Gladwell's Line - AC50 Roll Call shows several late or absent

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com on 21 Feb 2017 The AC50 unveiling/launch/sailing call-sheet has had a few additions since Land Rover BAR were the first to launch on February 6 - the earliest day permitted under the 28-day voluntary Blackout amendment to the Protocol governing the current event.

Oracle Team USA was the second to unveil their AC50 over a week later on February 15 (Bermuda time) and was preceded/followed by Emirates Team New Zealand, who went sailing on February 14 and then officially launched on February 16th.

Land Rover Bar was the second to go sailing - on February 18 in Bermuda.

Then today, February 21, Oracle Team USA went sailing almost a week after their unveiling.

Of the other teams, Softbank Team Japan looks to be the next to unveil, maybe launch and go sailing - on the basis that today a couple more images appeared in social media of the rigged boat, with the comment that launching is imminent.

Nothing has been put out about the intentions of Groupama Team France or Artemis Racing (Sweden).

Then to add a bit to the mystery, Emirates Team New Zealand hasn't been sighted sailing since last Wednesday (Sure Friday was pretty average, and they don't sail in the weekend, but the last couple of days have been OK).

All of which is very intriguing - given that before the Blackout was agreed, the teams could have launched and gone sailing 150 days before the start of the Qualifiers, of on December 27, 2016.

The voluntary Blackout was signed off just a couple of weeks before AC race boats were due to be launched and headed off action by the Arbitration Panel as part of the settlement with Emirates Team NZ over the withdrawal of the Qualifier Round from Auckland.

Cup media teams made much ado about there being only 100 days left to the start of racing in the America's Cup Regatta - but that ignored the fact that 50days had already gone - under the original schedule. And even when the sailing Blackout had passed, still the teams were in no hurry to get on the water and get their sailing programs into gear.

Today's sailing by Oracle Team USA is assumed to have been in their AC50 - but the photos that came with the team release on the occasion were all captioned for their AC45S. A quick question on the veracity of the images went unanswered by the team.

On the basis that Oracle did sail their AC50 today - that marks the point where the omission by the America's Cup Commissioner, then General Harvey Schiller, or ACEA's Chief Operating Officer, General Counsel and now AC Commissioner, sports lawyer, Sam Hollis, takes effect.

The America's Cup Commissioner was supposed to have published a list of allowed training and racing practice days a year out from the start of the America's Cup Qualifiers but omitted to do so for whatever reason - be it deliberate or forgetful.

That failure means that Article 35.5(b) of the Protocol is triggered which says the competitors 'shall only sail or test an AC Class Yacht in a coordinated manner with another Competitor' on the, now unpublished, dates by the ex-Commissioner.

Given that Oracle Team USA is sailing their AC50 and no sailing dates have been published, that would appear to bring to an end the training and development relationship between Oracle Team USA and Softbank Team Japan. Those teams - as must all others as soon as they have sailed their AC50's - must work up and train alone. The swapping of data and debriefings is also disallowed.

At least one of the teams has had some serious daggerboard issues, including one catastrophic structural failure in their AC45S. Whether that issue extends throughout their stock of daggerboards and maybe across into other teams remains to be seen. But don't expect the issue to break through the PR ice-cap.

Long story short is that either the six America's Cup teams have things extraordinarily well under control and running to schedule, or the transition to the AC50 from the AC45S is proving to be a little less than plain sailing.

The teams are definitely up against the wall time-wise - and being able to get their boats commissioned and into a full sailing program will be crucial to the outcome of the Cup in June.

History shows that those who have launched early and got into a regular sailing and training program have always done very well in the Match, and this America's Cup will be no exception. The chances of a bolter coming through at the last minute are fanciful.

While the litany above may appear to be train-spotting, the fact is that the past and next couple of weeks is when the hard work must go in.

Being slow to get a program into top gear at this stage inevitably means that items get crossed off the development list as race-day looms. Those teams that are on or ahead of schedule do get more sailing time and more smarts on board the boat, and a will better result come June 2017.

Staying with the train-spotting. The sharp-eyed will have looked at the image at the top of this newsletter and realised that the starboard detachable 2.7 metre bow section of the AC50 pictured above represents the sum total (along with its pair on the other side) of the amount of an AC50 which under the current Protocol is required to be constructed in the country of the defending or challenging club. Unfortunately, the Deed of Gift doesn't make this differentiation, requiring the whole of the yacht to be constructed in the country of origin. By our reckoning not all teams are in compliance with the Deed of Gift on this vital point.

By all accounts, Southern Spars did an outstanding job of building the Emirates Team New Zealand AC50 - begging the question as to whether the long slim AC50's are better built by sparmakers than boat builders. The boat was right down to weight, delivered on time and given the project's starting point was an excellent effort.

Interestingly the construction rules surrounding the AC50 precluded Southern Spars from using a lot of their top end technology in the AC50 - and had that been permitted the Kiwi team would have had an even better Xmas present.

But as with many other companies in the New Zealand marine industry, Southern Spars have proven their ability once again to take on a difficult project apply their composite engineering expertise and know-how to come up with a superb product straight out of the box.


This commentary was first published in The Sail-World New Zealand newsletter of February 21, 2017. To become a free subscriber click here

If you want to contact Richard Gladwell directly email: sailworldnzl@gmail.com or call (+6421) 301030