America’s Cup suffers setback
The America’s Cup has received a setback with the opening round of the world series schedule for Italy in October now postponed until early next year.
Matteo Plazzi, technical director for Luna Rossa, confirmed the delay at the Italian sailor of the year awards.
The regatta, to feature the new foiling 75-foot monohulls, is to be sailed at Cagliari in Sardinia where Luna Rossa, the Challenger of Record, are based.
Plazzi said the regatta would now be sailed there in Europe’s spring of 2020.
The reasons for the delay are two-fold.
As reported earlier, design issues with foil arms have set back the production of this crucial one-design element of the complicated boat by about three months.
They are to be supplied to all teams and the surprise late entries from Malta, the Netherlands and a second American syndicate have increased pressure on the production line and added to the delays initiated by the design fault.
DutchSail have intimated they will only have their boat in the water early next year and the other two new syndicates Malta Altus and Stars & Stripes USA are burying into their design and build.
The four ‘‘super teams’’, defenders Emirates Team New Zealand, Luna Rossa, INEOS Team UK and American Magic from the New York Yacht Club, appear to be on target to get their first boats on the water by the middle of this year.
There is also the crucial safety element to consider.
These boats are on the cutting edge of design, much like the monster 72-foot catamarans sailed in the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco when Team New Zealand shifted the design possibilities with their foiling breakthrough.
Transferring that to a monohull design of similar dimensions takes highperformance sailing to a new level.
There were no shortages of accidents in the giant catamarans, including the tragic crash by Artemis Racing that cost the life of British sailor Andrew Simpson.
America’s Cup organisers want to ensure there is sufficient testing and time on the water for all teams to get comfortable with the new boats before they are pushed into official racing.
Original plans had two world series regattas in 2019 with a further three in 2020. The teams would then gather in Auckland for the 2020 Christmas Cup with the Prada Cup challenger series to be sailed in January and February 2021. The winner of that would take on Emirates Team New Zealand for the America’s Cup in March.
The setback comes as America’s Cup organisers celebrate two years until that Cup match.
Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa bosses met in Auckland last week to thrash out the complicated acceptance of the three late challengers, centred around the thorny issue of penalty payments.
They gave the green light to the newcomers, avoiding arbitration.
The world series delay was forecast by Team New Zealand sailor Ray Davies late last year when the foil arm issues became public and the prospect of more teams became apparent.
‘‘We are working hard to make sure we make the right decisions so that the teams and the boats can be ready to race safely,’’ Davies said.
‘‘It’s important that all the teams get time to get to grips with this new concept of boat. Eleven crew is a lot of crew and certainly we are going to be pushing these boats blooming hard.’’