Nice story by Jim Doyle in the San Francisco Chronicle this past weekend on Peter Isler (USA) and the rest of the sailing team heading down to AKL for the start of our second summer sailing session....


Oracle team takes pursuit of America's Cup to New Zealand
Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Billionaire Larry Ellison prides himself on being a maverick who can make his own cutthroat decisions while navigating the global marketplace's dicey shoals.

But on the racecourse, he relies on Peter Isler -- the San Diego professional sailor who co-wrote "Sailing for Dummies" -- to arrive at the critical choices needed to bring home sailing's greatest prize.

Isler, 51, a former Collegiate Sailor of the Year at Yale University, is competing in his fifth America's Cup campaign as BMW Oracle Racing's navigator. In 1987, he was navigator for Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes, which won the cup in Australia. He also served in the brain trust, or after guard, of Stars & Stripes in 1988 (winning the Cup again), 2000 and 2003.

Ellison, whose San Francisco-based team is sponsored by the Golden Gate Yacht Club, has long spoken of his desire to capture the oldest trophy in international sport and hold future America's Cup races on San Francisco Bay. He spent $85 million on his last cup campaign, before losing 5-1 to the Swiss Alinghi team in the challenger finals in January 2003.

Isler left San Diego on Friday for Auckland, New Zealand, where Ellison's syndicate is training for the winter. The team is rigging its new boat, USA 98, which was built in Anacortes, Wash., and arrived Monday at the team's temporary training base after a trans-Pacific voyage aboard a container ship.

"USA 98 is the result of more than three years of R&D and the culmination of all we learned from our first new boat, USA 87, in the 2006 sailing season," said Chris Dickson, the team's chief executive officer and skipper.

BMW Oracle is the only U.S. team among the 11 challengers from nine nations -- including teams from China, Germany, and South Africa -- slated to compete this spring in the America's Cup trials (the Luis Vuitton Cup) in Valencia, Spain for the right to challenge the current America's Cup defender, the Swiss Alinghi team.

In a series of pre-regattas (the Luis Vuitton "Acts") held since 2004, BMW Oracle has finished among the top two challengers, just two points behind Emirates Team New Zealand, and five points ahead of Italy's Luna Rossa, which improved greatly in the last racing season.

Isler, who wrote "Sailing for Dummies" with his wife, Olympic medalist J.J. Isler, describes his navigator's role on the high-tech racer as "part systems engineer, part after-guard member, part grinder ... You're a member of the brain trust. We all provide information to the helmsman and speed team to help them make decisions."

Ellision, the team's owner and founder, is also in the after guard. A top-ranked amateur, he is serving in what the crew has dubbed "Larry's position.''

"I'm sure he'll be there on race day," Isler said about the billionaire. "He's involved in the decision-making and the monitoring of the performance of the boat, and does a lot of driving as well."

The team's five-week, winter training schedule in Auckland includes time for sea trials for the new racing yacht as well as two-boat testing and sparring.

Full SF Chronicle story