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March 5, 2011 |
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For Paul Cayard, “If it’s Saturday, it must be San Diego.” Cayard and Artemis Racing have signed on for the 34th America’s Cup, but even in 2011 his racing efforts don’t stop there. In typical Cayard style, he is spanning the globe with the Katusha and Artemis RC44 teams, acting as tactician for Katusha while orchestrating the Artemis program. It’s quite a bit to put on one plate. “The America’s Cup thing is really soaking all my time -- I do this because the owner of the boat and his business partner love to sail,” said Cayard. “But I’ve got more than a full time job with the Cup project, getting it rolling and organized. I’m busy, but I’m used to that! That’s how I run my life, so I must like it.” Cayard’s Artemis team had the distinction of being the first America’s Cup team to capsize the new AC45 catamaran, encountering a rogue wind gust last month in the Rangitoto Channel near Auckland. The resulting repairs cut into Cayard’s time with the boat, but he learned enough to know what now lies ahead. “It’s a great boat, and the wing is really cool,” Cayard said. “It’s fantastic technology.” “We’re just going to have to see -- in the fleet racing, it’ll be pretty cool, because there won’t be a lot of them and they’ll be ripping all around -- but we’ll just have to see what it’s like to match race something like that. I’m sure they’ll keep the races short, so it will be exciting. “The boats will be going really fast, so if someone makes a mistake on a boat like that, it will cost a lot. Even if someone has a big lead, it will be a question of ‘Are they going to blow it on the last maneuver and cough up a hundred yards?’” Like everyone who has moved from monohulls into multihulls to get ready for this new Cup, Cayard wonders just how steep the learning curve will be. “I think you’d be a fool to underestimate how long it will take to become proficient. We started investing in that back in November, when we bought two Extreme 40s. We had one training camp in Miami and just had another one in Oman. Our guys, including Terry Hutchinson, got second, which is a damned good result. We’ve put a lot of energy into sailing catamarans so we’re just going to keep at it all this year. “I think the guys were happy with the result, but I think we’re prudent enough and professional enough to realize by no means have we arrived. We have to keep our head down and keep pushing.” Cayard’s Katusha team leads the RC44 regatta in San Diego, while also giving the guys a good look at what could be a future venue for the AC45s. And at the same time, San Diego could also be a preview for the Cup match itself. “I don’t know about sailing the AC72 in here,
but San Diego is a great bay, it’s kind of like San Francisco,
but smaller. It’s a great opportunity for the public to
watch the racing without having to get out on a boat. That,
conceptually, is what we need to do -- I think this is the
direction we need to go in to grow the sport.” --Diane Swintal/©2011
CupInfo Links of Interest: RC44 website:
rc44.com |
