USA-71
arrives in New Zealand (06/08/02) (source
: NZ
Herald)
Four months from the start of the Louis Vuitton
Challenger series, Oracle Racing's preparations are
well on track.
The Syndicate celebrated the arrival in Auckland of
their first boat, USA71 yesterday at a ceremony held
at the team’s training compound on the Viaduct Basin.
Can
a computer win the Cup ? (04/30/02) (source
: techtv.com)
The America's Cup has always attracted leaders
in the technology world. This year Larry Ellison's
Oracle Racing hopes the same products the company
makes for IT professionals will give Oracle the winning
edge on the water.
"The race is largely about technology, we use some
of the most advanced software tools to help design
the boat," Oracle Racing skipper Paul Cayard said.
"Unfortunately sailors have little to do with the
actual outcome, it's all technology and computers,
and supercomputers, and design teams. In the end,
the fastest boat will always win, regardless of the
sailors," Sweeney said.
Compaq is letting Oracle Racing use a supercomputer
to crunch all the numbers from wind tunnel testing,
fluid dynamics and water tank testing, and structural
engineering, and it all goes into an Oracle database.
"We can input 4,000 different designs and run them
through a race model during an evening and find out
which boat got around the [virtual] course faster,"
Cayard said.
While Australia's winged keel was a breakthrough technology
back in 1983 , Cayard says one single technology does
not usually win a race. "In any of these events what
gives a team its strength is probably having the least
weaknesses," Cayard said. "I won't go out on a limb
and say that any of our technologies is the determining
factor."
Design technology, and more importantly, how you use
the data from computer simulations, will win the race,
according to Sweeney. "The whole key to the America's
Cup is actually creating a formula to understanding
the numbers," said Sweeney, "and over the last two
or three years we've developed what we feel is a way
to analyze the numbers properly."
Once the hull is built, and the design phase is over,
technology is still in charge. Computers plot precise
weather data along the racecourse, linking up with
on-board computers to tell the crew what course to
sail to get the maximum possible speed.
Oracle
Racing will stay in Auckland (04/25/02) (source
: NZ
Herald)
The Oracle Racing team have been given two weeks
off, but a full schedule awaits the Americans on their
return.
Some members of the sailing team will head to Croatia
for the ACI Cup, the next round of the Swedish Match
Tour. Another team and training boat USA49 will compete
in an America's Cup-class regatta in San Francisco
- a reunion of old America's Cup yachts from the past
decade.
By mid-year the sailors will get their long-awaited
gift - the first of Oracle's two new-generation racing
boats, USA71. The second, USA76, will not be far behind.
"We are very excited about getting our new boats,"
Oracle sailing director John Cutler said. "They will
be a reflection of our hard work. "While it's been
good using the old USA49 and USA61, they were products
of a different campaign. We're just looking forward
to sailing something that we've all had an input into."
The decision to stay in Auckland through the winter
had so far proved a good one. "Right now, this is
as good a place as any in the world to be sailing.
It's been fantastic weather," Cutler said. "And even
when you accept you are not going to sail every day
in Auckland over the winter, you are still going to
get more sailing by staying here."
It also meant Oracle could expand its racing programme
to include competitions against teams such as Alinghi,
OneWorld and Victory Challenge, which would also continue
training on the Hauraki Gulf. "You get little snapshots
of how the others are doing, but everyone is working
hard and have the same priorities as we do, so we
really won't know how strong they are until we come
up against them on race day."
In the Congressional Cup's double round-robin
format wich gets underway today, Seven skippers representing
six America’s Cup teams will sail Catalina 37s but
today Oracle's sailors are the center of debates.
Chris Dickson, recently placed on a leave of absence
with the team training in Auckland, N.Z., arrived
unannounced at the Long Beach Yacht Club at mid-day
Monday to join his younger brother Scott as tactician.
The boats had already left the harbor to practice,
but Dickson immediately jumped on a chase boat to
join Scott, a Long Beach resident who represents the
host club.
For the next five days starting Tuesday, they will
compete against crews from six America's Cup teams
- including defending champion Peter Holmberg, representing
Oracle. Chris Dickson deflected questions about whether
he had or needed permission from Oracle to participate
in others events, as Paul Cayard has after he was
consigned to shoreside duties late last year.
"I'm not here to talk about Oracle," Dickson said
after returning from the water. "I'm here to help
the little brother through the week."
The situation seems to be very different for Peter
Holmberg who clearly news that he'll be the "primary
helmsman" during Oracle Racing's America's Cup 2003
campaign.
"I'm not going to pull strings, that's for sure,"
said Holmberg, 41, of the U.S. Virgin Islands. "I've
been a driver now for the last year for Oracle--we've
had a few of them. But now they're focusing on me
as the driver, although there has been nothing officially
announced."
Speaking about his teammates, he said "Larry wants
this to be a team campaign and I think that Paul,
through no fault of his own--he's just a natural born
leader--just happened to walk a little differently
than Larry wanted him to," Holmberg explained. "As
for Chris, he's just a fiery figure and he clashed
with the team a few times--which was one time too
many--so the decision was made to take him aside as
well."
Peter
Holmberg coming back from injury (03/18/02) (source : ISAF)
Peter Holmberg of the Oracle America's Cup team
is anxious about the Steinlager Line 7 regatta which
starts on Wednesday (20 March). Holmberg hasn't sailed
for a month, having suffered a broken collar bone,
so he's starting right back at the deep end (that's
why John Cutler helmed the Oracle's boat during the
CORM Regatta).
"I'm a little anxious," he admitted, "I've been side-lined
with this injury, and I'm going from plaster cast,
to sling and straight back to sailing, I've been studying,
so I'm mentally prepared, but I may be a bit behind
physically."
Peter is currently in second place on the Swedish
Match Tour leaderboard, behind Sweden's Magnus Holmberg,
and is intent on catching last year's Tour winner
before the last event of this year's circuit, the
ACI Cup in Croatia at the end of May.
Doing match racing regattas will be part of Peter
Holmberg's regime for returning to full physical fitness,
and he plans to do as many as he can before preparations
for the America's Cup take over his time completely.
Roy
Heiner, a new helmsman for Oracle ? (03/11/02) (source
: )
In November, Dutchman Roy Heiner
has been axed as skipper of Volvo Ocean Race challengers
Assa Abloy, the Swedish syndicate in the Volvo Ocean
Race. Britain's Neal McDonald have taken over from
Heiner, who has leaved the boat.
This week, the dutch skipper was seen aboard Oracle's
Boat while the Team was out trailing in the Hauraki
Gulf. As Paul Cayard and Chris Dickson were demoted
from their position, a new candidate for principal
helmsman ?
Oracle
confirms that Dickson is off the boat (02/27/02) (source
: yachtracing.com)
Larry Ellison's Oracle Racing America's Cup team
issued a statement today confirming a report by YachtRacing.com
on Feb. 14 that Chris Dickson had been removed from
the sailing team, as Paul Cayard had been earlier.
Chief operating officer Bill Erkelens said in a statement
that "afterguard member Chris Dickson would take on
new duties with the team. "Chris has been one of the
world's leading professional sailors for 25 years,
and I want to ensure he can contribute his knowledge
over a wide range of challenger activities in the
months ahead," Erkelens said.
Dickson was quoted in a prepared statement: "Although
I would prefer to be on the water, I am happy to be
assigned to whichever areas the team feels I could
make the largest contribution. Oracle Racing has a
fantastic team with a huge amount of talent, and I'll
work wherever Larry Ellison and his advisors think
I fit the best."
Rumors
concerning Dickson are unfounded (02/17/02) (source : NZ
Herald)
Oracle Racing have received a retraction from
the website Yachtracing.com which claimed afterguard
member, and prominent New Zealand sailor, Chris Dickson
had been fired from their America's Cup team.
The website said Dickson had been "sidelined" and
the crew told he was taking a leave of absence from
Friday. It was also reported the changes were made
"after a period of difficulties" relating to personality
clashes within the team, but not with Oracle owner
Larry Ellison or his administrator, Bill Erkelens.
Oracle spokeswoman Joanna Ingley said the report was
unfounded. "Chris Dickson is on one week's leave of
absence which was verified a few weeks back," she
said. "He is with his wife who is about to have their
second child. He is due back at work in a week."
When asked if Dickson would be part of the sailing
team when he returned, she said Oracle named a new
sailing team daily and they would not name who was
in the team for fear it could help their opposition.
Dickson
has joined Cayard on the sidelines (02/16/02) (source : yachtracing.com)
There was no formal announcement, but the crew,
currently training in Auckland, was informed at a
Friday morning meeting that Chris Dickson had been
placed on a "leave of absence."
The move leaves two of the world's most prominent
competitive sailors in limbo. In December, Cayard
was relieved of his position as sailing director and
relegated to administrative duties for reasons still
unexplained to him or the public. He was given leave
to sail with Amer Sports One on the current leg of
the Volvo Ocean Race, which he won in 1997-98.
Dickson's departure comes as a larger surprise. He
has been a key part of Ellison's sailing operations
for years, long before the current campaign. As principal
helmsman on Ellison's maxi, Sayonara, he drove the
boat safely to victory in the tragic Sydney-to-Hobart
race of 1998.
Earlier, Dickson, 40, was the top-ranked match racer
in the world and was skipper for three America's Cup
campaigns with New Zealand in '86-87, Japan in '92
and his own Tag Heuer bid for New Zealand in '95.
YachtRacing.com was told that the change was made
"after a period of difficulties" related to personality
clashes within the team but not with Ellison or his
administrator, Bill Erkelens. The move apparently
was not related to training incidents with the boats
involving keels falling off and a mast breaking.
John Cutler, also an Americas's Cup veteran, remains
as sailing director, a role he assumed when Cayard
was beached. Peter Holmberg, the world's No. 2-ranked
match racer, is also a member of the afterguard and
a candidate for principal helmsman. Ellison has said
he also plans to do some of the driving.
Paul
Cayard is to join Amer Sport One (01/16/02) (source : Nautor
Challenge)
The weeks of speculation are over about Paul
Cayard departure from Oracle Racing. Amer Sports One
skipper Grant Dalton announced today Paul Cayard would
replace American tactician Dee Smith (who has returned
to the USA for an operation on his shoulder) for leg
four of the Volvo Ocean race wich starts at Auckland
on Jan. 27.
Cayard, as skipper of EF Language, won the 1997-98
Whitbread race, the forerunner of the Volvo Ocean
Race. Dalton, second explained "I chased Paul
around the world four years ago and I would rather
have him sailing with me than against me".
Dalton said: "Dee has been doing a great job,
but has had trouble with his shoulder for several
months. It‚s painful and restricts his movement and,
sooner or later, he would need surgey. The fact that
Paul is available for leg 4 allows Dee to get it over
with now". Cayard will take over Dee's tactical
role working with navigator Roger Nilson and he will
also have a role on deck.
Dalton added: 'Paul has been involved in the Nautor
Challenge syndicate from its inception. We have conferred
a number of times about various aspects of the campaign.
He is also a board member of Nautor's Swan and honorary
chairman of Nautor Challenge.
