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25 Sep 2017 |
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  Sail-World NZ - Sept 25 - Cup on tour..Spithill and Slingsby open up
 | | Auckland On The Water Boat Show - Day 1 - September 29, 2016 - Viaduct Events Centre Richard Gladwell |
Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for Sept 25, 2017
The Auckland On the Water Boat Show gets underway on Thursday.
Centrepiece of the Show will be the America's Cup on display on Level 3 of the Viaduct Events Centre.
The most prestigious trophy in sailing has been doing the rounds of yacht clubs and will continue to do so with the team's fan base turning out in droves to see the Cup, meet their heroes and get photos taken with both.
It is a great thing to see either personally or share via media.
On Friday afternoon at Gulf Harbour Yacht Club, an afternoon visit by some members of Emirates Team New Zealand pulled a crowd estimated at around 800, with the club engaging a photographer to snap the fans as they posed with the Cup, provided they signed up to receive the Club's email newsletter.
That sets a good base to get people involved in the Club's sailing activities at all levels from junior and learn to sail through to adults sailing keelboats or cruising.
 | | Tom Slingsby (right) doesn't expect Larry Ellison (left) owner of Oracle Team USA to compete in Auckland for the 2021 America's Cup Richard Gladwell |
A dinner at the club that evening was a sell-out.
For any club to host the America's Cup on a visit is a significant event in the Club's history. It also has the spin-off in the wider community, as regional media pick up on the Cup as a major news event and that gives sailing a profile in the region which the sport, cub and sailors would otherwise not have had.
The way the last America's Cup Challenge was set up, drawing heavily on Yachting New Zealand's NZL Sailing Team and Olympic Sailing squad now provides a clear pathway for the junior Optimist sailors to the Olympic and America's Cup ranks.
So it is to the benefit of the America's Cup team that they draw in new sailors through the club system. For the club's they need innovative ways of getting the new sailors interested in the sport and retaining their recruits.
They also have to bear firmly in mind that 50% of those coming into the club to start sailing are not from sailing families. That is quite different from 40 or more years ago when sailing used to pass from generation to generation - and even looking just at Team New Zealand you can see the sons and daughters of parents and grandparents who were also prominent in the New Zealand sailing scene.
That means there is not a lot of know-how coming into the club. Also, that new sailors are coming from a background in other sports where it is not a prerequisite to have to spend several thousand dollars just to get started in the sport.
 | | Peter Burling and Jimmy Spithill - 35th America's Cup, Bermuda © BMW | Studio Borlenghi |
Vanquished America's Cup skipper Jimmy Spithill has been getting a lot of airplay over the past few days in New Zealand - co-incidental with the release of his biography.
While most look at the book in the context of the America's Cup, its outstanding feature is the way he explains his upbringing and his junior sailing career. To the incredulity of many, Spithill has never sailed an Optimist or a junior singlehander.
His boats were all hand-me-downs or knock about boats that others looked at often with derision until he beat them on the water. Then he stepped across into the Youth programs - with supplied and match or teams racing. There he started and kept on winning and then got his break-through into the big time.
Many older sailors, in particular, will empathise with Spithill's upbringing. They started along much the same lines, but there were no teams racing or match racing in those days. But people did race against each other in a multitude of classes, and if you wanted to beat your mates, then you just bought an old bigger boat, learned how to sail it and then just worked on improving your sailing and handling skills.
The other point to remember with the America's Cup touring the regions is that none of the America's Cup sailing crew came from Auckland, or rather started their sailing careers in Auckland. So getting sailing recruits in the regions is perpetuating a successful formula.
It is also food for thought for the Auckland clubs who provide the majority of the national junior sailing fleets. It is significant that neither Jimmy Spithill or Peter Burling have ever bothered to stay in junior classes until they reached the prescribed age limit. They both stepped up to the next level, or two, when they felt they could take it on and that it would be a challenge to develop their sailing skills to compete and win, before moving upwards again.
 | | Emirates Team New Zealand - Blair Tuke holds the America's Cup as the Harbour parade gets underway - Parade in Auckland, July 6, 2017 Richard Gladwell |
That is why one was sailing in his first Olympics at the age of 17 years old, and the other was skippering a boat in the America's Cup Regatta at the age of 19 years old. Most of their peers (and parents) would have still been focusing on whether or not they made the team for the Youth Worlds.
The first real marker in the 2021 America's Cup will come at the end of this week with the announcement of the Protocol which will govern the event and will set entry dates and other basic parameters of the 36th America's Cup.
The Protocol will be one of the fastest issued in recent times.
Alinghi did come out with a quick Protocol after the 2007 Match but found themselves heading into the New York Supreme Court soon afterwards.
Golden Gate Yacht Club took nine months to produce the Protocol for the 2017 America's Cup and then made several significant changes, within a week.
The changes continued to be rung, and there were 16 sets of amendments to the Protocol over the intervening period until racing started in Bermuda. While there is not an issue with rule changes being made by unanimous agreement, there is an issue when they are made by a majority only.
With Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Circolo della Vela Sicilia holding the reigns, it is most unlikely that we will see a repeat of the antics that have characterised the America's Cup for the past 14 years.
Friday's announcement will be awaited with interest. Hear about it first on Sail-World.
 | | Glenn Ashby - Emirates Team New Zealand, 35th America's Cup, Nominee and Finalist for the Rolex World Sailor of the Year Ricardo Pinto |
Follow all the racing and developments in major and local events on www.sail-world.com by scrolling to the top of the site, select New Zealand, and get all the latest news and updates from the sailing world.
Good sailing!
Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor
sailworldnzl@gmail.com
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 | | TT Rigging Race Day HYS One Ton Cup / oceanimages.co.uk |
 | | Day 1 – RS700 Volvo Noble Marine National Championships © Sportography.tv |
 | | Day 4 – TP52 Super Series Mahon © Max Ranchi Photography |
 | | RHKYC Autumn Regatta 2017. Guy Nowell / RHKYC |
 | | 2017 HYS One Ton Cup - Day 2 HYS One Ton Cup / oceanimages.co.uk |
 | | 2017 M32 North America Championship - Day 1 © Ian Roman |
 | | Gstaad Yacht Club's Centenary Trophy 2016 © Juerg Kaufmann / GYC |
 | | Final day – HYS One Ton Cup © HYS One Ton Cup / oceanimages.co.uk |
 | | Final day – HYS One Ton Cup © HYS One Ton Cup / oceanimages.co.uk |
 | | 2017 M32 North America Championship © Ian Roman |
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