While this is indeed the most compelling argument I have read for bringing the America’s Cup to Newport, there is a very big difference between One boat using Newport as a base and an America’s Cup event. \u00a0An America’s Cup event in Newport would disrupt life here in ways we cannot imagine. I much prefer to see boats being built and launched here.<\/p>\n
Can Newport and the state of Rhode Island afford to spend the money to bring the Cup here? Do the numbers really make sense? Will it really increase employment in a meaningful way? Not just part time jobs.<\/p>\n
COULD THIS BE NEW ENGLAND’S BEST CHRISTMAS EVER?<\/p>\n
Ken Read is a resident of Newport and is the CEO and Skipper of PUMA Ocean<\/p>\n
Racing – a sailing team built to participate in the Volvo Ocean Race. He is<\/p>\n
also the Vice President of North Sails Group LLC. Here he shares his<\/p>\n
excitement on the possibility of the America’s Cup coming to his town:<\/p>\n
———————————————————————-<\/p>\n
Rhode Island needs the America’s Cup, and has the opportunity within its<\/p>\n
grasp to do so. An amazing last minute organizational effort between many<\/p>\n
different state and private organizations has made Rhode Island a front<\/p>\n
runner in the race to be the venue for the 2013 America’s Cup.<\/p>\n
At first glance it would appear that I am the most biased person in the<\/p>\n
state to write an editorial in support of the America’s Cup coming to Rhode<\/p>\n
Island. I grew up in this area, and have sailed on Narragansett Bay my whole<\/p>\n
life. I moved to Newport in the infamous summer of 1983 and witnessed<\/p>\n
firsthand the removal of the America’s Cup from our shores. Since then I<\/p>\n
have had the good fortune to be a part of dozens of world class sailboat<\/p>\n
racing teams including skippering Dennis Conner’s America’s Cup bids on two<\/p>\n
separate occasions.<\/p>\n
Over the past three years I have served as the CEO and Skipper of PUMA Ocean<\/p>\n
Racing, the Volvo Ocean Race entry of the sports-lifestyle company PUMA. The<\/p>\n
Volvo Ocean Race is considered as one of the big three sailing events in the<\/p>\n
world, along with the Olympics and the America’s Cup.<\/p>\n
I am proud to say that PUMA Ocean Racing is the second largest professional<\/p>\n
sailboat racing team in the United States, second only in size and success<\/p>\n
to BMW-Oracle Racing, the holder of the America’s Cup. Like all professional<\/p>\n
teams we had a choice on where we wanted to organize, train and build our<\/p>\n
program. We chose Rhode Island.<\/p>\n
Why did we choose Rhode Island?<\/p>\n
First of all, Rhode Island has a marine trade industry that helped us create<\/p>\n
a racing program that can successfully compete against the best in the<\/p>\n
world.<\/p>\n
Secondly, we can keep the construction, design and engineering of our<\/p>\n
programs major components literally within driving distance of our<\/p>\n
waterfront base, located at the Newport Shipyard since 2007.<\/p>\n
And finally, we are a five-minute sail from some of the best sailing grounds<\/p>\n
in the world that we use for training, testing and racing.<\/p>\n
What does this all mean to the State of Rhode Island? Thanks to these three<\/p>\n
major attributes PUMA Ocean Racing has spent over 20 million dollars in<\/p>\n
Rhode Island in the past three years. This sum has covered the fundamental<\/p>\n
components’ of a program our size such as design and engineering, boat and<\/p>\n
mast construction, sails, rigging, housing, and food. Not to mention the<\/p>\n
influx of cash that our employees and their families spend to live their<\/p>\n
daily lives. And this is money that represents a few cents on the dollar<\/p>\n
compared to what the America’s Cup would bring to the region.<\/p>\n
My point takes a twist though, and I sincerely hope that our governmental<\/p>\n
leaders and citizens understand a second crucial point. The decision to<\/p>\n
spend money on infrastructure to lure the America’s Cup has very little to<\/p>\n
do with the sport of sailing as a whole, and has everything to do with good<\/p>\n
business. — Read on:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com\/cgi-bin\/gforum.cgi?post=11021<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While this is indeed the most compelling argument I have read for bringing the America’s Cup to Newport, there is a very big difference between One boat using Newport as a base and an America’s Cup event. \u00a0An America’s Cup event in Newport would disrupt life here in ways we cannot imagine. I much prefer … Continue reading The best argument I’ve heard for Newport as host of the AC<\/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":[2397,569,2454],"class_list":["post-1006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americas-cup","tag-americas-cup","tag-ken-read","tag-newport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1007,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions\/1007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}