Green Comm, in support of sustainability, joins challenger field

By ORACLE Racing Comms // June 23, 2011

Spain’s Real Club Nautico de Valencia made a splashy return to the America’s Cup today when it announced collaboration with the Green Comm Challenge of Italy.

The announcement comes one week after the official 34th America’s Cup press conference in San Francisco, at which eight teams (challenger and defender) from seven nations were presented. The addition of Green Comm increases those numbers by one.

Click here to watch the video of the press conference (1:22:00)

With Sydney Olympic silver medalist Luca Devoti managing the sailing team, Green Comm will have a strong Finn class theme. American Zach Railey (2008 silver medalist) and Briton Ed Wright (2010 world champion) were among the names mentioned by Devoti.

The team’s objective is to promote and manage the “Green Revolution” by leveraging the media impact of international sport’s oldest trophy. The aim is to give visibility to the challenge of sustainability on a global scale by promoting the development of new technologies and new endeavors in the field of Green Tech.

The new team will be based and train in Valencia. It is expected to build its AC72 there, taking advantage of the cost-savings of the Shared Design Program initiative.

"This is not just about Valencia, though we feel at home here, not just about Spain but about Europe," said the team's founder Francesco De Leo. “And we hope to build a bridge to California and Silicon Valley.”

In announcing the team’s budget of approximately 40 million Euros, de Leo (former Manager Director of Telecom Italia, former Director and Head of Strategy and International Operations of Wind and 1999 Global Leaders for Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum) showed an open demeanor. He said that the team is more than 50 percent of the way to its budget.

“Our budget is due to the fact that ACRM has done a great job to change the format of the Cup to reduce budgets,” de Leo said. “They recognize we are not living in 2007 or 2008. We are living the first America’s Cup in the post-economic crisis. So if you want to build a sustainable sports event for the next 10 years we cannot afford to have huge budgets. We can save a lot of money because ACRM has developed a great design package. We have a young team. The goal is the new reality, the new normal. That’s how we get our budget.”

Related articles: Green Comm Racing and RCNV launch the challenge of sustainability
Wright to compete in America’s Cup
Photo top: America’s Cup Event Authority chairman Richard Worth (back row, 2nd from right) joins members of the GreenComm Challenge in announcing their entry in the 34th America’s Cup (Pierre Orphanidis).

Monterey Bay sailors notice uptick in sailing ahead of America's Cup race

By Danny Funt, The Herald // June 27, 2011

Still two years away, the America's Cup race has already made a splash in San Francisco and, according to many in the sailing community, the ripple effect is already being felt in Monterey Bay.

Some who saw television footage of one of the boats going through tests on San Francisco Bay, and capsizing, "rushed down to the (Monterey) harbor," said Joe Headley, commodore of the Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club. After the public got its first glimpse of the latest high-tech craft capable of speeds up to 50 mph, Headley heard comments like, "Boy, I'd sure love to try something like that."

One of the largest sporting events in the world, the America's Cup is expected to attract millions of spectators and pump more than $1billion into San Francisco's economy between now and the end of competition in September 2013. Such excitement about a sport that traditionally receives little publicity has the local sailing community buzzing about what it could mean for the popularity of their pastime.

"We're anxious for lots of enthusiasm about sailing to sweep through the San Francisco Bay and Monterey Bay area," said Terry Russey, commodore of the Stillwater Yacht Club in Pebble Beach. "There's an increased awareness already. I think people are getting more interested in sailing, and I think that is going to build between now and 2013."

Link to full article: Monterey Bay sailors notice uptick in sailing ahead of America’s Cup
Related article: A helping hand from Bay area volunteers
Photo above: The thrill of danger, subsequently broadcast around the world, has drawn the attention of casual boaters (Guilain Grenier/ORACLE Racing).

Masters of speed

By Kimball Livingston, BluePlanetTimes // June 23, 2011

ORACLE Racing’s AC45 catamarans, blasting up and down San Francisco Bay, have inspired a torrent of breathless prose. But are they fast? Really?

AC45 #4, skippered by Jimmy Spithill, and #5, skippered by Russell Coutts, have generally used the Golden Gate Bridge as a windward boundary for their race training, which places their turning point right off Crissy Field, one of the world’s great sites for windsurfing and kiting. And the kite guys, especially, have been keen to take on the cats. After all, the 500-meter speed sailing record presently belongs to American Rob Douglas at 55.65 knots. With a kite.

Top gun kiter Johnny Heineken, off today for Silt, Germany and the Kiteboard Course Racing Worlds checked in with this:

You got to go sailing on one of the cats.

Jealous!

I’ve been close, though. On two days we lined up with them on kites. Pretty amazing. The first day, they were racing, so I didn’t want to get too close, but I jumped in on a downwind leg and paced them for a while.

Later, Joey Pasquali (who will be joining John Craig ((AC34 PRO)) as a mark-set boat driver), Bryan Lake and I followed them around for an hour or so on our courseboards. I would say that on upwind angles we were even, but they had a tiny speed advantage with that not-slowing-down-over-chop thing they’ve got going. We get bounced on our 6-foot boards. Their leeward hulls just drive through it. But it was pretty amazing to sail half a boatlength away from one of those things, just to leeward, off their bow, and hang with them.

Downwind we were close, but I can’t honestly say I was faster. Once again, their advantage…hmm…doubling their sail area downwind. If only I could magically turn my 9-meter kite into a 15-meter kite when I round the top mark.

Link to full article: Masters of speed
Photo top: Kite or wing? Wing or kite? A kiteboarder attempts to pace the No. 4 boat of ORACLE Racing (Mike Kalin).

The view from Spithill’s office

By Michelle Slade, SailBlast // June 21, 2011

Jimmy Spithill’s version of getting up and heading to the office is just a little different to most. He starts in the gym about 7, heads home for a shower and breakfast, then hits the ORACLE Racing HQ at San Francisco’s Pier 80 for an operations meeting which sets the team’s agenda for the day. This week the focus has been on trialing equipment with Race Committee and umpires. A sailing team debrief follows where the team discusses what happened the previous day on the water, analyzing video footage and working with coaches Philippe Presti and Darren Bundock (aka Bundy). Meetings over, it’s time to crank up the pace and get out on the water. “It's a full day,” says Jimmy. SailBlast editor Michelle Slade chatted to the skipper of America's Cup defender, ORACLE Racing about his first week sailing the AC45 in San Francisco.

SB: What have you learned this past week in San Francisco?
Spithill: The way the weather works here on the Bay is perfect - from midday on you can be sailing. On these boats you don’t need more than a few hours because it’s so physical for the crew. You get to the point where you start to get diminishing returns because everyone’s starting to get tired. These boats are just physically draining and it takes its toll - you never get a break really. By the time the end of the week comes around you can definitely see everyone needs a couple of days off to recharge.

Another thing we’ve learned here is to split the week up, like we’ll do a Mon/Tues sail, take Wed as a maintenance catch up day, then sail Thurs/Fri. You could sail six days a week but you wouldn’t be any better for it. On the old boats, 2-boat testing was draining but more mentally concentration-wise for the drivers and the trimmers.

SB: There’s a lot of talk about the athleticism required on the 45?
Spithill: It’s definitely a different game - the huge emphasis now is on the athletic side, which I think is good. I have friends who are professional rugby players and they don’t see the athletic side of sailing - they instantly think of guys in a blazer sitting on the side, swanning around the bay. Once people see the 45s, with the cameras and mikes onboard, they see the amount of effort going into it.

Link to full article: The view from Spithill’s office
Related video: NBC Bay Area rides with ORACLE Racing
Photo: Jimmy Spithill responds to a question during an interview with NBC.

Emirates Team New Zealand ramping up

Last week was chock full of action for Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker. The 38-year-old was at the team’s base on Halsey St. when it took delivery of the first of two SL33 catamarans for training purposes.

He also joined managing director Grant Dalton for interviews with Waiwera, the team’s official water supplier.

Over the past weekend Barker appeared as a guest on Peter Montgomery’s radio program Scoreboard Across New Zealand. In the interview – click here to listen to its entirety – Barker commented on the adjustment to sailing multihulls after a life spent honing monohull techniques.

“My whole life has been focused on sailing monohulls, and as a team we worked ourselves into being equal to anyone throughout the world in the different classes we took on,” said Barker. “With the changes to the America’s Cup and this team focused on winning the America’s Cup, we knew had to transition quickly into multihulls. There are a number of differences between being good in monohulls and multihulls.

“In multihulls you’re living life on the edge a lot of the time. It is adrenaline sailing, much more than what monohull sailing would be. You describe monoull sailing as fine tuning, always looking to eke that extra bit of speed out of boat the whole time.

“In multihulls, it’s way more coarse. You’re hurtling along at much quicker speed, pushing the boat to its edge of capability most of the time. A capsize or pitch pole is one bad judgment away. It’s quite a different concept. It’s very much an adrenaline sport. There’s a lot more risk associated with what we’re doing now, but at the same time it’s a fantastic new discipline, pushing ourselves to learn about sailing in a completely different environment,” said Barker.

Related articles: Emirates Team New Zealand start two-boat program
Dean Barker explains the Team New Zealand campaign
Behind the scenes: Emirates Team New Zealand
Photo top: Dean Barker being interviewed for Waiwera water (Waiwera water).

Venezia Challenge launches “All crazy for Italy”

Source: IGN News // June 21, 2011

Venezia Challenge, the team that will represent the Italian colors at the 34th America's Cup, announced the project “All Crazy for Italy”, which ranks as the ultimate goal in the preservation of the heritage of Italian culture with the consequent increase in jobs and tourism promotion.

“We have already declared that our boat will be used as a real medium, able to promote Italian excellence in the world,”-said Team Principal, Carlo Magna. “One of the side projects in the planning and launch after an international campaign to raise awareness of the preservation of our architectural beauty that makes our country the most important open-air museum in the world. It is a revolutionary initiative for the America's Cup, the sport in general, as well as citizens around the world who love our beautiful, mustering the companies.”

“We formed a committee, the Committee Challenge Venice, to collect private donations from around the world,” added another team principal, Emanuela Pulcino. “Part of the proceeds will give life into a fund that will finance restoration work in the major Italian cities.”

Original language text: Venezia Challenge launches “All crazy for Italy”
Translated text: Venezia Challenge launches “All crazy for Italy”
Photo above: Carlo Magna and Emanuela Pulcino (Venezia Challenge).

Pim Nieuwenhuis joins Team China

Source: Team Boskalis PR // June 19, 2011

For the time being the Zwitserleven Sailing Week is going to be the last regatta for Dutch sailor Pim Nieuwenhuis at Team Boskalis. Nieuwenhuis is now part of the America's Cup Team China as a genoa trimmer and he will focus full time on that prestigious yachting event. Nieuwenhuis crewed for Team China helmsman Mitch Booth in the Tornado class at the Beijing Olympics, where they placed fifth.

“This is a career opportunity that he can’t miss,” said Team Boskalis manager Gunnar Larsen. “It's very nice that one of us gets the opportunity work for such a professional project. That is entirely his own merit, but it is nice to know that we gather good people around us with Team Boskalis. In my view the America's Cup and the Olympics are the highest in catamaran sailing and perhaps in the sailing sports anyway.”

Link to full article: Team Boskalis in starting blocks for Nacra Infusion Worlds 2011

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