AC drama – VOR and BWR

by Dan Ibsen on 27 Mar 2015 It would not be an America's Cup without trouble and drama off the water, now the Challenger of Record, long time America's Cup competitor, Luna Rossa have threatened to withdraw from the America's Cup if the mooted Protocol change from the AC62 to a smaller boat is implemented.

Yesterday Luna Rossa came out with a strong message that they would withdraw from the Cup, if the Americas Cup organizer decided about changes, which was not fully supported by all teams.

Emirates Team NZ, via social media, now say they are supporting the Italian stand against the boat change. 'Emirates Team New Zealand agrees with Luna Rossa Challenge. It would be unfair to change the rules at this stage unless all America's Cup teams agree to do so.' says a statement on their Facebook page, today.

In fact Emirates Team New Zealand already last year came forward with ideas of a smaller boat than the AC62, but since then time has passed with teams well advanced in their design process now.

This message comes from the two longest standing teams in the Americas Cup – Luna Rossa and Emirates Team NZ.

Looking at the press announcement from Luna Rossa there also seems to be a risk that the first Americas Cup World Series event in Cagliari could be in danger of being cancelled, if Luna Rossa withdraws or there is not a solution to the question about the new class of boat before.

Shortly after Emirates Team NZ supported the view of Luna Rossa, the Americas Cup commercial regatta announced that there will not be a Qualification event in Auckland.

Contrary to other media comment, the Protocol Amendment is for a new class of boat - in the 47 to 54ft range, probably an AC54, not a foiling AC45 as has been suggested.

It would not be a Americas Cup without threats and trouble off the water, it has always been a part of the game, and thereby nothing has changed.

The next month will decide if the number of teams will be six, or going down to only four.

If they withdraw, the loss of both teams - should ACEA maintain its current stance - would weaken the 35th America's Cup to a point where it would be a massive blow to the credibility and stature of the event.

Read the stories here:
Americas Cup: Boat shrink mooted to reduce campaign costs - Here

Americas Cup: Luna Rossa threatens withdrawal over boat change - Here

Americas Cup boils over with two leading challengers set to walk - Here

Barcelona World Race - The vastly experienced duo, Bernard Stamm (SUI) and Jean Le Cam (FRA) are back in Spain, they won the 2014-15 and set the reference time for the two crew round the world race: 84 days, 5 hours, 50 minutes and 25 seconds to complete the 23,321.76 miles of the theoretical course.

When they passed the finish line outside Barcelona the distance to the other boats were: Neutrogena 900 nm – GEAS Centros Auditivos 1200 nm – One Planet 2100 nm – We are Water 2700 nm – Renault Captur 3500 nm – Spirit of Hungary 4300 nm.

All boats are doing a great team effort getting around world non-stop in this Two Star/doublehanded race, but the race itself has unfortunately lacked any kind of excitement as the difference between the boats are so large.

Volvo Ocean Race – As with most exclusion zones tactically, the fleet wants to be the other side of it, but they are put there for the good of the fleet and safety of the sailors.

After all, ice is not to be messed with! So with the virtual line in the sand - or water, to be more precise - the fleet slides south, as close to the ice limit as they can.

In the VOR as the fleet sails downwind towards Cape Horn DongFeng is leading the tight five, ahead of Alvimedica, Brunel, Abu Dhabi and Mapfre, at time of writing all within seven nautical miles as they bounce along the barbed wire fence, the new ice limit boundary, moved north yesterday after a large iceberg was spotted on sat photos just 75 nm from the fleet.

Good sailing!
Dan Ibsen
Europe & UK editor

dan.ibsen@sail-world.com

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