United Internet Team Germany: No second boat after Germany I
This is the most important news that came out of this morning's press conference in the team base in Valencia. Taking advantage of a day of rest in Louis Vuitton Act 12, the first ever America's Cup challenger from Germany summoned journalists in order to make a brief assessment of their performance so far and officially announce that the team's management has taken the decision not to start the design and construction of a second new boat.
The first (and only) new yacht of United Internet Team Germany has been constructed in a record time of only nine months at the shipyard Knierim-Yachtbau in Kiel, Germany. On the 24th of April 2006, the first ever German America´s Cup boat in the 155-year old history of this trophy was christened with the name Germany I.
Germany I, whose sail number is GER-89, will come to Valencia at the beginning of August in order to start intensive sailing tests. According to Eberhard Magg, technical director of United Internet Team Germany, the first tests in Kiel have proved to be very promising, the boat is in the water and some small modifications on the rig have been carried out.
The decision not to embark on the design and construction of another boat makes sense at this stage as the team will much more benefit from dedicating all its financial, technical and human resources on the development and improvement of GER-89, rather than split them on two boats. With less than a year till the Louis Vuitton Cup, the Germans must absolutely make GER-89 as good and fast as possible in order to be able to reach their goal of being in the middle of the league rather than stuck in 11th place.
Till GER-89 arrives in Valencia and starts sailing, United Internet Team Germany will have to sit tight and use the older GER-72. Valencia, 26 June 2006. Photo by Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing
1 Comments:
It is a lot harder to make one new boat go fast than it is to tune two boats up together. I am sure that they feel they can tune up the new boat against the old one, but in past America's cups I've been involved with we quickly found that to be a poor substitute. As someone said in a meeting, "Tuning the new boat against the old one will be a complete waste of time. Or at least I sure hope it will. Otherwise the whole effort is a waste of time."
Obviously this is a funding decision and they don't want to end up like Aloha in 2000, where two already slow boats were poorly funded. But they shouldn't kid themselves and think this is going to be easier with one.
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