Gladwell's Line- Bermuda preview...Zhik joins Volvo...Myers

by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com on 12 Apr 2017 So far we are two days into the third Practice Session of racing in Bermuda, and some interesting trends are beginning to emerge.

Racing in the 35th America's Cup Qualification Round begins on May 26, local time.

First, it must be said that so far the racing has been held in moderate winds of 17-23kts from the NNE on the first day and 12-20kts from the East on the second. So we have not seen the top end 25kts (but maybe got close to it in gusts) and have certainly not seen the bottom end of 6kts.

The racing has closed up on what we saw in the earlier two sessions, with the boats being able to get around the track at what would be considered to be race pace i.e., tacking and gybing in the right place, running a tactical race and with most of the teams to be at the standard, that we saw at the start of the 34th America's Cup match in San Francisco.

The speed of the boats looks to have closed up, with passing not being a factor of outright pace, rather who can remain foiling for the longest period and make the fewest 'flying' errors.

In other words, a moderate splashdown (5 out of 10) will often be enough to let another boat through if the racing is close, and a full bellyflop (8.5/10) will definitely cause a major loss of distance.

We are seeing some controlled drift downwind, with the boats being rewarded for being able to sail deeper while holding full pace as you would expect.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect is the speed at which the AC50's are tacking upwind - literally spinning on a dime and at the same pace we would expect a 35ft monohulled match racer- or faster.

That means in a close situation that we will see a lot more match racing than we have previously in either the America's Cup World Series and certainly in the last America's Cup.

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It is very possible to match race these foiling catamarans with the same alacrity as would happen with regular match-race designed monohulls.

The unknown is whether these teams all suffer the same strengths and weaknesses, given they have all been sailing in the same water for so long, and the fact that they are all using arm-grinders instead of leg-grinders. Sometimes they look a little soft in tacks and gybes and take a few seconds to accelerate - which is not really something we have seen in Emirates Team NZ which seem to be able to maintain a more constant velocity through tacks and gybe and don't sink into the water as much as the Bermuda AC50 seem to do.

That could be attributed to a number of factors, but if Emirates Team NZ doesn't have a speed edge, then kiwi fans will need to spend a lot more time in Church over the coming couple of months.

Form boat at this stage looks to be Artemis Racing, which seems to have a clear edge over the others. Oracle Team USA is next, with a gap back to Land Rover BAR, Softbank Team Japan and the improving Groupama Team France.

Emirates Team NZ flew out of New Zealand on Monday morning and arrived in Bermuda on Tuesday afternoon (NZT).

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The team are on a tight timeline to get on the water, and while some believe that they may be short of a gallop having missed three Practice racing sessions (and maybe a fourth), they would appear to have made a well-timed their run, getting the best of the Auckland summer, and exiting at the right time.

From what we can tell on video, and seen with our own eyes on the Waitemata, ETNZ are ahead of the teams in Bermuda. But the gap has certainly closed. The question is whether the it will continue to close or will the teams sailing at present in Bermuda start to plateau?

The other question is how the teams will perform at the bottom end of the wind-range with their light air foils?

Innovative specialist sailing apparel manufacturer, Zhik has made a big step into the offshore and trans-oceanic sailing world with their announcement as technical clothing partner to the Volvo Ocean Race entry team AkzoNobel.

For Olympic sailors around the world, the only question to the Volvo Ocean Race sailors will be 'why did it take you so long?'

Anyone who has been inside the Zhik factory will know how much effort and analysis goes into the development of their sailing gear. It is an ongoing process for the Australian based company who challenge themselves to improve far harder than any sailor will ever demand.

It is that process of constant innovation and improvement which marks Zhik out from the rest.

Olympic sailors have long known that wearing Zhik makes a difference to their performance - that is why wearing Zhik is a no-brainer. The Olympic sailing teams of Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and others all have similar partnerships with Zhik. It is no co-incidence that Zhik sailors from these teams won Olympic medals in nine of the ten events, and won 13 of a total of 30 medals on offer at Rio 2016.

How many other Volvo OR teams will follow the lead of Olympic sailors and team AkzoNobel?

Finally we record the sad passing of Sir Douglas Myers, who despite hardly ever setting foot on a yacht was a major backer of five substantial sailing campaigns organised and led by Sir Peter Blake. In a story in this edition, we reproduce two extracts from Alan Sefton's book on Sir Peter Blake where he records Doug Myers' involvement and the reasons why he became such a strong supporter of Blake and Myers' analysis of what made Blake tick.

Sir Douglas epitomised much of the Kiwi thinking of that era in 1985-2000, which were the glory years of New Zealand big-boat sailing.

The extracts deserve a serious and careful read to all who have a need to understand why things were the way the way they were, and the relationship between those who had the financial wherewithal to back New Zealand sailing projects on the world racing circuits. And also how sailors like Blake who didn't come from a privileged background, were able to work with their financial backers and over-deliver on the investment return - as well as encouraging other New Zealanders to lift their game. These were hard commercial deals that delivered many times on their investment, and Blake usually had his sponsors returning for more.

In today's professional sailing world, the concept of sailing for your country is too often dismissed as a quaint anachronism. As an investor in sailing and in New Zealand, Myers didn't see it that way. And that is why he got out, along with Blake after the 2000 America's Cup defence.

The relationship between Blake and Myers was essentially one of trust and mutual respect that worked for both over a period of 15 years.

Indeed, reflecting on his decision to back Blake's Whitbread maxi, Aland Sefton notes: 'Myers didn’t refer the proposal to his board or consult with anyone. He backed his instincts on the spot, and Blake’s next Whitbread boat became Lion New Zealand. Interestingly, Myers recalls that decision as ‘the deal with Peter’.'

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Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

sailworldnzl@gmail.com

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