A blast from the Fish
by Rob Kothe, Richard Gladwell on 13 Apr 2015
Luna Rossa Challenge Luna Rossa Challenge 2013
http://www.lunarossachallenge.com/
This week we published an Open Letter from the doyen of America's Cup Media, Bob Fisher on the current situation on the Cup and its dis-organisation. Never one to hold back, Bob certainly gives this both barrels, as no-one else can do.
Many of the adverse comments about the 33rd, 34th and now 35th America's Cup are dismissed as coming from the so-called Flintstones Generation who want to see a return to 12 Metres , or some monohull that has out served its purpose.
Bob Fisher is not one of those. Despite having covered the America's Cup since 1967, he is a multihull nut at heart. He won the then Little America's Cup - sailed in 26ft International C-Class catamarans - which at that time were the fastest, most technologically advanced boats on the planet. He helped develop the rfig for the Tornado and sailed it in the IYRU international trials in 1967. He was ecstatic when the America's Cup was to be sailed in multihulls.
What is happening now in the America's Cup is not the way the event should be run, for all its crooked history.
Under the stewardship of Golden Gate Yacht Club, the event is going backwards, not forwards. Even more disappointing is the fact that during its tenure by other Defending Clubs, the group out of San Francisco were the loudest and most vociferous about the need for change and to lift the America's Cup to a much higher and better level.
Given the opportunity, and goodwill they enjoyed after their win in 2010 - the Cup has drifted. The time to make changes to the event is before entries open, not after design teams have been working for nine months.
How easy would it have been for Golden Gate Yacht Club to announce at the final media conference for the 34th America's Cup that they would defend in San Francisco, that they would do it in wingsailed, foiling multihulls and the year would be 2017? Then there would have been some certainty, and the momentum generated by the 34th America's Cup - for all its shortcomings - would have been maintained.
It would have been an equally simple matter to follow the lead of previous Cup holders and invite all potential participants to an open meeting to discuss more detailed options for the next Cup.
Instead, there was delay instead of an immediate announcement. The Challengers themselves had to call the first combined Meeting, and then the Defenders decided to repeat the exercise a few weeks later.
The issue now is that the dysfunction within the America's Cup is spilling over into other areas of sailing - affecting non-sailing fans, and non-sailing media and sponsors.
The perception of sailing now is that you spend two or three years arguing about the rules, often in Court, and then have a yacht race.
In contrast, the Volvo Ocean Race has made some big calls, which have generally paid off - and they now have the platform for a new and revitalised event that should last for several editions and which should attract more entries and more sponsors.
'For all the talk about sailor driven events, it is a fact that in any sport you can't have good sport without good administration, and that is a lesson the group from San Francisco have yet to learn.
'This week Team Vestas Wind skipper Chris Nicholson talked to Sail-World.com, providing this update as the countdown to Lisbon clicks on for the Danish Volvo Ocean Race team pushes on in the repair process, as Nico and his crew work towards the Portuguese start line.
‘I’d have to say that on the critical path we vary between plus or minus three days. I think if you could look back at Christmas time and say that we would be where we are now, you would say that it would be quite acceptable, but you know we are desperate to try and get a little bit in front of the schedule.
‘Normally you have some sort of a buffer zone in your schedule and in your planning, but we don’t have any and we are right on the limit as such, trying to get this done.
‘For us sailing time is going to be an issue ahead of the Lisbon start.
‘How much we get depends on if we can get that little buffer in the schedule that I am after. We obviously have to have some… we have to prove that the boat is reliable. I don’t have any doubt that the boat will be safe but it is still something we would like to go out on, prior to racing and take off.
'So, we do need a few days of sailing. And we need the boat to come out of the shed and be commissioned in the right manner… as in it comes out pretty much ready to go, rather than a boat that could come out that you know has bugs that would take days and weeks to iron out. We can’t afford that.'
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