Tuesday, April 24, 2012

J/24 Italian America's Cup Sailing

J/80s starting(Naples, Italy)- In keeping with the influence of Italy on the sailing world, it's somewhat coincidental that SAILING WORLD's recent "50th Celebration" article from past J/24 World Champion and College Sailor of the Year Terry Hutchinson- "Recover from a bad start"- was published recently.  As Terry said, "Patience is a virtue when it comes to recovering from a bad start."  In it, Terry Hutchinson explains how to get in the clear after a bad start: "You know you've had a bad start when you can't execute the game plan determined before the race. Two critical things must happen if you wish to recover: the helmsman has to sail the boat as fast as possible while in dirty air, and you need to decide where to go to get clean air."  Here's the article- http://www.sailingworld.com/experts/recover-from-a-bad-start

But, what to do after a "bad spill"?  Don't have that answer yet!  Take a look at this problem Terry recently encountered while racing an AC45 in the America's Cup World Series off Naples, Italy--

http://www.americascup.com/en/Latest/Gallery/2012/4/AC-World-Series---Race-Day-One---News/

What's the coincidence here??  Terry's up against LUNA ROSSA that has Francesco De'Angelis as a principal part of their racing/management program.  LUNA ROSSA recently won the fleet racing, appropriately enough, in Naples, Italy in the same waters that Francesco won his 1987 J/24 World Championship off the famous island of Capri!  Small world, eh?