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Team New Zealand - Source: Photosport
There's an expression about "travelling hopefully" which has taken on a new meaning thanks to the ash cloud over Europe. Heading up to Portugal there had been warnings that flights were again being disrupted but in the end we got off lightly.
Door to door from Auckland to Cascais near Lisbon took 44 hours so no moaning; a phototgrapher colleague travelling from Poole in Dorset on Engand's South Coast took 60 hours to get here. Bizarre eh?
It has been worth the trip. Cascais is a famous sailing port and was a front-runner as an America's Cup venue which eventually went to Valencia. Russell Coutts was known to favour Cascais and it is easy to see why.
There has been breeze aplenty and further offshore an Atlantic swell to liven up the action.
On the practice day I sailed on board Quantum, the 2008 Audi MedCup champion and runner-up to Emirates Team New Zealand last year.
The skipper is Terry Hutchinson, tactician to Dean Barker in Valencia, but also a world champion helmsman in his own right much in demand on a number of circuits.
And in revamping Quantum to conform to the new rules Hutchinson looked to his former teammates in copying their deck-lay out.
The new rules for the Audi MedCup have made the boats quicker
and more dramatic to look at with a bow sprit and a flat top
mainsail like the America's Cup yachts.Crew numbers have been cut
from 15 to 12 which has reduced weight but at the same time
increased the workload substantially.
Attention to detail
On Quantum there was much discussion about who is now doing what, along with very impressive attention to every detail.
And that made Race One the following day all the more intriguing for me as the guest on Emirates Team New Zealand. It's another innovative new rule on the Audi MedCup circuit which says every yacht must have a guest spot which gives the lucky recipient a truly up close and personal view of the action.
I guess the biggest different between Emirates Team New Zealand and the rest of the MedCup fleet is that the Kiwi team has been together such a long time with very few changes.
In fact for this series there's only one new face and that is Jules Salter, the renowned British navigator, who has come in for the American Kevin Hall now sailing on Quantum. The stability shows with teamwork comparatively seamless and communication smooth.
That said, race day one was a very mixed bag and as I stepped off after a sixth place finish it was jokingly suggested I wouldn't be asked back as I was clearly a Jonah.
That superstitious theory went flying out the window in the second and third races when the next guest was on board for both a dead last place and a first!
The winning ways continued on race day 2 with a win and a fourth place to leave the Kiwis lying second behind Britain's Team Origin on the points table.
Biggest drama of the day saw Terry Hutchinson taken off Quantam after the boom fell on his head before racing. Clearly concussed, Hutchinson was rushed to hospital for a CT scan and will be off the boat for a while.
Taking his place at the helm has been Adrian Stead, the British tactician who had only just joined Quantum and struggled to remember when he'd last helmed the start of a race.
He did well with a second place behind ETNZ, but fell off a bit in race two with an eighth.
Ends
