News Around the World
Students of Elvstrøm will know the tales of how he would never miss an opportunity to discourage his competitors. There are legions of stories of the Great Dane heading out to sea on his own when racing was cancelled due to too much wind, flicking in immaculate heavy-air gybes seemingly at leisure as he planed back to the slipway. So when Emirates Team New Zealand joined Alinghi as one of only two Cup teams to take their AC75s for a workout on a very rough day in Barcelona at the end of October, do not for a moment be fooled that all that the Kiwis were doing was packing in a few more miles before going home for the southern hemisphere summer…
more of his time to giving back to the sport and his work with both the Keyhaven Yacht Club and the Royal Lymington Yacht Club youth programmes was exemplary. Many products of those talent factories, active racers, local heroes, Olympic medallists and pro- fessional sailors today trace their success back to the dedication and encouragement that Stuart offered both on and off the water. Stuart was passionate about sailing, period. Whatever he could
lay his hands on. So it was typical of the man that at the age of 79 he corralled local dinghy champion Pete Barton to get him out foiling in his International Moth. Successfully of course. Stuart Jardine’s final big regatta win was at the 2018 Royal Solent
Yacht Club Taittinger Regatta, sailing his XOD to victory over some 42 boats at the age of 84. His passing at the beginning of November, after a long illness,
sees Stuart survived by loving wife Mary-Ann, sons Lewis, Robert and Mark, and grandchildren Jamie, Arabella, Sean, Sam and Philippa. Touchingly, after speaking to Mark, himself a renowned yachting
journalist, he offered me a wonderful insight into the passing of his father and the tributes that have been paid to him. ‘I know what he meant to me, but it’s great to hear what he meant to others. At the end of the day I’m just proud to call myself his son. It’s a difficult time but he lived an incredible life, and I was lucky enough to spend a huge amount of time with him.’ Magnus Wheatley
NEW ZEALAND After a busy session of testing and training in Barcelona over the summer Emirates Team New Zealand personnel had barely settled back into the familiar comforts of home when they were on the road again – to Jeddah. Then it will be back to New Zealand for a brief Christmas break before a busy home summer, testing and training with the AC40s while the boatbuilding team, led by Sean Regan, bends to the 75,000 man-hour task of building the next-generation AC75 for the Cup defence next October. Although it is a punishing regime the team came away from its
time in Barcelona pleased with what was achieved. The final two sailing days there, in particular, had them fizzing. Since Barcelona was announced as the 2024 Cup venue there has been much dis- cussion about how foiling yachts – first introduced in the relatively
30 SEAHORSE
sheltered waters of Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf – would cope in much bigger swells on the more exposed Spanish coast. It is not just about their size, but waves generated far offshore often do not align with the inshore wind direction, adding to the challenge. As the team wrapped up its four-month Barcelona training block
at the end of October the final two days saw 2m ocean swells roll across the course area. Leaving the AC40 ashore, the crew rolled out its 2021 AC75, which successfully defended the Cup in Auckland in 2021. Still using legacy foils and sails from that regatta, the veteran warhorse rose to the occasion and banished doubts. ‘The last two days were unbelievably epic,’ said Blair Tuke, ‘and Te Rehutai stood up to the challenge once again.’ Added sailing coach Ray Davies: ‘We really put her through her
paces, that’s for sure. A couple of years ago people wouldn’t have thought it was do-able in foiling boats and now we are sailing around in 2m swells and dealing with it. It is really awesome.’ Having the AC75 in Barcelona was ‘invaluable’, said ETNZ CEO
Grant Dalton, ‘and sailing in those conditions was useful because the 2024 Match will be at a similar time of year, when the high pressure systems of the summer give way to more unsettled con- ditions. ‘It is quite likely, or certainly possible, that we will race in conditions like that. It is a real dilemma for the teams. You could have 7kt of wind, or 21kt. You could get anything. To design the boats across the range is the challenge. ‘One of the fallacies about foiling boats is that they cannot sail
in waves,’ Dalton said. ‘The last day we sailed was huge, the guys had to take a big brave pill – but Te Rehutai sailed just fine. You could not have sailed an AC40 in those conditions.’ Following that high-seas workout there was a sense of ceremony
as Te Rehutai was placed back in storage in Barcelona – where it will remain as backup in the event of serious damage to the team’s yet-to-be-completed new-generation AC75. ‘Never say never, but that is probably the last time we ever sail
Te Rehutai,’ said a slightly wistful Peter Burling, who helmed the boat to victory in Auckland in 2021. Reconfigured for sailing with a crew reduced from 11 to eight and using cyclor power in place of grinders, it has been a valuable testbed for new control systems and equipment in preparation for a new-generation weapon. Dalton said the training block in Barcelona confirmed his tight
EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND
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