Sail Racing Magazine – sailracingmagazine.com –
The big four 34th America’s Cup contenders are each taking a different approach in their team selections for final round of the AC45 World Series in Naples, Italy next month.
Of the four AC72 campaigning crews, only Emirates Team New Zealand will be fielding their regular full-strength A-team crew.
Most conspicuous in their absence are Russell Coutts and Jimmy Spithill from Oracle, along with Loick Peyron and Nathan Outteridge from Artemis, as both the San Francisco based teams opt to maintain the impetus of their AC72 programmes over closing out the ACWS.
Artemis Racing are the latest of the AC72 squads to announce their lineup for Naples and have named the relatively unknown Swedish 49er sailor Charlie Ekberg as helm. Ekberg is also the helm of the Swedish Red Bull Youth America’s Cup and will be joined in Naples by fellow 49er sailor and RBYAC squad member Niclas During along with the experience of wingman Troy Tindill, Matt Cornwell on bow, Peter Merrington as floater and Anthony Nossiter trimming.
Oracle Team USA are sending just one crew to Naples, headed by Australian London 2012 Laser gold medallist Tom Slingsby as helmsman. Slingsby’s previous AC45 experience was as tactician for Russell Coutts at three ACWS regattas in 2011 and 2012. Slingsby will have San Newton sailing as wing trimmer, Kinley Fowler on jib trim, Rome Kirby as runner and Piet van Nieuwenhuijzen as bowman. Newton, Kirby and van Nieuwenhuijzen were all previously part of Coutts’ AC45 crew.
Meanwhile, Luna Rossa – Emirates Team New Zealand’s sparring partner down in Auckland – will be sending two boats to Naples, where they will use the regatta to allow their chosen AC72 helmsman Chris Draper (GBR) and tactician Francesco Bruni (ITA) to go head to head against each other.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, Oracle and Artemis’ decision not to send their top crews to Naples has angered ETNZ CEO Grant Dalton who believes the current America’s Cup holders and the official challenger of record are showing a cynical lack of commitment to the AC45 World Series.
In a terse post on the team’s official blog Dalton said: “We will be there with a full-strength crew. Is it just us or does anyone else think it is hypocrisy that neither Artemis nor Oracle is sending their A team to Naples?”.
Dalton goes further, suggesting that the two teams could be trying to gain an unfair advantage in their AC72 programmes and fires a warning shot across both their bows about asking for more big boat sailing time while ETNZ and Luna Rossa are in Naples.
“To compete seriously at the ACWS regattas teams need to be there to train a week or so before the first race if they’re to have any chance of a good showing,” Dalton said. “That means another week of AC72 sailing lost.
“I imagine they intend lobbying for permission to sail their AC72s when the Naples regatta is being raced (which under the Protocol is not allowed without prior approval).
“We’ve even heard that Artemis was thinking of paying the US$150K fine if they don’t get approval. Now that would be a beauty!”
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