Update
Trophée des Multicoques, La Trinité circa 1984, a sort of ‘run what you brung’ for every conceivable type of multihull. Many of the giants of that era remain in service – though quite a few are now employed as daytripper buses in the Caribbean and Pacific – and some are expected to reappear for the revived event this August. There will also be examples of a growing number of restorations of iconic smaller boats, including Charlie Capelle’s beautiful Acapella, sistership to Mike Birch’s little Olympus Photo – winner of the first Route du Rhum – and the Fleury Michon Formula 40, immaculately restored by photographer Jacques Vapillon. While six Ultims will be coming out to play, the 84ft Fleury Michon VII (above) will sadly be unavailable, having spectacularly self-destructed in 1985
In the semi-finals we faced second-generation match-racer
Sam Gilmour who like Leonard is really good, has the aggression of his father Peter, and a certain element of humility… which is quite refreshing. Our racing with Sam ended 3-1 but exposed a couple of chinks in our armour on the final day. The conditions were shiftier and in retrospect I can see that the
day was a bit out of balance. In our final race against Sam we took an unnecessary penalty but then had a bit of a break at the last top mark as a faulty shackle on Sam’s boat put his spinnaker in the water. The recovery took too long, giving us the chance to wipe off the penalty. On the other side of the semi-final Taylor Canfield dismissed Johnie Berntsson 3-0, setting up an all New York Yacht Club final. The finals went 3-1 to Canfield. The racing saw the boat that won
the first cross and led at the first top mark only win one of the four races. That’s unusual! A great example of bow-to-stern racing and the quality of each team to keep the racing close and capitalise on the other’s mistakes. In our debrief we all felt a bit off on the day. Our coms and starting
were not to the standard that they had been and, while we were able to keep the racing close, our boathandling slipped as well. Knowing that we have the TP52 Super Series up next this
Ficker/Con Cup experience banged into us some important lessons at a good time. Considering that over a 12-day period we in essence did an entire season of TP52 racing, I am optimistic. Standing by in Harwood, MD, a bit sore and bruised but energised and looking forward to getting into the Quantum Rac- ing
MORE TO OUR TASTES – Patrizio Bertelli Seahorse Magazine: You are challenging for the America’s Cup, again as Challenger of Record. Is all running to plan? Patrizio Bertelli: Yes, there are some things we still have to see and let’s never forget that Team New Zealand won the Cup. We
12 SEAHORSE
have to come to terms with their needs as well. I have been thinking a lot about what it means to be Challenger of Record; on reflection I think that the main purpose is that of giving the eventual challenger their dignity back. Plus although we are the Challenger of Record again this time, we want to dispel the idea that the Cup is just a private club with the same people over and over again. SH: So how do you attract new teams and new people? PB: It is hard now, because we don’t yet have something tangible, like an AC75 yacht, to sell to people. It will take time but we need a new generation to get involved. We are now racing the TP52 and all the sailors racing in this fleet came into the fray after the 2000 America’s Cup, that whole generation of sailors. People like Russell Coutts and Dean Barker are now the oldest in their game but in the TP52s there aren’t really any young sailors, certainly not many. SH: The Cup isn’t being held in TP52s! PB: That is true. At the same time we need a new generation of sailors to come up. It started with the catamarans; but many of them are more engineers than pure sailors. If you want to look at a real younger generation you see them more on the boards. There are quite a few classes that appear to be very appealing to younger sailors right now, and we need to find a way to combine that with the America’s Cup. SH: So this is why we see the 75ft monohull up on foils. PB: Yes, we don’t want to lose the physical side of manoeuvring but at the same time we don’t want to give up on breakthrough technology. We know that it is going to be appreciated by some and criticised by others but we feel this is the way to go. Team New Zealand and Grant Dalton and all of us, we agreed that the America’s Cup must become open again. So let the fresh energy come in, let the new talent come in. SH: It needs to, we are seeing very few people coming in to challenge. PB: It has always been like this and when you start something in the autumn initially it is quiet, but as soon as summer comes there is more activity. And people also wanted to see the class rule before
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GILLES MARTIN-RAGET
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