Letter from the Antipodes: Is Alinghi making the right moves..Exit the Lockdown
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 10 Dec 2021 00:39 PST
10 December 2021
2021 SOLAS Big Boat Challenge © Andrea Francolini
Hopefully, New Zealand and Auckland, in particular, exiting the 100days or more of Lockdown - during which club sailing has effectively been illegal.
As we move into the so-called "Protection Framework" or traffic lights system for managing the COVID pandemic on an ongoing basis, with pages of rules, the level of precise compliance remains to be seen.
In Sydney, on Dec 7, the 2021 SOLAS Big Boat Challenge, was contested in ideal sailing conditions by a pair of super maxis and seven mini maxis for the 14 nautical mile race, which takes the fleet on a couple of laps of Sydney harbour before a grandstand finish off the Sydney Opera House. The event is a pipe-opener for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, which will get underway on Boxing Day.
The America's Cup newsline is rarely silent - despite there being no sailing and none allowed for another nine months.
Yesterday Emirates Team NZ confirmed that several key members of their sailing team had been re-signed for the 37th America's Cup. The signings had been in place for a month or two, but had not been made public, but suffice to say a poaching operation had been underway.
Entries opened for the 37th America's Cup on the stroke of midnight early a week ago. The official statement said that "several" were received.
From our questioning of Emirates Team New Zealand and the statement issued by the Defender, we don't believe that "several" includes the Challenger, INEOS Britannia and the Defender Emirates Team New Zealand. If it does, then we have been misled.
However, two teams have outed themselves as entries, and a few others are yet to confirm.
There may well be a surprise team or two in the final entry list. Plus, of course, there are a couple of teams lurking in the wings, one of whom has confirmed to Sail-World that they haven't entered yet. Regardless of the tentative numbers, it would seem that many of the criticisms levelled at the Protocol and Defender are proving to be ill-founded. A significant factor in the increased level of interest is that the AC75 is the first America's Cup since 2007 to use the same America's Cup Class as its predecessor.
The AC75 is semi-locked in for the 38th America's Cup, and the ongoing stability of the event is more assured as the fleet of used AC75's increases.
One of the intriguing aspects of the next America's Cup is that of the teams we know already entered or are expected to enter; they all start on a different position on the AC37 grid.
The existing teams start with a race boat that is a known commodity and for which they may have race data that can be compared with the other teams in the last Cup.
They may also benefit from their reconnaissance on the other three teams, which enables them to track developments and measure whether or not there was a performance gain. Given the rate of improvement by all teams in the last Cup - often between rounds - such an exercise could be rather revealing as to design direction pointers for the next Cup.
Once the America's Cup World Series was complete, there was no time available to develop new wings. The teams were stuck with improving what they had rather than fit new gear - unless it was already in the development pipeline. If you'd gone for big wings, there was no time to change down.
The new teams fall into two categories - those who can acquire usable first-generation boats from the AC36 teams and those that do not.
But any new team has to approach AC37 from the perspective that they are two-cycle campaigns, as only one challenger has won the America's Cup on their first attempt - Alinghi in 2003 - with six of the winning Team New Zealand crew from the 2000 America's Cup.
Ernesto Bertarelli played a shrewd game in 2003 and got away with it. In 2021 he already looks to have made several vital moves that can put him into pole position - even compared to the AC36 challengers.
If he can purchase Emirates Team New Zealand's first AC75, Te Aihe and a full set or three of kit, then the canny Swiss is off to a fast start. If, as rumoured, Alinghi have a 40-strong design team working on the software for design, performance, and simulation, then again, they are off to a fast start.
Bertarelli should not be judged on what happened in 2010 and the rancorous Deed of Gift Match, but on his two wins in 2003 and 2007. He knows how to build a top team - including a multi-national one which is always difficult.
The Swiss multi-billionaire isn't wanting for finance. He knows that the right moves made now will pay a big dividend in 2024. Essential design and management people are already in place.
But if Bertelli gets gazumped over the purchase of Te Aihe, then he has lost some of his advantage.
Any other new teams coming in will have the option of purchasing one of three other first-generation AC75s, of which Luna Rossa's Boat 1 is the pick - given that it was reasonably close to their race boat in AC36. Next is American Magic's Defiant, with INEOS Britannia's firstborn being the runt of the litter.
Without a Version-1 AC75, A new challenger's strategy will hinge around AC40 test boat development and a technology-based strategy similar to that employed by Emirates Team New Zealand in their 2017 Cup win. They will probably - aim for an early launch of their race boat to allow full size AC75 training with their new crew.
While the venue question is still unanswered, the design brief for all teams will be similar - developing an AC75 that is an excellent all-round boat, with minimum foils that will easily lift off in winds less than the bottom wind limit of 6.5kts, and which is fast - even if difficult to sail well.
Between now and the close of entries in July 2022, expect to see more team announcements along with key design and sailing recruitment.