February 2012

FEATURES

Aussie reflections
BLUE ROBINSON considers some of the other heroes of Olympic sailing and ANDY RICE discusses the perfect race with TOM SLINGSBY

A moose on the loose
Sanya skipper MIKE SANDERSON assesses the performance lessons from Volvo Leg 1 while WOUTER WERBRAAK looks at routing choices

Third time’s a charm? – Part II
BRITT WARD of Farr Yacht Design explains the unusual deck layout decided upon for their VO70 Azzam

Finding balance
Louis Vuitton Cup impresario and former 12 Metre Cup skipper BRUNO TROUBLE is comfortable with how AC34 is shaping up but has concerns for his wine cellar

Rules of engagement (5)
While DAVE HOLLOM likes the big cats but worries whether we are chasing the right rainbow

Design for manufacture – Part I
ANDREW HURST attempts to set out a context for a calm discussion about improving reliability – especially of prototype raceboats – plus some case studies from ANDREW MACFARLAN

Cherry picking
While DAN PRIMROSE looks further afield to see if useful lessons can be taken from elsewhere

REGULARS

Commodore’s letter
MIKE GREVILLE

Editorial
ANDREW HURST

Update
RODNEY PATTISSON has words on the way that Olympic sailing is going, as does BLUE ROBINSON – putting on his Finnster hat. Where now for IAN WILLIAMS and for goodness sake, ‘start smiling’ says TERRY HUTCHINSON

World news
Flying on the Big Blue with LOÏCK PEYRON and BRIAN THOMPSON, SAM’s fresh start, CHUNY BERMUDEZ and BUBI SANSO stay focussed, the heritage movement gathers momentum in Auckland and it’s kick-ass for Quantum Key West 2012. PATRICE CARPENTIER, CARLOS PICH, IVOR WILKINS, BLUE ROBINSON, DOBBS DAVIS,

Rod Davis – Legitimate disagreement
It’s so great listening to Rod when he’s trying oh-so-hard to stay diplomatic...

ORC – Finessing the offer
ALLESANDRO NAZARETH

Design – Changing the game(sa) – Part II
MERFYN OWEN moves on to the substantial modifications recently made to improve the pace and reliability of Mike Golding’s Vendée steed

RORC news
A change of guard and a look ahead to events further afield... EDDIE WARDEN OWEN

Seahorse build table – Overrated
Save on materials with HUGH WELBOURN’s typically elegant alternative to a Mini 6.50 scow

Seahorse regatta calendar

Sailor of the Month
In the spirit of Christmas (huh! – ed) it’s an all-American final for this month...

How many structural problems in offshore race yachts are primarily the result not of design, material failure or an error in manufacture... but of an imbalance in the manner in which all three of these areas sometimes relate to each other in practice?

Exceptions and rules – Andrew Hurst
Back in the early days of the America’s Cup Class (ACC) rule I travelled to Venice to look over the intriguing new Tencara composites facility that had recently been created at the instigation of the late Italian tycoon and America’s Cup challenger, Raul Gardini, to build his Cup yachts and in turn offer the market a well-resourced service for the construction of high performance sail and power craft. It was an extraordinary few days, the large Tencara facility hidden away within a still operational and enormous Montedison plant, the chemical giant constituting a rather more sizable part of Gardini’s expanding industrial empire.

Access to the boatbuilding facility was like a James Bond movie. First you entered a huge, derelict-looking ‘outer’ factory before the gleaming new Tencara facility revealed itself to you… like peeling off that first Fabergé Egg (it may help to imagine the famously polished McLaren Group HQ, the Paragon, concealed within an abandoned nuclear power plant.)

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Louis Vuitton’s master of America’s Cup ceremonies – and former Cup skipper – Bruno Troublé talks to Blue Robinson about why he remains a happy, if slightly nervous punter.

Seahorse: Bruno, what does the America’s Cup mean to you?

Bruno Troublé: I think it’s my life. I changed my life really because of the Cup. I used to be a lawyer in Paris – which was boring, but my father was a lawyer and his father was a lawyer so it was an old practice, and being an only son with three sisters… I understood early that I had to take over my father’s business, because in France you cannot sell a law firm. If you stop you stop. Then in 1968 there was the student revolution in France so, at 22, suddenly I thought, ‘What am I doing?’

Actually, I continued with the law for a few more years… but I was so bored. Eventually I did decide to change my life and sail as much as I could; and I managed to do some business at the same time, bringing Louis Vuitton to the Cup in 1982. That was the best move of my life. Since then I have not missed any – any – race day in the America’s Cup.

So, yes, I love and am very passionate about the America’s Cup. People believe Louis Vuitton is in sport and in sailing – no! Louis Vuitton is not in sailing: Louis Vuitton is attached to something very special and the America’s Cup is now a part of the Louis Vuitton DNA, because when we started in 1983 we were lucky that Australia went on to win the America’s Cup after winning the very first Louis Vuitton Cup. The coverage was huge – particularly in the United States, so we were extremely fortunate.

Since then the Cup has travelled from Newport to Perth to San Diego to Auckland and so on – and there has been no permanent body involved, so Louis Vuitton had been the guardian of the event over the year