"The structure and rules of the
competition have encouraged them, or at least allowed them to drag the America Cup back into the weeds."
technology has clearly moved on since the last Americas Cup, attitudes have not. This Cup was billed as one for the TV and spectators. But the competitive egos of the team owners have meant the winning at any cost ethos has yet again prevailed. The structure and rules of the competition have encouraged them, or at least allowed them, to drag the America Cup back into the weeds. Now, the team owners might claim this behavior is only to be expected because the boats are such bleeding edge technology; or that the huge budgets at at fault; or even that the pressure to win sailing's most prestigious trophy is so great. But you only have to look at Formula One where all these factors are at play and get amplified by worldwide audience viewing figures in the tens of millions. They have, through strong control of the teams and the rules and the iron fist of Bernie Ecclestone, created a brilliant spectator sport. F1 is a global brand. Every year the rules are tweaked, to the dismay of the teams, to make the racing even more exciting but at the same time safer. Has the dream of a summer of racing died? So should we write off this 34th America’s Cup? Probably, yes. After the tragic Artemis accident the America’s Cup was at a crossroads. It could have picked the red pill. It could have reverted to the AC45’s which would have enabled 10 teams to compete in proven, equally matched and still spectacular boats. This would have given us a summer of Louis Vuitton racing with at least eight boats which the spectators could have started to follow. It would have delivered on every promises made to the City over the last three years. But egos prevailed and they chose the blue pill – and we have the AC72’s. The real deal. Before you all switch off, there is another, far more interesting competition taking place on San Francisco Bay this summer. It is the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup. Just looking at a few statistics gets the pulse racing: • The selection trials were held in November and 10 teams were selected. • The squads are all aged between 19 and 24 and must be from the same country. • Only six will make it onto the boat making crew selection highly competitive. • All the racing is in identical AC45s which as we know are physically demanding, so the teams are in the gym every day. These guys are are real media fodder: future stars, but also ripped athletes. The sailors are a highly motivated bunch - this is their chance to step up to the world stage using a previously unavailable “secret trap door”. “The route into the Cup has always been tough, but this will give a whole new generation of sailors the opportunity to get into the America’s Cup early in their sailing careers.” said Ben Ainslie - Oracle Team USA sailor and our sport's successful Olympian. The America’s Cup the spectators want to see. This will be a memorable event with all 10 boats fleet racing on the course at the same time. The racing will be close with no quarter given by any team. With the teams are pushing so hard there are bound to be capsizes, but as we have seen when the AC45s were used on the America’s Cup World
July 2013 33
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