Aussies, Seppos and the Americas Cup

by Rob Kothe & David Schmidt on 7 Oct 2015 The Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series’ Hamilton, Bermuda event is set to kick off at the end of next week (October 16-18), bringing with it high-performance sailing that’s played out aboard foiling versions of the AC45 platform.

For the six teams that are participating in this event, this regatta represents an opportunity to sail on the same waters that the 35th America’s Cup will be contested on come 2017, as well as a chance to check in with their rivals.

For North American fans, the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series represents an opportunity for an AC fix midway through a long Cup cycle, as well as a chance to cheer for their favourite team and their favourite flag.

Given that the America’s Cup has always been a high-stakes game of international competition, multinational crews have become common, with some teams taking greater advantage of the Protocol’s weak nationality rules (for the ACWS, only one crewmember must hold a passport from the country whose flag is emblazoned on their wing sail) more than others.

This could be a rapidly looming problem for the Defender, Oracle Team USA, who won the 34th America’s Cup with a lone full-blooded American (Rome Kirby) aboard their AC72-class catamaran.

Fast-forward to the first and second Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series’ event (Portsmouth, Great Britain; Gothenbug Sweden), however, and Kirby found himself twice sidelined, with Skipper Jimmy Spithill (AUS) selecting a team that included tactician Tom Slingsby (who carries both an American and Australia passport, thanks to his American born mother and his Aussie father), wingsail trimmer Kyle Langford (AUS), in Gothenburg trimmer Joey Newton (AUS)/in Portsmouth Kinley Fowler (NZ,AUS) and bowman Louis Sinclair (ANT, USA, NZL), who has multiple passports, born in NZ and raised in Antigua taking a US passport in recent times. He was co-opted to Team Seppo* after sailing with Jimmy in the last Sydney Hobart race.

Next week in Bermuda, Spithill (AUS) has elected to sail with his same line-up from Gothenburg. With limited training time this is very understandable.

But for American fans, it also begs the question as to why Oracle is opting to satisfy the Protocol’s nationality rules with dual-citizens, rather than tapping into America’s sailing talent, especially as Kirby sits on the sidelines.

Spithill has some extra Australian crew too with Sam Newton returning to the team after the collapse of the Hamilton Island bid and new recruits - Iron-man Ky Hurst and sandgroper Graeme Spence who hit the international sailing scene with Torvar Mirsky’s match racing team along with Fowler who though’ Kiwi born, grew up in WA and has an Oz accent who comes from the same WA match racing team

While the America’s Cup has always been about huge war chests, massive egos, and plenty of bravado, charisma and style, the move away from both American waters (as the winners of the 34th America’s Cup, Oracle could have elected to defend their prize domestically) and American sailors isn’t exactly endearing Oracle Team USA or AC35 to most American sports fans.

While Jimmy waged a masterful PR campaign against Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) during the last Cup that pulled in plenty of last-minute American moral support, the same cannot be said of his fan-facing work during the AC35 Cup cycle

As for American sailors, Spithill has stated that Oracle intends to rotate-in their deep bench throughout the build-up to AC35, but-if 2015’s Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series events but the odds are that Aussie accents will dominate any media interviews.

Given the wild chain of events that have unfurled since the heady days on San Francisco Bay, Jimmy Spithill, Tom Slingsby and Oracle Team USA may need to wage another PR campaign if they wish to win back their American fans, many of whom will find it hard to love our Aussies.

Meanwhile it’s hard to escape the thought that if Ian Murray had been able to negotiate a full blown country of origin protocol, when the Hamilton Island Yacht Club was the Challenger of Record then this crew could easily have been Team Hammo.

*Yank = Septic Tank = Seppo


: