GBR AC45 bid?

Judders

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According to a mate of mine on the staff at a leading yachting rag, Ben Ainslee is being lined up to head it up.

Do you know what? I really hope it isnt true It's too late to come into it at this stage and frankly it all seems like a pointless circus of cash to me. I'd far rather the energy and potential sponsorship in British sailing went to something worthwhile like a decent crack at the VOR.
 

exfinnsailor

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It's a shame really Ben Ainslee cannot decide what to do. Ok he is a good sailor and has won the FINN Gold Cup and Olympic Gold but its about time he let some of the others have a go. They have been training and preparing for 2012 for years and then up he pops wows the selectors and he's in again. If he wants to go BIG BOAT Sailing then let the Dinghy Guys have a chance. It will be another 4 years now.

Finn GOLD Cup

1 GBR 41 Giles Scott
2 NED 842 Pieter Jan Postma
3 GBR 11 Ed Wright
4 DEN 2 Jonas Hogh Christensen
5 ESP 100 Rafa Trujill
6 FRA 112 Jonathan Lobert
7 GBR 85 Andrew Mills
8 EST 2 Denisss Karpak
9 USA 4 Zach Railey
10 CRO 524 Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic

Looks like you just pop up at the right time and you are in ...
 
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sailorman

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According to a mate of mine on the staff at a leading yachting rag, Ben Ainslee is being lined up to head it up.

Do you know what? I really hope it isnt true It's too late to come into it at this stage and frankly it all seems like a pointless circus of cash to me. I'd far rather the energy and potential sponsorship in British sailing went to something worthwhile like a decent crack at the VOR.

Is he a Lawyer then :rolleyes:
 

flaming

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It's a shame really Ben Ainslee cannot decide what to do. Ok he is a good sailor and has won the FINN Gold Cup and Olympic Gold but its about time he let some of the others have a go. They have been training and preparing for 2012 for years and then up he pops wows the selectors and he's in again. If he wants to go BIG BOAT Sailing then let the Dinghy Guys have a chance. It will be another 4 years now.

Finn GOLD Cup

1 GBR 41 Giles Scott
2 NED 842 Pieter Jan Postma
3 GBR 11 Ed Wright
4 DEN 2 Jonas Hogh Christensen
5 ESP 100 Rafa Trujill
6 FRA 112 Jonathan Lobert
7 GBR 85 Andrew Mills
8 EST 2 Denisss Karpak
9 USA 4 Zach Railey
10 CRO 524 Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic

Looks like you just pop up at the right time and you are in ...

So that would be the Gold Cup that Ben was AHEAD of Giles and Ed until he had a little bit of an altercation with a media boat.
In the summer he beat all comers, including Giles and Ed, at Sail for Gold, and then dominated the Olympic test event. Are seriously suggesting Ben has not been selected on merit....

To me the current situation in the Finn, where it's pretty easy to make a case that Britain would lock out the podium, makes a pretty strong case for scrapping the one boat per country rule. Although then you open the door to countries sacrificing their second boat to take out the oposition.
 

Ex-SolentBoy

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I think that whoever it is that has so much money that they want to spend some of it on this "mine is bigger than yours" contest (wallets that is) should hire whomever they like to steer.

Why it is called Team GBR beats me. Just because you come from somewhere does not mean you are representing it.
 

EBoat126

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Looks like it may be true.

According to Sail Anarchy & Yachts & Yachting some sort of announcement to be made on Tuesday.

Very steep learning curve despite their undoubted tallents, at Team Oracle & ETNZ have been pushing the AC45 hard for over a year already. French teams getting up to speed now but they've always been pretty good at multihull racing.

Good luck to them & I hope it does come off with sufficient backing & support from the UK press.
 

Woodlouse

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Sailing Anarchy seem to think Oracle is behind this bid. Apparently they're less that pleased at the prospects of ETNZ and Luna Rossa developing and training together so their bet is that this GBR team will be doing a similar thing with Oracle. Apparently Oracle was paying Ainslee a fair bit of cash to stop him joining other teams.
 

bedouin

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Sailing Anarchy seem to think Oracle is behind this bid. Apparently they're less that pleased at the prospects of ETNZ and Luna Rossa developing and training together so their bet is that this GBR team will be doing a similar thing with Oracle. Apparently Oracle was paying Ainslee a fair bit of cash to stop him joining other teams.
I thought Ainslee was helming one of the AC45 boats, at least occasionally.

I also thought there was another GBR person helming occasionally one of the other boats - maybe Korea? I forget the details and I'm too lazy to look them up :(
 

Grumpybear

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http://www.sailinganarchy.com/index_page1.php

The Sailing Anarchy view on this is near the top of the page, just underneath the bit about BPV

It'll be nice if it goes ahead. It's about time Britain got back into the cup.

the original Team GBR from the previous AC campaign pulled out of this one, I believe in part because their leader felt that the setup of the small cat regattas before the real thing had been devised by Oracle to price out as much as possible of the real competition. I wonder who would be putting up the money for a new attempt?
 

Woodlouse

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the original Team GBR from the previous AC campaign pulled out of this one, I believe in part because their leader felt that the setup of the small cat regattas before the real thing had been devised by Oracle to price out as much as possible of the real competition. I wonder who would be putting up the money for a new attempt?

We find out on Tuesday it seems. Quite a few folk seem to think Branson might have something to do with it.
 

Grumpybear

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We find out on Tuesday it seems. Quite a few folk seem to think Branson might have something to do with it.

after all the taxpayers' money he's finagled over the years for his train set that was supposed to make a profit for the Treasury, it would be good to see. however, I bet you in the end he would be fronting a team of others who would put up the actual money!
 

Woodlouse

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after all the taxpayers' money he's finagled over the years for his train set that was supposed to make a profit for the Treasury, it would be good to see. however, I bet you in the end he would be fronting a team of others who would put up the actual money!

Aye, other speculation is that Sir Keith Mills will by paying the bills on the quiet.
 

EBoat126

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