Forget everything you thought you knew about sailboat racing, the iShares Cup is the perfect antidote to distant and slow yacht confrontations! Bringing world-class close combat to the public since 2007, the iShares Cup Extreme 40 European Sailing Series is back for another season with yet more great names and spectacular venues.
It's a sport, helming state-of-the-art multihulls on very demanding courses and the most respected skippers are lining up to just that, competing so fiercely that heart-stopping close encounters always feature on the menu. It's a show, and the public has full access to the action from the shore, in carefully chosen venues combining challenging sailing conditions and spectator-friendly configurations. It's a VIP experience, and "hot seats" are available onboard, a fifth man being able to join the four-man crew in order to get a firsthand experience and feel the excitement. Not willing to compromise, iShares Cup organisers OC Events have created a formula where serious competition and spectacle go hand in hand, the rapid success of the Extreme 40 series proving how well balanced the recipe is. In just two seasons, the iShares Cup has become a benchmark in the sailing world, steadily growing and attracting the biggest names in the sport whilst proving to be an extremely efficient partnership opportunity in these uncertain economic times.
Capable of reaching speeds usually reserved to motorboats even in medium wind conditions, the Extreme 40 has been designed by Olympic champions Yves Loday and Mitch Booth , with the aim to provide the international sailing arena with a visually stunning and 100% performance-focused multihull. Flying a hull in as little as 8 knots of breeze (15 kph), the 40-foot (12m) long carbon speed machine requires coordination, finesse but also sheer muscular power from the crews who battle it out on short courses during races that do not exceed 20 minutes - and there can be up to 8 of them per day! Tricky wind conditions combined with the level of competition inevitably lead to some spectacular crashes, capsizes and other hair-raising near miss as the 2008 season proved (read "Surviving the capsize" feature news)! Logistically, everything is put in place so that teams can resume racing as soon as possible should an incident occur, and the professionalism of shore teams are clearly comparable to that of Formula 1 squads operating in the pit zone. During the UK round of the 2008 iShares Cup in Cowes, a capsized boat was put back on its hulls so quickly that the crew was able to start the next race minutes later!
Alinghi win Round 3 of the iShares Cup at Skandia Cowes Week
Mark LloydWhen it comes to the line up, one can only be impressed by the quality of the CVs displayed by the 2009 entrants! This third season sees the arrival of French specialists Loïck Peyron, Franck Cammas and Yann Guichard who simply are unrivalled in the oceanic multihull world. Peyron (skippering Renaissance), on top of having five titles of World Oceanic Multihull champion to his name, won The Artemis Transat in 2008 making it three wins in total on the toughest solo transatlantic course, thus rising one step above the French legend Eric Tabarly. Cammas on his part holds the North Atlantic speed record and has recently been "teaching" the BMW Oracle Team how to use their brand new maxi (90') trimaran - the young French skipper already has had a taste of the iShares Cup after having raced at the French event in 2007 and in Cowes last year, and wanted to come back for a full season with his long term partner Groupama. Mike Golding, the only Briton to win the IMOCA Ocean Racing World Championship, will be entering the iShares Cup for the first time on Ecover, whilst double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson will skipper Team iShares in 2009. The Olympic contingent is also represented by Carolijn Brouwer on Holmatro, Yann Guichard on Gitana and Pete Cumming with Chris Draper on the helm of Masirah - not to mention the plethora of Olympian crew members throughout the fleet, including the Mourniac brothers aboard Erik Maris's Luna. Australian Nick Moloney brings his eclectic experience as a round-the-world and America's Cup sailor back into the fray with BT, after finishing the 2008 iShares Cup on the podium. Also coming from the prestigious world of the America's Cup's, James Spithill(BMW ORACLE Racing) will be a real rival for the number one spot.
Visiting 6 European countries compared to 5 last year, the iShares Cup Extreme 40 Sailing Series has clearly grown in terms of exposure and will be taking place in Italy and Spain for the very first time. The timeless splendour of Venice will host the first event of the 2009 season, and as Gilles Chiorri, OC Events Director, put it: “We have spent the past six months researching Italy to find an ideal venue for the regatta and Venice came top in all our research. The Bacino San Marco provides a perfect grandstand." The finale of the 2009 season will take place in Almeria, Andalucia, and the local authorities have signed a five-year contract to guarantee the continuity of the series. But the circuit also returns to Hyères (France), Cowes (UK), Kiel (Germany) and Amsterdam (The Netherlands) where past editions of the iShares Cup have generated huge enthusiasm. Read all about the venues in the
EVENTS section of the website.
The six venues of the 2009 iShares Cup: Venice, Italy; Hyeres, France; Cowes, UK; Kiel, Germany; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Almeria, Spain.
