INEOS Team UK - February 2020 - Cagliari, Sardinia - photo © Mark Lloyd / Lloyd Images
Dear Recipient Name
Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for April 13, 2020
Here we all are, just over half-way through the Lockdown, and wondering where it is all headed. Are we ten days from a return to life as we knew it? Or will it be a longer haul?
At Sail-World we have had to shift away from reporting racing news, as essentially there has been very little, with the JJ Giltinan Trophy sailed in Sydney in March, being one of the last truly international competitions before 50% of the planet went into Lockdown.
However, that is not to say the sailing world has been idle. Or that the antics over Tokyo2020 are over.
While the International Olympic Committee has made the decision to shift the Games on by exactly 21 months and keep the name Tokyo2020, that decision was made without a detailed logistics exercise, or an accurate idea of the cost - or if indeed it was possible in the time available, at a time when people were just wanting to be told what they wanted to hear.
It would now seem from push-back coming out of Japan that Tokyo2020 is mission impossible - and all that assumes Japan is able to institute medical measures that will protect it from the hundreds of thousands of fans expected to attend.
Some are suggesting that after the numbers are run that 2022, might be a better option for Tokyo2020 - but clashing with the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
America's Cup options
The same questions that occur over the Olympics also hang over the America's Cup in ten months time - except the Auckland venue is a lot smaller scale - with only four countries competing and not the over 200 expected for Tokyo2020.
The America's Cup is a lot more manageable event than Tokyo2020.
Plus the America's Cup teams are here for eight months - in which a couple of weeks quarantine is not really an issue, provided there is a gym available. With 50% of Auckland's hotels closed there won't be any shortage of space - and probably some very good deals to be had in place of the ubiquitous price gouging that seems to accompany and help kill visitor interest for major events.
Fortunately, some good decisions were made early on - no ticket sales - so there is no revenue lost if the event is conducted without spectators being present in the America's Cup Village. Also, the decision was taken to be able to broadcast to anyone, anywhere, on any device, and free to air. So there is not a constant dialogue with rights holders as to the effect of changes that may be required to facilitate any changes to the event coverage. It's not going to be easy for sure.
That flexibility should allow the best Cup possible to be held in Auckland.
Sliding the dates by 12 months would not seem to be an option with The Ocean Race expected in Auckland in February/March 2022 - and a TOR fleet that could hit 20 boats - requiring the America's Cup base space and more.
Outside the teams, the biggest issue is the fans and superyachts. Obviously, if there are quarantine restrictions in place on fans and visitors, there are unlikely to be too many superyachts taking up their berths - unless they come in and have refit work done before heading off. Alternatively, it may be possible to cut a deal for the quarantine to be handled by remaining on board.
Hopefully we will all be through this sort of discussion by December.
Certainly Kiwi sailors will take great heart from the day that Emirates Team New Zealand goes foiling down the Waitemata again - then we will know that life is returning to normal.
Ainslie interview
Last week we published a couple of stories from America's Cup Challenger INEOS Team UK, following an interview with skipper and team CEO, Ben Ainslie.
As those who keep an eye on Auckland's Wynyard Point will know, the Brits are the most advanced with their base construction, with the framework up, and being closed in will not be too far away, once the COVID-19 handbrake is released, hopefully in 10 days. The other two teams, Luna Rossa and American Magic are yet to make a visible start.
The Brits have been through a roller-coaster ride over late February - March, winning the SailGP in Sydney, in their first outing as a team, in commanding fashion. Then it was back to Sardinia to sail through a four-month training and development program, culminating in the America's Cup World Series, Sardinia. However, all that was knocked on the head with the horrific advance of COVID-19, and the Brits exited back to their base in Portsmouth.
One of the mantras of the America's Cup is "that you can only work what you have in front of you" - which is the situation faced by the British as they regroup, put together a new plan, get their second AC75 completed (and probably launched) and then work out a process for getting to New Zealand.
Ainslie is the most successful sailor in Olympic history, and with strong ties to New Zealand - going back to 1995 when he trained in his Laser, prior to the 1996 Olympics, and sailed the tune-up boat for Emirates Team New Zealand in the 2003 America's Cup. He was back in 2009 sailing with Team Origin in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series. He was quite forthcoming in the interview - we almost got out of him whether the Brits had opted for a Te Aihe/Luna Rossa type skiff for their second AC75. However, he gave enough hints for you to guess.
The Brits had a serious splashdown in Cagliari, which was released by the team in a video. We asked Ben Ainslie if he could talk through what happened in the incident, and his recollection gave a fantastic insight into the physics of AC75 sailing - which we've lined up with a timeline matched to the video. There's instructions on how to slow the video down to quarter speed - so the incident unfolds in slow motion. The trick is to watch the mast of the AC75 and work out whether the pressure is on or off which foil, and how that affects what happens next.
The timeline also shows how quickly the AC75 crews have to react, and it is clear that F1-speed reactions and decision making are essential. From the way he speaks it is clear that the simulator plays a huge role in training the crews for these situations - where they can rehearse and review until the wrinkles have been ironed out of their technique and responses. This has been our most-read story of the past week.
There are a couple more America's Cup stories which have been rating well in Sail-World's readership list - from Luna Rossa and the involvement of 31yr old, Lorenzo Bertelli - also a driver on the World Rally Championship.
American Magic helmsman Dean Barker, now on his sixth America's Cup campaign shares his favourite moment.
We also have Part 3 of the interview with Richard Mason and Peter Rusch on the shape of The Ocean Race elaborating on how the crew diversity will work on the VO65's, more on the fully crewed IMOCA60's, and what has been decided on the use of fossil fuels.
OK & Finn sailor Bill Bell dies
We note the sad passing of Bill Bell, a very familiar figure in OK Dinghy and Finn circles internationally as well as in his home patch of Port Phillip, Melbourne.
Bill went a long way back in the OK class - into the 1970's into the Clive Roberts era - and like Clive, Bill was at his best in a hard breeze. You certainly got a very clear idea of what righting moment was all about when those two got over the side of an OK, wound the mainsheet in so the boom was sitting on the deck, and off they went, powering their way upwind, leaving the rest of the fleet to admire their fast-departing transoms.
Theirs was an era when there was no coaching (some of us have still never had an hour of coaching in our lives), and you self-improved by making your competitors better. That practice is only just creeping back into some of the Olympic campaigns and is delivering results, and building up class fleets.
That was also an era when you put back more into the sport than you took out - which Bill did with his life-long support for his local Black Rock Yacht Club, with the OK and Finn classes and as an International Judge and Race Officer.
Bill was always very quietly spoken - and simply got things done, leaving all the talk to others. He drew heavily on his dinghy experience working as a judge or race officer, and inside the confines of the jury room, he took little nonsense and was a hard judge at times. That was really his way of shaping the sport and instilling the same values that prevailed in his early sailing career.
Bill was also the one in the Jury Room that asked a few very sharp questions and then quietly wrote out a draft decision, listening while the tail-end of the proceedings progressed. Once the competitors had gone, Bill produced his handwritten script of what had often been verbal mayhem, got right to the point, and after discussion only a word or two of his script got changed. He was very efficient, right on the mark and did all the heavy lifting.
He combined the two rare qualities of having an outstanding rules knowledge, which he was able to overlay with his excellent racing experience at a top-level, and knew when to over-ride one with the other. Bill was definitely of the school, where he believed the Rules were applied to suit Sailing, rather than Sailing made to suit the Rules. Of course, because of his competitive background and time on the water, Bill was very quick to spot when a sailor had stepped over the line prescribed by the Rules and quickly and quietly resolved the situation. Bill's regattas were always very fair regattas, and as a competitor, you can't ask for more than that.
Bill was last in New Zealand for the Symonite OK Worlds just over a year ago in February 2019 and previously at the 2015 Finn Gold Cup in Takapuna.
Mark Jackson, President of the OK Dinghy International Association provided the tribute to Bill, which we have carried in this edition.
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Good sailing!
Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor
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