Another Day. Another Class. Another Race.
Sailing and motorsport are similar in the sense that anyone (with enought cash) can just decide one day to create a new class and a new series. As if there weren’t already a bewildering choice of boats and events competing for sailors, sponsorship money and media exposure, promoters continue to try and carve out niches.
This week it has been announced that a Swiss company will attempt to resurect the MOD70, a trimaran design based on the ORMA 60 class. It’s been tried before, but last time, sponsors weren’t interested. Now the new owners plan to manage and promote the MOD 70′ multihull professional circuit comprising a crewed, multi-leg round the world race and a European championship comprising a mixture of offshore and inshore races.
Meanwhile, the OC Group are trying to create a different series with 100ft One Design triamrans like the one built for Oman Sail.
The planned MOD 70 calendar for a new circuit would be a fully crewed round the world race from October 2013 to April 2014 and repeated on a 3 year cycle. In addition an annual European Championship would try to find space in the busy summer months, starting in June 2012.
As with all these things, “the aim of the class is to be international and elite, attracting the world’s very best sailors.”
But haven’t we heard it all before? In 2007 Russell Coutts and Paul Cayard announced plans to create The World Sailing League (WSL). A dozen teams would compete in identical, state-of-the-art 70ft catamarans, with events held at premier sailing locations around the world.
No doubt, the new management team have done their homework and have a business plan that makes it all stack up. Perhaps they know something about the state of the sponsorship market that we don’t. Perhaps they have in-depth consumer data that shows a huge pent up demand for more round the world racing, however it is highly unlikely that such a series would attract new sponsors or viewers to sailing. Therefore the only place to get backing is to cannibalise existing programs.
Pro-sailing has to change. Instead of proliferation, now is a time for consolidation. Yacht Racing promoters need to think about the sport as a market, with products and segments and consumers. Moreover, promoters who are pushing basically the same product need to think about the bigger picture and instead of breaking a niche into smaller and smaller parts, combine to provide a compelling product to the widest audience possible.
GGYC Issues Statement: Ellison and Bertarelli in Talks.
April 8, 2009 by admin
Filed under Americas Cup, Europe, USA
The Golden Gate Yacht Club and BMW ORACLE have released a statement, 5 days after the New York court of appeal awarded the title of ‘Challenger of Record’ in their favour. The team principals; Larry Ellison and Ernesto Bertarelli are talking to each other, trying to come to a deal that will work for everyone. The statement reads:
The Golden Gate Yacht Club and its team, BMW ORACLE Racing, remain committed to negotiate with the Defender, Société Nautique de Genève/Alinghi, a conventional mutual consent protocol for the next America’s Cup that would involve all teams.
This follows the April 2 decision of the New York State Court of Appeals confirming the Golden Gate Yacht Club as the Challenger of Record for the 33rd America’s Cup.
BMW ORACLE Racing’s owner, Larry Ellison, and the President of Alinghi, Ernesto Bertarelli, have communicated with each other since the court ruling.
At this stage the club believes it is best to keep communications between the parties private in the interests of reaching a successful conclusion as quickly as possible.
It seems crazy that it took a panel of judges to create a situation where these guys would sit down and talk about the future of the Amerca’s Cup.
Both have a lot to gain, but perhaps more to lose from this round of talks. Neither man would want to go down in history as the guy who wrecked the America’s Cup for all time.
Groupama Continue to Back Cammas for Record Attempts
Frank Cammas has relaunched Groupama 3, just 12 months after it capsized near New Zealand.
The title sponsor of the team and vessal, Groupam, are standing behind Franck Cammas and his team. Frédérique Granado, Director of External Communication said then:
‘The adventure we’ve been involved in with Franck Cammas since 1997 has comprised some really great moments as well as some difficult periods at times… This capsize doesn’t call into question the harmonious collaboration and the trust we have in Franck’
The true extent of their commitment and solidarity, the mainstays of the principles of action developed by the Group from the start, really became evident in this new challenge…
The trimaran was returned to France in record time and ten months in the yard and 50,000 hours of work later, Groupama 3 is returning to its natural element for a 2009 campaign of record attempts, which will take her into the Mediterranean, the Atlantic Ocean and finally around the World in November for the Jules Verne Trophy.
Stéphane Guilbaud, team manager of the Groupama trimarans says:
‘Last winter, we really came close to catastrophe and losing the boat. Seeing Groupama 3 back in her natural element today takes us back to June 2006, and the date she was first launched. Two and a half years have gone by and we are even stronger today. This is initially due to the fact that we’ve learnt how to get the full potential out of her, but also because we have made her stronger.’
‘Some time on the ocean is now called for in order to test out the various elements which have been optimised. In the meantime, Groupama 3 will return to her base in Lorient in Southern Brittany, where her mast will be stepped and the boat will be fully kitted out for an initial sail scheduled for 23rd February, following static tests.’
The four records held by Groupama 3:
- The Discovery Route (Cadiz – San Salvador) in 7 days, 10 hours and 58 minutes at an average of 21.7 knots
- Miami – New York in 1 day, 11 hours and 5 minutes at an average of 27 knots
- New York – Lizard Point in 4 days, 3 hours and 58 minutes at an average of 29.26 knots
- Distance covered in 24 hours of 794 miles at an average of 33.08 knots
The three record attempts scheduled for 2009:
- Marseilles – Carthage in May. Record held by Orange 2 in 17 hours and 56 minutes at an average of 25.5 knots
- New York – Lizard Point in July and August. Record held by Groupama 3
- Jules Verne Trophy in November. Record held by Orange 2 in 50 days 16 hours and 20 minutes at an average of 17.89 knots
Nigel Irens – Unsung Hero
January 13, 2009 by admin
Filed under Business, United Kingdom
A great article in the Times (UK) about UK designer Nigel Irens. Irens is behind the boats that break round the world records including those of Francis Joyon, Ellen Macarthur and the current challenger Thomas Coville.
Irens, 62, is one of Britain’s unsung heroes of design and innovation, modestly going about his business from his home in Devon. “We didn’t even go out to tender; we went straight to Nigel,” Mark Turner, MacArthur’s business partner, said. “Ellen knew him and he’d taken her under his wing. He’s a legend really, it’s going to be hard to break these records.
“He’s a lovely guy and genuinely passionate about it. He is also a rare Englishman who is supremely respected in France – there are not many British sailing related people who are loved by the French, but Nigel is.”
But even within the world of inshore sailing Irens’s status is such that when Alinghi, the America’s Cup holders, were preparing to race BMW Oracle in a trimaran, they called on Irens and Cabaret to be part of the team.
“Nigel is at home designing a cruising catamaran or a 100ft trimaran to break records,” Turner said.
As if to confirm that, Irens reels off his list of recent commissions; from Alinghi to a modified Sodeb’O for a round-the-world attempt by Oman, the Arab nation, to a 50ft race trimaran from a giant co-operative of Brittany vegetable farmers.
Irens wants to build a 50-metre long multihull for a crewed record attempt. But in his crystal ball he sees boats with no need for huge beams or keels, because the forces are going through the boat, rather than trying to capsize it. “There were people with the first kites out there from 1974,” Irens said. “They were crazy things, but it was a sail whose centre of effort passed through the same axis as the centre of mass and the centre of lateral resistance, so it was a zero heeling device. You can’t help but think that is the future.”
Coville Beats 24 hour record on Sodeb’O
December 8, 2008 by admin
Filed under France, Other, Record Attempts
Thomas Coville has beaten the single-handed 24 hour distance record on a multihull this Sunday evening at 1815 UT with a total distance of 620.80 miles covered at the average speed of 25.87 knots.
The maxi trimaran Sodeb’O is making headway beam onto the wind in a 22 to 26 knot NNW’ly air flow with waves of 4 metres. Coville has just broken his previous record set in the same zone on 6th January 2008. At that time he covered 619 miles in 25.80 knots.The wind is filling in so the record is set to continue to increase over the coming hours. Naturally, this new record has yet to be approved by the WSSRC.
