XXXIIe America's Cup

 
USA 76 in Auckland
(© Th. Martinez)
 
 

 

 Oracle prove Swiss can be beaten (01/16/03)
 (source : NZoom)

If Alinghi won Wednesday's third race, it showed Swiss syndicate is not infallible on the water. Alinghi's traveller trimmer Murray Jones said Alinghi was aware that they could lose the race.

"It was a tough race, it could have gone either way all the way around. Fortunately on the second run they fouled us and that gave us an opportunity, but they still sailed very well on the last beat and it was getting pretty close for them to get their penalty in."

San Francisco's Oracle was ahead of its Swiss rival by about 100 meters just seconds from the finish and Alinghi crossed the finish line just one second ahead of Oracle after the American crew had executed their first penalty.

For Oracle the loss was heartbreaking, but at least the race showed they can match the Swiss, especially in light conditions.

"I think today we got it all together better than we have done in the past two races and the result shows that we were faster and more competitive" Oracle strategist Tommaso Chieffi said, very pleased with the team's performance.

"Our tactical calls were well executed and the crew work was just fantastic so we are very pleased with today’s performance and all the calls that were made".


At the post-race press conference Chieffi pointed out that Oracle is far from resigning.

"I think that we have been written off in the past and all the newspaper are saying we are making this series as easy at it could be. But today some people will realise not to write us off yet."

Now Oracle know they can beat Alinghi in the finals, they just have to stay out of trouble.

 
 Can Oracle ever beat Alinghi ? (01/15/03)
 (source : NZ Herald)
Lay day could not have come at a better time for Chris Dickson's Oracle BMW Racing, who are struggling to find a way to halt the charge by Russell Coutts' Alinghi team to challenge for the America's Cup.

While Oracle may have been unlucky in the first match which was dictated by wind shifts, they were simply outclassed monday by Alinghi, who sailed faster upwind and defended tenaciously downwind.

It now seems obvious. The Swiss boat sailed not only faster, but also at a closer angle to the breeze. That meant Alinghi sailed less distance faster, yacht racing's ultimate goal.

"Little quicker than them now," the Alinghi tactician, Brad Butterworth, could be heard telling his crew. "Little quicker than them now." It was an understatement and, by the first mark, Alinghi was well advanced on their American rivals, enjoying a lead of four boat-lengths.

Schuemann said Alinghi's ability to seize the lead on the first beat, even when disadvantaged at the start, had been crucial.

"Obviously in match racing it's good to be in the lead and in control so we optimized our boat to be good upwind and right now I think you can see they did the opposite," he said.

Schuemann's comment reinforces the belief Russell Coutts, Alinghi's dual Cup-winning helmsman, demanded the Swiss designers build a powerful upwind boat that would always reach the opening mark first.

In Cup races the boat that leads at the first mark wins almost 80 percent of the time. Alinghi's winning percentage, after leading at the top mark, is even higher.

Coutts said Monday that Alinghi "sometimes" had a speed advantage upwind. "I think the boats are fairly even," he said. "I actually think the wind shifts have gone our way so far but I'm very, very happy with our boat."

Upwind Alinghi have proved to have an edge and downwind Oracle continually make gains, but not enough to pass the Swiss crew, so far.

When asked if he thought Oracle could have caught them had their pole not smashed, Coutts replied: "It would have been a long shot ... I don't think so."

However, he was concerned with Oracle's strength downwind. "They made a gain on us and that is something we will have to look at", Coutts said. "I believe Oracle could be a little faster than us downwind."

"I don't believe it's going to be 5-0," Alinghi strategist Jochen Schuemann said. But confidence is oozing from every section of Alinghi, with the Swiss team even able to continue using old sails (they are restricted to 45 during the LV Cup and can have another 15 if they reach the America's Cup).

Down 2-0, it is going to be a hard road back for Oracle. A chink in Alinghi's armor, that's all Oracle were looking for, desperately searched for any tiny fissure.

"We are planning on doing a bit of work," Oracle navigator Ian Burns said after the race. "In terms of the sailing it is pretty much the same tempo and outlook every day. But the real trick is to keep the guys confident so if we do get behind, they can believe we can fight back."

"To date that hasn't been a problem, but as the round goes on it will become a bit more difficult if we don't win a few races."

"We are pretty confident that we will improve some things that need to be improved, and in the next race we will be confident we'll be able to take it right up to these guys."

In terms of boatspeed, Burns still believes there is little between the two. "I think the time around the course is pretty similar, they are a bit faster up and we are a bit faster down".

Alinghi needs three more victories in the best-of-nine series to advance to the America's Cup finals in February against Team New Zealand.
 
 Ellison on board ... as 17th man (01/13/03)
 (source : NZ Herald)
Oracle boss Larry Ellison received the big call-up yesterday - not to join his team's afterguard but to sail as 17th man in his team's first race against Alinghi in the Louis Vuitton final. However, it was a move which sparked some confusion.

Ellison was a member of the team's afterguard in the early stages of the regatta and had hoped to follow in the wake of Cable News Network founder Ted Turner, who skippered the yacht Courageous to win the America's Cup in 1977.

In October, though, Oracle was losing in the challenger trials. With his $85 million campaign in jeopardy, Chris Dickson was reinstated and the billionaire was sidelined, Dickson saw him as dead weight. Ellison went along.

The Oracle chief vowed two years ago to drive his 80-foot racing yacht to victory in the America's Cup. But this fall, Ellison agreed to remain on the sidelines "for the good of the team."

"I had a personal ambition to sail on that boat," Ellison said at the time. "But the fact of the matter is, my personal goal and ambitions have to take second place to the team's goal to win."

Now with a place in the America's Cup match at stake, Ellison is back on the boat as 17th man, a viewing position, but with no involvement allowed. However, looking into the rules it is unclear whether Ellison is actually entitled to sit in that position.

Article 41.1 of the America's Cup-class rule states that a person with acknowledged "technical or tactical skill" shall not be allowed as 17th man.

With such a profound background in sailing (Ellisonhas won two pro-am world sailing championships in his maxiboat Sayonara), one would assume this would rule out Ellison, especially considering he was good enough to be in his team's afterguard for most of the races in round-robin one.

Unsure themselves, Oracle did the honourable thing and checked with Alinghi beforehand to see whether it would be all right for Ellison to sit at the back of the boat.

However, an Alinghi spokesperson had not heard that Oracle had approached his team for their approval. "Why would they need to seek our approval for a 17th man?" the spokesperson asked innocently.

Because Ellison could be regarded as someone with a lot of sailing knowledge which makes him illegal as a 17th man. "Oh," the spokesperson laughed.

It seems Ellison as No 17 does not bother the Swiss. Which will no doubt please Ellison, who will more than likely perch in the back of the boat for race two today.
 
 What is the Oracle "Goose" ? (01/11/03)
 (source : Sailinganarchy.com)
At the end of the semifinals, the jury issued answers to the OneWorld radar questions. Much to the surprise of all the teams, including Seattle's Team, the jury ruled that laser guns and radar are illegal.

This despite wording in the Protocol that all the teams thought permitted laser guns and radar to “ping” their opponents in a given match.

Until now every team has used radar and/or laser guns during this Louis Vuitton Cup and, for that matter, in Cup racing as far back as 1983. But no one could be disqualified retrospectively -- the interpretation came after the end of the last series of racing.

The jury thought that Alinghi and Oracle (and Team NZ for the America’s Cup Match) would quickly agree to a new rule that explicitly permitted Laser Guns and Radar for the simple purpose of tracking the opposing yacht in match.

The jury even offered a draft new rule and Alinghi proposed that just laser guns be permitted but Oracle people said they are happy to stick with the jury’s decision.

On Monday the USA 76 and SUI 64 were given their LVC Finals measurement certificates and began the “no change period.” This means the yachts cannot be changed now through the end of the Finals.

Then at Tuesday’s unveiling ceremony, much to the surprise of the media and VIPs assembled, especially Alinghi’s, there in plain view on Oracle’s roll bar was the Goose ! So it seems clear that the Goose, whatever it is, is still legal, and that Oracle will be racing with it.

So if it is not a radar, what is it ?

One obvious possibility is that before the jury’s ruling it was housing a radar, and now is empty (Oracle have never confirmed or denied that the Goose is a radar or that they even use radar).

TV New Zealand commentators had speculated that it was a Doppler radar to detect windshifts up the course (but few believe a Doppler radar could be that small).

Another school of thought is that The Goose could be some sort of low power transmitting antennae (hence its size) for sending extremely high speed and high bandwidth data to a satellite in geosynchronous orbit.

This would allow a huge amount of data to be sent, via the satellite, in a continuous stream directly to the oft-acknowledged Oracle team super-computer in the States for immediate analysis and turn-around to the shore-based technical team in Auckland. Formula One Teams now do this routinely.
 
 Dickson promises more speed on Oracle (01/10/03)
 (source : NZ Herald)
Oracle skipper Chris Dickson is promising a "significantly different boat" for the America's Cup challenger yachting series Louis Vuitton Cup final, due to start on the Hauraki Gulf here tomorrow.

When the two teams met previously in the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals last month, Alinghi looked comfortable, winning 4-0. But today Dickson insisted he was feeling confident about the finals races, while acknowledging Oracle were the underdogs.

"The sail number of the boat we're using is the same, 76, and after that the similarities disappear rather quickly," he said. "We're a significantly different boat than we were a month ago. We know we've found boat speed in a lot of different areas."

Many of the projects Oracle had been working on had come together during the past month, and the team were now stronger in a "huge number of areas".

Coutts said Alinghi had a lot of respect for Oracle. "Everyone knows they're a team stacked with talent," he said, adding that Alinghi were looking forward to a "real battle" this time.

"We know it's not going to be easy and this series against Oracle BMW Racing is going to be very different from previous races. They will certainly be faster than last time".
 
 "Refined but conventional" design for USA 76 (01/07/03)
 (source : NZ Herald)
The San Francisco-based challengers dropped the covers from the keel of USA 76 at 11am today, two hours after rivals Team Alinghi had unveiled their boat, SUI 64.

The most obvious difference between the boats was that USA 76 had keel winglets toward the rear of the keel bulb, while SUI 64 had them in the middle. But Bruce Farr said he doubted the position of the winglets would be a significant factor in a boat's performance.

"Oracle has a more detailed keel and hull arrangement than Alinghi," Farr said.

Neither of the challengers will be using the radical third appendage that Team New Zealand is rumoured to have developed to increase their boats' effective waterline length and potential speed.

Oracle's head of design, New Zealander Bruce Farr, said the team had ended up with a "heavily refined, fairly conventional boat". USA-76 was narrower than most of the other boats, including Alinghi, that had entered the competition.

Despite the fact that Oracle were outclassed by Alinghi in their semifinals, Farr believed his team could win the challenger finals.

"We have done a lot of work in the past couple of months and feel we've made advances on all fronts," Farr said.
 
 Oracle BMW Racing stick with 76 (01/06/03)
 (source : NZ Herald)
Oracle BMW Racing has declared the boat it plans to use in the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals against Alinghi.

The Chris Dickson-skippered Oracle team said, like Alinghi, they would be staying with the boat they have raced in the challenger series so far. That boat is USA-76, with the other option available to Oracle having been its older boat USA-71.

As Alinghi's SUI-64 has a 21-3 record in challenger races (including 5-1 against Oracle), USA-76 is 20-8 in previous rounds.

Spokeswoman Joanna Ingley said no one from the team was available to comment on the decision.