49er - Olympic training - Marseille - Paris2024 Olympic Regatta - July 26, 2024 - photo © Gilles Martin-Raget
Dear Recipient Name
Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for July 28, 2024
Apologies for the long break between newsletters; however, it has been very busy with America's Cup coverage, Olympic preparation and other issues.
Sail-World's Olympic accreditation only arrived on Thursday—too late to get to Marseille. We have spent almost a week setting up to cover remotely and will run live through the regatta with editors updating from New Zealand and the UK.
We are on the cusp of a very busy seven months in sailing.
Just ten days ago, SailGP wrapped up Season 4, with Spain being a surprise winner of the $2 million purse, which hangs on the final race and the title of Season 4 winner.
As so often happens with SailGP, the team that just scrapes into the Final goes on to win the Event. So maybe the Spanish win was no surprise.
It was a great day for Spain and the sport. It was pleasing to see SailGP champions put into the same peer group as F1, Tennis, and Golf. It remains to be seen if the Spanish SailGP helm, Diego Botin, can emulate the feat and win the Gold Medal in the 49er class. He is the nephew of Marcelino Botin, a top America's Cup designer and Design Chief for American Magic.
With the SailGP series complete, attention will shift to the 2024 Olympic Regatta in Marseille, which starts in three days on July 28.
Unlike previous Olympics, this one is hard to read, given that five of the ten events have changed since the last Olympic Regatta. Five of the events are now sailed in foilers - a big jump from just the Nacra 16 multihull three years ago in Tokyo2020.
With the change in classes, many established sailors who have dominated the past three Olympics have retired rather than change to a new event.
It is also a maxim of Olympic sailing that competitors rarely win a medal at their first Olympics. Given the event changes that have been made, it is hard to pick likely medalists except in the Nacra 16, Mens and Womens ILCA, and Mens and Womens Skiff. However, in the latter two events, several top crews have retired, and those two classes are opportunities for new talent to come to the fore.
We will carry full Olympic coverage on Sail-World via our international editorial team. We will work through the New Zealand night to ensure that Sail-World readers have the latest reports and results from all classes and teams. Our first report in the "Olympic Diary" series was posted on Wednesday and will expand significantly as the Event gets up to full speed.
The arrangements we have in place are similar to those in the Media Centre in Marseille (usually, I'd have been on the water), except in Marseille, we don't have seven big screens and replay facilities in the Media Centre as we do in Devonport.
We will cover the Olympics from an international perspective rather than just a New Zealand focus.
The America's Cup gets underway with the third Preliminary Event in about 30 days on August 22.
We have had intense coverage for a year, thanks to Sail-World and others being given access to the AC37 Joint Recon Program information compiled by a team of 12 reporters and photographers. These reporters and photographers have trailed each team every day they have been testing in either a 40fter or AC75.
That program stopped on June 22 and has not been replaced with an alternative. Several other high-rated sailing sites were running regular video compilations and commentary on the Cup developments, which have also been wound down. From a fan perspective, shutting down the recon system and media feeds without putting an alternative in place was a wrong move, from a fan engagement perspective.
We've seen nothing from the teams in the way of images or reports that were up to the standard of coverage from the recon teams, who were, of course, an independent source of information and analysis—even if they did make the occasional error—which is a hazard of any independent, unauthorised commentary.
We have some back content, including several editions of Cup Spy that were not published due to time pressure and will be run when time permits. Some very interesting historic America's Cup videos—mostly from the 12 Metre era—are popping up on YouTube, which will also get an airing. There's one sequence of Dennis Conner driving a crane and offering to haul Australia II from the water for maintenance.
When the Recon System shut down, four Cup teams had been sailing for 25-34 days in their AC75 and were well into their development. The other two—Emirates Team New Zealand and Orient Express (France)—were well behind in terms of days on the water when the Recon program shut down.
Since the beginning of May, we have been treated to various sights of the AC75s being revealed ahead of the start of the 2024 America's Cup in Barcelona on August 22.
The Swiss team Alinghi Red Bull Racing were the first, on April 6, after the dark blue hull of the radical AC75 design was rolled out from the shed door for a 20-minute glimpse. Any serious appreciation of the design produced by the team led by Marcelino Botin had to wait until ten days later, on April 16, for their creation to be tow-tested and sailed three days later. The Swiss were the first team to sail an AC75 at the 37th America's Cup venue and have since had 12 days sailing off Barcelona.
Emirates Team New Zealand put the other teams, and all Cup fans, on notice to expect the unexpected when their AC75, to be later christened 'Taihoro', emerged just after noon through the doors of their Wynyard Point base, alongside Jellicoe Harbour in downtown Auckland.
After an inclement morning, the skies cleared, and the Kiwis went through the now-familiar routine of commissioning an America's Cup yacht.
However, on this occasion, they excelled themselves, managing to rig, launch, tow test, sail and make the first dry foiling tack - all on the same day, or rather, the same afternoon. It was a first in America's Cup history, and the Defender became the first team to sail a Version 2 AC75 in the 2024 America's Cup.
[American Magic repeated the feat, but they were coming off a pre-dawn start, unlike the Kiwis, who started after lunch.]
The Kiwis went on to sail for an impressive and intense 14 days out of 18 available, including sailing in a 30-35kt breeze, before decommissioning 'Taihoro', which is about to be loaded on a fruit ship heading for Europe.
A day later, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli presented their new AC75 concealed by a black shroud, which was dropped for the christening ceremony and first splash. They sailed six days later, in a breeze that was bordering on the fresh - an early finish was called on the session. The Italian team are on their sixth America's Cup challenge. It is really their seventh - if you count their 2017 effort, which was shut down after Golden Gate Yacht Club, in cahoots with a group of Challengers, changed the class from the AC62 to the AC50 18 months into the cycle.
Like the Kiwis, the Italians have decommissioned their AC75 and shipped it to their base in Barcelona. Except Luna Rossa travelled less than 400nm instead of the New Zealanders' 13,000 nm.
The British team were next to emerge on April 18, the day of the Italian's tow test. The Brits took their now usual, very precise approach to set up the AC75 - a process which lasted eight days before they went through the setup, measure and check for one last time and went sailing. The four-and-a-half-hour session finished at 8.00 pm. Then, it was another four days in the shed before the next sail on May 1. From there, the Brits found their sea legs and sailed on six of the next ten days.
American Magic shut down their AC40 two-boat program on April 23, had a day off, and then the base doors opened, and their AC75 rolled out into the daylight, or more properly, some airspace, to allow the mast to be stepped and the supplied rigging checked. It was 12 days before we saw the US Challenger repeat the exercise. This time, with a pre-dawn start, they were sailing for a period before being warned off by forecasts of thunderstorms. They sailed for two more days that week and seemed satisfied to have put their commissioning process behind them.
On May 26, the sixth team, Orient Express Racing Team, revealed their AC75, which was built from a design package supplied by Emirates Team New Zealand. The French flew for the first time on May 30.
Quite how they or any other team is performing is a mystery.
From past experience, we know that all AC75s look super quick when sailing by themselves, but the awful truth is only revealed when they are put together in a race. You only have to look at INEOS Britannia's performance in the last Cup to verify that statement.
Whether that remains the case in the 2024 Cup remains to be seen. Of course, all the teams talk down their performances and praise others'.
In the weird AC75 world where the teams are not allowed to sail against each other, heading in the same direction for more than 20 seconds, we see the "world of criss-cross"—where one tacks and the other quickly responds, falling onto the opposite board/gybe. In the days of the Recon System, the teams claim they don't learn anything from these encounters and put any differential down to wind shifts, changes in pressure, etc.
It's like listening to kids explain why they haven't done their homework.
Your mind goes into fog mode as you mentally count the days until the racing starts - and then the truth may emerge.
And that, folks, is it for the content from the Recon system, which shut down over a month ago, We are no wiser since then.
A couple of weeks or so after the America's Cup is over, the Vendee Globe gets underway on November 10 from Les Sables-d'Olonne in Vendée, in western France.
The singlehanded, non-stop around-the-world race has a limited entry of 40 - sailing IMOCA60s of varying vintages. The race has a massive following in Europe and France in particular. The finish of the last one out-rated the America's Cup on Sail-World. Conrad Colman sails USA/New Zealand entry MS Amlin and has covered over 16,700nm in qualifying races. He is 22nd of the 40 qualifiers and is on his second Vendee.
Colman will be remembered for his previous race, in which he dismasted 700nm from the finish, completed the race under a Jury rig, and ran out of food for the last few days. Colman was also the first competitor in Vendee history to finish the race without using fossil fuels.
The top qualifier is Samantha Davies. Although listed as a UK competitor, she lives in France, like Colman. Davies is on her fourth Vendee and has sailed just under 24,000nm in qualifying for the current edition.
Following the Vendee Globe, or while the race is in its last stages, the action comes to New Zealand with the International Moth Worlds, which will be sailed out of Manly Sailing Club, starting on January 4, 2025.
The Event, recognised as the unofficial singlehanded foiling world championship, attracts the world's top sailors. Some great names on the trophy include Nathan Outteridge, Peter Burling, Paul Goodison, Tom Slingsby, and Dylan Fletcher, all of whom are competing in the 2024 America's Cup.
Season 5 of SailGP gets underway on November 23-24 in Dubai before moving to Auckland on January 18-19, tying in nicely with the conclusion of the Moth Worlds in Manly a week earlier in January.
We welcome two new advertisers to Sail-World who are involved in interesting aspects of the Marine industry.
Rick Youmans is a noted marine artist; we're running the first of a series of stories on his artworks. With the advances in photographic technology, marine art is often overlooked in favour of the latest enhanced image. However, the point with art is that it is ageless and usually captures and maybe re-creates a very memorable moment, occasion, or historical perspective.
Those who had the good fortune to know Ralph Roberts, one of New Zealand's most diverse competitive sailors, will know that his prized memory was a picture painted by another noted marine artist, David Barker. The picture comprised every boat Ralph sailed, from his Z-class to the Olympic classes and more. In one image, it summed up his sailing life, which could be studied and was a great talking point, as well as being a study of New Zealand sailing history.
You could never do that in a photo, and it's an excellent gift for someone who might be at the end of their sailing career.
All you need to do is get some old photos together of a shot of their current boat and contact Rick via youmansstudio@gmail.com
As you will see in the other Rick Youman paintings, the artist has the ability to place a boat against a background and sea condition and use artistic licence to meld the elements into a single unique image.
Looking at his painting of Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand, he explains:
"In this painting, I aimed to capture a scene that showcases the differences in the boats, their sailing techniques, crew positions, and flight control. I also intended to leave some open interpretation to encourage debate and discussion about which boat is in the lead.
"It could be debated that Prada rounded the top mark first, but TNZL rounded the bottom mark and headed off in the lead, which increased over the rest of the race. In your perception, who is the leading team?
"Luna Rossa may have rounded the top mark first, but Te Rehutai rounded the bottom mark and took the lead, which they extended throughout the race."
If you want to create a special image, as a personal or corporate memento or a gift - commission a painting. Contact Rick at youmansstudio@gmail.com
Pocketspace Marine is a new venture by Chloe Salthouse Laura Heynike.
The parent company, Pocketspace Interiors, began operation in 2017. It is an interior design business with the vision to empower clients with spaces that really work for them. Seven years later, Pocketspace Marine was launched, with Chloe Salthouse coming on board as a Marine Specialist and Interior Design Graduate. Pocketspace Marine offers several services - they will refresh an existing boat, using contemporary fabrics and fittings to provide a new look for the interior and cockpit. Or they can be involved in a more comprehensive structural redesign of the interior to use the available interior volume better.
This approach works particularly well for older boats, which were built in an era when mulletboat-style accommodation and layouts were the baseline. A few breakthrough boats, like the Young 88 designed by Jim Young, used a T-shaped cockpit to add a lot more usable volume in the back end of the boat—whether it was for dive tanks or a double berth.
Since then, many European-designed boats have been imported, with an entirely different approach to interior design, which resonates well with New Zealand boaties and sailors.
PocketSpace Marine offers the ability to upgrade your existing boat to utilise and refit the existing space without the hassle of selling and purchasing a new boat.
Like Pocketspace Interiors, Pocketspace Marine offers boat owners the same innovative and strategic creative design solutions. It utilises the experience gained from the challenges of maximising space used for residential homes and commercial workplaces, coupled with a strong knowledge of boat design.
Contact Chloe@pocketspaceinteriors.com or Laura@pocketspaceinteriors.com
for an initial chat about your situation and ambitions.
Between newsletters, you can follow all the racing and developments in major and local events on www.sail-world.com/nz or by scrolling to the top of the site, select New Zealand, and get all the latest news and updates from the sailing world.
For all the latest news from NZ and around the world, see the top stories below and check daily on our website www.sail-world.com/nz.
Good sailing!
Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor
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