[Source: Artemis Racing] Today was the beginning of another season in the D35 Class here on Lake Geneva. This first regatta, Grand Prix Les Ambassadeurs, is part of a series of regattas called “The Vulcain Trophy”, which includes the Bol d’Or in June. Artemis finished 4th last season and we were excited to get back out there this morning.

Six races were planned for the fleet of nine boats sailing out of the Societe Nautique de Geneve today. We had clear blue skies this morning and the wind filled in around noon. Racing got under way at 1230. We had a very mediocre day onboard Artemis during the first 3 races, with scores of 8th, 4th and 6th, in the 6-8 knot breeze from the Northeast. Nothing in particular happened but a lot of little things did not go well. Probably a little “rust” from not having sailed competitively in the boat for six months.

Then there was a long pause while the wind shifted 180 degrees and filled in at 20 knots with gusts to 22 knots and lulls to 9 knots. As the wind was coming off the city, it was very puffy and shifty. The sailing was very exciting and the boats were traveling at high speeds in the conditions. We’d had a decent third race in the 4th race of the day were sailing upwind on starboard tack and we were on a collision course with Zen who was on port tack. They tried to slow down to get behind us and miss judged it. The result was a violent crash into our port side. The hull is ok but the port “rack” is destroyed. We had to withdraw from further racing for the day. One of our crew members was thrown into the water from the impact and we narrowly avoided a pitch pole (capsizing by putting the bow under (a cartwheel) as Zen spun us away from the wind.

Anyway, we got the boat back to the dock at the SNG and are in the midst of a repair so we can compete again tomorrow.

[Source: Artemis Racing] A great day for racing in Napoli. The America’s Cup World Series was in full flight today with match racing and fleet racing. The winds were 8 to 12 knots from the West and there was a bit of cloud around. The rain stopped for exactly three hours and those were the three hours of racing.

I was the guest racer onboard Artemis today. It was nice for me as CEO to see my team in action from up close. The six weeks of two boat training the team has done in Valencia looks to have given them a strong base to operate from. Notwithstanding the fact that our AC45 crew is in constant rotation, the boys seemed solid and tight as a group. They won their match race against Emirates Team New Zealand, the first fleet race and were leading the second fleet race when they dropped out to be first to the crane for hauling the boat out.

This weekend was ‘practice’ racing, but still the Italian public made it down to see the action. Italy is known to be one of the most passionate nations when it comes to the America’s Cup and we are expecting big crowds both here in Naples and next month in Venezia.

Artemis Racing training for the AC World Series. Naples, 8 April 2012. Photo copyright Gilles Martin-Raget

The teams will take a couple of days off now and be back on for the official racing which starts on Wednesday.

The first challenge for Artemis Racing was to form our team. Our main competitors, ORACLE Racing, Emirates Team New Zealand and Prada are ongoing entities. Just in the last month, it feels like Artemis is operating as an America’s Cup team. Now, our challenge is the same as the others, to build an AC72 and become proficient at sailing it in the demanding conditions of San Francisco Bay.

To that end, I am heading back to Valencia tomorrow morning as we are sailing our trimaran with the AC72 wing in it this week, as well as racing here in the ACWS. We are a busy team with both operations going on simultaneously, but there is so much to do and so little time. I will be back in Naples on Friday for the racing at the weekend.

A major milestone in the 34th America’s Cup was reached earlier this morning in Valencia when Artemis Racing launched their winged Orma60 trimaran. Although their modified trimaran has already sailed on the waters off Valencia, today was the very first time it had the newly-built, IMMENSE, wing stepped on.

Conditions are perfect today in Valencia, with sunny, warm weather, and, most importantly, very light winds. The trimaran was launched around 11am without any apparent difficulty, at least as observed from our vantage point. According to our information, the trimaran might even take her maiden sail today, later in the afternoon, depending on the breeze.

My apologies for the photos, clearly not up to the standards you have been used to on this website since now 7 years, but the Artemis base being inside the Sagunto commercial port (approximately 20km north of Valencia) it is impossible to get any closer without a special permit by either the Port Authority or the local police. Lacking both we had to shoot from behind the port’s fence.

I don’t know whether this wing is smaller than the ones the future AC72′s will have a mere 4-5 months from now but I’m curious to see how they will sail with 30 knots of wind in San Francisco. Russell Coutts promised races from 3 to 33 knots!

The Artemis Orma60 modified trimaran with her immense wing, ready for her maiden sail. Valencia, 13 March 2012. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / VSail.info

Törnqvist has been a TP52 Medcup champion, RC44 world champion and current America’s Cup challenger of record. Who better then to talk about all of that? The light conditions in Puerto Calero on Sunday morning and the postponement ashore gave us the opportunity to catch up with him and discuss these issues.

VSail.info: You have won a Medcup Championship in the TP52 class and you are the current RC44 World Champion, so to say that you are a competitive onwer-driver would be an understatement. You must also be passionate about sailing. What drives you though to be in the world’s most competitive sailing circuits?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: First of all, sailing is a team sport and I have always been fortunate to have a very good sailing crew and a group of very good people that prepare the boats. I’m just a very small part of a team effort. When I started in 2007 I had a really very good team and we made a number of steps in the class that were never done before. We created an edge and I have to admit that. I’m passionate about sailing and I have been sailing during my entire life. I started when I was just a small boy in the Swedish archipelago in wooden dinghies.

Sailing has always been a part of my life since I can remember but never really in competition. It was more about cruising with my family and friends in the summer. Racing came much, much later. If I remember well, my first ever regatta was in 2004, in Porto Cervo, for the Swan worlds. Since then things have, obviously, changed, I moved on to the TP52′s, then the RC44′s and now the America’s Cup. This has been my journey in sailing.

VSail.info: Would you rather helm an RC44 or a TP52? How do they compare from the driver’s point of view?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: The boats are clearly different. The RC44 is an extremely fun boat to drive and the moment I stepped on the boat and sailed, I said “This is great!”. It’s a light boat, it’s very fast but there are also other things around this class that I like. I think that today it’s the best class in the world where owners-drivers can participate, without any doubt. There isn’t anything better than the RC44 class out there. I, obviously, always enjoyed the TP52 and I did four seasons. At that time, when we were there, it was certainly the most competitive sailing class and truly professional. Yet, at the end, I think I couldn’t put the time necessary to stay at the absolute top. We always were there, in third or fourth place, but in order to take that step up and regain the top spot it would have taken too much of my time.

VSail.info: Do you have enough time right now? Would you like to spend more time on the boat?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: I take as much time as I can and I think I’m right at the edge when my family starts complaining. They complain that even if they come to see me in a regatta, I always leave them behind because I spend the entire day on the water! Seriously, they do come to see me for a day or two in each event. That’s what I like with the current format of the RC44. We have five events per season and I could skip one if necessary. Still, I try to be in every event. It’s not too heavy but still, it is a month of sailing each year. I plan to do all five events in 2012 but, you know, it might not be possible.

Torbjörn Törnqvist helming the Artemis Racing yacht in the RC44 Puerto Calero Cup. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / VSail.info

VSail.info: You are also one of the very few owners, at least on a high, competitive level, that bought a multihull and race it. You have recently acquired a D35. Can you tell me the reason you did that?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: I had absolutely no experience on multihulls before and I had never steered or sailed on catamarans before we did the D35 campaign. I thought it would be a good idea for me to familiarize myself with multihull sailing and the D35 was for me the perfect solution. I walk from my house down to the boat, I sail it and then go back home. I still get a lot experience, the boat is fun and the class has a very, very high level. Ernesto Bertarelli is there and he’s an extremely skillful sailor and there’s a also a number of other top-level sailors.

VSail.info: Do you enjoy it as much as a monohull?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: If I think with my heart, I would say that sailing, probably, should be more in monohulls. The finesse and tactics you have on a monohull don’t exist on a multihull. Probably for the audience they might not be fun but for you, the driver of the boat, they are great. The multihulls have that also, don’t take me wrong, and as far as the America’s Cup is concerned, different aspects come into play in the question of monohulls over multihulls. For me, personally, the D35 is a great sail boat and I’m thrilled about it and the things I can learn.

VSail.info: You say that with your heart, sailing should be more in monohulls, yet you decided to present a challenge in the first ever America’s Cup to be held on multihulls. Can you tell me the rationale of that decision?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: I think that you now raised a bigger question about the America’s Cup. It has always been outstanding, cutting-edge technology but times have changed. I think the potential audience is asking for a different thing. If we want to reach out to a non-sailing audience something had to change and the choice was for multihull sailing boats and a racing format that was never been seen before. At least on paper, the America’s Cup is trying to create the most exciting event to watch. There is no doubt about that. For the first time ever you can watch a race from the shore. They will have superior TV coverage and they are going to be able to sell it.

VSail.info: Is the reality though what you would have on paper?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: The reality is that you will have less teams that will be able to do it.

VSail.info: Why? Because it’s more expensive?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: Yes, I would say so. It’s the first generation of those boats and you will have to put an enormous effort into the design and building of something that has never been done before. So, it’s expensive and as we all know, times are not exactly right for expensive projects. Sponsorship is hard to come by but I think that sailing in general has a problem. It’s so diversified with so many events and the audience is not there! I was reading an article the other day asking why young people aren’t attracted to sailing. They have so many alternatives these days, the extreme sports is something that has developed over the years, catching the attention of younger generations. That’s why I think this is an attempt to reach out to them. We will see.

VSail.info: So far, we have had three America’s Cup events. Being the challenger of record, are you happy with what the organization has delivered? Are you satisfied?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: Yes. Obviously, the Defender, with Larry Ellison, are putting a lot of resources. I know that Larry is putting a lot of his own money for this to succeed and become the highest profile sailing project ever. From this point of view, it’s well funded and the event will be great, thanks to one individual. However, this is not a sustainable thing in the long run. We all realize that you cannot ask somebody to sponsor it forever, it has to stand on its own feet at one point. It will take a bit of time and once these boats are on the water and we see what they are capable of, what type of racing they provide, I think more and more people will be interested in it.

Artemis Racing carrying out two-boat training. Valencia, 31 January 2012. Photo copyright Sander van der Borch / Artemis Racing

VSail.info: Russell Coutts has sailed a lot with you and I suppose you must have a very good relation with him. Wouldn’t you say you have too good of a relation with him to be a real challenger to him?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: [Laughs] I don’t think so. Look around you. We are all competing here but we are all friends. Sailing is a gentleman’s sport and this is its beauty. That’s striking about this sport. You don’t have bad relations, generally speaking. We are good friends with Russell and I owe him a lot. I would even say that I took the decision to challenge because of the possibility to blend in with the guys that have been doing it and winning it, not only Russell but also Dean Barker, Paul Cayard and many other great sailors.

The answer to your question is no. Oracle is doing its campaign, we are doing our campaign and we will do whatever it takes to try and win. We are defending our position, we are defending the position of the challengers and we are fighting for the best interests of the challengers. In our point of view, what we fight for is also valid for the other challengers but as you know there are a lot of politics. It’s the America’s Cup after all.

VSail.info: Are you satisfied with the performance of your team in the America’s Cup World Series?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: In what regards the AC45 racing we haven’t won anything. We were third or second once, I don’t remember exactly. It’s true we wish we could have done a little bit better but we took the decision to mix our sailors from an early stage, to test and rotate them because only five of them actually race. We wanted to try many configurations and probably we did too much of that and we paid the price by not having a consistent performance. But it’s not so important. Our program is well on track and I’m very satisfied with how the campaign is going overall.

VSail.info: How much are you involved with the operations of the America’s Cup campaign? You previously said you wish you had more time to sail. Do you have time to get involved with the America’s Cup?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: Yes, I’m very much involved. We obviously have a very good organization, our CEO, Paul Cayard, knows all the aspects of it, I regularly visit the team in Valencia and I take part in the major decision-making aspects, the strategy to follow and so forth. I speak to Paul on a very, very regular basis and to the sailors as well. I try to be there and I think they feel that I’m there and well informed and even if I cannot be physically present they know I’m very much involved.

VSail.info: Do you also take the final decisions on the major, strategic aspects of the campaign? Is it Cayard that does that?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: Well, it has never come to a situation where we had to, let’s say, vote for something. We discuss the parameters, the strategy and, obviously, the budget. You have to do your best with the budget you have! Still, you can’t do everything even if you have a lot of money. The time is not enough and it would be a huge mistake to try to do too much. You have to get to one point and then get to the next one, otherwise you fall behind. Actually, even if right now September 2013 seems to be a long time away, it isn’t.

VSail.info: Is the construction of the AC72 boat on track?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: Yes, it’s on track. As you know, according to the rules, we can launch the AC72 on July 1st and sail for 30 days in the second half of the year, so it’s not so important that we start sailing on July 1st or September 1st. I think we want to catch the right sailing conditions but in any case we will be prepared.

VSail.info: You said you shared the vision of the current America’s Cup. Does that mean that if you win it you will keep the same boats and format?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: On the one hand, if you win it you obviously know what you are doing and you want keep your advantage. For me, it’s the first campaign and very rarely anybody has been able to win it the first time. I think Alignhi did but that probably doesn’t count because they actually bought over the winning team. You can’t say it was exactly the first campaign for the team. There will not be too many teams, for sure not many competitive teams but we will still have to beat Prada and Team New Zealand just to get to the America’s Cup match. Just that is an immense challenge. Team New Zealand is extremely well organized with a very strong budget and they have the advantage of knowing each other for so many years. They have such a great level of continuity and this is very important while we are still building our team. I’m sure it will be a very good and strong team but we still haven’t spent time together and we have to test how the chemistry will work out on the boat as well.

VSail.info: Then I will ask you what you will do if you don’t win. Will you try to challenge for a second time?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: Look, at the moment I’m just focusing on the 2013 Cup. I think we have a very good campaign, certainly very professional from the design point of view, from the building point of view and we have some of the best sailors of the world. I know we are doing a very good campaign, capable of challenging the best teams of the world. We are doing it more or less on the same level. From this point of view, my aim is to go out and see how far we go.

VSail.info: If you win would you hold the next America’s Cup in Stockholm?
Torbjörn Törnqvist: I haven’t even thought about that. I don’t know whether you could host an event like this in Stockholm and even if you could it’s still a very, very premature question. I don’t want to think so far either. I don’t know whether there would be an interest in Sweden but first we could try to host an AC45 event. Maybe we could have an AC45 event in Sweden in 2013 but we’ll have to see. We held some talks to see whether it would be possible to hold such an event in Stockholm but as you know the idea behind these events is to create an environment of stadium sailing and I’m not so sure if it’s possible there. We are checking but I don’t think there is enough space. In any case, I don’t want to speculate about what happens beyond September 2013.

[Source: Artemis Racing] Artemis Racing began an intense two-boat training session earlier this week in Valencia, following the acquisition of a second AC45 last month.

“We’ve only been sailing the two AC45s for four days, but we’ve learned a great deal. Possibly more than in the three America’s Cup World Series Regattas we’ve competed in. There is a tremendous amount to learn about the wing and the sail set up in particular. It is still early days and we have a mountain of work ahead, plus strong competition,” said Terry Hutchinson, Skipper – Artemis Racing.

Training continues on Monday for the Swedish team, Challenger of Record for the 34th America’s Cup.

Artemis Racing carrying a two-boat training session. Valencia, 1 February 2012. Photo copyright Sander van der Borch / Artemis Racing

Artemis Racing carrying a two-boat training session. Valencia, 1 February 2012. Photo copyright Sander van der Borch / Artemis Racing

Artemis Racing carrying a two-boat training session. Valencia, 1 February 2012. Photo copyright Sander van der Borch / Artemis Racing

Artemis Racing carrying a two-boat training session. Valencia, 1 February 2012. Photo copyright Sander van der Borch / Artemis Racing

Artemis Racing carrying a two-boat training session. Valencia, 1 February 2012. Photo copyright Sander van der Borch / Artemis Racing

[Source: America's Cup] The Artemis Racing sailing team begins its 2012 training program this week in Valencia, Spain, with a two-boat training session on the team’s two AC45s. For skipper Terry Hutchinson, this is a chance to begin ‘chipping away’ at what he calls a ‘laundry list of things we have to work on to get better’.

“I think that having the two AC45s will make a big difference to our training,” Hutchinson says. “I think what we’re after is consistency. In the America’s Cup World Series Cascais as well as in Plymouth and San Diego we showed moments in all three regattas of really good sailing and then we showed some less good moments, so it’s a matter of improving our consistency.

“I really think by spending time on the AC45s, both in training and in developing our equipment… It’s just a case where we need to put in the hours and practise the same way we race, focusing on small improvements.”

Thinking ahead to launching the team’s first AC72 later this summer, Hutchinson says he’s looking at the giant catamaran with equal parts awe and respect, with a little bit of trepidation mixed in as well.

“This boat will be something that will bite you very, very hard the moment you don’t respect it,” he said. “The good side is that we all respect what we’re getting ready to take on. You have to apply a lot of common sense and logic and not be afraid to leave your ego on the dock. We’re really luck to have Rodney (Ardern – pitman) and Curtis (Blewett – bowman) bringing along the experiences they had with Alinghi in 2010.”

Hutchinson also says sailing the ORMA trimaran last year was useful for the sailing team to get accustomed to flying along at speeds near 30 knots. But he adds that neither the 60 foot trimaran, nor the AC45 is directly comparable to the AC72 the team currently has under construction in Sweden.

The trimaran has a completely different stability profile compared to the catamaran he says and the AC45 is “dramatically smaller and underpowered when you compare it to the AC72.”

Like many of his brethren in the Cup world, the experienced Hutchinson is clearly on a steeper learning curve and often sailing out of his comfort zone these days, something the winter training sessions in Valencia should help alleviate. And while he’s looking forward to getting back on the America’s Cup World Series circuit this summer, he’s also excited about spending more time in San Francisco in 2013, where the Bay holds some good memories of success.

“I love San Francisco,” he says. “I won a Farr 40 world championship there, I won a J24 world championship there and a J24 North American championship as well. It’s going to be great sailing on the Bay again.”

Continuing our series of new-year interviews with sailing’s top personalities, we catch up with Paul Cayard, CEO of Artemis Racing, the 34th America’s Cup Challenger of Record. The legendary American sailor gives an update on his team and comments on the latest developments in the America’s Cup, including Ben Ainslie joining Oracle Racing and the important decisions of the Jury that, in his view, deal a serious blow to Emirates Team New Zealand’s alliance with Luna Rossa.

VSail.info: When we talked a little bit more than three months ago, I asked you whether you were contemplating having two AC45 yachts, like Oracle Racing at that stage, and your answer was that your budget didn’t allow you to do that. I now see that you have a second AC45 yacht. What has changed since then?
Paul Cayard: To be honest with you, our owner Torbjorn Tornqvist was always pretty convinced we should have two AC45 yachts. After the San Diego event it was pretty obvious how dominant Oracle Racing was all of a sudden. Before that, Emirates Team New Zealand, Oracle Racing and Artemis Racing were more or less competitive against each other in Plymouth and Cascais. However, in San Diego Oracle was really on a different level and they just came off three weeks of sailing in San Francisco with the other two AC45′s out of four they have. Torbjorn has been on me for a long time to get a second AC45 and after San Diego it became a priority for the team.

The other thing is that there was supposed to be an event in January and when that went away there was, of course, a bigger gap in the schedule which allowed for more training, if you have two boats. If you only have one boat it’s not as good. I didn’t mean to mislead you in any way and I told you at that time we were definitely thinking about it. When these changes came along, we bought the second AC45.

I don’t remember if I had mentioned that in our previous talk but, honestly, another factor was the crash we had with Green Comm in Plymouth. We had a damaged boat and we had to repaint the spare ACRM boat so that her hull matched up with our port hull. When we went to the expense of all that, it would have been money thrown away because we would have been obliged to repaint that hull back to white in order to give it back to ACRM. Instead, we bought that whole boat (Serial number 10) and that actually had the effect of saving Green Comm 20,000 to 30,000 euros because if we had to implement the original solution that would have been another cost on the Green Comm bill.

VSail.info: Now that you have two AC45 yachts what is the schedule for the three months leading to the Naples event? I suppose you will be training here in Valencia.
Paul Cayard: Exactly. As you know, the boats are in Valencia right now, in our Sagunto base, and we will start training on January 27th with both boats. We plan on really focusing on that for three weeks and do a very intensive two-boat program. We will try to raise our game within the AC45 events and we will certainly be aiming at winning one or two of them in 2012. We have won one of the first three, we want to be a front runner and we recognize we need to raise our game a little bit there.

Artemis Racing in full action. San Diego, 17 November 2011. Photo copyright Sander van der Borch / Artemis Racing

VSail.info: One of the boats will, obviously, be helmed by Terry Hutchinson. Who will be at the helm of the second one?
Paul Cayard: It’s going to be Santi Lange. We talked about me doing it as well but I think it’s going to be Santi. We want to make sure that whoever does it can do it for the full three weeks. We don’t want to have any switching around because that would diminish the quality of the sailing.

VSail.info: Have you made any changes to the crew or will it be the same we have seen so far?
Paul Cayard: We are trying one new trimmer, Thierry Fouchet who was with Oracle in the last Cup. He will come to sail with us during that session and we will see how it goes.

VSail.info: What about the modified Orma60 trimaran you have. What’s the current situation?
Paul Cayard: We are not sure whether it’s going to sail again. It was good for us last year but it’s still in working progress. We don’t have a schedule to sail that again.

VSail.info: I might be wrong but I thought you planned to step a wing on that trimaran. Is that correct?
Paul Cayard: It’s a possibility but we don’t have any schedule for when it’s going to happen.

VSail.info: King Marine issued a press release a couple of days ago, stating that the construction of your AC72 yacht started a month ago in Sweden and that it is going along as scheduled. Can you give us an update?
Paul Cayard: It is actually going very well and we are ahead of schedule on building our AC72. As you know, the hulls have to be laminated in Sweden. Our molds were made in Spain, in Cartagena, and then were trucked to Sweden. The whole job of turning on the facility in Sweden and having builders there working and laminating happened during the holidays. The hulls are being laminated now, everything is going well and King Marine is doing a great job.

VSail.info: Will the boat be launched in Sweden?
Paul Cayard: No, our plan is to launch the boat in Valencia, after July 1st obviously, and we are looking at what our options are in regards to where we will spend all the 30 days of sailing. Initially, we will spend in Valencia at least 10 of the 30 days of sailing.

VSail.info: Does Artemis Racing plan to build two AC72 yachts?
Paul Cayard: Yes, our plan is to build two. The main elements of the boat building process will be similar to those of the first yacht but quite likely the final assembly will happen in San Francisco. As I told you, the first boat will be assembled in Sagunto but the second one in San Francisco. At this point the schedule for that boat is quite vague because a lot will depend on the first one. All the teams will have launched theirs, so we will be watching our competitors, trying to learn as much as we can about this new class. Back in 1992, when we had the first America’s Cup on the ACC boats there were huge evolutionary steps from one boat to the next. With il Moro di Venezia we built five boats and we came a long way from the first one to the fifth one.

Each time you have a new class you have the biggest steps from one boat to the next. Ideally, we would like to launch our second boat by May 2013 so that we have sufficient time to be comfortable with it. Obviously, the more you wait the more you learn and maybe the bigger progress you can incorporate in the second boat.

Artemis Racing in full action. San Diego, 17 November 2011. Photo copyright Sander van der Borch / Artemis Racing

VSail.info: I think I’m covered regarding the update on Artemis Racing. Let’s talk now about the whole event and in particular the most recent big news, starting with last Tuesday’s announcement from Ben Ainslie. What do you think of the arrangement he has with Oracle Racing?
Paul Cayard: I talked with Russell about that, he had called me to tell me what was happening. If you take it for face value it’s a good thing for the America’s Cup. They could have just said Ben was joining Oracle Racing as a crew member but instead, having a sailor of the quality of Ben Ainslie, representing another country, Great Britain, in the America’s Cup World Series is a great thing for the event, for the public and I’m sure he will be a formidable competitor.

VSail.info: And a reason for your to sleep less when he joins Oracle Racing next year.
Paul Cayard: For sure that makes me sleep less. He’s a great sailor and I think that Oracle Racing have realized they will have to race their two boats in house against themselves in the summer of 2013 and they are getting ready with plenty of good sailors. In their afterguard they have Spithill, Bundock, Kostecki, Coutts and they now added Ainslie. They have these five afterguard to sail these boats and it didn’t come as a surprise to me.

VSail.info: Another recent development in the America’s Cup was a Jury decision regarding the alliance between Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa. If I’m not mistaken your team was the first to ask the Jury to rule on that cooperation between the two challengers. I have to admit I’m not aware of the details of that issue or what is at stake. Can you talk about it? Are you satisfied with the Jury’s ruling?
Paul Cayard: Yes, we are satisfied. The Jury ruled in line with our thinking which is that Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand cannot do what they said they would do. You haven’t read a lot about it because, basically, the ruling went against them and Grant Dalton hasn’t been speaking about that one as much as he’s speaking about the ones that go his way. It’s a big knock against them and they can’t sail the two boats against each other. It’s a big knock against their plans but it’s completely logical and it’s what Oracle Racing and we always believed to be the case and now the Jury confirmed that.

VSail.info: But in our previous conversation three months ago you mentioned that Artemis Racing and Oracle Racing would be training together, with their AC72 yachts, during the summer of 2012 in San Francisco. Why would Oracle Racing and Artemis Racing be able to do that while Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand aren’t allowed?
Paul Cayard: Yes, we might be able to do that but we might also be unable to do that. There are some technicalities with that too that could involve what’s known as the Surrogate Rule. In other words, if we were to train with Oracle we may become a surrogate for them and they would become a surrogate for us. There is an interpretation of the Surrogate Rule which would determine whether or not Artemis Racing and Oracle Racing or any two teams could sail against each other.

VSail.info: I still can’t understand why, as you claim, Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand definitely cannot sail against each other while you might be able to do so with another team.
Paul Cayard: The difference is that there are two rules involved. The first one, rule 33.4, prevents a team from making an agreement with another entity, it could be an America’s Cup team or not, such that the other entity would acquire a boat and that the first party, the team, would gain the knowledge and the benefit of the performance data or information from the sailing of that second boat.

The specifics required to be in violation of that rule are, first, to have an agreement between the two parties. Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa, obviously, have such an agreement. The second element is that the agreement has to entail that the second party, Luna Rossa in this case, would build or otherwise acquire a boat. They, obviously, have said that. Finally, the third piece of it is that the first party, Emirates Team New Zealand, would obtain design or performance information from the sailing of the second boat. The Jury ruled that if those three elements are in place, you are in violation of Rule 33.4. Based on Grant Dalton’s public announcements and Emirates Team New Zealand’s submissions to the Jury, they are in breach of 33.4 right now.

So, that’s a different case and you can see the subtleties. If you look at it from a competitive advantage you can see how advantageous it would be for Emirates Team New Zealand to essentially control the design of both of these boats. Then they could sail those two boats together and do a lot more development than Oracle Racing and Artemis Racing might learn by sailing against each other, not knowing the design of each other’s boats. Do you see the difference there? You can develop technically much more if you control the design of both boats.

There are two different rules that apply. It could be that Oracle Racing and Artemis Racing or Energy and Artemis Racing or any two teams may not be able to train together without invoking the surrogate rule. That could be and I would say that this is still being interpreted but the problem Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa have is a different one. It’s specific to Rule 33.4.

Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa, of course, aren’t saying a word about it because it is bad news for them. The truth is they got a haircut. It seriously curtails their dream or plan but it has to be said that Luna Rossa couldn’t even be in the race unless they bought the design from somebody. They could have bought the ACRM package and probably not have this problem. In fact, they wouldn’t have that problem. Had they bought the ACRM design they could have gone ahead probably and do some sailing with Emirates Team New Zealand. Because of the agreement and because they have such a strong collaboration agreement together to produce that second boat they can’t sail the two boats together without violating the protocol.

VSail.info: So, the two AC72 yachts, the Italian and the kiwi one, could be physically next to each other on the dock in Auckland but then they will then have to sail separately.
Paul Cayard: Yes and the truth is, and this will probably be elaborated a little bit more through some questions to the Jury, it could be that they cannot even observe each other. Here’s what Rule 33.4 says: “Any agreement, arrangement or other understanding, whether legally enforceable or not, by one person or entity (in this paragraph “the first person”), whether then a Competitor or not, with any other person or entity (in this paragraph “the second person”) that the second person will directly or indirectly build, acquire or otherwise obtain one or more
yachts of whatever type (in this paragraph “other yachts”) so that the first person can directly or indirectly obtain, in any manner whatever, design or performance information regarding the other yacht or yachts for use in the program of design, development or challenge of the first person, is prohibited.” As I said, the first party is Emirates Team New Zealand and the second one is Luna Rossa. The important part is “..so that the first person can directly or indirectly obtain..”

It says, it “can” obtain and I think they can’t even go on a rib and watch Luna Rossa sail because they could obtain design and performance information about that boat. So, the boats will be in New Zealand and they will have to stay further away from each other than any other competitors will. This is all the fallout now. It has been a very busy holiday season for the legal departments and nobody got a break. The Jury decision was issued on December 28th and now people will start thinking about all the problems this creates. In fact, Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa are probably spending a lot of time trying to figure out what they are going to do. The bottom line and the most important point is that with this decision, they can’t do what they said they were going to do. It’s a pretty serious blow to their plan.

VSail.info: Can Emirates Team New Zealand or Luna Rossa appeal or if “appeal” is not the correct word, is there a way for them to overturn that decision?
Paul Cayard: I don’t believe you can really appeal this decision but you could file other requests for interpretation. They could file another action, they could try to see if there is a way to plea their case differently but in this particular case, Case 06, the decision has been issued.

VSail.info: You said earlier that Oracle Racing would need to do their inhouse training with their pair of AC72 yachts. Why would they be allowed to do that? Can anyone do a two-boat training program with AC72 yachts?
Paul Cayard: Yes, but only after February 1st, 2013. In fact, you can’t launch a second boat until February 1st, 2013.

VSail.info: So, Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa can always train together after that date.
Paul Cayard: No, they can never train together. As I said it’s a different rule and Rule 33.4 doesn’t have any relativity to a date. You can never have an agreement such that the second party builds a boat so that the first party gains the benefit of the design and performance information. If two teams build only one boat, they could start two-boat training and sharing performance information before February 1st, 2013. They would be fine because they didn’t have an agreement with each other to produce each other’s boat.

Essentially, if you let Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa do what they are doing, you could make the case that Emirates Team New Zealand is launching two boats on July 1st. Basically, it’s like launching two sister ships. So, not only are they in violation of Rule 33.4, someone could even ask for an interpretation about the launch date rule. It states that you can launch one boat on July 1st, 2012 but you can’t launch your second boat before February 1st, 2013. You could make the case that Emirates Team New Zealand is actually launching two boats. I think they really have a problem now.

VSail.info: Another issue I wanted to talk about was the so called “Code of Conduct” that was agreed upon in San Diego. The America’s Cup organizers, in every edition, like to boast it’s the world’s oldest sports trophy. It has survived and prospered since 160 years without such a rule. Do you really think this event, the so-called pinnacle of the sport of sailing, needs censorship?
Paul Cayard: If you have people walking around the dock, going up to people that want to sponsor events, telling them a bunch of bad information with the aim to discourage them from sponsoring an AC World Series event, then my answer is yes, unfortunately, we need to censor them. If you have issues that you don’t like, you don’t air them out publicly. This is a commercial sport, basically a business. It’s like the NFL or the Premier League in England. The teams have a common interest, they are in business, in the entertainment business. They use sports as an entertainment and try to produce exciting matches. Of course they have business issues and they all don’t agree and they don’t all get along but where do they discuss those issues? They discuss them in the proper form, in meetings, just like any other business. Outwardly, to the public, you always tend to project a positive, professional image. The problem we had, unfortunately, was someone chose to air out his unhappiness, his issues, publicly, before trying to resolve them within the business environment of the America’s Cup. That has had the effect of discouraging some corporate partners from being involved with the America’s Cup, an unfortunate situation.

[Source: King Marine] In early December, King Marine relocated a portion of its work force to the Artemis Racing operations base, near Gothenburg, Sweden, to begin the construction of the team’s AC72 catamaran designed by Juan Kouyoumidjian. Artemis Racing, Challenger of Record for the 34th America’s Cup, represents the Royal Swedish Yacht Club / Kungliga Svenska Segel Sällskapet (KSSS).

“We arrived a week ago from Sweden to check on the operations, test the new oven, coordinate logistics and explain the quality standards and storage system of King Marine to the local team of builders,” said Gabriel Mariani, CEO of King Marine.

A group of 50 specialists from King Marine & King Composite (led by Pablo Santarsiero and Guillermo Ponzinibbio respectively), together with strategic partners Sinergìa Racing Group, will build the AC72 in three different locations: Valencia, Cartagena and Sweden.

Everything is going according to schedule under the direction of Naval Architect James Muller who has worked with King Marine on the build of the TP52 Azzurra 2011 and the modification of Orma 60 for Artemis Racing.

The Artemis AC45 yacht in action. San Diego, 18 November 2011. Photo copyright Sander van der Borch / Artemis Racing

Richard Gillies, Build Manager for Artemis Racing, “will control our work as builders, contribute ideas and solutions as well as share his invaluable experience with us.”

Richard has a career as long as the composite life itself. He ventured before anyone into CNC mould building so it’s great to have him on our side.

“The action gets underway, but promises to be exciting from the technical and logistical point of view “ assures Gabriel Mariani. “I am grateful to Artemis Racing for trusting us to take on this project, enthusiastic to build once again a JYD design and glad to have a team that gives me peace of mind about their commitment and quality.”