The America’s Cup is a challenge between Yacht Clubs from different nations. Find the latest news and investigations from Tip & Shaft on the subject.
Three weeks before the start of the America’s Cup World Series in Auckland, Tip & Shaft tries to understand the design differences between the new, second AC75s of the four teams taking part to the 36th America’s Cup.
New Zealand’s hottest sailing duo, Olympic gold medallists and America’s Cup winners, Pete Burling and Blair Tuke will put together a Kiwi crew – entirely independent of Emirates Team New Zealand – for what will effectively be SailGP’s Season 2 starting in April. Campaigning to defend their 49er Olympic title in Tokyo next year, the pair look set to have a busy, carefully structured 2021. But before all that there is the matter of the America’s Cup defence in home waters. Tip & Shaft spoke to Pete and Blair this week…
Eight months before the 36th match kicks off America’s Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand and his boss, Grant Dalton, are shaken by an alleged embezzlement of public funds that is making a lot of noise in New Zealand. Tip & Shaft looked at a story which is still running…
In April Iain Murray was announced as the Race Director of the 36th America’s Cup. It will be the third time that Murray has done this job. At the same time Murray is Race Director for SailGP, Performance Director for Australian Sailing and so has been dealing with the effects of the Olympic postponement on the Aussie team. He took time to speak to Tip & Shaft….
With the Covid-19 pandemic affecting the whole planet, it has meant a great deal of uncertainty for sport in general and sailboat races are no exception. To try to get to grips with this new situation, Tip & Shaft is carrying out a series of five interviews about the future of sail racing. Our fourth guest, Stewart Hosford, CEO of Alex Thomson Racing from 2010 to 2019, is now CEO of Sir Keith Mills’ pan global sports investment group Origin Sports.
World renowned boat builder Jason Carrington has had something of a dream order book since setting up Carrington Boats in November 2017 with the Carkeek designed Fast40 Rán. The new Imoca Hugo Boss for Alex Thomson Racing, INEOS’ UK’s Britannia as well as their nearing completion AC75 boat 2 are complemented by a part completed Ocean Race Imoca 60 which is currently on hold but which may become available. Tip & Shaft spoke with Jason.
America’s Cup racer turned commentator, one design keelboat champion turned two times Volvo Ocean Race skipper, Ken Read is President of North Sails and was in Antigua last week sailing in the J Class. Tip & Shaft caught up with Read.
The World Championships of the 470 class (March 16-21), the giant Trofeo Princesa Sofia Olympic regatta (March 27-April 4), the Sailing World Cup Genoa (11-19 April), the 44Cup Portoroz (22-26 April), the GC32 Racing Tour in Oman (25-29 March), the ACWS Cagliari (22-26 April), these events are all either cancelled or postponed. In France the list of events to be rescheduled include Easter’s Spi Ouest France, the Massila Cup, the SNIM, the Solo Maitre CoQ The coronavirus outbreak is affecting the whole of the competitive sailing world. Tip & Shaft takes a view.
In February, American Magic suppliers Helly Hansen took a very small media group behind the curtain in Pensacola, Florida to see the winter training base of American Magic. Tip & Shaft’s Andi Robertson found skipper and executive director Terry Hutchinson in excellent spirits despite the frustration that these incredibly complex AC75s are spending so much time in the yard and not enough time on the water, but – as he says – it is the same for everyone. The complexity and science create opportunities and American Magic are doing all they can to seize them with both hands.
After taking part in early February in the “Barrés de la Yole” in Martinique, it was in the garden of a sumptuous villa in Falmouth Bay, Antigua, from where he takes the start this Monday of his first RORC Caribbean 600 with the crew of the Multi 70 PowerPlay (ex MOD70 Paprec Recyclage), that Loïck Peyron replied to some questions from Tip & Shaft for its 200th French issue. The skipper from La Baule, now 60, looked back at his busy 2019 and talked to us about his latest news.
As Team Director and Skipper of the Luna Rossa Challenge, Max Sirena has a lot on his plate these days, looking to ensure the first meeting of the new AC75s at the opening America’s Cup World Series event in Cagliari in April is as productive and smoothly run as possible. At the same time he is trying to minimise the downtime caused by their rig dropping overboard during training on January 27. Tip & Shaft took an early morning cappuccino with Sirena earlier this week.
With the design of the new Arkéa Paprec and Corum L’Epargne, Juan Yacht Design returned to the IMOCA class during 2019, coming back to a class which has not yet really yielded the big successes that Juan K enjoyed in the Volvo Ocean Race. 48-year-old Juan Kouyoumdjian remains one of the most interesting architects of this generation. His spectrum of interest spans everything from Olympic class optimisations (Finn and previously the Star) to the America’s Cup, including record breaking monohulls and production yachts (including the latest ClubSwan 50 and ClubSwan 36). Speaking to Tip & Shaft, he majors this time on the IMOCA and the America’s Cup.
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