Winter racing pix...North NZ 40 years on... Winther in Rio

by . on 18 Jul 2016 Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for July 18, 2016

Further to our last editorial on Phil Robertson and crew Stu Dodson, Will Tiller and James Wierzbowski's winning the richest prize in sailing - USD$1million or NZD$1.37m - it was great to see a few days later that thanks to a pre-series agreement that the prize would be split amongst all WMRT teams.

The intention of the agreement was that all competitors on the current World Match Racing Tour circuit would have the financial ability to continue to compete on the circuit in the upcoming year.

It's a refreshing attitude that is too rare in the professional side of sailing.

It sits very comfortably with the four-times Olympic champion, Paul Elvstrom's best-known quotation. 'You haven't won the race, if in winning the race you have lost the respect of your competitors.'

In agreeing to the split, all the circuit competitors shared in the plaudits associated with the grand gesture and earned themselves the respect of sailing fans worldwide. The event has grown in stature as a result.

The same can't be said of those involved in the America's Cup Arbitration Panel proceedings under way sometime between today and the end of the month, in a venue that hasn't been named and before a Panel that is publicly nameless.

By choosing to operate under a veil of secrecy, the America's Cup has lost the respect of its fans, particularly those involved in sailing. They know that when they or their fellow-sailors are involved in a protest hearing, the members of the Jury or protest committee are known; that the date of the hearing is posted on a club or regatta noticeboard; that the subject matter of the protest is known; and that the details of the decision and any penalty are posted on the same Noticeboard. It's all freely and publicly available information usually posted on a website for all to see and know.

However, America's Cup organisers have placed themselves above all that.

While they can claim that the move to secret proceedings was passed with the vote of the majority of competitors, the fact is that the Defender - Golden Gate Yacht Club - charged with the running of the event, effectively has the final approval on rules amendments and key decisions.

In the last America's Cup, regular media releases were published as to proceedings and key milestone points in any elongated hearing, which were duly reported. Agree with the Decisions or not, at least they were published along with the reasons. Teams could comment to the media until the so-called Dalton clause was bought in mid-series.

In bygone America's Cups, judicial proceedings were conducted under similar rules to that which prevail right through the sport, which has a high degree of transparency as to what an issue is about, when it is being heard, and the outcome.

In previous America's Cups the Arbitration Panel went a step further and allowed a couple of members of the media to observe the proceedings and report back to a general media pool.

However not this time. Well not yet.

Sail-World has twice asked an ACEA media representative for a response on basic points about information to be provided to media (and fans) on Hearings but has yet to receive a reply. Not that we are particularly bothered by that. There are other ways...

Even if a media release were provided at the end of a Hearing, who would believe it? If there was no way of verifying the content and facts before the Hearing, and if the participating parties were prevented from commenting on the matter (assuming those get revealed at some future time), how do we know that yet another self-serving release has not been pushed out?

The Code of Silence that has been adopted over the Arbitration Panel and processes compromises the integrity of the current America's Cup.

Don't forget that this is the same America's Cup that changed the class to be used by a simple majority vote nine months after entries had opened, and knowing that one team at least had invested heavily in design work for the now discarded class.

Being a professional sport does mean that fans should be subject to endless good news and fluff stories about teams and sponsors.

Real professional sport has a weekend component and a mid-week component.

The weekend component is what happens on the field. The mid-week component is what happens off it. That's what fills the sports pages, builds the fan opinions, provides some discussion points around the office water cooler, and is eventually reflected one way or another in the on the field game.

The sacking of coaches, appointments of new ones; player hirings and firings: player injuries; what is going before the Judiciary and the outcomes; player payments; players comment on what happened on and off the field; occasionally a coach will have a crack at the officials - and usually with good cause; plus a pile of other issues on which the fans all have an opinion - good or bad.

There's a myriad of story angles which fill the column inches and the sports segments on TV. Oddly enough the amount of tumult within a sport of a team seems to have little effect on the gate at the weekend - in fact often, the reverse is the case. Hit the headlines during the week and you'll have a probably bigger fan turnout come the weekend.

With all that is negative in the world, sport is the great escape for a big percentage of the population, and the off the field antics are a big part of it. The 'names' are often built during the week, just as player's reputations are built during the weekend - depending on their talent and form.

Sailing has consistently failed to capture the mid-week game. Some amateur events will never do it. But for the professional side of the sport, there is no excuse.

Worse, the controversy and characters are either hounded out of the game or hide-bound with pathetic rules and penalties designed to maintain media-silence.

The America's Cup used to have a great mid-week game with the likes of Tom Blackaller, Dennis Conner, Harold Cudmore, Alan Bond, Ben Lexcen, Michael Fay, Warren Jones, Sir Frank Packer and many others who could always provide a quick and irreverent quip, or storyline that would grab the general sporting media's attention - and the column inches and media minutes flowed the way of sailing.

What's so wrong with expressing an opinion or comment that doesn't completely align with the message being pushed by event organisers?

What's so wrong with with disinfectant of transparency - unless you've got something that smells or you want to hide?

Cover-ups don't deter media speculation, they just encourage it.

Follow all the racing and developments in major and local events on www.sail-world.com, scroll to the bottom of the site, select New Zealand, and get all the latest news and updates from the sailing world.

Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

sailworldnzl@gmail.com

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