AMERICA'S CUP VIEW

It's brilliant, really

2011-05-11T18:20:00.000-07:00

America's Cup management wraps up the test series in New Zealand.

Sheer physicality.

Extraordinary speed (which you can see).

The manic edge, a tipping point (literally), a fine line between extraordinary performance and a ducking.

The AC regatta in New Zealand has made a new America’s Cup a magnificent fait accompli.

It’s going to be an utterly outstanding America’s Cup, make no mistake.

Add astonishing media technology which is being tested and enhanced – with further fine-tuning and undoubtedly greater refinements to come during the European series.

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.

We loved AC32, Version 5, and Valencia because we were there.

We despaired of the mad rush to multihulls.

Now, we can’t wait for what’s to come.

Only one thing could make it better.

Ernesto builds a very big, very competitive boat.

The Myth of Multihulls

2010-04-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

The multihulls we watched in America’s Cup 33 were amazing, well, at least one of them. The boat that won. BMWOracle’s trimaran USA.

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.

Just for the record:

(1) We don’t think America’s Cup is drag racing. 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.

(2) Multihull racing vs. monohull racing is like giraffes – no, camels – racing thoroughbred horses. Sometimes those camels and giraffes are extraordinarily fast, but thoroughbreds are better bred, more elegant, more beautiful to look at, and, well, fast enough.

(3) You cannot discern yacht speed on television. Monohull or multihull, you cannot tell by watching helicopter footage (which most us see), even in close up, 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 Virtual Spectator). 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.

(4) Multihull speed – indiscernible to most viewers anyway – is about the thrill of failure. 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?

(5) Once speed is diminished by television, multihull racing is (wait for it) boring. 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:

(6) Anyway, if you wanted a new level for America’s Cup endeavor, we thought big monohulls for AC33 was a pretty good idea. 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):

Anyway, that’s our view. You have yours.

The idea that counts comes next week.

We hope.

It starts here

2010-02-20T09:57:00.000-08:00

James Spithill (AUS), Russell Coutts (NZL), Larry Ellison (USA)
and John Kostecki (USA) loft the Auld Mug for the first time
together, Sunday, February 14, 2010 in Valencia, Spain. Another
great picture by BMWOracle Racing's Gilles Martin-Raget.

The celebration by winners of the America’s Cup typically marks the end of a marathon event.

We all know America’s Cup 33 was a marathon.

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.

But now America’s Cup 34 begins.

Now the work begins again for BMWOracle Racing and its leadership.

Not just to build a boat that can win the 34th event, but significantly, to consider what this great event is, and can become.

We look forward to an exciting, extraordinary, captivating, and compelling competition among the sailing nations of the world.

The best America’s Cup ever.

Overcoming Swiss sportsmanship

2010-02-16T22:30:00.000-08:00

America’s Cup Principal Race Officer Harold Bennett (NZL)
banishes Swiss official Nicolas Grange (SUI) from the
committee boat’s flybridge control center.
Apparently, for insubordination.

We really wanted to put Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI) and his yacht club Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) behind us.

We really wanted to move forward to America’s Cup 34 in a very positive way.

In fact, we even wanted to salute Ernesto for his commitment to his team, his passion for America’s Cup, and his sportsmanship.

On Sunday, we learned you can’t have everything.

In fact, when it comes to Ernesto –and his Swiss confreres – you had better be prepared to be disappointed.

First, Firmenich

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.

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.

Now Commodore Firmenich is a gentleman of the old order, held in high esteem in Switzerland, and in business circles around the world.

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.

That absence of honor sits on Firmenich’s doorstep.

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.

Second, Meyer

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.

Accompanying him on the committee boat on Sunday were a number of SNG officials, including that alpine partisan, SNG Vice Commodore Fred Meyer (SUI).

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).

Knowing exactly what a GGYC voice might mean to SNG’s strategies, whatever those might have been, Meyer went ballistic.

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.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

Finally, Race 2 got under way.

Three days later, the sailing world is still abuzz about Swiss manipulation.

Third, Ernesto

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.

What’s not to like?

Well, a great deal, unfortunately.

This man should be a class act. Actually, he is a class apart.

As a major player on a global stage, you’d expect this man to have a lot to offer. Do you know what he really has?

Try this:

(1) No sense of sportsmanship, as most people accept it. 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.

(2) Nothing nice to say. 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.

(3) A gift for whining. 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 courts give Americans an advantage that Europeans cannot overcome. He blamed the wing because it meant the winning boat USA 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 USA’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.

(4) No balls. 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.

After all our whining, where are we left?

Depressed, actually.

This America’s Cup should never have been like this.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He can also move it forward, decisively, into the future.

Anyone who won the Cup from Ernesto Bertarelli and the Alpine Nation would have that challenge.

We think Ellison might actually achieve it.

The fastest America's Cup ever

2010-02-14T15:22:00.000-08:00

BMWOracle Racing’s USA (top) en route to victory in
America’s Cup 33, trailed by Swiss defender Alinghi 5.

It was won on the water.

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.

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.

Above all, it was won by the world’s most persistent – and patient – sailor.

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.

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.

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.

Now he has won even that.

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.

Russell Coutts added that the boat design rule would also be developed in consultation with the teams.

At his own press conference, the Swiss defender Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), head of Alinghi, mourned the loss of the America’s Cup he loved.

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.

During the race on Friday, and particularly today, he had plenty of time to contemplate what might have been.

Brad is working on this

2010-02-13T08:18:00.000-08:00

Alinghi will maximize Alinghi 5's performance.

No question about that.

Brad is not worrying about yesterday.

He gave that up yesterday, after tea.

He’s moved well beyond that.

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.

And because Brad is thinking like Brad, everyone on USA (USA) should beware.

Brad will be thinking about competitive tactics, creating a dust up, and getting a great start.

He will be thinking about best side of the race course and pulling puff out of thin air, just like he always does.

He will be thinking about whatever gave his two-hulled boat the power to eat up two-hundred-plus meters on USA halfway up the outbound leg yesterday.

He will rethink sails.

He will, in the nicest possible way, be looking for a steady hand on the helm so sail trimmers can do their best.

He will, cannily, and typically, seek out every opportunity to get an edge.

If Brad can, Brad will force any issue on the water to cause frustration in the opponent’s camp.

He will not give up without a fight.

That is one thing we can be certain about.

Brad did not come here to lose.

Stunning

2010-02-12T13:58:00.000-08:00

What America’s Cup racing now looks like.

A BMWOracle Racing USA crewmember,
astride the right ama.

All of us were stunned.

Quite probably everyone on the planet was stunned.

At the sheer power of the America’s Cup challenger BMWOracle’s amazing USA.

At its performance over Swiss defender Alinghi 5, even in lighter winds.

Upwind, both faster, and pointing higher.

Downwind, surprisingly fast.

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.

Astonishingly, the wing even improved USA’s performance when it drove the boat solo.

Nobody more was more nonplussed than Alinghi 5 skipper and tactician Brad Butterworth (NZL). “Were you there?” Brad asked a reporter with his trademark honesty and candor. He then put into words what everyone was thinking:

“When they sail right up to you, then go around you, that’s speed.”

Winning a protest in the pre-start dial-up – then stalling before it crossed the line – USA devoured the Swiss boat’s 600-meter lead in what seemed like just a few minutes.

On the downwind leg, USA17 opened up a long-distance lead that topped 4.5 kilometers.

Those who felt the downhill could be the wing’s weakness were, well, silenced.

It’s only one race.

But what a race.

What a boat.

An ocean water course on the sea

2010-02-11T10:49:00.000-08:00

It’s meant be an ocean race.

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.

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.

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.

Just like the ocean.

Unfortunately, the two vessels competing for AC33 – the Swiss defender’s Alinghi 5 and the U.S. challenger BMWOracle Racing’s USA – do not appear to be designed for ocean courses.

Unfazed by stiff breezes over the race course America’s Cup Race Officer Harold Bennett (NZL) clearly got the wind up over something.

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.”

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.”

Wouldn’t have had? Wouldn’t have had what? A very curious use of tense by Mr. Bennett.

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.”

We respect any decision made to protect sailors, absolutely. Everyone does.

But what else are we protecting here?

Boats that aren’t designed and built for the course they must sail over?

One boat in particular that can’t handle ocean conditions?

One team in particular that is afraid of any ocean state over three feet?

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.

Maybe it’s lake racing.

Like they have on Lake Geneva.

More sleep

2010-02-09T15:37:00.001-08:00

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.

We mention this because we made a reference to start times yesterday.

For accurate information, always consult the official website for AC33.

We also check ESPN360's programming schedule here.

America's Cup Online

2010-02-08T17:36:00.001-08:00

There was no America’s Cup View today, as in view.

No race at all, thanks to no wind off Valencia this morning, and no desire on the part of the defender, Team Alinghi (SUI) to convert to an afternoon schedule, when winds typically are better this time of year.

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 Superbowl XLIV (New Orleans Saints 31, Indianapolis Colts 17).

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.

For the next first race of America’s Cup 33, the opportunity is – yet again – boot up your computer at 3:45 a.m. (EST) on Wednesday, February 10.

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:

ESPN360.com

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. Connect>

Sailing Anarchy’s Layline 33rd America’s Cup

This is for grown-ups. The reason is that critics believe members of this highly informed and highly opinionated discussion forum are, well, children. We disagree. They are adults who should know better.

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.

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 on the water in Valencia, interviewing participants, looking for opportunities, and struggling to connect online from his boat offshore, following the action.

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:

Connect here > to be part of SA’s Layline 33rd America’s Cup 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 lo-res option offered at the bottom of the forum page) to follow comments by members.

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.

BMWOracle Racing

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 World feed live from the water and from the air. Same video as Sailing Anarchy, but no forums, no discussion online, and no profanity. Connect >

MarineTraffic.com

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.

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. Connect >

These four sites are more than enough to make your AC33 real.

Just sleep first.

At last.

2010-02-07T12:41:00.000-08:00

BMWOracle Racing’s USA (top) and Alinghi’s Alinghi 5
training off Valencia

Finally, we are here.

Finally, the competition is on the water.

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.

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.

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.

What is real is what happens Monday, February 8, 2010, around 10:00 a.m. Central European Time, off Valencia.

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.

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.

Arise, Sir Russell

2010-02-05T18:14:00.000-08:00

Sir Russell Coutts (NZL) from

the BMWOracle Racing file

The extraordinary thing about Sir Russell Coutts (NZL) is how low key he has been throughout the entire debacle of America’s Cup 33.

Literally.

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).

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.

Which is what you expect from chief executives who know how to use their power.

Sir Russell certainly has power, has influence, and is a major factor for BMWOracle. Now he is leading the offense.

Despite his corporate coolness, Sir Russell’s ambitions must be focused not just on winning, but on destroying – in the nicest possible way.

If he has a statement to make about AC33, it must be that. For a lot of reasons.

But that’s not the defining reality of this amazing sailor.

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.

Russell Coutts has proved it isn’t about him. It’s about his mission, as he sees it.

Next week, he has an extraordinary mission.

We wish him every kindness for success in AC33, and our best wishes.

Go win, Russell.

Go Brad!

2010-02-01T20:52:00.000-08:00

Alinghi’s Flickr picture shows true Kiwi Brad Butterworth in classic style: thoughtful, candid, and as always, sincere

Maybe you have to be a Kiwi to love Bradley William Butterworth (NZL), skipper of Alinghi (SUI).

He is not the picture-perfect-portrait of the America’s Cup skipper, make no mistake. Whatever that means.

He is from Te Awamutu in the Waikato, for goodness sake. He is himself. He is BB.

What he says is what he thinks, and what he says, he believes.

‘Media management’ means nothing to Brad. He shows up. He speaks his mind. Typically, he does it with candor and respect.

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.

One of the big factors in his life is his friendship with Russell Coutts (NZL), skipper of BMWOracle (USA).

Soon that friendship will be tested in huge raptor-like vessels currently rehearsing in the waters off Valencia, Spain.

Will Brad be aboard Alinghi’s amazing catamaran?

We would love to see him there. But frankly, he’s an older, tender, more gentlemanly mass. Perhaps the strategy has other ideas.

Nevertheless.

Brad Butterworth influences his team, their ethos, their competitive spirit, and their will to win.

We wish him the best in America’s Cup 33.

E hoa, ka whawhai tonu ahau ki a koe, ake ake!

Best wishes to Ed Baird

2010-01-27T20:24:00.000-08:00

This is a great picture of Ed Baird by Alinghi photographer Guido Trombetta.

It's a reminder that America’s Cup is about sailors.

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.

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.

Do you remember America’s Cup? Well, the racing is soon to begin. Again, we hope.

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.

Interestingly, he amazed us with his jet-pack navigation kit that provided him with data we assume race officials agreed were OK.

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?

Whatever.

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.

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.

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.

We admire, respect, and salute Ed Baird as he moves into his prep for AC33.

Good luck, Ed.

Why are we here?

2010-01-19T16:54:00.000-08:00

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.

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.

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.

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.

You have your view.

The fact is, everything has gone far, far beyond that.

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.

Which is exactly what both teams were trying to engineer in Singapore.

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.

As we all now know, Ernesto Bertarelli woke up in Geneva the next morning and deep-sixed everything.

TO THE TUNE OF: ‘Here we go again!’

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.

And Ernesto Bertarelli, absolutely and definitively, refuses to grant Ellison anything, not even mutual consent.

That’s the standoff.

It’s manic. It’s pathological. It’s what it is.

Of course, The Big Elephant in This Room of Mammoths is the removal of Société Nautique de Genève as a Cup Trustee.

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 casino on the world agenda.

Happy New Year.

The Sanity of the Judiciary

2009-11-19T16:44:00.000-08:00

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.

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.

In addition, she ruled, Valencia serves as a viable venue for the defense.

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.

Which is something, certainly.

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.

Which is legal stuff.

For the rest of us, the message is that something decidedly non-legal, non-litigious, and non-lawyerly decided this event.

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.

This is noteworthy.

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 sailors to assist in her deliberations.

Sailors, as in veteran sailing officials.

Where experience, common sense, fairness, and objectivity reside.

And where classic racing rules are respected.

Which makes us wonder.

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?

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?

Of course, they could.

Any reason why it didn't happen?

That’s for history to decide. You have your view.

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.

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.

Maybe that’s a Swiss thing. Or a European thing.

It certainly isn’t American.

New York Justice Decks RAK

2009-10-27T15:39:00.000-07:00

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.

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.

Justice Kornreich, apparently, will soon rule on the remaining items.

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
– 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.

GGYC awaits the Justice’s ruling on other matters, but pockets a considerable victory.

SNG, their legal team, and sailing team Alinghi, represented in the courtroom by Skipper Brad Butterworth (NZL), must feel like stunned mullets.

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.

At least, not any time soon.

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.

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.

He looks a lot like Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI).

Armageddon, Dirty Bert, and the Disgrace of America's Cup 33

2009-10-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

“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.”

Does that sound to you like self-dealing?

Well, that’s just part of it.

“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 Alinghi 5, 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.”

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.

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.

Perhaps fatally.

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, Alinghi 5, 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.

But is that possible? Could that happen? We have no idea. It would take legal discovery to discover it.

Perhaps that could happen.

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.

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.

Articulated in the complaint:

Alinghi’s arbitrary, bizarre and total control of the rules, without exception.

A secret pact agreed with the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) 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.

Measurement mania, in violation of the Deed of Gift, which favors the picayune measurement of the competing vessel in favor of Alinghi.

Mortal danger – 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).

Self-dealing deals in Valencia – even before AC32, deals were concluded involving Bertarelli real estate, infertility clinics, and Ernesto’s mega-pharmaceutical firm. This is icky.

The failed proposition of Real Federaćion Español de Vela (RFEV), as a potential cup challenger, and its subsequent substitution by the pathetic and inadequate Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV), manifestly not a club.

Total control by Alinghi and SNG over anything and everything, 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.

The AC Defender (Alinghi) as a virtual challenger – meaning Alinghi’s ability to compete in the challenger series, even if their performance negatively affects the standings of other competitors.

All of that, and more.

It’s amazing.

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.

Will sanity prevail?

Well, AC33 at Ras Al Khaimah may happen. Then again, it may not.

But the issue of SNG’s breech of responsibility as an America’s Cup trustee will survive RAK.

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.

It will be decided in the Courts of New York.

And this will decide the future of America’s Cup.

America's Cup Chess

2009-10-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

I open with my pawn (e4).

You open with your pawn (e5).

Then I move my bishop (b5). And so on. Remember?

Somewhere beyond the standard openings, things get interesting.

It reminds me of America's Cup.

Knowing that movable ballast will plunge their vessel's length on the waterline over the limits imposed by the Deed of Gift, 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!

That's e4.

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.

That's e5.

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).

That's Bp5.

Meanwhile, 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).

From Vice Commodore Meyer, this, also, is a first in America's Cup history.

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.

But Vice Commodore Meyer overdid it also.

In the first mannered letter he has ever written, Meyer sought to document that GGYC representatives had actually visited the desert port of Ras el-Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates, and uttered nice remarks about preparations there for America's Cup 33.

Why?

Well, that's chess. It's a move.

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.

And here is Myer's letter to prove it.

Anyway, that's the middle game.

Your move.

Now there are two America's Cups

2009-09-28T18:39:00.000-07:00

Well, there's one, a real America's Cup.

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.

So that's one America's Cup, if that's what you want to call it. Some call it AC33.

Then there's another America's Cup.

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.

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.

Anyway.

Bruno Troublé (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.

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.

So, naturally, M. Troublé'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.

Longer term?

Well, that's an issue.

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.

In that case, the Trustees (who have sponsored America's Cup teams), in uniform, will act.

If that happens, America's Cup is all ahoo, if it wasn't already.

Ready to replace it will be the first, most viable alternative -- the Louis Vuitton America's Cup One Class event.

The Trustees could actually engineer that to make it happen.

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.

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.

Actually, the Formula One of Sailboat Racing.

Or whatever it may be called.

The Dumbing Down of America's Cup 33

2009-07-31T20:45:00.000-07:00

Nobody has noticed this.

It’s been going on for a while now, no, really, for some time.

It’s not about the New York Courts.

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).

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.)

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?

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.

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.

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.

It’s not even about the Cold Shudder of Lawyers, all of whom are doing very well out of the America’s Cup.

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 . . .

THE SAD FACT IS, NONE OF THESE PEOPLE ARE TALKING TO EACH OTHER!

America’s Cup has become such a casino that nobody knows how to talk to anyone, anymore.

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.

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.

It’s literally Alice in Wonderland. Toad of Toad Hall. Craziland.

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.

We wish sanity would prevail.

Which includes a lot of great sailors and great pontificators, on both sides of the issue, and on both teams.

Which includes us.

Anyway.

In our view, there are three ways to move forward:

(1) 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.

(2) 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.

(3) 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.

Larry and Ernesto -- or Ernesto and Larry -- can make this happen by lunchtime.

Let’s encourage this.

Please.

Let's take a moment

2009-05-31T18:52:00.000-07:00

New Zealanders live farther away from the world than almost anyone, except Falkland Islanders.

To experience what the world has to offer, Kiwis leave home.

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.

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.

People say there could be a million Kiwis or more spread out around the globe.

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.

This week, a much loved Kiwi will be taken home to New Zealand from Valencia.

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.

After his BMWOracle career, Paul Wallbank was planning to build a training studio in Valencia.

Now his friends from BMW Oracle will be taking him home. Russell Coutts (NZL), BMW Oracle CEO, will be there with them.

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.

Paul Wallbank is already home.

So now, let's negotiate

2009-04-22T05:18:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, Commodore Pierre-Yves Firmenich's delegation from 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.

This is the biggest America's Cup event since July 2007.

That's when Alinghi successfully defended the cup against Emirates Team New Zealand, SNG accepted 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.

Soon after, all legal hell broke loose.

Hopefully, sanity will prevail when club delegates meet tomorrow.

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.

Taking a cruise through the oceans of stimulus:

(1) POWER PLAYERS

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.

Curiously, if we set aside an extraordinary assortment of trifling matters, one extraordinary issue separates these competitors.

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.

Ultimately, this is the divide that will control the event tomorrow.

(2) GGYC GOES PUBLIC

To clarify their position, GGYC took an unprecedented step yesterday to publicly announce their objectives for AC33. They will enter the room tomorrow en clair.

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.

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.

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.

This is a very significant development.

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.

(3) MONEY MATTERS

Sponsors make America's Cup happen. They provide cash. 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.

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.

In today's economic climate, it may be virtually impossible.

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.

Who will provide the money -- and for which event -- will be the biggest elephant in the room tomorrow.

(4) DOG RACES ARE FOR DOGS

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.

The real world wants the Real America's Cup to return.

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.

If you want a DOG race in this environment, it's probably because you don't want a classic America's Cup.

You don't want an America's Cup organized by mutual consent.

You don't want to cede anything to any competitor, at any time, for any reason, not even a world of competitors.

What you do want -- it would seem -- is total power, total control, and total authority, regardless.

Which might be something, but it's not America's Cup.

(5) GOODWILL

GGYC has sent delegates who can complete an agreement for AC33. SNG is sending major players.

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.

We don't know of a real, valid, genuine, authentic factor -- other than power -- or perceived power -- that could prevent this from happening.

Now, all we need is goodwill.

We hope that's what prevails tomorrow.

Tremors, east and west

2009-04-16T20:18:00.000-07:00

The America's Cup world is abuzz about boat construction.

Not that this should concern anyone, normally. But at this curious point in time, it's serious.

Actually, it's very serious.

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.

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.

Now, in both places, much is happening.

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.

So what's really under way?

A great deal of confusion, of course. This is the America's Cup 33.

And if it's AC33, you can always take your chances.

For the record:

(1) Dogzilla, the phenomenal 90-foot trimaran, supposedly developed by BMWOracle for an America's Cup Deed of Gift (DOG) race, has disappeared.

(2) Amazing boat parts are being delivered, under the cover of darkness, to a boat building facility in Anacortes, original home of Dogzilla.

(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.

(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.

Meanwhile, the titans themselves (Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI) and Larry Ellison (USA) and their clubs) are meeting, have met, or soon are about to meet.

What they decide, is what AC33 will be about.

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.

AC33, in one form or another, is coming to reality.

Words at work, not working

2009-04-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

Words are flying. Words are being captured in huge nets and displayed on websites. Everyone is yearning for meaning. There is no meaning.

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.

Perhaps these are incoming.

All this is the mating dance of America's Cup titans -- America's Cup 33 Challenger of Record, Commodore Marcus Young of Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), and the AC33 Defender, Commodore Pierre-Yves Firmenich of Société Nautique de Genève (SNG).

The subject at hand: What on earth -- or at sea -- will happen in AC33?

Specifically, will there be a multi-challenger event, involving teams from around the world?

Or will there be a multi-hull event, involving Alinghi (SUI) and BMWOracle (USA)?

If you think that words don't matter, troll the missives.

GGYC has reaffirmed its commitment to a multi-challenger event, but wishes to "discuss ideas to achieving mutual consent".

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.

Now, "mutual consent" is the new "having".

If you are wondering what it actually means, you are not alone.

Both of the parties are dancing very gingerly around this litmus term.

No-one is saying what they will be discussing when they step into a conference room somewhere, sometime soon, probably in Geneva.

Think about this.

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.

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.

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.

So, if you are Ernesto, will you enthusiastically agree to stage a multi-month, multi-year, multi-challenger event?

We don't think so.

Yes, billionaires like Ernesto and Larry have resources. But yes, even billionaires have their limits.

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.

But is this what Larry wants? Even after building a real, photographed, and competitively viable $20 million trimaran contender?

No, Larry wants a multi-challenger event. Up front, plain and simple.

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.

Despite the April dancing, that's a pretty solid declaration from the challenger of record for the next America's Cup event.

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.

Nor is it, we believe, a declaration he is ever likely to make.

Sturdy voices request (politely) inclusion

2009-04-09T18:53:00.000-07:00

Burgees of the Cross of St. George

and Companion Crown and Star

Today, commodores representing yacht clubs who are deeply vested in America's Cup declared themselves for a multi-challenger event and urged Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) of Lake Geneva, current Defender, and Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) of San Francisco, Challenger of Record, to negotiate an agreement to achieve it.

Baron Iliffe of Yattendon, Royal Yacht Squadron (UK), and Messers. David Elwell, Jr. (New York Yacht Club), Mark Fitzhardinge (Royal Perth Yacht Club), Andrew La Dow (San Diego Yacht Club), and Scott Colebrook (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron) sponsored and co-signed an open letter to request -- and if they had the power, we are sure, to require -- the two clubs to come to a similar conclusion.

The letter, however, neatly parsed the participants.

Authors of the epistle were clubs that either "set the America's Cup in motion" (Royal Yacht Squadron), or "have been a former trustee of the Cup" (New York, Perth, San Diego, and New Zealand).

Notably excluded from this cohort, of course, Société Nautique de Genève, current defender.

You would have to say SNG was deeply vested, and a trustee; after all, they won it twice. Defending it once is enough.

Perhaps the letter should have read -- 'from all trustees except SNG'.

Yet that would be impolite, and the commodores are gentle people.

But it's interesting that the First Lords of America's Cup felt the need to express themselves.

At the highest level, of course, all of us endorse their sentiments.

All of us want a multi-challenger event, especially for sailors and their families; sooner, rather than later. All of us love Valencia; we want to return there, as soon as possible. All of us love a fabulously competitive event, and we always prefer a multitude of flags and burgees -- some of them with elements other than the Cross of St. George (which we respect mightily, and against which, we might add, we hold nothing).

Consistently, if it's America's Cup, we aver, its about the world. Nations, boats, and sailors, from all over. Fans worldwide. Many voices, many faces. It's just better that way.

On another level, we must admit, there is also this astonishing 90-foot raptor trimaran that America's Cup fans have called DoGzilla, which was built by Larry Ellison (USA) of BMWOracle, the racing team sponsored by GGYC.

This utterly amazing vessel is a fabulous innovation and a new threshold in multi-hull design. We are enthralled by its power and potential.

Apparently, there is also the Swiss Myth, an equally amazing multihull that exists firmly in the imagination and secrecy of a conspiracy of European designers, builders, fabricators, assemblers, riggers, painters, tent builders, building owners, and trucking firms, which some say is hidden in Villeneuve, in the Alpine Nation. Nobody has ever seen it.

All of us would love to watch these vessels race. Nobody more than us.

For the Cup, we hope it never happens.

Let's watch these vessels race, by all means. But let's ask Rolex to create a new class for the event.

Meanwhile, on yet another level, we wonder about the motivations of the Alta-class of America's Cup Trustees. Yes, of course, they want global racing. Yes, they love America's Cup. And no, there is no doubt about their motivations. They love the Cup.

At the same time, they are laying in place an assertion, a fact, an event in time and place, that could easily be extended, with repetition and emphasis, and endorsed and expanded by attorneys, that could lead to an event that none of us would ever want to see, ever again, ever in our lifetimes.

That's when the Titans of the Universe Clash Without Resolution and Plunge the Cup into Litigation Yet Again.

If that ever happens, we can be assured of one thing.

The Eminent Trustees of America's Cup Exclusive, acting as a majority in the Courts of New York, will seek to restore the Deed of Gift to its originator or to some other mutually agreed defender (to be defined).

Now, we can't imagine that a club like GGYC, that has consistently demanded a protocol that requires fairness, independence and fair competition, would seek to invoke the Wrath of the Pennants of St. George and Companion Crown and Star.

But if a club like SNG is determined to act like the idiot its representatives have consistently presented since July 2007, we can be assured of it.

The Trustees Exclusive will act.

A win for the Auld Mug

2009-04-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

The silver trophy, as viewed by Alinghi

In a surprisingly simple opinion authored with astonishing clarity by Judge Ciparick (with Judges Graffeo, Read, Smith, Pigott and Jones concurring), the New York Court of Appeals today reinstated the decision by Justice Herman Cahn of the Supreme Court of New York to deny Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV) its status as Challenger of Record for America's Cup 33.

Judge Ciparick affirmed the status of Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) as Challenger of Record, and urged GGYC and America's Cup defender and trust holder Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) to get their acts together, resolve differences, and move forward.

It was a victory for many things, among them: (1) truth, (2) honor, (3) tradition.

Of course, 'having' had its day, that dastardly canard.

But the Judges clearly and unequivocally understood that 'having' had its meaning in 'its regatta', and concluded that, on the day it mattered, CNEV did not have an annual regatta, 'its regatta', or any other regatta, for that matter, at any time in the past or present, and had -- at that time -- no plans for having a regatta of any kind, anywhere.

Now having is dead, thank God.

We sincerely hope that it is permanently dead, its corpse now lying sodden and bloated on the floor of an arm of the sea, somewhere, a stake hammered through its heart, soon to be sundered, rendering tasty morsels for feeding creatures.

Ultimately, 'its annual regatta' and its failure to have an annual regatta, or anything approaching anything that has to do with being an authentic, reputable yacht club that holds regattas, indicted CNEV as a sham, cobbled together in the aftermath of AC32.

But, frankly, that's not the beauty of today's decision.

As everyone on the planet knows, and the court agreed, CNEV failed to pass the plain-simple-square-knot determinations of Dear Dead George Schuyler's amazing Deed of Gift.

Far from being a quaint, ancient, goodwill gesture that can be parsed, corrupted and co-opted by anyone who thinks they can control it, Schuyler's handiwork passed yet another test.

If you want to adjudicate America's Cup, said the New York court, you'd better stay within the confines of the four corners of the deed. That's where the truth is.

Thus, the Cup won.

Now, instead of courtroom theatrics, what we have to look forward to is an America's Cup of some kind or another, to be held somewhere, sometime soon. And that's great.

At this momentary pause in the proceedings, we are struck by three thoughts:

(1) GGYC, encouraged by their sailing team sponsored by Larry Ellison of BMWOracle, ultimately prevailed. In our view, honor won. As a highly competitive sailor, an America's Cup traditionalist, and a profoundly independent American, Ellison spent a small fortune to support the integrity of the Deed of Gift, protect the honor and authenticity of America's Cup, and assert traditional values in a world where 'values', like 'having', get shifted, manipulated, and misappropriated.

All AC fans owe Ellison for his commitment. Remember, he shelved his personal passion -- sailing fast racing boats -- in order to assert the principles of the Deed of Gift of the America's Cup. And he paid good money for the privilege. Nobody does anything remotely like this in today's world. Certainly not in Wall Street. Certainly not in Europe.

We also owe his partners, team leaders -- and especially his sailors and their families -- who toughed this out with him, at their personal expense, in order to be loyal to their team and to an American point of view. This took faith, courage, and nerves of steel, especially in today's economic environment.

All of us, owe this club, this leadership, and this team. We also owe their lawyers.

(2) In affirming the clarity of the Deed of Gift, Judge Ciparick's decision gently underscored all the provisions of the deed, including, particularly, the notion of "foreign".

It takes a nation different from the Defender's to be an authentic Challenger of Record, says the deed. Once the challenger is affirmed (and has satisfied the requirements of a challenger under the Deed of Gift), other nations may participate by mutual consent. That's one of the many things 'mutual consent' means. Of course, we all know this, and we've all forgotten it. Yet the New York court, interestingly, reminds us that nationality, in fact, is at the heart of what America's Cup is about.

Moving forward, perhaps we will respect that even more, and embrace it even more. 'Foreign' means different countries. Different nations. Definitive nationalities. So beware any Defender or Challenger who seeks to diminish "friendly competition between foreign countries". And beware anyone who seeks to trump the Deed of Gift. George Schuyler has your number, and he has amazing reach.

(3) NOW WHAT?

Every sailor on the planet hopes that the so-called DOGzilla, Larry Ellison's amazing 90-foot multihull, now undergoing modifications, will actually meet on the water somewhere, the great mythical vessel CHEEZilla, Ernesto Bertarelli's to-date fictional multihull, supposedly taking shape in a hamlet off that cold-water Arm of the Alps, Lake Geneva.

We have said before that we don't believe the multihull exists, and we would love to be proved wrong, yet nobody has been able to prove us wrong, as of today. Believe me, everyone on the planet is trying to prove this monster exists. So far without success.

The bigger issue is, however, how will Larry Ellison and Ernesto Bertarelli resolve a Deed of Gift event? That's the really big MAGilla.

If Ernesto actually is building his boat, we hope they decide to have an enormous blowout, preferably this year, and then -- in the great Mutual Consent tradition -- find a way to assure their teams, the teams of AC nations everywhere, and their sponsors, that a fabulous AC34 will take place in 2010, in Valencia, which all of us love, truly an America's Cup haven to be esteemed, just like Auckland, San Diego, Perth, and, well, soon, probably, like San Francisco.

And what about Ernesto?

Nobody has dished out more about Ernesto than we have.

Yet we have also given him great credit for what he truly is -- a passionate sailor, a great competitor, and an America's Cup stalwart, even though we mightily disagree about how he expresses his passion for managing post-America's Cup 32 events.

After all, he proved to us, through the success of AC32 in Valencia, that he was a master. Then he turned his mastery into a mystery.

Whatever his frame of mind today, we believe America's Cup needs Ernesto Bertarelli.

AC needs his passion. AC needs his enthusiasm, his team, his European perspective. AC needs his magnetism. AC needs his defense of the Cup, now and in the future.

If Ernesto finds a way to decline a Deed of Gift race, on the other hand, and pursue a conventional America's Cup, it will save him millions, employ hundreds of sailors and their families, and continue his great tradition, which happens to be very becoming of him, as the Victor at Valencia.

Brad Butterworth is the world's canniest sailor

2009-02-12T20:47:00.000-08:00

A picture from Sail-World by Richard Gladwell, in the first race
of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series final, won by Alinghi (SUI).

All of us have harassed Alinghi (SUI), sailing team of Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) of the Cold Water Nation, Home of the Swiss.

We have slammed the Prince Himself, Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), founder and chief of Alinghi, the Ugliest Holder of the Cup in History.

We have slammed the noisemakers of Alinghi, an assortment of aristocrats, gentry, and upperclassmen, most of whom act like sophomores.

We have alternately harassed and respected professionals like Brad Butterworth, skipper of Alinghi, originally from Te Awamutu, in the Waikato, which is a great place to be from, in the Great Nation of New Zealand.

At this remarkable stage in the proceedings of the fabulous Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, we are obliged to say two things: (1) Brad Butterworth is the world's canniest sailor (we have said this before) who has routinely outfoxed opponents on the water, in the media room, online, and behind the stage, in one America's Cup after another.

You have to hand it to Brad. He's a power figure.

After all, he secured the Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ)'s best boat, NZL-92, for the LVPS final. That took brains and chutzpah.

You also have to say: (2) Brad knows how to sail. He knows how to sail in Valencia, and he assuredly knows how to sail on the Hauraki Gulf. He won his race today. He has three, or more, to go. Can he do it? Of course, he can. Can ETNZ? Yes, they can.

Are we amazed about this?

No. Very few sailors have achieved what Brad Butterworth has, perhaps ever. He is unique.

So we invite critics and fans alike, whatever may happen between now and the end of the series, whether we like it or not, to congratulate this amazing sailor for his leadership, his persistence, his focus, his loyalty to his team, and his sailing savvy.

And while there are a lot of things that Kiwis and other fans are insane about, particularly when it comes to Brad, let us do this.

Let's give him a break for being the great sailor and great leader he is.

Cheers to Brad.

It's been real

2009-01-10T16:11:00.000-08:00

This all started, as it did for everyone, as a shocked reaction to the rape, pillage and plunder of the America's Cup Protocol by someone we all thought we knew.

Someone who was a good sailor, a great competitor, and a powerful victor.

Someone who had proven himself as an entrepreneur and sportsman -- and who distinguished himself as the salt-water impressario who staged one of the greatest regattas ever, maybe the best America's Cup ever, at a custom-built haven in Valencia, Spain, a venue just made for sailing, international fellowship, and fun.

Someone, in fact, whose name, story and credentials we felt truly belonged on the Auld Mug, sharply and deeply engraved, for all of us to see, for all time.

Then, as July 4, 2007 faded in the rear view mirror, our shock turned to amazement and disbelief.

Ultimately, it turned to disgust.

The transformation of Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), chief of Alinghi, from a great sailor into the worst kind of America's Cup mogul astonished all of us.

Here was a great competitor, who had accomplished everything, and had everything to look forward to in the future, maybe forever.

Here was someone who could become, in all of our estimations, his own kind of Ted Turner, his own kind of Dennis Connor, his own kind of Sir Peter Blake.

But Ernesto chose another path.

Powered by his victory, blind to everyone who didn't win, and arrogant about America's Cup traditions, Ernesto chose to become someone none of us ever expected to see, and never knew existed on the planet.

He became the Ugliest Custodian of the Cup in History.

And he defined his status in the New World Order in ways that no other America's Cup victor ever had.

He announced the Protocol for AC33 in a global press conference. Confronted with reasonable questions, he abruptly told the gathered throngs of media and team executives, effectively, to f*** off. Then, amazingly, left the stage.

That bizarre behavior left even more heads wagging -- even among his own team members and his own yacht club.

In that single, defiant act, Ernesto not only alarmed his own retainers, but effectively declared war on the old protocol, on those who supported it, and on anyone who traditionally believed in the venerable America's Cup of the New York Yacht Club and the great George Schuyler, author of the Deed of Gift.

As the months rolled by, Ernesto did very little publicly. He visited the U.S. and the New York Yacht Club (NYYC), he shook hands for camera, and he sailed boats whenever he had the opportunity.

Otherwise, he disappeared.

Meanwhile, Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) of San Francisco, sponsoring club of BMWOracle Racing, led by Larry Ellison (USA), did everything they felt they had to do to call the Emperor's new clothes and debate the egregious demands on the protocol by Ernesto and his Alpine gang. And GGYC and their legal retainers petitioned the New York courts to agree.

We've all followed those proceedings, helped enormously by Cory Friedman, an officer of the New York courts.

Meanwhile, Ernesto kept away from the game, threw lawyers into the breach, threw out Kiwi lawyers, threw in Swiss lawyers, and did little else.

Although, we admit, he did admit, publicly, that he could have made a better case to introduce his ideas and ambitions for AC33 at the outset -- a commentary curiously similar to an argument proposed some weeks earlier by America's Cup View (here) and in a second post (here).

Nevertheless, the AC world collapsed.

Sponsors perfected an amazing disappearing act -- preceeded by the greatest sponsor of them all, Louis Vuitton, founding sponsor of the AC Challenger series, who later engineered a fabulous AC-style event to be held this February, in the Hauraki Gulf, in Auckland, New Zealand.

Not to be deterred by public opinion and unpleasant legal events, Ernesto and his gang orchestrated a pastiche of an America's Cup, curiously still called America's Cup 33.

Teams from around the world that employ sailors and technical crews have entered the event, cheerfully ignoring the vagaries of AC33 in favor of employing sailors and engaging sponsors.

We respect that.

In the meantime, New York courts will decide if that particular AC33 happens -- or if a Dennis Connor-Michael Fay-style America's Cup happens -- in gigantic multihulls.

After that, it's anyone's guess.

One thing is enormously certain. America's Cup has changed.

We believe it's diminished.

We believe Ernesto's behavior has shrunk the event.

We believe it will take enormous effort and energy and trust to rebuild it.

To achieve that, some say, first remove Ernesto.

We tend to agree.

At the real world level, however, there are positive signs that encourage all of us who love sailing, love competition on the water, and love America's Cup:

(1) First, the honorable actor in all of this -- Larry Ellison -- has continued to put honor before dollars, has separated himself from the farce that is AC33, and has continued to put his trust in the New York courts to act in a rational way for the benefit of the America's Cup, for all time. And the New York Yacht Club has supported him in this.

We wish Ellison the best, and we sincerely and respectfully urge him to stay the course.

In addition . . .

(2) There is an ad hoc, grassroots effort currently afoot to create a viable entry for AC33 from an online community of sailors, critics, and assorted salt-water enthusiasts who, given just a little bit of support, might just actually be able to pull off a viable candidacy for the event.

It's the Sailing Anarchy Yacht Club (SAYC).

SAYC have some hesitation about entering into the event on Ernesto's terms. But to a person, they are passionate believers in the ideals of America's Cup, in every possible and conceivable way. And this outspoken membership believes they can meet the demands of America's Cup Management, or whomever, including the demands for cash.

So we encourage them enormously. Perhaps you can support them.

Given that, there is not much else for us to do.

It has been an amazing journey.

We are out of indignation.

We are out of words.

People say no to things they fear

2008-12-19T21:50:00.000-08:00

It wasn't the Prince and his Chamberlains who, apparently, have said NO to Sailing Anarchy Yacht Club (SAYC)'s entry to America's Cup 33.

According to SAYC, the NO came from an Underling. Poor sod.

Frankly, you'd expect a NO.

But in marketing (which is what an AC entry is, not sailing), you have to understand that NO is meaningless.

Well, it's not actually meaningless. In this case, it's a prayer for breathing room.

As in: "You took us by surprise. We're confused. We don't know what to make of this. It's too hard to for us to discuss this or even decide before Christmas. Everyone is gone. Personally, we don't have the authority to do anything, except call Commodore Meyer (SUI) to ask for advice. So we did. And the answer is NO."

NO actually means, we don't like the idea of your challenge.

NO means, we talked on the phone to people in the Alpine nation, and they told us to say NO.

NO means, you were drunk. Stop this. Put an end to it. NO way.

NO means, um, er, you didn't set the type in Times New Roman and set your margins at 1.25". Sorry, NO.

NO means, hey, guys, great idea. We love you guys. Next time, let's do it right. Nice try. Hey, we want you back.

NO means, you are Americans, essentially, supported by a rabid global band of contrarian thinkers, including New Zealanders. Therefore, it's just quite possible that you could pull off the funding thing, find some designers who know what they are doing -- and who don't like us -- and you could actually find people in your community who know how to drive, steer and sail a Version 5 boat, and we know, for Pete's sake, there's a bunch of those boats out there that could be made very competitive for our three regattas next year, and frankly, if you guys chafed butt, namely ours, then that would be very embarassing for us. So, NO.

So, NO doesn't mean NO.

It means go away.

In response to this discourteous rejection, some observers say that the Commodore, Officers and Members of SAYC should carefully consider their options.

That includes rethinking the paperwork. Getting serious about grassroots fundraising. Finding the AC moguls of yesteryear and putting a torch to their tinderwood. Refiling the entry in Valencia. Finding a sober tone for all communications to the House of Alinghi (SUI) and its captives. And above all, pressing the issue. Hard. And drawing on every human asset on our small, blue sailing planet to support an honorable, incorrigible and worthy initiative.

Once that's done, expect a YES.

But also expect another NO -- especially from someone with the real power to say NO -- and who is prepared to say NO very publicly and very officially -- and then explain the reasons why.

SAYC may be surprised to learn how few of these people there are. Maybe two.

Meanwhile, move forward, aggressively, on every front.

That's a very sound course.

At least, that's what the whitebait are saying.

The butterfly has flapped its wings

2008-12-17T21:10:00.000-08:00

Next, the tsunami?

Well, that depends.

The rag, tag and bobtail members of Sailing Anarchy (America's Cup division), have organized a yacht club, Sailing Anarchy Yacht Club (SAYC).

OK, you say, fine. So what?

Well, we agree. But the astonishing fact is, SAYC have orchestrated an entry for America's Cup 33. Apparently, they have filed papers in Valencia, and are axiously awaiting a response from The Powers That Be.

Is this serious? Well, apparently, it is.

You are saying that an online community is mounting a challenge for America's Cup? Well, yes, they are. But this isn't your average online community.

Founded by sailor, radio personality and online entrepreneur, Scot Tempestra (USA) of San Diego, Sailing Anarchy is an online home for franchised, enfranchised and disenfranchised sailors, many of whom who have participated, and currently participate, in virtually every competitive class on the water -- and in all classes of watering hole -- and most of whom are united in their passion for the America's Cup As We Know It.

But isn't it ridiculous? Isn't this an absurd undertaking? And if it's not absurd, then isn't it financially impossible?

Well, it's no less impossible than a U.S. presidential contender, Howard Dean, believing that he could fund a presidential campaign from small donations raised from across America (which he did).

And it's no less ridiculous than a successful U.S. presidential contender, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, running the same kind of grassroots campaign, ultimately refusing Federal funding, and raising more money, in a shorter time, than any Presidential candidate in history.

But could SAYC raise the same kind of funds, the same way? Good question.

Knowledgeable souls at AC Anarchy (which is the sub-forum these sailors belong to) admit they need $200 million. They say they have anything from 20,000 to 30,000 members. So put on your grassroots hat. Think creatively. Do the math.

Then add one or two humongously benificent donations from the handful of unruly U.S. sailing magnates who still exist and haven't found an outlet for today's kind of America's Cup. Some of these proud, independent souls would surely value an opportunity to support an American entry in AC33 and would enthusiastically embrace the boasting rights that came with it.

You can name them, just like we can.

Pretty soon, you'd have some real cash.

Pretty soon, you'd have designers taking the challenge seriously.

Pretty soon, you'd have one or two Version 5 boats ready for rehabilitation, or a new class-rule vessel ready to be designed and built.

So it wouldn't be smart to diss the challenge, the math, or the naval architecture.

It's eminently do-able.

The only fly in the ointment is ... well, you guessed it. The Prince and his Chamberlains.

If they decide that this is the kind of challenge up with which they will not put, well, that puts a dent in the sails of SAYC and its team. But frankly, it does not necessarily end the challenge.

To deny SAYC a valid challenge, the House of Alinghi and their cohorts would have to elevate all those old familiar objections -- no yacht club, no boats, no regatta.

Believe me, they wouldn't want to do that. Not with Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV) standing under the trees in the rain, shivering in the wind and the shadows.

That, assuredly, would put the cat among the pigeons.

So this is a portentiously serious event.

And there is only one factor that transforms this ambitious idea into a serious effort. And that's money.

Even in challenging times, sponsors know there is always money for ambitious endeavors.

And in a country that has no dog in the hunt -- which is the biggest hunt there is for salty warriors -- you can be sure there are salt water hunters and hounds aslaverin' somewhere.

Stay tuned.

For goodness sake, who is next? Schnackenberg?

2008-12-15T18:54:00.001-08:00

Everyone has been out there, yapping to the media.

Everyone under the sun, literally -- despite non-disclosure agreements to the contrary -- and to a person, they are ready, willing and available for media interviews.

Even with marginal media, like online sites.

Well, these may be online, certainly. But today, online is where the news is.

Peter Montgomery (NZL), the great Kiwi yachting journalist and commentator, recently lamented the fact that new yachting journalists aren't being minted.

He overlooks the fact that everyone today is a journalist.

If you don't believe that, just take a cruise through America's Cup Anarchy, a forum of Sailing Anarchy.com.

Insight, commentary, and observation today are for everyone who can put fingertip to keyboard. And you don't need a degree in journalism or communication to do that, as we know.

But we digress.

Grant Simmer (AUS) and Brad Butterworth (NZL) have been out there, you'd expect that.

So have Pedro Perello (ESP) of Ayre Challenge and Sir Keith Mills (GBR) of TeamOrigin.

Both these latter individuals affirm that they have been in constant communication with Larry Ellison (USA), chief of BMWOracle, or Russell Coutts (NZL), team chief executive, in order to persuade them to abandon principle and enter AC33, the Alinghi Cup, currently being organized.

Sadly, without success.

As friends of the Alpine nation busy themselves with meetings, committees and class rules, Golden Gate Yacht Club (USA) and the entire BMWOracle team are focused on something else.

The America's Cup.

The real one.

Is Sir Keith a windvane?

2008-12-14T19:21:00.000-08:00

Sir Keith Mills (GBR), seen here on Friday,
in a screen capture from zerogradinord.net,
the online sailing resource

Sir Keith Mills (GBR), chief of TeamOrigin, sole British entry in America's Cup 33, is an extraordinary individual.

Knighted in 2006 by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II for services to sport, Sir Keith's leadership includes management of the campaign that successfully delivered the 2012 Olympic Games to London. Our kudos to Sir Keith.

That's a huge accomplishment.

In a similar bullish vein, Sir Keith has steered TeamOrigin's campaign for AC33.

In September last year, Sir Keith was extraordinarily upbeat about the AC event. Here's how he was quoted in TeamOrigin's press release:

“ACM (America’s Cup Management) ran a fantastic event this Spring, not only from a sports and entertainment point of view but also by setting the standards on a number of non-sports aspects placing the America’s Cup firmly in the 21st century, in amongst the most important sporting competitions in the world today. Alinghi and ACM should be complimented on running an event in Valencia that has had a massively positive impact not only on the America’s Cup but the sport of sailing as a whole,” comments Sir Keith Mills.

“We do not believe that the new Protocol will have a negative impact on the future of the America’s Cup. To the contrary we believe it provides a platform for further growth and some real opportunities for those who decide to challenge,” continues Sir Keith.

TEAMORIGIN believes the Protocol is good for challengers, especially new teams because:

Of the introduction of a new America’s Cup Class, a new 90 ft yacht, giving every challenger an equal opportunity to start the design process at the same time
It prohibits two-boat testing which will reduce costs. New techniques will be developed to refine existing and new yachts, opening up a level playing field for new challengers
It allows for regular official racing to be run in Valencia. Teams may race their opponents in practice whilst simultaneously running parallel hospitality and sponsor programmes.

Here's what we said at the time about Sir Keith's enthusiasm for the protocol: http://americascupview.blogspot.com/2007/09/britains-teamorigin-ploughs-in.html.

Now, extraordinarily, here's what Sir Keith is saying about the protocol today (thanks to zerogradinord.it):

"It's been a very constructive process. From the beginning it's been very constructive. We were not happy with the original protocol. But we have made significant changes over the last few months. I think the output that we've virtually finalized today is good for the Cup, good for challengers, and I think we're all looking forward to getting back in the water racing."

Goodness gracious, Sir Keith.

Perhaps somebody has been passing around the wrong information about your thoughts and ideas.

Nevertheless, here are your soundbites, then and now, about America's Cup:

In September last year: We do not believe that the new Protocol will have a negative impact on the future of the

America

’s Cup. To the contrary we believe it provides a platform for further growth and some real opportunities for those who decide to challenge.

Today, after fronting for video interviewers as a booster of AC33: We were not happy with the original protocol.

My dear Sir Keith.

We respect and admire your commitment to America's Cup.

But some may say, as they examine your comments then and now, that you have acceded entirely to Ernesto Bertrelli (SUI)'s demands.

As a result, they may say, you are positioning TeamOrigin entirely within Ernesto's purview.

This is good for Ernesto, obviously.

But is this good for Britain?

Saying one thing, and then saying another, is this how Britain does business?

A profoundly unhappy day

2008-12-12T16:34:00.000-08:00

Here we are, three days from the 'announcement' of the 'new protocol' for America's Cup 33.

Plus or minus 20 teams -- whatever -- have entered, paid the fee, or are having their entries scrutinized before these are accepted or denied.

Golden Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco (GGYV), host club of Larry Ellison (USA)'s BMWOracle team, has declined the opportunity to enter AC33.

Moving forward, Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), head of Alinghi, together with Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) and Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV), the challenger of record, today orchestrated a pow-wow in Geneva to further 'modify' the protocol and guarantee three sailing events in 2009, with a grander event(s) to follow.

All of us have watched interviews with participating spokespersons who are comfortable and contented and happy moving forward. Good fellows!

But whatever has been decided, whatever the new committee rules may be, and whatever the new class rule -- this is a profoundly unhappy experience for the rest of us, including devotees of a better kind of America's Cup, American partisans, and sane, sensible, rational people who think that things are not quite right in the state of Denmark.

On one level, Ernesto Bertarelli won AC32 through magnificent teamwork, great commitment, and competitive sailing on the days that mattered. Nobody denies their victory. Kudos to Ernesto's charisma, leadership and management -- on the water, and on the hard.

And the event in Valencia was simply fabulous; it rivalled, maybe even exceeded the excitement of Auckland, San Diego and Perth, combined. It was brilliantly staged, beautifully managed, and a great emotional experience, just to be there.

But in the annus horribilis that followed, our emotions and spirits plummeted.

We all know the details of the saga that unfolded and how it ripped the sport apart -- dividing the world's most passionate and devoted sailors on both sides of the issue.

It's been one helluva year.

What was good today, is that hundreds of professional sailors and their families can look forward to 2009 with a reasonable degree of confidence -- the determinations of the New York courts, early next year, notwithstanding.

What truly hurt today, is the idea of 20 happy teams, cheerfully bundling into the meeting room, abandoning any sense of independence and national honor -- in fact, enthusiastically divesting those ideals -- in order to submit to Ernesto's grand plan.

Doing so, they not only accepted his god-like power and signed his extraordinary paperwork, but eminently agreed to do whatever he says to do, and achieve whatever he wants to achieve, frankly, whether they actually believe in it, or not.

Certainly, they participated in today's handy, dandy little joie d'work. And they publicly congratulated themselves for making 'contributions' to the protocol. And they plan to continue the happy work.

But they ignore the everpresent, unpleasant reality that they have submitted themselves, totally and completely, to regime rule defined by Ernesto's sense of grace and favor.

Grace and favor is an ancient European concept where kings and queens, entirely through the power of their majesty -- allow 'favored' individuals the 'grace' to live in special places, enjoy certain privileges, and be protected from adverse influences -- like the pressures of real life.

All these individuals have to do is say yes, and check their independence at the door.

Ernesto has granted His Grace and Favor to 20 teams, more or less.

They must totally and completely accept what Ernesto says, play by his rules entirely -- and only have leave to pray, earnestly if they can, that his benefice will allow them some modicum of debate over whatever follows and whatever may occur. Even if that includes their arbitrary and capricious eviction from the event, for whatever reason Ernesto desires, regardless.

The downward-spiralling fact is: they have zero power.

They have zero control.

They live and die according to Ernesto's will.

Ernesto commands the Cup completely.

Entrants have no recourse, whatever, over anything that really matters, if it comes to that.

Of course, in the preliminary stages -- like now -- ground will be given by the Prince, but only ground he wants to give.

Concessions may be made by the Prince, but only concessions that mean nothing to him.

Accommodations will be afforded, but only accommodations that cost him nothing.

Otherwise, Ernesto's grace and favor rules.

Maybe it's some sense of European tradition that allows proud, independent people to submit totally to an authority like a Swiss billionaire.

It's understandable that European teams are able to accept a state of affairs of this kind.

After all, most Europeans grew up in nations where kings ruled, where kings and queens still are heads of state, and inevitably, where the upper strata, defined by blood, money or commerce, not just hold power, but hold themselves above the rest of us.

It's hard to understand how good, egalitarian Kiwis can submit to this (although we know that Kiwis just love to sail).

It's not hard to understand how this drives Americans to the point of insanity.

In 1776, an emerging nation repudiated this kind of majestic over-reaching and set new ground rules for how decent, proud, independent Americans should live their lives.

Honor, independence, and truth drive how Americans think, even today.

There are oceans and centuries of difference between how Americans like Golden Gate Yacht Club and BMWOracle think
-- and how the House of Alinghi thinks.

Ernesto is deaf, dumb and blind to this.

And probably doesn't care.

As fellow Europeans follow meekly and obsequiously, hat in hand.

As Kiwis figure out how to get back on the water, and leave any unpleasantness behind.

And as Americans withdraw, prepare to do whatever the New York courts decide, and refuse to bow or bend the knee to the Prince Across the Water.

That's it, folks!

2008-12-08T20:05:00.000-08:00

Commodore Marcus Young (USA) of the Golden Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco (GGYC) today threw an extraordinarily huge spanner into the works of America's Cup 33.

It's pretty clear why, on two fronts, both affronts.

One, Commodore Young and his committee are absolutely sick to death of Alinghi (SUI)'s posturing, earnest proclaiming, and pretentious pontificating about GGYC and BMWOracle (USA)'s challenge when, in fact, as the entire sailing world knows, Alinghi, Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) and Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV) are (i) a pathological disaster area, (ii) self-dealing, slimy actors, and (iii) a paranoid passel of somewhat public, but mostly anonymous and vacuous ne'r-do-wells severely under the influence, majesty, and generosity of Ernesto, the Prince of Alinghi, a sad figure.

In other words, nothing about this consortium or its intentions are true, above board, or sincere. It's fake.

Two, GGYV obviously has had a g***ful of the secrecy, the protectiveness, and the paranoia that have accompanied Alinghi's secretive, pompous 'preparations' for America's Cup 33, which everyone knows are fatuous and deserve to be denigrated for exactly what they are, which are pathetic, childish and cheezy steps to diffuse, dissemble, and delay before Ernesto is required to do anything financially, or build any kind of boat, or secure a base (Valencia), or recruit sponsors of any kind (all of whom are rapidly disappearing from the stage). In his present state, there is nothing about any of this that he can possibly afford or achieve.

In other words, nothing about what Alinghi is doing or saying has any reality. It's fiction.

Previously, Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) even tried to set legal parameters for the dismissal of the Deed of Gift race. You've seen the evidence (see posts below). Everything they did to achieve this tells all of us they aren't serious about America's Cup. Nobody in the alpine nation can afford anything about the America's Cup, especially now. They are losing everything, including the moral high ground, and they are desperate to control it.

What's the outcome?

If Alinghi self-destructs, which is what bad actors always do, and what Alinghi also will assuredly do, look for GGYC and Larry Ellison, Chief of BMWOracle, to sue in the appropriate court in New York (Cory Friedman Esq.'s esteemed backyard) for the current holder of the America's Cup to be declared invalid for an assortment of reasons, including their failure to pursue the plain-spoken, clear and unequivocal requirements of the Deed of Gift regarding present and future challenges.

And look for an America's Cup to be resolved by an assortment of agreements and understandings, which we believe would be fair, reasonable, honorable, consistent with tradition, realistic, and idealistic (for the benefit of the late George Schuyler (USA), author of the Deed of Gift). It would even involve bringing the great sportsmen of Alinghi back into the contest as sober, honest, realistic, and pragmatic competitors.

Winning the cup is one thing. Managing its future is another. Alinghi beware.

Our legal friends had better start brushing up on the DOG.

This will be a long haul.

"My dear Russell ... "

2008-12-02T19:33:00.000-08:00

Muy senor mio.

Please believe me, Sir, you are the greatest sailor on the planet, by a league, you are a genius. You are la Copa America.

(Coutts rises abruptly and looks for something heavy and clublike)

All we need to create the greatest sailing event on the planet, carino mio, is you.

(Coutts looks helplessly around the room)

Just think, you and the Prince himself, sailing together. Perhaps we join you. Alinghi himself, he told me he wants you there. Without you, he said we are just barges in a canal.

(Coutts looks for his cell, but realizes they haven't been invented yet)

Perhaps you are a barge, Russo. I am a canal. But I digress.

(Coutts tears down a tapestry from the wall)

Your honor and character, Russell, that is what we must consider. The world is looking to see that you are a gentleman. The dear Prince said you were an iluminador, and told me to tell you so. He said you do not belong in the world of darkness. You belong here with us, with Alinghi and the alpine people! Sail with us, mi tesoro! Compete! Challenge us!

(He tears the fabric into a long thin strip)

I will sail with you. I will find a vessel, and command its crew, and we will run with you, my spinnaker billowing. Think of it!

(Slowly, he wraps the strip around each hand, left and right)

As the sun sets, I see vessels approaching the line. The angels are singing! The sun's red gold rays illuminate the sky! Heroes are throwing themselves into oblivion!

(She closes her eyes in rapture. Coutts steps forward)

As I dream, I see you there, mi cielo, standing proudly. I see the Prince. He is proud. I see you both. I love you both. I cannot tell ...

(He throws two loops around her neck)

Ahh! So you embrace me, Russo . . . ?

Key words: Menial, slavish, subserviant, attentive, compliant, deferential, groveling, obedient, servile, sick, submissive, abject, sycophantic, flattering, cringing, submissive.

References: The cringing servant, a character by Niccolo Machiavelli.

Comment: Everything you ever thought about the Prince and the House of Alinghi is true.

Notes: Beware fetid Ayre.

We are thankful

2008-11-25T19:31:00.000-08:00

We know you are, too.

For all those who are away from home this week, Happy Thanksgiving!

We know you are doing what you need to do to honor your nation, and sustain your families.

You serve all of us. And we are thankful.

For everyone else on the planet, who may be wondering what this grand Thanksgiving event is about. Well, it's about everything.

It's about the foundation of a great nation.

It's about a belief in liberty and freedom.

It's about truth, in all its forms.

It's about the beliefs that bind Americans not just in truth, but in fairness, honor, honesty, pride, humility, trust, integrity, reason, respect, and faith.

Yes, it's emotional.

Yes, it's 'over the top'.

But, yes, absolutely, it's what America is about.

People like Larry Ellison (USA), chief of BMW Oracle, understand this.

People like Ernestro Bertarelli (SUI), chief of Alinghi, do not understand this.

That's why, ultimately, great honesty will prevail.

This is what it's all about

2008-11-03T19:45:00.000-08:00

Remember this?

Just in case you were thinking this world has shifted, moved, or fallen from sight, this fabulous video (one of many online) reminds us what America's Cup (AC) is all about.

AC32 was the best America's Cup ever. This clip is a great piece of that great event.

Whatever your perspective, AC32 was undoubtedly the best, most balanced, most equitable event in AC history. Every nation or team that competed in the event won.

Every sailor who competed, and felt the thrill of the event, won.

AC32 proved that America's Cup is an event that attracts all of us. And not just those who love beautiful boats racing on open water courses, but all of us who love sports.

We admire Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI) for his leadership in making this happen. Except for the event in New Zealand, there has never been a better America's Cup.

That's why the next AC contest must happen soon, now if possible, or even before that.

Two people can make it happen again, for all of us, and for fans around the world.

Ernesto Bertarelli and Larry Ellison (USA).

Let's encourage both of them.

All of us are hanging on what they say, and what they decide.

Larry has a boat. Where is Ernesto's?

2008-10-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

On September 8, 2008, Pierre-Yves Firmenich (SUI), Commodore, and Alan Touriner (SUI), Secretary General of Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), despatched a letter to Commodore Marc Young (USA) of Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC).

In this letter, SNG concluded that GGYC had put themselves in a position where their challenge for an America's Cup Deed of Gift (DOG) race was inalterably "void and invalid," and that SNG had no other alternative than to conclude that GGYC had "waived its challenge."

Therefore the DOG event was dead.

SNG's argument identified GGYC's failure to provide a "custom house-registry of the vessel" -- which apparently was BMWOracle's amazing raptor trimaran.

Read the letter (here).

Does SNG's letter sound like a yacht club that is aggressively building, or has built, or has designed, is designing, will build, soon will build, or ultimately will build a competitive vessel to meet GGYC's nominated team (in an extraordinary raptor 90-by-90 trimaran) in a Deed of Gift race?

We don't think so. We don't think SNG is building anything other than . . . lunch.

On the one hand, we have eminently worthy members of the Alpine Yacht Club (SNG) seeking to eliminate a competitor on the basis of flimsy paper evidence.

On the other, we have a serious competitor (GGYC) who has built an extravagantly brilliant vessel and is ready to sail and compete.

Look at it this way.

If you already had a fabulous, competitive vessel under construction, somewhere on the cold water lakes of the Alpine nation, and you felt you had a chance to win, would you be seeking to legally neuter your competitor and keep everything quiet? Destroy them legally? Remove them from the stage, by any means possible?

No, we don't think so. You would be challenging, threatening, and baiting your competitor. One sailor to another.

After all, if you had a competitive vessel, you would be ready to clean their clock.

But if you had no boat, no plans to build a boat, and you were out of funds, and you were afraid of losing any kind of multihull race, and you wanted to delay any kind of reality, any kind of truth, and therefore any kind of reasonable discussion among reasonable people, then you would probably ask M. Firmenich and M. Tournier to write a letter to GGYC.

Here it is again, the (letter).

We think the Little Prince of Alinghi, Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), and his yacht club (SNG) are out of bullets, out of desire, out of ambition, and frankly, have left the DOG series behind.

They want to ignore it, and make it a myth.

They think M. Firmenich and his cohorts, actually, can clear the decks.

Therefore, there's no need whatsoever for them to worry about the DOG.

Given that, Brad Butterworth (NZL), Alinghi skipper, has been charged with making a "new" AC33 happen -- with new teams, new rules, new class rules, new agreements.

What other proof do you need that the DOG is dead?

Not much.

However, if for some reason we are wrong about SNG's multihull, or about the slate-cleaning "new" AC33, one question remains -- has anyone on the planet seen Alinghi's Deed of Gift boat?

We don't think so.

We think the DOG is dead.

We would love to be proved wrong.

Ernesto's ship in the night

2008-10-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

So where is it?

Who is building it?

What are they building?

Where are they building it?

Has anyone seen it?

Does anyone know anyone who's seen it?

Does it really exist?

If so, please describe it.

Please tell us what you've seen.

Tell us what you know.

Tell us what somebody has told you.

Incontrovertibly, the big, huge, ugly fact here is that nobody knows exactly what is happening with this mythical vessel, or even if it exists.

But assuredly, Ernesto knows.

And if you were the Mother of All Ernestos, we are confident that you wouldn't be able to keep your multihull a secret.

You would be rubbing the fear, fact and threat of it in your competitor's nose.

But are we seeing this from Ernesto?

I don't think so.

You don't think so, either.

If you do, let's hear from you.

By their marks you will know them

2008-10-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

Letter writing. An ancient pastime, and today, despite the unbiquitous cellphone, an everpresent necessity.

In the 18th century, we know that Thomas Jefferson wrote like a man possessed to everyone he knew. Today we text and email everyone we know, even people we don't know. Or we blog. And as every lawyer on the planet still advises, we put it in writing. Often, our lawyers write those put-it-in-writing letters.

Well, Larry (Ellison, USA) and Ernesto (Bertarelli, SUI) are engaging in a duel, long distance. Weapon of choice, the pen. The sentiments expressed, somewhat bizarre.

At least, Larry's letter (October 17, 2008) was dignified and reasonable, re-stating his simple premise (let's go back to the provisions of America's Cup 32, or similar), and yes, he agreed, one new boat is plenty for all of us in this challenging economic environment.

But, Larry added, significantly, I really don't like the idea that you, Ernesto, would gain an unfair advantage by sailing in the Challenger Series with the rest of us.

So Larry offered two ways to mitigate that unfairness. Both were reasonable; one more reasonable than the other.

Ernesto's turn comes next. He writes his letter (undated).

Like a blogger, Ernesto goes full bore into rant mode. Aided and abetted, we are sure, by faithful attorney retainers and loyal sailing friends lollygagging in the halls of Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), he rages.

In a letter designed to be reviewed by lawyers in a future discovery, and admitted into evidence in some court, somewhere, some time in the future, the Little Prince ignores the truth of Larry's courtly missive. Ernesto hauls out of his Dead Man's Chest a litany of grievances, including the singularly absurd "having".

We would like to remind Ernesto that "having" is dead. "Having" was wrong from the beginning. Millions have been spent on "having". Having said that, however, we remind Ernesto that, on the day it counted, Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV) did not have an annual regatta, never had an annual regatta, and had no plans for having, or ever having an annual regatta. Apunto.

Then, Ernesto rails about BMW Oracle (USA)'s failure to provide a 'valid certificate' and 'custom house registry' for, presumably, the team's magnificent raptor trimaran designed for the supposed Deed of Gift (DOG) race. Are we serious?

Next, Ernesto asserts a Big Lie, a Whopper, a huge Bruta Figura, as big as any Big Lie in America's Cup history, ever.

"You require two boats," Ernesto fantastically and falsely asserts. "Requiring two full crews and the support staff for two boat testing." He pursues this absurd canard for three paragraphs.

As everyone knows, Larry said nothing of the kind in his letter. He said quite the opposite. He agreed that one boat makes sense.

Not to be left undone, Ernesto then disses and dispenses with the famous Version 5 boat, asserting that a new boat has been mandated by that somewhat curious assortment of former-previous-earlier-sometime America's Cup 33 challengers.

This is a wedge inserted into the debate by Ernesto to achieve three objectives:

(1) Diminish next year's Louis Vuitton Pacific Series (being sailed in venerable Version 5 boats)

(2) Prevent an orderly, economical and efficient transformation of AC32 into AC33 in Version 5 boats -- which would jump start the series and employ hundreds of people -- for only one reason: that's what Larry recommends, not Ernesto

(3) Kill any possibility of a DOG contest -- Ernesto hasn't built, isn't building, isn't planning to build, and never will build a 90-foot-by-90-foot Swiss-made raptor trimaran. And, in fact, he probably can't afford to build anything bigger than a Version 5 boat and probably would prefer to build less, like no boat at all.

Actually, the big, bruising, elephantine fact in the room is obvious. Ernesto has no sponsors and no money. To remain a viable player, he must kill the humongously expensive DOG challenge (and those extravagant 90-foot trimarans). He must also kill that America's Cup event formerly known as AC33 -- particularly if it's reconfigured in Version 5 boats -- because accepting V5 boats means accepting a return to AC32. And that just doesn't work for Ernesto. For money reasons, he'd probably also prefer to sail something like his old, cold water trimaran on Lake Geneva. And Larry would have to find, build or repurpose one of those. Ha!

The rest of Ernesto's letter is the Dreamland of the Little Prince.

We won't be changing anything about the AC33 Protocol, he says to Larry. So drop everything, particularly everything in the New York courts, and then come into AC33, bow to me, grant me everything, and become a submissive competitor, just like everyone else. Then, if you are nice, and everyone else is nice, perhaps we can discuss the class rules.

For heaven's sake, Ernesto.

Like a little boy starved of peers and playmates, the Little Prince invents games of his own imagining and devises rules that favor only himself, and queers the pitch, and dissembles and discombobulates, in order to emerge, by dinner time, without competition or a serious challenge, a hero.

This is what the entire America's Cup world is dealing with.

Ernesto is a basket case.

It's time to pull the plug on his paranoid delusions.

If you were wondering about that clinical reference, by the way, a paranoid delusion is 'a fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact'.

Some pundits say, it's time to wrap up, Ernesto.

We say, it's time to wrap up Ernesto.

A masterstroke by Ernesto?

2008-10-21T17:15:00.001-07:00

Just when Team New Zealand (NZL) and BMW Oracle (USA) have committed four America's Cup Version 5 boats to the LVMH Pacific Cup challenge organized by Bruno Troublé (FRA) to be held on the Hauraki Gulf in Auckland, New Zealand, in February 2009, the Prince of Alinghi slams the Daughter of All Challenges onto the bone dry, dusty hard of the Valencia lagoon.

"Sail this!" says Ernesto Bertarelli of Alinghi (SUI), as he chokes, chortles and collapses on the ground, dissolving in maniacal laughter, in awe of the strategic genius and decision-making cojones of Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV).

"Or, if you prefer," Ernesto adds, "go sail down under!"

We don't know what the Italo-Swiss is for maniacal laughter, but it goes something like this: "Hahahahahahaha!!!"

The inestimable CNEV, that very pastiche of a Spanish yacht club, is having for its annual regatta a contest to be competed in America's Cup Version 5 boats on an ocean water course off that arm of the sea, the Valencia lagoon. It's open for any AC team still standing, still available, and still not committed (or having shipped their boats) to compete in Auckland.

If you are already en route to the Thunder Down Under, the Affair in Valencia is Out of the Question -- logistically, if not honorably.

You have to hand it to the Little Prince. He has a sense of humor.

Yet the sad, sick, pathetic little aspects of this noisemaker event are also evident, as always in anything that has to do with Ernesto, CNEV, and the Alpine Mammoth in the Room, Société Nautique de Genève (SNG).

As critics are saying, it lacks integrity -- not worthy of the hefty Top Class ranking generously and inexplicably assigned by the Royal Spanish Yachting Federation (RFEV).

Fusion and confusion?

The head of CNEV, Manuel Chirivella, a squirrelly figure, apparently is also head of the technical commitee of -- gasp! -- RFEV, who are, curiously, co-organizers of the regatta.

We wonder if this is the kind of sporting event up with which the King of Spain will not put.

Ernesto and Larry blinked

2008-10-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

It's exceptional that rumors about a genuine settlement are circulating.

Put it down to this.

Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI) is finished -- no more options, no more funds, no more sponsors, no more rules, no more lawyers, no more ways to compete in the Courts of New York. But with a loyal Yacht Club and good friends, including a loyal Alinghi team, led by Brad Butterworth of Te Awamutu (NZL), and sailing pals, and loyal friends in the alpine nation.

Larry Ellison (USA) is finished -- a raptor trimaran, 90-feet x 90-feet, and huge legal bills. But with a loyal sponsor partner in BMW, a loyal Yacht Club, a ready team, including a passionate and competitive skipper, Russell Coutts (NZL) and sailing pals, and a brillaint, passionate, loyal, creative, and persistent consigliere, Tom Ehman (USA), who has to be The Bulwark of the America's Cup.

We have our fingers crossed.

Ready to salute both giants.

Having

2008-10-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

This is getting to be very tiresome.

We have explained this before.

Even Cory Friedman, Esq. struggles with this, as do the lawyers at Latham & Watkins. But 'having' has wormed its corrupt way into the proceedings, and there it sticks. Everyone is trying to eradicate it.

We are only going to do this one more time.

If you want to know where we're coming from, click here.

Having was, and still is a red herring. In fact, it's now a big, fat stinking red herring, stuck in the bilges of the complaints and briefs of the Courts of New York, unable to be removed or eradicated, filling the world with reeking odors.

Having queered the pitch.

Having was just a word for George Schuyler, author of the Deed of Gift of the America's Cup.

Whatever he wrote (and he authored his quaint phrase for a reason), what he meant was: "having an open water course on the sea for its annual regatta."

His ancient, stately phrasing was designed to place a special emphasis on "an open water course on the sea", in order to deter a Canadian would-be challenger who sailed in cold water waters.

Apparently, the Canuck was a challenger too coarse or too commonplace for the salt water sailors of America's Cup.

As we said earlier, the meat of the matter is "its annual regatta".

'Having' is about the present. No question. Do you have an annual regatta? Meaning now.

'Its annual regatta' is about your annual regatta -- and 'its' assumes you have one. Do you have one?

Just read Schuyler's sentence, grab Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV) by the throat, and ask the simple question:

Do you have an annual regatta?

If you are CNEV, on the day the question was asked, your answer is no.

That's it.

That's all he wrote.

Read Golden Gate Yacht Club's appeal

2008-09-29T19:40:00.000-07:00

Sailing Scuttlebutt's esteemed authority Cory Friedman, Esq. will undoubtedly adjudicate the appeal by Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), but you should take an hour or two to read the appeal by Latham & Watkins of New York, attorneys for GGYC, or read the summary of the appeal published on the GGYC website.

Mary Mahoney, an attorney at Latham, folks say, is a force behind the appeal.

It's extraordinarily well written, as we imagine legal documents should be (although we defer to Mr. Friedman's assessment of the legal aspects). To the casual and intelligent observer, however, the case made by GGYC is enlightening.

It's not built on legal abstractions.

It's the Deed of Gift, stupid.

George Schuyler, author of the Deed of Gift, says GGYC, wrote an extraordinarily simple and clear document, and was twice asked to clarify certain conditions by the New York Yacht Club, into whose hands he placed his Trust. He complied with their requests, strengthening provisions that have to do with prospective challengers.

Apparently, he strengthened an already strong deed.

GGYC's appeal stresses the simplicty and clarity of the Deed, urging the New York State Court of Appeals to stay within the confines -- the four corners -- of the Deed and to respect Schuyler's open, honest and clear intent.

And the references in GGYC's appeal, interestingly, cite trust law, which is a rich turf for lawyers in New York, and which in this case, relate to the Deed of Gift as a trust, which of course it is.

Nothing about this historic document is absurd or inexplicable, says GGYC, nor can it possibly be construed to mean that a door is left wide open for slackers, never-do-wells, or faux yacht clubs.

Schuyler thought his document through with sincerity, offered plain detail, and within his simple construction, lawyers say, truth can be found.

Not that this will mean anything to Alinghi (SUI), sailing team of Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), defending yacht club of the America's Cup.

Nevertheless, Alinghi and SNG are probably concerned about the prospective judgment of the New York Court of Appeals.

Perhaps that's why Alinghi's chief Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI) met with Larry Ellison (USA) of BMW Oracle, sailing team of Golden Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco, this weekend.

Perhaps they have already reviewed GGYC's appeal.

Perhaps their lawyers are urging discussion.

Meanwhile, those same Alinghi lawyers are trying to 'invisiblize' the Deed of Gift (DOG) race in 90-foot multihulls, principally because they don't have a multihull, they aren't building one, and won't ever have a 90-foot multihull to enter, ever, wherever any DOG race will be held.

Not that they will ever admit that.

However, if you happened to be in their situation, you would probably bust a gut to prove that the DOG contest is a myth and that no response shipbuildingwise is necessary -- which is exactly what Alinghi lawyers are trying to prove.

Meanwhile, the GGYC's appeal should send a chill down the spine of even the most heartiest SNG members.

If I were Alinghi, I would scamper back to Valencia, and reset the clock to July 4, 2007.

Then I would behave myself, do the right thing, and keep my fingers crossed.

'Cordial' and 'Positive' sound rather like exit strategies

2008-09-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

A meeting was held. It was decided to hold another meeting.

Larry Ellison (USA) chief of BMW Oracle, sailing team of San Francisco's Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), and Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), Prince of the Alinghi team of Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), met over the weekend in California.

BMW Oracle reported the talks as 'cordial', and offered to withdraw from the Courts of New York if America's Cup 33 was conducted as a multi-nation event along the lines of AC32.

Alinghi reported the talks as 'postive', and assured the world both teams share a passion for sailing, on the water, and hope to resume that soon.

Meanwhile, nothing happened.

Or a lot happened.

This may be the mating dance for an honorable, managed retreat for both parties.

For Alinghi, an escape from certain bankruptcy, given its total lack of sponsors for any kind of sailing event, anywhere, even P-Class dinghies on Lake Geneva for the grandchildren of members of SNG. And a tremendous relief from its bruta figura -- and humongous loss of face -- in failing to deliver a 90-foot multihull for a Deed of Gift race that its lawyers are now scrambling to prove cannot possibly exist.

And for BMW Oracle, an opportunity to depart the New York legal system, hopefully forever, effectively terminating a distracting, clattering fandango that has gone on far too long, too noisily, and undoubtedly cost far more than anyone ever intented, including the Plaintiff.

After all, the DOG race was a bold bluff by GGYC that SUI called. Both clubs have been living with the consequences ever since. Both, assuredly, are regretting decisions that were made when everyone was younger.

Now, the real question is -- actually there are four of them:

(1) When will AC33 happen, and where?

(2) Will teams sail existing AC32 boats, or build new designs?

(3) Will the attention and affections of Bruno Troublé of Louis Vuitton, AC Sponsor Emeritus, ever be recaptured, now that he has vested his passion, commitment and dollars in the new Louis Vuitton Pacific Cup, a cheerful reunion of AC32 participants to be staged in Auckland, New Zealand, in February 2009?

(4) If Louis Vuitton cannot return -- or elects not to return -- who on earth will step up?

What other agenda can there be?

A new protocol?

No, please, God forbid. Nobody is that insane.

Expect vituperation from Société Nautique de Genève (and from us, a prayer for the future)

2008-09-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

An aristocrat of the mountain nation's Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), Commodore Pierre-Yves Firmenich (SUI), and his executive, Secretary-General Alec Tournier (SUI), have engaged San Francisco's Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) in a letter-writing contest.

"You failed to provide timely certification of your horrendously huge trimaran, in accordance with the provisions of the blah, blah, blah," they wrote. "Now we have no alternative but to blah, blah, blah; and then blah, blah,blah" they concluded.

Shots across the bow.

GGYC's courteous and restrained Commodore Marcus Young replied in similar terms, without ad hominem tactics or threats. And he promised a civil disengagement from whatever obliged GGYC to whatever, at some point in the proceedings, somewhere in there, somewhere along the line, somehow.

Which is fine.

Superficially, it looks like a dance among commodores.

From the alpine people, however, don't misunderstand the intention.

It's a dance to delay, confuse and diffuse the fact they don't have a trimaran of 90-feet, they aren't building a trimaran of 90-feet, and they have no intentions of building a trimaran of 90-feet. Period.

For our friends at GGYC, it's a step to disengage from their obligations as Challenger of Record, in whatever contest they were challening, wherever it was staged, or why, in order to compete and achieve something, somehow.

Can you keep track of this?

Regardless, we can be sure that the next brickbat in this engagement will be a vituperative onslaught from the noisemaker at SNG, His Earnestness, Vice Commodore Fred Meyer (SUI).

The Vice Commodore will harass GGYC's sailing team, BMW Oracle, for failing to win on the water, preferring instead to sail in the Courts of New York.

He will fire a phosphorus flare at Russell Coutts (NZL), skipper of BMW Oracle, just so he can pay a tidy Swiss insult to the Kiwi sailor.

Then, as per usual, he will disappear until the next onslaught.

The fact is, there's no Alinghi trimaran. And there never will be.

The House of Cards factor is that the Cold Water Yacht Club (SNG) is ever-so-slowly collapsing, thanks to a paucity of defensive strategies.

Pretty soon, we project, we will see the rubbing of SNG's hull on the hard shallow stones of the foreshore of reality.

SNG are pooped. AC is pooped, likewise. And GGYC is trying to do everything they can to salvage something out of this, as they watch Louis Vuitton's Bruno Troublé (FRA) defect to Auckland, New Zealand, to stage some wonderful AC32-style pyrotechnics in the one city down under that still loves America's Cup.

Given the heated penmanship, GGYC remains the intelligent participant, we aver. And SNG is fighting a defensive, losing battle.

Our greatest fear, sadly, is that public opinion will diss America's Cup as a wretched excess, a collossal failure, and a calamity of pride, and then depart the stage, muttering silently.

Our prayer is a simple one.

Ernesto stop. Larry stop. All nations, stop. Courts stop. Vice Commodore Myer stop.

Let's have a fabulous AC33 in re-engineered old boats in Valencia. Let's have a great time in the sun in Spain, as soon as humanly possible. Next year, if possible.

Then, together, let us build the biggest, scariest AC34 ever. The biggest, rangiest boats ever. No holds barred!

(Even if we have to take Bruno Troublé to lunch to explain that he can, personally, for his fabulous company LVMH, usher into existence -- not the re-entry of an artifact from sailing history -- but a new standard that changes the competitive sailing world as we know it, and moves naval architecture and innovative yacht design to an absolutely higher plane.)

Which is good.

But first, please, AC33.

Please.

Auckland, City of Sails

2008-09-17T17:49:00.000-07:00

Well, except for a branded spinnaker, some of those sails will soon belong to Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL).

In Auckland this summer (winter for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere), inshore, on the Hauraki Gulf, those fabulous ETNZ workhorses -- NZL92 and NZL84 -- will carry crews from five or more America's Cup teams, in pursuit of a wonderful prize sponsored by Louis Vuitton.

This isn't the America's Cup. This isn't an ersatz America's Cup.

This is a genuine, authentic, and celebratory way for the world's finest America's Cup sponsor, Louis Vuitton, and their sailor leader, Bruno Troublé (FRA), to raise the flag for sailing passion, sportsmanship, and enthusiasm in an AC world that has been dull as ditchwater, and enormously confusing, for months.

Best of all, it will allow AC brands like Emirates, BMW Oracle, and many others (and we hope Alinghi (SUI)) to return to the water, employ crews, come together, enjoy the spirit and camaraderie of AC racing -- AC32 style -- to reward their sponsors, earn some money, perhaps win, and do so in the Valencia of the South -- Auckland, New Zealand.

Instead of oranges as the juice for this event, think kiwifruit. And perhaps a little beer.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, an AC fan, has authorized the investment of $NZ750,000 to support the series. Similarly, the Hon. John Banks, Mayor of Auckland and former New Zealand Minister of Sport, has offered the support of his city, its agencies, and the oceans of volunteers required for the event.

In Auckland, these volunteers won't be hard to find. In fact, it will be difficult to keep every Aucklander onshore. Most will insist on being on the water.

Kudos and congratulations must be given to Bruno Troublé and Grant Dalton (NZL), who apparently engineered this. And the French luxury brand, LVMH, must be given Great Kudos for their support of Bruno Troublé in his untiring commitment to first class sailing, great sportsmanship, great teammanship, and great competition. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark completes the hierarchy. As do the people of Auckland, who will make this fabulous event a fabulous experience. Believe me.

Perhaps the extraordinary spirit of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Cup will also return passion -- and competition -- and fairness -- and reality -- to AC33, 34 , 35, 36 . . .

Ernesto's Protocol of the Imagination

2008-09-15T17:08:00.000-07:00

You have to hand it to him.

The Prince of Alinghi, Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), is probably the best public relations diffuser on the planet.

Not only does he adeptly deflect criticism of his infamous, scorched-earth Protocol for the 33rd America's Cup with his answers in the Porto Cervo interview conducted by the Italian editors of the sailing website, Zero Gradi Nord, as reported by Valencia Sailing on Sept. 8, 2008.

But Ernesto, amazingly, also finds a way to dispense with the original 33rd Protocol itself and put in its place a Protocol of the Imagination, where every megalomaniacal detail is suppressed and a litany of pathetically tiny adjustments, forged by stunned AC33 hopefuls, takes center stage as the defining document for a sporting event that, the Prince despairs, was wrenched from his perfectly clean, sanctified hands by the egregious and despicable desires of Larry Ellison (USA), the litigiously obsessed head of BMW Oracle.

That Ernesto is capable of such extraordinary sleight of hand -- and can achieve it with such reckless abandon in the face of truth -- would be extraordinary, if it wasn't so chilling.

"What is it with this man?" we recently asked the chief executive of a major team sponsor in America's Cup 32.

"Something in his childhood," he replied.

Where is Alinghi's 90-footer?

2008-09-02T20:30:00.001-07:00

Certainly, they have a boat under construction.

Certainly, it has been designed, laid up, formed, constructed, laminated, shaped, smoothed, set, sealed, layered, painted, sealed, polished, and ...

Yet where is Alinghi's (SUI) vessel?

When will we see the Alinghi trident making its delicate, testing sailing ventures on Lake Geneva, where, assuredly, it was built.

We are all watching and waiting.

This is a boat (AC 33)

2008-08-27T20:46:00.000-07:00

It looks like a bird of prey.

It's BMW Oracle Racing (USA)'s new trimaran, 90 ft. x 90 ft., in a picture from their website.

It will prey upon Alinghi (SUI)'s trimaran, which none of us have ever seen.

We suppose the Prince of Alinghi (SUI) and his naval architects are designing and building -- or have designed and built -- a competitor that can match this condor-like vessel.

But we have heard nothing, not even from Alinghi voices. And we have seen nothing, not even fron Alinghi spies.

Strung out under the lines of the crane, this amazing raptor looks ready to soar and steal victories capturing meaty morsels for the Golden Gate Yacht Club (USA).

Perhaps Prince Ernesto has a vessel like this, hidden away in the yards of Lake Geneva, just as beautiful as this, and as beautifully built. Or perhaps he has one half the size, gathering moss, on a lake berth somewhere.

Soon, we shall hear.

It depends on what the meaning of "its" is

2008-08-04T18:44:00.000-07:00

The reversal of Justice Herman Cahn's ruling in the New York Supreme Court in favor of Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) over the acceptance of Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV) as Challenger of Record for America's Cup 33 is extraordinary.

The opinion authored by Justice Leland DeGrasse of the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division is a healthy reminder that lawyers, judges and law clerks are the last people on earth to consult about the English language.

Asserting that the reversal turns on the meaning of the accursed language "having for its annual regatta", Justice DeGrasse and his clerks drew some very strange conclusions and cited bizarre examples from literature. Bizarre is the word for it.

GGYC argued that "having" means "possesses"; the idea of having is possessive. Fine. But it can't be possessive, says DeGrasse. You can't possess a regatta. Are we serious?

The opinion then quotes disturbing literary examples to discuss the participle "having" and a participle's inherent lack of tense, which derives from its verb, not itself.

Bizarre, and meaningless, and irrelevant.

Writers know that if you encounter a writing challenge, throw Strunk at it. That's William Strunk, Jr.'s guide to plain writing, The Elements of Style (1918), edited and revised in the 1960s by E.B. White, a sailor, father of Joel White, naval architect.

So what did George Schuyler (author of the Deed of Gift) actually mean?

This is what he wrote -- and what everybody is debating -- "Any organized Yacht Club of a foreign country, incorporated, patented, or licensed by the legislature, admiralty, or other executive department, having for its annual regatta an ocean water course on the sea, or on an arm of the sea, or one which combines both, shall always be entitled to the right of sailing a match of this Cup, with a yacht or vessel propelled by sails only and constructed in the country to which the Challenging Club belongs, against any one yacht or vessel constructed in the country of the Club holding the Cup."

Apply Strunk's common sense. Eliminate extraneous data. This is what Schuyler meant:

Any organized Yacht Club having an ocean water course on the sea for its annual regatta shall always be entitled to the right of sailing a match of this Cup.

It's not about "having". That refers to the ocean water course.

The meat is "its annual regatta".

Apply Strunk again. Ask CNEV the simple question: Do you have an annual regatta?

The answer is no. Resoundingly, no.

It's that simple.

"Having" is a big, fat, red herring.

On the day it mattered, CNEV did not have an annual regatta, and had never had an annual regatta. And only considered organizing an annual regatta when the storm signals were hoisted.

GGYC needs Strunk.

Grant Dalton speaks truth to Bloomberg

2008-06-17T20:54:00.001-07:00

Interviewed yesterday by Bloomberg's Mike Schneider, Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) chief Grant Dalton (NZL) told it the way it is:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=amof5eS3fIt0

Summarizing major events in words everyone can understand, Grant spoke plainly about America's Cup. It's not about us (and all the other global teams) said Grant. It's about BMW Oracle (USA) and Alinghi (SUI). The rest of us, he said, aren't involved. And frankly, teams like mine (ETNZ), said Grant, are stuggling to keep things together.

Isn't that the truth about all this?

Somehow, BMW Oracle is trying to dispose of AC33 in the most expeditious way. Almost everyone in sailing wants that to happen, and fast.

But aren't all of us also majorly interested in how humongous 90-foot multihulls will actually square off in competition and race against each other?

Don't all of us want to watch this gross-out event?

Aren't we all excited about these big, huge, lumbering, but ultimately breathtakingly rapid, dangerous, and bizarre craft?

Of course we are.

Right now, everyone is working out in multihulls. Boats are capsizing. Skippers like Spithill and Coutts are competing against each other, everywhere.

All of them are preparing for what is, in fact, an incredible, futile and absurd waste of resources, manpower, energy, intelligence, sanity and common sense, all of it in pursuit of an ancient trophy in dispute.

And all of us will be there on the magical day, regardless, focused on the event, downloading images live-in-real-time, plundering online data, and calling friends to proclaim one victory or another.

We hate this and love this.

The Banana Boat!

2008-04-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

While it's just a few minutes after noon U.S. Eastern Standard Time, the pumpkin hour for April Fools jokes, kudos must be given to Pierre Orphanidis of Valencia Sailing for his brilliant report on the change of allegiance of BMW Oracle Racing (here).

A truly amusing diversion amid continuing disintegration of the America's Cup 32 fleet with Germany's take down of its AC33 program.

Well done, Pierre!

Suddenly, it's noisy again in Switzerland

2008-03-25T21:54:00.000-07:00

Over the past few days, there's been a lot of noise from the alpine nation.

Setting the stage, Justice Herman Cahn in New York hummed, or gently limned his decision into the ethos. Thank you, Justice Cahn.

And for a day or two, all was silent. Even Cory Freidman, Esq. (USA), that exceptional legal commentator, was silent.

But it was not to last.

Soon, the faxes and emails started flying.

And notably among the faxers and the statement-makers, Vice Commodore Fred Meyer (SUI) of Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), an otherwise highly partisan member of the Alinghi clan, wrote a surprisingly reasoned and sensible letter to the Commodore of the Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), in the manner of good and reasonable yacht club officials, inviting GGYC to participate in discussions to resolve the date of the Deed of Gift challenge between Alinghi and BMW Oracle. Very nice.

But it was not to last.

In his next breath, the Vice Commodore fired off an extraordinarily intemperate, vituperative letter to Russell Coutts (NZL), Oracle CEO and skipper, declaiming Oracle's inability to compete on the water and protesting their penchant for action in the courts.

The Vice Commodore may seem like a major player in America's Cup, and maybe he is, but in his printed communications he sounds like just another Alinghi noisemaker. A lot like the Prince of Alinghi himself, but without the clout. A lot like the flacks at America's Cup Management -- but with more clout? It's hard to tell.

The sad fact is, he demonstrates an extraordinarily cheezy, mean-spirited ability to make the worst kinds of comments, for all the wrong reasons, at a time when he should be conciliatory and constructive.

After all, SNG was creamed in the Court of the Deed of Gift.

And let me point out, just for the record, that the people Commodore Meyer declaims, directly and indirectly, including Larry Ellison (USA), chief of Oracle, Russell Coutts, CEO, and the good people of GGYC have never, ever, ever uttered such childish, defensive thoughts as his.

So who are the sportsmen here?

Vice Commodore Meyer evidently has forgotten or conveniently overlooked the fact that the New York Court that protects the Deed of Gift said, in effect, to the Principality of Alinghi, "You are out of line. You are wrong. We listened to you. We waited upon you. But you are wrong. You are totally wrong. Drop it. Forget it. Move on."

Meyer inevitably must face that fact.

He must also face the fact that his posture, tone of voice and language are unseemly, unwelcome, undignified and unsportsmanlike.

We pray he behaves like the gentleman he is in his meeting with Russell Coutts and Tom Ehman (USA), head of external affairs for Oracle, tomorrow.

Huge, challenging issues for Grant Dalton, Team New Zealand

2008-03-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

Grant Dalton (NZL) is a major player. He's a sailor (above, seen here, before sailing, during the Louis Vuitton semi-finals in Valencia in 2007). He has won and weathered round-the-world races. He resuscitated Team New Zealand from the ruptures, punctures and poor team management of his predecessors, including Kiwis who designed, built and launched the NZL boats that failed in 2003.

He has fronted up (a Kiwi term, meaning approached directly and spoke with honesty, openness and candor) to sponsors who had no previous connection with America's Cup sailing. And he successfully converted them to AC racing.

In his own, blunt, determined Kiwi way, he built a system, a philosophy, and a marvellous on board management style that puts function, energy, application, team work, performance and passion above emotion. Some say he even puts these values above enthusiasm.

But he has been successful in America's Cup, and he has built a leviathan.

Just what every Kiwi on the planet (sailor, fan, critic, journalist, sponsor, booster, blogger) could ever want from an America's Cup team. In some ways, Grant has reasserted New Zealand into the America's Cup.

But while Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) and Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI) and his entities, Team Alinghi and Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), are doing what they have to do, and while BMW Oracle Racing (BOR), presumably the official challenger for America's Cup 33, are doing what they have to do, other America's Cup teams are in major disarray.

Grant Dalton himself has had to let 30% of New Zealand team members seek alternative opportunities.

On the legal front, Grant is now dealing with efforts in Justice Cahn's New York Supreme Court (about breach of contract by Alinghi) and about anti-trust issues in America's Cup 33 in New York District Court (before a jury).

Grant and the New Zealand team attorney, Jim Farmer (NZL), are managing the two new lawsuits.

Grant will be knowledgeable about all issues, but above all, he will be determined to succeed.

He has to seek compensation for his perception of breach of contract by Bertarelli which his lawyers (lead by a Kiwi lawyer) entered into with Alinghi lawyers (lead by a Kiwi lawyer).

Then, he has to manage the humongous, new legal event from the amazing David Boise (of Boise, Schiller and Flexner of New York) in which Mr. Hammer (David Boise) has decidedly seen a Nail (Alinghi's possessive interest in possessing every aspect of the America's Cup), which he believes needs hammering.

Apparently, this new legal effort is funded by passionate, loyal Kiwis who are focused on Team New Zealand's freedom to compete, with honor and goodwill, in the greatest sailing event on the planet, and who believe that New Zealand should take a second seat to no-one as complicated decisions are posited, assessed, adjudicated and decided.

Grant Dalton is a great man in a difficult position.

According to many observers, his team is right in its assertions. Yet he must do very unpopular things (like pursuing lawsuits) to ensure that New Zealand's best interests are protected.

As he himself admits, he is a sailor. Not a lawyer.

And we are humongously glad of that. In fact, our heart goes out to him and his team as he protects them, protects New Zealand's involvement in America's Cup, and pursues what he and his colleagues believe is the right course for Team New Zealand.

There is nothing perfect, or ideal, here.

We give our support to Grant.

Going, going ... Gone(t)

2008-02-25T20:34:00.001-08:00

Well, it's over, even before it began.

Mr. Nicolas Gonet has (reluctantly) withdrawn his D35 entry from this year's event on Lake Geneva, depriving navigator Russell Coutts (NZL) of BMW Oracle Racing (BOR)'s involvement, and assuring that everything hums along, in a civil manner, on the cold water lake.

All the members of Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) apparently are now more comfortable than they were when the news was announced.

D35 on Lake Geneva is a special event for owner sailors. They created and shaped the event for fun, great sailing, and friendly competition.

That will continue, and if reports are true, without Bank Gonet's entry.

Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), a club member and D35 competitor was shown great sympathy by the sailing community.

We don't know if BOR's involvement was anything more than just a little financial support for Russell's fun on the lake.

Anyhow, good luck to SNG club members. Best wishes to Ernesto and his team. And perhaps Mr. Gonet will be encouraged to re-enter, and his fellow club members will welcome him back.

Honor (real or faux?), gentlemanly restraint, and much more to come on Lake Geneva

2008-02-20T19:43:00.000-08:00

Above, we see Bank Gonet's D35 multihull on Lake Geneva.

Who is Gonet? Read on.

Valencia Sailing today reported news from Alinghi (SUI) about the D35 multihull competition held among the rich and well-heeled on Lake Geneva, under auspices of several clubs, including guess who -- Société Nautique de Genève (SNG).

For those of you who haven't been paying attention to sporting events on Lake Geneva (which includes most of us), this is a multihull contest for a gold prize, which SNG club member Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI) won in 2007 -- the so-called Bol d'Or, a prize that 10 boats, owned mostly by SNG members, compete for over eight events.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Nicolas Gonet, scion of the multi-generational Swiss private bank Gonet, one of those magnificently private Swiss banks, famous for money, subtle power and utter discretion, and in Gonet's case, winner of the Bol d'Or prize in 2006, is planning to introduce BMW Oracle Racing into the D35 lake racing circuit in 2008.

That's BMW ORACLE RACING!!!

Gonet's navigator is Russell Coutts (NZL), for crying out loud. The D35 is a multihull. And BMW Oracle Racing is a concept that couldn't be more alien to this elegant, aristocratic, Swiss cold water event.

This is Lake Geneva. The Swiss elite. Private Swiss banks. SNG. Ernesto, himself.

And here comes ... LARRY!

According to the Alinghi news machine, Ernesto protests -- in a pin-stripe kind of way -- his fellow club member Nicolas Gonet's initiative to introduce BMW Oracle Racing to the elite circuit.

Ernesto professes concern that an enemy of SNG is joining the circuit. After all, Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), host club of Larry Ellison (USA)'s BMW Oracle Racing America's Cup Team, is currently engaged in litigation against SNG in Justice Herman Cahn's New York Supreme Court .

Yet Ernesto avers he will not protest.

This situation, he says, magnanimously, must be resolved 'on the water'.

Holy moley!!!

This is a whopper. We have only scant information. More to come!

Right ways, and wrong ways

2008-02-08T08:37:00.000-08:00

Few would doubt that the New York York Yacht Club (NYYC) would make a fine mega-trustee for the America's Cup.

But I'm sure even Commodore Charles Townsend, his board and NYYC members would agree: if we want to rule, we'd better form a team, build a boat and win the Cup.

Interestingly, Malin Burnham of San Diego and Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI) are both on the same page. Both want the NYYC involved in the Cup's future.

But Ernesto is the legitimate defender. He approached NYYC to discuss the Protocol, the event and its evolution -- with standing and honor.

Perhaps those who have a reason to be there should endorse Ernesto's initiative and find a way to join the discussions. That would be in the letter and spirit of the Cup.

The alternative? Piracy.

Sounds like hijacking

2008-02-05T21:11:00.000-08:00

The famous Malin Burnham, San Diego sailor, businessman and civic leader, who helped organize San Diego Yacht Club's America's Cup defenses from 1988 through 1995 and managed Dennis Connor's successful challenge in Australia in 1986-87, has come to the rescue of the America's Cup.

Let's hijack the event, he says.

Let's have New York Yacht Club petition the New York Supreme Court to corrupt the Deed of Gift and allow the legal defender (Société Nautique de Genève) only one right -- namely, to enter the next event.

Then, let's take America's Cup Management -- actually let's corrupt that, too -- and let's make it a non-profit organization. Let's stuff the board of directors with heavyweight worthies from all previous defenders, plus a member or two from each of the new challengers.

Let's give the new organization all the rights for everything, presumably now and forever, and let them do whatever they want, whenever they like, for whatever reason, just like the Olympics.

Brilliant!!

Here is an idea that advocates assumption of the dictatorship of the event, displacing the Prince of Alinghi, Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), and reinvesting it with a group of individuals, most of them veteran AC officials, under some vague and ill-defined authority that owes more to Captain Jack Sparrow of Disneyland than it does to the late, lamented and honorable George L. Schuyler.

Is nothing sacred?

Corrupting America's Cup because Ernesto ran away with it doesn't repair the damage.

That sounds eerily like 'we have to destroy this village in order to save it.'

America's Cup is dead.

2008-02-01T20:06:00.001-08:00

Nothing about America's Cup is happening.

It's a weird world of lawyers, cat designers, Ernesto (Bertarelli, SUI)'s silence, Larry (Ellison, USA)'s silence, and total silence from Brad Butterworth (NZL) and Russell Coutts (NZL), who are the uber-hired guns of Ernesto and Larry.

And we have heard nothing meaningful from their attorneys.

AC sailors and their families are thinking about educating their children, looking for alternative forms of revenue, praying for a resolution, and if they are lucky, preparing to sail big fat useless cats, trimarans or barges. But nobody knows for sure.

What we do know for sure is this:

(1) Ernesto never raised any kind of money to stage any kind of America's Cup 33.

(2) Period. (Full stop, for the rest of you.)

(3) That's the real reason why AC33 isn't happening in a dignified way.

(4) That's also why Ernesto has retreated to the courts, and has curiously and mysteriously disappeared and gone underground (where? The Alps? Martinique? South America?).

(5) Larry's team injected a multihull into their protest as a threat to force Ernesto to respond seriously, but as we subsequently discovered, Ernesto wasn't serious. Or actually was ultra canny.

(6) Ernesto called Golden Gate Yacht Club (USA)'s bluff.

(7) Now, maybe GGYC's language (about keels, hulls and barges) has thrown an unnecessary wrench into the works.

(8) Maybe catmarans are going to be it for AC33. Maybe not.

(9) Everything has warped into a weird world, and the rest of us are watching what happens on ValenciaSailing and Scuttlebutt and GGYC and Sail-world, rather than following what should really be happening on these sites which is about those big, beautiful boats being built for AC33.

(10) The sad fact is, America's Cup is in worse shape than ever.

(11) This huge, powerful event basically doesn't exist.

(12) It's dead.

(13) We may fuss about it. We may worry about it. We may blog about it. But the rest of the world actually has moved on -- legitimate journalists have removed America's Cup from their websites, focused on other sports, and gone elsewhere.

For example, The New York Times correspondent Christopher Clary (who did a great job during AC32) was last seen writing from Melbourne about the Australian Tennis Open (he did a great job).

If you are a sailor, you know that Olympic and other sailing agendas currently are more important than AC33. Just log into Sail-World and see.

Summer-down-under sailing events are filling all the online websites we visit.

Round-the-world challenges enthrall us.

AC33 stubbornly remains a non-event. It's about press releases from major players, learned assessments from uber-lawyers, blogfluff from the rest of us, and occasional sideline lobs from sailing bigwigs who have no jurisdiction over America's Cup.

It's all rather sad.

Nobody, nowhere, anywhere, for any reason, has anything substantive to say about America's Cup.

If we drain the swill pond, maybe something can happen. But we doubt it. Anyone who cares anything is fruitlessly centered on Justice Herman Cahn's New York courtroom, where maybe something will happen, sometime.

But probably even the great Cory Friedman, Esq. would admit it's going to be an elevation to an appeal court, somewhere in New York. God help us.

Meanwhile, the defender has no money. And never did.

Ernesto had no money to make an authentic AC33 happen because he never recruited new sponsors. And he blew away the only real sponsor that counts, Louis Vuitton.

So AC33 is deader than dead.

And AC34 has no viable reality, thanks to the confusion.

That means a lot of serious, rich and vested people must be thinking seriously about what America's Cup means, and whether or not it will ever mean anything again.

Frankly, that's up to Ernesto.

He is the man who committed the humongous bruta figura that started all this.