GBR Challenge newsletter

GBR-78 to leave Cowes this Saturday...and other news

The GBR Challenge team have been very busy at both ends of the earth this past month with the GBR Challenge crew stepping up their training in New Zealand and plenty of behind the scenes activity at home.

While the fickle Auckland weather has become the hot topic of conversation, leaving our meteorologist Fiona Campbell poring over satellite maps, GBR Chairman Peter Harrison has been occupied with the transportation of our second Americas Cup boat, GBR78, to New Zealand.

This has presented an interesting challenge, not only for Peter Harrison as flying the boat out represents an additional cost onto an existing £22.5 million budget, but also for project manager of the boat build Paul Jennings, who has had to do some fancy footwork convincing suppliers we still needed materials quickly to finish the boat, without letting the cat out of the bag that we would be sending it to New Zealand.

Having another boat to train against gives our dedicated GBR crew equal footing with the other Americas Cup Challengers and also provides a backup should something go wrong. Flying the boat to New Zealand as opposed to marine shipping saves five weeks, which equates to invaluable training time for the crew to practice on two new generation boats.

GBR78 is scheduled to leave Cowes on 3 August - the first day of Skandia Life Cowes Week - and will board a plane to Auckland two days later. She will pass by the Royal Yacht Squadron on Saturday 3rd August in the early evening so you can catch a glimpse of this awesome yacht before she leaves Britain.

GBR Challenge will have a stand down in the Yacht Haven where you will be able to find out how GBR Challenge are progressing and the Musto store on the main street will be selling all the Team GBR kit - so get down there and support us!

Launch of Wight Lightning

Just as one boat is leaving for New Zealand another is taking to the water. It was all blue skies and smiles on July 13 when the teams families gathered to watch Lisa Walker bless GBR70 with a magnum of Moet & Chandon before it took to the water. It was without a doubt a special occasion for all involved as GBR70 is the first British boat to enter the Louis Vuitton Cup since 1987.

With over 24,000 man hours over five months dedicated to the building of Wight Lightning the GBR crew members can now look forward to putting her through her paces with initial sea trials and speed development. The launch of Wight Lightning also signals the continuation of in house racing and hopefully against other syndicates, which is good for morale and hardens our race crew and shore support team.

GBR Challenge Official Magazine

All GBR supporters can look forward to the publication of a special one-off magazine entitled 'GBR Challenge - The Official Guide to the British America's Cup Challenge'

This stunning 100 page magazine will be available in September, a month before the start of the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series and will feature articles by leading yachting journalists, members of the crew of the GBR Challenge and of course breathtaking photographs which capture all the on-water action.

It will compliment the broadcast coverage from the BBC and provide a unique chance for supporters to gain a full insight into the Challenge programme, race schedule, form guide and what goes on behind the scenes at GBR Challenge. The magazine will be available through WHSmiths, yacht clubs, online, at sailing exhibitions or at news stands.

Hospitality
At GBR Challenge we want to include our supporters in as much as possible. If anyone is travelling to New Zealand during the Louis Vuitton or America's Cup we would like to offer you the chance (for a very reasonable cost) to experience live racing with GBR Challenge on our Luxury Corporate Hospitality Motor Yacht Viking. For more information on our Hospitality packages and general enquiries please email hospitality@gbrchallenge.com.

In NZ
Four of the Team; Andy Green, Adrian Stead, Chris Main and Jim Turner have just flown out to the Newport, USA where they are competing in another Grade 1 Match Racing event, this time the UBS Challenge, part of the Swedish Match series. The competition is going to be tough with many other America's Cup skippers competing. You can keep up to date with their progress daily on our website.

Syndicate row is gradually filling up after a quiet few months. Those presently operational in Auckland are our neighbours, Victory Challenge (Swedish), Alinghi (Swiss), OneWorld (USA), Oracle (USA) and ourselves. There is currently reasonable room for manoeuvre of our two yachts GBR 70 and 52 on the Hauraki Gulf, but that will all change in the next month or so when all eight Challengers and the Defender will be tuning up on the same piece of water - it is going to seem quite overcrowded all of a sudden!

The days continue to tick by at an incredible speed and it is now only 62 days to the first race of the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series.