America's Cup Website & Boat News
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America's Cup Website & Boat News
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| December 17 is Coming (Faster that Xmas) | |
The December 17 ACM registration deadline has always been a bit of a myth, miss it and you have to pay 200,000 euros. Big deal, a challenge putting together deals amounting to over 60 million will see 200,000 as a cheap way of buying another 4 months. However the date has certainly caused some challenges to make announcements, so watch out for these over the next two weeks:- Dec 07 : A long promised press conference from Marco Polo Challenge, greeted with some derision in Italy, but who knows? Here is a Google "translation" of the Press Release, any wiser? Dec 08 or after: Iberdrola will announce their leadership of the Spanish Challenge El Reto, or not. The announcement was due last week but is now delayed until "after the puente de la Purísim. A well known delaying tactic, put it off till after the vacation! Parties still posturing on Dec 14...By Dec 15 it was looking as though the deadline would pass without a challenge. If Valencia Yacht Club withdraws it's threatened challenge the El Reto challenge could still go ahead, but this requires a members meeting, this could happen next Sunday, Dec 18. Hello... that's Dec 18... entries close on Dec 17. Oh, never mind. We will sit back and unscramble this whole convoluted story over the holidays, but it looks as though it really has come to a satisfactory conclusion. A meeting took place on Dec 15 between all of the interested parties with the political leaders there to bang heads together. Sense seems to have provailed. Present were representative of the money ( Iberdrola, Mahu and Caja Madrid), yacht clubs ( Manuel Casanova, Náutico de Valencia, Enrique Puig, Náutico de Barcelona and Manuel Chirivella, vice president of the Sanish sailing Association), syndicate ( Agustín Zulueta, Pedro Campos was in touch by phone - long call!) and politicians ( Francisco Camps, President of the Valencian Government & Mayor Rita Barberá). The meeting went on all evening, Camps and Barbera left to go to a prize giving ceremony, when they came back the meeting was still going on... There was no official announcement but Camps did
say,
"..the challenge is the great news for the America's Cup and Spain. We
are all going to be able to enjoy the same boat ". The deadline is 1600CET tomorrow,
Dec 17. See the outcome here Dec 12 : Sausalito Challenge are now (Dec 05) saying they will file their official entry after a members meeting at Sausalito Yacht Club on December 12 at 10 am PST. Further announcements after the Challenge is accepted. As everyone now knows this is a runner Dec 15: Ozboyz will announce their decision on whether they will participate
in AC32 Well it's Dec 15, the OzBoyz announcement is that they won't confirm until April 28. That is, they will pay the late entry penalty. Why? So that they can be sure of being the only Australian challenger and thus have the support of Australia's national yachting authority, Yachting Australia. We really can't see the sense in this, if a regular yacht club was willing to go with the challenge, they say,"...a number of clubs have expressed a desire to partner..." why pay 200K to wait till April and run the risk of there being another challenge anyway? We won't rush to a verdict on this, but it does seem a very stange strategy. By the way, OzBoyz decision not to do the 2004 Acts citing the lack of preparedness of Valencia has not gone down well with the Spanish press who are now being openly sceptical of the challenge. Most opinion seems top be that the OzBoyz position is just an excuse for the fact that they haven't got the sponsorship act together and that in fact Yachting Australia would not have given them an exclusive, or given their name anyway. This, and the Valencia "sour grapes" story do not bode well for this challenge.
These deadlines are real, by the way. Some seem to think that they are going to be flexible, but this time all of the AC Village infrastructure and team bases are provided by the organisers and the local authority consortium and have to be planned and funded now. The initial tender (closes Dec 09) sees the further extension of the quays and construction of seven bases this is planned with a six month build time (tight). So any December entrants are probably going to have to work out of containers in 2005. As for April entrants... Think about the April deadline, lodge your entry and fee on April 28th, be at The Darsena Interior ready for measuring your ACC version 5 boat on June 15. Not going to happen is it? MarcoPoloChallenge Press Release (auto-translation) Dec 09 - see original In
the day of 29 mondays last November we have newly met to Valencia the
Director of the External Relations of the AC Management, Dr Marcus Hutchinson. 1)
the registration to the prestigious "America' s Cup". From the Marin IJ (Marin Independent Journal), Monday, Dec 13, 2004: |
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| New ACC Boats | |
This section will grow inexorably as the months pass and teams start to build their (up to) two new boats for the 32nd Cup. So there could be 14 to 20 new boats, the average has been 20 new boats per cup for the four events to the current rule. First one out? It looks like Shosholoza. Building started in late November for an April 27 2005 lauch date and a comittment to be ready for measurement in Valencia in the second week of June 2005. A second new boat will be built for 2006 Acts and that will need to see them through to the 2007 LV Cup. But then the aim is only to get experience, this time. And aren't they going about it well? Details of the build plan are on the Sohsholoza site. Responsible for the design of the new yachts is a local team of naval architects led by British yacht designer Jason Ker. The team includes specialist engineers, fluid dynamicists, experts in composite structures and software experts. "The tune-up yacht will effectively provide Team Shosholoza with a faster boat to race against the leading teams on a more level playing field, while also giving the design and construction teams a "dry run" for the final race-boat," said Ker on the website. So who will build next?
Who knows what El Reto plan to do. They apparently still have two very good boats sitting in shrinkwrap in Valencia docks. What a waste... December 05, FRESH SEVENTEEN announced that it plans to have its new cup yacht built by Knierim in Kiel in 2005/2006." The renowned shipyard promises to deliver state-of-the-art technology thanks to the substantial support of stake-holder Klaus Murmann" ETNZ launched NZL68 "Pinta" on dec 09. The boat is in full "version 5" trim with a 100 mm longer fin keel and a tonne lighter keel bulb. She will also be sporting a longer spinnaker pole and new sails. Speaking to Stuff NZ, Grant Dalton said that NZL68 will train with NZL81 in the comining weeks. He said "NZL81 is in version five in terms of weight and draft but not in terms of having the hula, NZL81 is a very known quantity now, so testing it against NZL68 we know what we are dealing with. If we took the hula off we wouldn't know - so effectively it is the control on the testing." A very sensible move, there are many stories of lost opporunities for comparative testing in the America's Cup. Dalton also said that the boats will undergo hull modifications before next year's pre-cup regattas, which start in Valencia in June. |
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| The Ben Ainslie Rumour Scoop | |
This is the rumour section of the website, but this is an odd one... On Nov 02 Sailing Anarchy posted a short piece stating, " "We're hearing that Team New Zealand has, in fact, relieved Ben Ainslie of his America's Cup duties altogether. Anybody have any other info on the subject?" We, of course, followed up our sources and found nothing. There was a brief denial from ETNZ, but Scuttlebutt got the scoop. The Butt's Tom Leweck was taking part in the Dry Creek Vineyard Pro Am Regatta at Bitter End Yacht Club in the British Virgin Islands. Among the "Pros" were Russell Coutts, Ed Baird, Peter Holmberg... and Ben. Tom got his quote, "What can I say? It's an honour (to be talked about) but it's a complete bollocks as usual!" "Bollocks" is an old English word for unreliable information...
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| What next for Russell Coutts? | |
Wherever you have looked this summer Russell Coutts has appeared ,winning yacht races. In Ireland for the inaugural Irish Etchells Championship in September he said, , "I've been taking this year pretty easy. Since the Alinghi thing my email in-box has been full of options but I'd like to do the Bacardi Cup and some one-design racing." In this regatta he placed 2nd just one point behind the winners. As for "pretty easy"; Whilst the America's Cup competitors were at The Valencia Acts Coutts was doing the Dragon 75th Anniversary Regatta in St Tropez. didn't have a result out of the top ten all week and won the Champion of Champions race. He also took in five ISAF Match Race events this year and either won, or finished runner-up in all of these events. Winning the Swedish Match Cup, Toscana Elba Cup and the King Edward VII Bermuda Gold Cup and placing second in Portugal Match Cup and the La Sfida Nations Cup. This sort of sailing talent won't just disappear because of a legal ruling. So what will he do next? Kevin Wheatley writing in Sailing Source says, "Depriving the Cup of its greatest ever sailor is just plain wrong..." we agree. But that is probably what will what will happen in the 2007 event just because of the timing. By the way "greatest ever" is arguable but remember Coutts has 14 consecutive AC Match wins in the last three events. So first there is the legal issue, actually this is two issues, at least:- The termination of employment at Alinghi. This issue here is who is suing who? Alinghi claim that Coutts breached his contract, Coutts that Alinghi illegally terminated it. The sensible approach to this is a legal arbitration. One arbitrator for each party and an independent chairman. This will not necessarily be a lengthy process but although the three people have been appointed they have yet to have their first meeting. The restrictive changes to the AC32 Protocol. We watched with disbelief earlier this year as the Protocol documents changed without announcement and apparent consultation. Initially the famous clause 13.12 said that no team personnel were allowed to move after 2006 (18 month before the Match - later clarified to Jan 01 2006). In July 2004 it changed to say add that no personnel could move if they had worked for a team for more than 180 days since the 2003 Cup.
We said, at least two legal issues. The other one is that there obviously is a "non-compete clause" in Coutts' Alinghi contract. This would prevent him competing in AC32 anyway. Coutts disagrees, "The non-compete clause does not apply if the contract was terminated illegally or if they have breached certain terms of the contract," he said. "I would suggest you've got to ask why the protocol rule was put in place at all if they thought they were protected under the contract." So these issues are really a lot more complicated than three lawyers deciding "did he leave or was he fired?" don't expect a quick resolution, so don't expect to see Russell on and AC boat during 2005. Well more of the 2004 pattern we assume. Show up and win wherever there is a high profile yacht race that isn't part of the America's Cup. Notice the Bacardi Cup reference in the Irish interview. So Stars, Etchells, Swedish Match and apparently Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory on the Farr 40 circuit. Some will see an AC story here, Plattner's SAP software company was a big sponsor of Team New Zealand and may still harbour AC ambitions. Perhaps with a German challenge? On this Coutts said, "I know there have been rumours about America's Cup but I certainly haven't spoken to Hasso about it and he's not spoken to me." Talking of Stars, on Nov 14 Coutts took part in the Regatta-Club Oberhofen's "Lebkuchen-Regatta" on the Lake of Thoune, Switzerland. The result? In a fleet of 18 Coutts with Beat Stegmeier placed first. Sailhead.com reports that 2005 Star Spring European Championship which will take place at the venue from May 14 to 21. More work for Russell? And what of the Coutts/Cayard show? Well, our story on this still stands, and we still stand by it. In the Telegraph story Jeffery says that the plan is for, "...a new pro-series, fleet race championship circuit, in identical high performance 90-footers" adding that this was another bone of contention with Bertarelli as he felt it would be a direct competitor to the America's Cup. But see the developments on the Nations Cup.
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| Valencia Challengers Meeting - October 2004 | |
A story on Fresh Seventeen's website on Oct 31 gave the impression that the Challengers meetings held between Acts 2 and 3 in Valencia were poorly attended. Actually this was just a unfortunate choice of words and the story has now been ammended. In fact the meetings were well attended and, whilst there were a few "apologies", those attending indicate that there is still a healthy interest from prospective challengers. So who was there? Well the "official" 6 of course:-
These, by the way, attend "Challenger Commission" meetings, the prospective challenges attending challenger "forums". So the prospectives were:-
There were five apologies, these were from teams that had attended previous meetings but were unable to do so this time. Who are they? - well speculation here, but non-attendees who have attended before include:-
So two of these didn't email! This indicates almost all of the original 18 (or was it 19?) teams are still active. TDC has made his position pretty clear recently ("... unless someone steps up sometime soon, I will be retired. I simply cannot raise $200 million."), as have Ozboyz ("...finishing line is in sight..."), MPC is certainly active and so is Victory, despite a dormant website. I think we can carry on considering all of the above as possible competitors right up to the last deadline. One interesting thing to emerge from this is the continued participation of Italian Challenger, the Paolo Cian / Paolo Scutellaro project that has been very quiet. Our other observation is on the apparent lack of either Spanish project at these meetings.
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| 2005-2006 Louis Vuitton Acts | |
| The 2005-06 schedule was released at the recent Teams Meeting in Valencia and further details were released at the Barcelona boat show in November. In addition to the Acts there is a rumour in Sailing Anarchy for Nov 12 that there will be a match race regatta in San Francisco organised by BMWOracle Racing using their training Swedish Match 40's. Acts are all (except Act 12) of the same regatta-pair format as Acts 2 & 3 in Valencia this year. Note that the order of regatta formats has been changed for 2005 with the first three days being fleet racing followed by the match racing round robins. We feel this is a major improvement over the 2004 Act 2 & 3 format as the spectacular fleets get widespread publicity and announce the arrival of the Act in the venue with a "big bang". Acts 4 & 5 Valencia, Act 4 (fleet racing)- June 17-19, Act 5 (match racing)- June 21-26 2005 Acts 6 & 7 Northern Europe August 26-28 & Aug 30- Sep 04 2005. On November 11 Marca.com reported that the possible English sites for Acts 6 & 7 had been "discarded". The English contenders were Southampton and Cowes. The decision remains to be taken between the German cities of Kiel and Rostock and the Swedish of Malmoe and Goteborg. ETNZ refered to the Act in Sweden (only) when describing their plans in early Dec, slip of the tongue or has it been decided? Looks as though it was antipodeans being geographically challenged. ACM are visting Rostock and Kiel next week. Rostock is now said to have withdrawn its application on cost grounds. But Kiel is apparently "going for it". It looks as though it's a "Swedish Victory" January 21... Acts 8 & 9 Trapani, Sicily September 2005 (Trapani has much wind, the area has many windmills and the symbol of the region is a windmill...) Act 8 (fleet racing)is scheduled for September 30- Oct 02 and Act 9 (match racing) for October 04 - 09. Acts 10 & 11 Valencia May 2006 Act 12 Valencia June 2006 In adition the promised (threatened?) "Exhibition Regatta" on Lake Geneva will be at the end of August 2006 (this is a promotional event and not part of the America's Cup, attendance is non-compulsary. Boats will be provided by ACM, the class is not disclosed as yet but is presumably the Swedish Match 40 as used recently at Cascais. Details of the Lake Geneva event emerged in 24heures.ch at the end of October. It appears that the intention is to take two or three America's Cup Class boats overland to the port of Pully for the regatta. Ernest Bertarelli told the website that he wanted to bring the AC spectacle to the Swiss, but that it is a very complicated operation. He also said that he could promise nothing but would work extremely hard to make it happen in 2006. A major problem is space. Pully is the only site with room for the AC boats and has indeed seen BeHAPpy sailing there in 1998. A bigger problem, though, is draft. Bertarelli says that they need nearly five meters of depth which doesn't exist, he suggests that they will need an enormous crane which can carry the boat far enough from the edge (approximately 20 meters), to where there is sufficiently depth. Even so it is expected that the lake will need to be dredged in places.
There will probably be another USA non-Cup event like the UBS Trophy and Moet Cup. This will be held in early October 2006. Newport is logistically the most likely venue (although could be chilly in October). San Francisco would be a good location as a taster for the 33rd Cup :-) but it's a long way away. Perhaps teams will have so many spare old boats by that stage of the contest that they could afford the time off shipping a few to the Bay. Florida could be a possible compromise, also Annapolis, Maryland was mentioned in 2003 as the venue for a Moet Cup follow up.... The 2007 calendar has been well publicised with the April fleet race forming Act13. This will be the last appearance for Alinghi before the Cup Final starting June 23 2007. The challenger will, as usual, be the LVC winner. The format being 2 (or 3) round robins, a 4 boat semi final and the final.
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| +39 ex ClanDesTeam | |
The new Americas Cup Management web site revealed on Aug 26 that +32 intended to race ITA59 (ex Alinghi ex Fast2000 "BeHAppy") in Acts 2 & 3 in October. They will start sailing the boat on September 24. ITA59 appeared in public in the RNCV as a background to Spanish Finn Olympian, Rafael Trujillo, taking his place in the team. The rig seems to be an old one and not a millenium rig as carried by SUI59 in her Alinghi life. ITA59 had her first sail with +39 crew and livery on Sep 25, Story and photo at Velanet. It looks as though this is the old picture mentioned below. The +39 Page on the AC site also shows one of the America³ boats sailing in +39 livery. Close inspection shows this to be "Might Mary" ITA43 (note the two large blocks on the transom) The team have set up a base in Sicily (In the marina of the upmarket Villa Igiea in Palermo) for training through to December 2004. This is quite a logical move, the Sicilian local government is certainly supportive, probably financially. They are expecting some local jobs to be created at the "+39 Village" and of course there is the outside chance of +39 winning and bring the Cup to Palermo. For the team they get the longest season in Europe to sail their vintage yacht fleet. Plus, of course, sailing ACC's on Lake Garda would have been unproductive in terms of realistic training. The change of name is also easily explained by this move, ClanDesTeam is just too close to "clandestini", Italian for illegal immigrants, which are a big issue in Sicily. As the closest point to Africa, rickety boats wash up illegals on a regular basis. It's up to the Sicilian authorities to deal with these and the locals feel they should have central government help with what is a national, indeed EU, problem. So, bad feeling about clandestini and exit the clever ClanDesTeam name. The purchase of the two America³ boats and Il Moro III is strange. They were
actively sailed by Sail Academy and appeared in very good condition when
we saw them at the end of 2003. Incidentally, whilst in corporate "team-building" use
these boats carried proper sponsorship from Continental (tyres), IBM
and Cattolica (insurance). It is thought in Italy that the boats are for "exhibition" purposes in Palermo rather than serious training. But this could mean match race training. The boats are certainly close enough for realistic starting practice. There is also the suggestion that Il Moro III will be based in Valencia and be taken to the Acts as a PR / VIP boat run for ACM by +39. ACM have already bought GBR44 for on-shore display. Il Moro III turned up at Act 2 in ACM colours Giovanni Ceccarelli has been contracted to build two new yachts, these will be built to version 5 of the ACC rule. The Lake Garda sailing team is still active and earlier this year did
an interesting display in the old square in Brescia. They showed the
lake skiff and the Maxi Grifo which is promoted on the ClanDesTeam website
although the relationship is not clear. A recent news item on the ClanDesTeam website adds to the confusion in that it states that the new team manager is to be Cristian Tarolli replacing Cesare Pasotti, "co-armatore del consorzio di Coppa America +39" (translates as "co-boatowner of the +39 consortium"). As if it was nothing to do with ClanDesTeam. Strange... The announced sailing team is unusually strong on Olympic talent:-
Rumour at Marseille Act were that more British stars are about to follow Iain Percy to the team. British Olympic sailors, Steve Mitchell (Iain Percy's Star crew in Athens), and former Finn sailor Ian Howlett will also join.
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| GBR | |
| The speculations here surround sponsors and crew. Sponsors first.
It is well known that Peter Harrison has said he will pay half (£20m)
if the commercial side of the the team can sign up sponsors for the other
half (Harrison has also funded GBR since Auckland to the
tune of £5m).
These numbers are really quite large, given the strength of the pound,
this is a $90m budget with Harrison stumping up $50m. Anyway, a $90M campaign it is to be. So the team has full time managers dealing with sponsor negotiations and one would think it was fairly easy to tie down some big names with what seems a bargain "half-price" deal.
The problem is that despite a booming economy Corporate Britain doesn't
do sponsorship, certainly not for patriotic reasons. Big sponsorship
deals attract the "wrong" sort of publicity from the press
and the ultra-sophisticated investment markets. There are exceptions,
Vodaphone and HSBC spring to mind in F1, Kingfisher (B&Q / Castorama)
in sailing but look to soccer and you will find Coca Cola sponsoring
a league, Emirates, Carlsberg, Carling, teams. So the rumours are that the company close to signing is a non-UK-owned mega corporation with a global brands and a big UK base and market presence. Makes sense.
Less sensible is the speculation that the deal has been
stalled at board level for a year. If that's the case there must be
a lot of detail needing to be worked out both within the company
(marketing, promotions, staffing, etc) and in the nature of the
deal (dates, events, what exactly do we get for our money?). Once
these have been worked though and costed then a shot at ROI can
be made. Peter Harrison has given an end-of August deadline to raise the £20m, how helpful is that? Not. Story (from Ed Gorman in The Times August 31) was that the sponsors are; " One a large multinational bank which has a substatial presence in London and the other is rumoured to be a British mobile phone entrepreneur who owns a Europe-wide business and is a keen yachtsman in his own right". Interesting guessing game! - our guesses? HSBC and Charles Dunstone (of Nokia Maxis), however we could be - and often are- wrong. On Sept 06 Tim Jeffery in The Telegraph was saying the sponsors are " ... two high street banks, an oil company, and a United States-based corporation" HSBC and Barclays, BP? On Sep 21 Tim Jeffery was saying the deal was still live but stalled. The identity of the sponsor was made as clear as it could be, and it tied in with our long-term belief, HSBC. Our feeling is that if a "deal" is this close, but still can't be closed because the sponsor may prefer to support an event rather than a team, (as Jeffery supposes) it is really a long way off (note Gorman said the deal had been at board level for a year!). What about the others predicted by Tim Jeffery? Oil company - no recent mention, US Corporation -HP has been mentioned, but that could have been a missype for BP, who we think are quite likely and are keen to promote "renewable energy". Anyway, whoever it is ,loses the chance to be at the Valencia Acts, surely a major faux pas given the publicity Act 1 participant received. It's sad though to put the boat away now, even if they are still planning the v5 conversions... BTW, Jeffery also threws in a factoid about said backer also backing the Tracy Edwards' race(s) - That one did happen Sep 26. The story drags on and on...Sep 27 Stuart Alexander, in The Independent came out and said HSBC for the first time. Furthermore he said the announcement was delayed until after HSBC's launch of the Quatari multihull race. This story also said that Peter Harrison was selling a stake in GBR Challenge. We wonder if this is where Charles Dunstone fits in to the picture? And yet more. On Sep 28 Ed Gorman in The Times went public with both HSBC and Dunstone. He further adds that the budget is £35 to £50. Gorman confirms our view that Dunstone will be making a personal investment and will be involved in running the team. Harrison will still be involved as well and team is expected to have a more international feel than hitherto, perhaps being called "Team HSBC". Gorman says the deal will be concluded "within weeks", how many more weeks? In rival "quality" newspaper The Telegraph a short piece on Sep 29 says that a senior HSBC spokesman has said "As we stand today, we will not be sponsoring the GBR Challenge." What is going on here? Rival journalists scoring points? Incompentent negotiation and management? Both? Things looked clearer, if not better, on Thursday Sep 30 when Ed Gorman in The Times agreed that the HSBC deal was not going to happen. The piece says that negotiations will start with, " two alternative backers, both described as British-based global brands". We say Barclays and BP this time... As we said at the top of this piece, we reckon they could do a nice little challenge with the £20 million PH and CD have said they'll put in. That is over $36 million. Add the £5 mill PH has spent this year and you get $45 million, add in the existing assets and you have a challenge with a budget higher than most, and more than Sausalito say is their objective. Anyway, on Oct 10, Ed Gorman in the Sunday Times reported that Charles Dunstone was going to take a leading role and was becoming involved in the search for sponsorship. One idea that Dunstone has been working on is getting a leading charity (OXFAM for example) to be the name sponsor for free, with corporations contributing to both the team and the charity. We'll let you form your own views on the concept of charities devoted to helping the poorest of the world being closely associated with the richest... Dunstone is quoted as saying that it was his boat Enigma's crew who suggested he help GBR and he is putting up £10 million to match Harrison's £10. (The puzzle is here that earlier reports put Harrison's investment at £20 million, or did we have that wrong?) The oddest thing about this story is that it was posted on the GBR website on Oct 11 and removed on Oct 12 but by Oct 15 the story reappeared as an official GBR press release. I think we can now assume that CD is on board and the "Charity" angle is real. They raised a bit of money in Mid August by selling GBR44, one of their two ex Nippon 2000 series boats, to ACM. It was transported to Marseille where it was an on-shore static display. GBR44 was then moved on to be displayed (permanently?) at Valencia. Now to crew: There is lots of UK sailing talent still available, many are big names
if personality marketing is required. Match race experience is available
in Chris Law. Also in the August 31 Times story Ed Gorman says, " there is a possibility that Iain Percy, the Finn class gold medal-winner at the Sydney Olympics, may yet join the GBR Challenge after deciding two months ago to work with a new Italian America's Cup team instead. It appears Percy is less than satisfied in Italy and despite their public dust-up with him when he decided to sign with the Italian +39 syndicate, the British team are keen to speak to him again." We are not sure how he can be "less than satisfied in Italy " as he has been at the Olympics since it was announced he was joining +39... Also rather far fetched, we think, is this paragraph; " Even more intriguing is their hope to speak again to Ben Ainslie, the triple Olympic medal-winner who won his second gold medal in the Finn class at Athens and who has joined Team New Zealand (TNZ) for the next Cup as a helmsman. Although Ainslie is thought to be under contract to TNZ, the GBR Challenge has not given up hope of luring him back to Britain." Now to boats, something GBR is not short of. Even after selling GBR44 to ACM as a display boat in Valencia they have GBR52, GBR70 and GBR78. Serious tank testing that has been going on through the year at QuinetiQ has lead to designs for upgrading GBR70 and GBR78 to the new version 5 of the America's Cup Class Rule. Any participation in 2005 Louis Vuitton Acts must be in v5 boats. As GBR aren't going to 2004 Acts ,there is no point waiting. Get the chain-saws out and start making some v5 boats. The GBR website posted a story on Nov 01 profiling the team doing the v5 modifications at Cowes. Not a lot of hard facts but they are just about the only (prospective) challenger putting anything worthwhile on their website at the moment, thanks Katie. Anyway story is here and an interesting construction shot here. GBR Challenge Operations Suspended So, is this the end? On Nov 16 the team put out a press release saying that operations were suspended. " With technical development costs increasing in line with the planned programme, a full review of team strategy has been held and an agreement was reached by all that, as from today's announcement, Peter Harrison should not carry these substantial development costs on his own without the support of additional partner funds." But there is hope. Later the statement says, "The final date to enter the 32 nd America 's Cup is April 30 th 2005 , so there is still time for interested parties to contact the team, examine the benefits and help ensure the future of this challenge. " Reporting in the Telegraph, Tim Jeffery adds, "... the 25-strong core of designers, managers and boat-builders were given notice periods of one to three months yesterday, cutting the campaign back to barest of bones just in case 11th-hour funding is secured" Peter Harrison closed by stating, "The past four years have been both immensely enjoyable and extremely frustrating. Seeing a British boat back competing in this 'World Cup of Sailing' was, perhaps one of the proudest moments of my life, having to issue this statement today, one of the saddest. Sailing is currently Britain 's most successful Olympic sport with 5 medals won in each of the last two Olympic games and, as a sport, is definitely on the increase in terms of participation, media coverage and general profile. I am still hopeful that corporate partners with vision and imagination will come forward to support this team and gain valued return on their investment in what is sure to be a major world class event." The Press Release finishes "ENDS", lets hope not...
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| El Reto, Desafio, Mascalzone Latino, Mas Latino | |
| Lots of related rumours and speculation here.
Things we Know:- Desafio has a couple of boats left from 95 and 2000, condition and location unknown. Vascotto is associated with the Mascalzone Latino team and suggested
to owner Vincenzo Onorato that Mascalzone Latino's boats (3 including
one ex Desafio) with Telefonica's money and Campos' connections could
make for a Spanish/Italian challenge. Mascalzone Latino's lead sponsor TIM is not going to renew with them (see Luna Rossa). Corporate Spain is very keen to invest in the Cup. In many countries
stockholders will question why their board is sponsoring yachts. In Spain
they will want to know why not. El Reto has been a long time in the offing. Usually most watchers have
considered participation was a near certainty, various backers were muted
including the obligatory Arabian. Once firmed up it was thought the signing
of major Spanish corporations would have been a formality. The OWC boats are being prepared to sail in "8 or 9 days time" (Aug 20) They didn't . As late as September 09 El Reto were saying the deal was nearly complete and the boats would be at Acts 2 and 3. We believed them, but it didn't happen. The OWC boats stayed in shrinkwrap and everybody went quiet. Never a good sign in the Americas Cup. Confident challengers don't do quiet. Strangely the Spanish Press were also quiet, seemingly inconcerned with passing deadlines and having no home team to shout for at Act 2. Then on Oct 01 Pedro speaks again in MasMar. Saying that mergers are the way ahead (including Latino) and that team leaders are going to have to accept that reality. He also reminded them that time was running out. We still think the Spanish press will have a big say in this. Their angle on the Cup so far has been concentration on the organisation, infrastructure and politics. They haven't got their heads around the actual participants and the sport yet. Agustín Zulueta has said that the team have "agreements, conversations and contracts written by value of 43.5 million euros" However Iberdrola have still not signed. Now the speculation:- It seemed a shift by Iberdrola to Campos and Valencia support would solve the problem, except that Campos and his people didn't want to be seen as stealing El Reto's sponsor. Panic all round.
Pedro was by now really wishing he'd stuck
to his VOR plans. The Spanish Prime Minister then stepped in to
state that Spain couldn't afford two competing teams. (Ignoring
the fact that Spain is another booming, confident, economy opening
up world markets. And that Italy has 2,3,4 or more teams). Confusion currently reigns. It is to be assumed that:-
What will happen? (This is the speculation section - it will be edited out of existence as soon as real news happens!)
Watch this space... At last on Oct 28 a story in Hispanidad stated that a series of compromises had been reached at the behest of King Carlos. The deal is said to be:- So... no Mascalzone Latino and equal shares to the two yacht clubs. The story also reafirms Pedro Campos' intention to do next year's VOR with Telefonica support. Now we just need to sort out what the boats are and who's driving. After another couple of weeks of "will they, won't they", the deal looks as though it's done. According to Levante-EMV on Nov 15, the announcement, "seems a question of days, or even of hours". The big issue of the yacht club has been sorted by Barcelona being the title club with Valencia in associate status, but what broke the log-jam is Barcelona saying if they win the defence will be in Valencia. So that's OK then. Iberdola are on board as the main sponsor with Caja Madrid and Mahou (St Miguel beer)as subsidiary sponsors. Everything else seems as in the rumour above in terms of participants, i.e. no Mascalzone. The budget is 60 million euros with 43.5 million "in place". Nothing further on boats, but among the stories coming out of Spain recently has been the sugestion that the OWC assets were purchased some time back. If so that could turn out to be a bad deal. Europe (and NZ) is now littered with version 4 ACC boats useless for competition and all needing new fins and bulbs and up to a 60% rebuild. Oh, just one more little detail! According to Levante on Nov 16 RNCV the Valencia yacht club has to ratify its participation at a meeting of members scheduled for Nov 27. Getting very close to that Dec 17 deadline and its 200,000 euro "fine". By Nov 18 Iberdrola were playing the classic negotiating "deadline game". They reiterated that the sponsors and clubs were to have a 51% share (as reported here on Oct 18) and added that the total sponsorship was not to exceed 60 million euros, that Iberdrola were to administer the funds and have pride of place on the boats. Hispanidad.tv also reported that Porcelanosa (bathroom fittings) were now added to the sponsors. Most Spanish reports confirm that the sponsorship so far negotiated amouts to 40 million euros, and that the shortfall is the thing worrying RCN as they poll their members. The Valencia Yacht Club Poll On November 27 the RCNV balloted its 240 members with 3 questions:-
The result of the secret ballot was an "overwhelming" victory for option 2. (Does question 1 sound a bit loaded to you?) The club has obviously been doing some work ahead of the vote and was not surprised by it. So their president Manuel Casanova was able to announce a challenge which was also supported by the yacht clubs of Castellon and Alicante and would be lead by Pedro Campos. Casanova was also reported by Masmar as saying that the challenge had sponsorhip lined up for 10 million euros (Banco Espirito Santo had been mentioned earlier) and would have a budget of 60 to 80 million. He said that the budget of a Spanish challenge could be less than that of an American one because of the lower transport and facilities costs. Our feelings on this is that the intended sponsorship from Iberdrola has always been conditional on RCNV invovlement and a Valencia branded operation (see story above). There is also the possibility of Telefonica support following Pedro Campos. This seems a realistic challenge in all but timing (20 days to the deadline) and the fact that many Spanish sailors have already aligned to the El Reto campaign and will be antagonised by the development. Casanova said that his challenge could count on the appoval of ACM and probably several other yacht clubs including Palma di Mallorca and Malaga, he had tried to talk to RCN Barcelona but not been able to make contact. Casanova's final point was that he was aware that the Dec 17 deadline was close but expected ACM to be "flexible in its terms". Further stating that given time there could be even more Spanish challenges, citing " Andalucía Solo Hay Una ( Andalusia Is One)" and "Galicia Calidade", although we suspect that the latter was Pedro Campos's "fall back" if RCNV decided to stay out. There is much more to said here, and the Spanish press will wade in over the next few days. Do not underestimate the animosity between Valencia and Barcelona and do not be surprised if Dec 17 passes without a Spanish challenge having been registered.
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| Luna Rossa | |
First a mystery.
Prada was expected to be a joint (or junior) sponsor and the famous red logos on the bows are expected to stay. LR announced their sponsors at a press conference on Sep 25 2004 at 1500 at the YCI, Genoa. You saw it here a day early! Sponsors are Italia Telecom with their TIM, Alice (ADSL) and Progetto Italia brands. Prada is, of course, still on board . Their website is working, but just a splash page and a "Media Center" with test data and scripting bugs (we know how they feel!) Later Thursday the sponsors' logos were taken off the site. Guess they saw we were looking! But they are now back. On the second day of Act2 the website made a real appearance. There was (was - because it's gone again) the usual history and team pages and nice pages of each of the teams 5 boats. We found the site a tad slow, but the worst thing was it was all Flash and it completely "took over" the browser; no back button, no right clicks, no print and no way of linking to a page below the home page. Not very friendly. Anyway it's gone, we don't know if it was the usability issues we mention or what. The splash page now says, "...we are working to make it more interesting, richer and with the best in-sights (sic) on Luna Rossa's adventure..." The site reappeared on Oct 11 looking pretty much as it did before. The press conference was as expected except that it was announced that Marco Tronchetti Provera was to take a 49% share in Luna Rossa from Prada. As well as arranging the commecial sponsorship from his company Italia Telecom. LR now like their name to be spelt; L U N A R O S S A. It looks as though they will be in the nice "single sponsor" situation for Cup 32 again. It gives so much more scope for an effective livery. There has been other guesses at supporters; a bank and an automotive company as well as Pirelli. These may. of course, turn up later. We assume IT replaces Pirelli from the Marco Tronchetti Provera portfolio. We now (Sep 30) hear that the automotive company is Alfa Romeo, and they will be a sponsor, not directly financial, but an "official car" deal. Strikes us as a better deal than ACM's with Ford. Mariantic have a very soft spot for Alfas...
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| Valencia Preparations | |
After the end of the second regatta work will start clearing the site for the "permanent" team bases. These are sheds 2, 4 and 5 The historic facades will be in part incorporated into the design of the new bases but the roofs and remaining structures will be put into store for evenual restoration. By the way, do look at the new plans at the Valencia page of the new ACM website. These show the Northermost shed not being converted into bases but left as it is. The plan changed again on Nov 18 when La Provincias reported that the sheds were going to stay in place and be restored in situ. The team bases are now planned to be in front of the sheds on an extension of the quay similar to that undertaken at the Muelle da la Aduana for Acts 2 & 3. Seven bases are being built and there is provision for others. The work is tendered at 53,737,427 euros and the implementation time is six months. Pretty tight as the next Valencia act starts on June 15 2005. Check back here for progress reports.
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| Sud Challenge | |
According to prime mover, Alain Fedensieu, Sud Challenge are not
even thinking about the 2004 Acts. Fedensieu also said that they are working hard preparing and building a "research, calculation, design & construction Tech-team", which will probably be announced in September just before or after the LV Act 1 Sud Challenge are also building a sponsor / support comitee with "local and regional firms as financial starters"
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| Valencia Team Meeting Aug 19 | |
Representative of the following teams were known to be at the second Team Meeting:- "Officials"
"Possibles"
There are a few surprises; one would have expected El Reto and Pedro Campos' teams to have made the short trip and we expected Alain Fedensieu of Sud Challenge to be there. OzBoyz not showing is no surprise after their "sour grapes" news release about the Valencia Acts. And there being no representative from Stars & Stripes is not a big surprise either. The Italian Challenger effort from Paulo Cian was not there this time, neither was MarcoPolo. Pinta Challenge was a "secret" attendee of the first meeting but was not present this time despite a new German challenge being mooted. C7 and Victory making the trip shows there is still hope... The fact there were 14 teams represented and three serious teams not represented leaves the challenger tally at 17 (16 if ML and Campos merge) just one down from the 18 at the first meeting. This looks as if we are heading for 10 -12 by the deadline, which is good as the latest plan for the Valencia bases shows 10 but says there is room for 12. By the way, look at the new plans at the Valencia page of the new ACM website.
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| Fresh Seventeen | |
The web site is at
http://www.fresh17.de/ Yacht club is Deutscher Challenger Yacht Club (DCYC) e.V, apparently a new club (can they do that? doesn't the Deed of Gift require a record of running annual regattas?) The people involved are:- Eberhard
Magg organiser of Match Race Germany The street address on the website houses (among others) the PR firm Schröder + Schömbs who did the PR for the German sailing team at Athens 2004. The Fresh17.de domain is registered personaly to Uwe Sasse a manager of S+SPR - Munchen. The website is now operational and contains more details of the challenge. More information is at the DCYC website and a rather strange media site at Prince-Henry.com There is a symposium on the campaign and sponsorship opportunities at the Bayerische Yachtclub at the Starnberger See on 29th September at 10:00 a.m. Agenda and details. We hear that this symposium has been cancelled. Lack of interest or enough potential sponsors already on board? We shall see. The budget is set at 45 million euros over 3 years and the team is looking for 5 sponsors to share that. This seems a sensible approach, and whilst we see the appeal of the "one big name" sponsorship promoted by GBR and Sausalito, the traditional "group of four or five" has been shown to work in America's Cup. Fresh Seventeen sent a large delegation to the meetings organised by the Challenger Commission between Acts 2 & 3 in Valencia see story and photos. They certainly had a close look at the AC village site. "
"We had a look at the base camp set-up and got many ideas for logistics and
hospitality", summarized Eberhard Magg and Andreas John the most important parts
of their visit. In their function as technical and sports directors of the Deutsche
Challenge 2007 AG that is running the FRESH SEVENTEEN campaign, they used the
three days to meet various key people from other syndicates such as the German
AC sailors Jochen Schümann (Alinghi), Tim Kröger (Le Defi) and Tony
Kolb (BMW Oracle Racing), and others not yet tied up in the America's Cup. Sponsoring
negotiations were being continued in Valencia by marketing agency prince henry
tv & sponsoring. Meanwhile, all necessary preparations are taken by the
team to ensure a smooth project start in 2005. They also observed that: " The syndicates present were unanimous in that starting with the next ACT (number 4) at the end of June 2005 in Valencia, all results are to count towards the yet to be defined settings for 2007. This solved the problem of the unsatisfactory status of the test regattas for good." Not that we thought there was any doubt about the 2005 Acts onwards scoring towards the LVC. The approaching deadline of entries by December 17 prompted a new press release from Deutsche Challenge 2007 AG on December 05 . This showed that the challenge as very much alive but, "has not yet decided to give its "go" to the Deutscher Challenger Yacht Club (DCYC) for the official filing of their entry with the Société Nautique de Genève" Citing the prolongation rule until 28 April 2005, Alexander von Bergwelt, chairman of the DC 2007 AG advisory board said, "We need some more time for the sponsoring negotiations. The talks so far have been very promising, and we have no doubts that we will reach our target." Whilst potential crew have been in touch, includin,g "high-level potential skippers with Cup experience, who have all confirmed their interest" they do not want to be named until the final start of the project. Not so the Knierim ship-yard that has publicly announced its involvement in the new America's Cupper-to-be. Stating that FRESH SEVENTEEN plans to have its new cup yacht built by them in Kiel in 2005/2006. Our views on this? Very difficult, the PR's still have a thread of naivety and even fantasy running through them, the current offering refers to potential "deck hands" for example! But it may just be down to the translation. German sailing interests certainly seem happy enough with them, but its really down to German business to make it work and come up with the required 45 million euros. Also ,the continued emphasis on TV rights is worrying. Is TV really going to be a big deal in this Cup? and are TV companies such as the German public broadcasting companies ARD and ZDF going to pay real money to screen it? ARD sports co-ordinator Hagen Bosdorf seems to think so and points out, "The America's Cup will be one of the most important sport events in 2007." So, don't expect an entry by December 17, this will go right to the April 28 "real" deadline.
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| Ten or Twelve Teams for the Cup | |
| Michel Bonnefous of ACM speaking to the La Tribune de Genève says, "We will certainly arrive to ten or twelve teams in the next year", he said. "An ideal number". So who are these 10 or 12? First, does he include Alinghi? does he mean 10 or 12 challengers or competitors. Lets have a count:-
Paid up as of early September 2004:-
Also paid up but funding not obvious :-
So that's 5 certain - 7 very probable, now add in the very likely teams:-
So there are 9 - easy. What about 10 to 12? Choose one or more from:-
So 10 to 13 competitors is not too hard to visualise. Who does that leave out? We can expect some mergers, teams ripe to join with one of the above are:-
Then that leaves some interested teams who will "save themselves for Cup 33":-
And some who will just disappear :-
And Team Dennis Conner and Victory Challenge will stay in the history books. This could, of course be very wrong - if we'd written it a week ago it would have been different and next week it will be different again.
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| The Coutts & Cayard Show | |
For a long time now there have been stories that Russell Coutts and Paul Cayard have been looking at a collaboration on a major yachting project. Most reporting, and most people's perceptions, have been that this project would be a new "Grand Prix circus" type event for large, possibly one-design, yachts. If pushed people might also add that the series would have backing from interests in the Arabian Gulf. In the first week in October Sailing Anarchy reported, (quite quietly for them) that, "We are hearing that Russell Coutts and Paul Cayard have started employing people for their own AC effort..." This was not the first time that it had been said that the C&C project was an AC challenge but this has been denied quite specifically by Coutts in the past. As this is a speculation and rumour site (although some seem take our scribbles very seriously) it may be worth digging a bit further into this story:- Facts -
Factoids:-
Speculation:-
Off the wall:-
We say:- The Emirate way is to aim big:
November 14, "Brand New and New Target" OK, This may be "The Announcement" or it may be just "an announcement". What seems to be true is that the match racing Nations Cup has re-invented itself for 2005. The quote from a La Sfida Nations Cup press release by CEO Federico Stopani includes, " The best sailors in the world, including Paul Cayard and Russell Coutts, have demonstrated great interest in this project and are willing to participate to this brand new circuit. Both Cayard and Coutts, have granted their participation to the Nations Cup 2005 with teams of extraordinary level, promising, as always, great shows, a lot of competition, tecnique and sport[sman]ship. " From the website splash page it seems they've granted more that their participation. The format? Three regattas at, " ...the most exclusive destinations in the Mediterranean sea. Capri, Costa Smeralda and Saint Tropez," these locations, "..will host the new sailing circuit which will develop from May to September 2005." The boats? Two identical 55 footers by Giovanni Ceccarelli were prepared for 2004 running of the Nations Cup in Trieste, "
...Two identical boats studied and realized for match races. Races will be
with match race formula, but not only, infact many other proposals are
under consideration so to have more spectacular and fascinating duels
for spectators, especially working on race tracks, match's lenght and
rules." ...Interesting. This is something that doesn't "just happen" and explains a lot (but not all) of the Coutt/Cayard activity this year.
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| The Luna Rossa Act 2 Surprise | |
| The only surprise about Luna Rossa's performance in Act 2 is that we
are surprised by it.
Consider this:-
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| So How is Valencia Doing? | |
| Just a few observations on Valencia now that we have seen it working
for a few regatta days. We're keen to hear any views from teams, officials
and, most of all, spectators.
Spectating : Tow out: Talking photogenic; the backgrounds of the racing shots are dominated by port infrastructure. Can't be helped, but not as nice as the cliffs, corniche and castles at Marseille, the cityscape of Auckland or Angel Island. Look for most of the pics of this Cup being taken out to sea like at San Diego or Fremantle. Lift out: |
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| End of Season Review | |
So with the three 2004 Acts over let's do a team by team review. Later we'll give some thought to the Act format, the 2005 schedule, how ACM did and Valencia herself. Emirates Team New Zealand Well, ETNZ won the 2004 ACC Championship. It doesn't count for much, and we are pretty sure the 2005 Acts will not count towards the final Challenge selection but there is little doubt that everyone that took part was trying, indeed was passionate at times. That ETNZ could do so well in both match and fleet formats, first with the much derided TNZ82 and then with a boat prepared in five days from the rebuilt hull of equally dodgy NZL81 was totally unexpected. What were the factors? First, the now structurally sound boats showed that their shape was never suspect and that the hula at least didn't hurt. Second, ETNZ now have the best afterguard. Certainly the hungriest. The crew also is close to faultless, not through recent practice, just through a lifetime of doing it properly. Finally the rebuild of TNZ82 meant that the gear and the wardrobe were new and in good condition. There were a lot of gear and sail failures in the fleet, even Alinghi were using tired gear and paid for it. Where do ETNZ go from here? Well The two boats will take the long trip home, where they'll be greeted by NZL68, the first version 5 boat to sail in November. NZL81 will, of course, need quite a bit of work, not only to make her version 5 but to redefine the shape now the hula is finally discarded. NZL82 will not race again, After a patch-up repair she'll be transported to Dubai and spend the next few years working as a promotional boat for Emirates. Which boat will come back in 2005? Watch this space. But don't forget ETNZ have to give NZL68 back to Illbruck in 2006. BMW Oracle Racing BMWO were second in the championship (on countback). Not as dominant as we expected and certainly they had us rethinking our planned California trips in 2008 to 2010! Difficult to pin down why they were disappointing, in fact we don't really think they were. Without ETNZ's surprising performance we would have had a close and,retrospectively predictable, BMWO/Alinghi one two. Slighty closer than the Moet and UBS would have lead us to expect, but more of the same really. The damage to USA56 was probably a bit of a factor as well, but all in all, not a bad effort. For us though, and I suspect many, the moment of Act2 was Shosholoza so nearly beating them. What next? Well the mandatory v5 conversions of course. But we're not sure where this will happen or if there is more hull surgery planned. We rather suspect that these boats are unlikely to go near the 60% limit to the hull change rule and would expect them training again before too long. Remember they trained in Auckland last winter (NZsummer) and USA76 and USA71 are the most travelled ACC's ever (discuss:-)) Alinghi Alinghi did better than expected, to their obvious relief. The Moet and UBS experiences were not good and post Coutts, morale was low. They did no training before Act1 (still can't see why) and in Marseille they looked beatable. The gear and sails looked a little tired on occasion. All in all it was not a dominant team seen in 2003. If Luna Rossa had done Act 1 Alinghi could have been even further behind BMWO, even fourth. What next? SUI64 had been offered for sale, but we would expect her to be v5'ed along with SUI75. There is certainly no new boat in the 2005 plans. So are Alinghi just doing the Acts as observers? Checking boat speed, doing the PR but ulimately just "along for the ride" - their score will, of course, mean nothing - except that they take points off someone else. This is a subject for your favourite AC forum. We think Alinghi have too much pride, and too many sponsors to please, to do anything other than compete to win. But they can build their boats last, when they've seen what everyone else is doing. Pretty good plan really. Luna Rossa Now this was a surprise. But it shouldn't have been. Luna Rossa had been training in Valencia since April with two boats that had not been not at all bad (post chainsaw) in Auckland. The crew additions were inspired, and James Spithill and the One World people worked very well. The boat handling was good the match racing starts and tactics world-class. So why didn't they do even better? Two things. Missing Act 1 was incomprehensible. In the great scheme of things in two years time it might seem unimportant, then again they might have beaten Alinghi. How powerful is that as a message to your sponsors and to the morale of your crew? The second thing? An apparent lack of appetite for fleet racing. In fact Luis Deoreste (another inspired and open minded crew appointment) several times said that fleet racing doesn't matter in the America's Cup. It does now Luis... Division two. Why were there two four-boat divisions in these regattas? If the wind wasn't flukey in the fleets, and every time in the matches, the top four were in a league of their own. There is not one answer. In the bottom four we had a 2003 boat (Le Defi), great crew (+39), solid sponsorship (Shosholoza), it's just that they were not on the same boat at the same time! Every team was lacking one ingredient, or more. Or, in the case of the "best of the rest" K-Challenge it was just the shortness of time. Anyway division two... K-Challenge K-Challenge seemed to rapidly come of age. It's a shame that having made the (sensible) decision to buy NZL57 she took so long to arrive. If only some of the Kandler's Airbus connections could have got a Beluga over to Auckland and brought her back. they could have been sailing in Valencia in April. For the future, this team looks promising. FRA57 is obviously a good boat, they have NZL60 arriving soon and are setting up base at the supportive, and very nice, town of Gandia just far enough away from Valencia to settle down and do their own thing. These boats should be quick to convert to version 5 (we can't see them hacking, NZ national treasure, NZL60 around much). There have to be questions of sponsorship but it doesn't seem to be worrying them. They have lodged the Performance Bond and we can see Kandler money funding this for a good while yet. |