News Around the World
MediaPost, which claims to be the most influential marketing and advertising site on the web, will have come as further encourage- ment to Cup organisers. Having told his readers that Portsmouth was the birthplace of the America’s Cup in 1851 – whatever – Boyer went on to describe the World Series and the Cup itself as ‘a potential marketing bonanza’, even dragging out that rather tired comparison… ‘Think Formula 1 racing on the water’. No doubt the AC World Series will evolve and lessons will be taken from Portsmouth. But, as Cup guardians rightly strive to keep the event relevant, great care will have to be taken to preserve its prestige and the elements that elevate it above all others, while striking a balance between the price and quality on offer. In the ruthless and crowded sports/entertainment marketplace the Cup is undoubtedly a unique brand, but it is not without competition. Ivor Wilkins
ITALY On his (Vendée) way
Surprisingly, the new Imoca 60 for Italian skipper Andrea Mura now nearing completion at the renowned Persico yard is also the first modern Imoca design to be built in Italy.
When I met Italy’s latest Vendée Globe entrant, Mura’s Imoca 60 had just been taken out of her female tooling, looking more like a submarine with its huge bow and dramatic round profiles. The boat is astonishing in terms of quality of workmanship, dimensionally perfect, exploiting permitted tolerances to the full. The new Imocas with their complex reverse curves are not easy boats to mould and for Persico the task was made tougher because of the need to preserve the tooling for a second boat. Meanwhile, Mura’s own decision to leave Umberto Felci (designer of his previous 50ft Vento di Sardegna) for Verdier/VPLP was largely dictated by time and opportunity. Mura did not want to load up his campaign with the weight of R&D that would be needed in bringing in a new design studio (Verdier/VPLP have five new Imoca sister- ships in process).
Mura did opt for a well-proven Italian shipyard, but conceded that designer site visits would be less than if he had chosen a French yard. However, this is compensated for by the regular presence of his two very experienced project managers, Filippo Ciarchi and Gregoire Metz. Another advantage of building in Italy is not having to ‘queue’ behind other similar designs.
This boat, like its design sisterships, is built largely in thin mono- lithic carbon reinforced with plentiful carbon stringers, the resulting structure being lighter for the same stiffness than traditional sand- wich construction. Extra features compared with Verdier/VPLP’s base design include a larger 2,000-litre forward ballast tank. Given the large volume of the hull in the bow and the very flat forward sec- tions, this extra mass should make for a smoother motion upwind in a seaway. Mura’s cockpit is also set further aft than ‘standard’, while the deck layout was refined using a full-scale mock-up. The most distinct element of Mura’s programme will be the sails. For the Sardinian skipper, and sailmaker too, it is the challenge in the challenge, his boat being the only new Imoca 60 not supplied by North Sails. Instead his sails are designed and built by Mura in his loft in Cagliari; alongside being an accomplished soloist, he is a sailmaker with his own successful loft (Mura was in the sailmaking team on the Il Moro di Venezia Cup campaign). ‘I put into this project all my experience of many years of sailing and sailmaking,’ explains Andrea. ‘My sails are all Dyneema, in my opinion the best fibre available for this application; it is tougher than carbon and weighs some 30 per cent less while for similar strength it is half the weight of Kevlar. The Dyneema I use was developed in Italy – I used it previously during the Route du Rhum on the 50. The Imoca class allows eight sails onboard but we will carry only six, which I believe covers the range adequately: J1, J2, J3, mainsail and two reachers… As you’d expect this makes for a nice weight saving.’ Giuliano Luzzatto
18 SEAHORSE
AUSTRALIA That Cup… (Part 2)
The French, Swedes and two Australian syndicates arrived in Rhode Island in 1977 where Australia beat Sverige to challenge for the 23rd America’s Cup. Courageouswas again selected to defend the Cup, this time skippered by Ted Turner with Gary Jobson as tactician, and the Americans picked the shifts beautifully to beat the Australians 4-0.
1977 is spoken of as the last friendly America’s Cup, and the day before the first race Bond and Turner threw a huge lunch for the American and Australian crews… which also saw Bond arguing away with the Rolex representatives. The race crew were each given a Rolex watch, as agreed, but Bond said his whole team of 30 had to receive one, not just the sailors. Rolex said no and so Bond argued late into the afternoon. Meanwhile, the American crew all had their shiny new watches and were giving the Australians heaps, asking them every couple of minutes what the time was… After losing 4-0, and not leading the Americans on any leg of any race, Bond decided he would challenge again in 1980 with the same 12 Metre, Australia. Ben Lexcen was convinced he could improve the boat as Australia’s top speed was stuck at 8.1kt. So the crew cut out the bustle, made a new one, narrowed the bottom of the keel and back to Newport they went with a more restricted budget and a limited programme. But 1980 was the year of the bendy mast.
John Bertrand was watching the America’s Cup from afar as he was campaigning the Soling for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Having spent two years on the European circuit, he raced the pre-Olympics then in 1979 Russia invaded Afghanistan and the boycott followed. Bertrand read about the boycott in the newspapers and was sent a cheque for $2,000 by the Australian government as compensation for all his efforts. Now in limbo, Bertrand got a call from Bond in Rhode Island, asking him to come over and join the team as tac- tician. Bertrand agreed, not realising that Ben Lexcen was already tactician, so when he arrived in Newport Lexcen greeted him with a plaster cast on his hand. John asked what had happened and Benny said he ‘fell or something… couldn’t quite remember’. John later found out that Benny had read in the newspapers that Bertrand was flying in to take over his role and punched his fist through a wall, so it became clear there was no way John could be tactician. Bond then asked Bertrand to sail as port trimmer – the same role he had with Sir Frank Packer back in 1970. Jim Hardy was helming Australia against the British 12M Lionhearton a foggy Newport day when suddenly Jim shouted ‘Jesus! Chink! What’s that?’ The Lionheart crew had suddenly appeared with this vast mainsail on a radically curved hockey stick of a mast – all legal as there was no girth measurement on the mainsail back then. Ben Lexcen immediately said ‘Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? We will get hammered here!’
Bond was on the radio immediately: ‘What the hell is going on out there?’ Benny was apologising that he should have thought about the bendy mast, but Alan said, ‘Just build one!’ ‘What, in Newport…’ ‘Yes, here!’
By the time they got in from that race Ben had figured out how he was going to do it. The team had an old mast, a spare brought from Australia, so they made a mould of the topmast above the hounds, then used that as the female mould to make a new E-glass top section with jumpers and diamonds and hydraulic rams all banging around, then painted it all with silver paint to let it blend in with the aluminium lower section.
Warren Jones realised they needed to get it measured, so he called official measurer Bob Blumenstock and told him they had a spare mast he’d better measure, just in case… Bob came round, looked at the ‘old spare’ and said, ‘Wow, if you guys ever have to use this you are in trouble!’ Then threw the measuring tape over it without noticing the fibreglass top section, and signed it off. The British Lionheart campaign struggled to get their mainsail to work to maximum efficiency but the Australians had the brilliance
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