Editorial- US Youth and America's Cup ignite
by . on 24 Nov 2008
Welcome to Sail-World.Com's NZ newsletter for 25 November 2008
US Sailing has launched two initiatives following the 2008 Olympics aimed at building the base of sailing talent for the 2012 Olympic regatta and beyond.
While many countries are still having their moments of post-Olympic introspection, US Sailing has made their first moves.
Following the ISAF Council decision just over a week ago, US Sailing has announced the equipment for the Youth World Qualifier to be held at Clearwater YC, Florida. This will be the first time that the new event, the Open Skiff, will be trialled using the 29er.
The ISAF decision on the new Youth event makes a better progression between the Youth classes and the Olympics,
The new card of eight events in the ISAF Youth Worlds, starting 2010, is just two short of the Olympics, with just the keelboat events missing.
US Sailing is one of the first national authorities to announce their response to the ISAF initiative, however it is expected that most will follow suit. The alternative being to select in another class and then cross-train, which has been used with some success by smaller sailing countries.
In the same vein, US Sailing has announced a Youth pipeline comprising two new teams - an Under 18 and Under 23 Sailing Team.
The U18 Sailing team will compete in the ISAF Youth classes except for the multihull and windsurfers, while the U-23 team will compete in the Laser Men and Laser Radial classes. We have republished both announcements from US Sailing in this issue.
The omission of the windsurfer is surprising given the performance of the mens and womens representatives at the 2008 Olympics. One would have thought that in any development program, that the windsurfer would have been a class targeted for an improved result in Weymouth, and on into the 2016 Olympics. Why isn't there be a talent search and development program aimed at finding the next Scott Steele or Mike Gebhardt?
In this issue we feature two newsletters from two America's Cup syndicates. Not particularly unusual in normal times, however in the current era they are proof positive that the action is lifting on the America's Cup due to the adrenaline shot from the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, starting in New Zealand, the end of January.
In response to the hiatus that was triggered when Alinghi accepted a paper yacht club as Challenger of Record, several teams have opted to put the America's Cup to one side and instead focus on other events. Team Origin should have been affected more so than most, as one who had not sailed in an America's Cup.
Their newsletter makes interesting reading with Olympic success (two Gold Medals); a transatlantic record attempt in Virgin Money Speedboat; competing in the Desafio Trophy in a borrowed AC yacht; Ben Ainslie being awarded the Rolex Sailor of the Year for a third time; the Extreme 40 campaign; their various match racing campaigns and gearing up for the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series.
BMW Oracle Racing haven't been exactly idle either, with their BOR90 project now trialling off San Diego. Their newsletter features some comment on the current America's Cup scene from Dennis Conner, and they too are going to be in Auckland for the Louis Vuitton series - along with two of their yachts kindly donated to allow the increased entry in the series.
Don't miss the photo gallery with the BOR90 flying her main hull off San Diego. As we have previously reported the BOR90 is being reported at reaching 33 knots of boatspeed in just 12 knots of wind speed. Seeing these images of the BOR90 at these speeds brings home the sheer size of this sailing machine.
For those readers running iphones and other similar touch screen mobile phones, we have made a slight modification to Sail-World's website (www.sail-world.com/usa) to enable readers to more easily access stories. Instead of having to zoom in and find the 'more' hyperlink to open the story - all you have to do now is touch anywhere in the first paragraph and the story will open.
The mobile phones are great for viewing image galleries, if you have a strong (fast) connection. Just rotate the iphone onto its side, adjust the picture size to fill the full frame and then flick down to see the picture galleries - just like your own film roll.
This change was made in a few minutes after a message from a reader - and we are always pleased to receive feedback on changes you would like to see in Sail-World. Some may be complex, but others are quite quick and simple, and make a big difference, like this one. Thanks, Caroline.
In the Volvo Ocean Race, the eight strong fleet is close to the halfway stage on the second leg to Cochin, India with several of the leaders reported to be in sight of each other. US entry, PUMA Racing skippered by Ken Read is currently in third place on the water 38 miles behind race leaders Ericsson 3 and 4. Currently they are enjoying the last of the trade winds with The Doldrums looming again.
We also have the latest updates from the Vendee Globe and Portimao Global Ocean race.
Good sailing!
Richard Gladwell
US Editor
useditor@sail-world.com
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