Admiral's Cup: Old heads and new tricks

It’s more than two decades since the Admiral’s Cup tested crews over both inshore and offshore racecourses. During that hiatus there has been a polarisation of events, with some owners choosing to campaign offshore in distance ocean races like the Fastnet and the Sydney to Hobart and others focusing on inshore regattas like the 52 Super Series and 44Cup.

Speaking with the Admiral’s Cup sailors in the Cowes Yacht Haven this morning as they were prepping their boats for today’s opening salvo of inshore races on the Solent, there was plenty of enthusiasm for the return of the Admiral’s Cup and its mixture of offshore and inshore courses.

New Zealand sailor Rodney Ardern’s last Admiral’s Cup was 30 years ago. This time he is sailing aboard the Yacht Club de Monaco TP52 Jolt 3, which finished fourth in Saturday’s Admiral’s Cup opener, the 165-mile RORC Channel Race.

Ardern – a veteran of the Volvo Ocean Race and multiple America’s Cup campaigns (most recently with Alinghi Red Bull Racing in the 38th edition) – has been splitting his time between the 52 Super Series and dedicated offshore campaigns like Rambler 88.

He said he was glad of the opportunity to combine the two disciplines this week in Cowes at the Admiral’s Cup.

“This is a really good combination of all of that and a pretty compact week,” he told me. “Everyone has spent a lot of time developing the boats for this event: the reaching sails, the staysails, the jib tops – and all of that stuff that you don't really spend a lot of time on unless you're on a pure ocean racing boat. So it's been good fun and a good challenge to be a part of this.

“I think everyone's enjoying being back here and to be involved in the development, to race the boats, and to catch up with each other in different circumstances.”