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HAS THE AMERICA’S CUP LOST IT’S WAY?
Sail-World.com News
Gladwell’s Line: Has the America’s Cup lost its way?
7:57 AM Sun 18 May 2014
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| ‘How hard is it really for the America’s Cup to go back to San Francisco?’ Carlo Borlenghi/Luna Rossa© Click Here to view large photo |
The America’s Cup has taken another curious turn, with the news out late in the week that the America’s Cup Event Authority had approached Bermuda to stage the 35th America’s Cup.
That would move the regatta out of USA, and arguably be sailed in Britain, as the tiny island is a British Overseas Territory.
The Bermuda bid is clearly aimed at the commercialization of the America’s Cup, with scant regard for the dictates of the Deed of Gift.
With the Defenders attempting to take over the conduct of the Challenger Selection Series (formerly the Louis Vuitton Cup), and run the series of supporting regattas, one wonders where the next strange turn will come.
Certainly there does not seem to be any hurry to get a Protocol or Venue named for the event, already eight months have passed. The Protocol for the 34th America’s Cup was announced seven months after the conclusion of the 33rd Match – and that came off the back of a two and a half year Court case and the accompanying acrimony, which all but destroyed the event.
The Class rule for the new AC62 is in circulation. That is a good move. The new rule would seem to be a collaborative effort between the teams from the AC72 era, with the experiences being shared between two top design teams – who both got some things right and others wrong.
Without the Protocol, and more particularly without the Venue, the potential Challengers have no story to tell sponsors.
Both items should have been much easier after the success of the 34th America’s Cup.
The Protocol had been worked over and changed regularly. It was a living document, and while some may be uncomfortable with that approach, it is consistent with other sports which deal with issues on the fly and quickly effect change. Development of the new Class Rule has already been covered.
The Venue should have been a no-brainer off the back of the success of San Francisco. For sure there are local issues with authorities etc, but in its simplest form the America’s Cup is just a yacht race. There were no indications from the Port that a permit would not be approved after the last event. And a coming ready or not approach is often a better way to deal with bureaucracy, than seeking permission.
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Current Challenger of Record principal Bob Oatley (left) with America’s Cup winner, Ernesto Bertarelli and wife Kristy, 2013 Audi Hamilton Island Race Week – Belinda Rolland © Click Here to view large photo
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After all, bureaucrats come and go, but the America’s Cup has been around for three centuries.
But even so a deal was on the table from San Francisco within the deadline set by GGYC.
Probably the most disconcerting issue is that going back to when the America’s Cup was held in Auckland, the San Francisco based teams were the most vociferous as to how the Cup should be run and managed.
Ernesto Bertarelli may have rubbed people up the wrong way in 2007, but he was able to create an event that had preliminary regattas, while the Louis Vuitton Cup and America’s Cup regattas produced a healthy surplus for the teams.
Off the back of the 2007 regatta in Valencia, he was properly taken to task for trying to acquire all Challenger rights, through the use of a sham Challenger of Record, and it was San Francisco’s Golden Gate Yacht Club, which became the champion of the challengers.
Many assumed after that legal era concluded that the Cup would be on track for some glorious years, with Golden Gate YC practicing what they had preached.
Bertarelli was portrayed as the villain of that America’s Cup saga, but it takes two to tango.
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2012 Argo Group Gold Cup the 7th stage of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour sailed out of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club – © Talbot Wilson – Argo Group Gold Cup?nid=122244 Click Here to view large photo
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Having taken the stance they had with the Swiss, Golden Gate YC had the responsibility to get the America’s Cup show to a level where it should be. For sure, people were forgiving that the process would initially take some time, and cut Golden Gate some slack in the lead up to 2013.
Generally Golden Gate lived up to expectations, getting the formula right, particularly with taking the event to the general public and enthusing a new, bigger group of fans.
An offer of four wharves for the teams was made within the December 31, 2013 deadline required by the Defenders and event organisers. Other space outside that are is available. The Defenders reaction was to kick a more extensive venue search projected at the time to take 11 more months. For what gain?
What is happening now, with six good teams lined up to challenge, but having to mark time, is inexcusable.
The delay over the venue announcement would seem to have no sound basis, save for local politics within San Francisco.
While Golden Gate play around trying to get a good formula better, they are burning off potential teams and sponsors. By the time the Defenders are ready to party, many of the Challengers will have expired.
The latest development in the search for an event venue is both perplexing and deeply concerning.
by Richard Gladwell Sail-World.com/nz
ALUMNI WEEKEND AT ST. GEORGE’S SCHOOL
WORKING WATERFRONT, NEWPORT RHODE ISLAND
What do I do with the archive of photos I have accumulated over half a century? I jumped in with both feet and produced a book titled “WORKING WATERFRONT”. These are images of Newport’s waterfront, which has long since disappeared from the landscape; along with those who worked there.
Each photo has a story connected to it for me. Anecdotes unconnected other than by the waterfront that I remember in these photographs.
CONVERTING “GERONIMO” INTO “SODEBO”
“Geronimo” has been updated for Thomas Coville. Olivier de Kersauson set the bar high with “Geronimo” some years ago; setting records everywhere he sailed.
PHOTO DAY
The delicate colors of spring will soon give way to the fullness of the dark green of summer. Today we visited the annual photo show at Hunt’s Camera in Melrose. The representatives from all the major camera and lens manufacturers were there.
A DAY IN THE LIFE/VOLVO OCEAN RACE
I had attempted to explain life a sea recently. This is a simple version of that life.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES
Today was the day that the trees opened their buds. soon the leaves will lose that delicate yellow/green color and will be fully green as in summer. This is the day I wait for each year. Most of my adult life I would be traveling and return after it had passed.
A FAMILY WITH STRONG PRINCIPLES
Spring comes and goes very quickly in New England. The most delicate season. Remarkably the Adams house and visitor’s center are not open yet. Some of my more colorful ancestors; opposed to slavery very early on, predicted the then far off Civil War over slavery. Kept an extensive journal which has permitted us to know what he was thinking. His library was nearly 14,000 books.
John Quincy Adams defended the slaves of the “Amistad”.
TRANSATLANTIC 2015
transatlantic race 2011 from ws lirakis on Vimeo.
Offshore racing: All-consuming and enormously energizing
A lot has changed in offshore sailing since Larry Huntington first raced across the Atlantic in 1957. Advances in yacht design, construction and materials have made the boats exponentially faster and more durable. Modern communications enable boats to remain in touch with other competitors and the rest of the world throughout the nearly 3,000-mile journey. But the essence of the adventure remains much the same.
“Going across the Atlantic is a fantastic change of pace from everyday life,” says Huntington, who is a former commodore of the New York Yacht Club, which will co-host the race with the Royal Yacht Squadron, in association with the Royal Ocean Racing Club and the Storm Trysail Club.
“It’s a chance to think about what Joseph Conrad wrote about the mystery of the sea. ‘The true peace of God begins at any spot a thousand miles from the nearest land.’ All of that goes through your head as you do this kind of adventure. It’s a wonderful time for reflection. It’s also intensely competitive. I find it all-consuming and enormously energizing.”
So it’s no surprise, that more than a half century after his first trip across the Atlantic, Huntington’s 50-foot Snow Lion was one of the first boats to enter into the 2015 Transatlantic Race, which will start from Newport, R.I., in late June and early July of 2015 and finish at Lizard Point, on the southwestern corner of England.
With 15 months until the first gun is fired from Castle Hill in Newport, R.I., more than 20 boats have entered and nearly 70 others have expressed interest. The fleet for 2015 is expected to reach its limit of 50 boats, nearly double the 26 boats that competed in the race in 2011.
“We’re extremely pleased with the significant early interest in this race,” says Royal Yacht Squadron’s Rear Commodore Yachting David Aisher. “The history of the transatlantic race dates back to the birth of recreational ocean racing in the late 1800s. More than a century later, it remains one of the ultimate tests of yachting skill.”
This will be the third Transatlantic Race for Snow Lion, a 50-foot boat designed by Jason Ker and built in 2006. There is an adage that says distance racers should never sail on any boat that is shorter in feet than their age. Huntington, who will be 80 when the race starts, clearly doesn’t subscribe to that theory.
“I had seen some of Ker’s previous designs and admired how they behaved and looked,” says Huntington. “We kept losing races to other Ker designs, so I figured [building one for myself] was a good thing to do.”
In 2011, it took Huntington’s team more than 15 days to complete the course. While that race was notorious for light and challenging wind conditions, the transatlantic course is still one of the longest regular races open to amateur sailors.
“First and foremost, you need a really compatible, competent crew,” says Huntington of the keys to success. “If you have full confidence in your shipmates, everyone gets the proper amount of rest and then you can address whatever Mother Nature wants to throw at you.”
Race website: www.TransatlanticRace.org
– See more at: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2014/04/01/offshore-racing-consuming-enormously-energizing/#sthash.NO8bexoc.dpuf