THE COMEBACK
Story by John eric Mangino
The Comeback The greatest sports comeback in the history of sports happened last week in San Francisco. Probably going widely unnoticed here seeing we really don’t cover water sports and local sailing, something I believe should change. There is a steep history of the America’s Cup on the East Coast and in Jersey waters for years as it was defended right in our own Raritan /Hudson Bays of Sandy Hook, defended by a then small little club now known as the New York Yacht Club. For years we defended it in our waters until later in history it was moved off the coast of Newport, RI. A lot has changed since then but one thing stays true it’s a rich man’s game something the next 35th America’s Cup will hopefully be addressing.
The Players The 34th America’s Cup was a visionary battle of will and education of the public and media. It had its early detractors most of which did a 360% degree and became fans of the New Cup. It started with ambitious beginnings after we won the Cup back in 2010 against the Swiss in Valencia, Spain. That Cup was fought with huge, never -before -seen catamarans and a very advanced wing powered trimaran, the biggest wing ever built in fact. This was the vision of Larry Ellison and Sir Russell Coutts. Ellison, the backer and CEO of Oracle, had unlimited resources and technologies. Coutts had the knowhow and the pedigree, now having won every America’s Cup in which he’s been involved — a total of six.
A Little Island Nation Emirates Team New Zealand, of which by the way Sir Coutts used to be the skipper, employed their own country to help them challenge for the 34th America’s Cup.
The NZ government invested some 25 to 30 million USD into their campaign. Grant Dalton, a huge self-made skipper and winner of the Whitbread now called the Volvo Ocean race, a gritty, hard, stand-up guy, lead his team of all national countrymen with the help of America’s Cup winning skipper Dean Barker. Barker is an embedded hero of sailing in New Zealand, winner of the Louis Vuitton Trophies and Cups, Deano as we call him, has invested his life into this sport.
The New Cup The New America’s Cup was designed to engage the public to sailing again, to bring back the glory days of old when names like Stars and Stripes and Dennis Conner were household name s. To undo the eight years the Cup sat in a Court room waiting to released. Ellison did just that. And with it began our long three year journey covering this New America’s Cup.
The Small Boats First An America’s Cup World Series (ACWS) was planned to attract international teams and countries with venues planned all over the world. Raced in a newly designed AC45 winged powered catamaran, a trainer it was called at first, only to become a very formidable racing yacht. This was the first test for the 34th America’s Cup. Footed completely in the end by Mr. Ellison, the world economy got in the way and the free flowing sponsors he envisioned did not surface. But by no means was it a failure. The ACWS showed the new age of sailing’s forefront and future as well as delivered overnight a new industry in catamaran racing — foiling.
The Big Boat The Prize — the Cup itself — was never at grasp during this new sailing regatta. But it was hoped teams competing in this would attract the sponsors needed to finance the Big Boat, the AC72. At first never designed to foil, the AC72 developed into something we may never see again — a winged rocket ship with a wing bigger than a 767 and the ability to fly on foils at speeds reaching 60 mile an hour.
New Zealand Foils the Rules Emirates early on found a loophole in the AC72 design rules that would allow them to foil the great cats. This left the four teams from the ACWS that could finance an AC72 scrambling to find an answer. One YouTube video and world was put on edge again. Because not only now did we have winged rocket ships, New Zealand had found an edge and a sharp one at that.
The Louis Vuitton Cup For 30 years there has been one motto spoken. You must first win the Louis Vuitton Cup to achieve greatness and challenge for the America’s Cup. Three teams would try to do just that. Artemis Racing Sweden, Emirates Team New Zealand, and one of the most fan crazed nations for America’s Cup racing, Prada Luna Rossa Italy. All had been down the road before; one had only won the Cup before and two had won the Louis Vuitton Cup.
The New Boat The AC72 had never been built before and with a very limited amount of people in the world who could build it, design a wing, and then have to adapt to this new foiling the New Zealanders had perfected so fast. The race was on land.
Prada Luna Rossa teamed up with New Zealand because they started late. Showing great promise in the ACWS, Prada was up against the wall and had a first in America’s Cup history — a fellow challenger built their boat. Of course missing were a few very important aspects like foiling controls etc. The boat was based on Emirates first test boat which was never raced. Emirates second boat had all the bells and whistles and Prada just didn’t have the time to build a second rocket ship.
Cayard’s Foil and the Tragic Loss Artemis Racing funded by an oil speculator for the Russian government and headed by an American skipper who has chased the Cup for years with no avail who had also won the Louis Vuitton Cup, but for the Italians once. Paul Cayard was to head this also bottomless pit of money and resources to take the Cup from our shores.
Early on they had problems hiring a non-cat building designer, Juan Kouoyoumdjian. Artemis lost their first wing to structural failure. These wings take at least three months to build.
Secondly, they went with a non-foiling cat thinking it wasn’t that important. Only later did they see their huge mistake. Then on a day that shocked the sailing world their first boat scheduled to be retired that very day fell apart. It broke at its main support beam and trapped and killed one of the most beloved Olympian sailors, father and husband Andrew (Bart) Simpson. Just as things were starting to get better for this New Cup, the New Cup looked doomed.
photo SANDER VAN DER BORCH
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