Once again this interview is thanks to James Boyd of the Daily Sail. Anyone who reads scuttlebutt, sailing anarchy or any of the other sailing site must have noticed that there is a great deal of conversation about the direction of sailing and the direction of the America’s Cup. People still look for the Cup to exhibit leadership. There is a lot of criticism from all sides right now. I am not sure people know what it is that they want themselves.
We started this article by stating that Coutts has effectively started out from a blank piece of paper with his vision for the 34th America’s Cup and while teams wrestle with the design of their AC72s, one of the hardest tasks for Iain Murray to establish is the best race format that on the one hand satisfies that reasonably vague concept sailors term ‘fair racing’ and maximising the spectacle and excitement of the competition, as if racing boats capable of 40+ knots weren’t enough.
“To make a difference it is going to have to be a lot more exciting than what it’s been,” states Coutts. “When experts look at the audience figures from AC32 and work out what they actually mean, they are much lower than what we need to achieve to make this viable. I think we have got to look at what we have to do to engage the non-sailing public. We have to get away from some of the complicated rules and terminology and processes that we have had in the past for years and years that I think have stymied the whole understanding for people watching it.” So we can expect more understandable methods for the race committee to communicate with competitors (ie no flags) and almost certainly a simplification of the match racing rules and terminology wherever possible.
As to the ‘fair racing’ issue that requires competition to be three miles out to sea, away from land effects, Coutts says: “To my way of thinking the people that are looking at that are really saying that ‘what we want are absolutely steady conditions so that the fastest boat will win.’ But wind shifts are part of the game and maybe that is a good thing to have it in a shifty venue that has maybe got some obstructions around the course so that we have other things to consider and it isn’t just about the fastest boat winning.”
So possibly for the first time the 34th America’s Cup may not be primarily a design competition.
With match racing, particularly with standard windward-leeward courses being perpetually reduced in length, then the start is perhaps overly important to the final outcome of a race. For this reason Coutts says it is likely that the first upwind leg will be a substantially shortened.
Nice multihulls
“It is amazing the number of people who draw conclusions about multihull racing, that ‘it is not tactical’, ‘it is easier and not as skilful as monohull sailing’. Most of those people have never sailed a modern multihull. I think that most of the monohull sailors who go racing in a good multihull fleet get surprised and say this racing is actually very tactical and very cool.” He cites the numerous monohull sailors who competed in the 33rd America’s Cup.
A frequent criticism for example is that multihulls tack poorly and therefore racing them is simply a case of picking a side and heading out to the layline to the next mark to minimise the number of manoeuvres. This is not as true as it once was.
“The wing will allow the boat to tack quite a lot better than a lot of people think of traditional multihulls with the traditional fine deep bows that were really draggy in a tack,” says Coutts. “Now I think they will not tack fantastically, but better than they have ever done and being the America’s Cup choice those systems will be refined with the daggerboards and so forth.”
As to the number of manoeuvres, tacking duels, etc Coutts says they are looking at putting boundaries on the course so that the laylines are simply taken out of play and this will force more manoeuvring. The typical diamond-shaped race course will perhaps become more a rectangle with pointy ends, although we imagine a reaching leg or two, when the multihulls will be able to show off their highest speeds, might also be included. Obviously teams are clamouring for a final decision to be made about this at the earliest opportunity as it will have a major impact on the design of their AC72s.
“A lot of people are judging the multihull now,” says Coutts. “I think we’ll end up judging it in three years time. A lot of people try to make comparisons with the last AC for example. Well I would say that if you went out and got two monohulls with the only restriction being a 90ft waterline and raced them around a 20 mile course you’d get a pretty uneven race and my money would be on it being a pretty boring race, not even as interesting as what we saw. So if you make a good multihull rule, which I believe they are doing, that produces relatively even boats, that rewards good sailing and you get the course configuration right, then the match racing will be good quality.”
In particular when racing faster boats, be they monohull or multihull, Coutts points out that there tends to be more passing opportunities than in slower boats, when typically it is much easier for the boat in front to defend their lead. “If we can get the course configurations right you will see more passing and it will be pretty compelling. If the boats are faster too and if we have a short course format – it will still be quite long because the boats will be high speed – but they might be manoeuvring every three minutes.
“Everyone talks about Fremantle being fantastic and it produced great images at the time, but go back and look at the races now and there is a lot of straight line sailing. I think to make the next jump we have to move quite a bit beyond that. It is not a little tweak here and there, if we want to attract more of the general public to our sport then we have to take some steps to change quite a few things.”
The America’s Cup brand
We have mentioned in previous articles that the change to an ultra-modern high performance catamaran and a more action-packed race format could change the flavour of the event, that in marketing terms it becomes more ‘Red Bull’ than ‘Louis Vuitton’.
Coutts disagrees: “I don’t see it rules out the luxury brands at all. In fact, quite the contrary. I think it depends a lot on what else is going on around the event and the way it is set up and the facilities on shore and the way it is organised on the water and so forth. I think it might appeal to a broader range of sponsors, but I still think the luxury brands will be there. This is still going to be perceived as the top end of technology and the top of sailing.”
In summary
Coutts is looking to revolutionise the America’s Cup, and create a sports event many times more appealing than it has ever been in the past. If it comes to pass, then that means more interest in not just the America’s Cup but sailing in general, ultimately leading to more participation and this can only be a good thing for all of us involved.
As he concludes: “Of course you have the tradition element of the sport who would love it to stay the same forever, but all I can say to that is that the world is changing. What appeals to my kids – it is a different world to when I grew up. They have access to different information and different things and we can’t keep a closed mind on this stuff. What may have been fun when I was 15 years old, 15 year olds of today view things differently.”
The acid test as ever is whether what is proposed is capable of making teenagers voluntarily put down their Xboxes and PlayStations.
