Update
An unusually placid Super Series fleet at rest after a day’s racing in Šibenik in Croatia. The TP52 fleet stayed on in Croatia for the second event of 2018, travelling north to Zadar where on what proved a very challenging racecourse for tacticians the Luna Rossa America’s Cup team (tactician Vasco Vascotto) won their second ever Super Series event from the father and daughter Phoenix team of Hasso and Tina Plattner (tactician Ed Baird). The 2018 TP52 Super Series is shaping up to be quite the America’s Cup warm-up act
BACK TO THE FUTURE – Jack Griffin The America’s Cup generates intense competition and emotions. This intensity, mixed with money, power and ego, sometimes leads to contentiousness and downright animosity. Thankfully, we have an institution that celebrates the history, allure and intrigue that have made the America’s Cup so fascinating for so many people for so many years. Even though the competition is not always friendly this institution avoids cynicism. Thank goodness that Halsey Herreshoff came up with the idea
for a hall of fame in 1992. We get a real sense of the America’s Cup by looking at the people being honoured this year and at past inductees. The three-time Cup winner and grandson of Captain Nat rightly understood the importance of recognising individuals who had made outstanding contributions to elevate the America’s Cup to be yachting’s most distinguished event. The America’s Cup Hall of Fame selection committee sometimes
must deal with contentious issues. Ben Lexcen, the 1983 head of design for Australia II with her winged keel, was not inducted until 2006. Lord Dunraven, of the 1895 dispute, had to wait until 2016 to be inducted. The America’s Cup Hall of Fame will induct four new members
during a gala dinner at the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes at the end of August. Like the 83 people who have already been inducted, their wide range of accomplishments illustrate the attraction and the intrigue of the America’s Cup. Matching Sir Thomas Lipton and 2012 inductee Patrizio Bertelli,
Australia’s Syd Fischer challenged five times. He brought key sailing talent into his syndicates – Jimmy Spithill, the 19-year-old helm in 2000 with Young Australia; Iain Murray for Advance in 1983, and Hugh Treharne, after his historic win as tactician on Australia II in 1983. Like Lipton, Fischer is a self-made man. Unlike Lipton, he was an active offshore yachtsman onboard his nine yachts named Ragamuffin. He raced the Sydney-Hobart 47 times (sic), winning line honours twice and on corrected time once. He won the 1971
10 SEAHORSE
Fastnet and was in the Australian team that was victorious in the brutal 1979 Admiral’s Cup series in England. John Marshall (USA) competed in nine America’s Cup campaigns,
winning three. His first win was as mainsail trimmer on Freedom in 1980. He won again in 1987 and 1988, as design co-ordinator for Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes campaigns. Marshall chaired the panel that wrote the IACC rule, used from 1992 to 2007 in the design of 100 yachts. He founded the Young America syndicate that competed in 1995 and 2000, and helped Lowell North test sails for North’s gold medal-winning Star campaign back in 1968. Marshall won his own Olympic medal, bronze, in the Dragon at Kiel in 1972. He raced offshore in the Admiral’s Cup, SORC and Sardinia Cup, working at North Sails for 23 years as director of R&D and later president/CEO. Doug Peterson (USA) was a self-taught yacht designer who won
the Cup twice: as a member of Bill Koch’s America3 in 1992, and as lead designer for New Zealand in 1995. His Black Magic, NZL-32, was one of the most dominant yachts in America’s Cup history. She had an incredible 42-1 record with an average winning margin of over three minutes. Peterson also designed for Luna Rossa in 2000 and 2003, winning the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2000. Ken McAlpine (AUS) has lived in a world of secrecy and discretion.
Over 30 years he has measured more America’s Cup yachts than anyone in history. He has ruled on complex technical matters such as Australia II’s winged keel and Team New Zealand’s ‘Hula’ hull. Few people realise what it means to deal with the brightest minds
in the sport led by the wealthiest men on earth who, each in his own way, is an expert in exerting pressure to have matters swing their way. During his long America’s Cup tenure Ken McAlpine has used his naval architectural and engineering skills, along with tact, patience and interpersonal skills, to deliver a playing field as level as possible within the confines of the sport. His dedication and integrity in performing these tasks had a profound peacekeeping and stabilising influence in the ever-growing complexity of the technology-driven competition for the America’s Cup.
INGRID ABERY
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