Paul Cayard
Holiday edition
I looked back through my 28 years of writing for Seahorse and found I have written for the December edition 14 times. And in 28 years my perspective on what’s important has changed. I recently spent Halloween with my two grand-
children. I was assigned the ‘cow’ costume by my elder granddaughter who is four. My son-in-
law was told to be a donkey, my daughter was the farmer, the grand- daughters were a chicken and a koala bear (two years old). We carved pumpkins and went trick or treating. Best Halloween ever! That’s what’s important to me now. I also have some friends who
currently have health challenges and that changes your perspective quickly. Life is fragile. Life is for living and doing! Make sure you are in touch with what’s important to you. It all goes pretty fast.
A vision fulfilled The SSL Gold Cup has finally arrived. Seven years in the making, and Michel Niklaus’s vision is a reality. Michel’s passion was to create the World Cup of Sailing and he has. 40 national teams racing in identical SSL 47s in a tournament format. At the time of this writing the 1/32nd round just finished. The semi-final and finals take place next week and sailing will have a Gold Cup Champion nation. This event is particularly good for sailors from nations that don’t
normally find themselves at the Maxi Worlds, TP52 Super Series, or America’s Cup. Countries like Antigua, Cuba, Chile, Ukraine, South Africa, Lithuania and Tahiti. The national following that Lithuania has amassed is impressive.
One-and-a-half million Lithuanian viewers tuned into national TV to watch their team make it through the first round and now into the 1/16th final. That’s pretty strong out of a population of 2.8 million! Niklaus’s vision is that, with larger boats and nationalism as the
core elements, sailing will be more attractive among global sports- hungry spectators. We need more guys like Michel!
The Cup It is easy to get the impression that Emirates Team New Zealand is trying to extricate all the money it possibly can from the upcoming
30 SEAHORSE
America’s Cup. Taking the event to Spain rather than defending on their own turf was indicator #1. But it is also true that the Cup in Europe is a better event commercially and makes it accessible to 300 million people which is obviously good for the sport. Further, having Vuitton back in the event is excellent as they
bring a prestige and quality that are irreplaceable. But selling a pre- liminary event to Saudi Arabia and forging ahead considering all the turmoil in the region is indicator #2. American Magic objected to the regatta in Saudi Arabia for reasons well known to all. Good for Doug, Hap and Terry for standing up for what’s important. Then the Cup arbitration panel ruled that if New York Yacht Club
American Magic didn’t participate they would start each round of racing with a -1 score. That’s obviously a steep penalty. Then 7 October happened, and Saudi Arabia is under a level 3
travel advisory by the US State Department. What gives? We will know by the time you read this.
Team USA Earlier this year, when US Sailing’s high-performance coaching team dissolved, most supporters were concerned about how to make sure there wouldn’t be any gaps in our USA athlete support. To that end the Board of Directors of the America One Foundation, the longest and largest private supporter of US Sailing, stepped up once again to provide support by forming America One Racing (A1R). A1R hired the departing high-performance team who, along with
15 contract coaches, have travelled all over the world providing over 1,000 coaching days, run clinics and generally supported over 60 highly motivated USA sailing athletes at different levels. Thanks to passionate donors during 2023 A1R has been able to provide $2million in coaching, logistics and financial support to athletes. Nine months in, America One Racing is growing nicely and still
working hard to increase its budget for 2024 to support more and more USA athletes. One of A1R’s primary partners, American Magic, not only supports USA athletes but also serves as great inspiration for all who have high-level sailing ambitions. Importantly, the US trials for Olympic Sailing will be held in Miami in January and February of 2024. This marks the first time in 12 years
VAN DER BORCH
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