The Sharp End of the Campaign Jan 16, 07:43
As you will have read on our main team website, yesterday (Monday) Dicko & Co. splashed USA 98. They did all the usual dockside structural tests and, finding everything in excellent order, today (Tuesday) they took 98 for a spin around Auckland Harbour and the Hauraki Gulf.
An excerpt from Jane's "Sail Mail" which is being emailed today to our sponsor partners, family and friends...
Today is another milestone in our campaign to win the America’s Cup. Not only is it three months to the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup on April 16, but we sailed USA 98 for the first time. Chris and the team are conducting sea trials this week before starting our in-house racing programme with 98 and 71.
Chris was at the helm for the maiden voyage of 98 on the Hauraki Gulf today and said, “In a four-year campaign, it is only twice that the team has the thrill of taking a new yacht on its shakedown sail. The report card comes when we sail with the boat fully-loaded in race mode, but for sailing right out of the box 98 feels pretty special. Now we will start putting it through its paces.”
Our week started off with many of the sailing team arriving for the first time since the Christmas break. Likewise the team in Valencia is back from break, so we are back in full swing for the Year of the Cup on all fronts.
Yesterday (Monday here in New Zealand), the team launched 98 only one week after the hull arrived in Auckland. It had been shipped from our Anacortes, Washington (USA) build facility over the holidays. Boat construction managers Mark Turner and Tim Smyth and their dedicated team did yeomans' work in fitting out the new boat and launching it in record time.
Today, USA 98 left the dock at 1030 and by 1050 we were under sail. The crew included members of the design, boatbuilding and rig teams to ensure that the yacht was structurally sound. The team checked off a list of technical tests before returning to the Base this afternoon. Tomorrow we will get straight into two-boating with 71 and 98 on the Hauraki Gulf.
A more formal presentation of USA 98 will take place in Valencia on the weekend of 31 March and 1 April. The latter date is the AC 32 "Unveiling Day" when all teams are required under the rules to remove the skirts and reveal the underbodies of their ACC yachts registered to race in the Louis Vuitton Cup and, if successful, the America’s Cup. For details of Unveiling Day and the balance of the AC 32 schedule, check this post on the Challenger Commission Blog.
With the LVC starting on 16 April -- only three months from today -- we are definitely now on the sharp end of the AC 32 campaign. By all accounts, everything is pointing in the right direction.
An excerpt from Jane's "Sail Mail" which is being emailed today to our sponsor partners, family and friends...
Today is another milestone in our campaign to win the America’s Cup. Not only is it three months to the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup on April 16, but we sailed USA 98 for the first time. Chris and the team are conducting sea trials this week before starting our in-house racing programme with 98 and 71.
Chris was at the helm for the maiden voyage of 98 on the Hauraki Gulf today and said, “In a four-year campaign, it is only twice that the team has the thrill of taking a new yacht on its shakedown sail. The report card comes when we sail with the boat fully-loaded in race mode, but for sailing right out of the box 98 feels pretty special. Now we will start putting it through its paces.”
Our week started off with many of the sailing team arriving for the first time since the Christmas break. Likewise the team in Valencia is back from break, so we are back in full swing for the Year of the Cup on all fronts.
Yesterday (Monday here in New Zealand), the team launched 98 only one week after the hull arrived in Auckland. It had been shipped from our Anacortes, Washington (USA) build facility over the holidays. Boat construction managers Mark Turner and Tim Smyth and their dedicated team did yeomans' work in fitting out the new boat and launching it in record time.
Today, USA 98 left the dock at 1030 and by 1050 we were under sail. The crew included members of the design, boatbuilding and rig teams to ensure that the yacht was structurally sound. The team checked off a list of technical tests before returning to the Base this afternoon. Tomorrow we will get straight into two-boating with 71 and 98 on the Hauraki Gulf.
A more formal presentation of USA 98 will take place in Valencia on the weekend of 31 March and 1 April. The latter date is the AC 32 "Unveiling Day" when all teams are required under the rules to remove the skirts and reveal the underbodies of their ACC yachts registered to race in the Louis Vuitton Cup and, if successful, the America’s Cup. For details of Unveiling Day and the balance of the AC 32 schedule, check this post on the Challenger Commission Blog.
With the LVC starting on 16 April -- only three months from today -- we are definitely now on the sharp end of the AC 32 campaign. By all accounts, everything is pointing in the right direction.
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Monday: team meeting in the sail loft at our temporary base in Auckland.
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CEO and Skipper Chris Dickson welcomes the team back after the holiday break, and lays out the plan for the "second summer sailing session" in New Zealand (the first having been one-boating with 71 before Christmas).
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In keeping with ancient seafaring traditions, a bottle of red wine (in this case a 1998 Goldwater Estate cab/sav/merlot -- representing the blended efforts of everyone on our team) was used to mark the occasion along, of course, with the more modern and celebratory Moet & Chandon. We used a bottle of Spanish Sangre de Toro (Bull 's Blood) on 87 which was launched in Valencia; Goldwater is a fine Kiwi red from Waiheke Island, just east of Auckland.
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As has become our special and hopefully auspicious tradition, the team assembled under the skirts to hear brief words from Dicko, Fresh and Tugboat...
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...and then to witness Mark pouring the red wine on the keel before it was lowered into the water.
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98 about to get splashed for the first time on Monday.
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Nice to see the Auckland City backdrop again.
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After 98 was splashed and all systems ticked off "green for go", perhaps the three happiest faces belonged to boat buillders Tim Smyth (NZL) and Mark Turner (NZL), and design coordinator Ian "Fresh" Burns (AUS).
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Today, Tuesday, was 98's first day of sailing..
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Shore team members enjoying a brief break after 98 was launched today.
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There was also a curious gathering of grey-uniforms on the balcony of the former Alinghi Base, now known as the Viaduct Harbour Marine Village, next door. Otherwise ETNZ is operating out of the former OneWorld Base in the Viaduct further to the north. However, since 98 arrived they appear to be making regular use of the old Alinghi Base as well.
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The French connection on Chase 1 during the tow out: sailing team member Bert Pace (FRA) and the design team's Michel Kermerac (FRA). That's Captain Craig Christensen (NZL) on the wheel. Gilles Martin-Raget's great (as usual) photos tell the rest of the story....
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Finally, a very happy and no doubt relieved Mark Turner gets a turn on the wheel before Dicko & Co took 98 back to barn after her successful inaugural sail.
Auckland | by TFE
