A spokesman for Team New Zealand has denied any involvement or relationship with the group said to be organising an alternative monohull competition to the 34th America’s Cup.
The story, first published in a Spanish newspaper has been doing the rounds in Europe and USA, and names four teams as being involved – Sir Keith Mills (TeamOrigin), Ernesto Bertarelli (Alinghi), Patrizio Bertelli (Luna Rossa Prada) and Grant Dalton (New Zealand Team ).
The story was dismissed by Team New Zealand as being many months old, and predated the announcements by Oracle Racing and the Defender of the America’s Cup as to the venue and other basics associated with the 34th America’s Cup.
The concept was that the AC90 genre of yachts, devised by Alinghi in conjunction with the Challengers (during 2009) would be used for the new competition.
There has been no published comment from the other teams involved.
The first two (Alinghi and Team Origin) have said they will not compete in the 34th America’s Cup. Luna Rossa have not made a statement of intent either way. Team New Zealand have indicated they are doing due diligence and trying to raise sufficient finance and sponsorship to mount a credible campaign for the 2013 Match.
Luna Rossa and Team New Zealand have entered the 2011 Extreme 40 series to be conducted in 40ft catamarans, as have Alinghi who are one of the principals of that circuit. TeamOrigin are believed to be competing on the Audi MedCup circuit to be sailed in TP52 monohulls n 2011
For the fourth consecutive year, the Audi MedCup Circuit, the world’s leading regatta circuit, returns to Portugal. The Audi MedCup Circuit is the world’s leading regatta circuit. The Circuit is made up of five events that take place over five months in four countries over southern Europe.
The most hard fought and closely matched circuit featuring the cutting edge TP52 and GP42 Series will compete between the 11th and the 16th of May, for the Portugal Trophy at the first Audi MedCup Circuit of 2010.
After three very successful years in the Algarve, the Portuguese stage of the Audi MedCup Circuit visits Cascais.
The only Audi MedCup event on the waters of the Atlantic will take place at a world class sailing venue, which has hosted many World and European Championships including the 2007 ISAF Sailing World Championships.
2010 OPENING EVENT: AN EXTRA INCENTIVE The Portugal Trophy will be the first of the five events which comprise the Audi MedCup Circuit this season. As the curtain raiser for for the 2010 season, Cascais will be the first venue to feature the modified TP52, which has undergone key changes which were designed to enhance the performance of this already exciting, demanding class. Emirates Team New Zealand (TP52) and Islas Canarias Puerto Calero ( GP42), the Audi MedCup 2009 winners, will try to carry on their winning momentum into the new season, starting in Cascais:
Nacho Postigo (ESP) Audi MedCup Circuit director commented: “We are seeing a rise in the level of the competition and the quality this year, particularly due to the three new America’s Cup entries. Cascais is getting the sailors nervous, many know the race area from previous events and realise that they will need to very agile to control the boat. The boats are more powerful with the modifications that have been introduced since last year. The changes have made the boats faster and that is what you have to control with one less crew member. It is guaranteed to be quite a spectacle and I encourage all the people in the region of Lisbon to come and enjoy all this in Cascais.”
“Last year’s fleet was difficult to beat. The teams improved race by race. In 2010, three new teams, TeamORIGIN, ALL4ONE and Luna Rossa,will make things even more difficult for us. We didn’t have much time to train on our modified NZL380 and we are looking forward to coming to Cascais, so that we can test our performance level with the rest of the fleet”, says Grant Dalton, CEO of Emirates Team New Zealand.
Ten TP52 and five GP42 have registered for the Portugal Trophy, among them a total of two America’s Cup crews new to the Audi MedCup Circuit: Britain’s TeamORIGIN and Italy’s Luna Rossa, which has Brasilians Torben Grael and Robert Scheidt on board, two of the world’s most important sailors, who have a very good knowledge of the race area of Cascais.
The host nation Portugal will be represented by Bigamist 7, of Pedro Mendonça. The Portuguese TP52 was the circuit’s revelation in 2009, after eight race wins and climbing on to the podium in the last event, Cartagena.
In the Audi MedCup 2010, after being modified, she is expected to improve last year’s performance and be fighting for the final success.
SUPPORT OF INSTITUTIONS
Beyond the cut and thrust of the action on the water, the Portugal Trophy has been consistently acclaimed for the organization, infrastructure and glamour ashore. Such values are keynote to the Lagos Sports brand, the event organizer together with the Clube Naval of Cascais, the Marina of Cascais, and World Sailing Management with the support of Turismo de Portugal and Turismo Estoril/Camara Municipal of Cascais.
BAY OF CASCAIS: THE SHOW GOES ON The Portuguese event of the Audi MedCup 2010 starts competition on the Tuesday 11th of May and runs until the Sunday the 16th. Each day up to three races will be held, as well as a spectacular coastal race scheduled for Saturday, the 15th: the fleet starts from Cascais heading to Cabo da Roca towards Cabo Espichel, and heads back to Lisbon where it turns at Ponte 25 of Abril to reach the finish off Cascais.
The competition will be based in the Marina of Cascais and includes a Race Village, a Press Room, the Race Office of Clube Nacional of Cascais and an area in the Bay of Cascais which will allow visitors a live and exciting experience of the event, with a big screen which will relay racing with live images enhanced by the virtual tracking system, as well as leisure activities, a merchandising area and food and beverage options.
The Alinghi Décision 35 team, led by Ernesto Bertarelli, won the Challenge Julius Baer on Lake Geneva.
The Alinghi D35 team won the Switzerland-based Challenge Julius Baer multihull series for the third consecutive year. Alinghi has competed in every D35 championship on Lake Geneva since the 35ft one-design series began in 2004 and this year, as in recent events, the crew of six has been up against some of the most talented multihull sailors in the world throughout the summer-long 12-boat series. The illustrious roll call includes some of Alinghi’s own America’s Cup team members: Loïck Peyron and Alain Gautier, as well as Michel Desjoyeaux, Franck Cammas, Pascal Bidégorry and Karine Fauconnier among others.
Alinghi, helmed by team president Ernesto Bertarelli, won two of the events this year and ranked second in three. Saturday’s performance in Lausanne-Ouchy secured the championship victory for the America’s Cup Defender with Loïck Peyron’s Okalys in second place, just ahead of Alain Gautier on Foncia.
“I am very happy with the result, especially as the level this year has been really high and the fight for the championship has been tight from the start. To finish ahead of Alain Gautier [helmsman on Foncia] and Loïck Peyron [helmsman on Okalys-Corum] is an honour as a helmsman because it’s difficult to find someone as good as them in the world of multihulls,” said Ernesto Bertarelli. “Our result is entirely due to our crew. All sailing boats have to be sailed with everyone doing their job as best they can and we are particularly lucky to have very good people in every single position; it’s a comprehensive victory for all the crew,” he added.
Alinghi has recently completed its sea trials in Genoa, Italy, and will continue to train and test its giant catamaran towards the 33rd America’s Cup in Ras al-Khaimah scheduled to start on 8 February 2010. “Our full focus is on Alinghi 5, we have many things to implement and many things to learn from the boat so there are many hours to put in on the water,” concluded Ernesto Bertarelli.
The team will recommence training in mid-October in the UAE.
Alinghi SUI1 crew
Ernesto Bertarelli, helmsman
Pierre-Yves Jorand, mainsail trimmer and performance
Nils Frei, trimmer
Yves Detrey, bow/mastman and boat captain
Tanguy Cariou, tactician
Coraline Jonet, trimmer
It was like the end of a school term at the skippers’ press conference in Stockholm today as the Volvo Ocean Race fleet prepares to tackle leg ten, a final, short, sprint to the overall finish line in St. Petersburg.
By: Gustav Morin/Ericsson 3/Volvo Ocean Race
By: Rick Tomlinson/Volvo
By: Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race.
Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race.
Dave Kneale/Volvo Ocean Race
Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race.
With just 400 miles remaining in a race around the world that measures over 37,000 nautical miles, and the leaderboard almost entirely decided, the finish line – the real one – is now in sight.
One leaderboard duel does remain. With a maximum of eight points available to the winner of the leg, PUMA leads Telefónica Blue by 6.5 points in the battle to finish second overall in the race.
The forecast is promising for the start on Thursday afternoon. A light northeasterly breeze of 8-10 knots is expected. But, as the leg progresses, the wind is forecast to ease. It could be a long 400 miles.
“This weather forecast is not perfect for us,” said PUMA skipper Ken Read. “We don’t want it to turn into a light air crap shoot because anything can happen that way. Telefónica can go and win the leg by 100 miles if they want; (but) we just have to beat one boat.”
“I think, realistically, they have sewn it up,” countered Telefónica Blue skipper Bouwe Bekking. “But it’s yacht racing and hopefully they sail the wrong way, come last and we come first. There would be a lot written if that happened. We’ll certainly be pushing hard for a win.”
Also making an appearance at the press conference today was Team Russia skipper Stig Westergaard, who brought the Russian boat, Kosatka, into Stockholm last night. They haven’t competed since leg three and the team is now engaged in a race against time to get rule compliant ahead of the start.
With Ericsson 4 having mathematically won the Volvo Ocean Race on the leg into Stockholm, the rest of the teams are sailing for pride. And, according to Telefónica Black skipper Fernando Echávarri, that will be motivation enough.
“This is the last chance we have to win a leg and we’ll try to do that,” he said. “It’s more about personal pressure and trying to finish with a leg win, rather than pressure on the overall standing. It’s going to be good (weather) conditions for our boats so we’ll try to do our best to arrive in St Petersburg in the top position.”
Ericsson 4 skipper Torben Grael agreed it will be a competitive race: “We all owe it to our sponsors to get a good result and we are all very competitive people. A win is important to us.”
There will be full coverage of the start (web tv and audio commentary) and the leg (including a live race blog) at www.volvooceanrace.org and www.volvooceanrace.tv The start is scheduled for 12:00 GMT on Thursday, with an ETA in St. Petersburg on Saturday morning.
Larry Ellison's Oracle Racing team is gearing up to defend its trophy in the 34th America's Cup in San Francisco during the summer of 2013. PCMag chatted recently with team leader John Kostecki. […]
1. Russell Coutts You could say he and other Kiwis were viewed as turn-coutts. The 2003 America's Cup campaign, with Coutts at the helm of the Alinghi challenge, represented the worst of Kiwi backlashes against defectors - arguably... […]
Loading ...