Out all day

The sailing crew was off the mooring with USA at 10:30 this morning in light conditions. There was a bit of wind for the first 90 minutes or so, before it eased to calm conditions again in a transition to the afternoon sea breeze.

That sea breeze is building now, at 14:00 and the team has come off the tow and is sailing again...

Sailor Profile - Shannon Falcone

If you've been reading our other team profiles, you'll know that all of our sailors got an early start in the sport. But Shannon Falcone (ANT), who works the foredeck on USA, takes that to an extreme.

"My family always sailed," he says. "My first big event, I was three years old - the transatlantic race - I got dragged onto the boat and sailed across the Atlantic with my parents. From then on, it's been sailing all the way. We ended up in the Caribbean after that race and we never left. I grew up in Antigua and there, you either sail or you go crazy!

"My earliest sailing memory was during that transatlantic in 1984. I was three and a half and I remember playing with my toy cars on the foredeck. But growing up where I did, I have a lot of memories of boats and beaches."

His early experience paid off. At 19 he ventured off the island, making his way by doing oceanic boat deliveries and it wasn't long after that he joined the Italian Mascalzone Latino team in Auckland for the 2002-03 Louis Vuitton Cup. For the last America's Cup he was with Luna Rossa, reaching the Louis Vuitton Cup finals, making this campaign his third Cup. And between the last AC and today, he's sailed around the world with PUMA, to a second place finish in the Volvo Ocean Race.

Shannon names his career highlights as the "Louis Vuitton Cup finals last time around and sailing in the last VOR with PUMA and getting a second place. But neither of those are top of the podium so that's why I'm still here."

He's a versatile sailor, having sailed in the pit and mast man positions on boats in the past. But when he sails on the trimaran, it's usually on the foredeck, where he can use his size to full advantage with the much bigger gear on board this boat.

"The reason I like doing foredeck is it's one of the few positions on the team where if you do your job right, nobody notices, but when you don't do it right, it's a bad day for the whole boat. The pressure is on in mark rounding and sail changes and things like that. And there's a lot of teamwork involved in getting the job done well."

When he speaks about the USA, his enthusiasm is apparent from the first word. This is a fantastic boat to sail.

"We have an 'insane' boat," is the way he puts it. "Every time we're on the water and sailing, we're screaming around. It's just unreal every single time. When you're on the boat, you're aware that you're one of the few who will ever sail on it. And you have to pinch yourself sometimes to realise that you're 30 feet up in the air and doing 25 knots upwind. It feels like flying. When the two hulls lift out of the water and you're slicing through the water on one hull it's a very smooth motion. At those speeds, on any other boat (if any other boat would do that speed) you would be soaking wet and hanging on for dear life. Here, it's much more relaxed. Just sailing."

Just sailing - something he's been doing his whole life.

Tuesday's training session

Nice light, nice images... From Tuesday afternoon.

We've come a long way

The USA is a state-of-the-art, extreme machine, purpose built to win the America's Cup. The trimaran, with its wing sail, has been clocked at over 40 knots during training sessions.

Recently we heard from a friend of the team who wanted to share a bit of American trimaran history and attached a cover article from the July 1956 issue of Popular Mechanics.

Matey Kirshner picks up the story in his email to us:

"The article focuses the first American trimaran which was designed, tested and  built by my great grand-father, Dr. Edwards Herman, in his barn in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

"Our family comes from a long line of traditional sailors – once trading pepper between Boston and Sumatra – and more recently cruising Friendship Sloops (or in my case renting slightly worn 22 foot Capris out of Marina del Rey, California every chance I get)- and the “Tri-Pont” caused quite a stir in the traditional waters south of Cape Cod.

"I have followed the America’s Cup very closely and been a fan of Russell’s since 1995. I watch and transcribe race reports for my grandparents (son of Dr. Herman featured in the article) so they can follow along with the action from their island house in Maine. My brother-in-law is a Kiwi and I had the opportunity to watch some of the match racing down in Auckland last January (the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series) and it was a real thrill. I am rooting for you guys with everything I’ve got!!!

"Certainly  you guys have shown that the trimaran has come a long way."

Sailor Profile - Noel Drennan

Noel 'Nitro' Drennan (IRL) brings a wealth of experience to the team as a sail trimmer with a sail-making background.

In his role as trimmer on this campaign, he's providing back-up to the guys on the race crew - and this is where Noel's depth of experience comes in handy.

"I'm not the primary trimmer but in a back-up role. If someone gets injured or sick I can fill quite a few of the roles on the boat: wing sail trimmer, wing sail caddy, headsail trimmer or traveller," he explains.

He started sailing in Dublin, but moved to Australia with his family, where he grew up. A sailmaker by trade, he's been earning his living from the sport longer than most.

"Pretty early in the piece I could see there was a possibility of earning a living at it. But 25 years ago when I started sailmaking you didn't really get paid for sailing. You'd be lucky to get airfares. But the sport has changed, especially over the past 10 years. I really started with the Volvo Ocean Race in 2001 (a winning effort with illbruck) but had done a little bit of professional sailing before that. From then, I've never really gone back to sailmaking full time.

"I've sailed for a couple of years with Dennis Conner through his AC challenges and as well with him on the Etchells and with John Bertrand in Australia," Nitro says, naming two of the icons of our sport.

As you might imagine, sailing on the USA has been a new experience for Drennan, who has mostly been a monohull sailor over the years.

"This boat is so big but for me personally, it's been a real eye-opener into multihull sailing which I hadn't been too heavily involved with before so that's been a plus.

"I really enjoy a broad spectrum of sailing and one of the things about this trimaran campaign is that it's 'forced' me to buy an A-Class catamaran and I really enjoy that. I'll continue sailing that boat in the future."

Looking back, Drennan ended last year with a career high point, sailing in his 25th Sydney-Hobart race.

"In Australia it is a bit of a milestone," he says. "You're presented with a medal and there's not a lot of people who have done that many races. I started when I was 17 and have done most of them since then. It was a nice easy race and I was fortunate enough to be with Neville Crighton on Alfa Romeo and we had a great result so it was a nice way to do it."

The final week

Our video team has some comments on the 'one week to go' milestone yesterday.

One week to go - training

A very good session for the guys again today with a long sail, in moderate conditions. GMR was up in the air again today and sent these great images back.

Come on board

Another great video with on board shots from sailing sessions over the past few days.

Sailor Profile - Simeon Tienpont

The youngster on the sailing team at 28, Simeon Tienpont (NED) adds a lot of size, enthusiasm and ability to the front of the USA.

As bowman, Simeon is at the sharp end, balancing on a very small, extremely fast platform, as he performs sail changes and moves gear around.

"I think I'm the youngest guy on the sailing team and probably the only one never to have been in an America's Cup before," he says.

But that doesn't mean he's inexperienced. Tienpont sailed around the world in the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race with ABN AMRO II.

"I was planning to do another Volvo but some people who were with the VOR team I was involved with came to this team and I got an opportunity to come here as well and that was it," he says. "Before that I was mainly involved in offshore sailing but I got an opportunity to join here two years ago and I grabbed it."

Simeon started sailing young, in Optimists back when he was six years old - 'because my brother was doing it' - and hasn't stopped since. Now he's learning from some of the best sailors in the world.

"In the last two years, a lot of guys have been mentors to be me. You can learn so much from all of these guys - they're at the top of what they do - so I just try to soak it up," he says.

"The difference between this and a standard racing yacht is that boat is actually pretty simple, at least for what I do on board. Everything is straightforward, but all the gear is very big and very heavy. The boat has a very different motion and is much faster of course. So all of your planning has to be different. When you're going into the top mark at 30 knots, it's a different game to say a TP 52. Once you're flying on one hull, the boat is quite stable, but you really notice the speed through the windage. It's very loud and hard to communicate and the boat is very long. The forces on the sails and on the halyards are unbelievable."

Tienpont says he's enjoyed the closeness of the team and the enthusiasm he sees as the sailing crew pulls together with the Match fast approaching.

"The team is tight. As sailors, we've been working together to move this project forward for the last two and half years. We've spent a lot of hours on the boat. I think this project - because it's maybe a smaller group on the boat than in previous Cups - it's been easy for us to stay tight. In San Diego, we were pretty much living together as well, so that's helped us stay close.

"And now that we are at the point where we're going to race soon, it's a great feeling."

Sunrise - one week to go

Two Rising Suns in front of the team base in Port America's Cup on Monday morning, one week before race one of the Match.