http://www.boatinternational.com | April 2018PHOTOGRAPHY: HARRY KH/LANDROVER BARON BOARD
I
t’s a little over 10 months since we made it through to the semi-finals of
the 35th America’s Cup. We got knocked out by the eventual winners,
Emirates Team New Zealand, by five races to two, and immediately
announced that – with support already confirmed from Land Rover
and 11th Hour Racing – we would continue and challenge for the next
America’s Cup.
We had a lot to review once we returned to the UK; as a
new team, we were playing catch up all the way through the
campaign. Looking back, it was clear that we had done a great job
maturing the organisation, particularly commercially, but
technically we got ahead of ourselves a bit. We started of with
a good plan, but we failed to focus enough on the key performance
diferentiators.
We’ve now got Grant Simmer in as CEO. I have always wanted
him to be involved and he was very close to joining when we started
the team in 2014. He has won the America’s Cup four times and
been involved in every aspect of an America’s Cup team. Grant
and I have a very strong relationship, which will be key to creating
a winning team.
Recently, we further strengthened the technical team with the
appointment of Nick Holroyd as chief designer, a role he formerly held at
Team New Zealand and Softbank Team Japan. It’s fantastic he’s agreed to
join us. We’ve also signed Harold Youngren and Len Imas, two of the very
best fluid dynamics engineers in the business; both were with Team New
Zealand for the 34th Cup and Oracle for the 35th.
At the same time as all this was going on, we were also waiting. Emirates
Team New Zealand was the only team in the competition that had not
signed the framework agreement that outlined the protocol and format of
the 36th America’s Cup. So we were back to the old Cup tradition of waiting
for them to negotiate with the Challenger of Record, Luna Rossa.
The 2017 America’s Cup inquests are over. Now it’s time
to focus on 2021 – and foiling monohulls, says Ben AinslieIf at irst...
The major change that hit the headlines was the return to
monohulls. Then a few weeks later we got the initial concept drawings
for the boat, and we saw that this was not monohull racing as we knew
it. We’re going to be foiling again and, in the right conditions, this boat
will be as quick as or quicker than the AC50s raced in the last Cup.
The big thing about it is the potential cost and the potential for some
pretty massive wipe-outs. The budget to design, build and race the new
class could be huge if we are not all careful.
There are two key areas in the commercial regulations where we
need to have more information and better understanding. We’ve got
a good relationship with the defender, Emirates Team New Zealand.
Like us, they don’t have a wealthy individual behind them paying all
the bills. So we hope they will see things the same way as us. Hopefully
by Easter we can say: “Right, this is the structure, the team, the budget,
the strategy. We’re of.”
Our team will be in action this year aboard Tony Langley’s TP52
Gladiator. It will be a good opportunity for us to get the team out
racing, to retain some of our core sailing team and try out new people.
We’ve also begun working on our first test boat, acquiring a hull that
we think is appropriate, and we will refit that with foils and systems to
start learning about how this new class of boat will work. There’s an
immense amount to learn, but we are ready to hit the water foiling.B38