Does Russell Coutts have it right?

The former Alinghi skipper and current Number One for Larry Ellison’s USA America’s Cup effort, has just told the Reuters news service regarding the next America’s Cup event: "All the different stakeholders should be consulted - the teams, the sponsors, the television companies. We are not against discussing change. But this should involve everyone."

Translation: The race is bigger than one man (Ernesto Bertarelli), one committee (America’s Cup Management), one country (Switzerland &/or USA). It’s a global enterprise requiring incremental change between regattas and stability.

Right now, it seems as though participants’ hearts are in the right place (stir up the regatta by choosing faster, more exciting boats, and have the Defender racing alongside the Challengers so they can hone their skills and boats as do the Challengers), and give advertisers something to get excited about. But their heads (egos?) may be adrift.

Consider: By now the boats, the ramp up to the Defense, and the Challengers should all be decided and everyone should know where they are headed. They don’t. No one knows.
Consider: No other professional regatta is conducted in this fashion - - participants know how to prepare their boats, advertisers can prepare their marketing strategies, crews have settled in with their teams, and the sailing press begins flogging the future events with breathless, insider stories of the preparations. (Sail Magazine this issue carried a couple of measly paragraphs about the next race, with no emotion or seeming involvement.)
Is the next America’s Cup a non-event? Non, in the sense of dead in the water as Rome burns and key elements dither?

Or, is the next event being so carefully "orchestrated" behind the scenes that nothing is being left to chance, and we’ll be finding out about it when they’re good and ready?

Is this a sailing event or a matter of "national security," never to see the light of day. Oh, to be a fly on the all in Switzerland and in San Francisco and in New York.

Book Captures Sport, Inspires Current Players?

Your Blogster is sitting here with a gorgeous new coffee-table book entitled Alinghi (actually it’s called alinghi, with a small “a,” which just doesn’t seem quite right, somehow) from Favre Publishing. The oversized book details in about 170 pages of magnificent color photographs the prelude, racing and post-race parties in this past year’s America’s Cup. The first few pages consist of a signed essay, by President Ernesto Bertarelli, who continues to spearhead Alinghi’s activities. The essay appears to be translated into English, Spanish, Italian, French and German, one guesses.

The volume gathers memorable photographs from “AC32,” the America’s Cup event held in July where Alinghi convincingly won the Cup once again, this time against New Zealand. This was the 32nd time the event hah been conducted.

The CONTRAST between the most recent lawsuit, letters and missives being fired back and forth between the Swiss and the Americans, and this elegant book couldn’t be sharper or more stark.

- All is joy and wonderment. The America’s Cup boats appear to be very similar in construct (perfect sails, glistening hulls, energetic crews) and competition rules.
- There are lots of smiles, handshakes, beautiful people, serious officials and a lovely sailing venue. And fireworks, rose pedals in the water, excitement galore.
- The weather seems perfect, with sails filled and overall conditions ideal. (Not too many photographers capture those rainy, windless, lonely or endless tacks around the course. People want to think of sailing as both a gentleman’s sport and one unrelated to the vagaries of outdoors.
- The accompanying text, while very minimal, communicates an upbeat, positive image for this sport, one both difficult for the news media to get its long arms around and difficult for the average man-in-the-street to get a sense of, let along understand it. (Sailing, of course, in unlike football, soccer, basketball and baseball because of its notoriously confusing and legalistic rules and its remote and lengthy race courses, well out of view from shore. There are no stadiums, no hot dogs, no beer served, no teams to cheer on, since the players change so often and represent lots of countries, even on the same team, and no officials to argue with. In short, it has high action, but its way out there somewhere on boats one has never actually seen in person, walked aboard or hoisted a sail on.)

President Ernesto Bertarelli introduces this memorable color photo collection and establishes credibility by discussing AC32 lofty terms, including responsibility, competition, organization and the vitality of European sailing and news media coverage (after all, this has been the first time for the America’s Cup events to be conducted in Europe in 150 years).

He notes that the competition was tough, especially since Alinghi didn’t race against it’s Challengers until late in the game and was shipped to Dubai in the winter of 2006 for similar sailing conditions. He summarized the 2007 races as “arguably the most exciting racing ever witnessed in the long history of our sport, with numerous lead changes, dramatic tactics and, at times, unpredictable wind....”

On a positive, upbeat note, he is quoted as saying that going forward, he is confident Alinghi can “build upon the substantial successes already obtained so far.” He hopes to maintain the America’s Cup position as at the “very pinnacle of yacht racing and further develops as a leading, global sports event.”

Sailing Kings: It’s time to rekindle and protect this spirit…whatever it takes. No one will remember or care how it’s done, whether in front of or behind closed doors. They’ll only remember if it doesn’t take place. This isn’t the boardroom or the courtroom, there are no shareholders only stakeholders. It’s real life, ebbing away with everyone seemingly obvious.

Win-win, win-lose, lose-lose off the course: OK, we got it - - Alinghi wants to make the rules and keep the Cup. Larry Ellison and the America’s want another shot. Just “do it,” as the Nike commercial goes. Call, meet face-to-face, teleconference, consider alternatives. What we have here is the dying embers of success - - a hoarding of the trophy and all it represents, and a Challengers with the balls to really challenge. Now it’s time for deadlines, deal-making, olive branches and sledgehammers in order to bang out boat designs and race schedules for 2008 and 2009.

The sport is sailing, for Pete’s sake, not endless rounds of he-said, they-said, we-want, you-want posturing and postulating. PLEASE take a look at this book, and you might be a little taken aback. This is grand racing sport, one that should be conducted out on the water as much and as soon as possible and practical. No one team or group has the right to kill this event.

No one organization deserves to win every time….not any more. Those days died when The New York Yacht Club unbolted the cup from its central lobby. It’s time to find out if it also loosened common sense and compromise.

Alinghi Chief Offers His Views

Concerned that the America's Cup event is going nowhere FAST, it seems, Ernesto Bertarelli, who heads up the two-time America's Cup Defense, has offered a remarkable public letter clarifying his feelings about the next contest.

You'll notice the logic and the concern, as well as the importance of "doing the right thing," as he defines it. Finally, you'll notice that he has already met with the other key player in this mega-stakes game, the American Larry Ellison, who heads up the unsuccessful but extremely aggressive USA challenge efforts via BMW/Oracle Racing. Finally, please note the possible future involvement of the "winning-est" club ever of the America's Cup, The New York Yacht Club, which Mr. Bertarelli recently visited.

Here's what Mr. Berarelli says in his open letter, as reprinted from BYMNEWS.COM:

(For a link to this and other stories, please click on the headline.)

"Since Alinghi’s successful defence of the America’s Cup in July, much has been said by many and I wish to explain my personal passion for bringing my vision of the America’s Cup to life.
When I founded Alinghi it was all about creating a team to share the passion of sailing through every channel available to as wide an audience as possible. We tried to adopt a fresh and open way of doing things and making part of our base accessible to the public was only one example of the many innovations Alinghi brought to the America’s Cup. I believe this approach was a contributing factor to our success in 2003.

With the Defence of the Cup, we got the opportunity to share this spirit with the whole event. When we began, we set out a clear and innovative strategy focusing on the choice of venue, the set up of a purpose built port, the America’s Cup Park and the Acts as part of our vision of opening the event to as large an audience as possible.
Over six million people attended the event, which for the first time saw the participation of syndicates from five continents. The television coverage extended the reach to over four billion viewers.

The critics who opposed the Acts, the choice of venue, the television production, etc. were numerous and vociferous but the facts proved that the 32nd America’s Cup was a positive turning point for this historical event.

At the same time as realising some of the fascinating aspects of the America’s Cup I also became aware of its weaknesses. The uncertain format of the event meant that teams – and the entire America’s Cup Community – had no future beyond the next Cup. This leads to teams only surviving one cycle and the whole event needing to recreate itself every three to five years. This results in a substantial increase in costs and difficulty in securing long term sponsors.
For the 33rd edition, the concept was to empower the organisers to implement further innovations without unnecessary disruptions. The proposal to create the new AC90 class with the one boat sailing rule in a two year cycle is a major measure towards managing the costs while creating further excitement and by using the existing facilities of Valencia we had the ideal platform to maintain momentum. This would have enabled the event to prosper and generate greater revenue for the organisers to share with the teams.

The recent events in the New York courts, with the Judge ruling the CNEV invalid because it had not held its regatta at the right time, show the Achilles’ heel of the event and the possibility of its destabilisation through individual actions. Again, as in 2003, our vision has received criticism from those reluctant to change. I stand by one of the principles of the Cup: the Trustee, with the Defender, has the responsibility for the governance of the event and to implement changes which will allow it to prosper.

With a view towards the future and having studied the rules of the Cup I observed that the Deed does not actively promote parity for the teams and a long term future of the event.
In October of this year I went to New York to start a dialogue with the New York Yacht Club to examine what enthusiasm there was to make the event more relevant to today’s sporting landscape. The Deed of Gift was, after all, written over 150 years ago at the NYYC and could not anticipate the changes that the world has undergone. I was not expecting the discussions to be completed swiftly but I was thrilled when Charles Townsend, Commodore of the NYYC and George W. Carmany III, Chairman of NYYC America’s Cup Committee, expressed the same feelings.

It is fair to say that the 33rd America’s Cup has been ill-fated and I have a desire to make it right. The fastest way to achieve this objective would be for the Golden Gate Yacht Club and the Société Nautique de Genève to work with the New York Yacht Club on revising the Deed of Gift to make it appropriate for today without losing what makes the America’s Cup special. As part of this process I am happy to compromise on some of the Defender’s rights to achieve what is best for the event.

In effect, I raise the following questions:
· Should the Defender automatically be qualified for the final AC Match or should all teams start on equal footings?
· Should the schedule of venues and content of regulations be announced several cycles in advance allowing planning and funding?
· Should the governance of the Cup become permanent and be managed by entities representing past and current trustees as well as competing teams?

Over the weekend I spoke at length with Larry Ellison explaining our proposal and I was pleased that he was very supportive of the principles in the proposed changes.
Based on these principles it is my intention to work towards a renovated America’s Cup to take place in Valencia and to be raced with the certainty that the event cannot be disrupted to meet individual requirements to the detriment of those willing and able to compete.
If this revision of the governing documents of the America’s Cup cannot be achieved, we will have to accept the GGYC challenge under the Deed of Gift. "

Signed

Ernesto Bertarelli

Oracle Chief Takes Out Hundreds of Millions

For those of you who follow the stock market, as noted above, Oracle's stock has faired quite nicely in recent years (maybe not as much as its potential, but nice). In fact, Larry Ellison, as Chief Executive Officer has sold more than $800 million in the past few months, one can only guess why (besides the fact CEO's must sell some of their stock on a regular and automatic basis for various Wall Street and tax reasons).

Could it be he's amassing a fortune for his next Cup challenge?

Or is this chump-change for the Big Guys this Holiday season, a happenstance?

Could someone please ask him the next time he drops buy? Inquiring Minds want to know.

Now We Wait

The legal wrangling is wrangled. The posturing and posing, postured and posed.

Now, it’s time for some sailboat racing, right?

Wrong. Now we wait some more, as the Big Boys make up their minds -- out of the spotlight of truth and beyond the scope of the average (non-billionaire) sailor.

On the one hand (Alinghi), the current and the two-time America’s Cup winner, considers appealing the recent ruling it lost in a US court (shock?) regarding its infamous Challenger of Record, a non-yachting “yacht club” created from thin air to keep Challengers off guard and, perhaps, under the thumb of the Big A.

On the other, there are the so-called “Winners” of the lawsuit over in the U. S. of A. at Oracle, that is, Larry Ellison and the tiny Golden Gate Yacht Club, their Challenging club. (One winner: Oracle, the software company, wins on Wall Street, as shareholders saw their stock more than double since the last two America’s Cups were awarded to the Swiss. It seems the more he loses, the better his stock does. I wonder how shareholders, including your Blogster, in times past, like the most: Good racing or rising stock prices?)

Despite having lost the last Cup in the early rounds, the BMW/Oracle so-called Dream Team has already noted that they want the next challenge to be in monster cats next year, 10 months from the time of the judge’s ruling (October?). Well, he’s ruled. So, by their own measure the next event should be conducted mano-a-mano: Ernesto Bertarelli vs. Larry Ellison, jousting dollar signs at 50 paces, a.k.a., in expensive darn boats the average bear can't afford. Sounds perfectly . . . perfect.

The logic here escapes this Blogster, but anything’s possible in sailboat racing, one now sees playing out here and there, off the race course, behind closed doors.

It’s anyone’s guess what may happen.

The losers to date:

* Fans, expecting serious competitions between the best competitors (this would be the Swiss team and the New Zealand Team)
* Europeans, who just love sailing, the sailing parties, the rock stars and their spouses living it up in public settings adjacent to the docks.
* The gigantic American new media, who seem to have take an eight-year hiatus from the entire event, carrying stories few and far between, mostly emanating from a reporter here and there with “inside connections” to Alinghi or Oracle. (Your blogster can't even get the local newspaper in Stamford, CT, to run a teeny, tiny story on the Cup on their Internet site!)
* All advertisers, who’ve temporarily washed their hands of this who mess until the dust settles and customers are to be identified and advertised to make an honest buck.

The winners to date:
* Ugh...who exactly are they? A few attorneys?
* A few Cup yacht designers, with pencils poised on their drawing boards?
Alinghi, which has just issued a gorgeous picture-book of AC32, including wonderful photos of most participants and some incredible on-water photos?
* The America’s Cup Management Committee, who has gotten a chance to meet almost full time to discuss endless options facing them in the next few years?
* Some professional hired-gun sailors doing their pushups, griding out their situps and running their miles to get into shape for whatever event comes down the pike first.

Who’d have thunk: Win the Cup, Lose the War . . . for the attention to the global sailing audience and just about everyone else as well.

Fortunately, there’s still time: Guy - - Get EVERYONE into a room and don’t leave until the next two years of race preparation milestones are established. Done. Finis. Print the T shirts. This ain't Iraq. Let's get everyone into the expiring-lease club house in Valencia, then out onto the race course. NOW.