Quest for Yachting's Holy Grail will Sail through Skagit County

January 14, 2005

Skagit Valley Herald
By Randy Trick and Levi Pulkkinen
Staff Writers

Sedro-Woolley, Anacortes to play roles in building boat for 2007 America's Cup

An entry for the 2007 America's Cup -- international yacht racing's Holy Grail -- will be built in Skagit County by BMW Oracle Racing. The mold for the sleek, 80-foot sloop will be constructed at Janicki Industries in Sedro-Woolley and the high-tech hull will be built of composite materials in Anacortes. BMW Oracle Racing -- the new incarnation of 2003 America's Cup contender Oracle Racing -- said Thursday that it plans to lease a 20,000-square-foot industrial building in Anacortes which currently houses North Island Boat Co.

As it did while building the 2003 yachts, the team plans to rely on Puget Sound's boat and aerospace industry to help it construct much of its 2007 America's Cup racers, said Jane Eagleson, a spokeswoman for the team. "We'll be building a number of major components in the Seattle area," Eagleson said.

Members of the racing team said they wanted to be close to Janicki Industries, which built a hull mold for BMW Oracle in 2001. The yacht built from that mold competed in New Zealand in the last America's Cup, held in 2003, and is still raced and used for training purposes. Tim Smyth, a member of BMW Oracle Racing, said the 10-nation team chose Anacortes for the hull construction process because the members would be able to fit into the community and it was close to Janicki Industries. "When you come with a bunch of people and families and all that ... you rely on the towns that have a sort of a tourist population," Smyth said." They tend to accommodate people for the short-term better."

Janicki-made molds were used to build one of the team's 2003 America's Cup yachts. The boat was built in Ventura, Calif. The team fared well in the competition, but lost in a semi-final race to the eventual winner, Switzerland's Team Alinghi. BMW Oracle competes around the world throughout the year, and is usually based out of New Zealand and Valencia, Spain. Valencia, a city of about 700,000 on Spain's Mediterranean coast, is the site of the 2007 race.

BMW Oracle was the first team to challenge reigning America's Cup holder Alinghi after the Swiss team beat Team New Zealand in the 2003 final, Eagleson said. So far, BMW Oracle is the only American team set to contend for the cup in 2007. The American team spent $85 million in its quest for the 2003 cup.

The team has seen some success during new off-season competitions in Europe and Rhode Island, Eagleson said. In 2004, BMW Oracle beat Alinghi during a race off of Newport, R.I. and finished second overall for the year. Since the 2003 America's Cup competition, Eagleson said the team has been training in Spain, where the 2007 race is scheduled. "The bulk of our work so far has been happening in Valencia," she said.

Larry Ellison, CEO and co-founder of Oracle Corp., has been the driving force behind the team. Founded in 1978, California-based Oracle Corp. develops software used primarily to manage databases and in other business applications. According to the company, it's the world's largest supplier of information management software and the world's second-largest independent software company.

A member of the BMW Oracle team is already living in Anacortes. Brian MacInnes was aboard the yacht during the 2003 America's Cup races. He declined to discuss the team's plans for 2007 until he'd spoken with the BMW Oracle spokesperson.MacInnes, who moved to Anacortes on a whim after visiting it briefly in 2003, said he has been part of the team since 2000. In the 2003 cup, he was part of the crew as a "grinder," a sailor who winds large cranks to trim the sails. As a professional sailboat racer, MacInnes said he often travels to New Zealand, Spain and other locales around the world to train and compete. "Competition", he said, "is always a challenge." "It's like any other professional sport I guess," he said. "It's very demanding, physically and mentally."

Janicki Industries is currently in discussions with the racing team, said John Janicki, company vice president. He said he's confident the two companies will be able to iron out the technical details and reach an agreement on the company's role in building the yacht. We have a good working relationship," Janicki said. "We're hoping that we can give them a better product, a more accurate product."

Smyth said building the new yacht would require a crew of about 20, most of which would be team members. "We have a team, it's all fully integrated these days. They build their own boats, train on their own boats and race their own boats," Smyth said. "We don't want a big staff, we're not mass-producing anything. "It's the sort of job you want done slowly and carefully." The racing team may hire a few local people for support work with the boat, Smyth said.

Don Wick, executive director of the Economic Development Association of Skagit County, said Skagit County was an easy sell to the racing team, and that the team's presence could be a boon to the county's boating industry. "The strength of the marine industry is reinforced when a project like this locates in Anacortes," Wick said. "Janicki has been creating some great things in our community." Wick said he worked with BMW Oracle Racing to explain details like immigration and foreign work-force issues. Team members come from Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, the U.K. and Ireland, Canada, France, New Zealand, Spain and the U.S.

As BMW Oracle Racing prepares to move in to the warehouse two blocks from the waterfront in Anacortes, the workers at North Island Boat Company prepare to move out. At the boat repair complex, employees chisel and paint in a spacious, largely-empty industrial building. The company specializes in the repair and maintenance of wooden boats and some fiberglass boats. Most of the building is empty now -- Northern Marine, which leased half of the building until recently, has left. By the end of the month, North Island Boat will have moved too.

The America's Cup is an incredibly secretive event. In 2001, the Oracle racing team found itself at the center of a lawsuit involving a fired member from a rival team trying to sell design secrets. Smyth said residents of Anacortes shouldn't expect to have access to the yacht being built in their backyard. He said the only way to know an America's Cup racing team is in town would be to see them on the street. Once the hull and deck of the boat are completed in Anacortes, they will likely be sent to the race site in Valencia.

In a press statement, Chris Dickson, the team's CEO, said he believes the BMW Oracle has a shot at winning the 2007 race. "I am sure there will be a number of very strong challengers and we will have to lift our performance if we are to win the challenger series," Dickson said in a 2003 statement. "However, I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe that it's possible."

Secrecy is vital to maintaining a competitive edge in the world's premier regatta. But secrecy is nothing new for Janicki Industries. Like Oracle, Janicki said many of the company's clients impose strict restrictions on who has access to project details. "In our business, we are very sensitive to people's proprietary design, whether it's a kayak or a runaround boat or an America's Cup boat," Janicki said. "The only difference is that if we do something wrong with the military, we'll go to jail."

Building a Cup Class Vessel

The class of boat used for the 32nd America's Cup is the America's Cup Class. It is designed to a specific rule with several limits. Builders are allowed to trade length, weight and sail area -- the three major factors involved in sailboat performance -- to come up with the best solution of tradeoffs for the weather conditions expected.

This class has been used for the America's Cup competition since 1992 and more than 80 have been built -- 19 alone for the 31st America's Cup held in 2003. Each team, or syndicate, is allowed to build two new boats for the 32nd America's Cup and they must be built in the country of origin of the yacht club the team represents.

Cup Class Facts

Here are the approximate dimensions of a yacht built under the America's Cup Class design rules:

Length: 80 feet
Beam: 13.5 feet
Draft: 13 feet
Mast height: 105 feet
Main sail area: 2,370 square feet
Genoa sail area: 1,184 square feet
Spinnaker area: 5,382 square feet
Crew: 16 sailors

Materials

Hull and deck: carbon, kevlar and glass fiber.
Sails: carbon, kevlar, mylar, nylon and cuben fiber

Source: America's Cup Web site