Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2017 i Sailing World

When it’s time to stow my electronics, the hooked island appears in the window, ringed by a kaleidoscope of blue: reefs, shallows and deep ocean. There’s no mistaking Bermuda, and whether I arrive by bird or by boat, the place is magical, a remote destination not too far away but still in the middle of nowhere. As we circle to land, I get a sweeping view, which reaffirms how small the place really is. That the 35th America’s Cup will be hosted here is still hard to fathom. The seat-belt sign dings, reminding me to fill out my pink Department of Immigration passenger form. Under the heading “Primary Purpose of Visit,” there’s the typical stuff: vacation, study, business. The America’s Cup has three of its own check boxes: team, visiting,…

What was once a far-fetched idea for Olympic sailing is one step closer to reality. In February, World Sailing voted to propose an offshore sailing showcase event to the International Olympic Committee for consideration in 2020. “We wanted an event that reflected what most sailors out there do,” says Stan Honey, chairman of the Oceanic and Offshore Committee at World Sailing. “They’re sailing boats with bunks. They’re following races like the Vendée Globe and the Volvo Ocean Race. The number of followers [of these events] is staggering.” The vision was to propose an offshore event as an 11th sailing medal for Tokyo, says Honey. Sailors from the dinghy disciplines could play double-duty for the offshore team, solving IOC’s concern regarding space in the athletes’ village. “Like many other sports, we…

Barbara had never sailed until a week after we met in October 1962, when I invited her to go sailing on my Thistle off City Island, New York. It was blowing about 10 knots, and a friend joined us for additional ballast. Barbara was terrific. She hiked out, worked the jib sheet, and was enthralled with the spinnaker. She smiled the entire time. Later, back onshore, my buddy whispered to me, “She’s a keeper.” Ten months later, we were married. Six years and two children later, Barbara suggested I buy a Sunfish. I’d seen the multicolored sails racing on Peconic and Southold bays off the North Fork of Long Island, but I had never set foot on one. So in August 1968, we bought the first of 11 Sunfish our…

Twenty-five years ago, during my annual lecture tour, I made a few outrageous predictions about innovations in sailing. When I reflect on that list today, I’m surprised by how many of these outlandish ideas have become reality. For example, I thought someday we’d be able to use GPS technology to determine whether a boat was over the starting line, that a boat would exceed 50 knots, and that someone would sail around the world in less than 60 days. Of course, we now know that technology developed for the America’s Cup can determine when a boat is over the line (and doing so while the boat is reaching across at 20 knots, no less). In 2012, Paul Larsen’s Vestas Sailrocket 2, flew across a 500-meter stretch of Walvis Bay in…

THE IMAGERY IS ICONIC: 12-Meter crews waging America’s Cup warfare on the windswept waters off of Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1987. An anxious tension hovers over the crews, crouching in their workstations, studying their sails and anticipating a command from the afterguard. A slight windshift catches the tactician’s eye, and he broadcasts a tack. Eleven bodies furiously execute the maneuver, the boat settles onto its new course, the speedometer struggles to break 8.5 knots, and the crews huddle low again. Flash-forward 30 years, and the role of an America’s Cup crew has changed as dramatically as the boats themselves. While the transition to wingsail-powered foiling catamarans is obvious, less evident are the demands placed on the sailors by the hydraulic-pressure accumulators that are used to trim the daggerfoils and wing…

DEAN BARKER IS dressed head to toe in tight black sailing gear, his scarred white helmet tucked under his right arm. As he gazes across Bermuda’s Great Sound, painted by the orange hues of a winter sunset, he gnaws at an apple in his left hand. The shore team hustles to crane the 50-foot catamaran Hikari from the water and place it into its cradle before dark. They’ve seized upon a late-afternoon breeze to take the boat for its second break-in, which amounts to a 90-minute systems check. Off in the distance, Land Rover BAR’s crane is idle, the base deserted; the British challengers had pulled the plug earlier after waiting all afternoon for wind. But Barker and his teammates don’t have such a luxury. The clock ticks, and the…

Sparring Partners A friendly rivalry keeps two Cup defender teammates on their toes. Jimmy Spithill has a cold. But the skipper perks up when the conversation turns to the endless competition at Oracle Team USA between him and design coordinator Scott Ferguson. The rivalry is cutthroat — there is no mercy; no quarter is given. And that’s just after hours. Spithill believes competition in just about any form brings out the best in everyone. For the pugnacious helmsman, a good day is made up of ticking off results on the water that were discussed in theory on land. Then before he heads home, he likes to “go down to the table-tennis table, kick Scott’s ass, and take his money.” When Spithill is asked if he has more compassion for Ferguson,…

I stroll the Key West waterfront, gazing with covetous eyes at the big maxis with three pedestals and towering five-spreader rigs. These are carbon machines with materials and systems so exotic, they haven’t yet trickled down to the boats on which I race. As I admire, I long for a bigger, faster ride. I see their crews peacocking down the dock in their team gear, and feeling like a skid-row kid standing outside the country club, I tell myself, “One day, I will belong.” It’s here at Quantum Key West Race week where I befriend Rodney Keenan, owner of Evolution Sails, and as it turns out, a watch captain on the supermaxi CQS, a 100-foot, allcarbon, push-button, canting-keel, winged and foiled boat of my dreams. I now have a guy…

It was a pursuit-start race and the first event for our newly purchased Alerion 28. We had taken ownership of the boat the night before, so we were arguably rushing things, but it was just a low-key random-leg event with more than 130 boats. What could possibly go wrong? The race attracted a wide spectrum of competitors and boat types. Its simplicity is its appeal. The course is set regardless of wind direction, and it features an uncrowded starting line for most entrants. Ratings are assigned if needed, and there’s a party for everyone afterward. There are few hurdles to ensure maximum fun, which makes it perfect for encouraging participation. We went off as the 10th starter, in a drifter, but with the wind building soon after, the fleet quickly…

“WHEN YOU GO INTO A HIGH-SPEED BEAR-AWAY, IT ’S LIKE A SL INGSHOT. YOU’RE HIT TING 42, 4 3 KNOTS ON THE REACHING LEG, AND THEN YOU MIGHT GET UP TO 4 6 KNOTS, AND [WITH] THE AMOUNT OF CAVITATION AT THAT POINT — THE WHOLE BOAT IS SHAKING AND SHUDDERING — FOR SURE, YOU’RE ON EDGE, BECAUSE IF A FOIL BREAKS AT THAT SPEED, IT ’S PRETTY CATASTROPHIC.” “I DO A LOT OF HOMEWORK an hour before we hit the water, and then the last 35 minutes are pretty relaxed,” says Tom Slingsby, Oracle Team USA’s helmsman, tactician and sailing team manager for the 35th America’s Cup defense, about his pre-sailing routine. Slingsby describes poring over weather charts and the latest meteorological information during these homework sessions, conducted before…

FRANCK CAMMAS has just finished his earlymorning workout and is looking forward to a proper French-fare breakfast. He’s thinking about the violent storm that’s pounding his team’s base, more than 3,000 miles away in Lorient, France. On this particular day in Bermuda, however, the weather is fine. It’s balmy where he and his Groupama Team France teammates have only recently relocated as they await the arrival of their AC50 and all the containers that come with it. Today, Bermuda is certainly the better place to be. But the thought of weather in France is merely passing; more pressing is the buildup to what he and his team will face in a matter of weeks. The underfunded and understaffed Groupama squad will enter the first official race of the Louis Vuitton…

ONE COULD ARGUE that all the fame and glory of the modern-day America’s Cup goes to the sailors, and beyond that, the helmsmen and faces of the respective franchise. But each and every one of these sailors will agree they’re only as good as the platform they’ve been given, and in doing so, they’ll point to their design-team brain trust (and boatbuilders, by extension) that employ complex design and engineering programs to integrate the needs and input of the sailors themselves. The variables to consider today as the boats take flight are innumerable, says Nick Holroyd, lead designer and technical director with SoftBank Team Japan. Holroyd, a mechanical engineer by trade, has been involved with the Cup for nearly two decades. “The level of complexity and the subtleties are endless,”…

FOR A TEAM WITH the tenure of Emirates Team New Zealand, one would think the America’s Cup Event Authority, which runs the show these days, would be ecstatic to have them return for their ninth challenge under the lineage. Not so, is the Kiwi sentiment. They’re the proverbial thorn in the Cup management’s backside, and should they prevail in Bermuda this summer, they could be the most disruptive force the modern Cup has seen yet. Team New Zealand was founded for the 1986-87 Cup off Fremantle, Western Australia, and has participated in all since, save for the 2010 Deed of Gift Match off Valencia, Spain. And the team has written some of the most epic chapters in the Cup’s storied history. There were the back-to-back victories in 1995 and 2000,…

Saline Rinse The hull drops like a runaway elevator, lands with a thud, and explodes the surface into a sheath of water droplets, big and fine. Salt water drips from helmets and cheeks, snaking its way to lips, a bitter cocktail of sodium chloride, perspiration and sunblock. Salt instantly cakes on your face and sunglasses. The next firehose comes with another rinse, another taste of Bermuda’s Great Sound. Smells Like Team Spirit The aroma of Bermuda is that of the sea, the night’s rain, a moisture that permeates the island. Enter the Artemis base, into a wall of curing resin, carbon fiber and burning metal from all the welding. It’s the smell of determination, of improvements bound for the boat. It’s the smell of development. Step outside, there’s steak or…

THE AMERICA’S CUP Event Authority received permission from World Sailing to write its own version of The Racing Rules of Sailing (the RRSAC) for the 35th America’s Cup. The goal of the RRSAC is to provide safe racing between the boats (which are sailing close to 50 mph at times on foils) and to provide a relatively simple game to understand for the viewing audience. This article explains how the RRSAC works when the boats engage each other. 01. THE PRE-START ENTRY The pre-start engagement period in the America’s Cup is only two minutes. In that time, the boats will sail downwind across an entry line set perpendicular to the wind. The boat assigned the port-tack entry (P) is allowed to cross the Entry Line at 2:10 before the start;…

EVERY AMERICA’S CUP, without exception, manages to produce controversy. Most such controversies arise from one competitor challenging the complex and interpretable rules that govern the limitations of the boat. For within the constraints of the agreed-upon design rules, designers and engineers minutely examine every possible nuance to gain a superior edge in speed. And, par for the Cup, such controversies always happen behind closed doors No one in the America’s Cup game today is more up front and personal with generations of AC yachts than Ken McAlpine, chief measurer to the oldest trophy in sports. To say he’s seen it all is an understatement. McAlpine began “running his tape over” America’s Cup boats in the early 1970s, back in the days when Alan Bond was noisily challenging from Western Australia.…

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