Shredding is allowed in San Francisco. At last. The venue for the next America's Cup is now challenging 11 teams with the usual local conditions, who are making a bid to put on a good show with the AC45 catamarans in order to give the area the title of "Cup-worthy". The programme includes strong winds, lots of current, cold water and occasional fog. After the windy Saturday, numerous teams, such as the Artemis Badmasters, Team Korea and Luna Rossa Swordfish, had breakages that turned Sunday into a repair day.
To the news: There is of course Ben Ainslie, the most avid medallist in Olympic sailing competitions. After his fourth gold medal, he has finally swapped his Finn hat for a helmet and is now sitting on the AC45 of his new team JP Morgan BAR, with which he is to compete in all events this season. In between, according to the press release, he is to be set up as the second skipper for Oracle Racing's AC72 cat, which is to sail in an internal elimination against Jimmy Spithill's team. "We're trying to stay out of trouble and approach it slowly," Ainslie said. "Of course I want to do well, but you also have to be realistic. The others have a lot more practice, but we have good support, good sailors and a good boat, so why not?" YACHT photographer Jen Edney was on board with Ainslie and tells us how close the squad came to disaster during training:
"I was downwind taking pictures, and suddenly the net gets steeper and steeper," Edney reports from her ride with JP Morgan BAR. "First thought: Damn, hold on. Second thought: This guy has four gold medals, he's not going to send me swimming with the camera." He didn't, but it was close. "You have to be a bit lenient, it was only the second time they'd been on the boat with that line-up," says Edney, who had already travelled with Loïck Peyron and the French Energy Team in Newport. What makes Ben different from Loïck? "He speaks English with his boys, so at least I understand roughly what it's all about." And: "Ainslie doesn't smoke while sailing."
The format, which caused confusion last season because fleet races determined the seeding list for match racing, is also new. The organisers have now responded to the criticism and separated the two events. The seven fleet races will now be scored together, with a strong weighting in favour of the last race on Sunday. In match racing, the teams will be seeded according to the previous year's results, according to regatta director Ian Murray: "The top five have a bye to the quarter-finals, and the others will have to sail out the remaining three places among themselves on Wednesday." Qualifying mode is best-of-three (i.e. two races won), from the quarter-finals onwards the knockout system applies: one race and the winner advances.
It should be noted that although there are fewer teams, the number of boats has been kept at eleven. GreenComm and Aleph are not taking part, but Artemis now has two boats at the start, as do Oracle Racing and Luna Rossa. Registered are: Oracle Team USA Spithill, Oracle Team USA Coutts, Artemis Racing Red, Artemis Racing White, China Team, Emirates Team New Zealand, Energy Team, JP Morgan BAR, Luna Rossa Piranha, Luna Rossa Swordfish and Team Korea.
The race starts Wednesday to Saturday at 2.05 pm local time, which is 11.05 pm CEST. Sunday starts at 11.30 a.m., which is 20.30 CEST. In the USA, NBC broadcasts live on the final day, otherwise the races can be followed on YouTube (except in regions where this is prevented by TV contracts).
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iPhone video of Team Korea capsizing
