America's Cup won't go away...Foilers in San Fran...JJ's Historymaker

by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com on 21 Feb 2015 Welcome to Sail-World.com’s New Zealand e-magazine for February 20, 2015

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While the America's Cup struggles to make any real impact in world news, it has dominated a slow news week in New Zealand.

Lead story in the daily papers for two days in a row. Leading the TV news at night. Thrashed to death on talkback.

Might not be the sort of publicity the Team wanted, but if there was any doubt that Emirates Team New Zealand had slipped off the public viewfinder, think again.

Like maybe no other team, Emirates Team New Zealand is a sports team on which everyone seems to have a different opinion, and can argue their point for hours.

They are one of those teams that you never seem to know what is going to crop up next - good or bad.

Team NZ embody everything that other top sports teams have. Overlaid on that sporting persona is a layer of technology - Kiwi technology and everything that makes up the Kiwi psyche and that can do, inventive and creative heritage.

The team has spawned some great New Zealanders and hopefully will continue to do so.

The team has paid a high price with the public tolerance over the last 18 months. The pain of the near-win in San Francisco will not go away. The team has to prove itself again to its fans and public.

But the lesson at the end of the week is that the fans still care. They may be a little bewildered, but they aren't apathetic.

For all its negative aspects, the media frenzy over the reported afterguard coup provided a smokescreen for the announcement expected in early March, that Auckland will be the venue for the Qualifier Series.

Quite how that series will hang together is yet to be determined, and equally how it will interface with the Play-off Series in Bermuda, with the previous statement from Russell Coutts that all teams would go to Bermuda.

One option is to keep eliminated teams sailing so that at the end of the regatta they are still sailing for a place, as happens in most sports tournaments.

Associated with the Qualifier will be the announcement that Auckland will host a round of the America's Cup World Series probably to be held in February 2016. That will expand the list of ACWS regattas from four to five. Auckland will probably be the start of the 2016 ACWS circuit, and it will be a test event for the Qualifiers.

The Kiwi media needs to sharpen up its act. The Burling/Barker fiasco highlighted the complete lack of understanding of the nuances of the sport by those who are supposed to be reporting it.

A look at the sailing schedule for Peter Burling and Blair Tuke over the next 18 months shows that while there are some gaps - sailing nine major regattas in five months is a huge ask - let alone allowing time for training and development in both the 49er and AC45's. That schedule is accessible by two search commands in Google - but that was too much effort for most commentators.

Instead, the whole saga appears to hinged on a gym comment.

In this edition, we have a more detailed analysis of why we think the change of skipper story is bullshit.

Certainly Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are the new face of Team New Zealand, along with a host of other sailors working their way through the Olympic ranks. But one thing is for sure, you can't run dual Olympic and America's Cup campaigns at a skipper's level. Ben Ainslie and friends couldn't do it with Team Origin in 2011/12 for a Cup in 2013, and it wouldn't work for Team NZ in 2016/17.

While the Kiwi media are saving the America's Cup, three of the five teams are actually sailing - Artemis Racing and Oracle Team USA are squaring away in San Francisco in foiling developmental AC45's. In Bermuda, Ben Ainslie Racing are doing the same in Bermuda in foiling Nacra 20's and on the Solent in foiling AC45's.

Meanwhile Team New Zealand are battling the media enemy within.

We have images and video from the San Francisco sessions in this edition.

We also have a story on a new legal claim lodged against Oracle Team USA by Kiwi sailor Joe Spooner, claiming $725,000, and the arrest of an AC45, with the threat of more to come.

Over the ditch, the JJ Gitinan Trophy is in full cry, with one weekend of sailing left in the unofficial world 18fter championship.

Gotta Love It 7 is headed to win the Trophy for the record seventh time, and will create sailing history. So far, she has won the Invitation race, Races 1-4 and placed second in Race 5.

She seems to be winning with the happy combination of speed, good boat placement on the course and great boat handling.

You can watch the action live on Sail-World.com each race day by clicking on the viewer in the top of site story or watch it in replay if you miss the live racing.

On the water, we are running social media content from Nic Douglass - who runs Adventures of a Sailor Girl - that combines several social media elements that can be followed by fans. We have her daily video interviews and links in this edition.

Kiwi photographer Michael Chittenden is also on the water producing a gallery of images each day after the racing. You can see his daily gallery of images and if that is not enough he has more on Facebook.

As the Volvo Ocean Race fleet nears its second week at sea, en route to Auckland, we offer a great competition where you can win two prizes in one. Two spots are being offered by B&G aboard TeamVodafoneSailing - the fastest sail-boat in Auckland. The other half of the prize is that you will also be seeing the Start of Leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race. This is a great opportunity to get a fast ride aboard an Orma60, plus you'll be on board probably the only boat capable of keeping up with the Volvo 60's if they are in a seaway.

Details of how to enter are in this edition of Sail-World or just click on one of the banners.

Follow all the racing and developments in major and local events on www.sail-world.com, scroll to the bottom of the site, select New Zealand, and get all the latest news and updates from the sailing world.

Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

sailworldnzl@gmail.com

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