Simeon Tienpont on life at the sharp end of an America's Cup - AC45

With the America’s Cup World Series races resuming in Naples next month, the sailors are thinking about AC45 racing again.

© ACEA 2013 / Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget

ORACLE TEAM USA’s Simeon Tienpont has raced with Oracle crews and J.P. Morgan BAR in the AC45 over the past two years and he call the boats fun, exciting and challenging to race.

“It takes a lot of concentration to get them around the course,” he tells AC Uncut’s Genny Tulloch. “Everything happens so quickly. You only have a five man crew, so you’re participating in the tactics, giving information to the helmsman, looking where the pressure is, where the wind is and besides that you have a heart rate of 185 beats per minute for the whole race.

“It’s about giving all you have physically and at the same time you’re still in a yacht race, a chess game and that’s the cool thing.”