[Source: Emirates Team New Zealand] 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.
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.
Emirates Team New Zealand’s second AC72 goes on her first sail. Auckland, 12 February 2013. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team New Zealand
Emirates Team New Zealand’s second AC72 goes on her first sail. Auckland, 12 February 2013. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team New Zealand
Emirates Team New Zealand’s second AC72 goes on her first sail. Auckland, 12 February 2013. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team New Zealand
Emirates Team New Zealand’s second AC72 goes on her first sail. Auckland, 12 February 2013. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team New Zealand
Emirates Team New Zealand’s second AC72 goes on her first sail. Auckland, 12 February 2013. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team New Zealand
February 12th, 2013 at 10:23 pm
Great stuff , really look´s good , have to say all on track the only thing is that i believe you have to try to have as much time on the water in SF as this will be a strong advantage to the local guy´s Cayard know´s his way around SF learned that from Blackhauler and sailing there himself also don´t forget when he get´s the boot he´s gonna be spending alot of time on the oracle tender and hanging with russ to give tip´s even though Larry dosen´t have any time for Cayard , SF can be very tricky it´s really the only thing i´m worried about the Oracle boat look´s very Fast and they also have money and a great team , everyone can see that the first Artemes boat is a bit of a Dog well let´s say she´s not even there , there second boat better be something really special and most likely will break up at the dock , so then it´s down to 2 boat´s and we know who they are , don´t want to bring any bad luck to either of them so will have to see who will win that duel but i have already made up my mind about that , so keep at it TNZ your going very well try not to brerak the boat badly don´t need a big setback at this point and Grant know´s that better than anyone , all the best and congrat´s to a great 1st Day , 12
February 13th, 2013 at 8:55 pm
Excellent! Good luck!
February 17th, 2013 at 5:59 am
and now watch out, Oracle team USA is flying, and quite ironically “training and getting further advantage of this fair cup thanks to Artemis…
what’s the thoughts of EB? does anyone still doubt that he has the slightest regret not enlisting to this farce?
February 17th, 2013 at 7:38 pm
Well said dalba
Since when did the Challenger of record (in this case Artemis) think it made sense to sail with the defender? There are a few decent guys on the Artemis team that will know this is a completely stupid thing to do( Blewitt, Ardern etc). Why help the defender learn more? I can understand challengers sailing against each other as they always have a common goal.. that is to beat the defender but what possible gain can Artemis get out of this? The only team that will benefit is the defender and Artemis will just have made it harder for them or any other challenger to beat them.
I reckon the conversation between Russell and Paul must go something like this ” Pauly, pauly… come here boy, come here boy. Good boy there’s a good dog.”