Cayard- the America's Cup, Volvo, Antarctica -- and Star Sailing

by Rich Roberts www.YachtRacing.com on 15 Jul 2002 Competition for America's Cup XXXI starts in 2½ months with the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger trials at Auckland, where some of the familiar major players will be Russell Coutts, Dennis Conner, Peter Gilmour and . . . Paul Cayard?

'I don't have any plan to go to Auckland,' Cayard said. Not as a sailor, certainly. Perhaps, with his insight and charisma, as a TV commentator?

'I have been contacted by Outdoor Life [Network],' Cayard said, referring to the group that has TV rights for the U.S. 'I don't know if I really want to do that, and if I did I would have to run it by Oracle [now Oracle BMW].'

Cayard, at home in the San Francisco suburb of Kentfield, can't make a professional move without Larry Ellison's permission. He remains under contract, in limbo, through the duration of this AC next February.

He has enjoyed his time at home with wife Icka and two kids. He
sailed a leg of the Volvo Ocean Race with Amer Sports One. In
another way he has come full circle, back to sailing Star boats and
calling tactics for rich guys on Farr 40s, as he once did for his late mentor Tom Blackaller at
Fremantle in 1986-87. Cayard, who won the Star Worlds with Steve Erickson as crew in 1988,
will be sailing at Marina del Rey, Calif., with 'Hollywood' Hal Haenel as crew, in this weekend's
5th District championships, followed by the California YC's King of Spain regatta Aug.
10-11---tune-ups for the Nautica Star Worlds Aug. 18-23.

Ellison still hasn't explained why, in his wisdom, he bumped one of the world's most successful
sailors from his sailing team last October. But, apparently, Ellison has enough regard for
Cayard's abilities---Whitbread winner, participant in the last six ACs, two as the leader, and still
in his prime at 43---to freeze him in an administrative position and prevent him from joining a
rival American team.

'I know it's just an issue with one person,' Cayard said. 'I don't feel like I was removed for any type of inferior performance. In fact, it might have been the contrary. I'm pretty confident in
myself and I've had plenty of positive feedback on my performance [from] within Oracle.'

There have been upsides, other than a continuing steady income.

'The best part about not being there is being home with family all the time and not having the
strains on my relationship with my wife and kids that the America's Cup adds,' Cayard said.

'I'm enjoying sailing the Stars [and] the Farr 40s. I'm playing a different side of the sport. But
I'm also missing the big project and what the America's Cup is. I guess I'm waiting to see what
it's gonna be like in December or January, not being part of the main event.'

Q: Beyond the Star Worlds, what's on your horizon?

PC: 'There's always the next America's Cup, and I have a few people contacting me about that. I
have some thoughts about some of the offshore sailing---the Antarctica Cup and the Volvo
[Ocean Race]---to try to improve both the competitiveness and the interest factor for the
competitors themselves, at the same time producing a more valuable product for the corporate
sponsors.'

Q: Why did you enter the Antarctica Cup?

PC: 'I think it's a fantastic idea, very creative. The one-design boat is a good idea because it
makes all the teams competitive and reduces costs. You can even square that again if they can
use the same boats in the Volvo. Then those boats would have some residual value.

'I'm interested in trying to make this happen, whether I participate, but I would like to see the
Antarctica Cup people and the Volvo people and anybody who has interest in the large monohull,
crewed, around-the-world type sailing work together to make it a more viable business activity.'

Q: Should other professional offshore events offer prize money, as the Antarctica Cup proposes
to do?

PC: 'It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that in the Antarctica Cup the competitors are
putting up the prize money [with million-dollar entry fees]. Even if that's the way it is, it's good
marketing and it adds more interest. It's sort of like betting on yourself. Everybody has some
skin in the game. As the events grow in prestige, we should be able to cover the prize money in
other ways.

'What's out of balance in professional sailing is that the value given is inferior to the cost. If we
didn't have Larry Ellison's passion and [Craig] McCaw's passion and [Ernesto] Bertarelli's
passion, you wouldn't have $80 million dollar America's Cup teams. It doesn't make corporate
financial sense.

'We need to grow these events so they do . . . make them more competitive, get more countries
involved, have the races close, try to have residual value for our assets, try to make the tools
that we use to put the show on not cost more than what they need to. Do we need $10 million
boats to put on good racing? Probably not.

'I see the Antarctica Cup and the Volvo with a chance to put in place a very good business
model. The first segment of the sport that does will be a hit because there are a lot of people who
are now used to being professional sailors and want to continue that lifestyle and career who are
going to go to the first viable business that surfaces. I've talked to Russell Coutts about this and
we're on the same page.'

Q: Your thoughts on changes proposed for the Volvo Ocean Race?

PC: 'A little bit bigger boats . . . one-design boats. But [the Volvo 60s] happen to be great tools
for the job. They're safe, relatively fast and don't require a lot of crew. The problem with going
too big is getting too much crew. That's expensive. If they went with those boats again I'd cut
the crews from 12 to 10. I'd cut the sails. Instead of 17 sails on the boat we probably should have
12.

'It's a hassle to have them there. It's somewhat dangerous because they're all stacked on one
side and if you have an emergency and have to turn around, you have to unstack the sails before
you can go back and rescue somebody.'

Q: What else?

PC: 'Fewer stops. Probably what Volvo is going to have to do is put on a little more show in the
ports. They might want to do five stops and in every port have five races---just fleet racing.'

Q: Which five stops?

PC: 'You pretty much have to stop in South Africa somewhere, but Cape Town is not a big
commercial center. Sydney has all the potential in the world. [The 2001-02 competitors] felt