Friday 6 July 2007

TEAMORIGIN - Team Director's Response to AC33 Protocol

TEAMORIGIN Team Director Mike Sanderson is currently in New Zealand (sea trialling the new Pindar Open 60, in which he has significant design & development interest), so we're exceptionally grateful to him for providing a statement concerning the recently announced 33rd America's Cup Protocol.

At the protocol press conference on Thursday, Alinghi's President, Ernesto Bertarelli, was asked to comment on the circumstances surrounding TEAMORIGIN's purchase of SUI75 in light of the introduction of a larger specification vessel for the 33rd final regatta, responding "TEAMORIGIN were made aware of the possibility of the class change before they bought SUI75 and there is a clause in the contract that states this possibility."

We therefore asked TEAMORIGIN what impact the announcement of the new protocol would have on the team, and we're delighted to be able to bring Mike Sanderson's statement in full:

“The 32nd America’s Cup was an unprecedented success both on and off the water and we welcome the early response from Alinghi who have acted quickly to clarify a number of details for the next Cup. It is great news that the event will remain in Europe, possibly in Valencia, and we are really excited at the prospect of the new class of boat. The world’s oldest sporting trophy has never been so popular, with over four billion TV viewers and five (5.7m) million visitors to the America’s Cup Port.”


“The new America’s Cup class gives TEAMORIGIN the opportunity to compete on a level playing field with all the other Challengers. These bigger boats will require completely new concepts for yacht design, such as the sliding keel, and our designers will be among the first to push the new rule to its limits to give us a competitive platform. The new class should create faster sailing and a more exciting spectacle. We were always aware of the possibility of a design rule change (as were all teams) and we remain confident that our purchase of SUI 75 provides a valuable asset as a training boat and will be used in the preliminary regattas.”


“The creation of the competitor’s commission and other steps taken towards transferring more power to the Challengers will benefit all aspects of the competition, ensuring the event becomes even more appealing for both sponsors and spectators. We look forward to a resolution on a number of outstanding issues but firmly believe that the Cup will continue to grow both in terms of competitors and popularity and are excited about putting together a successful campaign to win the America’s Cup.”


Inset image: Photo © Action Images / Paul Childs Livepic

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boys, you are so great. You even have been faster than the BOB!!!!! I cannot believe it is true. Maybe you should ask for a Pulitzer Prize for this outstanding achievement!!!!

Anonymous said...

and thanks for making commenting so easy - to censor comment is what a blog should be all about. keep on your great work....

The Editor said...

We posted Mike Sanderson's comments within minutes of receiving them from the team - and I'm sure other sites will have done the same. The timing issue will probably relate to time zones - sometimes it works for us, sometimes against. :)

As for the commenting, it's not a concious decision on our part - more an apparent restriction of the hosting site that all comments must pass through a moderator before being published - I guess it's a wise decision when considering the potential of spam and other inappropriate material. The good news is thus far we've received 2 (not so complimentary) comments, and they've both been published in full.

The Editor said...

We just discovered that we DO have the ability to disable moderation of comments, so our decision to leave this unchanged means it IS now a concious decision, intended to prevent spam. As this set of comments proves, we're not in the business of editing those who take the trouble to communicate reasonably here, even if the comments are less than complimentary.

What do other readers think?