Editorial- Of Albatrosses and the America's Cup
by . on 1 Nov 2008
Welcome to Sail-World.Com's New Zealand newsletter for 1 November 2008
The first leg of the Volvo Ocean race is expected to finish this evening New Zealand time - when Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael) crosses the finish line off Cape Town having smashed the 24 hour record for a monohull along the way.
With five kiwi sailors in her crew, including two watch captains, she enjoys a a 123nm lead over PUMA Racing (USA) with 155nm left to sail.
Currently sitting in third place, Volvo Ocean Race newbies, Green Dragon’s Ian Walker and Delta Lloyd’s Matt Gregory caught their first glimpses of some southern ocean legends yesterday. Walker reports:
'We have been kept entertained for hours by two majestic albatrosses and their following friends. You could watch their aerial performance for days and never tire of the sight. I now understand why sailors have such a strong affinity for these birds.'
Gregory, released from his post briefly and given the helm, said: 'I pushed the throttle through the floorboards as hard as I could.
'Then, as if I couldn’t be having more fun, this morning became legendary as an albatross pulled up along side us. She glided, without a single flap of her wings, only 50 metres away, for 20 minutes. This is the first one I’ve ever seen. Overwhelmed with excitement, I realised ‘this is just about as good as it gets’.
Although much has changed since the first Whitbread fleet raced 10 editions ago, it seems that little has changed in the Round the World experience.
On the America's Cup front, the propaganda war continues unabated.
Over the weekend several commentators have chosen to wade into Team New Zealand over the withdrawal of legal proceedings a against Ernesto Bertarelli and the Alinghi parties.
Their move was pragmatic. Team New Zealand has always been pragmatic. And like a professional golfer, have always been very aware of having to make the next cut to survive in the tournament or regatta.
The issue that led to their original agreement with Bertarelli was the need to have certainty as to the timing of the 33rd America's Cup - agreed at 2009. The announcement by the Alinghi parties of that date being stretched to 2011 or beyond, was the point Team New Zealand sued. As the move was an initiative from Alinghi, and caused substantial financial difficulty to the NZ professional team - consequently evidenced by the substantial layoffs, work for no pay, and shrinking of the Team New Zealand organisation to just a handful of staff.
The announcement last week, that the Defender would now stage an event in 2010 bought the timing back onto the range acceptable to Team New Zealand. Again pragmatism prevailed when there was just a year of slide on the original dates, and Team New Zealand had the required substantial funding in place to run with a 2010 regatta.
Over the past two days, the Competitors Meeting has taken place in Switzerland, with 12 teams represented. While the numbers look high, several key payers are missing including BMW Oracle Racing, Luna Rossa and Mascalzone Latino. Additionally Victory (Sweden) did not sign the communiqué from the teams calling on BMW Oracle Racing to drop their litigation and rejoin the fold in the way that Team New Zealand has done.
In this issue we have featured an interview with Hamish Ross of Team Alinghi, canvassing some of the issues that still, lie upon the table, including those that Team New Zealand may still have with the Arbitration Panel, which could see them penalised in the 33rd America's Cup.
We will be producing a full Volvo Ocean Race newsletter after the conclusion of the first leg to Cape Town.
Good sailing!
Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor
nzeditor@sail-world.com
If you want to link to this article then please use this URL: www.sail-world.com/50405