Oracle Back on the Bay
Oct 11, 2011
Return
to the Bay, Oracle Racing's AC45's are training again in GGYC's home
waters. Photo:�2011 Guilain Grenier/Oracle Racing
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Crew signing autographs at
Oracle World. |
The team last trained on the Bay in June and put on a spectacular show. In strong winds team CEO Russell Coutts capsized his AC45 wingsail catamaran two days after team skipper Jimmy Spithill nearly did the same thing.
October�s session isn�t expected to be as windy, but still will provide valuable practice ahead of the next America�s Cup World Series event in San Diego, Nov. 12-20, with racing scheduled to begin Nov. 18.
�This session will be two-fold,� said Spithill, the 32-year-old skipper from Australia. �It�ll provide us an opportunity to practice for San Diego and include some more of our sailors who haven�t had an opportunity to race yet.�
Oracle Racing announced last month that Coutts would be turning over the helm of Oracle Racing Coutts to Darren Bundock of Australia. Bundock is a two-time Olympic silver medalist (2000, �08) in the multihull class and a seven-time world champion. He�ll take the helm and Coutts will move into more to a tactical role combined with his land-based chief executive�s duties.
The team recently acquired two additional AC45 boats and is using them to finalize concepts for the wing and appendages. Construction of the team�s first AC72 is already underway, with tooling created by Core Builders Composites in New Zealand.
�The session also gives us time to meet with the design team guys and settle the key choices for our first AC72,� Spithill said. �The sailing team is closely involved with the design team in discussing systems, layouts and general characteristics. After the great success of the AC45, we�re very excited about the AC72. It�s going to be awesome.�
--From Oracle Racing Communications
Oracle
Racing's newest AC45's training in San Francisco. Photo:�2011 Guilain
Grenier/Oracle Racing
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