29 Down, 1 To Go

ETNZ and Luna Training on the Hauraki Gulf (Photo Credit: Chris Cameron/ETNZ)

With another short sailing day in the bag for ETNZ, training up against Luna Rossa (sort of), comes the sad truth that NZL2, the first AC72 to be launched, will be decommissioned by the end of this week, the magic date being 15/12/12 time of death. The team will likely fit in one more days sailing this week, but it will be her last for the foreseeable future. Some of the platform and likely the wing (even if just as a spare) will be reused on the new boat.

It has become apparent in the last few months that ETNZ has not been following OTUSA, Artemis and Luna Rossa in buying up every Olympian, apparent wind and Volvo sailor, probably as a savvy way to keep costs low in comparison to the budgets of the big guns. The logistics of launching, sailing and retrieving two AC72s in one day has not been explicitly detailed by any of the 4 teams, but launching one takes 40 people and at a rough guess numbers of close to 100 people are likely due to the fact that many of the people involved in the launch are then required either onboard or on chaseboats, and the need for two complete sets of high speed craft to tow and assist on a normal sailing day, let alone a nightmare pitchpole or capsize. This is where the Luna Rossa Design Sharing agreement comes into its own, as launching a new boat but having a copy of the first available to test against without the need to look after it is a massive leg up for the team.

It is intriguing to think that OTUSA has at least 4 people (Spithill, Ainslie, Bundock, Coutts) qualified to drive their 72 whenever it relaunches, with Luna Rossa having Cammas, Martinez, Campbell-James and Draper all vying for the chrome wheels. It should be noted it is unlikely Cammas will end up driving, due to his other sailing commitments.

It is interesting to see a team branch off and stick behind one skipper (Barker) and one tactician (Davies) right from the get go, rather than the musical chairs that has occurred at Artemis for example. One theory for buying up all the sailors is simply so no one else can have them, which, on the face of it is a smart idea, but there is always the chance that the clashing of young guns and big egos causing rifts amongst the teams. But this is always the case with a team big or small, because part of being a rockstar is believing you are one. And having lots of bodies on the ground to hold a rope or man a trolley when launching is always appreciated.

So while we will shed a tear for NZL2 when she gets put away in the tent for the last time, we can't wait to see how the new ETNZ 72 flys, and what Oracle's reconstructed platform, wing and eventually new toy will look like, how Artemis will fare with a new pair of helmsmen, one a chain smoking French Multihull Guru and the other a 49er Gold medalist, and who will end up driving the pimped out Prada cat.

Bring on 2013.