Unveiling Day Tomorrow

A taster for tomorrow, the keel on our old boat SWE 73.....

There is quite a cool atmosphere around the base at the moment. The sailing crew are just de-briefing their informal training race against Prada today, we’ve just been given our new ‘Red Bull’ logo’d kit, and the base is being prepared for unveiling day tomorrow. Day off for the sailing team, while many of us dash round the other bases to see what has been hidden under their skirts!

Foiling 600 Video

Whilst scanning he web this morning I found a great YouTube video on www.sailinganarchy.com of the Full Force foiling 600 project, for which I designed the foils.

Check out http://www.rs600ff.com/ for more info.

Moth Build in Valencia

You can just see 4073 between the pile of media stuff and the Swedish Match 40's!

While many would suspect a Moth built within the midst of an America’s Cup would enable you access to an awesome build facility with a whole host of tools, gadgets and people. The reality isn’t quite like that! We are a relatively small team, that is pushed for time, so we don’t have much time for exciting little projects like the Moth. Sure I’ve picked the brains of some smart people in the know, made many useful contacts, but this year’s boat will not see the full benefit.

An America’s Cup base is purely the domain of AC yachts and the associated kit and support vessels that go with them. There isn’t actually much spare space on site for the construction of something even as small as a Moth. So construction of my new Moth is currently taking place under the tarpaulin covers of the Swedish Match 40’s the team used to use for Match racing, and are now in storage amongst a pile of containers behind the base!

The security guards are now very friendly, although they still look baffled by what I’m building! Nice to know you need accreditation to get into the container area that is Moth central!

I sneak into the workshop late at night to do a few key jobs, but 90% of my build so far has operated out of my trailer!

Progress is moving fwd well though. Pictures coming soon….

Meeting in Palma

I was in Palma today for a Skandia Team GBR support staff meeting. With Palma regatta about to start most of team are in Spain so it made more sense to fly those of us who are not involved with the event to Palma than try and get us all to meet up at another time, and location in the season.

With a growing support team, it was a good opportunity to catch up with people, and the group discussed ideas to help move the team forward.

I flew out of Valencia late on Sunday night, was in the meeting all day, and then went straight from the end of the meeting back to the airport.

Inside the AC

Having always been interested in the America’s Cup I’ve always found it hard to find out much of what goes on inside the teams. Now from within you see some fascinating stuff, but can’t report on it! Damn confidentiality agreement!

April the 1st is a much anticipated day here though. On that day all the teams have to drop their skirts, and can no longer cover up their hulls and appendages. We are all allowed onto the other teams bases to have a look at what they’ve produced. While we are unlikely to see any radical differences it will no doubt be an interesting day.

Fallas in Valencia

For the last two weeks Valencia has been like a war zone. No it is not the Cup teams getting nasty before the big event, it is the locals celebrating the festival of Las Fallas.

During the month of March, Valencia reverberates with explosions. There are huge fireworks displays at 2:00 each afternoon, and most of the night. It is Las Fallas here in Spain at the moment which is a celebration of spring and new beginnings. All over the city the community breaks down into groups to celebrate and build effigies, which are then burnt on the final evening on the 19th of March.

The streets are littered with used bangers and fireworks, and it is quite scary just how many young kids are going about just throwing bangers around. It can make the ride home at night quite interesting!

The 2:00 period is incredible with huge bangs audible over 4 miles out at sea! These Spanish are crazy! - I dread to think what it all costs!

The Ride to Work

Although out of the city centre and away from the action, my accommodation here means I have a nice ride in each morning along the beach.

Check out the sand sculptures that feature all along the beach.

100 Days until the America's Cup Match

Copyright: ACM

Today it is exactly 100 days before the first race of the 32nd America’s Cup Match, and just 18 days before racing begins in the final act before the Louis Vuitton Cup.

It won't be long before the 11 challengers begin battling it out for the right to fight Alinghi for the America's Cup beginning June 23rd.

The 100 day milestone was marked today with 32 skydivers in a D-100 formation parachuting down into the AC park. There is a great video of the skydive by a member of the BMW Oracle Team Blog on: http://bmworacleracing.twoday.net/

The pace of development here is incredible, the whole America's Cup port and AC park is almost finished and are an impressive site. The AC park has grown this year, to include numerous more restaurants, bars and entertainment activities.

TugBoat

Morgan Larson's dog dog joined us on the water the other day, and barked instructions from the chase boat!

UGrib Weather Program

I found out about a superb weather program recently. Check out www.grib.us and download the UGrib program.

GRIB files are the format used by the meteorological institutes of the world to transport and manipulate weather data and are the foundation of most forecasts. The Ugrib software allows you to view the latest GRIB files for anywhere in the World.

And its free!

Windy Day in Valencia

It is blowing over 30 knots today so not much visible activity in Port America's Cup. With a day off for the sailing team I've managed to squeeze in some jobs on the Moth. Nice to feel like I'm moving fwd with it again.

Pic of the day - When Gybes Go Wrong!

This gybe didn't go quite as planned! There were lots of entries for today's caption competition!

Dinghy Show 2007

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make the dinghy show this year, but it sounded like another good year for the Moths. Si Payne's Prowler was on the Moth stand, and Graham Vials' new Bladerider was on the Ronstan stand.

He seems very happy with the boat, weighing it in recently at 30.5kg all up.

www.thedailysail.com has some interesting videos showing Rohan giving a new tour of the new boat. Looks impressive from what I can see, with a few neat ideas. Not so sure on some bits, but looking fwd to racing them in Garda.