Yachting: Big battle of resources in 'pure' Youth Cup continues

Many of the teams contesting the inaugural Youth America's Cup have been scrabbling to secure funding right up to the starting gun.

Even at the youth America's Cup there is a vast difference between the haves and have nots.

The Red Bull youth event, which starts today with two fleet races, is a new initiative introduced for this America's Cup to fill in the void in racing in between the Louis Vuitton Challenger series and Cup match.

With a strict nationality rule in place the youth races will provide the only true country v country competition in this regatta, returning to the Cup's origins as being a "friendly competition between nations".

In the past 15 years the America's Cup proper has become less and less a nation-on-nation battle, but a battle of money and resources as the event became hijacked by billionaires. While the youth regatta is seen as a refreshing return to a more "pure" competition, it is still very much a battle of resources.

The favourites to take out the inaugural event - Peter Burling's NZL sailing team with Emirates Team New Zealand, Objective Australia, skippered by Jason Waterhouse (no, not those Waterhouses), and Sweden's Artemis Racing - are teams that have strong financial backing from their home yacht clubs and are in some cases aligned with America's Cup syndicates.

"Compared to the teams that have the professional backing, when they were training we were writing emails and making calls to try and reach our budget," said Philipp Buhl, skipper and tactician for Germany's All In Racing.

Buhl's team were forced to go it alone after their yachting federation withdrew their financial support amid safety concerns following the death of Artemis sailor Andrew Simpson in a training accident in May.

While the youth event is sailed in the smaller, one-design AC45 catamarans, the German federation was not satisfied with the limited preparation the young sailors would have in the new class of boats and did not want to be responsible should anything happen.

But the young German team, who qualified first in the selection series (for teams who were not aligned to America's Cup syndicates), were determined to compete and pulled together to come up with the US$35,000 ($45,000) entry fee, and US$13,500 insurance payment.

The teams also had to provide America's Cup race management a damage deposit bond of US$32,000 for the use of the boats as well as cover their own travel, accommodation, equipment and training costs.

"The last bit of money we got one week ago, we visited one German guy on one of the super yachts and he said 'yeah we will support you'," said Buhl.

"So yeah, it has been very hard, very stressful, but now we are here we are even more motivated to do well."

Buhl's crew received a big boost yesterday, winning the speed trials by just .06 of a second over Objective Australia.

It was a disappointing day on the water for Burling and his crew, who were forced to pull out of the two time trial races after suffering gear damage in one of the earlier practice races.

Youth America's Cup

Today-Thursday
Format: Two fleet races each day,
with the final fleet race carrying
double points.
Competing teams:
Objective Australia - skipper Jason Waterhouse.
Next World Energy Team (FRA) - Arthur Ponroy.
All In Racing (GER) - Philipp Buhl
NZL Sailing Team with ETNZ - Peter Burling.
Full Metal Jacket Racing (NZL) - Will Tiller.
Roff Cascais Sailing Team (POR) - Antonio Mello.
Artemis Racing (SWE) - Charlie Ekberg.
Team Tilt (SWI) - Lucien Cujean.
American Youth Sailing Force - Michael Menninger.
USA45 Racing - Charlie Buckingham.