America’s Global Red Face

All right. Let me put this on the table. Way back when, the United States of America took the winning cannon shot for the America’s Cup 25 times more or less in a row since 1851. They had bested all comers in this the world’s third largest sporting event, time and time again.

Along the way, they also had rigged the rules of the game so that every conceivable thing was tilted in their favor – the venue, the boats, the sails, the judging, the restrictions, even the weather it was sailed in. If anyone could beat them under these circumstances, they knew they had really accomplished something.

Of course, despite all these advantages, the USA finally managed to lose the cup in 1983 to Alan Bond, representing far away Australia (Royal Perth Yacht Club). Who knew they took sailing so seriously “down under.” Anybody seen the movie “Wind?” This slice of sailing perfectly captured the “Aussie” spirit of competition and good sportsmanship.

Until 1983, sailboat designers hadn’t really tried Ben Lexcen’s “unorthodox innovation” that the Australian’s used on the keel. (Mr. Lexcen, a New South Wales citizen and marine architect, passed away in 1988.) His keel innovation, however lives on, appearing even today on racing and cruising boats. Why? Because these wings actually do two things: They enable designers to shorten the keel while adding graceful wing-like appendages that added lift going upwind and (maybe) some push on runs. The more the boat heals, the longer the draft became, adding significant additional pointing ability upwind.

Now much imitated, those wings instantly seemed to add an entirely new dimension to the sport. They have gotten longer, fatter, wider and every imaginable shape in the search for more speed at no additional cost.

Several boat manufactures jumped on the bandwagon and began lightening keels, adding all manner of wings and winglets, even to big cruising boats, which sailed faster and were able for the first time to enter much shallower harbors. Now buyers had choices of traditional deep keels, or shallow scheel keels (short and squat), or attractive somewhat scary-fast looking “flying keels.” The wings kept getting bigger and bigger, for a while, until things began to calm down.

(Cruise ships, by the way, have also picked up on this concept: Some have added the equivalent of “airplane wings” that extend way out (under water) from their sides to reduce, almost eliminate, the dreaded heal and rock & roll, which so upset passengers’ stomachs,.)

What did that first USA skipper (Dennis Connor) to be defeated by the Australians do about re-energizing the country’s honor and pride in this competition? First, he had to suffer the indignity to watching the America’s Cup being unbolted from a gorgeous display case in the center of the New York Yacht Club in Manhattan, amidst wood-paneled walls and priceless, carved half-hulls of previous America’s Cup beauties. Then he had to dream up a quick way to win in back fast, which he did four years later through hard work and world-class sailing. He went on to win it twice more a while later, and made a run at it in an unconventional, unbelievably fast, catamaran.

But the winged-keel idea has stayed with us, much as numerous other America’s Cup technical innovations, including such things as carbon-fiber blend sails (nearly black in color), colorful synthetic lines for sheets, halyards, minor sail adjustments, and titanium this, that and the other, and countless other innovations large and small.

America’s Cup trickle-down theory incarnate.

FLASH FORWARD to this year’s event. Here’s how Ernesto Bertarelli commented in Sailing Magazine regarding winning the cup: “It was much harder that I thought it would be,” which appears to be another way of saying, “Guys, we just about killed ourselves winning this thing, much as everyone else, and we’re very respectful of the Challenges and their efforts.” Win one for sportsmanship and the camaraderie of sailing!

How about some appropriate words from a few of the Challengers ("Ernesto, you guys outsailed us and won fair and square. Congratulations!"), including some kind words in defeat from the USA team that was knocked out early on, not just another lawsuit! America's red face continues....