LEG 3 OF VOLVO

I am have been troubled by this edition of the Volvo Ocean Race. It has become less of an Ocean race frankly; The Legs are short both in distance and time, as the boats are so quick. It has lost it’s luster.
Speaking of losing it’s luster, the America’s Cup, over these last few years has been a soap opera. Still, we are all waiting with anticipation the 72 foot solid wing catamarans.

SMOKE, MIRRORS, AND REALITY
By Rod Davis, Emirates Team NZ
(January 23, 2012) – The trick is to keep the eye on the ball …

It has been a bizarre time for the America’s Cup; the war of words and press releases has been nonstop for five years when Oracle questioned Alinghi’s Challenger of Record. Since then we have been fed a fatty diet of spin doctoring.

Some would say “situation normal for the America’s Cup”. Not in my experience and I have been in the game a long time. Take the headline “Ainslie launches America’s Cup campaign”. What?

Uncle Larry is underwriting Ben’s AC45 sailing and then he joins Oracle in the defence for the USA. Where is the Ben Ainslie America’s Cup campaign in that? Or the nine challengers listed in the America’s Cup web site, when, in reality only three have paid the money. The trick is to not allow the spin doctors to distract you from the real game.

When you blow away the smoke and see through the mirrors you find the America’s Cup as it is:

Here’s what you need to know:

1) The America’s Cup will be sailed in San Francisco in 2013 in 72ft winged cats.

2) Each team will have the most advanced and competitive boat that it can produce and then sail it the very best it can.

3) The challengers (Artemis, Luna Rosa, and Emirates Team New Zealand) will compete in a Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series to decide who goes to the America’s Cup.

4) Oracle goes directly to the finals (the America’s Cup match).

5) Each team is allowed to build two AC72 boats; the first cannot be launched before July this year.

Point No 2 is the most important and the one that must be done better than all the competition. Everything else is detail.