Weird Way Team Australia Sailors Are Training For The Women’s And Youth America’s Cup in 2024
Our sailors are preparing for the youth and women's America's Cup by playing a $200,000 video game in an office hundreds of kilometers from any body of water.
It's like training for the Tour de France without ever climbing a real mountain or a football game without ever stepping foot on the pitch.
A Sydney suburb office, miles from any body of water, has been converted into a training facility for the best young male and female sailors in Australia, who are getting ready for the world's most prestigious sporting event in an unconventional manner.
A $200,000 high-tech sailing simulator, complete with two 258-kilogram pods, had to have doors and glass windows removed from the office of famous sailor and patron John "Herman' Winnings in order to be set up as the coolest ever training tool.
The year 2023 is the beginning of your sailing adventure.
Crew candidates are learning the ropes for the 2024 America's Cup youth and women's series on a simulator instead of the high-speed and radical foiling AC40 monohulls, which are estimated to be capable of speeds over 40 knots or 75km/h.
It's a cool gadget; it looks like a gigantic video game. One of the women's campaign's main faces and one of the 32 sailors competing for 18 spots on the Team Australia Challenge squad, Olivia Price, admits that the situation is "weird." The Team Australia Challenge is a qualifying event for the Paris Olympic Games.
The driver and his or her team can race in two independent pods. A steering wheel and controls to regulate the craft's altitude, daggerboards, and lift are included in each pod. It functions similarly to contemporary vehicle and flight simulators.
The information gained from the simulators is then used to train the sailors and, in the beginning, to identify the young people who have the abilities necessary for the campaign.
The objective is to have everyone on board learn about the boat and practice their combinations and communications with one another.
The objective is to kick off some team building, but this has a different vibe. There is no wind to buffet you, no spray to make you uncomfortable, and no sun to scorch you.
The simulator, which was purchased by an anonymous backer for the young sailors, is the closest thing to really sailing a foiling 40 that they have access to at this time.
As Jack Ferguson put it, "This is my absolute dream, to be doing this," despite the fact that he was born two decades after Australia's II victory but fell in love with America's Cup racing as an eight-year-old watching it on TV with his dad.
Ferguson and his crewmate Jack Hilderbrand won the junior world U23 49er championship. "I never knew sailing could be this much fun!"
Twenty-seven athletes from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and Tasmania are in Sydney this week to compete for positions on their respective national teams. There were originally 132 applicants from all throughout the country, but only these sailors made the cut.
Before the Youth and Women's regatta in Barcelona in 2004, which is being utilized as a road into the America's Cup for women and the next generation of foiling sailors, the Team Australia Challenge is attempting to earn $4 million through donations, charity, and sponsorship. This goal was set in preparation for the event.
In Barcelona, there will be a total of 12 women's and youth crews competing in the AC40s.
The objective of Australia's initiatives is to provide the foundation for a genuine challenge to bring the America's Cup back to the waters of Australia in the not too distant future.
Patron Winning is on board because of this potential, and because he wants to do his part to establish a winning culture in sailing among the nation's greatest young minds.
It was his hope that Australia would host another America's Cup.
"Bring the Cup back to Australia is the ultimate goal for me."
John Bertrand, the skipper of Australia II, is yet another supporter of the Australia Team Challenge.
SAILORS AT THE TRIALS IN SYDNEY
Tasmania: Charles Zeeman, Will Cooley.
NSW: Miles Davey, Cole Tapper, Paddy Butler, Harry Hall, Harry Smith, Ruben Booth, Jack Hilderbrand, Max Paul, Brin Liddell, Finn Alexander, Jake Liddell, Otto Henry, Ryan Littlechild, Jack Ferguson, Will Sargent, Madeline McLeay, Annie Wilmot, Evie Haseldine, Rita Booth, Tash Bryant, Olivia Price, Lisa Darmanin, Lucy Copeland, Nina Curtis, Jess Grimes, Jamie Ryan
Queenslanders: Tom Needham and Mara Stransky.
Victoria: Laura Harding.
WA: Zoe Thomson.