which offered a remarkable vantage point for America's Cup fans, who could scarcely believe what they were seeing. This is content that you really have to look at.
Over on our side of the ditch, it was a little slower paced.
We had the Sydney Harbour Regatta, hosted by Middle Harbour Yacht Club, 220 boats, sunshine and 8-17 knots. Grant Wharington and his 100 foot long Wild Thing from Queensland got to race at last after the Rolex Sydney Hobart hiccup. Great pix from Drew Franks (Andrea Francolini) and full reports.
A weekend ago John Curnow reported on the NSW Etchells titles, this weekend it was the Victorian Etchells championships. Great reports, John knows his way around the race track and it shows. You will note we are gradually adding audio to our on water reports too. A great weekend and plenty more local and OS news, grab a coffee and enjoy it all.
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