Big year on the water as preparation for 2007 hots up
05/12/05
Emirates Team New Zealand has planned a big sailing year in 2006 to develop crew skills as the team intensifies its buildup for the 2007 America’s Cup.
Top of the list are the Louis Vuitton regattas at Valencia - Act 10 (May 11 – 18), Act 11 (May 19-21) and Act 12 (June 22-July 3).
From May to September, the team will provide core crew for two yachts competing in the Breitling TP52 Mediterranean circuit.
The team now has two identical SM40 match racing yachts for training and crew development in in-house racing.
Last week Dean Barker, with Terry Hutchinson, Don Cowie, James Dagg and Jared Henderson, were in Malaysia for the Monsoon Cup, a new event on the international match racing circuit.
In the New Year, the attention shifts to Auckland for the inaugural Auckland Cup, a Grade One match racing event to be held over the last week of January.
Some of the world’s top match racing skippers including Russell Coutts, Peter Gilmore, Bertrand Pace and Chris Dickson will start in this invitation-only regatta.
Barker’s crew for the Auckland Cup will substitute trimmer Grant Lorenz for James Dagg.
Dean Barker, Jeremy Lomas, Jared Henderson, Terry Hutchinson, Kevin Hall, Grant Loretz and Don Cowie will sail on the new TP52 Warpath owned by Steve and Fred Howe. Warpath was designed by Emirates Team New Zealand principal designer Marcelino Botin. It is being built in Auckland by Cookson Yachts, which is also building Emirates Team New Zealand’s new yacht.
Another crew of Ray Davies, Stu Bettany, Jono Macbeth, Tony Rae and Joe Allen will sail with Peter de Ridder on Mean Machine, also now being built in New Zealand.
The Swedish Match 40 yachts will be a useful crew training and development tool. They will be used heavily to help helmsmen Barker, Ben Ainslie and Kelvin Harrap to hone their match racing skills.
Dean Barker says the SM40s are ideal for a team on the move. They are designed to fit into a standard 40ft shipping container for transport between regatta venues. They resemble an America’s Cup Class yacht - slab-sided, and narrow with a large sail plan. The wide, open cockpit runs nearly half the length. The SM40 has a crew of five including the helmsman. They will travel with the team to Valencia
Dean Barker says the sailing programme will give the yachtsmen as much time as possible to compete while still allowing the team’s development programme to move ahead.
“While we are sailing the TP52s, there’s still be enough people in Valencia for Ben Ainslie to sail an America’s Cup boat against other syndicates.” The first TP52 event is scheduled for Punta Ala, Italy, from May 22 -27.
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Monsoon Cup lineup
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