Battle resumes

Act 6 of the 32nd America's Cup begins tomorrow in Malmö, Sweden. James Boyd looks at team changes since Valencia

Standing after the Valencia Acts:

Pos	Team	Act 4	Act 5	Pts
1	Alinghi	1	2	23
2	Emirates Team New Zealand	2	3	21
3	Luna Rossa Challenge	4	1	21
4	BMW Oracle Racing	3	4	19
5	Victory Challenge	5	6	15
6	Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team	8	5	13
7	Desafío Español 2007	6	8	12
8	K-Challenge	7	7	12
9	+39 Challenge	9	9	8
10	United Internet Team Germany	10	10	6
11	China Team	11	11	4
12	Team Shosholoza	12	12	2

Act 6 match racing for the 32nd America's Cup gets underway tomorrow (Thursday) at 1210 local time in Malmö, Sweden with a format of racing the same as that in Valencia - a week of match racing followed by a reverse/layday and Act 7 - three days of fleet racing.

The race track on Øresund (the waters off Malmö) is a tricky one, with the wind influenced by the nearby Swedish and Danish shorelines. Current is also a factor, so local knowledge of the conditions is crucial for success. Unlike Valencia, a very wide range of conditions can be expected over the ten days of racing from flat calms to near gale force winds. According to the Weather Underground website between Thursday and Tuesday crews will enjoy 'thunderstorms' (Friday) and mainly 'overcast' and 'partly cloudy' conditions with the one clear day beind Saturday. The wind forecast is more consistent with wind from 11-15 knots from the south on Thursday, WSW Friday, slowly veering northwest until Tuesday next week.

Now that the 32nd America's Cup is fully underway, with deadlines and final deadlines passed it is mandatory for all 11 challengers and the defender Alinghi to compete.

The teams have been in Sweden with their boats for just one week during which time they have had to put their boats together as well as find time to get out on the water and acquaint themselves with the local conditions. It is possible the teams' relative unfamiliarity with the conditions off Malmö could favour local teams such as Victory Challenge and United Internet Team Germany. "I don't mind being called a home favourite," says Magnus Holmberg, skipper of Sweden's Victory Challenge. "I did win a regatta here a few years ago, so that's fine. I feel at home here. It's very special to do an America's Cup event and to be able to speak your own language at the time.it's great!"

For Holmberg, it's an opportunity to bring the America's Cup to the people at home. "It's a fantastic moment for Sweden and Swedish sailing," Holmberg said. "It's a great possibility to show the Swedish people what the America's Cup is and what a great event it is. I think we have a huge opportunity to reach out to more people than those who are already really into sailing."

Saying this little by way of grand prix racing has until now tended to take place in Sweden's third largest city - Valencia, by coincidence, is Spain's third largest city too.

The Malmö-Skåne Louis Vuitton Acts 6 and 7 opens to the public at 17:00 this evening with a Teams Presentation. Each of the 12 boats and their crew will parade through the Ytrre Hamnen (an inlet near to the Dockan part of the city) to the Klaff Bron (the nearby bridge and lighthouse). The Malmö 'Fire Brigade Band' will provide the musical accompaniment.

Most of the teams have made alterations to their crew line-ups since Valencia, some minor, some far less so.

In the interests of keeping the entire sailing team squad on the pace Alinghi are rotating their crew and this includes the afterguard where for this regatta Jochen Schumann will be helming instead of Peter Holmberg. The team have already announced that their other 'wheel man', former Match Racing World Champion Ed Baird, will be on for Acts 8 and 9 in Trapani, Scilly. In Malmo Baird will be in the Swiss afterguard as 'strategist' alongside tactician Brad Butterworth and navigator Juan Vila.



In the Challenger of Record camp at BMW Oracle Racing the changes have been more wholescale since Valencia. Volvo Ocean Race winner John Kostecki, who skippered the boat in Valencia, has been put out to pasture enabling team CEO Chris Dickson to step back into the breach, Gavin Brady handing over the wheel to his boss. Despite rumours of his departure too Brady is in the tactician's spot in Malmö, with Eric Doyle as strategist once again and Fresh (Ian Burns) standing in for navigator Peter Isler. Isler has a prior commitment and will be resuming his navigator's duties in Trapani. Also departed from the team are Tony Kolb, Noel Drennan and Dirk de Ridder, all three heading for Volvo Ocean Race campaigns.

Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team once again have leading TP52 sailor Vasco Vasco in the skipper/tactician role with his wingman Flavio Favini helming. Syndicate head Vincenzo Onorato is also in the afterguard on the former Team Dennis Conner boat ITA 77. Their team has recently been boosted with the addition of Danish match racing talent in the form of Jes Gram Hansen and Rasmus Kostner. Tim Dengate is also soon to join up as shore team manager once he has finished with Neville Crichton's new Alfa Romeo at Hamilton Island.

Iain Percy's +39 team sees the addition of former GBR Challenge (and thedailysail correspondent) Ian Walker to the afterguard. "Ian has been on the same team as I've been on with the British Olympic team," says Percy. "It's nice for me to be with someone I know so well and trust. We've only had a few days together and already we're speaking English too fast for the rest of the boat! I'm excited and I think it helps to shore up our team a little further."

At present Walker's position isn't permanent, but Percy says he hopes it will be. Walker replaces Thomaso Chieffi, who has left the team. "Basically the team's same," Percy told us. "Some different guys are sailing, but they are all in the team. There are some little changes on the boat, we have new sails. We haven't done much sailing in the last couple of months which is a little bit of a concern to me going into this regatta. But I'm sure we will be fine and the result fortunately with the weighting is not that important but I think improving is everything." We hear echoes of Percy's recent preparation for the Star Europeans which he won handsomely with crew Steve Mitchell. "I'm in Sweden completely unprepared - maybe it is a good omen!" Percy quipped.

GBR Challenge crew also feature strongly in the K-Challenge line-up with Matt Cornwell sharing bow duty with Doogie Couvreux, Guy Salter on the mid-bow. Since Valencia they have been joined by 'big' George Skuodas at the mast and Hamble's finest Jim Turner on main grinder. The afterguard of the French team remains the same with Thierry Peponnet behind the wheel, ex-Team New Zealand nipper Cameron Appleton calling tactics, former Groupama man Tanguy Cariou as strategist and Wouter Verbraak or Olivier Douillard navigating.

"We want to do better than we did in Valencia," Thierry Peponnet stated the obvious at today's press conference. "We have lots of small changes in lots of areas. The communication in the afterguard we are more confident with. Our crew work and sails are better. We try to learn from our mistakes and find the right configuration on board. We had some practice racing here the last few days and we're very happy with the results.I think we're going in a positive direction."

All the teams are sailing the same boats as they raced in Valencia, with the exception of the Swedish on Victory Challenge who are fielding Orm instead of SWE 63 Örn. "We just wanted to change to the faster boat," explains skipper Magnus Holmberg. "The boat we're using here is the second boat we built for Auckland. It's a little bit of a development from the other boat...but we haven't used the boat that much. We believe it could be a touch faster and little bit more reliable, so that's why we made that decision."

Since the Swedes have signed two more former GBR Challenge sailors Ian Weighell Jonathan Taylor, in addition to Richard Sydenham. "There a many proficient English sailors who also have America's Cup experience," continued Holmberg. "It's just a pity that there is not a new GBR Challenge this time. We are, however, more than pleased to be able to have some of them in our team. "Ian Weighell has competed in top-class rowing and is a solid grinder. He provides a necessary strengthening on the grinder side." Weighell test sailed with Victory Challenge for a week during the summer in Valencia and arrived in Malmö in Sunday after spending his honeymoon in Morocco.

Victory Challenge have also signed former Team New Zealander and America's Cup veteran Jeremy Scantlebury. For Scantlebury, 41, this will be the seventh time he has taken part in the America's Cup, five times with Team New Zealand starting in Fremantle in 1987, on Michael Fay's big boat in 1988 and was with Team New Zealand through the Coutts era before signing up with OneWorld for the last Cup. "Not only does he provide a mine of experience in sailing these types of yachts but also in design and development work in this special boat class," says Holmberg.

Another Brit to be sailing this time will be Chris Law on the South African Team Shosholoza. Law will take over the helm from Ian Ainslie duing the match races of Act 6. "We think our speed is more competitive, and we're working on that pretty much daily," said Geoff Meek. "This is going to be a great regatta for us. I think we're up there with our boat speed and we can give it a good go!"

Shosholoza will be sailing RSA 83, the only brand new sailing, built specifically to Version 5 of the America's Cup Class rule. However during the last Acts in Valencia the boat was ill-prepared due to the suspect construction of their new carbon fibre mast. After testing the rig and carrying out repairwork to the spar the mast came tumbling down during training off Valencia in July. In Malmo the team will reluctantly been sailing with the old spar they bought off Alinghi and were using during the last Acts in Valencia.
Since Valencia China Team (born of the French Le Defi) has concentrated on developing their boat. This has included changing the keel and bulb, upgrading winches, improving the running rigging and getting a new suit of sails. They have also trimmed their distinctive sugar scoop at the stern to remove some weight. "We arrived here with low preparation, but in the three days of sailing here we can see we have improved our speed. We're happy with what we have done," said Pierre Mas at today's Skipper's press conference.

Of the modification the team Luc Gellisseau said: “This is the first round of improvements, but as a direct result of the Rule changes [ie to Version 5]. There are still a lot more modifications still to be made - most importantly, a new mast and a more efficient keel bulb. Those changes will be part of our winter programme, as will building our new shipyard in China for the construction of our new boat for 2007.”

Three Chinese sailors will be sailing on board during Acts 6 and 7 in rotation. These include former pro boxer Peirui Wang who took up sailing two years ago. "Even when I was training as a boxer, I was very interested in sailing and in other water sports. Career-wise, when I was recruited by the coach of the sailing team of Shangdong province, I thought it would offer me a better career opportunity (since the sailing team represents the whole province, whilst the boxing team only represents the city itself). I just feel to be one of the first Chinese sailors to be given the chance to compete for the Cup. For most of my fellow sailors, it is hard to imagine."

Wang says he hopes to be a grinder in the crew but needs to work on developing his physique for this. He is also working hard at learning English. In the races we had to use very basic English and body language. It cost us lots of precious time, I think. I am working hard on my English now. I bought a textbook and I spend several hours either during the day or at night studying. I haven’t started learning French yet, it’s much more difficult than English, right?"

Guangyi Liu will also be a grinder on board. Liu, 24, was recruited into sailing by the Qingdao Sailing School and has been on the water for eight years, moving from the Laser into the Finn in October last year.

The third Chinese sailor, Fei Zhao is also from Qingdoa, the 2008 Olympic sailing venue. Nicknamed ‘Fly’, Fei discovered yachting at the age of 13, and America’s Cup sailing at 22. "Back then, sailing was purely for fun. And sailing is a family tradition: both my grandfather and uncle used to be sailors. My grandfather was the first secretary of the Shandong Sailing School and the man who introduced Oppie class sailing into China. My uncle is the current president of Qingdao Sailing Sports School, a professional sailing school owned by the government.

On CHI 69 Fly aspires to being a bowman. "I understand that a bowman needs to be strong, swift and be very courageous! It is an important position and very cool job as well. In the long run, I would like to move to the technical/engineering side, since I am interested in computer related analysis."

China Team's afterguard for Malmo will again be Pierre Mas in the helmsman/skipper role, with Philippe Mourniac as tactician and Dimitri Deruelle as strategist. Otherwise the team have two new crewmembers including Frederico Giovannelli - a grinder, who was with Prada in 2000 and 2003 and four who didn't sail on CHI-69 in Valencia.

Schedule of racing:

Flight 1
Alinghi (SUI 75) versus Victory Challenge (SWE 73)
Team Shosholoza (RSA 83) versus BMW Oracle Racing (USA 76)
K-Challenge (FRA 60) versus +39 Challenge (ITA 59)
Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL 82) versus United Internet Team Germany (GER 72)
Desafío Español (ESP 67) versus Mascalzone Latino – Capitalia Team (ITA 77)
China Team (CHN 69) versus Luna Rossa Challenge (ITA 74)

Flight 2
Alinghi (SUI 75) versus Team Shosholoza (RSA 83)
Victory Challenge (SWE 73) versus K-Challenge (FRA 60)
BMW Oracle Racing (USA 76) versus +39 Challenge (ITA 59)
United Internet Team Germany (GER 72) versus Desafío Español (ESP 67)
Mascalzone Latino – Capitalia Team (ITA 77) versus Luna Rossa Challenge (ITA 74)
China Team (CHN 69) versus Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL 82)