Alinghi President Honored as Audi Sailor of Year

Ernesto Bertarelli was recently honored as Audi Sailor of the for “his successes in promoting the sport of sailing through his recent America’s Cup victory.”

Bianca Gropallo, widow of Paolo Venanzangeli, an Italian America's Cup journalist, presented the award.

According to Mr. Bertarelli: “I was born in Rome and started sailing in Civitavecchia with my father, a sailing fan, so I am particularly honored and very happy to receive this prize here in Italy for what we achieved during the 32nd America’s Cup with Alinghi and AC Management. We very much hope to return to the water soon. Thank you again for the award. I’m proud of it.”

This is his second, consecutive America’s Cup victory.

They noted that this past America’s Cup event was supposedly witnessed by six million visitors and 4 billion TV viewers. (Your blogster: Perhaps 50 total in the U.S., all crew spouses and girlfriends willing to take the time to find the broadcasts on obscure cable channels.) Afterwards, the America’s Cup Management organization distributed more than 60 million Euros of net surplus (cash) among the participating teams.

Covering All Bases to be Sure

Your blogster hears that Team Alinghi is out on the water again practicing intensely in Valencia, Spain, but this time it's on 40-foot catamarans. They’re also racing on Far 40 speedsters to keep their “small” monohull skills sharp (they just finished racing at Key West Race Week, finishing a distant 9th, after having won the Far 40 division the previous year.). Hey, you can’t win them all! Tiger Woods certainly doesn’t! But he and they are still the world’s best at what they do.

Among those assembled for the Alinghi practices are Brad Butterworth, Team Captain, and Ed Baird, Dean Phipps, Yves Detrey, Warwick Fleury, Murray Jones, Lorenzo Mazza, Francesco Rapetti, Pieter van Nieuwenhuyzen, Juan Vila, Nils Frei, Curtis Blewett, Rodney Ardern, Nicolas Texier, Luc Dubois and Pierre-Yves Jorand. Imagine these guys on your boat at the next around-the-buoys regatta. Whoa! That spinnaker would never be launched and doused quite as fast, and mark roundings would be a walk in the park. Give me chills just imagining the confidence you'd have at the starting line.

Brad says they have already set up a busy summer racing schedule on both monohulls and cats, since it still isn’t clear either the TYPE and STYLE of the boat for the next America’s Cup regatta, or the DATES of the eliminations and final series. Hint: Monohulls, sail the boat flat, boys; cats, get that pontoon out of the water upwind! Tacking, keep the boat moving and accelerate, accelerate, accelerate! Nothing beats a good start, pass a boat at every mark, and it ain't over till the pointy end crosses the finish line. Many a race has been lost in the last five feet by an over-confident crew or skipper.

A New York judge, who’s probably NEVER EVEN BEEN ON A SAILBOAT has the dubious honor of deciding what’ll be what in the next America’s Cup match-up. Go figure.

No 2nd Regatta Scheduled by Challenger

It’s official. Club Nautico Espanol de Vela (CNEV), one-time America’s Cup 33 Challenger of Record, is apparently NOT scheduled to host a follow-up regatta of any sort in 2008, following its hastily thrown-together race back in Nov. 2007 to “satisfy” (partially and fleetingly) one of the Deed of Gift’s requirements for the Challenger of Record to be a “real” yacht club - - one that hosts regattas.

The Spanish Sailing Federation’s new regatta calendar for 2008 has been published and there’s no clue regarding the scheduling of a follow-up 2nd-Annual Trofeo Desafio Espanol Regatta by CNEV to honor the winning Alinghi sailing organization.

Psssst: Maybe this whole deal WAS all a sham after all. Don't tell the NY judge!

Would it really kill Alinghi/CNEV to both schedule a second regatta and start a web site for CNEV? Hey, your blogster will create a web site for the club for FREE! Just email me.

According to Valencia Sailing, and as a reminder, this first regatta was the so-called cornerstone of BMW/Oracle’s successful legal case overturning CNEV’s quickie appointment as official Challenger of Record. BMW/Oracle argued, persuasively, that CVEV was only a “paper” yacht club and had only been formed in order for a European club to become the Challenger of Record. They further argued that previous Challengers (not Challenger's of Record) had been accepted as sponsors for America's Cup yachts. Some had represented bars (not clubs) or paper organizations of some sort without yacht club fundamentals (boats, docks, clubhouses, racing committees, etc.).

Nothing, of course, today really exists anymore unless it has a web presence, hint, hint….

Cup TV

If you haven't seen or experienced "Alinghi TV," you've missed something special.

Click on the "Cup TV" headline and it'll take you right there. They have captured a series of vignettes or "best of" moments of the past America's Cup campaign (AC32 in July 2007) and tried to offer some of the color and flavor of the event.

This should be required watching for ALL of the officials, lawyers, judges and other hangers-on who have the power to influence, even change, the way the America's Cup activities are run.

For one thing, you'll see these races are somewhat less that just glamour and glitz. They'll also a lot of raw emotions and muscled crews clawing their way to the top, led by immense brainpower, skill and luck, all riding upon the technology of the practical, experimental and futuristic.

This is some powerful and interesting stuff.

Since television treats sailing events as something with a small following (despite the MILLIONS of sailors in most countries of the civilized world), any little shred of televised sailboat racing is golden, indeed. Roll the videotape!

Sex, DRUGS & Rock 'n Roll

Finally, some sex, drugs and rock 'n roll in the America's Club - - the stuff of news media interest!

Daringly, according to SwissInfo.ch, the International Sailing Federation has CLEARED NZ's Simon Daubney of charges that he tested positive for cocaine metabolites (not cocaine itself). The Swiss Olympic Association had ALREADY CLEARED HIS NAME ("not infringed the anti-doping rules...."), hence the description of "daringly," for the ISF.

(He defended himself with the concept that someone might have slipped it into his kool aid or whatever.)

He subsequently resigned from the ALINGHI squad, before racing with them for the Cup, and that was that. Now, we find out the whole thing has been tossed. Sorry, Mr. New Zealander. Go back to living your drug-free life.... Good luck with this black eye on your record. Sorry.....

This was, apparently, the FIRST America's Cup "doping" mini-scandal...ever. Gosh, these guys are clean cut!

Best of luck getting your life back together again, Mr. Daubney. If you're also an attorney, maybe the barristers working for Alinghi or BMW/Oracle need an extra hand preparing their next filing? They seem to have a few bill-able hours left on their contracts!