SailJuice Blog » Ernesto Bertarelli http://sailjuiceblog.com News from the sharp end of sailing Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:20:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 2008 – an excuse for Ernesto to right the wrongs of 2007 http://sailjuiceblog.com/2008-%e2%80%93-an-excuse-for-ernesto-to-right-the-wrongs-of-2007/ http://sailjuiceblog.com/2008-%e2%80%93-an-excuse-for-ernesto-to-right-the-wrongs-of-2007/#comments Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:09:14 +0000 Andy Rice http://sailjuiceblog.com/2007/12/31/2008-%e2%80%93-an-excuse-for-ernesto-to-right-the-wrongs-of-2007/ Will Ernesto Bertarelli look back on 2007 as his Annus Mirabilis or his Annus Horribilis? For the Swiss billionaire, it must surely have been both. The first half of the year, he presided over an America’s Cup which could claim to have been one of the greatest ever. Not only that but he successfully defended it in a final which produced the closest racing in the event’s history.

A few weeks later, Bertarelli’s great works were in tatters, thanks to a greedy, self-serving Protocol (at least that’s how it came across to most sane people), and a petulant refusal to negotiate with the Golden Gate Yacht Club.

After losing the court battle in New York and seeing Justice Cahn reject the Spanish Challenge of Record for the sham challenge that it was, Alinghi are building up to a second court… Read the rest

]]> Will Ernesto Bertarelli look back on 2007 as his Annus Mirabilis or his Annus Horribilis? For the Swiss billionaire, it must surely have been both. The first half of the year, he presided over an America’s Cup which could claim to have been one of the greatest ever. Not only that but he successfully defended it in a final which produced the closest racing in the event’s history.

A few weeks later, Bertarelli’s great works were in tatters, thanks to a greedy, self-serving Protocol (at least that’s how it came across to most sane people), and a petulant refusal to negotiate with the Golden Gate Yacht Club.

After losing the court battle in New York and seeing Justice Cahn reject the Spanish Challenge of Record for the sham challenge that it was, Alinghi are building up to a second court battle. I quote Kimball Livingston from his excellent blog, because he always comes up with the lines I wish I’d had the wit to think of: “Alinghi’s new lawyers (they used to have ‘the best lawyers’ but they fired them) are presently attempting to convince the Supreme Court of the State of New York that BMW Oracle Racing has challenged in a monohull 90 feet wide – that’s not the way they phrase it; that’s the way it logically parses.” Kimball asked some of the most incisive questions at the press conferences in Valencia last summer, his Emo Philips style of delivery allowing him to ask things that others could never get away with. Read his round-up of the end of 2007 here…

Bertarelli is looking increasingly isolated. This being the season of Christmas and all, I was reminded of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a Victorian morality tale of an old and bitter miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, who undergoes a profound experience of redemption over the course of one night. Mr Scrooge is a money lender who has devoted his life to the accumulation of wealth. He holds anything other than money in contempt, including friendship, love and the Christmas season.

Mr Scrooge is shown the horror of his future by some ghostly spirits who warn him of what will happen if he continues to live his miserly life. I wonder if the ghosts will do Ernesto the kindness of paying him a midnight visit as the year2008 chimes in, and wake him up to the self-made nightmare that he has created for himself. If Ernesto were to call off his legal attack dogs and finally agree to have that long-awaited meeting with Larry Ellison, then I think the world might yet forgive him for these wasted months.

If the reference to Scrooge is too obscure for you, then perhaps the words of Paul Elvstrom, the greatest ever Olympic sailor, might strike a chord. It was the four-time Gold medallist who said: “If in the process of winning you have lost the respect of your competitors, you have won nothing.”

In the meantime, while we wait for the ghosts to visit Ernesto, let’s enjoy the amazing exploits of the round-the-world sailors out there in the Barcelona Race, and those magnificent Frenchmen in their flying machines, Thomas Coville and Francis Joyon. Whatever happens with the America’s Cup, we do at least have the prospect of an Olympic Games and a Volvo Ocean Race to look forward to. It could be an amazing year for our sport.

A very happy new year to you.

]]> http://sailjuiceblog.com/2008-%e2%80%93-an-excuse-for-ernesto-to-right-the-wrongs-of-2007/feed/ 0 Bob's rebuttal of Bertarelli http://sailjuiceblog.com/bobs-rebuttal-of-bertarelli/ http://sailjuiceblog.com/bobs-rebuttal-of-bertarelli/#comments Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:36:13 +0000 Andy Rice http://sailjuiceblog.com/2007/12/10/bobs-rebuttal-of-bertarelli/ No one knows their America’s Cup history like British journo Bob Fisher. Inducted into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame a few years ago, Bob has seen the event wax and wane over the years.

In response to Ernesto Bertarelli’s open letter of last Friday, Bob has published another open letter by way of response. You get the sense that Ernesto was attempting to strike a note of conciliation last week, but he finds little support for his suggestions from Bob Fisher, who leaves us in no doubt about his views on Ernesto’s proposed reformation of the Deed of Gift.

8th December 2007

Dear Ernesto,

I thank you for your open letter and for the 90 minutes of your valuable time that you granted for an interview.

At the Rolex World Sailor of the Year Award dinner you took… Read the rest

]]> No one knows their America’s Cup history like British journo Bob Fisher. Inducted into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame a few years ago, Bob has seen the event wax and wane over the years.

In response to Ernesto Bertarelli’s open letter of last Friday, Bob has published another open letter by way of response. You get the sense that Ernesto was attempting to strike a note of conciliation last week, but he finds little support for his suggestions from Bob Fisher, who leaves us in no doubt about his views on Ernesto’s proposed reformation of the Deed of Gift.

8th December 2007

Dear Ernesto,

I thank you for your open letter and for the 90 minutes of your valuable time that you granted for an interview.

At the Rolex World Sailor of the Year Award dinner you took me to task for my criticism of your team’s behaviour towards the 33rd America’s Cup. I demurred, saying that if I were mistaken, it was due to a lack of communication from your team’s leaders. That now is not the case.

While I notice that the passing of two weeks has not in any way altered your determination to run the 33rd America’s Cup in a manner that would make the competition a far different event to all the 32 that had preceded it, and that you have attempted to make your intentions more widely known, I cannot agree that what you are proposing to do is for the benefit of the America’s Cup other than turning it into a revenue source for Alinghi and ACM.

The America’s Cup is not all about money. While huge sums are spent on the teams, there has never been the need for the event to support the teams financially. That is entirely up to those who form the teams that take part in this sporting event. And let us remember that it was the wealthier teams who benefited most from the distribution of the surplus, not those that could best benefit from a boost to their resources.

You propose to change the very dynamic of the event in a way that can only reduce it to the mediocrity of many other regattas. At present, it stands alone, clearly head and shoulders above every other regatta because of the very nature of the event. The cup was given to the New York Yacht Club by the owners of the schooner America, who wished to perpetuate the success they had achieved in defeating an old enemy and establishing the United States as a world leader in naval architecture.

Those owners foresaw it as an iconic representation of superiority, but wanted to challenge the world at large to prove this continuously. Above all, they proposed that it should be a challenge cup, held by the winner of the last event against all-comers. That intent is clearly stated in the Deed of Gift, throughout all three versions, culminating with that of 1887 that the last surviving owner, George Schuyler, wrote shortly before his death.

That deed, totalling 1,100 words, or 15 column inches in Harper’s Weekly in 1895, is extremely clear in the intention of the donor who sought challenges from foreign clubs, based on the sea, to determine the faster boat in a match. The defender, therefore, would meet the challenger in a series of races whose structure would be by mutual consent and the winner would hold the cup until defeated by another challenger. Schuyler, like his fellow owners of the schooner America, did not propose any ordinary regatta, but a contest that would be outstanding. And that is what it has been.

Now, you seek to change the entire format and here I must offer a word of warning. Changing sporting events dramatically has not been shown to be successful in the past and one should always consider the wisdom of Sir Winston Churchill who advised a study of history in order to avoid making the same mistakes again. One very apposite example of a major change in a sailing event leading to its demise was the Admiral’s Cup where the removal of the Fastnet Race from its programme proved terminal for the event. Be warned.

You claim to have created your team to share the passion of sailing and that this has proved successful for your team, which triumphantly defended the trophy in the closest match ever. That Emirates Team New Zealand pushed Alinghi so hard was a massive contribution to the success of the event. That there was never more than 35 seconds separating the boats at the finish was an added bonus.

Since that day when just one second separated Alinghi from the challenger in the seventh race there has been instability and I would suggest that this is of your making. Had you more carefully read the Deed of Gift and bothered to interpret its meaning, you could have chosen any properly qualified yacht club who would follow your intentions and there would not have been an opportunity for anyone to be upset to the point of taking the matter to the only arbiter available, the New York State Supreme Court.

As it was, the club from which you received a “hip-pocket” challenge, and who allowed you to issue a draconian Protocol that shows no evidence of mutual consent, has proved to be invalid and five months have been lost. Is this what you mean by “empower the organisers to implement further innovations without unnecessary disruptions”? You state that the court ruling shows: “the Achilles heel of the event.” I argue that it shows the strength of the Deed of Gift to protect all concerned from potential bias.

Nobody in their right minds would allow ACM, a body created as an offshoot of Alinghi, rightfully to nominate the International Jury and the Board of Arbitration. This is a return to the pre-1980 days when the New York Yacht Club provided the Protest Committee; a state of affairs that led Sir Frank Packer to declare that arguing with the New York Yacht Club over the America’s Cup is like “complaining to your mother-in-law about your wife.” Those bodies have to be independent of the defender and the challenger for the event to have veracity. Yet, in the next breath you are complaining that. “…the Deed does not actively promote parity for the teams…”

Your stated aim is to “make the event more relevant to today’s sporting landscape.” One has to ask why? Within hours of the completion of the 32nd America’s Cup, major sponsor, Louis Vuitton, who has supported the Cup for a quarter of a century, and who contributed €45.2 million on this occasion, announced that it was leaving because the event had lost its tradition and elegance. Was that good for the event? The tradition of the America’s Cup is what makes it special.

You go as far as to raising the question as to whether the defender should be automatically qualified for the final match – that is what makes the America’s Cup special and without that there is no mystique or elegance. The event would be bland – just another regatta.

I can agree that the schedule of venues be announced in advance, but as each event is a separate entity, there is no reason to formalise the content of the regulations; these are a matter of mutual consent between the challengers and defender and should be available for alteration. The governance of the Cup could well be managed by the past and present trustees – that is the manner in which it is, arguably, currently controlled, but not by one team alone.

Finally, you indicate that unless you achieve your desired revision of the governing documents, you will have to accept the one-on-one challenge of the Golden Gate Yacht Club. Perhaps that would be the best way out of the current impasse. While it is not what the aficionados of the event would wish, it would clear the air and only be regarded as a minor hiccup in the Cup’s colourful history.

With kindest regards,

Bob

]]> http://sailjuiceblog.com/bobs-rebuttal-of-bertarelli/feed/ 0 Earnest Ernesto http://sailjuiceblog.com/earnest-ernesto/ http://sailjuiceblog.com/earnest-ernesto/#comments Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:01:15 +0000 Andy Rice http://sailjuiceblog.com/2007/12/07/earnest-ernesto/ At last some news – and some of it positive – from Ernesto Bertarelli. No time to comment yet, it’s Friday evening! But let’s hope this means the dialogue really does reopen between Defender and Challenger of Record.

One thing that did catch my eye. Ernesto raises this fundamental question:

“Should the Defender automatically be qualified for the final AC Match or should all teams start on equal footings?”

Wow! Does he really mean that? After all the ‘command and control’ stuff in the 33rd Protocol, he throws the Defender’s fundamental power wide open to debate. It’s very late in the day to raise such philosophical questions about what the America’s Cup should be, when time is running out just to get it staged in 2009. But at least Ernesto has spoken. Here’s hoping things improve from here.

Here is… Read the rest

]]> At last some news – and some of it positive – from Ernesto Bertarelli. No time to comment yet, it’s Friday evening! But let’s hope this means the dialogue really does reopen between Defender and Challenger of Record.

One thing that did catch my eye. Ernesto raises this fundamental question:

“Should the Defender automatically be qualified for the final AC Match or should all teams start on equal footings?”

Wow! Does he really mean that? After all the ‘command and control’ stuff in the 33rd Protocol, he throws the Defender’s fundamental power wide open to debate. It’s very late in the day to raise such philosophical questions about what the America’s Cup should be, when time is running out just to get it staged in 2009. But at least Ernesto has spoken. Here’s hoping things improve from here.

Here is the full text of Ernesto’s open letter:

“Since Alinghi’s successful defence of the America’s Cup in July, much has been said by many and I wish to explain my personal passion for bringing my vision of the America’s Cup to life.

When I founded Alinghi it was all about creating a team to share the passion of sailing through every channel available to as wide an audience as possible. We tried to adopt a fresh and open way of doing things and making part of our base accessible to the public was only one example of the many innovations Alinghi brought to the America’s Cup. I believe this approach was a contributing factor to our success in 2003.

With the Defence of the Cup, we got the opportunity to share this spirit with the whole event. When we began, we set out a clear and innovative strategy focusing on the choice of venue, the set up of a purpose built port, the America’s Cup Park and the Acts as part of our vision of opening the event to as large an audience as possible.

Over six million people attended the event, which for the first time saw the participation of syndicates from five continents. The television coverage extended the reach to over four billion viewers.

The critics who opposed the Acts, the choice of venue, the television production, etc. were numerous and vociferous but the facts proved that the 32nd America’s Cup was a positive turning point for this historical event.

At the same time as realising some of the fascinating aspects of the America’s Cup I also became aware of its weaknesses. The uncertain format of the event meant that teams – and the entire America’s Cup Community – had no future beyond the next Cup. This leads to teams only surviving one cycle and the whole event needing to recreate itself every three to five years. This results in a substantial increase in costs and difficulty in securing long term sponsors.

For the 33rd edition, the concept was to empower the organisers to implement further innovations without unnecessary disruptions. The proposal to create the new AC90 class with the one boat sailing rule in a two year cycle is a major measure towards managing the costs while creating further excitement and by using the existing facilities of Valencia we had the ideal platform to maintain momentum. This would have enabled the event to prosper and generate greater revenue for the organisers to share with the teams.

The recent events in the New York courts, with the Judge ruling the CNEV invalid because it had not held its regatta at the right time, show the Achilles’ heel of the event and the possibility of its destabilisation through individual actions. Again, as in 2003, our vision has received criticism from those reluctant to change. I stand by one of the principles of the Cup: the Trustee, with the Defender, has the responsibility for the governance of the event and to implement changes which will allow it to prosper.

With a view towards the future and having studied the rules of the Cup I observed that the Deed does not actively promote parity for the teams and a long term future of the event.

In October of this year I went to New York to start a dialogue with the New York Yacht Club to examine what enthusiasm there was to make the event more relevant to today’s sporting landscape. The Deed of Gift was, after all, written over 150 years ago at the NYYC and could not anticipate the changes that the world has undergone. I was not expecting the discussions to be completed swiftly but I was thrilled when Charles Townsend, Commodore of the NYYC and George W. Carmany III, Chairman of NYYC America’s Cup Committee, expressed the same feelings.

It is fair to say that the 33rd America’s Cup has been ill-fated and I have a desire to make it right. The fastest way to achieve this objective would be for the Golden Gate Yacht Club and the Société Nautique de Genève to work with the New York Yacht Club on revising the Deed of Gift to make it appropriate for today without losing what makes the America’s Cup special. As part of this process I am happy to compromise on some of the Defender’s rights to achieve what is best for the event.

In effect, I raise the following questions:
· Should the Defender automatically be qualified for the final AC Match or should all teams start on equal footings?
· Should the schedule of venues and content of regulations be announced several cycles in advance allowing planning and funding?
· Should the governance of the Cup become permanent and be managed by entities representing past and current trustees as well as competing teams?

Over the weekend I spoke at length with Larry Ellison explaining our proposal and I was pleased that he was very supportive of the principles in the proposed changes.

Based on these principles it is my intention to work towards a renovated America’s Cup to take place in Valencia and to be raced with the certainty that the event cannot be disrupted to meet individual requirements to the detriment of those willing and able to compete.

If this revision of the governing documents of the America’s Cup cannot be achieved, we will have to accept the GGYC challenge under the Deed of Gift.”

Ernesto Bertarelli

Ernesto Bertarelli

President of Alinghi

Defender of the 33rd America’s Cup

]]> http://sailjuiceblog.com/earnest-ernesto/feed/ 0 A bugger’s muddle http://sailjuiceblog.com/a-bugger%e2%80%99s-muddle/ http://sailjuiceblog.com/a-bugger%e2%80%99s-muddle/#comments Mon, 30 Jul 2007 18:17:00 +0000 Andy Rice http://sailjuiceblog.com/2007/07/30/a-bugger%e2%80%99s-muddle/ Anything happen while I was away? Apologies for the lack of correspondence lately but I’ve been taking some post-Valencia holiday. I’ll really have to schedule my time better for the next Cup. After all, as we’ve discovered this time, when the side-show of the sailing has concluded you have at least another month of legalistic shenanigans and wheeling and dealing to get through.

This time, unfortunately, we’re looking at good deal longer than a month to unravel the mess created by the Protocol for the 33rd Cup. For a legal journalist this is probably about as exciting as it gets. For a sailing simpleton like me, this is all insufferably tedious. But it’s the America’s Cup, and it goes with the territory.

Ernesto Bertarelli and his gang came out shooting last week, taking pot shots at Larry Ellison’s plans to… Read the rest

]]> Anything happen while I was away? Apologies for the lack of correspondence lately but I’ve been taking some post-Valencia holiday. I’ll really have to schedule my time better for the next Cup. After all, as we’ve discovered this time, when the side-show of the sailing has concluded you have at least another month of legalistic shenanigans and wheeling and dealing to get through.

This time, unfortunately, we’re looking at good deal longer than a month to unravel the mess created by the Protocol for the 33rd Cup. For a legal journalist this is probably about as exciting as it gets. For a sailing simpleton like me, this is all insufferably tedious. But it’s the America’s Cup, and it goes with the territory.

Ernesto Bertarelli and his gang came out shooting last week, taking pot shots at Larry Ellison’s plans to take the Defenders to the New York Supreme Court. As far as the Swiss billionaire is concerned, the matter should be dealt with in-house. “We have submitted this dispute, which is damaging to the entire sport, damaging to the America’s Cup, to our independent arbitration panel and we hope to have their resolution soon.”

Note the interesting choice of words there. “Our independent arbitration panel”. Oxymoron? Surely he meant to say “the independent arbitration panel”? There’s a big difference between the possessive “our” and the neutrality of “the”. Which perhaps says a lot about Alinghi’s sense of ownership of the Cup.

You can see why Larry has a problem with the Protocol, not least the Defender’s ability to appoint its own race officials. “No sports run officials like that,” said Larry. “Can you imagine Chelsea hiring the officials for the Manchester United game, but then also wanting the ability to change the rules at any time? It is the most bizarre Protocol we have ever seen.”

However, we have seen few – actually have we seen any? – public displays of support for Larry and the Golden Gate Yacht Club’s stance. The Americans claim they’ve had support from eight different challengers – and I could just about believe it. But public displays of support? None that I’m aware of. The Kiwis have been the latest to line up behind Alinghi, after Shosholoza and Team Origin. Apparently the Kiwis have been offered a sweetener of getting involved in helping Alinghi formulate the new design rule, giving them a vital few extra months of understanding of the new 90-footer rule before anyone else gets to see it. Richard Gladwell from Sail-World NZ has bagged a good interview with Dean Barker, which you’ll find here.

What of Alinghi’s announcement last week that each team will be permitted to build two race boats before the next Cup, but that teams will only be allowed to sail one at a time? Ernesto cited this as a cost saving exercise, which indeed it is, knocking a huge chunk off the wage bill if you can’t have two full sailing teams out race testing and training every day for two years.

Then again, it begs the question why Ernesto got in such a huff over Grant Dalton’s proposed nationality rule for the Cup had the Kiwis won it. Ernesto said way back in June: “If he was to win, that basically would put three-quarters of the people around this harbour out of work.” However, the new rules for the 33rd mean there is no need to have 34 sailors ready to man two boats. Now you’ll need just 20 or 21 to fill one of the new 90-foot beasts. So not everyone who was competing in 2007 is going to find room on board a boat in 2009.

Nevertheless, I like the one-sailing-team rule. The wage bill will be more affordable for the smaller teams. On the other hand – two boats to be built in less than 18 months? That’s definitely one for the big teams to enjoy.

Fellow blogger (and former America’s Cup navigator and electronics wizard) Mark Chisnell has an interesting analysis of this ‘two-boats-one-crew’ situation. He foresees a big step-up in instrumentation and telemetry programs to compensate for the lack of two-boat testing. In which case people like, well, er Mark Chisnell, will be in hot demand. Chizzy was too modest to put his own impressive CV forward on his blog, but no doubt his phone has already been ringing off the hook since Alinghi made their announcement last week.

Crikey! More than 500 words in, and I’ve neglected to mention a few other key facts, eg,

Venue: Valencia

Date: July 2009

Hooray to that. Great city, lovely people, and a two-year timescale. Full marks to Alinghi for time and location, and well done to the Spanish for securing the deal with a bargain basement price of just a sneeze over 100m Euro. Cheap at twice the price.

Oh yes, and the shock (not!) appointment of Russell Coutts to BMW Oracle Racing as, you guessed it, CEO of the whole shooting match. Now, Russell Coutts is not Chris Dickson, but you might have thought that for Larry it would be a case of once bitten, twice shy. Still, if you’re going to put that much power in one man’s hands, it might as well be Coutts. With Butterworth staying put as Alinghi skipper, this sets up an intriguing rivalry between these two great mates.

No one knows Coutts’s strengths better than his former tactician, so it will be interesting to see who gets the helmsman’s job this time at Alinghi. Who is best equipped to counter Coutts’s moves on the race course? My guess is that it will be an Australian. Either an old one – Peter Gilmour – whose latest victory in the Portugal leg of the World Match Race Tour suggests he’s still as good as any of the young guns. Or a young one – James Spithill – who negotiated with Alinghi last time but couldn’t reach an agreement over bringing his core of Aussie mates with him.

The day after winning the 32nd, when I asked Butterworth who else he rated from the last Cup, another name he singled out was Jes Gram Hansen from Mascalzone Latino. Perhaps the underrated Dane will get a call from Brad.

Wow, I’ve veered back on to sailing again! Hopefully that’s what the America’s Cup world will start talking about again soon. But I doubt it. There’s so much billionaire ego at stake now, it’s hard to see this going anywhere but the New York Supreme Court.

What a long-distant memory that one-second delta of the 32nd America’s Cup seems now. After Barker and Baird, now it’s the lawyers’ turn to enter the start box. It could be over quickly with an early penalty, but I fear a long and protracted dial-up.

It’s a bugger’s muddle. A field day for the lawyers, a disaster for the short-term health of the event. Longer term, this will become yet an other colourful chapter in the chequered history of the America’s Cup, but I can’t wait for it to be over so we can get back to the sailing.

]]> http://sailjuiceblog.com/a-bugger%e2%80%99s-muddle/feed/ 0 Bertarelli still alive – and kicking http://sailjuiceblog.com/bertarelli-still-alive-and-kicking/ http://sailjuiceblog.com/bertarelli-still-alive-and-kicking/#comments Tue, 03 Jul 2007 19:05:00 +0000 Andy Rice http://sailjuiceblog.com/2007/07/03/bertarelli-still-alive-and-kicking/ Bizarrely, there was no joint press conference for winner and loser today. Just the winners – Alinghi. I wonder why. Perhaps there was a clue in Ernesto Bertarelli’s final comment in the winner’s conference this afternoon.

“For us it was coming out alive or dead, and we came out of it alive with our leather shorts and our edelweiss, cuckoo clocks and chocolate factories. I think what Alinghi is a lot of what Switzerland is: a country in the middle of Europe which has had to survive; has had to deal with with its bigger neighbours; has had to be open to different cultures; three different cultures; welcomes foreigners who have contributed to the country and to its culture; a country that looks forward, to its technology, doesn’t have great natural resources, has to be inventive.

“I think the culture… Read the rest

]]> Bizarrely, there was no joint press conference for winner and loser today. Just the winners – Alinghi. I wonder why. Perhaps there was a clue in Ernesto Bertarelli’s final comment in the winner’s conference this afternoon.

“For us it was coming out alive or dead, and we came out of it alive with our leather shorts and our edelweiss, cuckoo clocks and chocolate factories. I think what Alinghi is a lot of what Switzerland is: a country in the middle of Europe which has had to survive; has had to deal with with its bigger neighbours; has had to be open to different cultures; three different cultures; welcomes foreigners who have contributed to the country and to its culture; a country that looks forward, to its technology, doesn’t have great natural resources, has to be inventive.

“I think the culture of Alinghi is a little like that. An open culture, friendly culture, very welcoming, bigger through diversity, and we certainly enjoy being able to meet and compete against people from different backgrounds and we would never lock anyone out of this competition. I never thought when we started, that we would be locked out of it. When I said that we were fighting for our survival, I didn’t know how right I was, and here we are. Alive and kicking. And I’m looking forward to continue.”

So, no love lost for the Kiwis there, then. In a half hour’s press conference, there was no praise for the losing team forthcoming from Alinghi’s representatives on stage – until TV journo Digby Fox prompted Ed Baird to give his appraisal of the Kiwi team. When Ed picked up his microphone, he looked like he’d been handed the poisoned chalice. “Well… I was going to pass that on to Brad because he has a lot more history there. I was part of the team in ‘95 when Brad was there as well. It’s been amazing to watch the team grow and develop.

“Certainly the team that’s now is substantially changed from that original group, but they’re showing great strength and prowess on the race course. They developed good skills in every area to a very high level, and we’re really proud to finish in front of them at this regatta. I’d like to congratulate them for really doing a great job. It’s not an easy event, there’s a lot of stress involved. At any moment disaster can strike. I think we’ve had two great competitors out there all week.”

So, some credit – after all – to the Kiwis. Because we didn’t get a chance to speak to ETNZ today, the media had to fall back on press releases and TV interviews for the Kiwi viewpoint. Here’s Grant Dalton. “All credit to Alinghi. They kept it close when we got past them on the first run they just kept on sailing the way they do and beat us fair and square in the end. I don’t think the margin today really matters. They still won it.” Magnanimous to the end, although whether he’s saying the same about Alinghi behind closed doors is another matter.

Here’s Terry Hutchinson’s review of his own team and the winners. “An unbelievable team effort. Dalts did a spectacular job. It was nice to be involved with a team that has the amount of character and heart that our team has. Deano did good work. It was good to be a part of a team that was defeated in the manner that they were to come and fight like we did. And it’s nice to be included in that and have some of the influence in that, and partake in the whole thing.

“Every now and then you need a couple of breaks to go our way, and in the last couple of races not one really ever went our way, which is a sign of the fact that Alinghi were doing a good job and going well. You can’t say enough about the calibre of that team. Hats off to them.”

]]> http://sailjuiceblog.com/bertarelli-still-alive-and-kicking/feed/ 0 Viva Las Vegas! http://sailjuiceblog.com/viva-las-vegas/ http://sailjuiceblog.com/viva-las-vegas/#comments Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:19:00 +0000 Andy Rice http://sailjuiceblog.com/2007/06/26/viva-las-vegas/ Call it a lottery, call it tiddlywinks, call it Las Vegas, Race 3 of the 32nd America’s Cup was one of the all time greats. With the wind blowing 7 to 9 knots in an enormous swell, and the breeze shifting through 20 degrees or more, this was a hair-raising rollercoaster ride in slow motion.

We witnessed another great pre-start, with Ed Baird getting the better of Dean Barker on this occasion – or did he? On the face of it, bouncing the Kiwis into a tack with just 10 seconds to the start, while SUI 100 launched off the line at speed – 8 seconds ahead – looked like an early victory to the Swiss.

But a few minutes later it became apparent that Barker had been prepared to bet his shirt on winning the right. When NZL 92… Read the rest

]]> Call it a lottery, call it tiddlywinks, call it Las Vegas, Race 3 of the 32nd America’s Cup was one of the all time greats. With the wind blowing 7 to 9 knots in an enormous swell, and the breeze shifting through 20 degrees or more, this was a hair-raising rollercoaster ride in slow motion.

We witnessed another great pre-start, with Ed Baird getting the better of Dean Barker on this occasion – or did he? On the face of it, bouncing the Kiwis into a tack with just 10 seconds to the start, while SUI 100 launched off the line at speed – 8 seconds ahead – looked like an early victory to the Swiss.

But a few minutes later it became apparent that Barker had been prepared to bet his shirt on winning the right. When NZL 92 hooked into a 20-degree right-hand shift with a knot more pressure, the Kiwis were launched. Barker’s start didn’t look so silly after all.

However, it was a big right-hand shift that also proved the Kiwis’ undoing as they approached the leeward gate still well in the lead. What was meant to be a ‘one-and-in’ to the right-hand mark suddenly became a downspeed drift. When Richard Meacham briefly fell overboard, it only exacerbated the problem, and in the moments of crisis the spinnaker got caught up in the jib sheeting system.

Alinghi rounded behind the same mark and sailed up the inside of the wounded Kiwi boat. I won’t go into the nitty gritty of the next leg, but we saw some spectacular match racing moves, particularly from Alinghi who converted a 1:02 deficit at the bottom to a 15 second lead at the top.

On the run to the finish SUI 100 was looking faster downhill, but Brad Butterworth seemed happy to let the Kiwis to break to the right while Murray Jones up the rig put his faith in the left. With more than a kilometre of lateral separation, this was high-stakes dice-rolling. However it was Adam Beashel’s faith in the right that paid off as the Kiwis crossed the finish line 25 seconds ahead of Alinghi. What a race!

And what reactions afterwards.

I’ll start with the less surprising one first, from Adam Beashel who gave the Kiwi reaction to racing in conditions that were perhaps not ideal but which contributed to one of the greatest races in 156 years of the Cup. “Thanks to the race committee for getting the race underway – as we would have hoped for them to get a race underway today. There was enough breeze to go most of the time, and it was shifting around a lot.”

Compare and contrast with the Alinghi response.

First from pitman Dean Phipps: “We have worked for four years towards having an even boat race, and you could have played tiddlywinks today and had the same result. Just tossed the coin. Should have stayed ashore, I guess.”

Next from trimmer Simon Daubney: “This one was a little bit of a raffle, a little bit of a lottery. We were pretty surprised the race went ahead as it was anyway 15 minutes before they had abandoned the start for a 30 degree difference of the breeze at the top mark, and even on different ends of the start line had up to 20 degrees difference.

“So we were thinking that was a smart move to postpone it – and all of a sudden there seems to be a big rush to get a race off a minute before the time they are allowed to. And there is this big rush to go out there and sail around in those shitty conditions, which is pretty disappointing really after you work so hard for those little gains and to try and improve your performance.

“On a day testing at any time like that you think ‘hopefully we won’t be sailing in these conditions,’ so certainly you wouldn’t spend too much time working away at them.’”

And now this from Mr Alinghi himself, Ernesto Bertarelli. “It was a very strange day, we waited two hours to start that race and honestly the Race Committee starts the race a second before the time limit on a situation which was no better than it had been for the last two hours – high volatility, unpredictable wind which is why we waited….we took a good start because we forced TNZ to tack away, we were leading at the start but then there was the 20 degree shift. I mean, you can’t beat a 20 degree shift from nowhere. We were at one point 400 metres behind and I think we raced the boat really well.

“The boat is very fast and even in light conditions like that we came back, we had a nice race, were in front and then on the last leg it’s impossible to control, when you gybe too often you pay a lot for the gybe but anyway the guy that is behind is going to gybe away. I think we raced well but we were just unlucky.”

Alinghi refused to believe that ETNZ had been anything other than lucky being bounced to the right into that 20 degree gift from the heavens. Daubney commented: “I’m not too sure about their weather call. If they had a clear call that the wind was going to go 20 degrees right on the first beat then that it is certainly something that our weather team hadn’t picked up. So maybe it wasn’t a lottery and maybe their weather team did better than ours but we certainly weren’t expecting that much of a shift and that much of a velocity change.”

Now, bear in mind that when Adam Beashel gave this answer he hadn’t heard any of the Alinghi reactions over at their press conference at the Defender base. So I think this is a pretty honest reaction from Beashel. Sounds to me like the Kiwis knew the ‘lucky dice’ had been loaded in favour of the right. “For us it was switching back and forth quite a lot – early on there was a lot of call to the left but as things got closer, it all started to even up.

“Clouds [ETNZ weather expert Roger Badham] and ourselves on the boat just before entry thought there was a pretty big right-hand shift to come and it was called so it nearly became a ‘must win right’ for us, and Deano did a good job of winning that right-hand side. It was a little downspeed, it would have been nice to be a little quicker but we were hopeful that the right was going to come. And it came as we expected so it all turned well for us.”

So, maybe there was a little skill involved today after all. After today’s reactions from the Defender, Alinghi are sounding a teensy bit Whingi. Mr Bertarelli described today’s race as “a little bit of Las Vegas, which is why I don’t think the race should have happened”. After today’s thriller, the rest of Valencia is singing: “Viva Las Vegas!”

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