"There will be stars discovered and we will see new media celebrities emerge as an inspiration to youth sailors around the world. There will be tears of joy and defeat. We will see raw emotion."
Series, they can generally be righted unscathed ready for the next race. Spectators aren’t really interested in the section of the wing, the angle of the daggerboard or the rig tensions. Just like Formula One, only the hardened enthusiasts are interested in the technical specifications of the cars' engines, the tyre pressures, the cylinder compression ratio or the turbo boost pressures. The general public are far more interested in the competition itself and the personalities of the team members. Their back story. Their hopes and fears. The gossip and intrigue. I think there will be stars discovered and we will see new media celebrities emerge as an inspiration to youth sailors around the world. There will be tears of joy and defeat. We will see raw emotion. Enthusiasm delivers. As an example, the local team called the American Youth Sailing Force (a.k.a. 'The Force') is entirely self funded. No helicopter parents waving cheque books here. The team is the vision of their manager, Ian Andrewes, who when he first heard of the competition, personally funded the initial entry fee from his savings. Then Andrewes assembled a team of top American sailors and melded them into a team which won the selection trials. Then the hard work started. He recruited the complete squad of sailors and shore crew using only his enthusiasm and his personal track record as collateral. This meant dipping into the last of his savings to be able to start running events to gain sponsorship to enable the crew to start training. Full disclosure: my company
LessEventAdmin.com is a main sponsor and the team have a number of smaller supporting sponsors. But the campaign to raise enough cash to compete properly remains a constant drag on time that they could be in the gym or out on the water. As the AC45s are only available a few weekends a month, the team has managed to charter an SL33 and a chase boat for coaching and rescue. The SL33 is not quite as fast as an AC45, but plenty quick enough that the chase boat is on full throttle most of the time to keep up. That of course means it's burning gas and this is where much of the hard earned sponsorship funds go. None of the sailing or shore team are paid, but the Force are determined to get to the start line in the best physical, mental and financial shape in order to win. Spend time with any of the team and their energy and focus is palpable. At the same time they remain cool, approachable young guys who want to make sure under-privileged kids in the San Francisco Bay area share their passion for sailing, through their outreach work. The real America's Cup. For me, this is the real America’s Cup: fought in the gym, out on the water, at the fund raisers and in the community - not in the rarified air of the jury room.
July 2013 34 Image credit: Carlo Borlenghi/Lua Rossa
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