americas cup

[Alan Wheeler]

Still waiting for mine as well. Damn post.

[seafox]

We could be the 17th man in any syndicate. Would do it for food and booze......

[GordMay]

“Desafio Espanol” (Real Federación Española de Vela) will be named “official challenger” to Alinghi for the next (33RD) America's Cup.

I’ve heard that the Spanish syndicate signed the protocol, to allow it to be the official "challenger of record", moments after "Alinghi" won a photo finish over "Emirates Team New Zealand" on Tuesday to clinch the best-of-nine series 5-2 and retain the Auld Mug.

The "challenger of record" helps set the format for the America's Cup regatta, while representing all the challengers in negotiations with the defending winner. BMW Oracle Racing of the United States was the "challenger of record" for the 32nd America's Cup.

With the cup remaining in Europe, "Desafio Espanol's" declaration has been interpreted as a sign that the cup will return to Valencia, which has invested at least $681 million in Port America's Cup after being selected to host this year's event.

Watch for announcements, later today.

DesafÃ*o Español 2007

[northerncat]

just looked at the race info must have been a good race to watch if they only won by a second
sean

[Reality Check]

Watched the re-broadcast... it was a heck of a race... would have loved for it to have gone to 9.

Really think the race location should move about more... having it in one place reduces the interest level in the sport. I would love to see it in the Caribbean, that would be one hell of an event but may drive the price of rum up.

[Alan Wheeler]

Well as of last night, the race location is still not known. It may still be Valencia, but other Med locations could also be discussed. If Valencia, the race will be 2009. If elswhere, the race date will be more likely 2011.
The other decision is that the boats for the next race will be bigger and faster with 4 additional crew.

[seafox]

You could sail to see the next one Alan, if you start preparing now!

[DtM]

But will TNZ be there in a new 90 footer?

[Steve Pope]

wonder if there are any J boats out there, would be interesting with huge crews, gaff rigs, cutter rigs etc. etc. More exciting that 90 foot one offs.

[NoTies]

We've already got one but it couldn't beat Connors.
KZ1 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by NoTies

We've already got one but it couldn't beat Connors.
KZ1 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Actually, it could beat Connor, and he knew it. But, since the rules stipulated that the defender didn't have to reveal his vessel until it was too late for the challenger to change his, the Stars and Stripes syndicate built a catamaran. Technically, it wasn't a violation of the rules - but it was certainly a violation of the spirit of the competition.

At the time, I confess, I thought it was funny. With the perspective of several more years experience, and a profound respect for those who compete honestly, either in sport or in life, I now consider it blatantly unfair.

Dennis Connor did, however, do a very good thing for America's Cup racing; He lost the cup for the New York Yacht Club for the first time ever. Once the NYYC no longer had control, A-Cup racing became interesting. And when Connor brought the cup back to American shores, it was to San Diego, not New York.

After the Stars and Stripes debacle, a more fair and competitive rules regime was established, and the A-Cup has been the better for it.

TaoJones

[Sunspot Baby]

I thought both NZ and Connors played too many games with the rules and that match marked the beginning of the death spiral for the cup. It continues and going to 90' will only steepen the slope.

George

[Alan Wheeler]

That "game" was what brought NZ'ers into the fight. Before then it was just a yacht race. After that, it was about a little country from nowhere taking on the Goliaths and whats more these Goliaths seem to be happy to use what we considered unfair and cheating tacktics. There is nothing a Kiwi likes more than to battle against unfairness and cheating. And the more we lost due to the dirty fighting, the more we got behind the fight.

[TaoJones]

From today's 'Lectronic Latitude, a very interesting summary of where we now are in the aftermath of the just concluded A-Cup:

It’s All About the Money

July 6 - Valencia, Spain

The big America’s Cup news is that the 33rd edition, to be held in either Valencia in ‘09 or somewhere else in Europe by ‘11, will be competed for with a new class of 90-footers sailed by a crew of 20 or 21. Nobody seems sorry to see the current America’s Cup boats about to be relegated to the dust bin, as they are just too slow and boring for the world’s most well-known yacht race.

But let’s take a moment to praise the just completed 32nd battle for the Auld Mug. If it wasn’t as exciting overall as the windy one in Fremantle in ‘87, when Conner and crew defeated the Kiwis 4-1, it was darn close. And, as opposed to previous Cups, the races in the Finals weren’t predictably over 10 seconds after the start. Alinghi and Emirates New Zealand actually passed each other a number of times, and the racing was almost always delightfully close. Nonetheless, the most exciting moment of America’s Cup history was provided by a brilliantly timed fluke in the weather when, with just a short distance to go the finish line, the wind went light and then reversed direction. With seemingly nobody having seen it coming, chutes had to be dropped and be replaced by headsails. It provided the Kiwis with a ‘hand of God’ chance to reclaim the race and keep their Cup hopes alive. They came up short by a second or two, losing the Finals by a score of 5 to 2, but it was as an electric a finish to a major sporting event as one might hope for.

The 32nd America’s Cup was also a big hit with the public, particularly in Europe. Six million visited the America’s Cup venue in Valencia, and four billion watched at least some of it on television. The event was so popular that it even made a $42 million profit. Alinghi gets 50% of it, while the challengers get to split the other 50%, with larger amounts going to the teams that stayed in the competition the longest. Of course, half of $42 million is hardly going to make a dent in what the effort cost Alinghi. Indeed, it probably covers little more than the cost of the 300 jibs they had built.

The two biggest changes, in our opinion, needed for the next America’s Cup to be the most thrilling ever? First, for the venue to be moved to Cascais, Portugal, where the most recent one was supposed to have been held. Just a short distance from Lisbon, Cascais is said to have San Francisco Bay-type winds, meaning much stronger and more consistent breezes than found in Valencia. The second thing would for the 90-footers to be multihulls. Alinghi head Ernesto Bertarelli is known to love multihulls, and once suggested to us that they’d be great for the America’s Cup. Alas, it looks like ‘sliding keels’, which is apparently Swiss for ‘drop keels’, will be allowed on the new 90-footers, and that doesn’t sound like something that would be found on a multihull. By the way, the new 90-footers - the box rule for which won’t be finalized for months - won’t be used in competition until 18 months before the Cup itself. Until then, the run-up events will be sailed in the old America’s Cup boats.

Fun Comments:

* Paul Cayard was one of the first to say that the new 90-ft class would give a big advantage to Alinghi, the Defender, which is creating the parameters of the class. But then nobody ever said the America’s Cup was about being fair.

* Kiwi Brad Butterworth, the heart of the Alinghi team, said that Emirates Team New Zealand, like the country of New Zealand, would unlikely be able to reach the next level as long as it’s run in such an autocratic manner. It was a clear slam at 1) New Zealand, where he’s building a $2 million home, and 2) ETNZ honcho Grant Dalton who, it must be noted, has enjoyed considerable sailing success as a result of being an autocrat.

* Louis Vuitton proclaimed that if the America’s Cup is just going to be about the money, they will no longer be interested in sponsoring the elimination series as they have done for so many years. They think the event should be more about things like “elegance” and “tradition.” We doubt that the clock can be turned back now.

The Coutts and Cayard Question: Kiwi Russell Coutts, the winningest America’s Cup skipper ever, who sat out this year after a beef with Alinghi, and Marin’s Paul Cayard, who also sat out this year, are two of the biggest legends in sailing. If the rumors are to be believed, BMW Oracle wants Coutts badly, and the Spanish Defender of Record wants Cayard. There is just one juicy fly in the ointment. Coutts and Cayard recently announced that they were forming the international World Sailing League, which is to have 12 teams from around the world compete in the world’s major sailing venues using 70-ft one design catamarans. If the rumors are true, and if BMW Oracle and the Spanish are willing to dangle enough money in front of the two, we’d have to think that the World Sailing League will never touch water.

All in all, there’s a lot of fun America’s Cup topics to muse about while we enjoying sailing on our own boats.

- latitude / rs

TaoJones

[TaoJones]

Here's the latest report on the America's Cup, from today's 'Lectronic Latitude:

America’s Cup: The More Things Change . . .

July 13 - Valencia

Why is it that nothing about the America’s Cup ever seems simple? Or fair? Or, as long as we’re on the subject, logical? But perhaps we’ve answered our own questions - this is, after all, the America’s Cup.

To catch you up, Switzerland’s Alinghi team won the Cup on July 3 in an exciting 5-2 contest over Emirates Team New Zealand. The champagne spray had barely been washed off SUI 100 when they announced that 1) the next America’s Cup would be raced in 90-foot boats of yet-to-be-determined design, and 2) the new Challenger of Record was Desafio Español. There was also some other stuff, but those were the two main ones that - predictably - invoked hue and cry from just about everyone who was not associated with Alinghi. Why? Because the new boat design parameters would not be finalized until the end of the year, effectively giving Alinghi a six-month head start on everyone else. And because the Desafio Español deal was done through a ‘paper club’, Club Nautico Espanol de Vela, which was established for the express purpose of being the Challenger of Record.

Or was it?

You may recall that banker Michael Fay pulled a similar stunt when, in 1988, he created the giant 132-ft sloop New Zealand and - under the auspices of the ‘Mercury Bay Boat Club’ (a paper club whose rumored clubhouse was an old car) - challenged Dennis Conner to a match race within a year of his successful recapture of the Cup in Fremantle in 12 Meters. After a gargantuan court battle in New York - where (also according to the Deed of Gift) all America’s Cup arbitration ultimately must be settled - the big boat went down to defeat by Conner’s also-somehow-legal 60-ft catamaran. Somehow we thought that the Deed of Gift was rewritten to eliminate the possiblity of ‘tween-years’ challenges forevermore. Apparently, we thought wrong.

On Tuesday, Golden Gate YC presented a challenge to Societe Nautique de Geneve (Alinghi’s home yacht club) for the 33rd America’s Cup. Anyone with the remotest interest in the AC knows that GGYC - and significant club member Larry Ellison of the BMW Oracle Racing syndicate - was the Challenger of Record for the recently completed AC 32. But wait a minute: didn’t Desafio Español beat GGYC to the punch?

Not necessarily. Desafio has done little to hide the fact that they main reason for their COR deal was to keep the Cup in Valencia. To that end, they’re prepared to sacrifice just about anything else - read: agree to anything Alinghi suggests - to ensure the venue, which is worth millions of dollars to the local economy.

Upset at what they perceived to be an invalid protocol, the remaining AC32 challengers met informally earlier this week to discuss their options. Working on its own, but as we understand it, with significant moral support from the other challengers, Oracle Racing, Inc., on behalf of GGYC, drafted and delivered in person its challenge to SNG in Geneva on Tuesday. Predictably, they challenged the validity of the Spanish COR deal. Unpredictably, GGYC’s challenge states that it would race in a 90-ft single-masted, sloop-rigged boat with a 90-ft beam - that’s not a typo - and draft of 3 feet (boards up) to 20 feet (boards down). Can you say “multihull”? The first race would be on July 4, 2008.

In other words, put on your skinny jeans and big sunglasses because it’s deja vu to 1987 all over again. Although the GGYC’s challenge is reportedly intended to open the door for further proceedings (acceptance by SNG/Alinghi so that the two can further discuss and agree upon rules), it could also default to the original rules in the Deed, whereby a challenger can still be brought to race the winner of the America’s Cup within 10 months, with a boat defined by the challenger! There’s also the possibility that this whole thing will once again end up mired for months in the New York state court system.

We’ll bring you updates on this as we learn them. In the meantime, you can read the full text of GGYC’s challenge, as well as the letter it sent to SNG explaining why it believes CNEV’s challenge is a sham, at Golden Gate Yacht Club.

- latitude / ss & jr

TaoJones