PlanetSail talks directly to the key members of French and Swiss America's Cup challengers teams directly as they reveal their lineups for a 38th America's Cup cycle which sees all the teams operating on desperately tight timescales.
A clean-sheet reset for Tudor Team Alinghi: out with the old and in with the new, as a recalibrated approach as the Swiss challenger targets a more competitive AC38 campaign. I go one on one with team director Dave Endean and skipper Paul Goodison to find out more.
PlanetSail's Matt Sheahan reports on a turbulent week, as the America's Cup goes leagal, SailGP fails to sparkle in Rio de Janeiro, the Class 40s complete an impressive global lap, and The Ocean Race Atlantic confirms its finish port.
On the latest episode of the Yacht Racing Life Podcast I catch up with British yachtsman Chris Draper to discuss his move to join the America’s Cup defender Emirates Team New Zealand and life inside one of the most successful teams in modern sailing.
Philippe Presti is known for his unassuming style and easy smile. But when I caught up with him recently in Lorient at the launch of the French America’s Cup challenger La Roche-Posay Racing Team, that trademark smile seemed even broader than usual – and with good reason.
With a new title sponsor and a slew of new talent on the sailing team, the French America’s Cup campaigners are looking to shake off their mantle of plucky underdogs, and have set their sights on going the distance in the Challenger selection series at the 38th America’s Cup.
Performance improvements under the new rules for the 38th America’s Cup are more likely to come from a multitude of incremental gains, rather than from a radical design breakthrough that would turn AC design thinking on its head.
A past America’s Cup sailor has lodged a legal complaint with the New York Attorney General’s Charities Bureau alleging “serious violations of the America’s Cup Deed of Gift” by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Club – current holders of the America’s Cup.
Are Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa already way ahead in the 38th America’s Cup? These two teams look like the only ones anywhere close to being ready to launch their modified AC75s – and whoever does so first will be making a bold statement of intent about their AC38 campaign.
Emirates Team New Zealand’s AC75 ‘Taihoro’ has returned to its Wynyard Quarter base, completing a stealthy midnight run across the Harbour Bridge from the team’s dedicated North Shore build facility.