singaporeans-in-americas-cup.com

Yes, unfortunately the inevitable is nearing. As always, good things come to an end. And we just have 3 more days and 3 more races (against team new zealand, Areav and +39) to go before it is all over for us with the 32nd America’s Cup!

Sighss… when you are working max out each day, time passes so fast and before long, the routine will soon be a thing of the past. Personally, I wish it would never end! Although ironically, the better you are, the longer you stay in the competition!

Past 2 days went fast as well, 2 races against Shosholoza and the Desafio day before and then 1 race against malcaszone yesterday. We lost… but have been sailing slightly cleaner. So boat handling is getting there. But speedwise, we just can’t hang in there.

Being the strategist onboard, it is certainly hard as hell! Because wherever you go, the guy just follows you and burns you. With less options, you take more risks and then obviously sometimes you end up worse off! The feeling I have is like trying to stay afloat treading water furiously and slowly drowing! Arrgghh!

Oh well, that’s life I guess… great way to learn because the experience of racing at this level is incredible.

More pics to come as soon I have more time to upload them!

Well, did not have much luck with our gear yesterday. But then again, there is no luck in this competition… just money and manpower!

Had our mainsail pull out of the mast during the hoist yesterday. Some cracks in the feeder track which had gone unnoticed because it developed from the inside. Suspected that it was from the batten box nudging against the mast downwind. We werelucky that the wind was not stable and race committee postponed for 45min. Rushed out the tech crew with some laminates and proper tools… and had wayne and gille hoisted up the mast to effect the repair.

Could not make the start though as we ran out of time… and was late. Took 2 penalties for not entering in time and also entering from wrong side… and think we made AC history again (for all the wrong reasons though… sighss…) by starting with just the genoa! Hoisted the main while the swedes covered us and went onto play catch up around the course.

Biggest disappointment was the match against the germans. Got nailed by jesper bank and david dallenburgh at the pre-start and could not recover up the first beat, the germans matched all the tacks we threw at them (about 20 tacks…) and kept their 2 boatslength lead. I must say that the crew held on well because that’s the most tacks we have done non-stop in a long while! And I am certainly feeling it this morning!

Kind of end of story there because we couldn’t really get close enough to threaten them… sighs. Was looking forward to winning this one because that would have been our ticket out of the bottom table!

And what a long day yesterday. The mast problems meant that we had to rush to get the boat out of the water and take it off for repairs… after returning to dock at close to 8pm! Because we were racing on the Juliet course (further one). Only had dinner at 10pm and everyone was pretty knackered!

Oh well, South AFricans today… will be another tough one!

towing in 30knot seas 2 dyas ago… pic from chinateam.org

Incredible… races cancelled because of too much wind today! Guess we ain’t having much luck with the wind gods… but then again, maybe they wanted to give us more time to relish our previous day’s win! Wouldn’t harp too much on it… because afterall, we did not quite beat the opposition… we just held on and sailed super duper conservative!

But anyway, here’s some great pics that one would never have imagined possible… do remember that BMW Oracle did have the same problem with thier jib pulling out of their luff in Act 13… and you would imagine that they would have sorted it out with the resources they have! Pics from valenciasailing.blogspot.com

Nice separation… nice view for a change!

Safe rounding… heck, with the problems we have been having, we decided to be ‘kiasu’ (singapore slang for ‘afraid to lose’) and dropped the spin with more than 10 boatlengths to spare! Haha!

The moment was in crossing the line… You can see Thierry (at back) and Olivier (near mast) with arms in the air. I was just relieved and glad I took some time out to enjoy the view couple of hundred metres from the line. Hopefully we will get more moments like these in the near future!

2 points for China Team… and from BMW Oracle! Hey, we are now equal last! But somehow feels better than being equal first 3 weeks ago! Haha!

And now… the aftermarth of the victory…

Arrggghhh! No more hair! They caught me and shaved my head too! Damn! Some smart aleck on the boat made a bet on the tow out that we would shave our heads if we beat oracle. Hmmm… and seeing how innocent that was, I stupidly agreed… and yup… haven’t had hair cut like this since my army days! But hey, what the heck… for a win in the louis vuitton cup, I would exchange my hair any day! Yeeehaw!

Apologise for not updating earlier… since the start of round robin 2. Because we obviously were still busy.

It is normally better the second time around and it has certainly been better! Had a fairly good match against Prada. WOn the start and managed to cross them on port. Spectacular… exchanged the sides of the course and managed to stay in contact up the first beat to round just 2 boatlengths behind. But as always, shit happens… caught up abit more as the wind shifted 20 degrees through the run (making it an almost straight dash downwind to the gate)… they played safe with 2 gybes to set up for an easy layline and easy drop. We went for the risky option (kind of greedy to take the gain more and wanted to push them - going at them on starboard as they rounded the mark) and make some nice footage for the tv… retrieving line got stuck, spin did not drop clean… got tangled, caught water and had to dump it…

But at least we got close to the competition and pushed hard.

And yesterday… historic day for us! Ummm… if you haven’t heard by now (via all the news of the world!)… we took a win off oracle!

OK… granted, it was more like they lost it… first they lost their genoa… then they lost another genoa… (after we exchanged 3 or 4 tacks after the start)… and we extended to a safe margin after which we just cruised in for an emphatic win! Ugly win I guess… but hey, kind of sick of us being the boat that breaks down all the time… so, what the heck, will take it anyhow!

Was quite funny how we were sailing… remember that we still were feeling abit dodgy about the boat and did not push it hard. So, after they did not hoist a jib for remainder of the first upwind, I thought they had lost their tuff luff and had no jib for secçond upwind too… then saw them hoisting a genoa as they approached the downwind gate… and I was like… OK, now we got to start sailing properly again… read, sheet in harder and crank up the backstay! Yikes!

In any case, held onto a large enough margin to cruise to the finish… and that was pretty much the moment! As always, it is the when you are racing that you get that buzz. And Thierry had just came up from the sewer and we sat at the back (we are still pretty weight concious after our submarine adventures 3 weeks ago!)… just chilling. And thierry was like,”Isn’t this nice?”… We looked back at the Oracle spin and I said,”Well, this is it… enjoy it because it is one of those rare moments! Enjoy it while it last!”… and that was me, after stroking the side of the hull the whole of the second upwind… telling her just to hang on for another 2 legs… I was like,”please don’t break now…”

Hey… if you didn’t watch the race… you would think that we were about to get lapped by oracle! Anyway, nice publicity for Tag Heuer I must say! 

Anyway, the whole spectator fleet exploded when we crossed the line… for me, it was a relieve.. simply because we managed to hang on… not easy in the building breeze… even had a symmetric spin up on the last leg (and that is reserved for more than 17 knots!)… and the tow in through the canal was simply fantastic. Everyone certainly loves the underdog winning!

And for once, the applause was not of pity! haha!

Oh well… we go into the history books now… and for me (and the younger lot in the team)… at least we can say we won a Louis Vuitton match! Nice!

But for now… back to reality and back to the ground… against the swedish vikings today…

Well… as it is, the glass is always half full… but the problem now is not with the contents, but with the fragility of the glass itself!

Oh yes… suddenly came up with the idea of checking out what the bookmakers think of our chances of winning the america’s cup. And check this out, courtesy of sailworld.com.

One million pounds betting turnover for America’s Cup

10:03 PM Sat 31 Mar 2007 GMT      ‘Emirates Team New Zealand leads Alinghi on the final day of Act 12′    ACM 2007/Carlo Borlenghi Following on last weeks release of odds for the America’s Cup in Valencia by Australian and Italian bookmakers, British bookmakers William Hill have annouced their latest odds for the America’s Cup. William Hill have Team Alinghi, the Swiss entry and reigning champions, 8/11 favourites to win again. Emirates Team New Zealand are the 3/1 second favourites for the event which gets underway in April, with the US entry BMW Oracle Racing third favourite at 9/2. Hill also offer 6/1 Luna Rossa Challenge, Italy; 25/1 Desafio Espanol, Spain; 33/1 Mascalzone Lationa, Italy; 50/1 Victory Challenge, Sweden; 66/1 39 Challenge, Italy; 66/1 Areva Challenge, France; 80/1 Team Shosholoza, S Africa; 80/1 United Internet Team, Germany; 100/1 China Team. Hill’s spokesman, Graham Sharpe said: ‘In previous stagings of the Cup we have seen a lively, if somewhat specialised betting market, but with a much larger international audience than ever before likely to have a betting interest, courtesy of the internet, we hope to see a record betting turnover approaching one million pounds industry-wide for the first time.’ Sail-World.com will have full coverage of all the America’s Cup racing. Racing starts Tuesday 3 April through Friday 6 April for Act 13 of the Louis Vuitton Cup, the final ‘pre-regatta’ and the last time the Challengers and Defender will race together until the 32nd America’s Cup event in June. This will be Fleet racing, seven races scheduled over the four days, nominally two races per day except the final day, with one Reserve Day (7 April) in case all seven races have not been completed by 6 April. by Gerald New

Hmm… I am pretty flattered by the 100-1 odds of us lifting the auld mug! At the moment, I reckon that should be the odds of us winning a race at the moment!

Come to think of it, this must be the reason why we always get heaps of applause and cheering when we tow out through the canal. The folks must have put some money on us and must be going like,”you bastards better go out and win me a race and make me a millionaire!” haha!

Hey, better late than never! Here is a link where you can follow the racing via daily updates… pretty nice. For those of you who are far away and don’t have sky sports or access to other networks that show the racing.

Sure beats virtual race thingy…

http://www.ac-interactive.com/internet_tv/

Onshore that is… our shore team is now beefed up with “the experts” who arrived at the base at noon and went about their diagnosis straight away. The tech guys will be racing against time to have “longtze” ready by tomorrow morning. Chances are bleak, but have to give it our best shot!

Here’s Chris prepping the keelbox for repairs last night… at close to midnight!

Then… this is pretty much what we will be doing tomorrow morning… starting 3am!

First we get the mast…

Then we get the boat and the keel…

Then we stick it all together…

And go racing against prada in round robin 2!

Nice cartoons eh? Found them in a french magazine which did an article on us sometime ago. Pretty cute…

Anyway, was watching the races live on tv just now… and of our non-match against +39 (one of our few chances to win anything…arghhh!). First they show +39 starting… then commentators spoke about us and they had a helicopter shot of our base, with the boat hidden in the shed… and us at the VIP tent area watching the race!

But best shot for me was yesterday, when we had to return to the base just before our start against the kiwis… tv had shots of tnz going upwind and then commentators went like,”where’s china team… hmmm… looks like they have some serious problems…” Then they switched to a shot of us cranning the boat out of the water… with Pierre looking at the keel (with commentary going like,”there is pierre mas inspecting the keel!”).

Thought it was pretty hilarious… except that it ain’t so funny because we are the ones in the shit!

That’s live tv for you! You know that you are on candid camera when you here a helicopter circling above the base!

And about TV… was watching our previous day’s match against victory challenge… realised that my voice sounds pretty funny on mike. And I am speaking a whole mix of languages… sometimes english, sometimes french… and sometimes chinese… and worse of all, sometimes jibberish! That’s when the wires cross and the words come out too fast and in Fr-engi-inese! Argghh!

Oh well… the midnight oil will be burning tonight… and if you have any restless fingers or toes… do keep them crossed for us! Thanks!

And found this from the ac website… sums up our situation… click here for full story.

Nice sneak pic of the whole team being briefed by Luc yesterday afternoon on the emergency plan! 

Oh well… it just gets better… this is the scenario couple of hours after we got back to the dock… took off the mast, took off the keel…

Park it into the shed… feels like I am sailing a dinghy again! Rig, unrig, keel, dekeel… no sweat!

Anyway, had some issues with the keel box and our problems from the previous day got worse. heard some cracks during warm-up and things got pretty serious pretty quickly… good thing we make a fast decision or the “son of the dragon” could now be with the sea dragon king down below! Hmm.. OK, exagerating abit maybe…

Was at the press area (yes, the media loves it when we break stuff) with Luc and Hubert and it is official… we do have a problem (quite a serious one) on our hands. And it is gonna take us more than 24hrs to fix it… so we will be spectators onshore tomorrow, watching the racing.

Frustrating as it is… but that’s life… like I said, this game is both a race on water and on land! Now, we are in a race against time… and shore team is working hard as I type in the container. Fingers crossed… and sorry if any of you have money on us for tomorrow’s race…

Mikael recommends that we should avoid getting injured because he had a pretty dodgy experience at the hospital yesterday! After being evacuated by Red Cross boat, zoomed back to shore, chucked into a waiting ambulance, did a whole tour of valencia city and then have the doctors examine the wrong finger, take a x-ray… and returning back to the base with his finger in a cast.

And 2 days ago… the spanish base was abuzz with activity… but too bad we were already on our way out to the race area and did not catch a glimpse of any action!

So, wondering what the swedes (desafio’s neighbours) were looking at???

Why… hot spanish chicks of course! CLick on the pic for a video link!

This was what’s known as the Triumph Fashion Cup… nice!

Anyway, pics from this spanish dude’s blog - http://juanpa-cadario.blogspot.com/

Gee… the show must have had lasting effects… enough to distract the spanish enough to fall overboard???

And maybe francois sneaked off to the fashion show too? Because he fell overboard in the match against the germans. Anyway, the media loves all the drama. After our rough day yesterday, I had to to 3 interviews with Canal+, some italian channel and TVNZ… they were like…”wow, man overboard, then broken bones and the broken boat… what next?!” They are certainly lapping it up!

1st Break

Rough day for us… first race, against desafio espanol, bad start as we came back slightly late and did not manage to push the spanish over the line. Engaged them in a tacking duel up the first beat and managed to stay about 2 boatlengths behind… which was pretty good, because Mika, our jib trimmer broke his finger in one of the first few tacks. Kudos to him as he ducktaped his finger and soldiered on. Piotr took over trimming duties both upwind and downwind. We managed to trail the spanish by 6 or 8 boatlengths, but could never threaten them.

2nd break

Against Malceszone in the 2nd flight of the day..  our neighbours… had a pretty aggressive pre-start with both boats being thrown around in the breeze (built up to 15 knots by then). But just before the start, on the final approach, gram-hansen (starting helm for malceszone) managed to seperate to our windward and get a gap from the luff and when we made the final dash to the mine, we were early by barely a second! Damn!

Time on distance… out by 1 second! Very costly indeed as we could not recover from that. Then halfway up the beat… got the 2nd break… some bad waves and the dreaded “bang”… my worst fears… can’t elaborate much… but we had to retire to play it safe.

Anyway, will be long night.

Oh yes… some changes to the afterguard. I am now on the runners (the strings that hold the mast up and control the mast bend upwind) and doubling up as strategist. No longer navigating with the computer. Pretty nice because my head is now out of the boat 100% of the time. Whilst before I had to spend half the time looking at things from the computer. Pretty challenging… and had a crash course on how to ease the runners in the tacks from Thierry… yes, easing 14tons of load can be abit tricky and dangerous… both for the mast and my fingers!