Just how much difference is one able to man make to an America's Cup campaign? In the end, the biggest teams go to well over a hundred people, through the sailors to the shore crew, the boatbuilders, marketers, cooks, admin staff, and so on. Surely anybody person is only a cog in the wheel. Obviously, you know that isn't the case. The long reputation the America's Louis Vuitton sac France has always been shaped by a few highly influential people who have the passion and/or expertise to generate a massive impact.Paul Cayard could easily be considered one of probably the most influential personalities in the modern era. As part of his early thirties he skippered the ambitious Il Moro di Venezia campaign for your 1992 America's Cup. As part of his late thirties he headed from his first voyage all over the world as skipper with the Whitbread 60 EF Language, and won the Whitbread Race at his first attempt. Only recently he came second in the Volvo Ocean Race, although Pirates from the Caribbean was just about the last boat to get launched and was severely underprepared.His track record suggests they know how to get the best out of people, and the ways to organise an offer. Presumably it had been the San Franciscan's power to make things happen that has earned him his recent appointment to Spanish Cup campaign Desafo Espaol 2007 as a sporting and technical consultant. It's merely a two-month gig, though, just how much Cayard can achieve in such a limited time remains to wear."My first impression of Desafo is incredibly professional," Cayard said with the announcement of his appointment. "They're carrying out a good job using the resources available. In truth, it's been quite a while since I have been previously at the America's Cup. I last raced in 2000 with AmericaOne. So I hope to make a good contribution and I have a few other ways to contribute, not merely on the water. I believe I can assist them to put some perspective on many of the things that you usually spend a lot of time worrying about in the America's Cup, what situations are important and what things aren't so important. Hopefully I'm able to add something every single day."Cayard says that addressing the semi-finals o the Louis Vuitton Cup would have been a great achievement to the Spanish. It's difficult to imagine Desafo getting any additional than the semi-finals as the team hasn't ever shown itself to be in the same league as the Kiwis, the Americans or Luna Rossa. However, not reaching the semi-finals should be considered a failure too. The Spanish have the symptoms of done several things right, buying a great Louis Vuitton Femme Sac Pas Cher package while using two OneWorld boats, securing Reichel-Pugh as the designers, gathering some strong international talent within the afterguard, and yet during the Louis Vuitton Acts they've rarely lived as much as the sum of their parts. The Spanish just don't appear to have been firing on all cylinders. Perhaps Cayard could be the vital catalyst to actually get the Spanish motoring. After all, if you can't get it done in front of a house crowd, when is it possible to do it?Another team that, somewhat surprisingly, has seen the necessity to recruit outside talent is Alinghi. Highly accomplished Australian match racer Peter Gilmour has been hired as being a match racing coach to get the best out of resident helmsmen Peter Holmberg and Ed Baird (Jochen Schuemann has also helmed for Alinghi regularly within the last two years but has stepped from that role now). While a gentleman over race course, Gilmour has produced a reputation among the most aggressive helmsmen about the match race circuit and it'll be interesting to find out how much of that aggression rubs off on his prots.Meanwhile Alinghi may be using its final weeks in Dubai to do an in-house trial to find out which helmsman and crew will race within the Louis Vuitton Act 13, the fleet race happening in Valencia this April. Staged by 50 percent parts, the so-called UBS Dubai Defender Trials has aimed to recreate the pressured environment that the team will encounter inside the America's Cup Match after June. Skipper Brad Butterworth explained: "We've been sailing with each other a lot over the past few months and the standard of crew work and the way that we sail the boats has improved since we started racing. There's a winner plus a loser over these regattas and it puts much more pressure about the crew. We're looking to emulate a Louis Vuitton Cup and also this is the best we can easily do."With Baird and Holmberg taking it in turns to influence either the 2003 Cup winner SUI-64 or the 2006-generation SUI-91, it has been their opportunity to prove their mettle in the racing environment. In round one of several series Holmberg took an earlier lead just for Baird to come on strong at the end, leaving them tied on points, but the tie-break falling to be replaced by Baird as winner with the last race. A month later in round two, Baird was on dominant form and won this series 4-1. So 2-0 for the American, but at the conclusion of the series Alinghi refused to appoint Baird as helmsman for Act 13, Butterworth claiming: "It was too near call."Whatever Alinghi decides about its collection of helmsman, the months put in Dubai have proven a sensible investment of energy. The weather in Valencia has become appalling for sailing this winter, with all the teams that stayed place in Port America's Cup seeking the wind either too weak or too strong for just about any serious training. Emirates Team New Zealand and BMW ORACLE Racing, both teams packed with home-sick Kiwis, will be pleased that they made the journey back home to Auckland regardless of whether logistically it must have cost them lots of money to fly their boats as much as the northern hemisphere in enormous Antonov cargo planes.Actually, for 80-foot Cup boats, flying really is the only way to search. Even Victory Challenge flew its two older boats to Dubai for what amounted to nothing but a month's training, a tremendous logistical exercise for a real short time. Yet with the poor weather they put aside, the Swedes may have deemed it a worthwhile exercise. Skipper Magnus Holmberg introduced veteran British match racer Chris Law as his sparring partner and, although Law may be a grandfather, he still races just like a young pretender, by having an aggressive, take-no-prisoners attitude that added some spice towards the Victory training session. A little too much spice perhaps, because fighting was fierce any particular one boat even had its transom pushed off during a duel that got too close for comfort.It's think about bash your old boats about. After all, while louis vuitton voyage Holmberg and Chris Law were knocking ten bells out of each other in Dubai, Victory's pristine new boat SWE-96 had been delivered to Valencia. To bash your favourite race boat about is an additional matter, even though this is what happened during a bit of friendly inter-team learning Valencia recently between Shosholoza and Mascalzone Latino. What exactly was damaged isn't too clear, with the exception that both teams retired on their sheds for a few days to lick their wounds.The rumour mill implies that in some friendly training between Areva Challenge and Luna Rossa, everything has been opting favour in the French. If this is the case, then it would be a good shock for the highly-fancied Italian team, but it is after all merely a rumour. This is probably the most fun times inside the America's Cup cycle, because the phony war enters full swing inside the final weeks leading up to the Louis Vuitton Cup. Rumours and counter-rumours abound, and being aware what to believe and what to ignore is difficult.After all the months and years of speculation about who's doing what, who's fast and who's slow, it's frightening how quickly the facts becomes apparent when two Cup boats lineup in anger initially. Sometimes it's just a matter of minutes before you understand one boat features a clear speed advantage, both higher and faster in the wind, perhaps faster downwind too. Until that moment comes, however, every team could be allowed to dream that their designers and builders have delivered the ideal boat, which the sailing team will sail like they've never sailed before.
started by zhu yakun on 31 Aug 12
Just how much difference is one able to man make to an America's Cup campaign? In the end, the biggest teams go to well over a hundred people, through the sailors to the shore crew, the boatbuilders, marketers, cooks, admin staff, and so on. Surely anybody person is only a cog in the wheel. Obviously, you know that isn't the case. The long reputation the America's Louis Vuitton sac France has always been shaped by a few highly influential people who have the passion and/or expertise to generate a massive impact.Paul Cayard could easily be considered one of probably the most influential personalities in the modern era. As part of his early thirties he skippered the ambitious Il Moro di Venezia campaign for your 1992 America's Cup. As part of his late thirties he headed from his first voyage all over the world as skipper with the Whitbread 60 EF Language, and won the Whitbread Race at his first attempt. Only recently he came second in the Volvo Ocean Race, although Pirates from the Caribbean was just about the last boat to get launched and was severely underprepared.His track record suggests they know how to get the best out of people, and the ways to organise an offer. Presumably it had been the San Franciscan's power to make things happen that has earned him his recent appointment to Spanish Cup campaign Desafo Espaol 2007 as a sporting and technical consultant. It's merely a two-month gig, though, just how much Cayard can achieve in such a limited time remains to wear."My first impression of Desafo is incredibly professional," Cayard said with the announcement of his appointment. "They're carrying out a good job using the resources available. In truth, it's been quite a while since I have been previously at the America's Cup. I last raced in 2000 with AmericaOne. So I hope to make a good contribution and I have a few other ways to contribute, not merely on the water. I believe I can assist them to put some perspective on many of the things that you usually spend a lot of time worrying about in the America's Cup, what situations are important and what things aren't so important. Hopefully I'm able to add something every single day."Cayard says that addressing the semi-finals o the Louis Vuitton Cup would have been a great achievement to the Spanish. It's difficult to imagine Desafo getting any additional than the semi-finals as the team hasn't ever shown itself to be in the same league as the Kiwis, the Americans or Luna Rossa. However, not reaching the semi-finals should be considered a failure too. The Spanish have the symptoms of done several things right, buying a great Louis Vuitton Femme Sac Pas Cher package while using two OneWorld boats, securing Reichel-Pugh as the designers, gathering some strong international talent within the afterguard, and yet during the Louis Vuitton Acts they've rarely lived as much as the sum of their parts. The Spanish just don't appear to have been firing on all cylinders. Perhaps Cayard could be the vital catalyst to actually get the Spanish motoring. After all, if you can't get it done in front of a house crowd, when is it possible to do it?Another team that, somewhat surprisingly, has seen the necessity to recruit outside talent is Alinghi. Highly accomplished Australian match racer Peter Gilmour has been hired as being a match racing coach to get the best out of resident helmsmen Peter Holmberg and Ed Baird (Jochen Schuemann has also helmed for Alinghi regularly within the last two years but has stepped from that role now). While a gentleman over race course, Gilmour has produced a reputation among the most aggressive helmsmen about the match race circuit and it'll be interesting to find out how much of that aggression rubs off on his prots.Meanwhile Alinghi may be using its final weeks in Dubai to do an in-house trial to find out which helmsman and crew will race within the Louis Vuitton Act 13, the fleet race happening in Valencia this April. Staged by 50 percent parts, the so-called UBS Dubai Defender Trials has aimed to recreate the pressured environment that the team will encounter inside the America's Cup Match after June. Skipper Brad Butterworth explained: "We've been sailing with each other a lot over the past few months and the standard of crew work and the way that we sail the boats has improved since we started racing. There's a winner plus a loser over these regattas and it puts much more pressure about the crew. We're looking to emulate a Louis Vuitton Cup and also this is the best we can easily do."With Baird and Holmberg taking it in turns to influence either the 2003 Cup winner SUI-64 or the 2006-generation SUI-91, it has been their opportunity to prove their mettle in the racing environment. In round one of several series Holmberg took an earlier lead just for Baird to come on strong at the end, leaving them tied on points, but the tie-break falling to be replaced by Baird as winner with the last race. A month later in round two, Baird was on dominant form and won this series 4-1. So 2-0 for the American, but at the conclusion of the series Alinghi refused to appoint Baird as helmsman for Act 13, Butterworth claiming: "It was too near call."Whatever Alinghi decides about its collection of helmsman, the months put in Dubai have proven a sensible investment of energy. The weather in Valencia has become appalling for sailing this winter, with all the teams that stayed place in Port America's Cup seeking the wind either too weak or too strong for just about any serious training. Emirates Team New Zealand and BMW ORACLE Racing, both teams packed with home-sick Kiwis, will be pleased that they made the journey back home to Auckland regardless of whether logistically it must have cost them lots of money to fly their boats as much as the northern hemisphere in enormous Antonov cargo planes.Actually, for 80-foot Cup boats, flying really is the only way to search. Even Victory Challenge flew its two older boats to Dubai for what amounted to nothing but a month's training, a tremendous logistical exercise for a real short time. Yet with the poor weather they put aside, the Swedes may have deemed it a worthwhile exercise. Skipper Magnus Holmberg introduced veteran British match racer Chris Law as his sparring partner and, although Law may be a grandfather, he still races just like a young pretender, by having an aggressive, take-no-prisoners attitude that added some spice towards the Victory training session. A little too much spice perhaps, because fighting was fierce any particular one boat even had its transom pushed off during a duel that got too close for comfort.It's think about bash your old boats about. After all, while louis vuitton voyage Holmberg and Chris Law were knocking ten bells out of each other in Dubai, Victory's pristine new boat SWE-96 had been delivered to Valencia. To bash your favourite race boat about is an additional matter, even though this is what happened during a bit of friendly inter-team learning Valencia recently between Shosholoza and Mascalzone Latino. What exactly was damaged isn't too clear, with the exception that both teams retired on their sheds for a few days to lick their wounds.The rumour mill implies that in some friendly training between Areva Challenge and Luna Rossa, everything has been opting favour in the French. If this is the case, then it would be a good shock for the highly-fancied Italian team, but it is after all merely a rumour. This is probably the most fun times inside the America's Cup cycle, because the phony war enters full swing inside the final weeks leading up to the Louis Vuitton Cup. Rumours and counter-rumours abound, and being aware what to believe and what to ignore is difficult.After all the months and years of speculation about who's doing what, who's fast and who's slow, it's frightening how quickly the facts becomes apparent when two Cup boats lineup in anger initially. Sometimes it's just a matter of minutes before you understand one boat features a clear speed advantage, both higher and faster in the wind, perhaps faster downwind too. Until that moment comes, however, every team could be allowed to dream that their designers and builders have delivered the ideal boat, which the sailing team will sail like they've never sailed before.
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