Mariantic - America's Cup News & Views

Mariantic

America's Cup 34 News

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Mariantic has been following the America's Cup since the 17th Challenge of 1958. We went big with the 32nd Challenge in Valencia and this site became regular viewing for thousands. After initial enthusiasm for the 33rd Challenge we, and many of you, lost interest...yacht racing not court action is our passion. Now let's give it another go for Challenge 34 (gosh, we've followed half of them!). The right words are being said, it's looking promising, there could be a fair, global series of big boat racing cumulating in a spectactular one-on-one final (not that anyone could say the 33rd final wasn't spectactular...) Protocol out today?... nope it's September 13.... First thought... what about pre-regattas in 2011? not a lot of point racing v5s Extreme 40s? RG previews the Protocol due this week... Gladwells Line Scoop @ V&V "72 ft winged catamarans in 2014" Hong Knog LVT round cancelled - (and all LVT after 2010) VS TeamOrigin win 1851 Cup 10-4 story here TeamOrigin lead 4-1 with BMWO getting tie-break in hand for RTI victory 3 points per race Friday... Live today from 1530 BST 2 - 0 to TeamOrigin after day 1 the web TV coverage is excellent - Tom Ehman commentating... Live web TV of 1851 Cup - here As a sports car & AC fan the above is BIG news for me! "AC Village Plans" @ South Beach Yacht Club! SBYC "educational celebration" October 23rd 2010 AC media trials @ VLC - details SFGate saying 4 European locations in running Valencia, Spain Lisbon, Portugal (Cascais ?) Naples, Italy Marseilles, France San Francisco only US Cup venue choice - SFGate & VS VLC & "undecided locale in Italy" also in running America's Cup @ Cowes - details of 1851 Cup - VS USA17 will sail again (Tom Ehman) - likely to be VLC late July... "Choice of monohull or multihull based on July trials in Valencia" RC44 and Extreme40 demos? The multihull design concept - here The monohull design concept - here 22m max overall length 13 crew mono - 12 multi canting keel for mono wing sails for multi (only) engines (green) for appendage movement - but not sails stern & bow easily changed on both (for repairs) easy assembly / disassembly for both Hearing stories of high level defections from Alinghi - more later... Luna Rossa will not be entering AC34 - VS Interesting take by Bill Center @ signonsandiego.com "With this protocol, Larry wants to put public pressure on future defenders to do the right thing" Venezia Challenge - not worth a click yet - we'll say if anything appears... Key dates:- • Protocol for the 34th America’s Cup will be issued by 31st August • Design rule released by 30th September • Race rules published by 30th December • Challenge Period open from 1st October – 31st January 2011 Draft protocol here "There will be between six to eight Pre-regattas per year in 2011 and 2012. There will be at least two Pre-regattas in 2013 prior to the Regatta." - that's a lot of racing... "The Match may be in more than one Venue." - WOW "GGYC may hold trials during the period of the Challenger Selection Series to select a defender to represent GGYC in the Match." "America’s Cup Class Yachts shall be used after 31 March 2012" Monohull - "Each Competitor may only build, acquire or otherwise obtain a maximum of three (3) America’s Cup Class Yacht keel bulbs." What is a "2011 Class Yacht"? Details of 1851 Cup @ Cowes Racing will be in two America's Cup boats, numbered 98 and 87 (repaired...) Schedule of racing: Tuesday 3rd August : Up to 3 short match races, start from 1430 Wednesday 4th August : Up to 3 short match races, start from 1430 Thursday 5th August: Round the Island race, clockwise, start approx 1200 Friday 6th August : Up to 3 short match races, start from 1430 Looking good for SF - SFGate & LVT in Sept 2011 Grant Simmer to head up TeamOrigin - website Big collision between BMWO boats @ LVT - major delays will follow...pics - more pics & vid Follow LVT La Maddelena action here bad start for TeamOrigin - VS Amusing La Maddelena background colour from Martin Tasker - TVNZ Mike Sanderson leaves TeamOrigin - Stuart Alexander Report of designers' meeting - AP Follow the AC designers' meeting at VS AUDI steps up AC involvement with sponsorhip of Azzura for LVT - VS GGYC & St. Francis YC jointly hoping to host a Louis Vuitton Trophy event in San Francisco in September / October 2011 Designers conference will be @ VLC on May 18 - VS Other key points:- Defender will not participate in the Challenger trials There will be defender trials. The winner will defend the Cup Host cities are also being sought for a series of regular racing for Cup teams Bruce Nelson and Peter Melvin have created two different concepts – a multihull and a monohull Teams will discuss which concept to adopt and begin the process to create a design rule (the new boat) should be able to race in any venue in winds from 5-35 knots protocol will be based on AC32 - but teames asked, “What would you change to make the competition better?” Previous significant commercial partners are now interested in returning (LV?) Key dates from press conference:- - Protocol for the 34th America’s Cup will be issued by 31st August - Design rule released by 30th September - Notice of Race & Sailing Instructions published by 31st December - Venue confirmed by 31st December - Challenge Period (entries) open from 1st October – 31st January 2011 2013 and 2014 were named as the most likely dates for the next Cup Report of Rome press conference - here AmericasCup.com updated America³ women's team reunion announced - cupinfo Interesting plans for more big boat regattas - here & here Make sure this one is in your diary as well (Falmouth, Cowes & RTI) GBR75 & USA76 en route from VLC will compete in "The 1851 Cup" TeamOrigin website Plans for 12 team AC regatta in multiple UK location in 2011 TeamOrigin & BMWO to hold 5 day match race series & Round the Island @ Cowes Week in August - The Times Gladwell's Line - summing up current thinking on AC34 - this could all change on Thursday... AC34 press conference - GGYC & CN di Roma May 6th in Rome message had RSVP to americascup.com - must be in GGYC's control now... keep checking the website for signs of change Richard Gladwell's take on the PC - sail-world.com Alameda taking things very seriously - look @ this and this & this LVT 2011 said to be San Diego, Black Sea Russia, Greece... Some interesting ideas from Paul Cayard via DBS LVT is 2integral part of the Cup" ACCv5s for 2010 & 2011 LVTs New design testing & data gathering with LVT fleet during 2011 Teams to race new design in 2012 New design frozen end of 2012 LVT in 2013 AC34 in 2014 What a relief - v5s racing in Aukland yesterday... CHN95 ready to sail in Hong Kong - VS Alameda really want it - The Island Facebook discussion on San Fran hosting AC34 - here Newport RI preparing bid for AC 2013 - ri.gov TeamOrigin confirm AC34 plans - 3news Quote from Larry Ellison @ SF Town Hall reception on 20th Feb:- "We'll look forward to hosting Team New Zealand, Team South Africa, the Swedes and the Brits, the French, the Chinese, the Italians, all of those teams from all over the world once again will be competing for the oldest trophy in sport, The America's Cup! We'll be competing in your city." Funny, no mention of the Swiss ;-) Knocks a few of our theories below... Some things to think about:- Will there be a Defender Series? In the early events we followed, the Defender Series was the big thing (4 Defenders 1 Challenger in 1958). Only since the Cup went to New Zealand and Switzerland have the Defenders fallen back to just one team. Now we are back in USA surely any American teams would become challengers for the Defense - if you see what we mean... What boats? presumably ACC v5 boats for the first year or so then what? Multihulls again, light displacement monohulls, engines or not, wings or sails? Where? GGYC of San Francisco are the Defender, but much as we love San Francisco Bay could it be the location? Maybe just for the final? Remember the Moet Cup and the Challenge Series? Spectactular and media catching like nowhere else. But then Newport RI just oozes America's Cup atmosphere. Oh and Valencia has all the infrastructure - ready to go... (our guess? Challengers @ VLC, Defenders @ Newport, Final @ SF) What teams? this was the fascinating part of AC32 but missing from AC33 - the prospective entrants, real and dreamers, kept the news services (and web designers) very busy! Oh and When? Is this all going to fit in before the London Olympics? Probably not, but a continuation of the LVT series into 2011 and 2012 with the Challenger (and Defender?) Selection Series and Final in 2013 seems doable... Trevor email trevor@mariantic.co.uk BTW - just to prove I haven't been idle, check out my Le Mans and ALMS site which has been getting record hits! Mariantic Le Mans & SportsCar Racing News