{"id":922,"date":"2010-12-08T08:25:34","date_gmt":"2010-12-08T12:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=922"},"modified":"2010-12-08T08:25:34","modified_gmt":"2010-12-08T12:25:34","slug":"sir-bob-fisher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=922","title":{"rendered":"SIR BOB FISHER?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
cam lewis, bob fisher, dan nerney watching the "C" cats in september<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bob Fisher, long time yachting journalist, author, sailor is rumored to be proposed for a knighthood. I have known Bob for more than 40 years. He was loud, brash, acute in his observations, and keen on the sport of sailing. He always embraced controversy; which leads me to my next thought: Ben Ansilie’s musings on the future of the America’s Cup and sailing.<\/p>\n

DOUBTS CONTINUE OVER NEW AMERICA\u2019S CUP FORMAT<\/p>\n

Ben Ainslie worries about his “wasted years”. The British sailing legend,<\/p>\n

who has won three Olympic gold medals, is fearful of losing his long-time<\/p>\n

America’s Cup dream. He feels BMW Oracle’s decision to switch from<\/p>\n

traditional monohulls to multihulled catamarans might have serious<\/p>\n

implications for a generation of the world’s finest match racers.<\/p>\n

“I have to say [the decision] was very disappointing,” says Ainslie. “Guys<\/p>\n

like myself have spent the last 10-15 years learning the game and learning<\/p>\n

how to match race big monohulls in the hope of being competitive in the<\/p>\n

America’s Cup. It feels like it is all wasted because the game has changed.<\/p>\n

I think that match racing will be a very small part of the next regatta. It<\/p>\n

will mostly be about trying to develop the fastest boat possible.”<\/p>\n

Ainslie was the reserve skipper for Team New Zealand from 2005 before<\/p>\n

switching to the British-based Team Origin after the 2007 campaign in<\/p>\n

Valencia. Along with previous holders Alinghi, Origin have announced they<\/p>\n

will not be mounting a challenge in 2013. Team owner Sir Keith Mills cannot<\/p>\n

see a future with the proposed new format.<\/p>\n

Ainslie wonders about Oracle’s stated vision of bigger, faster, better. “I<\/p>\n

think their No1 vision is to retain the Cup,” he says bluntly. “Their second<\/p>\n

vision is make it as commercially viable as possible from a television point<\/p>\n

of view so the broadcasting and sponsorship rights are worth that much more.<\/p>\n

I just wonder how well multihulls and winged sails will lend itself to match<\/p>\n

racing.”<\/p>\n

America’s Cup veteran Peter Gilmour has a similarly dim view of the<\/p>\n

competition’s prospects. Gilmour, a consultant to Alinghi in 2007, has been<\/p>\n

at the forefront of Cup campaigns since 1992, sees the format change as a<\/p>\n

bold move. “To effectively wipe out 160 years of match racing and go into<\/p>\n

catamaran sailing is just remarkable to me,” he says. “It’s incredibly brave<\/p>\n

and ballsy, especially given the closeness of the event in 2007.<\/p>\n

“They are driven by a desire to defend successfully,” says Gilmour. “If you<\/p>\n

give someone a monopoly in circumstances such as this then, of course, they<\/p>\n

are going to go out and exploit their monopoly. Switching the event from<\/p>\n

2014 to 2013 and the fact Oracle control all the knowledge around winged<\/p>\n

sails mean that, unfortunately, all of the other teams are just going to be<\/p>\n

turning up to be part of the process; to put on a good show.”<\/p>\n

The Australian also feels that the Oracle experiment will ultimately be<\/p>\n

short-lived. “I have no doubt the America’s Cup will eventually transition<\/p>\n

back to monohulls. — NZ Herald, complete story:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/sport\/news\/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10692123<\/a><\/p>\n

It seems that we have arrived at a juncture in the sport. How did we get here? Is no one looking forward? Are we just reacting on a daily basis? Finally does anyone really care? Sailing does not contribute any any meaningful way to our everyday lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Fisher, long time yachting journalist, author, sailor is rumored to be proposed for a knighthood. I have known Bob for more than 40 years. He was loud, brash, acute in his observations, and keen on the sport of sailing. He always embraced controversy; which leads me to my next thought: Ben Ansilie’s musings on … Continue reading SIR BOB FISHER?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[553,552],"class_list":["post-922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americas-cup","tag-ameericas-cup","tag-bob-fisher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=922"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":926,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions\/926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}