Sir Russell Coutts at the SailGP global racing league launch - photo © SailGP
Dear Recipient Name
Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for October 4, 2018
Earlier today, more detail of the Foiling 50 League now known as SailGP was released at a function at the historic Tower Bridge in London.
Currently little more is known of the event that was not already in the market. There will be six teams, from Australia, Great Britain, France, Japan, USA and China.
They will sail in identical Foiling 50 wingsailed foiling catamarans, descended from the AC50 used in the 35th America's Cup. Co-ordinating the design side is former America's Cup designer Mike Drummond (NZL) who led the Oracle Racing design team for the development of the 120ft trimaran the so-called Dogzilla in the 2010 America's Cup, and the development of the AC45 one-design used in the America's Cup World Series.
As previously reported the six F50's are being constructed at Core Builders Composites in Warkworth - in a not insignificant project employing 110 people.
The F50's are claimed to have a top speed of 50kts in 20kts of breeze - remembering that the top end windstrength in Bermuda was 24kts, and the top speed achieved by a foiling wingsailed catamaran was set by Emirates Team NZ who hit 47.57 knots in 21.8 knots during Race 18 of the 34th America's Cup Match. We have a detailed explanation of the design and construction approach in this edition.
The circuit has been confirmed for five venues starting in February (15-16), San Francisco in May (4-5), New York in June (21-22), Cowes in August (10-11), with the final in Marseille in September (20-22). The racing is done on a fleet racing format with the final shoot-out between the top two teams for a winner-takes-all, $1 million match race between the season's top two teams to conclude three days of racing.
Aside from the Final, the racing will take place over two days in each venue - following the often fraught America's Cup World Series format in which the wind was occasionally a no-show - causing all sorts of workarounds, including towing AC45's behind chase boats to show a foiling yacht to the six-figure crowd.
There would seem to be little cross-over with the America's Cup event in which the then AC50's were last used.
The makeup of only one of the teams, that of was announced in London, the home team of Great Britain SailGP Team sailing with a five-man crew of whom only one had America's Cup experience - Chris Draper ex-Luna Rossa in 2013 and 2017 with Softbank Team Japan. There are no cyclors aboard the F50's - with electrical energy coming from a battery bank, and the crew has been reduced from the six of the AC50.
At this stage, only two former America's Cup teams have jumped the fence to join the Sail GP circuit. Predictably United States SailGP Team has re-bannered their Facebook page from Oracle Team USA and dragged their 250,000 followers across to the new event. Softbank Team Japan becomes Japan SailGP Team with 80,000 fans taken across from the America's Cup series. The event itself - SailGP is starting from a zero fan base.
It would seem that the rest of the teams will be announced at individual venue functions.
Three major sponsors are associated with the SailGP event - Oracle, Louis Vuitton and Land Rover - bouncing back from their rebuffed involvement in the UK America's Cup team.
The controlling body of the sport has blessed the new circuit. The beleaguered World Sailing will no doubt be buoyed by the financial contribution from the series, along with the kudos from being able to promptly associate itself with the new event. That's a different situation from the norm - where the world governing body is customarily fended off until almost the start of competition over the question of a sanctioning fee from a reluctant event.
Outside of the official release, the cost of running each SailingGP team is put at USD5million per year. It would seem that initially that cost will be covered by organisers - who obviously have the option to recover their initial investment with team and event sponsorship. Beyond the third year, the intention is to move to a franchised model - once the circuit has settled, and accurate media and fan statistics are available.
There is no doubt the new circuit fills a gap in the market. While many will see it as being a direct pitch against the America's Cup, as we have said previously the series that will be hardest hit are expected to be the Extreme Sailing Series, the GC32's and World Match Racing Tour. But the reality is that the effect of SailGP will be to expand the sport at this level offering a new option for young sailors looking to break into the high-performance professional sailing circuits, forming a commercial team and then moving onto the America's Cup.
Laser class on the line
There will be more quizzical looks in the direction of World Sailing with the announcement that the long list of eight options for the 2024 Singlehanded Dinghy has been cut to four which will go onto "sea trial". Most would have thought that "sailing trials" would have been a more accurate term.
Understandably the International Laser class are concerned as the world body steps through a process which seems to ignore the fact that the Laser class contributes the most countries to an Olympic Sailing Regatta. That in turn gets counted in the "Universality" of an Olympic sport - a measure against which all sports are compared. The lower the participation across the world the more "at risk" your sport can become to continued Olympic participation.
Obviously, there are other factors and measurements, but "Universality" goes to the heart of the International Olympic Committee's thinking.
Also, sooner or later, the countries have to vote for the Olympic sports they favour - and if your sport has no/low international participation from a particular country and more importantly a continent or region - then your game isn't going to get too many votes - and certainly not at the expense of others - which cost less and are widely played.
World Sailing's whole approach to the matter seems to have been Process driven augmented by their extreme view of what "gender equal" means in the Olympic context.
That blind faith in Process, and the outcomes that such a philosophy can spawn are becoming more apparent. The "ditching" of the Laser is a distinct possibility.
Typically the sort of missive posted by World Sailing today is sufficient to trigger an uprising in the sailing rialto. As has happened so often in the past, pragmatism carries the day, and the recommendation of a Committee often gets tossed out by the popular vote. The only thing that is surprising is that the sailing politicians are such slow learners.
End of an Era
The Auckland On the Water Boat Show has come and gone. The event was uncharacteristically blessed with four days of fine Spring weather. That coupled with the onset of America's Cup fever, and the start of school holidays (and a lack of Saturday morning sport) ensured a noticeable lift in attendance - 12% up on the previous year.
The most remarkable aspect of the show is always the number of topline boats in the floating displays. It is hard to find one that is not an import - underlining that a page has closed on the Kiwi boat building industry in the space of just 20 years or so.
For sure there are a lot of high quality (and expensive) Kiwi-builds amongst the trailer boat market aimed at the recreational boatie.
The Auckland On the Water Boat Show is probably the only occasion in the year for your average punter to be able to review this fine fleet.
If you do want to revisit the New Zealand boatbuilding culture, then visit the NZ Sailing Dinghy Exhibition starting tomorrow. These exhibitions are put on by the Tino Rawa Trust and are always well worth a visit and spending an hour or two absorbing a key era in New Zealand's sailing history.
The exhibition is being staged opposite the Viaduct Events Centre in Karanga Plaza in Halsey Street and Wynyard Quarter. The TinoRawa Trust stages the exhibition click here to see details on the current exhibition and those of previous years.
The exhibition is open from Friday, October 5th to Sunday, October September 7th from 1000hrs to 1600hrs. It is outdoors, which adds to the show - making it less museum-like.
This year's show is the last (maybe for some time) that the show will have the use of the Viaduct Events Centre - with Emirates Team New Zealand moving out of their spartan base in Beaumont Street to take over the glass palace.
Next year's show will continue from a new location in the Viaduct Harbour.
Today's move is the team's fourth change of premises - a little surprising as they were the catalyst for the creation of the Viaduct Harbour and transformation of a derelict part of Auckland into its crown jewel.
It is a little hard to imagine a group that has prided themselves on being Team Tough moving into the swankiest base in America's Cup history.
A key part of their culture has been the ability to operate out of anywhere that had a piece of flat ground which could support a few shipping containers. Hopefully, that attribute won't be lost in the VEC escalator ride.
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Good sailing!
Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor
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