Judgment day brings elation for five teams selected for Red Bull Youth America’s Cup in September

San Francisco, Calif., 02/24/2013

Five of the best youth sailing teams in the world have qualified for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup following a grueling two-week Selection Series in San Francisco. The 12 crews, from 11 countries, were pushed to the limit as they fought for the right to compete in September’s races.



© Balazs Gardi / Red Bull content pool Download


© Balazs Gardi / Red Bull content pool Download



© ACEA 2013/ Photo Gilles Martin-Raget Download


© ACEA 2013/ Photo Gilles Martin-Raget Download


National crews from Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland, made the cut to advance to the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup where they will meet five crews supported by current America’s Cup teams.

Double Olympic Gold medalists Roman Hagara and Hans-Peter Steinacher, the Sports Directors for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup, made the selections after closely monitoring the teams on and off the water during the two back-to-back selection weeks. With the high talent level and extreme motivation of the crews, there were hard choices to make.

“This has been very difficult,” Hagara said. “The level of each team is much higher than we could have hoped for, which is good. But only five of them are able to race with us in September so today’s decision wasn’t easy to make.”

Race results made up 60-percent of the selection criteria. Teams were also evaluated on professionalism on and off the water, as well as on the training programs they have set up to develop their skills further between now and September.

“We always said we were looking for the best of the best,” said Steinacher. “And that’s what we have now. I believe any of these five teams will be capable of winning in September.”

The teams proved their mettle in challenging winter conditions on San Francisco Bay, one of the most challenging race venues in the world. Cold and strong winter winds made taming the AC45 catamarans, with their towering wing sails, difficult. But the youth sailors, aged 19-24, were up to the task.

“We went into this with a plan not to let them sail in over 15 knots of wind and to keep the teams inside the Bay Bridge,” Steinacher said. “We broke both of those rules on the very first day! Fortunately, the teams have shown us they are able to handle the boats in conditions that are on the limit.”

The five teams selected today have now qualified to race in the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup from September 1-4, in a fleet that includes five additional youth crews supported by current America’s Cup teams.

In their own words:

Lucien Cujean (SUI), skipper, Team TILT: “It feels good, very good. It’s great news. Even though we won the racing portion of the selection series, that’s not the only criteria. So we were nervous about the selection.”

Bernardo Freitas (POR), skipper, ROFF/Cascais Sailing Team: “We’re excited for the announcement. Excited for September. I believed we’d have a chance. In the racing we showed we’re a good team and we have good skills on the water.”

Will Tiller (NZL), skipper, Full Metal Jacket Racing: “We’re pretty psyched. It’s about 5:00 in the morning (the team is in Oman training ahead of an X40 regatta) and we were all sitting around the phone, nervous. But we’re very happy to have made the selection. The opportunity to race the RBYAC is fantastic, but now the hard work begins. We have to put together a training program.

Philipp Buhl (GER), skipper, STG/NRV Youth Team: “It was a brilliant week. We didn’t expect to be first, but we stayed grounded through the week and kept improving. We really improved our maneuvers and team work. In the end, we learned not to talk so much. Everyone learned to do their job and just did it.”

Jason Waterhouse (AUS), skipper, Objective Australia: “It was a mind-blowing week. We learned so much. It’s our first time racing together as a crew, but we gelled well… Our preparation was sound.”

Jimmy Spithill, skipper, ORACLE TEAM USA, and a driving force behind the Red Bull Youth America's Cup: “My pathway to the America’s Cup was one of good luck. When I was a youth sailor there wasn’t a clear pathway to the Cup. But the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup gives these guys a great opportunity, and the game’s opened up to much wider participation. The level of organization from these teams is impressive.”

Russell Coutts, CEO, ORACLE TEAM USA, and a driving force behind the creation of the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup: “The Red Bull Youth America’s Cup is meant to be a way for youth sailors to show their talents and make it to the pro sailing ranks. This (on the AC45 wing sail catamaran) is some of the best and most fun racing I’ve done in years. I’m sure they’ll enjoy it too.”

Selection Series Teams advancing to Red Bull Youth America’s Cup
Australia – Objective Australia
Germany – STG/NRV Youth Team
New Zealand – Full Metal Jacket Racing
Portugal – ROFF/Cascais Sailing Team
Switzerland – Team TILT

Youth crews supported by America's Cup World Series Teams
France – Energy Team/Name TBC
New Zealand – Emirates Team New Zealand/Name TBC
Sweden – Artemis Racing/Swedish Youth Challenge
USA – ORACLE TEAM USA/American Youth Sailing Force (SFO)
USA – ORACLE TEAM USA/USA45 Racing (USA)


NEWS (national and international) and selected interviews of all participating teams will be available for broadcasters starting Monday, Feb 25 at
www.redbullnewsroom.com / www.redbullcontentpool.com.

VIDEO: It’s not just a job

Fonte: ETNZ

Ask anyone at Emirates Team New Zealand, and they will tell you that working for the team is so much more than just a job.
It takes long, hard work, big sacrifice and total commitment, but the end goal and the chance of winning the America’s cup will make it all worthwhile, and of course the chance to do what you love everyday.

AC72 Mk II goes sailing for the first time

Fonte: ETNZ

Emirates Team New Zealand took its second AC72 catamaran sailing for the first time today. It was a much-anticipated day, another big step on the way to the 34th America’s Cup competition at San Francisco.Chris Cameron’s pictures from today are here and here



Racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup, the challenger elimination series, start in less than five months.

Before that, the team has to complete an exhaustive two-month testing and training programme on the AC72 at Auckland, before packing the base and shipping race yachts, chase boats and the team’s entire support infrastructure to San Francisco.

The team expects to be sailing on San Francisco Bay towards the end of May.

Today, after waiting for the breeze to fill in, the cat left the dock at 12.30pm in a north-easterly between 8-11 knots.

Under the watchful eyes of designers, engineers, and system specialists on chase boats, the sailing crew eased into the day’s sailing programme.

The race yacht returned to base late afternoon, having completed the day’s schedule. The team stays on shore tomorrow with the second sailing day on Thursday.

AC72 da Team Oracle de volta

AC Discovery 75

The 72 Sensations with ETNZ

Taking the big cat apart piece by piece

Fonte: America's Cup

The Emirates Team New Zealand AC72 has been reduced to its component pieces, a delicate operation which took the best part of two weeks to accomplish. Winch drums and some hardware has been removed to be installed on Boat 2 which will be delivered to the team’s Auckland Viaduct Harbour base early in January.
Shore crew members have worked long and hard to complete decommissioning before Christmas. From tomorrow they will have a little time off before setting about the task of commissioning Boat 2 for its launch in early February.
Chris Cameron’s pictures are here.

A sailor’s life is not an easy one

Fonte: America's Cup

As you all relax for the holidays, spare a thought for the Emirates Team New Zealand sailors who will be training hard every day to keep in shape for getting back out on to the water early in the new year. Here’s an update on the gym training programme from David Slyfield.

Oracle Team USA deducted five AC72 sailing days for spying on Luna Rossa

[Fonte: America's Cup]

The International Jury for the 34th America’s Cup has deducted sailing days from ORACLE TEAM USA as the final decision in the espionage case brought against the defender by Italian syndicate Luna Rossa Challenge 2013.

Last week the International Jury announced that it found in favor of Luna Rossa, which alleged that ORACLE TEAM USA had breached part of the Reconnaissance Article (37.2(g)) of the Protocol for the 34th America’s Cup by being within 200 meters of the Italian AC72 during a training session in New Zealand in early November.

Citing the importance of the Reconnaissance Article in the Protocol and the importance of a meaningful penalty, today the International Jury announced that it has deducted from ORACLE TEAM USA the final five sailing days, April 26-30, 2013, of the Second AC72 Sailing Period (Feb. 1-Apr. 30, 2013).

The International Jury acknowledged that ORACLE TEAM USA has returned 10 photos as instructed and also levied costs of €11,500 (approximately $15,200) against the team.


The International Jury for the 34th America’s Cup (from left): Josje Hofland, John Doerr, David Tillett, Bryan Willis, Graham MacKenzie. Photo copyright America’s Cup / Gilles Martin-Raget

Reparação do AC72 quase concluída

Fonte: Oracle








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With a little more than a week remaining in the year, the focus for ORACLE TEAM USA hasn’t changed. All eyes have been on 2013 for months, for years, with the same goal in mind: defending the America’s Cup in San Francisco next September.

Ask any member of the team their New Year’s resolution and it likely involves winning the Cup. Or more immediately, it’s sailing ORACLE TEAM USA 17 again.

“The capsize has definitely been a setback,” said ORACLE TEAM USA general manager Grant Simmer. “We have lost a lot of sailing time and a lot of time for the team to figure out the new boat, which will be difficult to recover. We’re a sailing team, and it’s not great to be watching your competitors sailing when we’re unable to – that’s been tough. But, all of the team has really focused on fixing the issues, fixing the boat and getting back on the water as soon as possible.”

When the team’s AC72 pitch-poled in San Francisco Bay on October 16, the schedule changed. The wing was in pieces, the pod beat up, the hulls damaged from both water and as a result of the wing breaking apart.

Instead of waiting until the end of the year to reflect, the team found itself evaluating the program a couple months early.

“We’ve used the time to really reassess the entire program, to be more realistic about our planning, to be careful not to try to do too much, but to do everything that’s important and critical to development,” Simmer said. “We’ve become more mindful of the risks.”

The boat was dismantled – beams disconnected, systems removed – and the broken wing stripped down to salvageable pieces.

Work began immediately, and two major boat build projects were soon underway at the team base at Pier 80. Repairs of boat 1 began side-by-side with the build of boat 2.

“We’re very grateful for all of the guys here who have had to dig deep to make this all happen,” said Mark Turner, ORACLE TEAM USA shore team manager. “The repairs of boat 1 certainly haven’t been the easiest of tasks to accomplish, and the list wasn’t small. That’s all been going on in parallel to building boat 2. So, there’s been a lot going on here, just as there’s been a lot going on in New Zealand with getting wing 2 built. Both places – here and in New Zealand at Core Builders Composites – have been going along at a good clip.

“The entire shore crew has pitched in and done things they’re not really accustomed to doing, whether it’s helping with the repairs on boat 1, composite work, putting together flaps for wing 2, or helping out with boat 2’s assembly process,” Turner said.

The second AC72 wing was already under construction, so timeline on completion was adjusted. That wing is scheduled to arrive to San Francisco early in the new year.

“After the capsize, the first step was assessing the extent of damage,” Simmer said. “Clearly we had almost totally lost the wing. Luckily we had another wing in production at that time, and so we accelerated that process. With the platform we found there was quite a lot of water ingress in the hulls and the areas where the boat had suffered damage. So, we’ve repaired all of that, and the platform is currently going back together.”

Composite repair work has been completed and beams reattached. As the team heads into a much-needed holiday break, the work list on boat 1 will be whittled down.

At the start of the year, “it’s all going to happen pretty quickly,” Turner said, with hydraulic systems, wench systems, nets and more going back in place. The new wing will arrive and testing will commence.

At the same time, boat 2 construction remains full steam ahead.

While the schedule may have changed, and plans adjusted, all have remained clearly focused on 2013. All are anxious to get the first AC72 back on the water. And, all have the same goal in the new year – to win.

“The team has really had to stand up to take on the extra work on getting the boat fixed, and they’ve responded fantastically,” Simmer said. “You end up with more resolve at the end of a process like this. That’s true for this team, and I think we will be stronger because of it.

“We’ll be out sailing again at the beginning of February in our repaired and modified boat. We’re looking forward to a long list of testing and development that will ultimately lead us to the Cup. It’s going to be a busy and exciting year for all of us.”

America's Cup boat's capsizing sparks questions, fears

Fonte: mercurynews.com



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Oracle Team USA capsizes boat

In this photo taken Tuesday Oct. 16, 2012 and provided by Oracle Team USA, crew members hang from the mesh netting after the Oracle Team USA AC72 boat capsized on San Francisco Bay in San Francisco. The America's Cup champion syndicate is assessing the damage to its 72-foot (22-meter) catamaran, after it capsized and was swept by a strong current more than four miles (six kilometers) past the Golden Gate Bridge before rescue boats could control it.(AP Photo/Oracle Team USA, Guilain Grenier)


SAN FRANCISCO -- When Larry Ellison's new 72-foot America's Cup boat capsized on a practice run and was sucked through the Golden Gate in a crippled mess, the second-guessing and doubts among the sailing community began: Has Ellison's plan to turn the world's most famous yacht race into a high-tech white-knuckle NASCAR of the sea gone too far for speed?

"Everyone wants the fastest boat," said Richard Spindler, founder and publisher of Latitude 38, a sailing magazine based in Mill Valley. "But you can't win the race unless you finish."

Now, a month after Oracle Racing's new, custom-made USA 17 cartwheeled into San Francisco Bay, hurled its hotshot crew into the cold waters and crumpled the main sail structure, Ellison's pride is on the line as the sailing syndicate races against the clock to perform repairs and be ready to compete by September's America's Cup finals.

After winning the last Cup, Ellison was allowed to dictate the size and basic design of the boats for all the entries in this year's race. But some doubters are wondering whether the towering catamarans are too unwieldy and expensive and should follow the lead of Howard Hughes' giant flying boat, the "Spruce Goose" -- which was shelved for good after one flight.

Even America's Cup officials are talking about downsizing the catamaran for future races. But there's no time to turn back for this race.

"It's definitely a setback," Oracle Team USA skipper Jimmy Spithill

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said of the newly built boat's capsize Oct. 16. He was at the helm and blames his risky maneuvers in especially rough conditions, not the boat design, for the catastrophe. "But it's not one that will stop us from winning the Cup," he said.



The boat's wreck on only its eighth practice run has focused scrutiny on the fundamental design of the so-called AC72 -- a new class of America's Cup boat built for excitement and speed. All three challengers have launched their customized versions, and at least one competitor is already complaining that the rigid wing serving as a mast and sail is too big.

If Ellison's team loses, the event he won in Spain in 2010 and brought for the first time to San Francisco -- promising millions of dollars in economic development and a thrilling spectator experience -- would move to the winning boat's home port.

Stephen Barclay, CEO of the America's Cup Event Authority, said the 72-footers are not too dangerous for the bay, but they are being reconsidered for future races because they are so expensive and big, requiring upward of 30 people to get them in and out of the water by crane. Only three teams, New Zealand, Sweden and Italy, could afford to challenge Oracle for the trophy next

he Oracle Team USA AC72 catamaran is capsized Oct. 16, 2012, on San Francisco Bay. (Guilain Grenier/Oracle Team USA)summer, compared with roughly a dozen challengers in past years.



Still, the capsize exposed the fundamental dilemma of the America's Cup: How extreme can a boat design be when it is racing in the bay's already extreme conditions with the most competitive sailors on the planet intent on going as fast as possible?

Along with wearing crash helmets and sharp knives strapped to body suits, Spithill's crew will now tuck into their chest pockets mini oxygen canisters. If sailors end up trapped underwater, they'll have 10 to 15 breaths to cut their way out from beneath the netted trampoline that spans the twin hulls.

"We have to plan for the worst," Spithill said. Still, "I think the boat has to be a challenge. It needs to have all the horsepower and risk. If you can only race to the top of first gear, it's boring. You need to be pushed."

He was pushing the limits a month ago in 30-knot winds clashing with the strongest ebb tide of the year. No one was injured when the boat pitch-poled end over end. But the rigid wing became a battering ram on the helpless hulls as it was flushed through the rough waters of the Golden Gate and then collapsed. Pieces of the wing are still washing up at beaches.

Spithill received a call from Ellison, his billionaire boss who founded Oracle, the next morning. —‰'Champions get through this. I have no doubt you'll get through it,' " Spithill recalls Ellison saying. "It's what I needed," Spithill said, "that outlook and attitude."

But the capsize spooked competitors. So far, Team New Zealand has had little trouble navigating its AC72 in strong winds, but when it heard the news of the capsize while out sailing off the New Zealand coast, it immediately "buttoned back," said Richard Gladwell, who covers the team for Sail-World.com in Auckland.

When Sweden's Artemis Racing launched its 72-footer out of Alameda last week in similar tidal conditions, "we didn't go anywhere near that part of the bay," said CEO Paul Cayard.

There is no fatal flaw to the AC72, Barclay said. But he acknowledges that "decisions were made early to make these boats exciting," including choosing a larger, faster 38-meter wing sail over a slower 32-meter one.

Cayard is already questioning the wisdom of that decision: "We would have been better off with a small wing."

The America's Cup has always been as much a test of sailing skills as a design competition -- and the history of the Cup is littered with examples of teams pushing the limit. . In 1995, One Australia cracked like an egg during a challenger series and sank in seconds.

"If nobody takes risks there will be no progress. Howard Hughes did that. So did Boeing," said Dirk Kramers, Oracle's chief engineer who led the design of the AC72. "Whatever lessons are learned from one cycle will be applied to the other. That's what's kept this game alive for 100-and-some-odd years."

AC45 - Resumo São Francisco

AC72 Sailing