tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48474588851553488592024-03-06T11:05:06.050-08:00AMERICA'S CUP VIEWOBSERVATIONS ON THE 33RD COMPETITION FOR THE OLDEST TROPHY IN SPORTSRosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.comBlogger91125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-89045492595318051162011-05-11T18:20:00.000-07:002011-05-13T22:16:10.195-07:00It's brilliant, really<p class="MsoNormal"><iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fh3ZB8xNrRg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i>America's Cup management wraps up the test series in New Zealand.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Sheer physicality. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Extraordinary speed (which you can see). </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">The manic edge, a tipping point (literally), a fine line between extraordinary performance and a ducking. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">The AC regatta in New Zealand has made a new America’s Cup a magnificent <i>fait accompli</i>. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">It’s going to be an utterly outstanding America’s Cup, make no mistake. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Add astonishing media technology which is being tested and enhanced – with further fine-tuning and undoubtedly greater refinements to come during the European series. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">If America’s Cup is the epitome of racing (which it should be), it’s hard to imagine how anything could eclipse what is happening in America’s Cup today. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">We loved AC32, Version 5, and Valencia because we were there. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">We despaired of the mad rush to multihulls. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Now, we can’t wait for what’s to come. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Only one thing could make it better. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Ernesto builds a very big, very competitive boat.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-12859987564421506382010-04-26T20:35:00.000-07:002010-04-26T22:02:10.217-07:00The Myth of Multihulls<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The multihulls we watched in America’s Cup 33 were amazing, well, at least one of them. The boat that won. BMWOracle’s trimaran </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">USA</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Now the yacht club that sponsored BMWOracle Racing, Golden Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco (GGYV), with an assist from its challenger partner, Club Nautico di Roma (ITA), has apparently formulated the protocol for America’s Cup 34, and will be announcing it soon. That’s great. All of us are ready and waiting.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Just for the record:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><b><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(1)</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We don’t think America’s Cup is drag racing.</span></span></b><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Drag racing is about highly powered, ungainly vehicles challenging each other in a speed-only event. We saw some drag racing in AC33. It was new and captivating since we had never seen drag racing before in America’s Cup. However, like most purists – and as Bruno Troublé (head of yacht racing for former America’s Cup sponsor Louis Vuitton) and many other purists probably feel about this – we hope that drag-racing doesn’t become the future of America’s Cup.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span style="font-family:";"><b><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(2)</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Multihull racing vs. monohull racing is like giraffes – no, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">camels</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> – racing thoroughbred horses.</span></span></b><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Sometimes those camels and giraffes are extraordinarily fast, but thoroughbreds are better bred, more elegant, more beautiful to look at, and, well, fast enough.</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span style="font-family:";"><span style="font-family:";"><b><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(3)</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You cannot discern yacht speed on television.</span></span></b><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Monohull or multihull, you cannot tell by watching helicopter footage (which most us see), even in close up, </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">exactly how fast boats are sailing. Speed actually is rational data communicated live by commentators, by onscreen captions, or through online presentations from modeling data (as on </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Virtual Spectator</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">). Any argument that America’s Cup needs multihulls because racing is about speed is, inevitably, null and void. Television cannot discern speed on the water.</span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span style="font-family:";"><span style="font-family:";"><span style="font-family:";"><b><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(4)</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Multihull speed – indiscernible to most viewers anyway – is about the thrill of failure.</span></span></b><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> This is the ‘spinnaker syndrome’, raised to the power of ten. Whenever most of us see stress on a racing boat, it’s when spinnakers are raised. In a situation exacerbated by commentators and television producers, most of us sit there and wait for something to destroy everything. It’s a bit like NASCAR, transcribed to downhill legs on a sailing racecourse. The fact is, cataclysmic incidents are what high-speed racing multihulls are all about, most of the time. Even multihull sailors admit that. We respect that courage and everything else that makes multihulls unique. But is this what America’s Cup is about?</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span style="font-family:";"><span style="font-family:";"><span style="font-family:";"><span style="font-family:";"><b><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(5)</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Once speed is diminished by television, multihull racing is (wait for it) boring.</span></span></b><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> It’s about straight-line, drag-racing speed. It’s about the fear of failure. In America’s Cup, so far, it hasn’t been about tactical, competitive action. So far, multihull racing has shown us long, boring legs of immense speed that we cannot discern, except when one boat is faster than another. And that’s the only definition of speed that matters. Contrastingly, did we ever see much in AC33 like this clip from AC32? In this random engagement, just one of scores we watched, commentator Andy Green (UK) actually uses the term 'drag race'. But pure boat speed is irrelevant. Relative performance is what counts. Above all, tactics, decision making, and competition are everything. We think this is what AC34 should be about:</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span><span><span><span><span><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vHGQ5ZjO4Hg&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vHGQ5ZjO4Hg&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span style="font-family:";"><span style="font-family:";"><span style="font-family:";"><span style="font-family:";"><span style="font-family:";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(6) Anyway, if you wanted a new level for America’s Cup endeavor, we thought big monohulls for AC33 was a pretty good idea.</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Big, beautiful, powerful monohulls like the AC90 concept (below, from AC Management), promulgated in the original AC33 protocol, could take America’s Cup to another level. Want them to be even more exciting? Make them bigger, higher, wider, more. Just to refresh your memory (click on the picture for a closer look):</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_MuP23I0S_1uDkriATcXWlPkrNZ9jCoqeqo5V5Tqzfp43bl3IS69bpQT0gYV3NIJx3P2m3RZdS27OVGSuuTty0PvEvZPv9h_R7uTIHyfPiLwdJ772x15WRmCq3ih3zzkYOCOYSBYFONk/s1600/ACV+acm-ac33-ACC5-vs-AC90-Design-2.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_MuP23I0S_1uDkriATcXWlPkrNZ9jCoqeqo5V5Tqzfp43bl3IS69bpQT0gYV3NIJx3P2m3RZdS27OVGSuuTty0PvEvZPv9h_R7uTIHyfPiLwdJ772x15WRmCq3ih3zzkYOCOYSBYFONk/s400/ACV+acm-ac33-ACC5-vs-AC90-Design-2.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464665591981772562" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 282px; " /></a><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Anyway, that’s our view. You have yours.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The idea that counts comes next week. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We hope.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-7046048077084521792010-02-20T09:57:00.000-08:002010-02-20T10:59:01.582-08:00It starts here<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiex7YhExU3kj4oFwS518YThVJVchge0AopJSR0Q3qtnQ6ayf25r4NF4RliVsfW0gp0kcogPEc1-QS-2j_O1NGt_rOc11RfMO28WhLyylbg1wA66zwjEW7NQCXNKLWQ-hukdAiImCoB8V4/s1600-h/imgfili.php+cupwin.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiex7YhExU3kj4oFwS518YThVJVchge0AopJSR0Q3qtnQ6ayf25r4NF4RliVsfW0gp0kcogPEc1-QS-2j_O1NGt_rOc11RfMO28WhLyylbg1wA66zwjEW7NQCXNKLWQ-hukdAiImCoB8V4/s400/imgfili.php+cupwin.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440386852385315042" /></a><div><div style="text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">James Spithill (AUS), Russell Coutts (NZL), Larry Ellison (USA)<br />and John Kostecki (USA) loft the Auld Mug for the first time<br />together, Sunday, February 14, 2010 in Valencia, Spain. Another<br />great picture by BMWOracle Racing's Gilles Martin-Raget.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The celebration by winners of the America’s Cup typically marks the end of a marathon event.</span></span></span></i></p></div> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We all know America’s Cup 33 was a marathon.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We heartily congratulate Golden Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco (GGYC) and their sailing team BMWOracle Racing (USA) on a spectacular victory on the water. That victory was testimony not just to an advanced boat design and a fabulous team, but also to an unwavering commitment to things that matter, probably unequalled in the whole of professional sports.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But now America’s Cup 34 begins.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Now the work begins again for BMWOracle Racing and its leadership.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Not just to build a boat that can win the 34th event, but significantly, to consider what this great event is, and can become.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We look forward to an exciting, extraordinary, captivating, and compelling competition among the sailing nations of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The best America’s Cup ever.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p></div>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-26549314487235726752010-02-16T22:30:00.000-08:002010-02-17T11:24:49.471-08:00Overcoming Swiss sportsmanship<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfOY6CpnscSJCwGWNxicfD9244whWFJZj32W6RKw6T8fayhOzjxK2Ybp5NwCKXljyw4G06oysoUXYNrFQxG9zeWIenVnQ81FSgfmu_62rXuZCOF5Ylv25EBXt8jlso55z8ipUm9_M23Kw/s1600-h/BENNETT.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 299px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfOY6CpnscSJCwGWNxicfD9244whWFJZj32W6RKw6T8fayhOzjxK2Ybp5NwCKXljyw4G06oysoUXYNrFQxG9zeWIenVnQ81FSgfmu_62rXuZCOF5Ylv25EBXt8jlso55z8ipUm9_M23Kw/s400/BENNETT.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439096891373032466" /></a><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center"><i><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">America’s Cup Principal Race Officer Harold Bennett (NZL)<br />banishes Swiss official Nicolas Grange (SUI) from the<br />committee boat’s flybridge control center.<br />Apparently, for insubordination.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center"><i><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center"><i><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: left;margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><i><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We really wanted to put Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI) and his yacht club Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) behind us.</span></span></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We really wanted to move forward to America’s Cup 34 in a very positive way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In fact, we even wanted to salute Ernesto for his commitment to his team, his passion for America’s Cup, and his sportsmanship.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">On Sunday, we learned you can’t have everything.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In fact, when it comes to Ernesto –and his Swiss confreres – you had better be prepared to be disappointed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">First, Firmenich<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If you were expecting Pierre-Yves Firmenich, Commodore of Société Nautique de Genève, to be courteous and salutary at the ceremony in Valencia when the America’s Cup trophy was passed to Golden Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco (GGYC), well, you were mistaken.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Firmenich couldn’t find the words to congratulate his peer, Commodore Marcus Young of GGYC, on his victory on the water. He couldn’t even shake his hand. The only thing he had to say to the world was that he was pleased to win the trophy in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2003.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Now Commodore Firmenich is a gentleman of the old order, held in high esteem in Switzerland, and in business circles around the world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But there was no courtesy from Firmenich on Sunday. We are forced to conclude, therefore, that no courtesy was intended, therefore no honor was shown.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That absence of honor sits on Firmenich’s doorstep.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If that wasn’t enough, as the excitement of BMWOracle Racing (USA)’s victory settled, we learned about the bizarre behavior of SNG representatives on the official Race Committee boat, just prior to the start of Sunday’s race.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Second, Meyer<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You have to remember that the Principal Race Officer (PRO) of AC33 was Harold Bennett (NZL), a long-time race official, highly respected around the world for the thankless task of adjudicating major racing events. One of his major roles in America’s Cup is to decide when race conditions are suitable for racing and to manage the start and finish of the event.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Accompanying him on the committee boat on Sunday were a number of SNG officials, including that alpine partisan, SNG Vice Commodore Fred Meyer (SUI).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">For the first race, Bennett shrewdly decided he needed a GGYC representative on the boat – for fairness and balance – and asked BMWOracle Racing’s Tom Ehman (USA), a longtime race official and sailing judge, to come aboard as a representative of Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Knowing exactly what a GGYC voice might mean to SNG’s strategies, whatever those might have been, Meyer went ballistic.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But Bennett held his ground. Ultimately, an Alinghi lawyer, Lucien Masmejan (SUI) was drafted to accompany Ehman, and the boat finally departed the dock in Valencia for Race One.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then, on Sunday, as Bennett labored mightily to ensure that the 39-mile triangular course was effectively set up, providing balanced conditions across the 13x13x13 mile course, he waited patiently until he felt conditions were acceptable. Then, as he was about to authorize the flag sequence that would signal the start of the race, SNG staged a mutiny.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In contact with the Alinghi sailing team on the water, SNG officials on the committee boat decided that conditions didn’t favor their contender and wanted the race postponed. Bennett ignored them. He ordered a race “go”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Despite the fact that any PRO like Bennett has sole authority to control events on the race course, SNG officials on the boat refused to obey Bennett’s orders. Refusing to be a puppet for Swiss partisans, Bennett himself took action.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Peremptorily, he ordered the SNG flunkies out of the control center on the flybridge, co-opted Ehman and a Spanish chase boat driver – a former race official – and ordered them to man the flags while he personally managed the critical, time-sensitive signal sequence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Finally, Race 2 got under way. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Three days later, the sailing world is still abuzz about Swiss manipulation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Third, Ernesto<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This is a man we strive to like, believe it or not. He is a passionate sailor. He has invested millions of his own money to participate in America’s Cup. He loves fast boats, competition, and winning.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What’s not to like?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Well, a great deal, unfortunately.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This man should be a class act. Actually, he is a class apart.</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As a major player on a global stage, you’d expect this man to have a lot to offer. Do you know what he </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">really </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">has? <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Try this: <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><i><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(1) No sense of sportsmanship, as most people accept it.</span></span></i><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> We don’t want to get into Ernesto’s status as a gentleman. But we do know that a gentleman, in defeat, congratulates his victor, salutes their achievement, and commends their enterprise, enthusiasm, and accomplishment. There was not one word from Ernesto about this in the post-race press conference on Sunday. Oh, yes, he did say the wing was “efficient”. Otherwise, he looked for reasons to diss the victors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><i><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(2) Nothing nice to say.</span></span></i><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Any time Ernesto Bertarelli has anything positive to say, it’s about Ernesto Bertarelli. Like the classic narcissist he seems to be, Ernesto’s thoughts and feelings are the center of the universe. There is no other center. It is psychologically impossible for him to say anything complimentary about any other person, thing or event, unless it’s an (in)elegant construction designed to compliment himself. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><i><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(3) A gift for whining.</span></span></i><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> In his defeat, Ernesto didn’t blame an inferior yacht design that cost him the America’s Cup. He blamed the New York Courts. He blamed America. He blamed both because the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">courts </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">give </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Americans</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> an advantage that Europeans cannot overcome. He blamed the wing because it meant the winning boat </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">USA</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> had to be moored at the commercial port, not the darsena. He blamed Sunday’s wave height (about a meter). He blamed the wing again because it was the third version of </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">USA</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">’s sail design, not declared in the boat’s paperwork. He even stiffed lawyer and novo journalist Cory Friedman of Sailing Scuttlebutt for asking questions at the post-race press conference that he, Ernesto, didn’t like.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><i><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(4) No balls.</span></span></i><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> When he won America’s Cup in 2007, Ernesto didn’t invite Emirates Team New Zealand to participate in the ceremonies. They were banished. Just like Russell Coutts (NZL), chief executive of BMWOracle, was banished from the AC33 owner’s press conference this year, even though Ernesto’s skipper Brad Butterworth (NZL) was invited and did participate. In 2007, like a king, Ernesto crowned himself. On Sunday, he didn’t even show on the platform. He left that to his fellow directors of SNG. True sportsmen, everyone knows, have what it takes. They show up, win or loss. Ernesto … well, you get the picture.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">After all our whining, where are we left?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Depressed, actually.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This America’s Cup should never have been like this. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">After AC32, the future of America’s Cup looked fabulous. The world was watching. Everybody learned to love big boat racing. Every sponsor we met was excited about the sport and looking forward to the next event.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then, after the new AC challenger and draconian protocol were announced in July 2007 – a cataclysmic nosedive. America’s Cup plummeted. The world watched that, too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Two and a half years later, this Deed of Gift event has been an America’s Cup of Redemption. Perhaps that’s what DOG races are all about.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Having brought the Cup back to zero, from the ugly depths to which it had sunk, Larry Ellison (USA), head of BMWOracle Racing and a director of Golden Gate Yacht Club, now has the opportunity – and the challenge – to restore the luster to this glorious competition. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He can also move it forward, decisively, into the future.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Anyone who won the Cup from Ernesto Bertarelli and the Alpine Nation would have that challenge. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We think Ellison might actually achieve it.</span><span style="text-transform:uppercase"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-90889113934133446992010-02-14T15:22:00.000-08:002010-02-14T20:12:38.822-08:00The fastest America's Cup ever<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTIdf_vfkRQk5zxfdgNR1JdbyMumaGlXi0kpJQIY8ikDPLzXr2hud6tJVFNfA6NMvGjCDizFaQH3AraKJjUNvx53GUAC3awcibkLpxT8hl2htBk1BuqweqJupXSduUwL_ZkQElOhIMSbo/s1600-h/RACE22.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 223px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTIdf_vfkRQk5zxfdgNR1JdbyMumaGlXi0kpJQIY8ikDPLzXr2hud6tJVFNfA6NMvGjCDizFaQH3AraKJjUNvx53GUAC3awcibkLpxT8hl2htBk1BuqweqJupXSduUwL_ZkQElOhIMSbo/s400/RACE22.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438244694176501058" /></a><p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">BMWOracle Racing’s </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">USA</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> (top) en route to victory in<br />America’s Cup 33, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">trailed by Swiss defender </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Alinghi 5</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></i></span></i></div><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br />It was won on the water.</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It was won by a high-tech flagship – one that was beautifully, but reluctantly designed, built and sailed to satisfy a Deed of Gift race that never should have happened.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It was won by a brilliant team – one that was brilliantly led, brilliantly managed, and brilliantly responsive to every challenge in what became the most complex, confusing, and frustrating America’s Cup in history.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Above all, it was won by the world’s most persistent – and patient – sailor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Not only did Larry Ellison (USA), make one great leadership decision after another – including hiring Russell Coutts (NZL) as chief executive, supporting his team throughout the darkest days of the campaign, and above all, investing in the most advanced design and technology ever developed for an America’s Cup yacht.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But on behalf of the Golden Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco (GGYC), the head of BMWOracle Racing also invested in initiatives to protect the honor and integrity of America’s Cup.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Responding to a ludicrous protocol for the management and conduct of AC33, Ellison went to the mat for fairness, competitiveness, and a level playing field.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Now he has won even that.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">At the post-race press conference, Ellison announced that America’s Cup 34 will be a multi-challenger event, developed in partnership with teams who enter, with independent juries and race committees, and independent management.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Russell Coutts added that the boat design rule would also be developed in consultation with the teams.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">At his own press conference, the Swiss defender Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), head of Alinghi, mourned the loss of the America’s Cup he loved.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">These were the fastest races in America’s Cup history, and he lost. But it could have been a different kind of event, which he could have won.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">During the race on Friday, and particularly today, he had plenty of time to contemplate what might have been. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-86831663387579596282010-02-13T08:18:00.000-08:002010-02-13T08:29:40.398-08:00Brad is working on this<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim-zgAWsHFS9ZOB8cPLJjCROUk-8jqfhxYdeKP4mMoSC6EdBgTNaxZCKGPNhwzxq8s-LqpInIf6l2ILOphZaID3Mz_q0kZ8E3eQjG-ySUHZLyRsTb70y6_OrijLcMEevlYFWRzSM5YYmM/s1600-h/alinghi+prep.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 212px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim-zgAWsHFS9ZOB8cPLJjCROUk-8jqfhxYdeKP4mMoSC6EdBgTNaxZCKGPNhwzxq8s-LqpInIf6l2ILOphZaID3Mz_q0kZ8E3eQjG-ySUHZLyRsTb70y6_OrijLcMEevlYFWRzSM5YYmM/s400/alinghi+prep.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437764534753547874" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Alinghi will maximize </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Alinghi 5</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">'s performance. </span></i></span></div><span style="font-family:";"><i><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">No question about that.</span></i></span></div></i></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Brad is not worrying about yesterday.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He gave that up yesterday, after tea.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He’s moved well beyond that.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Since there’s nothing Brad Butterworth (NZL) can do about BMWOracle Racing’s high-performance wing what he will be thinking about is how to pull a rabbit out of a hat.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And because Brad is thinking like Brad, everyone on </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">USA </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(USA) should beware.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Brad will be thinking about competitive tactics, creating a dust up, and getting a great start.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He will be thinking about best side of the race course and pulling puff out of thin air, just like he always does.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He will be thinking about whatever gave his two-hulled boat the power to eat up two-hundred-plus meters on </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">USA</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> halfway up the outbound leg yesterday.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He will rethink sails.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He will, in the nicest possible way, be looking for a steady hand on the helm so sail trimmers can do their best.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He will, cannily, and typically, seek out every opportunity to get an edge.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If Brad can, Brad will force any issue on the water to cause frustration in the opponent’s camp. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He will not give up without a fight.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That is one thing we can be certain about.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Brad did not come here to lose.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-3036858939761528672010-02-12T13:58:00.000-08:002010-02-12T14:05:56.011-08:00Stunning<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOWb8ERtgyIn-FdclqZQ8pDqUyY7Z79SkLvwiYCYgsUnt12jRooY6MgcRZZKMo4ceqqB13g3KeIXckMSDMZyn7PI7vIgZByU5VrAJ-BoGtT5xltxmEFMpUIfRRcvuRp6w9orumfHnoJds/s1600-h/RIGHT+AMA.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 224px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOWb8ERtgyIn-FdclqZQ8pDqUyY7Z79SkLvwiYCYgsUnt12jRooY6MgcRZZKMo4ceqqB13g3KeIXckMSDMZyn7PI7vIgZByU5VrAJ-BoGtT5xltxmEFMpUIfRRcvuRp6w9orumfHnoJds/s400/RIGHT+AMA.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437481201770848722" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What America’s Cup racing now looks like.</span></i></span></div><span style="font-family:";"><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A BMWOracle Racing </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">USA</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> crewmember,<br />astride the right ama.</span></i></div></span><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">All of us were stunned.</span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Quite probably everyone on the planet was stunned.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">At the sheer power of the America’s Cup challenger BMWOracle’s amazing </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">USA</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">At its performance over Swiss defender </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Alinghi 5</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, even in lighter winds.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Upwind, both faster, and pointing higher.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Downwind, surprisingly fast.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In Race One of America’s Cup 33, the boat’s extraordinary ‘wing’ – substituting a soft mainsail with a high-tech aerofoil – not only dazzled veteran sailors, but set what is likely to be a new benchmark for the evaluation of high-performance racing multihulls.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Astonishingly, the wing even improved </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">USA</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">’s performance when it drove the boat solo. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Nobody more was more nonplussed than </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Alinghi 5</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> skipper and tactician Brad Butterworth (NZL). </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Were you there?” Brad asked a reporter with his trademark honesty and candor. He then put into words what everyone was thinking:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“When they sail right up to you, then go around you, that’s speed.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Winning a protest in the pre-start dial-up – then stalling before it crossed the line – </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">USA</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> devoured the Swiss boat’s 600-meter lead in what seemed like just a few minutes. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">On the downwind leg, USA17 opened up a long-distance lead that topped 4.5 kilometers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Those who felt the downhill could be the wing’s weakness were, well, silenced.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It’s only one race.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But what a race.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What a boat.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-53745556273522258932010-02-11T10:49:00.000-08:002010-02-11T11:05:06.886-08:00An ocean water course on the sea<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:small;"><br />It’s meant be an ocean race.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Nobody can possibly be in any doubt about the prescription of the Deed of Gift, the venerable document governing this one-on-one challenge for America’s Cup 33.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Nobody can possibly have any misunderstanding over the intentions of deed author George L. Schuyler of the New York Yacht Club or the clarity of court decisions that have validated the Deed of Gift, time after time after time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Yesterday, the waters off Valencia behaved like an ocean course in February in the Northern Hemisphere. Waters were at first OK over the first few miles of the 20-mile leg, then got nasty, and nastier still, apparently. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Just like the ocean.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Unfortunately, the two vessels competing for AC33 – the Swiss defender’s </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Alinghi 5</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and the U.S. challenger BMWOracle Racing’s </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">USA</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> – do not appear to be designed for ocean courses.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Unfazed by stiff breezes over the race course America’s Cup Race Officer Harold Bennett (NZL) clearly got the wind up over something.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The boats? Well, Mr. Bennett doesn’t seem to know much about them. “These are different boats from what we have been used to,” he told interviewers. “And the understanding of them is still a learning curve. Conditions like today? That is interesting. I am not sure they would have done too well with it.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Not sure? Maybe it was the wind after all. “I would have not had a problem with the wind conditions. We were looking at 17-18 knots, I wouldn’t have had a problem with that.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Wouldn’t have had? Wouldn’t have had what? A very curious use of tense by Mr. Bennett. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So, if it wasn’t the wind, maybe it was the swell, observed by one of the racing teams at around four feet? In Mr. Bennett’s view, it was “pretty rugged.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We respect any decision made to protect sailors, absolutely. Everyone does.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But what else are we protecting here?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Boats that aren’t designed and built for the course they must sail over?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">One boat in particular</span></span></i><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> that can’t handle ocean conditions?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">One team in particular</span></span></i><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> that is afraid of any ocean state over three feet?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If design parameters for one – or both – these vessels are preventing them from competing on an ocean course that behaves like an ocean course, maybe this isn’t the America’s Cup.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Maybe it’s lake racing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Like they have on Lake Geneva.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-27465515551943745152010-02-09T15:37:00.001-08:002010-02-09T15:44:43.813-08:00More sleep<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">News today from Valencia says that the start of the new first race in America's Cup 33 won't be decided before 12:00 noon Valencia time, Wednesday. That's 6:00 a.m., U.S. Eastern time, Wednesday, February 10, 2010.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We mention this because we made a reference to start times yesterday.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">For accurate information, always consult the </span><a href="http://www.americascup.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">official website for AC33</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We also check ESPN360's programming schedule </span><a href="http://espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/schedule?"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">here</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-82742280190885088042010-02-08T17:36:00.001-08:002010-02-08T18:20:42.691-08:00America's Cup Online<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div>There was no America’s Cup View today, as in </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">view</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">No race at all, thanks to </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">no wind</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> off Valencia this morning, and </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">no desire</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> on the part of the defender, Team Alinghi (SUI) to convert to an afternoon schedule, when winds typically are better this time of year.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Thousands of U.S. fans staggered out of bed at 3:30 a.m. this morning – after the biggest U.S. television night of the year for sports fans – the American football <i>Superbowl XLIV</i> (New Orleans Saints 31, Indianapolis Colts 17). <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">After the first race of AC33 was postponed, most of them went to work, or back to bed, grumpy or crabby, depending on where you went to school.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">For the next first race of America’s Cup 33, the opportunity is – </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">yet again</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> – boot up your computer at 3:45 a.m. (EST) on Wednesday, February 10.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If you plan to get up early, watch online, and create an exciting multi-media AC33 experience that you control, here are your best choices:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ESPN360.com<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This is ESPN’s streaming online sports feed, offering a diverse mix of live and recorded U.S. events, including America’s Cup live. AC33 coverage is hosted by veteran AC sailor and commentator, Gary Jobson (USA), one of a handful of classic America’s Cup commentators. <a href="http://espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/index">Connect></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sailing Anarchy’s Layline 33rd America’s Cup<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This is for grown-ups. The reason is that critics believe members of this highly informed and highly </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">opinionated discussion forum are, well, children. We disagree. They are adults who should know better. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Nevertheless, you won’t find better informed sailors, better able to express themselves, anywhere else online. Yet viewer discretion is advised. Commentary is spontaneous, unedited, and at times, profane. That’s not necessarily standard operating procedure for discussion forums, but it is for this one.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sailing Anarchy – a free site – is working hard to make AC33 fun for their community. Alan Block, a lawyer and sailor known to the community as Mr. Clean (his language is anything but) is </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">on the water in Valencia, interviewing participants, looking for opportunities, and struggling to connect online from his boat offshore, following the action. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This morning, he ‘borrowed’ an online connection from the crew of Larry Ellison’s amazing and extraordinarily beautiful yacht Rising Sun, designed by the late Australian naval architect, John Bannenberg, seen here in 2007 during the Louis Vuitton series, off Valencia:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";font-size:10.0pt;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH7HrfWDGGkMXXLIfydQrf8T1kMiLbJdzhuBFRuzyGLA9x3tgSJtFzZYwDKAoFoFlLlC-W_1lwLQuy3QfLQp0dZ8jVr5Dh9e1_iHgyCj_dMaWj-izBq795IQbmR2mU_n64pSo3qYbvjts/s1600-h/RISING+SUN.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 203px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH7HrfWDGGkMXXLIfydQrf8T1kMiLbJdzhuBFRuzyGLA9x3tgSJtFzZYwDKAoFoFlLlC-W_1lwLQuy3QfLQp0dZ8jVr5Dh9e1_iHgyCj_dMaWj-izBq795IQbmR2mU_n64pSo3qYbvjts/s400/RISING+SUN.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436052611829964514" /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /><a href="http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showforum=61">Connect here ></a> to be part of SA’s <i>Layline 33rd America’s Cup</i> forum and scroll down for the links to content. SA is picking up BMWOracle Racing’s video feed, which you can watch on the site. You can also log into SA’s discussion forum (use the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">lo-res option</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> offered at the bottom of the forum page) to follow comments by members.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If you have the nerve, become a Sailing Anarchist member, join the discussion, and enjoy the perspectives and perceptions of sailors who both know – and don’t know – what they are talking about. Don’t tell your mother.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">BMWOracle Racing<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The America’s Cup 33 Challenger racing team has its own video link (already co-opted by Sailing Anarchy) providing info-streams on the BMWOracle team, special interviews by respected America’s Cup commentators like Martin Tasker (UK) and Peter Lester (NZL), and once racing starts, the so-called <i>World feed</i> live from the water and from the air. Same video as Sailing Anarchy, but no forums, no discussion online, and no profanity. <a href="http://bmworacleracing.com/en/news/livestream/?track.refer=/en/index.html&track.type=home">Connect ></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">MarineTraffic.com<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This is an amazing website. It collects and presents AIS data (maritime collision avoidance data) from merchant vessels all over the world, as well as from private vessels who elect to participate in the system – essentially, data that identifies the vessel, its port of origin, heading, speed, and other factors, and then pictorially displays the data on a searchable website that refreshes every 90 seconds.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This morning, we watched vessels around the start line off Valencia, including Vava, Ernesto Bertarelli’s private yacht. We also noted Rising Sun, farther offshore, probably at the buoy mark, probably also ‘anchored’ by its GPS positioning system – no pick, no chain. <a href="http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/">Connect ></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">These four sites are more than enough to make your AC33 real.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Just sleep first.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-29488389673646286752010-02-07T12:41:00.000-08:002010-02-07T12:54:08.379-08:00At last.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSLMWyyzMtByNd0DTfbW4tBCz2hRjT0s-xeX6GHZzWvQHdmRHdS2Pm_h_M6QqZ-5YfwglK_fk4-ynhgBlZmFv9ZlPgFzgceZ4xkrGu5tmCcIK16fc_adx9Ge0xCH1-pJxJUOaXbRVEI_U/s1600-h/USA.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSLMWyyzMtByNd0DTfbW4tBCz2hRjT0s-xeX6GHZzWvQHdmRHdS2Pm_h_M6QqZ-5YfwglK_fk4-ynhgBlZmFv9ZlPgFzgceZ4xkrGu5tmCcIK16fc_adx9Ge0xCH1-pJxJUOaXbRVEI_U/s400/USA.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435607203029763218" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipIN9mX1yY88Xv0Ue_feaDEW966YerLQ6DEshew8JXdI0ko_BO8r_WgP3_S3vPMae1d-OIk5wAMKfZ61GvIlniG3oItKP8cL1bEJajKuXX3hxxKVmrr1yTJsKcgMHhtlgrQMsWqhinFQg/s1600-h/alinghi.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 232px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipIN9mX1yY88Xv0Ue_feaDEW966YerLQ6DEshew8JXdI0ko_BO8r_WgP3_S3vPMae1d-OIk5wAMKfZ61GvIlniG3oItKP8cL1bEJajKuXX3hxxKVmrr1yTJsKcgMHhtlgrQMsWqhinFQg/s400/alinghi.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435607107713340322" /></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">BMWOracle Racing’s </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">USA </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(top) and Alinghi’s </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Alinghi 5<br /></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">training off Valencia</span><o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Finally, we are here.</span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Finally, the competition is on the water.</span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In just a few hours, two of the most exciting vessels ever designed and built for an America’s Cup race will meet the gun, in the waters off Valencia, Spain, for Race One of America’s Cup 33.</span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As the 40-mile race evolves – with windward and leeward legs of 20 miles each – we will finally see how these boats perform against each other, and against the sailing conditions.</span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">After all the words that have been piled against AC33 defender and Alinghi chief Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), head of Team Alinghi, and his challenger Larry Ellison (USA) of BMWOracle Racing, now those words mean nothing. That’s history.</span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What is real is what happens Monday, February 8, 2010, around 10:00 a.m. Central European Time, off Valencia.</span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We wish Ernesto well, and in the same breath, wish the same for Larry. After all, they have paid the ticket price for AC33. Now they can enjoy the show. We get to watch.</span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And for every sailor, every crew member, every player on the support teams – and their families – we pray for an exciting, exhilarating, thrilling – and safe – event.</span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></o:p></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-59098322429251985122010-02-05T18:14:00.000-08:002010-02-05T18:25:45.755-08:00Arise, Sir Russell<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-vW0FV082KmFy2P_uHhccxSqCafjjDNdbFoNIqWo-fo3UtDPOUAwjm-Ybqr6lX_8_2dfPCzjX5p6_kBNrGc3bPnylZCnsCX_cDzgupYBB-bgdxZ50SfsXlT8gBkyC63MBuYFfyM1ckFQ/s1600-h/coutts_russell+(1).jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 175px; height: 216px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-vW0FV082KmFy2P_uHhccxSqCafjjDNdbFoNIqWo-fo3UtDPOUAwjm-Ybqr6lX_8_2dfPCzjX5p6_kBNrGc3bPnylZCnsCX_cDzgupYBB-bgdxZ50SfsXlT8gBkyC63MBuYFfyM1ckFQ/s400/coutts_russell+(1).jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434950333927324210" /></a><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i><br /></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"></p><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sir Russell Coutts (NZL) from</span></i></div><span style="font-family:";"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the BMWOracle Racing file</span></i></div></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family:";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The extraordinary thing about Sir Russell Coutts (NZL) is how low key he has been throughout the entire </span></span><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">debacle of America’s Cup 33.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Literally.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Dismissed as Alinghi CEO by Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI) prior to AC32, Sir Russell was ultimately hired by Larry Ellison (USA), and helped rebuild BMWOracle after the team’s AC32 disappointments under Kiwi CEO and Skipper Chris Dickson (NZL).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sir Russell skirted controversy, avoided controversy, and every time controversy emerged, moved on to other topics, other issues, other events, other races. Deftly. Very deftly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Which is what you expect from chief executives who know how to use their power.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sir Russell certainly has power, has influence, and is a major factor for BMWOracle. Now he is leading the offense.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Despite his corporate coolness, Sir Russell’s ambitions must be focused not just on winning, but on destroying – in the nicest possible way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If he has a statement to make about AC33, it must be that. For a lot of reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But that’s not the defining reality of this amazing sailor. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Given the opportunity to helm his way into the record books in America’s Cup 30, he made a decidedly different decision. On that last race in 2000, he handed the helm to his junior, Dean Barker (NZL), who brought the boat home a winner.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Russell Coutts has proved it isn’t about him. It’s about his mission, as he sees it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Next week, he has an extraordinary mission.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We wish him every kindness for success in AC33, and our best wishes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Go win, Russell. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-42764614426602429482010-02-01T20:52:00.000-08:002010-02-01T21:03:55.326-08:00Go Brad!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXXRxPafcAqHxIf54eE_LwCZjPYLk1Ou3uK3nr2IxLVB5EXzH3BmzurNtkLdxsuWzZN5r32RSv9JTLvzQImHYEcrlvD6yxleAmVggLk-2ao-JUua-adJL84OQM7s4MU73NMxd1BEp_3o8/s1600-h/BRAD.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 294px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXXRxPafcAqHxIf54eE_LwCZjPYLk1Ou3uK3nr2IxLVB5EXzH3BmzurNtkLdxsuWzZN5r32RSv9JTLvzQImHYEcrlvD6yxleAmVggLk-2ao-JUua-adJL84OQM7s4MU73NMxd1BEp_3o8/s400/BRAD.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433505447553011170" /></a><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><i><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Alinghi’s Flickr picture shows true Kiwi Brad Butterworth in classic style: thoughtful, candid, and as always, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">sincere</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:small;">Maybe you have to be a Kiwi to love Bradley William Butterworth (NZL), skipper of Alinghi (SUI).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He is not the picture-perfect-portrait of the America’s Cup skipper, make no mistake. Whatever that means.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He is from Te Awamutu in the Waikato, for goodness sake. He is himself. He is BB.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What he says is what he thinks, and what he says, he believes.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">‘Media management’ means nothing to Brad. He shows up. He speaks his mind. Typically, he does it with candor and respect.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But he can sail, and he has an uncanny ability to read and process a lot of things, in nano-second increments, and make decisions that win big races. Like America’s Cup.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">One of the big factors in his life is his friendship with Russell Coutts (NZL), skipper of BMWOracle (USA).</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Soon that friendship will be tested in huge raptor-like vessels currently rehearsing in the waters off Valencia, Spain.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Will Brad be aboard Alinghi’s amazing catamaran?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We would love to see him there. But frankly, he’s an older, tender, more gentlemanly mass. Perhaps the strategy has other ideas.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Nevertheless.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Brad Butterworth influences his team, their ethos, their competitive spirit, and their will to win.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We wish him the best in America’s Cup 33.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span"><i><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">E hoa, ka whawhai tonu ahau ki a koe, ake ake!</span></span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span"><i><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span"><i><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span"><i><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:16px;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";font-size:10.0pt;"><br /></span></i></span></span></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-5147892319001945722010-01-27T20:24:00.000-08:002010-01-27T20:42:15.394-08:00Best wishes to Ed Baird<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3WJBEKpCr6KlRUdN6McpfYldV-p8FABv9qeiAw4QJmzU9yguhS92s4B3PwZYpshPAe-iAdZ_bFcGeCMKcopWubwM_631N-MrBZPM6AgCy4hEfKUxTjj-5FSOqxA8rROJincu5U4r6wzo/s1600-h/ED+BAIRD.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3WJBEKpCr6KlRUdN6McpfYldV-p8FABv9qeiAw4QJmzU9yguhS92s4B3PwZYpshPAe-iAdZ_bFcGeCMKcopWubwM_631N-MrBZPM6AgCy4hEfKUxTjj-5FSOqxA8rROJincu5U4r6wzo/s400/ED+BAIRD.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431644275097741890" /></a><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>This is a great picture of Ed Baird by Alinghi photographer Guido Trombetta.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>It's a reminder that America’s Cup is about sailors.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>That is, real people who actually commit their lives to sailing and racing, and give everything they have to compete and win, and adapt to any and all challenges they face.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>No sailor embodies that tradition more than Ed Baird (USA), helmsman for the mega-catamaran that Team Alinghi has entered for America’s Cup 33, which (as you may know) is that yachting race to be held in just a few weeks in the waters off Valencia, Spain, we hope.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Do you remember America’s Cup? Well, the racing is soon to begin. Again, we hope.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Anyway, as he coolly steered Alinghi to victory over Emirates Team New Zealand in Valencia in 2007, we all thought Ed Baird was the epitome of the dispassionate, true-grit competitor.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Interestingly, he amazed us with his jet-pack navigation kit that provided him with data we assume race officials agreed were OK.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>It looked like he was downloading data from – what? – Versus USA, the cable station streaming races? Or Virtual Spectator, the modeling programmer that translated race data into computer-animated images that all of us watched?</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Whatever.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Ed Baird just sailed brilliantly – and when the occasion called for it – as in the last race with Team New Zealand – had the confidence and competitiveness to pull a face down maneuver on the last mark that echoed the behavior of every competitive small dinghy sailor who ever lived.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>We also admire the fact that this not-so-young competitor – certainly not one who is in any way green about the ears – is eager to race and steer one of the world’s most amazing vessels in one of the most amazing race series any of us will ever see – in sailing conditions that may be, in themselves, extraordinarily challenging.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Whichever vessel ultimately prevails – the power, dimension, and energy of Alinghi’s catamaran – or the equivalent from BMWOracle’s amazing trimaran – Ed Baird, in his own way, along with his peers and competitors, has the potential to change the world for yacht racing, the lives of racing sailors, and the future of America’s Cup.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>We admire, respect, and salute Ed Baird as he moves into his prep for AC33.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Good luck, Ed.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p></div></div>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-73238590695723270482010-01-19T16:54:00.000-08:002010-01-19T20:30:18.681-08:00Why are we here?<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">More debate, more noise, more memos, more letters, more slanging matches, more briefs, more complaints, more court filings, more wasted energy, more money, more waste.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Both Larry Ellison (USA), chief of BMWOracle, and Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), chief of Alinghi, are billionaires who should know better – so should their yacht clubs – but as you know, and I know, there is pathology at work here.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Depending on who you are, Ernesto is totally obsessive – and worse, he is European, you know, born to decide and to rule. On the other hand, he just wants to sail his boat and win America’s Cup 33.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Depending on who you are, Larry and his cohorts have consistently said the same thing and made the same demands – notably, fair, objective rules for AC33, and a level playing field for all. On the other hand, all he wants to do is win this event in the New York courts.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You have your view.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The fact is, everything has gone far, far beyond that.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Curiously, however, as bad as this is – and it is indubitably bad -- there is nothing that mutual discussion, mutual agreement, and mutual consent can’t fix.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Which is exactly what both teams were trying to engineer in Singapore.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">According to the little voices swimming in the shallows, the participants actually had reached a workable agreement – yes, they actually did. All it needed were a few signatures, and for those signatures to be confirmed – and for one signature, or one assent, in particular, to be attached.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As we all now know, Ernesto Bertarelli woke up in Geneva the next morning and deep-sixed everything.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">TO THE TUNE OF:</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">‘Here we go again!’</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The ugly facts of the matter are that Larry Ellison absolutely and definitively won’t budge on scrupulous fairness and fidelity to the Deed of Gift.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And Ernesto Bertarelli, absolutely and definitively, refuses to grant Ellison anything, not even mutual consent.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That’s the standoff.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It’s manic. It’s pathological. It’s what it is.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Of course, The Big Elephant in This Room of Mammoths is the removal of Société Nautique de Genève as a Cup Trustee.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Whatever happens this spring, this summer – or never – in the waters off Valencia, unless someone can persuade the Swiss to parley – and soon -- major activity in the New York courts, along very uncomfortable lines, is likely to be the next big </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">casino</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> on the world agenda.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Happy New Year.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-68551699221610953702009-11-19T16:44:00.000-08:002009-11-19T17:05:50.387-08:00The Sanity of the Judiciary<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">The brilliance of what was handed down today by Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich in the Supreme Court of the State of New York is, in its own way, definitive, and frankly, emblematic.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">In a nutshell, Justice Kornreich asserted that load on the waterline means exactly that – load on the waterline. All loaded ballast should be taken into account when measuring defender and challenger vessels engaged in America’s Cup 33.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">In addition, she ruled, Valencia serves as a viable venue for the defense.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">And the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) – despite its so-called ‘covert’ agreements with the America’s Cup defender, Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) – has assured the Court that it will appoint an independent jury to adjudicate any, all, and potential AC33 disputes, and that this independent jury will be free from interference by SNG.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">Which is something, certainly.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">Amazingly, both the AC33 Challenger, Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), and Defender (SNG), apparently acquiesced with the Justice Kornreich's decision. Yet the Justice, a tough-minded jurist, has demanded confirmation from both parties.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">Which is legal stuff.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">For the rest of us, the message is that something decidedly non-legal, non-litigious, and non-lawyerly decided this event.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">Key to Justice Kornreich’s deliberations was a panel of three expert jurors, appointed in turn by GGYC (1 juror), SNG (1 juror), and a third juror, appointed by the jurors nominated by GGYC and SNG.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">This is noteworthy.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">Apart from the fact that it’s yet another move in the Great Game of Chess that is America’s Cup 33, Justice Kornreich, in fact, asked <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">sailors</i> to assist in her deliberations.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">Sailors, as in veteran sailing officials.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">Where experience, common sense, fairness, and objectivity reside.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">And where classic racing rules are respected.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">Which makes us wonder.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">Why has it taken millions and millions of dollars in legal fees, months and months of wasted time, and billions and billions of words – fair, meaningless, and vituperative – to get where we are now?</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">Couldn’t the world that is America's Cup have achieved this – or some of this – or a lot of this – by asking fair-minded sportsmen, their sailing clubs, and their advisors to sit down together, in July 2007, and work this through?</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">Of course, they could.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">Any reason why it didn't happen?</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">That’s for history to decide. You have your view.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">But it’s hard to say that Larry Ellison (USA), owner of BMW Oracle, GGYC’s sailing team, is the villain here. All Ellison has ever wanted is fair rules, American style. Look it up.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">It’s easier to say that Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), owner of Alinghi, SNG’s sailing team, was not interested in a fair contest, not interested in protecting the traditions of America’s Cup, not motivated by sportsmanship – but to the contrary, was motivated by the manifold concerns of a sports promoter, a deal maker, a manipulator, a self-dealer, a major dissembler, working back from a projected, desired goal (victory in AC33 at any cost) to what he and his cohorts had to do to make that happen.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">Maybe that’s a Swiss thing. Or a European thing.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";">It certainly isn’t American.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-48804744005480018482009-10-27T15:39:00.000-07:002009-10-27T15:50:35.462-07:00New York Justice Decks RAK<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In a surprisingly brisk judgment from the bench, Justice Shirley W. Kornreich of the New York State Supreme Court in Albany, New York, today eliminated Ras Al Khaimah as the location for America’s Cup 33, ruling in favor of Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), the America’s Cup challenger, over Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), the defender. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Leaving the door wide open for Valencia as the venue for AC33 – and for an SNG appeal – the Judge then waded into deep water on other matters, including rules, changing rules, and who changes them; length-on-the-waterline measurements, not including the rudder, except on toy boats, which don’t count; and ballast, movable ballast, and other weighty issues. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Justice Kornreich, apparently, will soon rule on the remaining items. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">According to courtroom observers from the AC Anarchy division of the website Sailing Anarchy, which provided members with gavel-to-gavel coverage online, the eminent David Boies of Boies, Schiller & Flexner of New York, acting for GGYC, was as out of his depth as the good Justice herself on boats, racing and rules<br />– neither of them helped by the ultimately defeated Barry R. Ostrager of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, head of litigation at that firm and a known dissembler, acting for SNG. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">GGYC awaits the Justice’s ruling on other matters, but pockets a considerable victory. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">SNG, their legal team, and sailing team Alinghi, represented in the courtroom by Skipper Brad Butterworth (NZL), must feel like stunned mullets. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Shown respect by Justice Kornreich for their perspective on security matters, but only briefly, officials from Ras Al Khaimah are now left with a half-completed facility in the desert which, if ultimately completed, will enhance their resort but will not host an international sailing event. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">At least, not any time soon. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Given the definitive outcome, curious observers could be forgiven for wondering why on earth SNG and Alinghi felt that Ras Al Khaimah was the perfect location for AC33 in the first place; how they possibly could have expected GGYC to support this bizarre decision; or how their understanding of the plain language of the venerable Deed of Gift could be so badly informed. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The image we have in our mind is of a wild and reckless 17-year-old on a Hobie Cat, tearing along on a scorching breeze, on a direct line for the marina and the vessels moored there, with absolutely no idea how to turn, slow, stop, or avoid the imminent catastrophe. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He looks a lot like Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI).</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-62229232227527079342009-10-26T20:21:00.000-07:002009-10-26T21:21:13.809-07:00Armageddon, Dirty Bert, and the Disgrace of America's Cup 33<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;">“In exchange for selecting Ras Al Khaimah to host the 33rd America’s Cup, SNG (Société Nautique de Genève) secured the following commitments, among others: the Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (“RAKIA”) agreed to finance a shipyard to be built in Ras Al Khaimah by Décision SA, a Swiss yacht-building firm that has built all five of SNG’s America’s Cup racing yachts and which is owned in part by Ernestor Bertarelli (SUI), who controls SNG’s racing team, Alinghi.”</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Does that sound to you like self-dealing? </span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Well, that’s just part of it.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“RAKIA agreed to finance the building of a campus in Ras Al Khaimah for Ecole Pol(y)technique Fédérale de Lausanne (“EPFL”), a Swiss institution that has served as a scientific advisor and partner to Alinghi since 2003 and has played an important role in the design of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Alinghi 5</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, the catamaran SNG/Alinghi built to defend the 33rd America’s Cup; and RAKIA agreed to provide funding for EPFL’s Center for Neuroprostheses, which is overseen by five chairs, two of which are endowed by the Bertarelli Foundation, a foundation established by the Bertarelli family, including Ernesto Bertarelli, to manage and fund the family’s philanthropic interests.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">All this from a complaint filed in the New York Supreme Court by the mega-mega-law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner of New York, acting for the America’s Cup Challenger of Record, Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) of San Francisco.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">With the dull clethunk of a court clerk's rubber stamp, Société Nautique de Genève's trusteeship of the America's Cup has been formally challenged.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Perhaps fatally.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What it isn’t discussed in the complaint, of course, is the highly theoretical, abstract, and fanciful possibility that Ernesto’s cost of construction of his magnificent catamaran, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Alinghi 5</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, was seriously discounted by Décision, a boat builder, in favor of a choice by SNG of RAK as a location for the defense of AC33, where Décision is seriously invested.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But is that possible? Could that happen? We have no idea. It would take legal discovery to discover it. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Perhaps that could happen.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Otherwise, Boies’s complaint hammers one fact after another in a punishing repudiation of SNG’s behavior as a as Trustee of the America’s Cup.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Virtually everything about the AC33 defense is a sham, says the complaint. Effectively, SNG's defense is a slap in the face to the venerable Deed of Gift, the august document that controls America’s Cup.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Articulated in the complaint:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Alinghi’s arbitrary, bizarre and total control</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> of the rules, without exception.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A secret pact agreed with the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) </span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">to control the rules, including – amazingly – the emasculation of ISAF in an abrupt and definitive way, decidedly neutering the world’s sailing authority, relative to AC33, authorizing them to do virtually nothing.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Measurement mania</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, in violation of the Deed of Gift, which favors the picayune measurement of the competing vessel in favor of Alinghi.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Mortal danger </span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">– well, not to put too fine a point on it – the risks of the impacts of war – in the waters off Ras Al Khaimah, which are less than 20 miles from Iran. All of which is a very serious consideration for any owner, club member, sponsor, or fan who wishes to bring a private vessel to the RAK location – given that no navigable way exists to get there without reckless exposure to threats from pirates (who are routinely successful) or aggressive Iranian Navy commanders (who don’t hesitate to act).</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Self-dealing deals in Valencia <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">– even before AC32, deals were concluded involving Bertarelli real estate, infertility clinics, and Ernesto’s mega-pharmaceutical firm. This is icky.</span></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The failed proposition</span></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> of Real Federaćion Español de Vela (RFEV)</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, as a potential cup challenger, and its subsequent substitution by the pathetic and inadequate Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV), manifestly not a club.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Total control by Alinghi and SNG over anything and everything</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, including who can challenge for AC33 and enter, and who cannot, as well as the race committee, competition judges, and every other official, including the class rules themselves, racing rules, and the details of the challenger series, and a lot more – literally and absolutely everything, without exception, under Alinghi's control.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The AC Defender (Alinghi) as a virtual challenger</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> – meaning Alinghi’s ability to compete in the challenger series, even if their performance negatively affects the standings of other competitors.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">All of that, and more.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It’s amazing.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Suddenly, everything you ever felt was wrong about AC33 – and more – has been laid before the Courts of New York by Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), in an attempt to bring the Depravity of America’s Cup to an end, in a major way.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Will sanity prevail?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Well, AC33 at Ras Al Khaimah may happen. Then again, it may not.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But the issue of SNG’s breech of responsibility as an America’s Cup trustee will survive RAK.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This issue will not be decided in racing that takes place on the war-infested, headland-sheltered waters off a narrow, barren piece of desert land that points to the heart of Iran.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It will be decided in the Courts of New York.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And this will decide the future of America’s Cup.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><br /></span></span></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-27767494351620322642009-10-01T14:55:00.000-07:002009-10-01T19:20:57.678-07:00America's Cup Chess<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><div><br /></div>I open with my pawn (e4).</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You open with your pawn (e5).</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then I move my bishop (b5). And so on. Remember?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Somewhere beyond the standard openings, things get interesting.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It reminds me of America's Cup.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Knowing that movable ballast will plunge their vessel's length on the waterline over the limits imposed by the Deed of Gift, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) decides, for the first time ever in America's Cup history, to include the rudder of the competitive vessel (the trimaran of Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC)) in that vessel's waterline measurement, forcing it over the limit imposed by the Deed of Gift. Ha, ha! </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That's e4.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">GGYC responds by challenging SNG's movable ballast, reminding SNG that the Deed requires every element of the vessel's racing load to be aboard for measurement, as SNG (in dissembling mode) avers their ballast isn't part of the racing load. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That's e5.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">GGYC marks their response by punching the mega-clock of mega-lawyer David Boies of the mega-law firm, Boies, Schiller & Flexner, LLP, who files a memorandum of law in the Supreme Court of the State of New York in support of GGYC (a document that was very well written and very clearly articulated, we might add, at least for lubbers like us).</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That's Bp5.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Meanw</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">hile, His Excellency Fred Meyer (SUI), Vice Commodore of SNG, departs from all convention, repudiates his prior behaviors, flaunts elaborate courtesies, and writes a surprisingly temperate, respectful letter to his senior counterpart at GGYC, Commodore Marcus Young (USA).</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">From Vice Commodore Meyer, this, also, is a first in America's Cup history.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The dust barely settled on his powdered peruke, the Vice Commodore brings greetings from the Alpine nation, enquires into the health of the California Commodore and his colleagues, family and friends, utters felicitations of joy, and shares abundant blessings . . . well, no, that's overdoing it.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But Vice Commodore Meyer overdid it also.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the first mannered letter he has ever written, Meyer sought to document that GGYC representatives had actually visited the desert port </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ras el-Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates, and uttered nice remarks about preparations there for America's Cup 33.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Why?</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Well, that's chess. It's a move.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">At some point in the Grand Tour of the Courts of New York, SNG will seek to prove, somehow, some way, whatever actually happened, and whatever GGYC subsequently did, that GGYC actually visited the Middle East venue, and liked it.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And here is Myer's letter to prove it.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Anyway, that's the middle game.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Your move.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-85605719954039072882009-09-28T18:39:00.000-07:002009-09-28T20:13:41.525-07:00Now there are two America's Cups<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Well, there's one, a real America's Cup.</span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Possibly, it's about to be sailed off Ras el-Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates, close to a war zone, close to pirate havens, so close that no private vessel of any owner, commander, captain, master, mate or loblolly-boy could ever get there without having to pass through (i) a war zone, or (ii) pirate waters, whichever is worse, whether they come from the Suez Canal or the Indian Ocean.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So that's one America's Cup, if that's what you want to call it. Some call it AC33.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then there's another America's Cup.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This America's Cup is redolent in the bright, bouncing, baby child born of a union between luxury goods marketer Louis Vuitton and the rest of the America's Cup universe, otherwise known as Those-Not-Participating-in-America's-Cup-33, all of whom (potentially and in reality) were escorted to the altar by the Hon. Grant Dalton, Father-in-Law-in-Chief, chief executive of America's Cup Team New Zealand.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This second America's Cup is a one class event, currently debating its reality with World Match Racing authorities over the use of the word "world" and perhaps over other items, all of which are arcane, minute, and will be satisfied only by a bureaucrat's passion for details.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Anyway.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Bruno Troubl</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">é </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(of Louis Vuitton), who is not to be outdone as a major sailor and a sponsor with the power to express his feelings and opinions, is pushing forward with his concept, and with his expansion of his successful One-Class-AC-Class-Version-5-Class America's Cup style event, held for the first time in Auckland, New Zealand, which just happens to be Bruno's favorite South Pacific port.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It will only take sheer failure, a meltdown, a fusion of failure factors for his series not to take hold and establish an AC-style, AC-level event, however the competition is designed, and whatever boats are used, deployed, developed -- or even built from scratch -- in order for the great sailors of the planet to compete in this event. And enjoy it.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So, naturally, M. Troubl</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">é's event will succeed, so long as there are AC Version 5 boats to sustain it, short term, and other designs to sustain it, medium term.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Longer term?</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Well, that's an issue. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If Alinghi and BMWOracle pursue their duel in RAK, and one wins, and one loses, and if any loss or win in the event is taken to the Courts (like the Bush-Gore election), then I think we can say, assuredly, that the America's Cup, as we know it, is dead.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In that case, the Trustees (who have sponsored America's Cup teams), in uniform, will act.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If that happens, America's Cup is all ahoo, if it wasn't already.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ready to replace it will be the first, most viable alternative -- the Louis Vuitton America's Cup One Class event.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Trustees could actually engineer that to make it happen.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If they don't, what on earth would they engineer? Apply the Deed of Gift? Properly, yes. But God help us! Didn't that just happen? Yes. What next? God knows.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Nevertheless, Bruno wins. He has a defined event, an international event, and event that transcends "racing boats in salt water" and becomes, literally, the high end of yacht racing, just like Ernesto (Bertarelli (SUI), defender of America's Cup) imagined.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Actually, the Formula One of Sailboat Racing.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Or whatever it may be called</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div></div>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-90975742869686259272009-07-31T20:45:00.000-07:002009-07-31T21:36:33.854-07:00The Dumbing Down of America's Cup 33<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Nobody has noticed this. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">It’s been going on for a while now, no, really, for some time. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">It’s not about the New York Courts. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">It’s not about Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), the Prince of Alinghi, head of the America’s Cup sailing team of the cold water sailing club Société Nautique de Genève (SNG). </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">It’s not about His Excellency the Honorable Voicebox, Fred Meyer, Vice Commodore and Yammerer-in-Chief of SNG. (It should be noted that Commodore Meyer cheerfully takes the heat for his Commodore, Pierre-Yves Firmenich, a gentleman of the old order who tends to his fragrance business and adopts a profile approximating that of the water level of Lake Geneva.) </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">It’s not about Larry Ellison (USA), founder of BMWOracle, the biblical Lot of the sailing world, an individual who can suffer multiple afflictions (including Ernesto, SNG, and the Courts of New York) and still get up in the morning, dress, organize his life, and go to work to brilliantly and successfully guide the global corporation he created from scratch, an organization that virtually defined the database software industry. Could you do that?</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">It’s not about Marcus Young (USA), apparently a very nice man, who works in the public relations industry, whom virtually nobody has ever met, who adopts a profile approximating that of Pierre-Yves Firmenich (actually lower, on San Francisco Bay), and is known to the America’s Cup community by his signature on beautifully phrased, coolly rational, and utterly logical letters to his Swiss counterpart (well, counterpart but one) HEHV Meyer, YIC. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">This amazingness, frankly, is not even about Sir Russell Coutts (NZL), chief executive of BMWOracle, whose appellation of knighthood was restored to him and scores of other extraordinary Kiwis by the new Prime Minister John Key, just recently. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">It’s not about Brad Butterworth (NZL), for crying out loud, the canny sailor we love to hate, who not only is Coutts’s great friend and counterpart at Alinghi, but who, despite what everyone says back home, is still a great Kiwi, a great sailor, and a genius who comes from the Waikato, after all. And all of us appreciate that. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">It’s not even about the Cold Shudder of Lawyers, all of whom are doing very well out of the America’s Cup.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Actually, it is about all these characters, all of whom actually command America’s Cup, all of whom like to think they control the America’s Cup, but . . . </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">THE SAD FACT IS, NONE OF THESE PEOPLE ARE TALKING TO EACH OTHER!</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">America’s Cup has become such a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">casino</i> that nobody knows how to talk to anyone, anymore. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Nobody knows how to address anyone in civil terms. Nobody even wants to talk to anybody else, anyway, about anything under the sun whatsoever, especially America's Cup 33. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">People have forgotten how to talk to other people, even if they wanted to do that, which they don’t, and if they did, they'd call the lawyers. Which is ridiculous.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">It’s literally Alice in Wonderland. Toad of Toad Hall. Craziland. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">We don’t know anything more than you know, and we know that you know nothing. But we do know that everyone on the planet hates what is happening to America’s Cup, with a passion, including you.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">We wish sanity would prevail. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Which includes a lot of great sailors and great pontificators, on both sides of the issue, and on both teams. </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">Which includes us.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Anyway. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">In our view, there are three ways to move forward: </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">(1)<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Ernesto and Larry -- or Larry and Ernesto -- personally and exclusively have the power to get together and agree on the outcome – a victor who can win fairly – and then decide what that actually means. Absolutely, they can.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">(2)<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Then, they can adjudicate the details between themselves, by themselves, leaving the panjandrum of fakirs of both teams behind, all of whom can take their coffee and their baco-cheese panini elsewhere. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">(3)<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When Larry and Ernesto ultimately come to terms, they can tell the world that the race is set, where it is will be staged, what the competing vessels must adhere to and not exceed, and when everyone has to get together to make the contest happen, including all of us who are sitting on the sidelines railing about everything about AC33 and about everything else under the sun, including hemispheric venues in nasty (and pretty) places. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Larry and Ernesto -- or Ernesto and Larry -- can make this happen by lunchtime. </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">Let’s encourage this.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">Please.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-4327130186796932472009-05-31T18:52:00.000-07:002009-05-31T19:03:29.069-07:00Let's take a moment<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">New Zealanders live farther away from the world than almost anyone, except Falkland Islanders.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To experience what the world has to offer, Kiwis leave home.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Most go to Australia, and live fabulous lives there, and a great many stay there. More and more Kiwis, now as always, keep moving – to London, Europe, Asia, Canada, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Russia, the United States.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Unlike a lot of expats, who typically stick together in supportive communities, Kiwis assimilate easily. They make friends with the locals. Identify with the new place. Become part of the new environment. Sometimes, they stay connected with fellow Kiwi expats, but just as often slip away to build new, independent lives.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">People say there could be a million Kiwis or more spread out around the globe.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">However they live their new lives and whatever they do in the world, a big piece of every New Zealander’s heart and soul stays fixed in Aotearoa. What doesn’t stay there is spliced to a cable that’s firmly anchored in the island nation and pays out as they travel around the planet. Nothing can break that connection.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This week, a much loved Kiwi will be taken home to New Zealand from Valencia.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Paul Wallbank (NZL), formerly team trainer for BMW Oracle, died suddenly last Sunday. He was an energetic, enthusiastic professional who loved his business and made a multitude of connections among his teammates, associates and clients – from heavyweight Kiwi boxer David Tua to Auckland business executives who trusted him to keep them in shape and who dedicated themselves to his regimes, as well as Valencians he got to know in Spain, and who got to know him.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">After his BMWOracle career, Paul Wallbank was planning to build a training studio in Valencia.</span></span></p><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwg5PBPW8O8gTq0dsBExAvKVIr_s-OaD8WFMuRmQxc_0qd47U8Hvh99RvyffIIQHY-FSztgcEJLlTDqTUKeH6FO0iF0kMESf2STD_x2FyxmMF8QzR7l1Dmqj0wTjrI9EC3KROd91CExMQ/s200/Paul+Wallbank" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342171901765539586" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 192px; " /><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Now his friends from BMW Oracle will be taking him home. Russell Coutts (NZL), BMW Oracle CEO, will be there with them.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This is as important for his teammates as it will be for Paul Wallbank’s family, and our heart goes out to all of them. But we know what they also know.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="Georgia","serif"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Paul Wallbank is already home.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-75051758940306619732009-04-22T05:18:00.000-07:002009-04-22T09:46:04.642-07:00So now, let's negotiate<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tomorrow, Commodore Pierre-Yves Firmenich's delegation from </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) will sit down with Commodore Marcus Young's delegation from Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) to discuss next steps for America's Cup. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This is the biggest America's Cup event since July 2007.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That's when Alinghi successfully defended the cup against Emirates Team New Zealand, SNG accepted </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV) as challenger of record for AC33, and the leadership of GGYC and their sailing team BMW Oracle went ballistic. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Soon after, all legal hell broke loose.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Hopefully, sanity will prevail when club delegates meet tomorrow.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But this is America's Cup. Whether we like it or not, a multitude of issues surrounds the participants -- and all of these issues will be in the room tomorrow, some of them elephantine.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Taking a cruise through the oceans of stimulus:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(1) POWER PLAYERS</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), head of Alinghi, and Larry Ellison (USA), head of BMW Oracle, will not be attending in person. But their personal perspectives have defined America's Cup for two years and will strongly influence the proceedings tomorrow. Emotionally, they will be in the room.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Curiously, if we set aside an extraordinary assortment of trifling matters, one extraordinary issue separates these competitors. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ernesto Bertarelli's leadership has demanded total, complete and absolute control over every aspect of AC33, including the right to banish any competitor for any reason, at any time. One hundred and eighty degrees in the other direction, Larry Ellison has consistently demanded an AC33 that is governed by mutual consent, just like AC32, the most successful America's Cup in history. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ultimately, this is the divide that will control the event tomorrow.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(2) GGYC GOES PUBLIC</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To clarify their position, GGYC took an unprecedented step yesterday to publicly announce their objectives for AC33. They will enter the room tomorrow </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">en clair</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To no-one's surprise, GGYC re-affirmed their objective for a mutual consent, multi-challenger event involving clubs and teams from around the world. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Interestingly, GGYC proposed two formats -- (i) An AC event managed by a truly independent America's Cup Management (ACM) with board members of the organizational authority appointed by all participants, as well as the defender -- not a captive ACM board where absolute power and authority, in truth, is vested in Ernesto Bertarelli and SNG. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Alternatively, GGYC proposed: (ii) An organizational repeat of AC32 -- with long-time AC sponsor Louis Vuitton possibly returning to take a leadership role in the Challenger Selection Series -- ostensibly Louis Vuitton Cup redux -- with all challengers sharing financial and organizational responsibilities for the series.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This is a very significant development. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Not only does it consider Louis Vuitton's tentative, potential, and possible -- but welcome -- return to America's Cup (we can't imagine GGYC involving Louis Vuitton without their tacit approval); but it offers SNG and ACM the promise of much-needed financial relief at a time when classic AC sponsors have departed the stage and corporate replacements are thin on the ground.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(3) MONEY MATTERS</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sponsors make America's Cup happen. They provide </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">cash</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. Which may be one reason why a Deed of Gift race is so attractive to a Swiss defender whose major sponsors have also moved on. Certainly, a costly multi-hull vessel must be built and assembled, which takes millions. But the Deed of Gift event is just three races that could actually be completed in two days.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">For the defender, financing a three-day event is feasible. Self-financing a one-year or two-year multi-challenger event is a phenomenal challenge.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In today's economic climate, it may be virtually impossible.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Interestingly, sailors always define America's Cup as a battle of boats and teams. Which is true. But the battle doesn't happen without money and sponsors are the people who provide it.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Who will provide the money -- and for which event -- will be the biggest elephant in the room tomorrow.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(4) DOG RACES ARE FOR DOGS</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">America's Cup isn't about Deed of Gift races. Existing as a provision to resolve disputes, Deed of Gift (DOG) races are about competitors who cannot agree. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The real world wants the Real America's Cup to return.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And, frankly, there is more than enough negotiating room for the delegates from SNG and GGYC to forge a way forward to a true multi-challenger event, where absolute fairness -- instead of absolute power -- prevails.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If you want a DOG race in this environment, it's probably because you don't want a classic America's Cup.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You don't want an America's Cup organized by mutual consent. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You don't want to cede anything to any competitor, at any time, for any reason, not even a world of competitors. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What you do want -- it would seem -- is total power, total control, and total authority, regardless.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Which might be something, but it's not America's Cup.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(5) GOODWILL</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">GGYC has sent delegates who can complete an agreement for AC33. SNG is sending major players.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We know there is negotiating room for a return to a classic multi-challenger America's Cup. We know that workable financial solutions, including a significant potential sponsorship, have been proposed that could make a classic AC33 a reality. We know that everyone on the planet wants to return to the fabulous atmosphere that prevailed in AC32.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">don't know</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> of a real, valid, genuine, authentic factor -- other than power -- or perceived power -- that could prevent this from happening.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Now, all we need is goodwill.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We hope that's what prevails tomorrow.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></div></div>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-5842972171513773692009-04-16T20:18:00.000-07:002009-04-16T22:31:19.130-07:00Tremors, east and westThe America's Cup world is abuzz about boat construction.<div><br /></div><div>Not that this should concern anyone, normally. But at this curious point in time, it's serious.</div><div><br /></div><div>Actually, it's very serious.</div><div><br /></div><div>Rabid AC fans, whose fingers are continuously on the pulse, thanks in large part to an extraordinary online network, AC Anarchy, are detecting boat building and assembling energy in amazing places like Anacortes and Villeneuve. </div><div><br /></div><div>That's Anacortes, Washington, U.S.A., where Larry Ellison (USA)'s amazing raptor trimaran was put together. And Villeneuve, Lake Geneva, Switzerland, where nothing ever happened, except for tourists visiting the lake, sailors watching Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI)'s latest catamaran, and wealthy people staying in exclusive hotels and villas, along with folks like Bill and Melinda Gates.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, in both places, much is happening.</div><div><br /></div><div>Boat parts are being delivered at midnight in Anacortes. An amazing structure is being erected in a parking lot in Villeneuve that suggests to experienced sailors and boat builders that a vessel curiously like an extremely lengthy catamaran is soon to be erected there.</div><div><br /></div><div>So what's really under way?</div><div><br /></div><div>A great deal of confusion, of course. This is the America's Cup 33.</div><div><br /></div><div>And if it's AC33, you can always take your chances. </div><div><br /></div><div>For the record:</div><div><br /></div><div>(1) Dogzilla, the phenomenal 90-foot trimaran, supposedly developed by BMWOracle for an America's Cup Deed of Gift (DOG) race, has disappeared.</div><div><br /></div><div>(2) Amazing boat parts are being delivered, under the cover of darkness, to a boat building facility in Anacortes, original home of Dogzilla.</div><div><br /></div><div>(3) An old rail yard in Villeneuve, now a parking lot, has been converted into a curiously smooth tarmac platform with astonishingly accurate concrete footings under a soon-to-be-completed alloy and mylar canopy. Here, fans say, Ernesto will assemble the real Swiss Myth, a Swiss cat.</div><div><br /></div><div>(4) AC sailors, privately, are saying big cats turn and handle faster than big trimarans, and in the simple DOG races ordained by the Deed of Gift, some say, that's a measurable advantage.</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, the titans themselves (Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI) and Larry Ellison (USA) and their clubs) are meeting, have met, or soon are about to meet.</div><div><br /></div><div>What they decide, is what AC33 will be about.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Yet, even before their determinations are announced, you can be assured, much is being expressed in alloy, composites, and glass -- in structures, as well as boats.</div><div><br /></div><div>AC33, in one form or another, is coming to reality.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4847458885155348859.post-68500737256009870732009-04-14T19:29:00.000-07:002009-04-14T22:14:05.186-07:00Words at work, not working<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Words are flying. Words are being captured in huge nets and displayed on websites. Everyone is yearning for meaning. There is no meaning. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Everyone is also searching for the next missive, the one that flies missile-like into the online world to be tapped by an online reporter and instantly disseminated to the world at large.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Perhaps these are incoming.<br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">All this is the mating dance of America's Cup titans -- America's Cup 33 </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Challenger of Record, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Commodore Marcus Young of Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), and the AC33 Defender, Commodore Pierre-Yves Firmenich of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; ">Société Nautique de Genève (SNG).</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The subject at hand: What on earth -- or at sea -- will happen in AC33?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Specifically, will there be a multi-challenger event, involving teams from around the world?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Or will there be a multi-hull event, involving Alinghi (SUI) and BMWOracle (USA)?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If you think that words don't matter, troll the missives.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">GGYC has reaffirmed its commitment to a multi-challenger event, but wishes to "discuss ideas to achieving mutual consent".</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">SNG, through Vice-Commodore Fred Meyer, who -- consistent with his personal tradition -- uses subtle pyrotechnics, actually verbal sleight of hand, to dissemble the determinations of the New York Court, asserts that "mutual consent" should be discussed.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Now, "mutual consent" is the new "having".</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If you are wondering what it actually means, you are not alone.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Both of the parties are dancing very gingerly around this litmus term. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">No-one is saying what they will be discussing when they step into a conference room somewhere, sometime soon, probably in Geneva.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Think about this.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If you are Ernesto, you must sponsor an America's Cup defense. But you have no UBS -- the mega-Swiss bank is now under attack by authorities in the United States. You have no Louis Vuitton -- the long-time AC sponsor and provider of funds for the preliminary events of America's Cup has left the stage, creating its own event for America's Cup teams and boats in New Zealand. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You also have declining credibility because of the departure of both landmark sponsors, no other sponsors on the horizon, and an imperfect and, frankly, tumultuous relationship with the governments of Valencia and Spain. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As all of us know -- nobody more than Ernesto Bertarelli's captive management organization ACM -- this isn't exactly the right time to bring newcomers or new sponsors into America's Cup.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So, if you are Ernesto, will you enthusiastically agree to stage a multi-month, multi-year, multi-challenger event?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We don't think so.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Yes, billionaires like Ernesto and Larry have resources. But yes, even billionaires have their limits.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The best we can expect from the Swiss Billionaire, pundits say, is a handy dandy three-day Deed of Gift event, where Ernesto defends against Larry's raptor trimaran by sailing ... well ... the amazing Swiss Myth, a vessel of absolutely pluperfect design and proportions that nobody has ever seen, not even spies.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But is this what Larry wants? Even after building a real, photographed, and competitively viable $20 million trimaran contender?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">No, Larry wants a multi-challenger event. Up front, plain and simple. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He wants GGYC to achieve an agreement with the Swiss defender (SNG) to allow New Zealand, Italy, France, Great Britain, South Africa, China, and every other maritime nation under the sun -- or at least off an arm of the sea -- to participate and contest the opportunity to win America's Cup 33.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Despite the April dancing, that's a pretty solid declaration from the challenger of record for the next America's Cup event.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That is not a declaration that the Swiss defender has made since his puppet yacht club challenger was removed by the Courts of New York.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Nor is it, we believe, a declaration he is ever likely to make.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><br /></span></div></div>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02977352419680751298noreply@blogger.com1