“The pressure is on!” Alinghi line up

The skippers are briefed, the course is set and the crews are finishing preparations for their first outing in Valencia at the iShares Cup training session.

Speaking at the skippers’ briefing, Ed Baird, helm of Alinghi White, was looking forward to testing his team against four other Extreme 40s. “The mental activity on the technical side is tough on these boats. You have to think a whole lot faster than an America’s Cup race as things change so quickly; you have to anticipate all the time.

“We have four guys, rather than 17, so there’s no need for the same hierarchy as we would have on an America’s Cup boat, but there is so much constant activity with so much going on.

“The Extreme 40s are new to us and so we find ourselves learning as we do the manoeuvres, which really puts the pressure on to learn even faster.

“And then just when we’ve got used to the conditions here, we’ll be off to Lake Lugano for the first iShares Cup event — the fact we are on a lake and in the mountains is going to make an immense difference. And once we’ve got used to that it’s then off to France to sail back on the sea! It’s going to make it a really challenging season.”

Andreas Hagara, the helm of Holmatro, was also looking forward to the weekend’s training. “It’s a great start to the season to be able to shakedown prior to the first event. It’ll be interesting to see the level Alinghi are sailing at. We know they have put in a lot of hours and for us we have only been able to train on the weekends so it will be good to know where we are.” Hagara, sailing with a talented mix of Austrian and Dutch crew, trained with BMW-Oracle Racing’s Extreme 40 last week and spent two days with Alinghi this week.

The sailors will be contending with a North-Easterly wind which will build around 1300hrs CEST. An 11-14 knot breeze between 1400-1600 will provide the best sailing conditions for the five boats. The courses will be windward-leeward and set to replicate the racecourses the crews will come across over the next five iShares Cup sailing events.

“We are all itching to go racing”

Five Extreme 40s are in the final stages of preparation for the prologue to the 2008 iShares Cup in Valencia.

It was a late night for the crew of Volvo Ocean Race as they completed the final stages of the build of their Extreme 40 ready for three days of warm-up before the start of the iShares Cup in Lugano, Switzerland on 28 May.

Volvo Ocean Race will line up at 1300 CEST in the waters off the home of the America’s Cup against iShares, Holmatro and two boats from America’s Cup winners Alinghi. Alinghi White, which will compete in the iShares Cup, will be skippered by American Ed Baird, racing alongside Alinghi Black.

Mark van Gelderen, sailing this weekend with Volvo Ocean Race, was looking forward to the off. “We are all itching to go. It will be a great start to the season and we are all looking forward to seeing Alinghi sailing their boats. Alinghi are the unknown. We know they have been training hard, putting in a lot of hours but no other team has sailed against them. It will be great to see what the competition will be like.”

We’ll be following the racing closely over the next three days to see who’s on form, so watch out for updates.

iShares Cup TV to broadcast worldwide

Coming soon… the iShares Cup Extreme 40 Sailing Series will be appearing on a small screen near you. A six-part series with all the best thrills and spills from the world’s most exciting sailing series is to be broadcast internationally.

Filmed by the world leaders in sailing TV, the series, produced and directed by Sunset&Vine|APP, will include one programme from each of the five iShares Cup events and a highlights programme with all the best action, interviews and analysis from the series. Using the latest cameras and filming techniques, the programmes will feature boat-to-boat and on-board footage that will take the viewer right to the heart of each team, almost a second fifth-man!
 
 
Channels confirmed so far to take the shows include Sky Sports and Setanta Sports UK and Ireland, the International and Italian Sailing Channels, Fox Australia, Sky New Zealand and Sun Sport Florida, a reach of over 80.9 million homes.

More broadcasters are being added daily, so for all the latest information about channels and broadcast times keep a close eye on www.iSharesCup.com

Final details in place: 9 boats, 5 venues

The final pieces of the jigsaw are now in place for the 2008 iShares Cup Sailing Series.

The venue for the German leg of the European tour has been confirmed as Kiel, on the Baltic Sea. Kiel, in northern Germany, is the third new venue for the 2008 iShares Cup and home to the fourth event on the circuit — the Extreme 40 fleet will race there from 29-31 August, offering guests and spectators a chance to get a great close-up view of the fast-paced iShares Cup racing.

The bustling city has a strong maritime history, and lies on the busiest artificial waterway in the world, the Kiel Canal. Every June the city holds Kiel Week, the largest sailing event in Europe, which combines dinghy and yacht racing with a festival of ships, music and fireworks. The event welcomes about three million visitors annually, who perch on the sea walls and rocky coastal defences to watch around 2,000 boats ranging from massive tall ships to racing yachts and Olympic dinghy classes. The iShares Cup racecourses will be held in the same fantastic sailing amphitheatre.

“Both the area’s exceptional natural sailing stadium, and the enthusiasm of the city of Kiel to host the German venue of the 2008 iShares Cup, easily convinced us when it came to making the final call,” explained Event Director Gilles Chiorri, of OC Events, “The racecourse will be so close to the spectators that it will be an amazing spectacle to watch the Extreme 40 fleet rounding the marks just a couple of metres from the shore!”

Title sponsors iShares welcomed the addition of Kiel to the event circuit. “Germany is a key market for iShares and Kiel is an ideal location to host this stage of the 2008 iShares Cup. The style of sailing you will witness in the iShares Cup is revolutionary and we are delighted to be supporting such an exciting sport whereby its core characteristics reflect our brand values and business approach,” said Dan Kiddle, Head of iShares Sponsorship, Europe.

Another new entry has also been confirmed, bringing the 2008 iShares Cup fleet to nine boats so far. The latest team to line up for this year’s contest are Tommy Hilfiger, who will be returning to the circuit after finishing fourth in last year’s iShares Cup.

Tommy Hilfiger reunites three of last year’s crew with skipper Randy Smyth. The American helmsman took part in the Amsterdam leg of the 2007 iShares Cup as well as racing at the front of the fleet the previous year. Randy counts an astonishing 58 national and world championship wins in one-design multihulls, as well as taking a silver medal at the 1984 Olympics and winning the America’s Cup in ’88. He will be joined by fellow Americans Jonathan Farrar, Tommy Hilfiger’s tactician, and trimmer Stan Schreyer. Dutch bowman Mark van Gelderen brings a European touch to this trans-Atlantic team — he is an experienced Extreme 40 crew, having sailed in the class since its launch three years ago.

“Having Tommy Hilfiger back in the 2008 iShares Cup is already an important milestone for the circuit, and moreover having such a cat legend Randy Smyth as skipper on board gives an extra level of interest — certainly a lot is expected from this crew,” said Chiorri.

The 2008 iShares Cup kicks off in just 21 days time. The first event is in the mountain city of Lugano, racing on the beautiful lake on the Swiss-Italian border over 30 May-1 June, before moving on to the French leg of the circuit at Hyères. It heads to Britain on 2-4 August to race during Skandia Cowes Week, then Kiel, Germany from 29-31 August. The iShares Cup concludes in Amsterdam as the Extreme 40s return to the scene of last year’s dramatic finale, racing right in the centre of the Dutch city over 19-21 September.

Team Aqua sails for charity

When Team Aqua compete in the iShares Cup this year, they will be raising funds for the World Land Trust, which promotes ecological sustainability around the world. Already involved in the RC 44 Class, Team Aqua will use the two sailing platforms to raise money for the organisation.

After a successful first season in the RC 44 Class, Team Aqua has announced that it is moving up to a new level. The winner of the first RC 44 Championship Tour will also compete in the iShares Cup Sailing Series on board Extreme 40 catamarans.

Team Aqua’s objective is to provide a great platform to its international sponsors whilst sailing under the umbrella of the World Land Trust (WLT - http://www.worldlandtrust.org/). The World Land Trust is an international conservation organisation that takes direct action to save rainforest and other biologically important lands.

“Our goal is to have a professional sailing team that competes internationally on some of the worlds most competitive sailing leagues”, said Team Aqua owner Chris Bake. “This structure will give a good visibility to our partners whilst associating them with our values. We are passionate about sailing and we want to obtain good results; but our goal is also to promote ecological sustainability around the world and raise funds for the World Land Trust. We will also be sailing flying the Carbon Balanced Logo (http://www.carbonbalanced.org) as we plan to offset the carbon footprint of our sailing campaign through the Carbon Balanced program run by the World Land Trust.

“This is a very exciting project”, added skipper Cameron Appleton (NZL). “We want to improve our level of sailing by competing in classes that are both very different from each other and challenging. Team Aqua gives us the opportunity to sail against some of the world’s best sailors in different platforms. Obviously, we will have to put a lot of effort into our team to build the areas we are new in. We feel our team structure and the people involved can produce some great results.”

The circuits chosen by Team Aqua are very international and provide racing at the highest level.

The RC 44 Championship Tour is a top level sailing event, initiated by Russell Coutts, that comprises both match and fleet racing. Winner of the first championship Tour, Team Aqua is the current benchmark of this Class, which is a big achievement competing against the likes of Russell Coutts, James Spithill, Sébastien Col and many more.

The iShares Cup is a European circuit for Extreme 40 multihulls with very short and intense races. Amongst the entries are Olympic medallists, America’s Cup teams and other multihull experts.

Team Aqua is an international sailing team based in Dubai and owned by Chris Bake. Cameron Appleton is the team’s professional skipper; he has put together a great team of sailors, both talented and fun to sail with. The team members are Andrew Estcourt, Jeff Brock, Jim Turner, Matt Cassidy, Ben Graham, Kevin Kelble, Scott Kennedy, Alister Richardson, Jonathon Taylor and Dan Johnson.