We caught up with the CEO of Artemis Racing before a full day of AC45 training in Valencia and talked about the unfortunate incident with the AC72 wing and the impact it will have on the Swedish team’s America’s Cup campaign.
VSail.info: As you understand, my first question can’t be other than about the incident with the AC72 wing you had some days ago in Valencia. Can you provide more details on that? How did it happen, what where the conditions at the time of the incident, what is the extent of the damage and how will that affect the overall America’s Cup campaign of Artemis Racing?
Paul Cayard: What I can say is that conditions weren’t extremely rough, it was 13 knots of wind and the boat had been sailing for three hours when, suddenly, the wing came crashing down. As you know, nobody was hurt, fortunately. Ironically, the way it landed on the boat was extremely convenient, it didn’t go on the water. It was actually quite an easy rescue operation, which was very, very fortunate.
VSail.info: I heard from one source that the wing broke in three-four pieces. Is that correct?
Paul Cayard: That’s not accurate, the wing is broken in one place. It’s not broken in three-four pieces. We salvaged 100% of it and as I said, it was quite fortunate, the wing didn’t even go on the water, it landed all on the boat. So, we just hooked up the bow tow and towed back to the dock.
VSail.info: What were the boat and crew doing in the precise moment of the incident? Were they maneuvering when the wing came crashing down?
Paul Cayard: No, they were just reaching along, steady state, it was not in the middle of a tack or gybe.
VSail.info: I suppose you are currently investigating what caused the failure and the breakage.
Paul Cayard: Yes, we are doing our investigation to learn from this, to learn why it broke. Our investigation is both internal and external. We had two external consultants come and do various tests, basically a forensic study of what happened. Obviously, whenever you have something like that happen there was a series of minor failures and then a large failure. It wasn’t a rigging failure or anything like that, the structure itself failed.
We are investigating so that we can learn. We are right at the outset of building our second wing right now, which is about to get going. Fortunately, we hadn’t started that and we will be able to incorporate what we are learning now, not only from that incident but we have been sailing since March 15th with the wing. We have been fortunate to learn a lot of things about the wing which we will incorporate into our second wing.
VSail.info: Is the second wing, similarly to the first one, being built at Future Fibres?
Paul Cayard: I can’t comment on that. I can’t tell you what is going on exactly with that. As I said, we are learning from the first wing and, of course, we have to repair it to get sailing again. It is fair to say it is a major damage and we will not be sailing our AC72, as planned, on July 1st, unfortunately. We were all set to do that and this is a bit of a setback but, hopefully, in September or October we will be able to get sailing with our AC72 yacht.
VSail.info: So, if I understand well, your initial assessment, at least right now, is that you will be able to repair the broken wing.
Paul Cayard: Yes, we absolutely have to. We are only allowed to have three wings, so we have to repair it and keep it as part of our inventory. We are right now deciding exactly what the methodology is going to be but are going to repair it as fast as we can. I’m pretty sure the AC72 will first sail with Wing 1 because it will take longer to build Wing 2. We hope to sail maybe around October with the AC72.
If one is to believe Paul Cayard, when the wing came crashing down, conditions weren't considerably different from the ones in the maiden sail. Photo copyright Sander van der Borch / Artemis Racing
VSail.info: In our last conversation you had mentioned you would be training with Oracle in San Francisco with your AC72′s some time this summer. Obviously, the incident will have to change your initial schedule. What will you do now? Will you still train with Oracle later this year or will you spend all 30 days of sailing, you are allowed by the rules, here in Valencia?
Paul Cayard: No, we will not spend all 30 days here in Valencia. I’m pretty sure we won’t do that and as far the training with Oracle is concerned we have cancelled that yet because we were debating whether we were going to sail just before or after the AC45 event in San Francisco, which ends on October 7th. Optimistically, we are hopeful we can still meet that schedule, after October 7th. It’s a little early to say exactly because we are just getting into it, getting the materials, getting the process, who is doing what. I think that on July 1st we will have a good idea what the delivery schedule will be.
VSail.info: I think it would be an understatement to say you must be extremely upset with the incident. How much will affect it though the America’s Cup campaign? Can we say your chances have now been, realistically, brought down to zero?
Paul Cayard: You don’t know me very well, asking me if I think it’s over for Artemis now! We could have broken the wing a year from now and I would still never think it was over for Artemis! I have sailed around the world twice, I faced a lot of different difficulties and this is just part of the game. We are playing a high-tech game and this type of things will happen. We were the first team to sail with an AC72 wing and we are the first team to experience this kind of incident. I’m pretty sure though we will not be the last!
We can look back at the whole thing and say, “Wow! We were super lucky!” We learned about this in May 2012, it was a critical thing and changed the way we built our wings. We had the time to incorporate that in Wing 2 and Wing 3 and we might be sitting in San Francisco in May 2013 and someone else’s wing might fall down. That will be a lot more devastating because it will be just one month before the Louis Vuitton Cup starts.
I have been around the planet a few times. If you remember, my Pirates of the Caribbean boat broke the first night of the Volvo Ocean Race! Did I think it was over? No, we fixed the boat and finished second in the race, beating five other guys. That’s the way it goes.
VSail.info: What about the AC45 program? I just saw your boat docked in front of the Sagunto base, I guess ready for another day of training. Will that now become the team’s main focus?
Paul Cayard: We are fortunate to have two AC45 boats, we are also fortunate with the schedule of the AC Word Series. We will be in San Francisco for two events, and right now there isn’t any other event scheduled next fall, so that’s perfect for us. We will get both of our AC45′s there, start sailing from August 1st and really focus. We’re going to learn the Bay, we’re going to race ourselves hard and we’ll probably race with Oracle there since they have their two boats as well. It’s perfect because August and September are America’s Cup weather conditions. We will be there, pushing hard.
The launch of the first Artemis AC72 yacht will not happen before October. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / VSail.info
VSail.info: Let’s briefly talk about the breakage again. Do you think that the fact it took place under quite benign conditions, at least according to what you told us, proves correct all the people that had voiced their criticism against the yacht and expressed their worry about how delicate and potentially dangerous they could be?
Paul Cayard: It doesn’t really prove anything by itself. An educated person needs to look at the entirety. You really have to understand what that wing is, how it was designed and why it was designed. Then, you would have to look at the sailing we have done! We have sailed the wing with 25 knots of wind and seas that are larger than one meter, which is bigger than what you would get in San Francisco bay. We have sailed in these conditions successfully, here in Valencia, during the last two months.
Moreover, nobody knows what experiments we were running or if we had modified the wing in some way. Only WE know what we have done with that wing in the last two months and as I said, WE only know how it was designed originally. That’s the beauty of the experience we had. I wouldn’t read too much into the fact it broke in 13 knots of wind and then conclude that these things are unsailable.
For sure, sailing an AC72 with a wing in San Francisco and with the wave limits set by the class is a very big technical challenge. That’s a fair statement. Probably, it is also fair to state that this America’s Cup will be much more dependent on the equipment, its maintenance and its reliability than previous America’s Cups. That’s a fair statement, especially given the fact we will be racing in San Francisco, where the average wind speed is 20 knots, every day. That’s all true but that’s the challenge. We have to have good engineers, good boat builders, good shore team and a smart sailing team to keep this equipment intact.
VSail.info: Regarding the sailing team, Michel Desjoyeaux, the famous French multihull sailor, was at the helm of the Artemis Racing D35 last week ago. Does this have any relation to the America’s Cup campaign? Will he have any role within the America’s Cup campaign?
Paul Cayard: No, there is no plan for that this time. Basically, in that regatta, two weeks ago, I couldn’t be present and Torbjorn wasn’t either, so we needed someone to helm the boat and Michel is, obviously, very good in this class. He won the circuit last year and you will probably see him again this weekend. There is nothing particular about it, we just want to keep the D35 going well.
VSail.info: How would you assess the performance of the AC45 team in this year’s two AC World Series events in Italy?
Paul Cayard: The big picture is that they won both match racing events and are now leading the World Series in match racing, which of course is very relevant. I think the guys have done a great job of picking up the pace. They are dominating in match racing, they eliminated Team New Zealand in both events, early in Naples and later on in Venice. They beat their main competitors head on. They are doing well. It’s interesting to see some of the teams have started rotating the crew, which is something we have always done, and are now finding out it’s not that easy. Terry and the guys suffered with that a little bit last year and it showed up as inconsistency in their performance but we now have trained all ten of our guys and we can pretty much put anybody on the AC45. You will see a new crew by Artemis in Newport. Again, the most important thing is that Terry and the guys have won the last two match racing event and are leading. I’m very happy with that and I like the trend.
VSail.info: I want to close the interview with a question regarding the latest protest Artemis Racing filed a few days ago against the Emirates Team New Zealand / Luna Rossa collaboration agreement. I thought the issue was closed after the previous decisions of the jury. Can you comment on that?
Paul Cayard: The only thing I can tell you is that we filed an application. [Note: It is our understanding that according to a new rule, teams are not allowed to talk about cases and issues that are still under consideration by the jury. We weren't aware of the existence of such a rule and we, therefore, asked the question. It's obvious that if Artemis files for a clarification of the jury's decisions they must not feel comfortable with them.]