There is a lot to get our heads around, but obviously the most drastic, and most controversial, change is the move to multihulls.

The AC72 class – a super high tech wing-masted catamaran – represents a new era of America’s Cup sailing. At this stage, I guess I’m a little cautious about the move, but also hugely optimistic.

For a Team New Zealand supporter the initial reaction may have been “bugger, we’ve been gazzumped”.

Emirates Team NZ were probably a bit disappointed with the announcement, although they wouldn’t be surprised.

There’s no doubt they have dominated big-boats, whether it be the America’s Cup version 5s or TP52s, everything they’ve touched over the past couple of years, they’ve won.

But if they want to continue to play the game it’s going to have to be in multihulls, that’s the deal.

So all of Team NZ’s focus must now be on transferring their success in the monohulls to these high-tech catamarans, which I think are going to be pretty exciting.

There’s no doubt as things stand now, BMW Oracle have a huge advantage in that they have experience with the wing sail technology. But I’m certain Team NZ have the ability to bridge that gap and be competitive.

What they’ve got in that organisation is the ability to adapt and continually reinvent themselves.

Their track record in terms of prioritising, designing and then producing a great racing boat is pretty impeccable, so I don’t have any doubts that they have the capacity to pull it off in that timeframe and be very, very competitive. But they’ll need to adapt their strategies and their priorities.

There is a bit of concern out there over whether we have the expertise and experience in multihull sailing to pull it off. It will be interesting to see how well the existing people in key roles – like Dean Barker – adapt.

It’ll certainly be a challenge for Barker, but I’m sure it will be a challenge he’ll enjoy. But I’m expecting come 2013 we could see a vastly different make-up to the Team NZ crew. Physically, these boats will be extremely demanding to sail and will call for strong, agile sailors who are quick-thinkers.

But first and foremost you have to get a boat built, so the most important factor initially will be getting the right people for the design phase.

This technology calls for high-level engineering expertise in the area of high-performance aerodynamic, hydrodynamic-type stuff.

You have to design, build and test all that complex componentry, so that is where the initial big push has to be. If you were going down the traditionalist line I guess there may be some disappointment with the decision to take it super high-tech.

I was lucky enough to be at the 33rd America’s Cup this year and I thought what BMW Oracle and Alinghi both came up with was out of this world. Seeing those boats hit top speed was a fantastic spectacle, so I’m not surprised Oracle have decided to stick with multihulls.

The sailing fraternity can sometimes be a little bit resistant to change, but I actually thought the version 5 might have done one America’s Cup too many, so therefore the change feels like a big change.

If the 32nd America’s Cup in 2007 had been in a more modern-type boat, the drive for change might not have been so strong.

In many ways the America’s Cup had become a bit old and staid, and you’ve got to believe now it will freshen up and inject a bit of excitement back in to the event.

So superior is Oracle’s yacht, it looks as if the Auld Mug will be safely back in American hands by this morning, barring a catastrophic gear failure or yet another weather delay in race two overnight.

What we witnessed in race one really was historic – a crushing 15m 28s victory to Oracle. The reason for such a convincing win is simple: their yacht is of another generation. Technical wizardry aboard this boat is unrivalled.
The speed, lift and horsepower generated from the wing created a huge performance gap that Alinghi have little hope of overturning.

Even Alinghi president Ernesto Bertarelli, at the helm for the Swiss in race one, seemed pretty resigned to the fact that the America’s Cup will soon be setting sail for the States.

So what will become of the event once the cup is in Larry Ellison’s clutches?

If the Americans win, it appears the bitter legal wrangling between the two billionaires will cease, but given their history we can’t be sure.

Certainly, there are very few legal avenues for Alinghi to pursue and Bertarelli has stated categorically he intends for the America’s Cup to be decided on the water at this regatta.

It would be the height of hypocrisy for him to turn around and try to wrest back the cup through the courts after accusing Oracle of doing the very same thing for the past couple of years.

If it is all decided overnight Oracle will very quickly announce a “hip-pocket” challenger and I expect the new protocol for the 34th America’s Cup will be drawn up swiftly.

The word around the traps is Oracle have a challenger of record sewn up and the framework of the new protocol is already written.

I hope it will be a traditional format in monohulls and opened up for the challengers without any interference from the defender, and the vibe I get from Oracle is that they will take their responsibilities as a defender to get the America’s Cup back on track very seriously.

The one regret I may have about seeing the prestigious event return to a traditional multi-challenger event in monohulls is that it would make white elephants of the magnificent machines we’ve seen in Valencia this week.

Perhaps this is why many people here keep asking whether there is a place for multihulls in future America’s Cup campaigns.

The popular view has always been that multihulls aren’t really suited for match-racing, but after the weekend’s race I’m a little bit undecided on that.

There were a lot of the times in race one that both boats were actually quite close to each other, and the only reason they got separated was because Oracle was so much faster than Alinghi.

The pre-start was exhilarating and there was plenty of action on the upwind leg. So who says multihull boats aren’t exciting?

I think the multihull option is one that should be left on the table.

Some historic pictures from the adversaries from 1988 Big Boat challenge, Fay and Johns vs Ehman was the guts of the court battle

Sir Michael Fay (’88 New Zealand Challenge owner), Tom Ehman (BMW Oracle), Andrew Johns (’88 NZ Challenge lawyer), Russell Coutts (BMW Oracle CEO) , Mike Drummond (BMW Oracle head of design), myself (’88 tactician).

Thanks to Gilles Martin-Raget for the shots.

The first two attempts to begin the best-of-three showdown between Alinghi and BMW Oracle have been canned because the conditions were deemed to be unsuitable for racing. This false start has brought some dark questions about who is really controlling the proceedings in Valencia.

The race committee’s decision to call off racing on the first day was understandable – there was simply no wind. Yesterday however, they had a golden opportunity to race, but they did not take it and everybody is shaking their heads. The conditions yesterday appeared pretty reasonable – it was a beautiful clear day, and the breeze was a healthy 18 knots. It would have been a tough race, but it would have been full of action.

But the race committee, headed by New Zealand’s Harold Bennett, canned the proceedings as the 1m swells were considered too extreme. It has to be said these “extreme” conditions are easily managed by club sailors around New Zealand.

It is getting to be quite farcical when these two multimillion-dollar machines, with all their technical wizardry, can’t go out and race in conditions that approximate the real world of sailing.

From where I’m sitting they are meant to be able to race these things, it’s meant to be an ocean course and for them to not have raced just doesn’t seem right to me. The boats not being strong enough is not an excuse – if they haven’t built boats that are sturdy enough to cope with conditions, then tough.

As we’ve seen time after time, the defender controls the game. It is becoming very clear that Alinghi are leaning on the race committee to ensure that they don’t race in conditions unsuitable for their yacht.
While yesterday’s postponement means the boats will stay in one piece, the same can’t be said for the public image of the America’s Cup. With every postponed race the sport is losing further credibility in the eyes of the public.

There is a real sense of disappointment and frustration among the punters gathered here, and no doubt the people watching on the television and internet at home.

With a couple of court cases still pending next week’s one on one showdown between Alinghi and BMW Oracle may not bring an end to the whole sorry saga, but make no mistake – this is progress. For the challengers like Team New Zealand it finally gives them some sort of certainty – they know there’s going to be a race and they can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Of course if Alinghi wins BMW Oracle will have them back in court, and probably the other way around as well. But even that aside, it’s no longer years away, it’s now months away that the likes of Grant Dalton will have something to aim at, and I think that’s important.

The bitter legal wrangles between Alinghi and BMW Oracle over the past few years has been undoubtedly the bleakest period in the long history of the America’s Cup. And for those that are passionate about the sport it’s absolutely gutting that there hasn’t been an opportunity for the challengers. But history also tells us there just may be a positive to all of this.

If we look back to the 1988 Big Boat Challenge, which like this current situation, was an absolute mess, but from that transpired the International America’s Cup Class (IACC) rule. That came about after all the syndicates and designers of that time got together once the dust had settled and developed some parameters and rules that will serve the America’s Cup well. That lasted very well for the class right through to 2007 and had 20 years of perhaps the best America’s Cup yachting there had ever been with an open challenger series.

I’m hoping that at the end of this we’ll see another evolution. Let’s hope whoever the defender and whoever the challenging syndicates are can come up with a rule that will form the basis of hopefully something pretty neat for the America’s Cup for the next 20 years. Because for me, I think time was up for the IACC class – it does not reflect the technology of today.

On another positive note, while endless court cases and appeals have been extremely frustrating, the two boats that have evolved for this regatta is certainly something special. It will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen before and as a yachting enthusiast you really have to marvel at both boats. What the designers and builders have come up with is phenomenal, it reflects the very, very best of modern day design and technology. And a lot of that is down to the Kiwi expertise on both teams.

If you’re going to compare the two, Alinghi appears to have the finesse, it’s a beautiful looking boat and I’m sure it’s blisteringly quick. Oracle on the other hand is a brute of a boat and really, really grunty. It’s a beast. While these two boats are equally impressive, I don’t believe it will necessarily be a close fought series. The two boats are so radically different and it looks like weather is going to play huge part in who is successful. If the wind is in the lighter range, the Alinghi boat is looking pretty good, while USA 17 is likely to perform best in fresher breezes.

Another big determining factor will be reliability. You’re not going out for 20 minutes and screaming around at 30 knots, these things have to sail for four hours. We’ve already seen there’s been a lot of gear-breakages – not gear breakages that will stop them from sailing, but gear breakages that will stop these boats performing at their optimum. We are in for an intriguing week.

• The official site is www.americascup.com.
• The cup has gone all social media too and the official team are running updates on Twitter.
• BMW Oracle Racing and Alinghi both run their own sites, especially worth checking out some of the pictures which come through regularly.
• Martin Tasker and I will be streaming live on the BMW Oracle Racing site, check us out from 0700 CET, Monday 8th Feb.
• The best site on the web for weather updates is WindGURU.com, and you can see their Valencia forecasts here.
• And finally Sailing Anarchy for all the best gossip and inside stories.

Enjoy!

We haven’t posted here for a little while – I hope everyone had a happy Christmas and New Year.

The big news for our family is our recent move to Doha, Qatar. I am working for the Aspire Academy as head coach for the yachting team and I am really enjoying the atmosphere here. 

There are plenty of things afoot in America’s Cup land but until there is any real news about the next regatta I won’t be posting regularily. I’d encourage you to stay tuned to the various sailing sites and blogs, it will be interesting to see how things pan out over the next few months.

Cheers

Pete

They have got there through very good leadership, good recruitment and good design where the sailors have had a lot of input.

The key was making early decisions. They built and launched their first new boat, NZL84, early. It was quite a radical looking boat but came out of the box pretty good. NZL92 was a refined version.

They made early decisions on big components, like their four spreader rigs, what hull they were going to use, they locked their sail programme in early, shapes of mainsails, genoas, their bulb shapes.

They also locked their crew in early. They made good strategic moves.

They also got funding relatively early which allowed them to do that, something which will again be vital for the future.

It is important they get back into the design process quickly. Alinghi had an edge. It is not a generation edge but it is an edge. The challenge for Team New Zealand and all the other challengers is to find out where and how have they squeezed out a little more performance.

For a lot of the teams it is “rebuild” time. Oracle are going to come back extremely strong if they get Russell Coutts, Luna Rossa will regroup and then there are new teams like Origin who are going to kick off.

It is going to be hard.

I thought if Team New Zealand didn’t win the America’s Cup it would be all over.

But the yachting public and general public have realised the Team New Zealand brand is an asset. It is bigger than yachting, it is bigger than Team New Zealand – here we are in Europe and brand New Zealand is out there.

Under Grant Dalton’s leadership the team will always have “a feet on the ground approach”, they will remain non flashy and uncomplicated. If that changes maybe then it is time to give it away but not now.

This is the wrong time to give it away. Sure the team is absolutely gutted. But when you are trying to motivate people down the track you go back to how they felt the day after they got beaten by just one second.

The fire still burns.

They put it all on the line but weren’t good enough.

The positives are that Alinghi are not a generation ahead and Team NZ should be at the next cup. Not a lot needs to change. The regatta started off with a bit of a debacle with all the delays and finished in a bizarre manner.

Although they are raving about the venue being brilliant, I am not so sure about that. The shore base is excellent but not so the sailing conditions. The lack of a consistent wind was disappointing.

In race three, Alinghi bagged the race officer and to have a finish like yesterday, where the breeze collapsed so quickly, was alarming.

Off the line, it was a good start from Dean Barker but Alinghi, in a compromised position, hung on.

The race was a classic day of how powerful it was on the right-hand side of your opposition. The power was really on the right on the upwinds. Sailing on the left, Team NZ, on both upwind legs, were bow forward but were unable to capitalise on that.

On the downwind, Team NZ did well to roll Alinghi on the first run. At the bottom mark gate, the Kiwis took the right-hand gate looking down and got passed both times.

The last downwind was bizarre. At the top mark, Alinghi did a dial down. The boat on starboard has the rights, which was Alinghi. The dial down was a set move. Alinghi had practised it. Alinghi dialled down when the New Zealanders dialled down and held their course. Team NZ were ruled not to have kept clear. It was a penalty.

Most of us thought the game was over but then, on the downwind, the breeze collapsed near the finish and we saw Team NZ get rid of their penalty and miss going into the eighth race by one second. What a race it was.

Stuart Alexander
Stuart keeps the readers of The Independent sports section updated on every shift in the direction of the wind, with an analytical mind second to none. He is aiming to cover both yachting and rugby with his blog. http://www.stuartalexander.eu/

Bob Fisher
Bob has had his finger on the pulse of sailing for years, and has covered every America’s Cup since 1967. He currently writes for The Observer and The Guardian as well as Sail World. His book “Americas Cup, An Absorbing Interest” is probably the best history of the America’s Cup, right back to 1851. http://www.fishersailing.com/

One second – one measly second.

Off the line it was a good start from Dean Barker but Alinghi, in a compromised position, hung on.

The race was a classic day of how powerful it was to be on the right hand side of your opposition. The power was really on the right on the upwinds. Sailing on the left, New Zealand on both upwind legs were bow forward but were unable to capitalise on that.

On the downwind Team New Zealand did well to roll Alinghi on the first run. At the bottom mark gate, maybe if we look back in two races, the Kiwis took the right hand gate looking down and got passed on both times. How significant that might be.

The last downwind was bizarre. At the top mark Alinghi did a dial down. The boat on starboard has the rights, which was Alinghi. The dial down was a set move. Alinghi had practised it. Alinghi dialed down when the New Zealanders dialed down and held their course. Team New Zealand were ruled not to have kept clear. It was a penalty.

Most of us thought the game was over then but on the final run the breeze collapsed near the finish and we saw Team New Zealand get rid of their penalty and miss going into the eighth race by one second.

What a race it was.

As you can imagine Team New Zealand were distraught. But they have plenty to be proud of. They have come so far since 2003. Grant Dalton’s leadership has been tremendous and Dean Barker will leave this cup as one of the best helmsman in the game.

They just have to go on…

Thanks to you all for dropping by, we certainly hope you have enjoyed the racing and its been great to be able to bring it to you. When we started this little blog we were unsure of how it would do – its had 90,000 page views since we started and has been a storming success thanks for you all.

I’ll aim to keep the blog running over the coming months, so stay tuned

In the meantime, we all need a holiday. I will be flying with Paul tomorrow to Bodrum in Turkey to spend some time with Ergin and the Provezza guys. I will also be joing my wife Susie, and the boys, Ryan and Sean who are already there.

Forecast: Starts south southeasterly 10-12 knots early in the afternoon then builds to 13-15knots and backs to southeast. Later in the afternoon continues to build 15-16 knots as the direction returns to south southeast. Broken high cloud and much hotter – Temperature 32 degrees

Yesterday’s postponement and today’s layday could bode well for Team New Zealand. It will give them a chance to regroup. Alinghi being on a roll would probably have liked to charge on.

Every day we get a lot of messages from people wishing Team New Zealand well. Here is one which sums up the feeling of a lot of people from Jan Zhang.

“Whatever what is going to happen next, they have done a great job. This is from the managers to our boys are on the boat, include everyone. We are all so proud of them. They have done a great job in the past to now.

They have represented a whole nation not only themselves. They made us proud of ourselves as New Zealanders. We just would like them to relax and don’t worry about anything, so they can achieve the best result on the day.

We all know they cannot control everything. I am sure most of New Zealanders will support them to go to the next one even if they don’t bring the cup back this time. No need to worry anything.

We would like to say thanks to them for bringing the nation together because their outstanding performance.”

The forecast for race seven is for 10 -12 knots building to 15-17.

The replica of America sailed into the port today. America won the 100 pound Cup which became the America’s Cup. The real America perished 1942. This one was built in the 1960s.

The Team New Zealand boss was 50 today. When the black boat eased past, thousands of people broke into happy birthday.

The weather gods decided Dalton needed a day off to celebrate his coming of age, so opted not to deliver any breeze. With tomorrow a lay day, the two-day break may work in the Kiwis favour.

The situation was not ideal for Alinghi who would have loved to have won the event today being a Sunday in Valencia where the America’s Cup port was packed. Instead the red and white coloured winners podium, which has been created, had to be towed back to the side of the canal as the wait to find a winner continues.

For me, from a country of four million, being here in the middle of Europe, where we don’t count, I find the awareness of New Zealand in this game in Spain has been phenomenal. These guys have done a huge job on and off the water. They are seen as tough, hard working and non-complicated and I think they are seen as pretty damn honest.

They are seen as trying their hardest and that is all you can ask. We didn’t talk like that in 2003.

If they have lost, Team New Zealand will come away feeling gutted. You go into this game expecting to win.

But they won’t have gone down with a whimper – they’ll have gone down scrapping and fighting and you have to respect them for that.

We have seen some great leadership from Grant Dalton. We have seen Dean Barker, a broken man in 2003 and how he has grown. The guy now is for sure one of the best America’s Cup helmsmen there is.

The boats Team New Zealand developed are good solid boats. There were no hulas (hull appendages), no design-driven wacko ideas. NZL84 and NZL92 are good, solid all-round boats.

It would absolutely be criminal if Team New Zealand do not continue – not only from a sporting contest and sailing team perspective but as a team that represents New Zealand.

The amount of good from them – the television miles, the written media miles, the image they have projected of New Zealand – is priceless.

Sky Television out of Britain is screening the regatta live and I know it has gone from not rating so well to rating extremely well. It has exceeded expectations.

As a sporting organisation I can only admire Team New Zealand. They are classy but not flashy and not like some of the tradeshows we see around here with Alinghi and Oracle.

But Alinghi, like them or dislike them, are a class act.

The way their afterguard put it together yesterday was magical. They deserved to win.

Forecast: A developing low pressure to the west of Valencia sees a return to light southerly gradient winds, but substantial high cloud cover limits the development of sea breezes.

Wind starts 5-7 knots east southeast, then builds gradually to a peak of 9-11 knots by late afternoon and veers to southeast. Temperature 29 degrees

Look out for Augustin Zulueta from Desafio Español to be on Alinghi’s VIP spectator boat Vava to hand over the hip pocket challenge.

I wonder if the agreement for Desafio Español becoming the Challenger of Record will be that the next cup will remain in Valencia. There are also rumblings of a possible change to the design rules, with longer waterline length allowed on the next generation of the IACC class rule.

You heard it here first…