Written by DESTOPNEWS – This Weekly edition takes you from Austria to Switzerland visiting Greece and Porquerolles along the way, but first an are going to have an exhilarating ride onboard a TP52!
VISION ’2014′
US SAILING – The U.S. Olympic Sailing Program released “Vision 2024,” its plan to reshape the pathways to the Olympic podium. The plan represents phase one (2013-2016) with a 10-step action plan. With a mission of creating sustainable performance in all aspects of Olympic class sailing and reshaping our Olympic pathways, Vision 2024 activates many of the recommendations made by the Olympic Pathways Committee, a subcommittee to the Olympic Sailing Committee (OSC) that recently reported to the OSC a comprehensive evaluation of youth development in the U.S.
“Vision 2024 is a road map to long-term success in U.S. Olympic sailing,” said Josh Adams, Managing Director of U.S. Olympic Sailing. “It defines the concepts that will build the base of high-performance sailors in this country. We are mindful that there is no one path to Olympic success. By building a strong foundation in high-performance boats, for both skippers and crews, the U.S. can earn successful and sustainable results in Olympic class racing.”
Vision 2024 is aligned with the U.S. Olympic Sailing Program’s three fundamental success factors: lead a culture of technical excellence, make domestic training a strength and build the base of sailors. The plan shows how the U.S. Olympic Sailing Program intends to work within the existing frameworks of U.S. youth sailing, including clinics, championships, and organizations. It focuses on three key stages, beginning with “skill builders”, the many junior classes and organizations across US Sailing that successfully draw thousands of young Americans into sailboat racing. The next critical stage features the six Olympic Development Classes endorsed by the Olympic Sailing Committee. The third stage is Olympic class training and racing at the level of US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider.
In December, 2012, Olympic Sailing Committee (OSC) Chairman Ben Richardson and Managing Director of U.S. Olympic Sailing Josh Adams appointed an Olympic Pathways Committee to assess youth development in the U.S., define Olympic pathways and form recommendations. Serving on the panel were Andrew Campbell (San Diego, Calif.), Cory Sertl (Rochester, N.Y.), Leandro Spina (Miami, Fla.), Zack Leonard (E. Haven, Conn.), Jay Kehoe (Oyster Bay, N.Y.), Greg Wilkinson (Rockport, Mass.), Charlie McKee (Coronado, Calif.) and Jerelyn Biehl (San Diego, Calif.). The OPC’s report was submitted to and accepted by the Olympic Sailing Committee in March 2013.
GO TO US SAILING FOR ALL THE DETAILS
ANDREW ‘BART’ SIMPSON MEMORIAL SERVICE ANNOUNCED
FAREWELL ANDREW – The funeral service for Olympic gold and silver medalist and America’s Cup sailor Andrew Simpson has been confirmed as 31 May 2013.
James ‘Bart’ Simpson MBE tragically passed away, aged 36, on 9 May 2013 in San Francisco. He was a devoted husband, adored daddy, son, brother and friend to so many whose lives he touched.
The service will be held at Sherborne Abbey, Dorset, on Friday 31 May at 1pm, followed by a celebration of Andrew’s life at Sherborne Castle.
Guests are requested to bring any photos they may have of Andrew to be placed on a memory wall for people to share, and his family to treasure.
Family flowers only are requested for the funeral – donations are instead welcome towards a sailing charity to benefit children which will be set up in Andrew’s memory. Cheques should be payable to ‘Peter Jackson Funeral Services Charity’ and sent to:
Peter Jackson Funeral Services
Mons Bungalow
High Street
Henstridge
Templecombe
Somerset
BA8 0RB
UK
Please write ‘Simpson’ on the reverse of the cheque or enclose a covering note.
Sky photo by Artemis Racing/ Sander van der Borch
SPERRY TOP-SIDER/ICSA WOMEN’S SEMI-FINAL CHAMPIONSHIP
WOMEN SAILING – St. Petersburg, Fla. (May 21, 2013) – The 2013 Intercollegiate Sailing Association’s series of National Championships began today on Tampa Bay in St. Petersburg, Fla. with the Sperry-Topsider/ICSA Women’s Semi-Final Championship. The Semi-Finals are the precursor to the Women’s National Championship slated to begin Wednesday, May 22 at 1 p.m. eastern time provided that all qualifying races are completed. Otherwise Finals racing will begin Thursday, May 23. The events are co-hosted by the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Eckerd College and the St. Petersburg Yacht Club.
Nine teams have already qualified for the National Championship: St. Mary’s College of Maryland, U.S. Naval Academy, University of Minnesota, Boston College, Yale University, University of Washington, Stanford University, College of Charleston and University of Texas. Nine more teams will qualify over the next two days from the 18 currently racing in the Semi-Finals.
Teams arrived to sunny skies and warm temperatures around 80 degrees this morning at Magnuson Hotel Marina Cove – where the competitors are sailing. Winds were from the east, a rare direction for the venue, at about five knots. As the day progressed the temperatures rose to the mid-80s and the winds became inconsistent.
The wind died and began to shift around in the middle of the day when the race committee called for lunch on shore and a break while they waited for the sea breeze to fill in. The winds came in from the south and filled to about 10 knots out of the southwest. The conditions held for a while until afternoon/evening thunderstorms came in and caused another delay in racing. The competitors were able to get a little more sailing in after the storms, but the race committee called it a day around 7:30 p.m. eastern time.
Teams are sailing in Club FJ’s on trapezoid courses. Both A-division and B-division completed eight races today.
“The conditions today were variable,” Brian Clancy, head coach of Cornell University says. It was a long day for the girls who experienced heat, sun, thunderstorms and a range of wind directions and speeds. Clancy says his team was actually able to practice in similar conditions leading up to this event on their home lake at Cornell. Sailing for Cornell was Lauren Turner ‘13 and Lindsey Ludwig ‘14 in A-division and Jenny Borshoff ‘15 and Devon Furlong ‘13 in B-division.
Clancy says it was important to hold your lane on the racecourse today and find pressure on the course. “The Semi-Finals is short, so our goal for this event is just to make it through to the finals,” Clancy says. Cornell is happy to be sitting on top of the leader board in first place after today’s sailing, but they are looking forward to a good meal and sleep tonight.
Dartmouth College is only ten points behind Cornell with 83 points and 22 points behind them is Eckerd College. The scores are close for the top nine teams with more racing to come tomorrow.
Semi-Finals racing will continue tomorrow morning starting at 9 a.m. eastern. Teams already qualified for the Nationals will arrive mid-morning to check in and hopefully fit in some practice in the boats before their start. When 16 races between A and B-division are completed, the National Championships are scheduled to begin. For more results and information about the regattas visit the event website: https://2013nationals.collegesailing.org/.
Top Nine Teams, Day 1:
1. Cornell University
2. Dartmouth College
3. Eckerd College
4. Brown University
5. Georgetown University
6. University of South Florida
7. Connecticut College
8. Roger Williams University
9. William Smith College
Watch live media coverage of the final day of the Sperry Top-Sider/ICSA Women’s Semi-Final on May 24 by clicking on the Live Media link at https://2013nationals.collegesailing.org/.
The University of South Florida, St. Petersburg and Eckerd College will provide daily text and photo updates for each of the regattas and Chris Love Productions will provide video highlights, presented by LaserPerformance.
EUROPEAN TORNADO CHAMPS SPEAK!
TEAMGAEBLER SAILING NEWS – Double European Champion in 2013 Tornado – Victory in the Open and Mixed classification for TeamGaebler!
Behind us are difficult months and it is a really great feeling to sail such a constant series in various winds on Lake Constance at the Tornado European Championship. With the single places of 1-1-3-1-1-3-2-2 we could beat the favorites from Greece, who finished overall second and third. Also the renewed victory in the Mixed ranking makes us very happy. A total of 31 teams from 8 countries took part in the European Championships of the Tornado Class.
The winds blew light to strong. Off and onshore. From all directions. Various tactical options we experience on the race course close to the delta of the Rhine. It was not easy to find the right way with all the wind shifts and gusts. We had 4 different wind directions during one day! The sailing near the northern Alps are often very tricky.
Also we felt to be in a trible race with the Greek top sailors, who had an intensive preparation for this event. In this situation it was not easy for us to catch better tactical option to escape and overtake them and same way to handle the risk of a fatal wind shift. A 3rd place was our discard after 8 races! And with 4 single race wins, it’s one of our best series ever in sail racing.
In 2010, we beat the Greek Team at the World Championships. In the last two years they often overtook us in the final just by some points. Sometimes we felt a bit unlucky. This time we took the title three points ahead Jordanis Paschalides & Kostas Trigonis.
Since 2009 we sail together as a mixed team. It was our first win of an Open European Championship title in the Tornado for both of us. The Mixed Championship title we have now won four in a row. For Roland it was the 8th Open European Title in the Tornado Class since 1991.
RAINY AND COLD CONDITIONS
DELTA LLOYD REGATTA – It was one of this day when you dream of a good log fire and a captivating book…Despite the rain and cold, the sailors put on all the warmest gear to start the first races of the 2013 Delta Lloyd regatta.
It was an intense day on the water with a tight programme. Olympic and Paralympic classes sailed three races apart from the 49ers and RS:X who had four races back to back. “We realise it is an intensive schedule, particularly for the RS:X in non-planing conditions, so we decided to lower their target time to 20 mins and optimise resting periods between races.” explains regatta PRO Robert Lamb (GBR).
London Olympic champions take the lead in three classes.
RS:X Gold medallist Dorian van Rijsselberge (NED) didn’t mind the conditions, nor the intensive programme with four victories taken on the day:
“A perfect start here. Four wins. The circumstances were difficult today. Cold and rainy. People expect a lot of me, but winning stays difficult. The racing was nice. Four races on a day is not what we often do, in Garda we had that also. It’s tough, especially when it is so cold as today. Lots of guys in the RS:X had problems with the cold. In these conditions it’s important to sail smart, at least smarter than the other guys.”
Dorian success story is an inspiration for the younger generation. Young Dutch windsurfer Kiran Badloe who has started the year with a podium in Palma found it harder today but managed to place 11th in a strong fleet:
“My races were unstable today. The wind turned a lot, that made it tough, besides the cold. It is nice to compete against Dorian, but today I didn’t see him so much. He is so fast. Dorian is an inspiration for me. His success is very important for Dutch Sailing. My goal here is qualification for the top 25 in the Gold fleet.”
Close score in the Women 470 with Olympic champions Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (NZL) in first place, a point ahead of Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh Mcintyre (GBR).
There are no surprises in the Men 470. Mat Belcher and Will Ryan (AUS), undefeated since the start of the season, are taking the day with three wins.
The Danish shared the day in the 49er. Norregaard/Thomsen took the first two bullets while Warrer/Lang are leading the fleet after winning the last two races. In the women, Annemiek Bekkering and Claire Blom (NED) are taking first position after four races.
Canadian Finn sailor Greg Douglas leads the Finn fleet with Piotr Kula (POL) in second. With two SWC victories in Melbourne and Hyères and a second place in Palma, Laser class favourite Tom Burton (AUS) takes top place in the Laser. SWC Palma winner Alison Young is leading the Radial in front of Annalise Murphy (IRL) and Marit Bouwmeester (NED).
Mandy Mulder and Thijs Vissel (NED) have taken the first two races to lead the small but strong Nacra fleet.
Moana Delle (GER) is continuing on her good form in the RS:X women in front of a deep field. There are twelve countries in the top 15 and some of the best sailors.
The British are dominating the Paralympic classes after three races. Megan Pascoe takes the command in the 2.4 fleet, while John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas (GBR) lead the Sonar on equal point with Hyères winners Bruno Jourdren, Eric Flageul and Nicolas Vimont-Vicary (FRA).
The forecast for the second day of racing is for strong winds.
WING BUILDING
Written by
TEAM EMIRATES – Having travelled all the way across the pacific in pieces on a ship, the wing sailneeds to be reconstructed into the mammoth structure which powers the AC72. The man that leads the operation is Jon Douglas or as he is simply and affectionately know, JD
MAKING IT LOOK EASY
52 SUPER SERIES – How fast can your crew take down a kite.
KIDS LEARNING TO WINDSURF
WINDSURFING – Many kids around the world join the biggest windsurfing class every day, but not all of them have an experienced coach who can help them to learn. Thanks to BIC sports international and International windsurfing association and with help from Mauro Covre (Techno 293 Italian national coach) they can learn with this instructional video.
LUNA ROSSA ASKS FOR CHANGES IN AMERICA’S CUP
AC NEWS - Bertelli, chief executive of Prada and a longtime challenger for the Cup spoke at a news conference last Friday at the team’s temporary base in Alameda, Calif. asking for changes to the AC rules. For those of you who missed the conference, here is a quote and video of the news conference.
“In order for a boat to be safe, the crew must feel safe, and they need to trust their boat; this is primordial,” Bertelli said. “I have asked our sailors if they trust the boat, and our sailors have told me they do trust the boat and that they can sail on it. Obviously, we are going to look at technology and any tools that can help us to be safer. Also it’s very important to reduce the wind limits to around what we ask and to race as per the protocol and the class rule.”
“We will not tolerate the bending of the rules using as an excuse the latest fatality, and we will respect the rules of the protocol and the class rule as they have been approved. We are absolutely in favor of discussing with all the other teams to try to find common solutions to the problems we face, but we will not accept any imposition.”
‘CHALLENGED AMERICA’ NEEDS VOLUNTEERS
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE – ATTENTION! – Sailors from Santa Barbara to San Diego, ‘CHALLENGED AMERICA’, needs your help.
All that is remaining to complete and bring the motor yacht “Challenged America” (a classic Grand Banks 42) to its home dock at Sunroad Resort Marina are a few volunteers willing and able to paint the top cabin.
We’re anxious to have the Challenged America program’s Flagship operational; you’re help is needed today.
For additional information on participating in the Sanding & Painting Party in San Diego, phone or email the Challenged America office today, and we will contact you right away to make arrangements.
Office: (619) 523-9318
Email: [email protected]
Thank You,
Urban Miyares, co-founder
VOLVO SAYS “TRY SAILING!”
PROMOTING SAILING – Continuing its long-term support for British Sailing, Volvo Car UK has launched the ‘Volvo Sailing Academy’ initiative – a series of free, family-friendly sailing and powerkiting experiences to introduce beginners, young and old, to the sports. Here Olympic silver medalist, Saskia Clark treats guests to an exclusive sailing experience at Hayling Island Sailing Club open day www.volvocarssailing.co.uk/sailing-academy
GLOBAL OCEAN RACE GETS NEW HEADQUARTERS
GLOBLA OCEAN RACE – Haslar Marina is the new Head Quarters for the Global Ocean Race. With the Global Ocean Race 2014-15 starting and finishing in the Solent – the traditional home of round-the-world racing – the natural Head Quarters for the Race Organisation is Haslar Marina in Gosport, Portsmouth. The GOR’s offices are within metres of Haslar’s sheltered, 600-berth marina which will also form the base for the event’s corporate and sponsor sailing on Class40s throughout 2013 until the start of the race on September 21st 2014.
Already a base for inshore and offshore racing teams, Haslar Marina’s location close to the mouth of Portsmouth Harbour permits quick access to the Solent for the GOR’s teams to train and boat test in the run-up to the start of the 30,000-mile circumnavigation in 2014. “Haslar Marina is at the hub of South Coast sailing and the marine services in the area are world class,” says Josh Hall, Race Director of the GOR. “I’m certain that many of our European entries will choose Gosport and Haslar Marina as a base prior to the start in September next year and our international teams will find the practical and social attractions of the location and the proximity of the GOR’s start in Southampton a strong incentive to base here,” he adds.
“The management and staff at Haslar Marina have immense experience in dealing with racing yachts and have a deep understanding of the needs and requirements of the skippers and crews,” says Hall. “It’s a great pleasure to welcome Richard Reddyhoff, Ben Lippiett and their team at Haslar Marina as Race Partners in the GOR.”
“We are delighted to welcome Global Ocean Race to Haslar Marina,” says Ben Lippiett, Marina Manager. “This confirms our belief that we are attracting top quality tenants not only to our marina, but to Gosport as a whole. Gosport is increasingly being viewed as the home of ocean racing, with a choice of quality deep water marinas, easy access to the Solent and convenient transport links to London,” Lippiett continues. “Together with Alex Thomson Racing on site and Brian Thompson running a short-handed sailing academy out of Haslar, we are quickly becoming recognised as the location of choice for serious ocean racing.”
BACK IN THE GAME
52 SUPER SERIES – Quantum Racing look to return to winning ways with Terry Hutchinson and Jordi Calafat set to sail in the 52 SUPER SERIES European regattas. “We want to win the European 52 SUPER SERIES.”
That is the stark, keynote objective for the coming months, as stated by Ed Reynolds (USA) director of the Quantum Racing 52 programme, and as the American flagged team complete their final days of training off Barcelona this week in preparation for Thursday’s start to the Trofeo de Vela Conde de Godo, it is clear the highly motivated crew are ready to rise to this challenge.
Two significant changes bolster the team line up. Terry Hutchinson (USA), who skippered Quantum Racing to win the MedCup title in 2008 and lead the crew through until 2011, returns to the line up, this time in the role of tactician.
He will be joined by 1992 Barcelona Olympic gold medallist and America’s Cup winner Jordi Calafat (ESP) who sails as Quantum Racing’s strategist.
Even as experienced and honoured as they both are, integrating the two new afterguard members has been one of the primary goals of the pre-regatta training period. Although of course Baird (USA) and Calafat sailed together as America’s Cup winners with Alinghi, Hutchinson and Baird are new to each other and so have been putting in some racing hours to optimise their partnership.
In mid April Baird and Hutchinson sailed together at the Congressional Cup off Long Beach finishing second. In fact that was Ed Baird’s first monohull match racing event since July 3rd 2007 when he drove Alinghi to win the 32rd America’s Cup against Emirates Team New Zealand on which Hutchinson was tactician.
“This is going to be really fun to be back with the guys on Quantum Racing,” Hutchinson smiles, “I was a little bit involved at the end of the World Championships in Miami when I watched them racing there. There are some very high quality teams as we saw there, like Azzurra and Rán Racing as examples which for the most part have shown they are capable of winning, and so I cannot wait to get out there and get racing in the fleet again.”
“I am looking to just help along the great work that Ed Baird has been doing. We jump started things by doing the Congressional Cup together and that was really good. We were mainly looking at developing our communications, getting to know how Ed likes things to be communicated as things unfold. My impression is that he is very comfortable with the boat and the way things are going, but the biggest challenge will be integrating us into the sailing team. The new appendages on the boat seemed to be working and for us it will be about not upsetting the applecart. This is a great team with a good track record and my role is to help and support where I can, maybe making sure eyes are guided where they should be if I see particular things I think can help.”
“I have the impression from Miami that Ed drives the boat very well, keeping it fast all the time. That may sound simplistic but it is very easy to get bogged down from time to time in this fleet. We worked on our communication and I understand more clearly what he wants, narrowing down 10 or 12 words to two or three words, short quick conversations is the big thing for us.”
Although Quantum Racing have not won a 52 regatta since Sardinia last year, Hutchinson says he does not feel any additional pressure coming back into the team to find a win.
“I always want to win, I always crack the whip to win and want no more or less.”
“The thing that stood out for me in Miami was that at certain times the boat could sail out of bad situations. It looked like the boat is going really well.”
Meanwhile team director Ed Reynolds is delighted with the strength of the afterguard that they have for the four European regattas of the 52 SUPER SERIES :
“I just could not be more excited, I am thrilled with the team we have. There were some conflicts which necessitated changes and so we took advantage of the opportunities to do so. Terry, Ed Baird and Jordi as an afterguard should be fantastic. Jordi grew up in Palma, sailed to a gold medal here in Barcelona and probably has sailed as much as anyone in the fleet has in Ibiza so I am sure he will bring a lot of local knowledge input.” Said Reynolds,
“We are very happy with the changes we made to the boat, boatspeed is just not an issue. After the last few events we feel we have eliminated some more variables, now I will be surprised if we are not going the right way most of the time. We don’t think we have to win regattas to win the 52 SUPER SERIES, but what we want is to show absolutely top level consistency. Now, with this fleet, you have to win races and that is a change and we have changed the mode of the boat to make more sure we can do that.”
Racing starts for the 52 SUPER SERIES in Barcelona from Thursday 23rd May and runs through to Sunday 26th. Follow the racing with live tracking, commentary and comment on www.52superseries.com
TORNADO EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS FINAL RESULTS
Photo by Martina Barnetova.
TORNADO CLASS – With light winds early in the morning the postponement flag went up for the Tornado Class and the sailors remained on shore watching the A Class’ float out to their racing area. Around 1 hour later the race officer removed the postponement and the sailors got ready and went out onto the water.
It was Roland and Nahid Gaebler who held the lead going into the last day and they were hoping there would be no racing because the Greek team of Iordanis and Kostas could discard a 5th if there was further racing in the championship.
Soon after there were 32 Tornado’s drifting toward the start boat waiting for the race officers instructions, it didn’t look good with the postponement flag on the front of the committee boat struggling to fly in the light airs.
One hour later the wind had disappeared and two hoots were what the sailors were waiting for after a challenging series of racing. It was time to head home and pack up ready for the road home.
Roland and Nahid Gaebler are the new Tornado European Champions, knocking the Greek Red Bull sailors off the podium they have held since 2008. Roland’s last European Championships victory came in the 1990’s.
A big thank you to the Yacht Club Rheindelta and everyone involved in organising the Championships, it has been a great few days for the sailors with a good mixture of social and sailing.
The next major Championships for the Tornado Class is the World Championships being held in Ibiza in late September, the planning is already well underway. Before that there are a variety of races being held around the World which also include the Austrian Championships in Attersee next week.
Full results can be found on the Tornado Championships website www.tornadochampionships.com
KOREA CUP DAY 3
SAILING NEWS – For the 25 teams competing in the 2013 Korea Cup International Yacht Race, today was all about the inshore race series.
The inshore race course was set as a downwind upwind course starting in front of Ulleung port and going around Juk-do island, to the north, before returning upwind to Ulleung.
A NEW HOME
TEAM EMIRATES – Building a new base in San Francisco
SNATCHING DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY
SAILING ABOARD GRYPHON SOLO2 – Here is an onboard acount of the Atlantic Cup race from Gryphon Solo2:
Hello friends,
Well… we came pretty darn close to winning this one but somehow manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
As we approached Montauk and Block Island in first place, we studied the Eldridge tide tables, pulled down weather info and finally decided to go around Block Island to the East, hoping for stronger winds and a more neutral (less unfavorable) tide. We also thought the pack of boats we were leading – Bo Dream, Le Coq Cuisine and Forty Degrees were going the same way. As it turned out, we bet wrong. Once we committed to the eastern path, Bo Dream and Le Coq peeled off to leeward, telling me later that they did not think they could catch us so they opted for the westerly route.
The distance sailed in that route is slightly less than on our easterly route, so as we came back together just past point Judith, Bo dream was slightly ahead and we were about even with LeCoq. However, they had a slightly hotter sailing angle to Newport and they ended up finishing slightly in front of us, so we took third place instead of first. Disappointing.
Oh well – we hit the dock at Newport Harbor Hotel, congratulated all competitors, as everyone had sailed well and finished within 46 minutes of each other, which is pretty amazing after more than 260 miles of racing. The whole group retired to the Clark Cook House on the waterfront in Newport for burgers and beers and it was nice to unwind and get out of the rain.
So, in retrospect, the good news is that we sailed the boat well and confirmed that we have boat speed comparable to any boat given the right sail choice, ballast configuration and trim, so we go into the inshore series optimistic for better result. We currently sit in third place, and hope to move up in the standings over the six inshore races in Narragansett Bay.
So, thanks as always for tuning in - it was pretty darn exciting racing on the water and I hope everyone enjoyed the action on the race tracker
We will be back on the airways on Friday with an update.
Cheers
Joe Harris
For more updates on the Atlantic Cup visit http://atlanticcup.org. And you can find an in-depth look at Joe’s expectations for the race at http://www.gryphonsolo2.com. Best of luck to all racers!
TP’s IN BARCELONA
52 SUPER SERIES – The boats are here and the crews are getting ready to start racing.
LUNA ROSSA DEFIES RACE OFFICIAL’S ORDERS
AC NEWS – Luna Rossa AC72 sailed for the first time in San Francisco in the bay this weekend where the Louis Vuitton Cup and America’s Cup regattas will take place starting July 7th.
With an early morning roll out, Luna Rossa sailed in light winds (3 knots) that increased up to 12 and allowed the crew to carry out an extensive number of maneuvers.
The training session lasted about three hours.
Luna Rossa Challenge 2013 skipper Max Sirena declared: “The weather today was ideal for our first trial out on the water; from a technical standpoint it allowed us to test safety measures, loads and maneuvers.
However the really significant aspect was psychological: it was important for the crew to resume sailing on the AC72 and to get back into its normal training mode to prepare for the upcoming races. In the next few days we will continue with our training and development program as scheduled.”
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