The catamarans being produced will be nice, but isn’t this just the pro circuit of some years ago rehashed? Is there a point? How does this relate to the America’s cup? Are we fracturing sailing more?
Particularly interesting is that ISAF eliminated the only multihull in the Olympics,; the Tornado, and may now be forced to re-think it’s decision.
Where do we go from here?
The America’s Cup new format will have long lasting consequences on the international yacht racing scene and professional yacht racing worldwide. All the Classes and professional Series are directly or indirectly affected: the sailors have to choose their path; the sponsors to decide where to invest.
Is it an opportunity for our sport to grow? The subject will be extensively discussed during the World Yacht Racing Forum in Estoril (December 14-15), with a special America’s Cup session and a keynote address by AC 33 winner James Spithill. In the mean time, we ask the CEO’s and Class managers of the world’s leading professional sailing series what consequences they believe the America’s Cup new format will have on their circuit.
The people interviewed below – most of them involved in this winter’s World Yacht Racing Forum in Estoril – are Mark Turner, Executive Chairman, OC ThirdPole, Jim O’Toole, CEO,World Match Racing Tour, Knut Frostad, CEO, Volvo Ocean Race, Franck David, Manager,Multi One Design Circuit, Bertrand Favre Class Manager, RC 44 Championship Tour andDécision 35 multihulls, Ignacio Triay, Director, Audi MedCup Circuit and Luc Talbourdet, President, IMOCA.
The World Yacht Racing Forum 2010 will dedicate an entire session to the Business of the America’s Cup 34. The debate, hosted by Richard Simmonds, BBC Sailing Presenter, Managing Director, Sunset & Vine will cover the following topics:
What is the future for this Iconic Sailing Event?
What is the latest update from the challengers & defenders?
What are the commercial opportunities for potential sponsors?
How will AC34 captivate a wider media audience?
WYRF: Will the America’s Cup new format have an impact on your Class and, if so, what will it be?
Jim O’Toole, CEO, World Match Racing Tour: “With the exodus of the AC34 event from traditional match racing to high speed catamarans this has created a new and exciting reality in our world. The World Match Racing Tour now sits as a significant international match racing event and has a greater role in guiding the ISAF global match racing structure. This is an opportunity that we intend to grasp wholeheartedly.”
Bertrand Favre, Class manager, RC 44 Championship Tour: “The Cup’s new format will not have a big effect on the RC 44 Championship Tour because it is an owner’s Class. The owners are passionate people who have already confirmed their participation in the Tour 2011, which will start in March 2011 in San Diego. The Class keeps growing since it was launched and 13 teams took part in the first world Championship in Lanzarote in October. The circuit is very attractive for owners who don’t want to start sailing multihulls with wingsails… It consists of six events per year spread across Europe, the Middle East and the United States. There will also be a good coordination between us and the America’s Cup Race Management in order to avoid calendar clashes.”
Knut Frostad, CEO, Volvo Ocean Race: “We will certainly watch how AC progresses carefully. Of what I have seen so far I believe the recruitments they have made to the top management is more interesting than the boats themselves. Shorter race courses, onboard camera systems, sound, etc., are elements we are familiar with, but we would like to share and learn with the AC on these issues. The purpose of the Volvo Open 70 is very different to the AC72, so I don’t see the class changing much because of this. The challengers have expressed their concerns regarding costs; how AC will deal with this issue is relevant to us as we are constantly trying to reduce costs too. We are also constantly evaluating our class but our – and I believe AC’s – biggest challenge is still to make our sport compelling to the major brands who engage in sports sponsorship as well into the global mainstream media outlets. That is in our experience not so much about multihull or monohull but rather a question of sponsorship ROI as well as delivering a compelling story on TV. In an inshore story like the AC, the speed of the boats may have a bigger impact, but offshore the drama is not necessarily about the size and format of the boats.”
Ignacio Triay, Director, Audi MedCup: “Firstly we must make clear that the Audi MedCup Circuit is an event and not a Class and therefore I am only able to respond from the perspective of event director. The format for the 34th America’s Cup is very different to the format used for the Audi MedCup Circuit and will impact entries for 2011 as some teams now need to choose which discipline they wish to develop and pursue, monohull or multihul. Teams whose key focus and aim is the America’s Cup competition, and who entered the Audi MedCup Circuit, will not doubt now pursue their America’s Cup campaigns. Teams who want to race monohull boats at a professional level will find in the Circuit a platform on which to develop and I believe we will see a number of new entries next season.”
Mark Turner, Executive Chairman, OC ThirdPole: “An impact, of course, but I am not sure it will be a marked or long term one. Undoubtedly, the credibility of a multihull platform is enhanced by the decision on the format for AC34. To some agencies and brands, this will be positive. It will certainly lead to some sailors being occupied by the Cup, and equally lots of new blood wanting to widen their ‘monohull only’ CV’s
However, beyond the sailing world, in reality, a good part of our audience doesn’t know what the difference between multihull and monohull really means. 2011 will be the fifth year of the Extreme Sailing Series™. Each year we’ve grown and developed the event. We have a long term vision and are at the start of a new 5 year plan of expansion – with an eight event global circuit, spanning three continents, next year. The teams and the event have always been commercially funded, and this remains the case today. We need to look after all the stakeholders, providing them a stable and long term platform. What we must avoid is becoming in some way dependant on what the Cup does – it has its own set of rules and they change every few years.
The youth AC event is a good idea. The new small boat will be interesting to watch, in particular for us to see whether the wingsail works or not (from an event logistics and communication point of view). We see little if any conflict between what the AC teams will do 2011-2013, and the annual Extreme Sailing Series though. Annual budgets for an Extreme 40 team are less than 1% of a competitive Cup campaign.
We’ve had Cup teams dip into the Extreme Sailing Series, and whilst they can provide some small boosts on a PR front mainly, it would be a mistake for us to become dependent on these teams. We may well have a couple of them in 2011, and they are of course welcome, but we know they will probably not be with us in the years that follow. Our preliminary NOR for 2011 makes clear our desire to protect the interests of the teams that have been investing in the circuit already, and the Class rules for next year will also ensure that bigger budgets don’t guarantee victory.”
Bertrand Favre, Class Manager, Décision 35: “The media and public’s interest for multihulls will increase a lot in the next three years. This extended visibility will certainly give us the opportunity to meet new partners and sponsors. This is extremely positive, especially after the difficult years we have been through recently. From a sports point of view it is too early to evaluate the real impact this change will have. However some challengers will surely be interested by our fleet as a training ground. I am convinced that the D 35 is a great support to get familiar with big multihulls. The risk for our Class is to see teams joining for one year and then disappearing with their boat. It is down to us to convince them to stay and develop an interesting program.”
Franck David, Manager, Multi One Design: “Multi One Design S.A. is pleased with the choice of multihulls for the next America’s Cup, and so are all our skippers and investors. It is a positive choice for multihull racing as a whole and more generally for the sport of sailing vis à vis other sports. Multihulls will interest a wider public; it’s a statement for the future of sailing: faster, more modern, more attractive! We need to see what novelties the Defender will introduce regarding the format. At Multi One Design S.A. we have chosen offshore multihull one-designs, an eco-responsible attitude and new racing formats.”
Luc Talbourdet, President, IMOCA: “The IMOCA Class will pursue its strategy of development independently of what happens in the America’s Cup world. We want to grow internationally and enforce our four years program with a round the world race every second year (the Vendée Globe and the Barcelona World Race) and a race around Europe in-between every world rounding.”
WYRF: Do you see this as a positive move for the international yacht racing scene?
Knut Frostad, CEO, Volvo Ocean Race: “The AC needed a new boat and a new format, and I applaud Russell and his team for being brave. If they can achieve their goals at significantly lower cost than what was the case in the past, I think they can bring a lot of new thinking to the sport. There is no doubt that the focus on multihull sailing in general will be improved. Sailing is known to be a conservative sport and the new AC format is breaking with a lot of tradition. This is something sailing needs in general.”
Mark Turner, Extreme 40: “It’s a brave and positive decision, and one that I think is interesting for the sport. Whether it is the right thing for the AC brand will not be known until the end of 2013. Overall though, anything that can show sailing in a more entertaining fashion, touch new audiences, and help global brands see a greater commercial value in the sport, will be positive for all of the events and teams that are sponsor funded (a lot of sailing is not – different story).
What I do know is that there is only one kind of yachting that I have seen that makes non-sailing audiences gasp. And its on more than one hull – ‘hull flying’, ‘pitchpoling’ or high speed near misses are three very basic visuals that get people excited in the same way that millions of people manage to enjoy a load of cars going round and round a track… In the Extreme Sailing Series™ we take that action right up to the public in a stadium format, and it works better than we ever imagined. Top level professional sailing, can be entertaining. And if you live in a sponsor funded world like we do at OC ThirdPole, that has to be a priority for us. We now need to take what we’ve achieved and scale it up – and that is very much our ambition.”
Bertrand Favre, Class Manager, Décision 35 and RC 44: “I think it is really good because it is new and exciting. This new concept will bring speed and excitation and, more than anything, new faces in the top yacht racing environment, that had a tendency to be enclosed around itself.”
Jim O’Toole, CEO, World Match Racing Tour: “The WMRT has been a past pathway as a proving ground for AC skippers and teams. Now our excitement is the extremely positive impact it will have on our series and our business, as the WMRT now is in the unique position to be able to grow this opportunity into being the pre-eminent match racing series in world sailing.”
Franck David, Manager, Multi One Design: “It is positive and necessary. The world is moving and our sport must follow; it needs to follow the public’s aspirations and new communication tools. Multihull is a good way to capture a new audience, passionate by the sport and novelties. We are still pioneers in the world of sports TV and sports show. It is the beginning of a new era. But it will only work if the platform is right.”
Luc Talbourdet, President, IMOCA: “Yes, the public and the sailors like mono or multihulls of their time. And when a Class works well it brings new and young people into the sport, which is good for the sport of sailing. I just hope that Olympic sailing will follow.”
Ignacio Triay, Audi MedCup: “The move does open up a new spectrum in the world of international sailing and only time will tell whether it will positive or not.”
The World Yacht Racing Forum is co-located with the Yacht Racing Design and Technology Symposium and the International Superyacht Coatings Conference, 14-15 December 2010 at the Congress Centre, Estoril, Portugal
Bernard Schopfer
The following is an interview by James Boyd with Russell Coutts :
Russell Coutts’ vision for the 34th America’s Cup represents the most dramatic upheaval our sport has possibly ever seen as the BMW Oracle Racing boss attempts to drag yacht racing into the 21st century, virtually wiping the slate clean and replacing it with a dramatic sporting event to appeal to the masses. So any opportunity to glean some more insight into this is one we have to grab.
AC34 venue announcement imminent
While we were expecting an announcement about the venue for the 34th America’s Cup to come in December, according to Coutts this should now be this month (ie imminently). “Obviously these are complex negotiations, so you never quite know when it will be finalised, but we have a schedule for finalising that contract and it is progressing according to the schedule.”
Valencia has the facility but not the financial resource it had five years ago, so the toss-up seems to be between a venue near Rome and San Francisco; the latter, home of both Larry Ellison and the Golden Gate Yacht Club, felt to have the upper hand at present.
AC45
Tooling is well underway in Warksworth, New Zealand for the new generation of AC45s, with the first boat scheduled to be launched around this Christmas. This seems incredibly swift, even more so when you consider that the process is all the complex because the team, led by Tim Smyth and Mark Turner, are gearing up for a production run.
After its launch, the first AC45 will obviously undergo sea trials. “Hopefully we won’t have to change much, but there are always bugs to iron out with a new class,” says Coutts. “So it will be a case of checking that the systems are correct and also that the build weights come out on their targets, which I’m pretty sure they will.” This first boat will belong to ACRM and be used as the spare boat at the World Series regattas to commence in 2011.
“The AC45s are proving to be better and more valuable that what we all originally thought, particularly when you look at the possibilities for example of building awareness in the US or places like that which we need to do,” says Coutts.
Initially the AC45s will only be for America’s Cup teams however there has also been interest in acquiring them from outside of the Cup community and it doesn’t take a leap of imagination to see such boats competing on Lake Geneva for example. “They will be cool boats. The rig is not overly high, so they might be a bit underpowered for Lake Geneva,” says Coutts, who in the past has been a regular on the D35 circuit.
Despite the catamaran with solid wingsail concept being one of apparent frailty, the boat has been designed to be reasonably bulletproof confirms Coutts. “It is definitely designed like that. The rig height is relatively short, but they will power up with a big headsail in light winds. It is a reasonably simple wing, similar in concept to the wing we used on the tri. It will bring teams up to speed with the way you sail with wings and wing technology very quickly.”
AC45 racing in 2011 – World Series
According to Coutts the first event to be staged in the AC45s for the America’s Cup teams will be “in the middle of 2011” and he is now expected there to be more than three events through the latter half of next year. However he adds that the choice of Cup venue is central to the location of these AC World Series events, so we can assume perhaps that if the choice of venue is San Francisco, then the World Series events in 2011 will be mostly in North America. We would hazard a guess at San Francisco, Newport, San Diego and New York.
Teams
Obviously crucial to the success of the 34th America’s Cup is the number of teams taking part and Coutts wishes to point out that while there has been much press about teams not wishing to compete – TeamOrigin being the most high profile withdrawal recently – there has been relatively little about teams coming in. The problem of course is that at present it is hard determine this as the period in which they can formally challenge does not open until 1 November and is then open until 31 March 2011, and there is still an opportunity after this when challengers will have to pay a late entry fee.
What we know so far is that as Challenger of Record, Vincenzo Onorato’s Mascalzone Latino is in there. Torbjorn Tornqvist’s Artemis seems to be firing on all cylinders with Paul Cayard in charge. Emirates Team New Zealand are taking the right steps with Dean Barker having sailed his first Extreme 40 regatta last week, but Grant Dalton yesterday told the New Zealand Herald that their participation is far from confirmed.
The Franco-German All4One team, led by Stephane Kandler and Jochen Schuemann, is also in the game and we understand that from the multihull world Cam Lewis is attempting to put together another US syndicate to compete in a ‘defender trial’ while former Olympic Tornado sailor and Extreme 40 co-creator Herbert Dercksen hopes to mount a campaign from the Netherlands.
“I think we’ll probably get eight,” is Coutts’ prediction. As to whether or not these will also be top league remains to be seen. “I think most of them will be. Most of them have got adequate funding to be good. There are plenty of good people around and this is a new format, so I think it will be all on. There are some new ones looking hard at it.”
And Ernesto Bertarelli – a multihull skipper of some 20 years experience and the one team principle best suited to the type of boats Coutts is proposing? “I hope so,” says Coutts.
Money, money, money
Coutts is also keen to refute some of the claims, made for example by TeamOrigin, concerning the price of a competitive campaign. “There have been some claims that it is going to cost 20% more than an 32nd AC campaign. I don’t know what budgets those people who made those claims were looking at, but I think they were looking at a different business plan to the one I was…”
He cites the numerous cost cutting measures introduced compared to campaigns for the 32nd America’s Cup – 11 rather than 17 crew, a 72ft yacht (albeit a catamaran) compared to a 82-85ft one, a strict limitation on two boat testing, etc.
One of the principle cost savings will come from the different team set-up. Instead of the Valencia-type scenario where campaigns have a permanent base and where the majority of their staff reside, with families relocated, etc, instead Coutts envisages more of a Formula 1-type scenario where the majority of the teams have a substantially smaller fixed base, or perhaps separate bases for marketing and design departments plus a travelling road show, featuring the sailors, shore crew, etc.
“I know that we are saying to our people ‘live wherever you want, but we need you at these regattas’,” Coutts says. “So that is a huge cost saving – one of the biggest probably. Some of the designers will need to be together and perhaps even some of the sailors, but as a general rule you aren’t going to need 120 people based in one place together for four years.”
Teams on the AC World Series are more likely to have bases similar to the impressive ones that do a lap of the planet with the Volvo Ocean Race. Coutts doesn’t believe that permanent structures, like those around the perimeter of the Darsena in Valencia are the way to go. “You end up with those structures at the end of it, and what do you do with them then? We are looking at more mobile type structures and systems.” The tumbleweed rolling down America’s Cup alley in Valencia suggests he is correct.
Another cost saving is that the 34th America’s Cup will be held over a three rather than a four year cycle. Compared to the eight weather boats BMW Oracle Racing used in 2007, there is now a ban on teams having their own weather boat programs, which will this time be a shared resource.
While there are to be considerably more regattas in the World Series than there were Acts prior to the 32nd America’s Cup, significantly transportation for all the teams’ boats and equipment will be covered by the event authority. At the AC World Series events there will also be shared resources such as common sail lofts (for the headsails), cranes for lifting boats, dropping wings, etc.
Coutts doesn’t reckon teams will need larger design or shore teams compared to the 32nd AC when the bigger teams ran two boat programs full time throughout the four year cycle.
“Some people say that the wings will be ghastly expensive, but then you add up a mast, a boom, the sails and the battens and then you have to build a new mainsail every three weeks or whatever, from our experience it comes out basically around the same cost.”
There is also the opportunity for smaller budget teams who may find they have the opportunity to buy ‘off-the-shelf’ components for their AC72s such as the platform or the wing. This is tied up with article 33.1 of the Protocol which states that teams only have to engage independent designers from 1 April 2012 – before then designers can work for multiple teams.
“It is a lot easier for a new team now with the designer rules having been relaxed,” says Coutts. “You might get some companies like Southern Spar or Hall Spars who could produce a generic wing. North Sails are thinking about it as a company. I think that is going to be more attractive for people looking at this, who won’t have to resource up with a whole lot of staff from day one. You could go to Bruce Farr and Hall Spars for example and have quite a lot of the design space covered and then after a certain time they’d have to hire their own people, but you could get a long way and maybe hire a few people out of those companies in the longer term – much the same as people have done with sails in the past. I think that would be quite helpful.”
So will BMW Oracle Racing share their designs? “We are not planning on it.” So it seems Coutts envisages this exchange to be between companies and teams rather than inter-team.
While existing teams went into the 32nd America’s Cup cycle with two V4 monohulls, new teams had to buy them and the equivalent this time is acquiring one or two AC45s costing 600,000 Euros a go. Coutts reckons that the top teams will get two because they will be more manageable for match racing practise, although it remains up to Iain Murray to decide whether training time in the AC45s will be restricted as it will be for the AC72s. There is a competitors’ meeting on 22 October where this will be announced.
Design and one boat campaigns
Relaxation of the designer rules is likely to be beneficial for smaller teams and Coutts believes a one boat campaign could be more competitive than ever before. “I don’t think there will be much difference in the platforms and there probably isn’t going to be much flexibility in the rigs, so I think a one boat team could be viable. I think a lot is going to come down to sailing these boats well.”
A two boat campaign will benefit from the best in-house racing, but Coutts says there is nothing to stop one boat campaigns from joining forces for training purposes.
Key to the success of a campaign for the 34th America’s Cup he believes will be deciding on where teams focus their resources. With such a potentially ground breaking new boat, it is easy to spear off in too many different directions. For example he says that smaller teams might not need to build the maximum number of wings (two per boat) or foils (up to 10).
However Coutts does believe that foil development will be significantly more important than it has been in previous monohull Cups for it seems extremely likely that at speed the foils will be lifting the leeward hull out of the water, partially or completely, to reduce drag. Among the large trimarans competing in the Route du Rhum the difference between having lifting foils and not having them is said to translate to around 4 knots of boat speed…
“The temptation will be there but I think in reality it will be about using the resources well and using your time well. Time will be the biggest factor.”
Managing the wings
One of the biggest hooplas regarding the move to solid wingsail catamarans has been how they will be managed not only in the 5-33 knot wind range they are supposed to be race in, but particularly what happens when they are brought into port – how the boats are moored and how the wings are taken out in strong winds. This is another issue Iain Murray is in the process of dealing with.
“I really don’t see it as a major issue,” says Coutts. “Stars & Stripessat for two or three years at a mooring. A trimaran you had to moor off the bow, but a catamaran you can moor it underneath the mast ball. I don’t want to make it sound trivial, but I think it will be easier than what people think.”
Stars & Stripes was also occasionally laid over on her side when taken out of the water. “That could be an option. I don’t know. There are various ways you could do it. You could lower it like we did last time.”
But if it is blowing 25 knots? “You just leave it up and it sits there and feathers. With the big wing we had a night where it was 30+ and it was shifty as anything too because it was behind those containers and it was just all over the place, but once again that was moored off the bow so it was a bit more complicated.”
So it sounds like AC World Series venues will need both dock space and a mooring facility for each boat.
It has been suggested from several quarters that if the AC72 were a softsail rig catamaran it might have neatly avoided the docking issues with only a marginal decrease in performance. Coutts says they considered this, but there were two compelling reasons for choosing the wing: “We thought about the manoeuvrability advantages of a wing and also the look of it: We definitely want something that people look at it and say ‘that is the America’s Cup multihull’ and there is no doubt about that.” Coutts maintains it was important to differentiate between the offshore type multihulls sailed in France, many of which are substantially bigger than the AC72s.
Part 2 of this article will be published tomorrow
http://www.americascup.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2010/10/101015_AC72-Class-Rule.pdf
Read for yourself how these boats will look. I have had quite a number of calls from those I know and have sailed, most of whom are against the concept of multihulls in the America’s Cup. In particular, none of them see how the America’s Cup in multihulls could be held in San Francisco bay. Remember in Valencia, the last races were held well offshore, and the length of the races was 40+ miles. Their feeling is that Kattack will be the only way most people will see the race, and that as in Valencia, the competitors will tack as few times as possible, making it a drag race and not match racing as we know it.
The decision is made; we are already well down the path towards the next challenge. The English team has withdrawn, there are rumblings from New Zealand possibly doing the same.
Match racing in the last years has developed so much; it has become a sport in it’s own right. Sailed in the same boats, putting the emphasis on the ability of the skippers and crews. In the end it does not get better than that.
The America’s Cup has always been about technological development. Change always comes with difficulty and we will all be watching with interest.
The site has not been determined. The release of the design parameters for the boats has been delayed. Team Origin has withdrawn. The Olympic committee took the Tornado; the only multihull (catamaran) out of the Summer Olympic Games.
New always comes with difficulty. Change is usually good.
The Australians returned home with the America’s Cup as heros. The entire country was excited. It was a new game; the parameters of the necessary boats were now different. Heavy air boats were now necessary, very different than those that had been sailed in Newport for so many years. Dennis Connor created an unprecedented organization, five boats each an improvement on the previous. Dennis is rewarded with redemption; returning the Cup to the United States.
I had no more involvement with the cup than any other citizen. Deeply involved in building Lirakis Safety Harness,along with three children, hardly having time to put my head up.
The twelve meter re-union will be held at Harbour Court September 16-19
It is Labor Day weekend. Hurricane Earl is a memory. What happened to Earl anyway? For one week I had updates from so many sources indicating that Newport was in the target zone. We had hardly any rain and more wind the day after the storm.
The Stamford-Vineyard race will not leave Long Island Sound, being a shortened course.
Since the 12 meter era reunion was announced. I have been asking anyone who has photos and stories if they might be willing to share them. Here are some photographs taken by Beken of Cowes in 1958 of “Sceptre”; courtesy of my good friend Anna Templeton-Cotill.
My particular favorite is the crew photo which includes the syndicate and if you look carefully, the mascot, Archibald Baldwin Warren (the dog)
Another subject of note for me is the sails.
The longevity of the 12 meter class is owed in no small part to Lloyd’s scantling rules. They were strict and the boats were indeed inspected for compliance. These boats were overbuilt certainly by today’s standards and the result is that they are still here today.
In fact while I was building “Courageous” at Minneford’s Yacht yard one of my jobs was to co ordinate with Lloyds, as we were building the first ever aluminum 12 meter.
