Dean's Blog

Getting ready for San Fran

Long time since drinks as they say! Blogging doesn't really come naturally to me but I will try and keep a little more current over the next few months.

Back last week from the AC45 event in Naples. The upside from the event is we won the Coastal Race the weekend before the main event. With €25,000 first prize our social committee are pretty happy with the result. The downside is we led the main event for the second year running into the final fleet race only to have a disappointing result and finish 3rd for the event. The weighting being what it is means pretty much whoever wins the last race wins the regatta and this again proved to be the case.

I'm back in Auckland now for three weeks. Going into our base it is very much a ghost town. With a large contingent of our team already on the ground in San Fran preparations are going well with setting up the base and waiting for NZL 5 to arrive. NZL 1 is undergoing final upgrades before it gets shipped mid May.

It is hard to believe that our NZ based preparations are now over and we only have to focus on San Fran. It is a very exciting time for us all and we know now that getting to the Bay and learning how to sail the 72 there will be the key to success or failure of this campaign.

Dean

Sailing a 72 in 25 knots

Yesterday was our first day of sailing the 72 in good breeze.  The Americas Cup Protocol has wind limits set for 5-33 knots which by anyones estimation is high, particularly in a wing sailed 72ft catamaran.

Spring in Auckland often brings periods of strong SW flow and this for us is most representative of conditions we need to prepare for San Fran.  Yesterday we had breeze averaging in the mid twenties and gusting up to a max of 30kts.  It would be an understatement to say that the boat doesn't have your full attention in conditions like this!

It is a unique feeling when you charge off downwind at speeds north of 40knots.  However in the back of your mind you are constantly thinking of the what if situations where something breaks or goes wrong.  Needless to say it would not be a happy ending.

It is amazing how the confidence builds in pushing further up the range of conditions.  You certainly have to have a huge amount of respect for the boat.  One simple mistake and you run the risk of doing massive amounts of damage.  But we need to keep pushing because as we know San Fran will have it's fair share of stronger breeze days

Dean

Good day for the team

Yesterday was a pretty good day for the team in San Fran. We started the day with a solid win over Artemis Red in our semi final match. We then had two fleet races where we placed first and fourth to move up to third in the overall standings. To finish the day we raced Oracle Spithill in the final of the match race. I made a mistake in the final 10 seconds and pretty much handed the race to the Oracle team.

All in all yesterday was a good solid result. We improved around the start line, our speed was good and it felt like we understood the race course well. Still plenty to learn but in general we feel that we have improved dramatically on where we were a month ago which is pleasing.

Today is Super Sunday with the heavily weighted final last race. A good result here and anything can happen. We will certainly give it our all to try and secure a good result in the fleet racing.

Dean

Average day in SF

Today was really an average day for us although I take a lot of positives from it.

Nothing much has changed in sailing. You need to start well, sail fast and smart and you get good results. Today we had two poor starts which was just through bad boat positioning on my part. In both races we were second row at the start, but in both races we managed to work our way back through the fleet which is something we have been struggling to do in recent times. The composure on board is good and thinking about opportunities to pick off a boat at a time is incredibly important.

Our life would be a whole lot better if we can get off the line in better shape so will be looking for a much improved performance around the start line.

Tomorrow we race our semi final in the match race against Artemis Red before two fleet races. Looking forward to it

Dean

Good day ..... almost!

Yesterday we had a long day and what was nearly a good solid day.

We had our quarterfinal match race at midday against the French Energy Team. We had a good start and led around mark 1. However in the first gybe we got rolled and trailed around the bottom gate. We kept things tight and crossed ahead at the first intersection upwind and extended for a good win to advance to the semifinal tomorrow.

We then had to go back out on the water at 5pm for the two fleet races. In race one we started well and were in a good position at mark 1. We sailed a good run and upwind to slip into 2nd position which we held until the finish.

Race 2 was not so good unfortunately. We got a penalty right before the start for not keeping clear of Korea and found ourselves back in last place at mark 1. We managed to pick off 3 boats around the course to get an 8th which was a disappointing end to what was otherwise a good day. You just cannot afford to give away any ground in this style of racing and to concede a penalty at the start makes the chance of having a good race very difficult. We are much happier with our speed and feel we have a much better understanding of the venue than when we were here last time.

Today we have two more fleet races so looking for two good solid results. Semis and finals for the match race are tomorrow.

All for now

Dean

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