- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Sydney to Hobart stalwart Ludde Ingvall is convinced Australia can again mount a competitive America’s Cup campaign, but has issued a warning to three youngsters aboard his boat being groomed for that level of competition.
“Don’t fall off,” said Ingvall, skipper of the 90-foot maxi Yuuzoo.
“These boats are doing 25 knots with the spinnaker up and if you fall off a boat like this, it takes a fair bit before we come back.
“I’ve actually told them if they fall off, we will pick them up on the way back from Hobart,” Ingvall joked.
Keen to give youth a fling and accelerate the development of promising sailors, two-time Sydney to Hobart line honours winner Ingvall reserved spots on his boat for an emerging generation of sailors.
Lisa Chamberlain, Tom Jenkins and Adam Watterson, all either in their late teens or early twenties, will rub shoulders with plenty of old salts in the crew of 23.
The Finland-born sailor is adamant Australia will be able to mount an America’s Cup campaign after an absence of 13 years.
With the switch to catamarans as the yacht of choice for the 2013 America’s Cup, Ingvall insists Australia will be able to afford to mount a challenge after costs proved prohibitive in recent Cups.
“The fact of the matter is that we can run a very competitive project out of a country like Australia for a very reasonable amount of money and it’s spread over years and a lot of it is on product,” Ingvall said.
“Our pilot program is to figure out exactly what a realistic budget would be for Australia.”
Ingvall pointed out Australia were already producing the talent, citing the example of James Spithill, who captained the last America’s Cup winner BMX Oracle.
Meanwhile, Ingvall expects some modifications and technological upgrades to his boat will help close the gap between Yuuzoo and line honours favourite Wild Oats XI in the coming Sydney to Hobart.
He is convinced the changes will ensure his 2004 Sydney to Hobart line honours winner won’t get left behind if the wind system changes suddenly.
“We are now in a performance envelope which allows us, all things being even, to stay in the same wind system as everyone else at the front,” Ingvall said.
“If we fall out of the wind system, it gets very hard, so with the improvements on the boat, I will be very surprised if we aren’t able to hang on.”