News Around the World
We may have reservations about the Oppi’s influence in keeping youngsters in the sport once they are into their teenage years, but we have no doubt at all about the brilliant talent the class produces year on year. As three-time (sic) Optimist World Champion Marco Gradoni enjoys a guest role with Luna Rossa, you’ll also see a lot more of these two in the future: Sweden’s Henric Wigforss came from behind on the final day to win this year’s men’s world title while Valencia’s finest Blanca Ferrando did the same in the women’s
I will not repeat my introduction here, except to say that, as well
as perhaps being the world’s best marine photographer, Carlo is a great person. Human, simple and modest like few others, even fewer with his level of talent and skill. Congratulations, Maestro.
American Magic in Barcelona Alinghi Red Bull arrived in Barcelona well over a year ago yet remark- ably it was only last month that sailors from other Cup teams started appearing in number at the venue for next year’s Match. Thus, while Luna Rossa trained for a second day with their AC40 Terry Hutchinson and his team made a nice presentation to introduce themselves (and sponsor Helly Hansen) to the public at the host city. Alinghi are nicely established now in Barcelona as a ‘home team’
and American Magic are also making a big effort not to live apart from their hosts. The people of our city recognise and appreciate these important gestures. However, the obvious absentee from this occasion was anyone
from the ACE organisers… actually, I imagine they were not invited because of the Protocol issues between them, with the Arbitration Panel yet to give a final ruling on the American team’s obligation to compete in Jeddah at the second preliminary AC37 regatta. What would the America’s Cup be without its litigation? Especially
since they try this time to eliminate espionage, through ‘traitorous team informers’ but also by hackers… Quite a challenge! Terry Hutchinson explained. ‘We have asked the Arbitration Panel
if they will allow us to be absent from that regatta. We do not want a penalty, but first we want to know the response of the Arbitration Panel and then we will see what decisions we make. Our first priority is the safety and well-being of each and every one of our team members, but at the same time our objective is to win the America’s Cup. Let’s wait and see their response before deciding anything about it…’ Terry also gave his first impressions of the challenge posed for
the AC75 and AC40 by the waves on the Barcelona course. His summing-up was easy to understand in any language: ‘Navigating the AC75 is like driving a heavy bus, in the AC40 it feels like a sports car. Of course, the bus sometimes seems like it has no brakes, and at full speed on a bumpy highway it can be difficult to drive…’ Carlos Pich
NEW ZEALAND The stunning new 24-hour monohull record of 641.13nm set in The Ocean Race by the Imoca 60 Malizia has rekindled memories of the previous record run by the 100ft Supermaxi Comanche in 2015. Comanche’s run of 618.01nm came during a stormy Transatlantic
race. It might be reasonably assumed that life aboard a fully crewed Supermaxi would be pretty rosy compared with the savage brutality suffered by the five-person crews of a semi-foiling 60-footer. However, Kiwi offshore veteran Tony Mutter recalls it was no picnic aboard Comanche – designed by VPLP and Guillaume Verdier for Netscape founder Jim Clark, and skippered by Ken Read.
32 SEAHORSE ‘It was pretty heinous,’ he says. ‘We were in a terrible sea state
with the wind lurching from 20 to over 40kt. We were not far enough north to benefit from the current so it was just the strength of the wind from the right quarter that gave us a big push for 24 hours. ‘We were banging and crashing, with a lot of water over the deck.
And remember, this was quite early on in the Comanche programme and we had not had much time in bad conditions. So we had some issues. The water ballast tanks kept filling up through the breather vents which made the boat pretty sluggish; we had to slow down once every watch to pump the tanks out. We weren’t really thinking about a 24-hour run, because we were focused on winning a Trans - atlantic race. Rambler 88 was chasing hard in those conditions. ‘Early in the morning,’ Mutter continues, ‘Stan Honey [navigator]
came up on deck to let us know we were getting pretty close to breaking the record. Just then we stuffed the boat into the back of a wave and Stan went flying several metres across the deck and was knocked unconscious.’ While Mutter is impressed by the Imocas (Holcim-PRB also beat
the Supermaxi’s distance), he feels sure they could do a lot more in flat-water conditions. ‘If you watch those boats during the inshore races they are often doing well over 30kt in flat water. Get them in the open ocean and they are doing 19-20kt most of the time because of the sea state.’ Mutter reveals that, following the 2015 Transatlantic, Comanche
actually planned to set up a run specifically targeting a new 24-hour record. ‘We were aiming for a 720-mile day, which we were pretty confident we could do in the right conditions,’ he says. The plan was to strip weight out of the boat, reduce the sail inventory to a cut-down mainsail and three headsails, reduce the crew number to a minimum and then wait for conditions that would enable them to run ahead of a storm front with a true wind angle of 130°. Plus the World Sailing Speed Record rules do not take account
of current, so they would make the run off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina where the powerful Gulf Stream would provide a turbo- boost. Then the boat was sold before the attempt could be made…
Exceptional calibre More than 120 would-be candidates from around New Zealand have answered the call for applicants to represent Emirates Team New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron at the Women’s and Youth America’s Cup – providing the selection panel with a pool of ‘exceptional calibre’ from which to draw its squad. For the Youth America’s Cup competitors must be aged between
18 and 25, with no gender specification – crews can opt for mixed- gender, all-male, or all-female line-ups. For the Women’s America’s Cup the only (other…) stipulation is the crew must be 18 or older. ‘We received applications from 121 people in total,’ says Team
New Zealand’s Elise Beavis who, with Josh Junior, will assess the applications before narrowing them down to 20 from each category. Shortlisted sailors will spend a week at Team New Zealand being
MARC GRAUPERA ALOMA
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125
