News Around the World
To its enormous credit the North American marine industry really set the bar preserving traditional boatbuilding skills, encouraging newcomers to the sector as well as providing thousands of harried worker-bees with new avenues of reward and relaxation through well-structured boatyard courses in every conceivable format. This is Paul Baskett’s Old Town Boatworks in Nova Scotia where among other timeless projects is the Uffa Fox-designed power skiff (right) we looked at last month. The foundations of much of this activity lie of course with the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport RI, and the Landing School in Maine, from whence so many newly skilled craftsmen travelled across the US and beyond to found artisan businesses of their own. And so it continues, fortunately
SH: You had a capsize and full 180° invert. Lessons from that? BA: A number of things with the controllability of T6; ultimately we had a systems failure which led to the capsize and we actually haven’t capsized one of these boats before. There were definitely mistakes that we made once the boat had capsized, so we will take some learnings from that. But it was a pretty complex situation, bearing in mind at one stage we had the boat fully inverted, taking in water from the bow and potentially sinking, plus we had a lithium battery fire onboard. So plenty going on… SH: Shared approach to safety among the teams? BA: Yes, and no; we certainly share approaches in terms of our safety equipment, but how teams react to operating a boat after a capsize – that is starting to get into the realms of IP and all our specific control systems. So we don’t go to that level of detail. SH: The sea state in Barcelona can be significantly different from the back paddock in Auckland… BA: It is clearly way more dynamic than sailing in flat water… It’s certainly a lot more fun sailing these boats in flat water, I can tell you. It is a real challenge which of course comes down to the flight control, the heave and the pitch of the boat. You will struggle to get the same level of performance in those conditions and you have to accept that. Looking at Barcelona as a venue, racing from August through to October – you need a boat that can sail from 5kt to 22kt in flat water to 1m+ waves. I am trying to think back to a Cup with such a broad range of conditions. Fremantle? Newport? From a design perspective it is a real challenge. A reasonable swell with nasty chop thrown in is probably the worst combination we’ll see. SH: T6 is now out of the water for changes and modifications… BA: There will be a change to the keel line of the boat, the foils and then some other changes that will be harder to notice and I probably can’t mention! But we see the other teams going through similar modifications on their test boats or the AC75s out there – there is a lot happening right now. SH: Is there any part on T6 that isn’t covered by a sensor? BA: Probably the helmsman’s seat – for good reason. SH: What does Jim Ratcliffe bring in terms of his philosophy, his advice, his obvious grit… BA: The more I get to know Jim, really the more in awe I am of what he and his business partners have achieved with Ineos. We have a great relationship now – both personal and in business – and one thing that really impresses me is whenever we chat or I listen to him he has this incredible ability to filter out the bullshit. So if you are talking about a topic and not quite up on the detail he will home in
34 SEAHORSE
on it and start digging – and then you know you are in trouble. He has been so instrumental here. In the last campaign he was
frustrated as he didn’t have as much involvement; with this campaign he has been much more involved with key decisions – particularly in partnering with Mercedes, he really drove that forwards. SH: How powerful has the integration with Mercedes been? BA:Mercedes achieve and speak for themselves in F1. Eight world titles in nine seasons, I think, so phenomenal really. When you go to Brackley it is an amazing campus, close to 2,000 people, with quite a collegiate feeling with open and engaging super-smart people. So the people we pulled in are at the highest level and of course the resource is phenomenal. But trying to marry an F1 philosophy with an AC philosophy is not the work of a moment – if I am honest we are still working through that to find that balance. SH: As Challenger of Record, once that was confirmed, what was important to bring to the table for you and for Jim Ratcliffe? BA: It was important to consider what had gone before. I am not blaming any parties here but we didn’t necessarily feel the last Cup was that open in terms of what the rules and regulations were going to be. Jim’s approach is that if we are going to play in this game then he wants to know what he is getting into and so wants a seat at the table. I would like to think we have been pretty open with the other teams as soon as the protocol was announced. Pretty much straight away we organised a competitors’ call, and
we now have a forum which Grant Simmer chairs for us, sharing information and feedback with all parties. So about as open and collaborative as it ever can be in the America’s Cup; I like to think as Challenger of Record we are being fair and open. SH: It is timely for the pathway at the highest level of this sport to have youth and women’s teams – what do you say to the sceptics? BA: I don’t know how you can be a critic or a sceptic of getting women and youth involved. Getting women involved is a great statement and to get the Youth Cup back – which was planned in the last Cup but didn’t happen due to Covid – these are fantastic initiatives of which we are very supportive. SH: In the 1920s and ’30s there was a ballet company called the Ballets Russes based out of Monte Carlo, with composers Stravinsky and Debussy. The set designer was Pablo Picasso and their principal dancer Vaslav Nijinsky – all incredible talent. Their impresario Sergei Diaghilev travelled Europe finding money to keep it all going and he would return by train, go straight into a rehearsal, sit in the front row and shout, ‘Astonish me!’ What have been the astonishing moments for you in this campaign?
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