Saturday 30 April 2011

America's Cup: On Board an AC45 during the Pre-Start with Simeon Tienpont (NED)



by Peter Rusch

ORACLE Racing bowman/grinder Simeon Tienpont is a perpetual motion machine in this video that captures one of Friday's pre-start sequences.

Simeon agreed to wear a GoPro camera strapped to the middle of his chest for the day. As you can see, he's in constant motion through the three minutes of pre-start action, only stopping at the end - to hike!

The sailors have been talking about how physical the AC45 catamarans are to sail and this is a very visual demonstration of what they mean.

The camera was on for the entire test match, and the footage for the duration of the 20-minute contest was very similar: Simeon was in constant motion, his movements interrupted only by short 15-20 second 'breaks' when he was hiking.

You can bet the AC45 crews are sleeping well this week!

America's Cup