A hard day on the sanding boards on NZL-92

by Emirates Team New Zealand on 18 Sep 2006 It’s all hands to the sanding boards as the team works on NZL 92, the second of the team’s 2007 race yachts.

This week, members of the shore and sailing crews broke into their holidays to take part in a long standing team tradition – helping to sand the racing yacht hulls.

Team members who are currently in Auckland assembled at Cookson Yachts to join the boat-building team on the sanding boards.

NZL 92 will be delivered to the Emirates Team New Zealand base next month and will be launched towards the end of October. Sea trials will follow before shipping to Valencia.

The plan is to have NZL 92 on a Maersk Line container ship before Christmas.

Progress on the NZL 92 build is right on schedule

The excellent progress on the NZL 92 build serves to remind us that the countdown is on … in only 214 days Emirates Team New Zealand will be lining up for the start of Act 13, a seven-race fleet racing regatta. It starts on Tuesday April 3 and finishes on Friday April 6.

Nine days later, the Louis Vuitton Cup regatta starts. That’s the challenger elimination series – a regatta that will determine which of the challengers will race Alinghi in the America’s Cup.

The Louis Vuitton Cup format is similar to the Act 12 match race regatta, with the exception that two round robins will be sailed.

Round robins: Each of the 11 challengers races 10 matches in each round robin – one against each of the other 10 challengers. At the end of the second round robin, seven of the 11 teams will be eliminated and the America’s Cup 2007 dream will be over for them.

Semi finals: The top four teams are paired in two semi-finals. Each pair will race once a day. The first team to win five matches in each semi-final goes through to the final. The leading yacht after the round robins chooses which of the other three teams it will race in the semifinal.

For example in Act 12, Emirates Team New Zealand, Alinghi, BMW Oracle and Luna Rossa finished the round robin at the top of the leaderboard. ETNZ chose to race Oracle in one sem-final, leaving Alinghi to race Luna Rossa. Semi-final winners ETNZ and Alinghi went through to the final which was won by NZL 84.

So the countdown clock stops ticking on the afternoon of Monday April 16.

The regatta schedule for 2007 is:

Tuesday April 3 – Friday April 6: Act 13 fleet race regatta.

Monday April 16: Start of the first round robin. With reserve days in case racing cannot take place because of the weather, the round robin ends on Monday April 23.

Wednesday April 25: Start of the second round robin which with reserve days and a day off, continues to Monday May 6.

Monday May 14: Start of the semi-finals. The four challengers at the top of the leader board at the end of the second round robin go head-to-head in the semi-finals. The victor is the first team to score five victories.

Two semi-finals matches, one for each pair, are scheduled each day. With two reserve days and a day off, the semi-finals could go through to Friday June 25.

Friday June 1: Start of the Louis Vuitton Cup finals. Again the winner is the first team to gain five wins. With one race a day scheduled, as well as a day off and reserve days, the finals could go through to June 12.

Saturday June 23: America’s Cup match starts. With a possible nine racing days, three scheduled days off and three scheduled reserve days, the regatta could go through to Saturday 7.

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