[Source: America's Cup] Each passing day brings a new level of anxiety to teams entered in the 34th America’s Cup. So much to do, so little time. Mark Carpenter, the head of platform maintenance for Artemis Racing, spoke for many when he said, “The work is ongoing; it never ends.”

The final sailing period as defined by the Protocol for the 34th America’s Cup began yesterday, and the teams are now permitted to sail their AC72s as often as they desire. Previously teams were limited to 30 and 45 days of AC72 sailing in two different periods. Emirates Team New Zealand has sailed the most, 50 days combined with its two boats, followed by Luna Rossa Challenge, 43 days, ORACLE TEAM USA, 35 days, and Artemis Racing, 32 days.

It’s safe to assume that ORACLE TEAM USA would’ve had more days under its belt had it not capsized last October and put a temporary halt to training. The defender sailed the most in the period that concluded on Apr. 30, with 27 days on the water compared to 20 for the Kiwis, who have had to pack up their boat and base and ship it from Auckland to San Francisco.

This weekend the countdown clock will mark two months to the start of the “Summer of Racing” in San Francisco. The Opening Ceremony is planned for July 4 and will be followed on July 5 by a special fleet race for all teams.

Racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup, the America’s Cup Challenger Series, officially begins on July 7 with a match between Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa Challenge. The two teams were training partners in New Zealand over the past winter. But in Naples, Italy, two weeks ago those pleasantries were thrown out with the bath water when they were involved in a jarring collision. Luna Rossa Swordfish slammed into Emirates Team New Zealand’s stern scoop when the Kiwi crew failed to give the Italians room to round the mark.

The first round robin continues on July 9 with Sweden’s Artemis Racing going against the New Zealanders, and July 10 with Artemis Racing versus Luna Rossa.

The first official race in this Louis Vuitton Cup will be between Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team New Zealand

Seven round robins are on the Louis Vuitton Cup schedule. Some highlights:

- The Louis Vuitton Cup round robins are scheduled July 7-Aug. 4. Wins are worth 1 point
- The Louis Vuitton Cup Semi Final, a best-of-seven series, is scheduled Aug. 6-14
- The Louis Vuitton Cup Final, a best-of-13 series, is scheduled Aug. 17-30
- Racing is scheduled on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays
- Start times for the round robins and semi finals are scheduled for 1:15 pm PT (Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays) or 2:15 pm PT (Wednesdays)
- Mondays and Thursdays are scheduled reserve days
- In the round robins and semi finals, one race is scheduled per day with a target elapsed time of one hour
- In the Louis Vuitton Cup Final, two races are scheduled each day, each with a target elapsed time of 30 minutes

The top team at the end of the round robins gets to choose whether it advances directly to the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals or races in the semi finals. With a break of 12 days in the offing, presumably the winner would choose to go to the final and let the other two teams continue slugging it out in the semis.

Throughout the Louis Vuitton Cup the defender, ORACLE TEAM USA, will also have access to the race course four days per week, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, sometimes sandwiched around the challengers’ racing.

During the break between the Louis Vuitton Cup and the America’s Cup Finals, the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup will see 10 of the best teams of young sailors from around the world compete in AC45 catamarans over four day’s of competition.

Sailing on the same boats the Cup teams have used to compete in the America’s Cup World Series, the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup crews, aged 19-24, will race on San Francisco Bay in a fleet race format. Many of the sailors competing in the youth competition are expected to be sought after components of future America’s Cup teams.

The America’s Cup Finals are scheduled Sept. 7-21, with racing set for Saturdays, Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. The match is a best-of-17 series. Two races are planned each day, lasting approximately 30 minutes, and beginning at 1:10 pm PT and 2:10 pm PT. A break of approximately 32 minutes between races is mandated by the Protocol.

Today we start a new series of in-depth technical articles from our friend Jack Griffin of Cup Experience. Are you a world class racing sailor? Or a nautical newbie? Or somewhere in between? Whatever your level of sailing knowledge, Jack will be your personal guide to the America’s Cup, giving you all the practical “when-what-where-who” info and taking you backstage to get the insider scoop on the competitors.

Three AC72 designs. Three ergonomic approaches for layout and crew choreography. The 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco may be decided by crew work – the short, tight courses will mean a lot of maneuvers. We will look at crew choreography in another article; here we’ll just show the boat layouts.

Oracle Team USA

Consistent with their attention to aerodynamics, OTUSA has their grinders face fore and aft, standing in cockpits, to reduce windage. There are four grinding pedestals on each hull. One of the grinding stations is aft of the helm. Advantage: less aero drag. Disadvantage: harder for the crew to get in and out of the cockpits.

Artemis Racing

Unlike the other three teams, Artemis does not have four grinding pedestals on each hull – only two. Their boat has a central cockpit with two more pedestals and six winches. Advantage: saves the weight of two pedestals on the boat. Disadvantage: reduces righting moment when the crew are not on the windward hull.

Please read the rest of this analysis here

[Source: America's Cup] Helmsman Tom Slingsby led ORACLE TEAM USA into the top spot in the standings with finishes of 1-2 in today’s two fleet races. Slingsby, filling in for team skipper Jimmy Spithill, also won his first competitive match race, a 34-second victory over HS Racing led by co-skippers Roman Hagara and Hans-Peter Steinacher.

“It was an ideal day for us, we’re really happy,” said Slingsby, the 28-year-old Australian who won the Gold medal in the Laser class at last year’s Olympic Regatta.

“The wind was a bit steadier today so you just had to worry about getting a good start, boathandling and positioning,” Slingsby continued. “You didn’t have to read into watching the wind and everything it did. It was a beautiful seabreeze with small shifts and made things a bit easier.”

Slingsby’s performance impressed even the U.S. Ambassador to Italy, David Thorne, who was guest racer aboard ORACLE TEAM USA.

“Looking at the racing, it’s really spectacular,” said Thorne. “Being in it, doing it, it’s so much fun to get engaged in something like this. These are not really sailboats, they’re airplanes. It’s a spectacular feeling of speed and movement. It’s completely thrilling.”

Led by skipper Yann Guichard, France’s Energy Team posted a 2-1. They were overtaken by Slingsby on the second upwind leg in the first fleet race, but rebounded for a 26-second win in the second race.

“Yesterday was difficult to understand the race course, it was very shifty. Today the wind was very steady so I could really focus on the speed of the boat, especially on the start,” said Guichard, who led Energy Team to 4th place at last year’s AC World Series Naples.

“It will all come down to Sunday, but it’s really important to do well day after day so we can be confident going into the last day,” Guichard said.

Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand crash at the top mark. Naples, 19 April 2013. Photo copyright Carlo Borlenghi / Luna Rossa

While the fleet races were tame in terms of boats banging off each other, the same cannot be said of the day’s first match race between Luna Rossa Swordfish and Emirates Team New Zealand.

The rival crews who spent the winter training on AC72s in New Zealand were involved in a collision at the windward mark that flattened the starboard bow of Luna Rossa Swordfish and damaged the port stern scoop of Emirates Team New Zealand.

Dean Barker got Emirates Team New Zealand off to a good start when he forced Francesco Bruni and Luna Rossa Swordfish over the start line early. Barker led by 5 seconds around the leeward mark but Bruni steadily chipped away at that lead upwind.

As the two crews aimed to round the left side windward mark, Barker approached on starboard with Bruni on port. Video replays show that Bruni got to the three-boatlength circle a split second before Barker, which gave Bruni rights to round the mark free of interference from Barker.

Barker, however, continued sailing straight to the mark and Bruni crashed into him as he started to tack towards the mark. Barker was penalized on the ensuing run and Bruni won the match.

But the damage to the boats was done and later Luna Rossa Swordfish retired from the second fleet race due to the damage despite finishing 3rd in the first fleet race.

“We are happy with our win over Team New Zealand because they are one of the best teams on the water so to beat them is a nice thing to do,” said Luna Rossa Challenge skipper Max Sirena, a trimmer aboard Swordfish.

“In the second race we broke the headstay bracket on the bowsprit, it dragged back 10 centimeters. We think it’s because of the damage in the collision,” Sirena said.

Barker was upset that Luna Rossa Swordfish didn’t do more to avoid the collision.

“Normally, even if you’re in the right you avoid collisions resulting in serious damage and it doesn’t seem like they did a lot,” said Barker, a past match racing world champion. “I think it’s pretty poor to be honest. But the umpires see it the way they see it and our guys have a long night to fix the boat.”

Both boats were hauled from the water for their shore teams to affect repairs.

America’s Cup World Series Naples Championship Standings
(Provisional, after 4 of 7 scheduled races)

1. ORACLE TEAM USA (Tom Slingsby) – 38 points
2. Energy Team (Yann Guichard) – 36
3. Emirates Team New Zealand (Dean Barker) – 36
4. J.P. Morgan BAR (Ben Ainslie) – 35
5. Luna Rossa Piranha (Chris Draper) – 33
6. Luna Rossa Swordfish (Francesco Bruni) – 23
7. Artemis Racing White (Charlie Ekberg) – 21
8. HS Racing (R. Hagara/H.S. Steinacher) – 17
9. China Team (Mitch Booth) – 14

[Source: Emirates Team New Zealand] Emirates Team New Zealand is well into packing up the base, boats and gear for the voyage to S an Francisco and the long-anticipated Louis Vuitton Challenger series.

The team’s second AC72 sailed in Auckland for the last time yesterday. Today shore and sailing crews swarmed over it readying the yacht for transport.

In the wing tent, works started on dismantling the wings. They will be broken down into six sections, shrink-wrapped and will travel on extended flatracks and open-top containers.

The team will be start the move on April 11 and it will gather pace day-by-day.

Workshops and office equipment, computers, desks and chairs will all make the move. In less than three weeks most of it will be on they way.

Final day of sailing for the Emirates Team New Zealand AC72. Auckland, 3 April 2013. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team New Zealand

Final day of sailing for the Emirates Team New Zealand AC72. Auckland, 3 April 2013. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team New Zealand

Final day of sailing for the Emirates Team New Zealand AC72. Auckland, 3 April 2013. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team New Zealand

Final day of sailing for the Emirates Team New Zealand AC72. Auckland, 3 April 2013. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team New Zealand

Final day of sailing for the Emirates Team New Zealand AC72. Auckland, 3 April 2013. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team New Zealand

[Source: Emirates Team New Zealand] Emirates Team New Zealand, has been training throughout the southern hemisphere summer in home waters and prior to heading to San Francisco where the racing for the 34th America’s Cup will take place, the team today reveals a new performance enhancing innovation on board the 72-foot multihull.

While this particular innovation was not in their plans at the initial design stage, the addition is one of a continuing performance enhancing evolution and Emirates Team New Zealand managing director, Grant Dalton, expects this one to attract a lot of attention: “I am expecting a lot of noise about it, especially from the sailors in other teams who I am sure will feel that they are missing out.”

In a first for the team they have shared their innovation with the world: “Everything you do is not only about designing the fastest boat,” said skipper Dean Barker,“ but finding ways to improve that boat. We’re always looking for new features and new ideas on how to make the boat go faster and we’re very excited about this new development.”

Find out more via this exclusive video launch that demonstrates the innovation in action on the waters of the Hauraki Gulf.

[Source: Emirates Team New Zealand] After my blog on spying on the competition, people have been asking how teams manage to keep secrets when the opposition can approach to within 200 metres because cameras are more than capable of getting in close at that range.

That’s true. In Valencia, at the 2007 LVC finals against Luna Rossa, we shot their notice board each morning from our roof top, at a range of 350 metres, to read little titbits of information.

Misinformation is a great counter-measure, other than not putting a notice board where people can photograph it.

Muddy the water enough and it’s hard to pick fact from fiction and, as people are inclined to believe what they want to believe, teams do have some scope to cover their tracks.

For example, in the 2000 America’s Cup, we (at Prada) had a boom that was way ahead of its time and only half the weight of all our competitors’ booms, thanks to Gio Belgrano (now with Emirates Team New Zealand).

We knew we were on to a winner and did not want Paul Cayard and his boys next door to find out about it.

So whenever the boom was moved, four people did the job even though two could have easily lifted it. The opposition never caught on.

In 2003, again with Prada, we had a series of races with our 1992 boat against NZL39, the boat Chris Dickson had sailed in 1995.

On paper the new boat should have been all over the old design, and would have been had both masts been equal. But we were developing, with Southern Spars, a mast that was much stiffer than the others.

That performance increase shocked even us as the old boat was simply faster than the newer one. To take attention away from the mast, we leaked that the boat was not legal – it didn’t measure.

We had moved outside the measurement rules to make it faster, and therefore competitive with the newer boats. A reasonable and plausible story. They swallowed it hook, line and sinker because they wanted to believe it.

Last year when we were finalizing our foiling on our scaled down 72 boats Oracle was sniffing around and being a general pain in the backside.

We definitely did not want them to know that we had figured out how to “fly” at that point, but we needed to test so we had to sail.

The boat with the flying (foiling) package appeared to break down, slowly being towed home. The other boat, with lots of interest from the shadowing chase boat, started sailing in the other direction, to draw the Oracle flies away.

Once separated, the boat with the foils could do their thing, without the spies knowing. The mistake Oracle made was not checking who was going with which boat … had they done that they might have seen through the smoke screen.

In the old days, Team New Zealand was the king of misinformation. I am still learning the lengths they would go to muddy the water. As for nowadays …. well it is still the America’s Cup.

Interesting update from the Italian America’s Cup challenger as they pack up in Auckland and head to San Francisco and their new base in Alameda