The Persico 69F (above) and (inset) free at last… Team Hutchinson finally gets afloat, Annabelle Hutchinson being the one who would save the day and avoid an embarrassing doorstep confession back home. The 69F was developed by Persico as an AC75 derived platform to deliver crewed one-design foiling to a wider audience. The fruits of a collaboration between builder, designers Wilson-Marquez and their fellow Argentinean multiple Olympic medallist Santi Lange, the 69F has received great reviews from the Olympic-level sailors Lange brought into the programme. A 69F academy fleet based on Lake Garda will be launched later this year
HOPING FOR BETTER TIMES – Jack Griffin The crew arrived in New Zealand at the end of May, although the country had closed its borders in mid-March. Economic development minister Phil Twyford gave a pass to director James Cameron and his film crew of 55 to enter the country on a privately chartered plane. Meanwhile, the three challengers were left wondering when they would be allowed into the country. By mid-June Twyford’s ministry granted exceptions for Ineos Team
UK and New York Yacht Club American Magic each to bring in over 200 people – team members and families. At this writing it appeared that Prada Pirelli Luna Rossa had not yet requested an exception but were planning to be on the water in Auckland in October. Neither of the other two challengers expects to be sailing in Auckland before the end of August or mid-September. Both the New Zealand ministry of business innovation and employ-
ment and the Auckland city council’s tourism agency have been pushing to delay the America’s Cup World Series (ACWS) and Christ- mas Race until January 2021. Emirates Team New Zealand have so far maintained that the schedule is unchanged and that those events are still planned for December. Delaying the ACWS until January would almost certainly require rescheduling the Prada Cup Challenger Selection Series (CSS) as well. The CSS is currently slated to begin on 15 January with four round-robins, followed by a first-to-four-points repechage and a first-to-seven-points CSS finals. This crisis is the latest in a long history of calamitous events
that have affected the America’s Cup. The New York Yacht Club first took possession of the trophy in July 1857 and promptly wrote to other yacht clubs, inviting them to challenge. The US Civil War broke out in April 1861 and yachting became an afterthought. The first challenge, from railway car tycoon James Ashford, was not sailed until August 1870. Fifty years later the 13th defence of the Cup was indeed unlucky.
With racing originally planned for the summer of 1914, Sir Thomas Lipton’s fourth challenger was on her way across the Atlantic when World War I broke out. Shamrock IV put in to Bermuda and later proceeded to New York, where she was stored until the end of the war. She lost to Captain Nat Herreshoff’s last America’s Cup design, Resolute, in 1920.
The next defence would not be sailed for another 10 years, in
1930. Sir TOM Sopwith challenged with his J-Class Endeavour, and took two races from the defender, Harold Vanderbilt’s Enterprise. Four years later, deep in the throes of the Great Depression, Van- derbilt optimistically named his new defender Rainbow. By the end of the 1930s the third and final match in J-Class yachts had been sailed, Germany invaded Poland and World War II was underway. It took a while for yachting to bounce back after the war. Paul
Elvstrøm won his first gold medal at Torquay in the Uffa Fox-designed Firefly dinghy in the 1948 London ‘Austerity Olympics’. With materials in short supply, the Firefly was built with plywood taken from World War II gliders. The pre-war J-Class yachts were too costly for even the richest,
so the America’s Cup was downsized to the 12 Metre class after a 1956 amendment to the Deed of Gift reduced the minimum water- line length to 44ft from 65ft. The Royal Yacht Squadron’s Sceptre challenge in 1958 was the first of 10 Cup matches in the 12 Metres. The 12 Metre era ended with the 1988 Deed of Gift Match, followed by two years in the New York courts to decide the winner. Five matches in the IACC yachts were followed by another two years in the New York courts and the monster multihulls of 2010. Unpleasant as they were, the court cases pale in importance
when compared with real adversity. Since the beginning of the America’s Cup the event has been affected by three major wars, one accompanied by the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic; the Great Depression; and now the Covid pandemic. Like other major sporting events, the America’s Cup can provide some welcome distraction and inspiration in tough times. Let’s all hope for getting the virus better under control and for some good racing in Auckland in 2021.
Petticrows with his unlimited talent. Just ask yourself: ‘Why are SEAHORSE 15
FINGERS ON BUZZERS – Bob Fisher A complete sailor, Luca Devoti has now decided to add his weight and experience to assist in the running of World Sailing by aiming for a major seat on the board. If he is successful this should provide World Sailing with the essential boost it requires, judging by his record to date. I first met Luca when he was in Burnham-on-Crouch, providing
CARLO BORLENGHI
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