NationStates Jolt Archive

(Taipei Times)

Wang to head Taiwan's American's Cup Challenge
Andrew Wang, a skipper of the Tainan Sailing Club, has confirmed recent rumours of a Taiwanese challenge for the America's Cup. Rumours were sparked by the sighting of the NZL40 'Black Magic', which Wang at the time denied.

"After protracted neogitaions with Team New Zealand, we have agreed to purchase the NZL40 for a price of $1.5m." Wang told the media today. "We will most likely be using the hull for testing purposes alongside our soon to be completed ROC33."

Wang declined to comment regarding possible sponsorship, although a spokesman for Virgin Atlantic said they were interested. Other possible parties Wang had approached are Acer and EVA Airways. He has yet to recieve a response.

"In my opinion, Team Taiwan will be a formidable opponent. We will also be looking at recruiting from foreign sailing clubs to increase our expertise."

Current challengers:
Team Taiwan
Team Sail
Sail Progressa
Team Largent
Raptor Sail
Aques RCL Juvan (Lovisa)
Cxal-Evian (Lovisa)
Official Nationality : LOV (Lovisa)

Tainan wins hosting rights
(Taipei Times)

In a stunning development, Tainan bet cities such as Valencia and Monaco and won the rights to host the America's Cup.

A spokesman for the current cupholders Alinghi said "Tainan has shown it is capable of hosting the races in a superior manner to the other competitors."

Alinghi Tactician Brad Butterworth says he wanted Tainan to win. "The weather conditions, ocean conditions are perfect for sailing. The place also has a peaceful seaside resort town feeling unlike Valencia and Monaco."

Faxed to sailing clubs around the world were official entry forms for the club to sign up.

OOC: It's open! Sign-up!

Liverpool England's Team Sail (not the most original I know) have confirmed entry. Sponsored by LivEng Airways, its skipper Mark Smith has confrmed that the boat to be used would be the boat which won them the domestic crown, the SLE24, with minor changes.

Kaze Progressa's team, Sail Progressa, confirm their interest. Aided by money from government funding and sponsors Arrow Shoes, they are set to use a modified version of the KZP14, used heavily in the Storavora-Crivoska race this year.

Competition structure

There are big changes to the Louis Vuitton Cup regatta format for the 2010 edition. Although the familiar two round-robin series remain, quarterfinals, semifinals and associated repechages will be used to find the two syndicates, of one that Alinghi will face for the America's Cup.

Round Robin One sees the nine challenging syndicates racing each other once with a win being worth one point. All teams then carry any points gained through to Round Robin Two where each again races the other once with one point again being awarded for a win. At the end of Round Robin Two the syndicate with the least number of points is eliminated.

The eight remaining syndicates now proceed to the quarterfinals and are split into two sections, the top four qualifiers going into the Double Chance group and the bottom four into the Single Chance group.

The top qualifiers for each group select the opponent they would like to race against with the other two teams within that group pairing off, each quarterfinal being raced over a best-of-seven series.

The two winners from the Double Chance group go straight through to the semifinals where they face each other. The two Double Chance losers proceed to a seven-race quarterfinal repechage against the two winners from the Single Chance group. The two Single Chance losers are eliminated from the Louis Vuitton Cup.

The two quarterfinal repechage winners become the third and fourth semifinalists and the losers are eliminated.

At the semifinal stage, the two teams from the Double Chance group face each other in a best-of-seven series with winner going directly to the Louis Vuitton Cup final and the loser into a seven-race semifinal repechage where they meet the winner of the Single Chance semifinal. The Single Chance semifinal loser is eliminated.

The winner of the best-of-seven semifinal repechage becomes the second Louis Vuitton Cup finalist while for the loser, their regatta is over.

The two Louis Vuitton Cup finalists then race each other in a best-of-nine series with the winner going on to challenge Alinghi for the America's Cup.

Rules
http://americascup.nzoom.com/americascup_detail/0,2523,152681-296-302,00.html

bump - I do need someone to be Alinghi.

bump

I will be, I'm actually a skipper so this thread ROCKS!

Also, you are insane for actually attempting this. There are so many rules and weather factors that it will be almost impossible to RP, this is, assuming we will be using the 2002-2004 rule book.

OOC: I know a tiny bit about sailing only :(

The winners will be determined using random dice throws + of course, there will be a correlation between money spent on the boat and success. Of course, bearing in mind Alinghi and Oracle spent some $200m on it last year (and poor Team NZ had only $80m), I don't want people biffing billions on their boats. Even Larry Ellison said it was very expensive and isn't sure he can afford it.

Of course, this mainly is going to be a character RP somewhat between the sailors.

IC:

Virgin Atlantic has officially confirmed their sponsorship of Team Taiwan - to the tune of $50m.

"It'll be good to take up a new sport," Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Atlantic said.

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In other news, Team Taiwan skipper Andrew Wang says the ROC33 has been "very pleasing."

"We are confident we will be able to beat previous cupholders Alinghi by a fairly decent margin."

Zhonghua Steel Company and the Xiannese Maritime Organization will pledge a combined 65 million to Team Taiwan in hoping a complete sucess for them. Xiaguo also officially endorses Team Taiwan and fans will be able watch the event at home while Xiaguo will send reporters following the events.

*I'll keep a watch at this, seems very interesting.

bump

Hmm, so, how many people have entered the competition?

Raptor Sail

(added)

Name of Syndicate: Aques RCL Juvan
Official Nationality : LOV (Lovisa)
Name of boat : Agapio-Marina
Name of Skipper : Tomasz Reiss

and

Name of Syndicate: Cxal-Evian
Official Nationality : LOV (Lovisa)
Name of boat : Malva
Name of Skipper : Piotr Pawica

BUMP for _Taiwan.

BUMP again.

bump