Update
the opening ceremony with its skydivers and fireworks. Two windless days and one more high-wind day meant almost a quarter of scheduled race days were lost. Luckily the Match could be sailed on schedule – crucial to TV broadcasts. Focusing the revenue model on ‘linear’ TV instead of building on a digital-first strategy seems mired in 20th-century thinking and ignores the vagaries of weather. As the prospect of a Kiwi win became apparent the debates
about nationality and a return to monohulls bubbled up again. Anyone who came to Bermuda could see the debates are unnec- essary. With seven J Class yachts out racing with crews of 30 top sailors, many of them former America’s Cup winners, there was plenty of spectacular racing for fans of big monohulls. This part of the show just needs to be better integrated into the main event. Captain Nat Herreshoff must be smiling as he reflects on the
2017 America’s Cup. He loved speed and his favourite designs were his catamarans. In 1876 his first catamaran, Amaryllis, finished first in the US Centennial Regatta and was promptly disqualified for not being a traditional ‘yacht’. He went on to become the most important player in America’s Cup history, his giant mono- hulls winning six America’s Cup matches in a row. Not only did he design and build these yachts for the tycoons of the day, he helmed his first winner, Vigilant, in 1893. The 21st-century America’s Cup can build on the traditions Herreshoff began in the 19th century.
LEGACY – Ivor Wilkins More time and closer analysis will be required before a proper assessment of Larry Ellison’s guardianship of the America’s Cup can be made, but the short version is that he won it and lost it as a challenger, took it through the courts, experienced a Deed of Gift match and won and lost it as a Defender. He entered the fray as a challenger in 2003 in Auckland, built largely around a nucleus of New Zealanders who crewed aboard his maxi yacht Sayonara. For the 2007 campaign in Valencia he handed the reins to Chris
Dickson, but the effort faltered in the semi-finals. After recruiting Russell Coutts to lead his next attempt the Cup was embroiled once again in a bitterly fought court battle. Ellison and Alinghi boss Ernesto Bertarelli had initially formed a friendship through the Cup, but were now at loggerheads over the legitimacy of Bertarelli’s Spanish challenger of record. Ultimately, the court ruled in Ellison’s favour and he won the 2010 Deed of Gift match between his giant hardwing trimaran and Bertarelli’s more conventional catamaran. Ellison entrusted his defence to Coutts, who chose to continue
in 72ft catamarans. Coutts, up to then the most successful Cup skipper of all time with a 14-0 match record, embarked on a reformist path aimed at broadening the appeal of the event. The so-called PlayStation generation replacing the Flintstones. Growth and com- mercial sustainability were the new watchwords, even if it meant alienating core fans and shrugging off features that were central to the history and tradition that gave the event its unique value. The pursuit of TV audience saw radical changes – and certainly
the TV product was greatly improved, with superb graphics and on- board cameras. Short, sharp races and strict schedules were intro- duced, the sailing vernacular of knots and code flags was replaced with the language of motor racing: miles per hour and chequered flags. Ellison’s home town of San Francisco was the 2013 venue, but only three challengers turned up. British Olympic gold medallist Bart Simpson tragically drowned when the Swedish Artemis Racing AC72 broke up in training. The subsequent Challenger racing was utterly dismal, even farcical with one-boat ‘races’. The event sank further when Oracle was penalised two match
points for the worst cheating scandal in the modern era. Then, sud- denly it came alight at the last minute with the enthralling comeback which saw Oracle overturn an 8-1 deficit into an unlikely 9-8 win. Despite the emphasis on growth only five challengers answered
the call in Bermuda, making the two Coutts-led events the smallest in 40 years. The Bermuda regatta, though, with close racing in the AC50s, excellent sideshows with the majestic J Class regatta and a lively youth programme, was a great success. Whether Ellison will return remains to be seen. He has experi-
enced the Cup from all angles – and has now lost the opportunity to race onboard, which is what attracted him in the first place. Before the Bermuda regatta, Coutts hinted he too may bow out.
Hard to believe that Luna Rossa’s oh-so-clunky-looking AC72 of 2013 begat today’s fleet-of-flight (and much faster) AC Class. Expect to see this famous team welcomed back to the Cup as the new Challenger of Record. Previous Cup winners John Bertrand and Alinghi’s Ernesto Bertarelli were also prominent in Bermuda, with neither denying an interest in another challenge; Bertarelli was spied leaving Russell Coutts’s Bermuda house after dinner during the Match. Prada’s Patrizio Bertelli has been a big supporter of ETNZ since pulling out of the Cup back in 2015
One new tradition has become an instant success: the Red Bull
Youth America’s Cup. Four of the winning youth crew from 2013 moved up to the Kiwi ‘pro’ team, including helmsman Peter Burling. Five other sailors from the 2013 youth teams found places with Oracle, SoftBank and Artemis. The youth teams have a 100 per cent nationality rule. The J Class provide monohull majesty. The Endeavour youth sailing programme attracted new young sailors and let them show off their skills for the crowds at the Cup Village. The Bermuda America’s Cup delivered a valuable mix of new and old traditions. It should be leveraged into the future.
12 SEAHORSE
‘There’s always a time to move on. I’ve never wanted to outlive my abilities… I can get bored pretty quickly,’ he wrote. Having four challengers sign up to his Framework Agreement,
the Coutts vision seemed secure – unless New Zealand won the Match. Although Coutts had dismissed the idea of a one-off event in Auckland under the framework, two of the departing challengers from Bermuda – Ben Ainslie Racing and Artemis – were careful not to rule out competing in a New Zealand defence. Italian Cup veteran Patrizio Bertelli is back as Challenger of
Record. Ernesto Bertarelli was much in evidence in Bermuda and rumoured to be interested in a New Zealand regatta. The presence of King Juan Carlos of Spain sparked similar rumours. Australian John Bertrand was sniffing out possibilities and who knows if Japan, possibly Korea even China might step up. The Ellison campaigns always generated resentment in the
United States because they were crewed primarily by Australian and New Zealand sailors. A renewed emphasis on nationality would surely bring a Stars & Stripes-type campaign back into the game. Auckland staged two regattas in 2000 and 2003, which attracted
11 and nine challengers respectively. There seems good reason to be optimistic about a positive experience in 2021.
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GILLES MARTIN-RAGET
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