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Paul Cayard is hedging his bets and having to be fairly
non-committal about the immediate future since his recent
and sensational sidelining from Larry Ellison's Oracle Racing
America's Cup team. But you only have to hear him talking
about it, to realise that he is very interested indeed in
joining the Volvo Ocean Race.
Officially the top American skipper who won the last Whitbread
hands down when leading EF Language, will only say he has
a 50-50 chance of taking part in the current race, but one
suspects the real chances are much higher and rising.
Paul Cayard says he is going to give the Oracle Racing situation
another month to sort itself out before he starts taking
decisions on his future himself. In the meantime negotiations
or contacts are underway with at least one Volvo syndicate.
Cayard confirms he has been talking to one but will not
identify it. However, the likelihood is that it is Assa
Abloy, a team he has always tipped for honours and one which
includes some of his key collaborators from four years ago,
among them Mark Rudiger and Magnus Olsson.
"If things don't work out for me in the America's Cup arena
I may become more interested in the second half of the Volvo
because I like the race and I think it's an awesome event
and, provided the right opportunity arises, I might be interested,"
he said.
It is clear that the "right opportunity" is not that far
off. Cayard agreed that joining the race in Sydney was unrealistic
but Auckland or Rio were possibilities. "I'm not particularly
close to jumping on any of the Volvo boats - it's not imminent,"
he explained. "I seriously doubt I'll be in Sydney for the
start of that leg. Auckland or Rio are more the timeframe
I am looking at, if I choose that path, but that depends
on how things simmer along over the next 30 days." |
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Oracle
OpenWorld (OOW 2001) conference
(11/30/01)
(source
: oracleac.org)
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Oracle Corporation announced that the upcoming Oracle
OpenWorld (OOW 2001) conference, held from December 2-7,
2001 at San Francisco's Moscone Center, will feature a special
Oracle Racing Pavilion, complete with 30-foot yacht
and insight into the Oracle technologies helping the Oracle
Racing team prepare for their America's Cup Challenge.
At the show, attendees will be able to view the technology
that is helping the team build ever-faster boats. Using
Oracle9i Database and the Oracle Apache HTTP server, Oracle
Racing has developed a sophisticated design tracking system
allowing designers and engineers to quickly retrieve detailed
reports and compare dozens of designs at once. A key component
to this is the integration of data across systems, accessible
via a simple Web browser over a secure Internet connection.
The team also is using Oracle technology to help with their
testing and training on a daily basis, as more than 70 instrumental
variables are collected every second for the two boats and
loaded into an Oracle database. The data is then analyzed
and the resulting reports and charts help the sailors refine
their performance; all data is then stored in a data warehouse
for easy retrieval in the future. |
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USA-49
keel update
(11/17/01)
(source
: NZ
Herald)
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As USA49 was back at the Viaduct Harbour early yesterday,
New Zealand skipper Chris Dickson said that the mast and
sail were rescued.
"Obviously the whole keel was not strong enough," Dickson
explained. "A year ago we changed a number of things
and thought we had made significant improvements. We thought
we had solved the problem but obviously we haven't.
"The problem is that they are old boats and the protocol
prevents us from getting the plans of the keel, therefore
we don't have any specific engineering knowledge of the
keel structure." |
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According to the interview Larry Ellison
gave to ESPN, we knows that Chris Dickson is back - with
Peter Holmberg and Larry Ellison himself - as helmsman for
Oracle Racing (LE : "You'll see a few people driving.
You’ll see Peter Holmberg and Chris Dickson driving the
boat. You’ll even see me driving").
But yesterday, USA 49 was out trailing with sister yacht
USA 61 on the gulf, when the boat, helmed by Chris Dickson,
suddenly fell onto its side. The boat had been sailing in
14-knot winds and moderate seas when its keel suddenly snapped
off, around 10.30 AM (NZ time).
Last year, on November 21, USA 61 suffered the same fate
when its 21-tonne keel sheered off at the hull. Dickson
was also at the helm that day. Back then, the crew dived
into the water fearing their safety.
But yesterday, the sailors managed to stay on board the
boat, and successfully battled to save the mast before it
was submerged. Only a handful of the Oracle crew got wet
this time, after diving in to secure the mast immediately
after the mishap.
Three Auckland coastguard vessels went to the rescue of
the boat and crew, and a floating crane was towed out to
the site of the incident, near Waiheke Island in the eastern
part of the Hauraki Gulf. Pumps were used to drain water
from the hull in an effort to right the boat. The boat was
towed to a sheltered bay on nearby Motuihe Island, but with
winds gusting to 40 knots, it was unlikely that the boat
would be towed back to Auckland before morning.
In a statement released by Oracle, 'all crew were said to
be safe and the sailing and support teams were working together
to rescue the hull. Once the boat is back at the base the
shore team will be able to better access the time it will
take to get USA 49 back on the water.'
It has been a rugged spring in Auckland - with OneWorld
and Team NZ losing masts in the last two months.
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Paul Cayard's removal from Oracle Racing's
America's Cup plans could be the Assa Aboy campaign in the
Volvo Ocean Race's gain.
Cayard won the previous race, when it was the Whitbread,
aboard EF Language, teamed with the same navigator, Mark
Rudiger, and managers, Johan Salen and Richard Brisius,
who have replaced Roy Heiner with Neal McDonald as Assa
Abloy's skipper. McDonald's appointment is confirmed only
for the next leg of the race.
Sources confirm that Cayard will not be going to Auckland
with the Oracle team for winter training and that he has
been tied up with a golden-handcuffs contract. The sidelining
of such a major talent, who has been involved in the America's
Cup since 1983 and steered in the cup match twice, is a
surprise.
With Chris Dickson, Peter Holmberg and John Cutler also
on the Oracle Racing staff, Larry Ellison has plenty of
options for a skipper/helmsman/tactician axis. "It has not
been finalised," Cayard said, "and I think Larry Ellison
will have something to say about it." Until Ellison clears
the picture, suggestions that he wants to steer his own
entry, as fellow American Bill Koch did against Cayard in
1992, will continue.
Now, taking a non-America's Cup job could be an option for
Cayard. McDonald knows his own promotion is only for the
second leg in the Volvo Race and after that, and the fourth-leg
Southern Ocean stage, there will be a high premium on the
boat-to-boat tactical sailing which is Cayard's forte.
In speaking to Cayard, Assa Abloy's team managers will be
aware that he is a director of boatbuilders Nautor Swan,
whose affiliate, Nautor Challenges, have fielded the entries
of Grant Dalton's Amer Sports One and Lisa McDonald's Amer
Sports Too.
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In a move that will likely confuse his
own Oracle Racing Team as well as any of his opponents,
billionaire Larry Ellison has demoted Paul Cayard from Sailing
Manager of his team. Cayard curiously remains on the Oracle
Racing payroll, but will not accompany the team to Auckland
for this winter’s trials.
Earlier this year, Ellison saw fit to depose his skipper,
Chris Dickson, but that was seen as a popular move among
the rest of the crew. Dickson was accused of being an irritating
skipper by other members of the crew, and Cayard, whose
experience in the America’s Cup is second only to that of
Dennis Conner, while not being appointed to the post, was
in the skipper’s position by default, as a result of his
being the Sailing Manager.
John Cutler takes over as Sailing Manager and it seems ever
more likely that Peter Holmberg, who sailed with Conner
last time round, will be the helmsman of the Oracle Racing
challenger. Holmberg recently won the Colorcraft Bermuda
Gold Cup with Cayard sailing as tactician/bowman.
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PTC
Joins Oracle to recapture the Cup
(06/19/01)
(source
: sailsail.com)
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PTC, the product development company recently
announced a new performance team partnership with Oracle
Racing. The San Francisco based challenger for America’s
Cup 2003 uses PTC’s MCAD solutions, including Pro/ENGINEER
and Pro/MECHANICA, to design their two new America’s Cup
Class (IACC) yachts.
Oracle Racing has been successfully using Pro/ENGINEER software
for design evaluation during the last six months, and is
extending its commitment as a PTC performance team partner.
One of the technologies Oracle Racing is leveraging to gain
a competitive edge is the unique behavioral modeling functionality
in Pro/ENGINEER. Behavioral modeling enables engineers to
describe the design parameters surrounding a desired goal,
which the software then uses to generate the optimized solutions.
This technology has allowed Oracle Racing to evaluate dozens
of virtual prototypes and evolve its designs.
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