I was in Stockholm today for a friendly regatta hosted by the 6M Class, part of the city’s week of celebrations commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 1912 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee Chairman, Jacques Rogge and the King of Sweden headlined the regatta here in the city centr.

A number of Olympic sailors took part including Torben Grael who happens to be the sailor who has won the most Olympic medals ever.

The competition was held in ten 6M boats. The crews were comprised of the boats’ owners, plus some famous Olympians from other sports and celebrity sailors.

Two races were held and the Artemis Racing team onboard Rebecca, belonging to Johan Larson, was the winner of the day with a 2, 1.

The sun was out and the temperature in the mid 20s C. When the weather is like this here, the Swedes come out in force. Sun worshiping is the main activity all over the city…the parks, along the bay, absolutely everywhere and everyone.

Tonight there is a gala dinner in the City Hall for 700 international Olympic delegates, hosted by the King and Queen of Sweden. Tomorrow, there is a big event for the public in the main football stadium where the Olympics were held in 1912.

I will be on the first flight out to Geneva tomorrow morning in hopes of making the 1300 start of the annual Geneve-Rolle-Geneve Race with my boss and friend Torbjorn Tornqvist in his D35.

Paul

A great day for Artemis Racing on the water here in New Zealand. Match racing in 15 knots from the East was on the menu and the team won three out of the four races to ‘win’ the day.

The racing a very demanding physically for the five crew onboard. The average heart rate for wing trimmer Sean Clarkson is 150 with peaks at 180 during the 30 minute heat.

No capsizes or collisions today, but it was very close racing.

There is just one maneuver in the three minute prestart but the lead/push game for the final minute and a half is very similar to what we are used to from monohulls.

Our team of 25 people from Artemis Racing have been working very hard for eight weeks on this AC45. AC45 Project Manager Phil Jameson has done an excellent job in preparing the boat not just for these trials but for the World Series which starts in August in Portugal.

I have been in Auckland for three days with the team and I am very pleased with how the entire team is working together.

Tonight I am heading back to California and onto Valencia Sunday where another 40 people are doing great work on designing and building our AC72 which will launch early next year.

This America’s Cup is a very busy one indeed! No one is lacking something to do.

Paul Cayard

Valencia,

I am in the middle of a two week stint in Valencia, Spain working mostly with the Artemis Racing technical team which is based here. Juan Kouyoumdjian (Juan K) has his office here with about 20 engineers and since Juan is our lead designer, we built a lot of our structure around Valencia. We are also going to build our wings here and do our first sailing in the new AC72 Class from a sailing base here.

While technology is great these days with email, Skype and Gotomeeting, etc., there is no substitute for being somewhere in person. One of the features of this America’s Cup is what I call “decentralization”. Our technical team is here in Valencia, there will be boatbuilding in Sweden, the sailing team is all over the world…(currently in New Zealand), the America’s Cup itself will take place in San Francisco, thus creating an environment that produces synergy for the team is a big challenge in and of itself. It was all much easier when everyone just moved to one venue for three years as in the “old days” of the Cup. So I travel a lot…what’s new.

Apart from all the scientific part, we are currently working on locating our sailing base. There are a few venues we are investigating and it is interesting trying to imagine what we will and will not be able to do with this boat where you can’t drop the sails to come into the dock. Running down the “cattle shoot” of the America’s Cup harbor here in a nice summer southeasterly sea breeze, at 30 knots because there is no way “ease the main” to slow the thing down, could be a little more exciting than we want. BMW ORACLE was based in the commercial port a year ago when they had there 185 foot winged triamaran. That is not really an option for us but there are other choices.

The Artemis Racing sailing team is in Auckland (another ex AC city) training in our new AC45 catamaran. This new boat will race 8 events over the next year in the America’s Cup World Series. The ACWS is a world tour that will take place every year with the Cup boats. We are starting with these 45 footers as no one has the 72’s ready yet. The 72’s will debut on the World Series in August of 2012 in San Francisco. The idea of the World Series is to feature the America’s Cup boats and sailors on a regular basis. Then once every three years, there will by the America’s Cup itself, thereby preserving the uniqueness of that event.

On a personal note, I have been trying to track down my first sailboat which my father built for me, in the garage of our house in San Francisco, in 1967. I finally found it being well looked after by a couple living just outside of Sacramento, in the Sierra foothills. They were willing to part with the boat and yesterday, my parents drove up there an picked it up. The US National Sailing Hall of Fame wants the boat so my Dad will refinish it, to museum quality and then we will present it to the museum later this year. I am excited for my Dad as it is a nice way to memorialize what a great thing he did for his 8 year old son.

Paul

It was a fantastic day today on the Hauraki Gulf in the new AC45 prototype catamaran. Blue sky and 15 knots of wind from the Southwest made for a great training day for Artemis Racing.

Following a strange incident on Monday whereby the hard wing sail was damaged, the Artemis team worked alongside the ACRM team and Core Builders to get the new generation America’s Cup yacht back out on the water.

I was particularly pleased the boat was ready today as this gave me an opportunity to sail the boat before heading to the airport for my flight back to San Francisco tonight.

My impressions are that the boat is nothing less than spectacular. I am not a multihull sailor, but I was able to steer the boat around a couple of laps on the Hauraki Gulf under the watchful eye of Santiago Lange, two time Silver medalist and Artemis Racing team member.

The boat seemed very balanced and the typical multihull peril of leeward bow submersion was non existent. We easily skipped along at 20+ knots downwind and about 12 knots upwind. The crew (and helmsman) hike out just like on a Laser.

Hats off to Oracle Racing and Core Builders for taking this boat from concept to sailing in just 4 months!

Artemis will be sailing the prototype for three more days. Then we begin the assembly of our own boat for a mid-March training session down here in Auckland. The first AC45 World Series event will be in July.

It really struck me today that there is a new era of America’s Cup coming and I was very happy to be part of it!

Paul

Published: June 18, 2006

GOTEBORG, Sweden The U.S. yacht Pirates of the Caribbean won the ninth and final leg of the Volvo Ocean Race on Saturday, while the Dutch entry ABN AMRO One took overall honors for the grueling around-the-world regatta.

The No. 1 Dutch yacht, skippered by Mike Sanderson, was last in the six- yacht fleet in the ninth leg, but won the 58,000-kilometer, or 36,000-mile, race with a total of 96 points.

“This has been a great run for ABN AMRO,” Sanderson said. “This is a rock-solid team.”

His crew celebrated by throwing Sanderson overboard.

The Pirates finished second over all with 73, while Brasil 1 was third in the leg and third over all.

In Saturday’s race, skipper Paul Cayard’s Pirates edged the second-placed ABN AMRO Two by 4 minutes, 50 seconds. The No. 2 Dutch boat came fourth over all with 58.5 points.

“This couldn’t have been scripted better by anyone in Hollywood,” Cayard, 46, said of the close finish.

For Simon Fisher, the 28-year-old navigator aboard ABN AMRO Two, it was a bittersweet end to the ocean odyssey.

“We were feeling pretty confident until the wind ran out,” he said. “It would have been sweet, actually winning a leg, but we were unlucky.”

The race started off at Vigo, Spain, in November and has been marked by the death of a sailor and the dramatic rescue of the 10-man crew of the sinking entry Movistar of Spain.

The last leg was a 925-kilometer dash from Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, to this southern Swedish port.

Hundreds of small boats crowded the waters off Sweden’s second-largest city, while thousands – including King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia – gathered in bright sunshine to cheer the yachts from shore.

GOTEBORG, Sweden The U.S. yacht Pirates of the Caribbean won the ninth and final leg of the Volvo Ocean Race on Saturday, while the Dutch entry ABN AMRO One took overall honors for the grueling around-the-world regatta.

The No. 1 Dutch yacht, skippered by Mike Sanderson, was last in the six- yacht fleet in the ninth leg, but won the 58,000-kilometer, or 36,000-mile, race with a total of 96 points.

“This has been a great run for ABN AMRO,” Sanderson said. “This is a rock-solid team.”

His crew celebrated by throwing Sanderson overboard.

The Pirates finished second over all with 73, while Brasil 1 was third in the leg and third over all.

In Saturday’s race, skipper Paul Cayard’s Pirates edged the second-placed ABN AMRO Two by 4 minutes, 50 seconds. The No. 2 Dutch boat came fourth over all with 58.5 points.

“This couldn’t have been scripted better by anyone in Hollywood,” Cayard, 46, said of the close finish.

For Simon Fisher, the 28-year-old navigator aboard ABN AMRO Two, it was a bittersweet end to the ocean odyssey.

“We were feeling pretty confident until the wind ran out,” he said. “It would have been sweet, actually winning a leg, but we were unlucky.”

The race started off at Vigo, Spain, in November and has been marked by the death of a sailor and the dramatic rescue of the 10-man crew of the sinking entry Movistar of Spain.

The last leg was a 925-kilometer dash from Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, to this southern Swedish port.

Hundreds of small boats crowded the waters off Sweden’s second-largest city, while thousands – including King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia – gathered in bright sunshine to cheer the yachts from shore.

GOTEBORG, Sweden The U.S. yacht Pirates of the Caribbean won the ninth and final leg of the Volvo Ocean Race on Saturday, while the Dutch entry ABN AMRO One took overall honors for the grueling around-the-world regatta.

The No. 1 Dutch yacht, skippered by Mike Sanderson, was last in the six- yacht fleet in the ninth leg, but won the 58,000-kilometer, or 36,000-mile, race with a total of 96 points.

“This has been a great run for ABN AMRO,” Sanderson said. “This is a rock-solid team.”

His crew celebrated by throwing Sanderson overboard.

The Pirates finished second over all with 73, while Brasil 1 was third in the leg and third over all.

In Saturday’s race, skipper Paul Cayard’s Pirates edged the second-placed ABN AMRO Two by 4 minutes, 50 seconds. The No. 2 Dutch boat came fourth over all with 58.5 points.

“This couldn’t have been scripted better by anyone in Hollywood,” Cayard, 46, said of the close finish.

For Simon Fisher, the 28-year-old navigator aboard ABN AMRO Two, it was a bittersweet end to the ocean odyssey.

“We were feeling pretty confident until the wind ran out,” he said. “It would have been sweet, actually winning a leg, but we were unlucky.”

The race started off at Vigo, Spain, in November and has been marked by the death of a sailor and the dramatic rescue of the 10-man crew of the sinking entry Movistar of Spain.

The last leg was a 925-kilometer dash from Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, to this southern Swedish port.

Hundreds of small boats crowded the waters off Sweden’s second-largest city, while thousands – including King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia – gathered in bright sunshine to cheer the yachts from shore.

GOTEBORG, Sweden The U.S. yacht Pirates of the Caribbean won the ninth and final leg of the Volvo Ocean Race on Saturday, while the Dutch entry ABN AMRO One took overall honors for the grueling around-the-world regatta.

The No. 1 Dutch yacht, skippered by Mike Sanderson, was last in the six- yacht fleet in the ninth leg, but won the 58,000-kilometer, or 36,000-mile, race with a total of 96 points.

“This has been a great run for ABN AMRO,” Sanderson said. “This is a rock-solid team.”

His crew celebrated by throwing Sanderson overboard.

The Pirates finished second over all with 73, while Brasil 1 was third in the leg and third over all.

In Saturday’s race, skipper Paul Cayard’s Pirates edged the second-placed ABN AMRO Two by 4 minutes, 50 seconds. The No. 2 Dutch boat came fourth over all with 58.5 points.

“This couldn’t have been scripted better by anyone in Hollywood,” Cayard, 46, said of the close finish.

For Simon Fisher, the 28-year-old navigator aboard ABN AMRO Two, it was a bittersweet end to the ocean odyssey.

“We were feeling pretty confident until the wind ran out,” he said. “It would have been sweet, actually winning a leg, but we were unlucky.”

The race started off at Vigo, Spain, in November and has been marked by the death of a sailor and the dramatic rescue of the 10-man crew of the sinking entry Movistar of Spain.

The last leg was a 925-kilometer dash from Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, to this southern Swedish port.

Hundreds of small boats crowded the waters off Sweden’s second-largest city, while thousands – including King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia – gathered in bright sunshine to cheer the yachts from shore.