Death Threats, Mud Slinging Poison Cup

by Rich Roberts on 8 Mar 2003 The mood of the 31st America's Cup reflected the world’s current discord: anger and spite.

Worse, most of the anger was misdirected.

Americans were angry with ESPN2 for delaying the telecasts on days when there wasn't supposed to be any racing. Instead, the network stuck with scheduled programming rather than switching to the Hauraki Gulf. Only on scheduled race days could we see the thrilling postponements and abandonments live.

Everybody was angry with Harold Bennett, the beleaguered race director, for letting Team New Zealand decide whether to race. Few blamed the party that made the rules and hired Bennett to enforce them: Team New Zealand.

New Zealanders - although not as many as we were led to believe, I hope - were angry with Russell Coutts, leader of the “Swiss Six” Kiwi sailors aboard Alinghi.

Those men - Coutts, Brad Butterworth, Simon Daubney, Murray Jones, Dean Phipps and Graham Fleury - gave their all to win then defend the Cup for their homeland. Then they had the gall to seek elsewhere the financial security for themselves and their families that their small country could not offer, as thousands of other countrymen and women have done in other lines of work.

Everyone was angry with everyone else. Some days I didn't know if it was the America's Cup or the Jerry Springer Show.

When races were run, the final match was a train wreck. Team New Zealand not only lost five straight to Alinghi but also its breakthrough “hula” boat turned out to be a breakaway boat that gave a new meaning to concept of water ballast.

More disappointing, though, was that months earlier Team New Zealand had an opportunity to disavow the vitriolic campaign directed at Coutts & Co. by the BlackHeart radicals. Instead, they embraced it and pursued the 'Loyal' crusade based on hate.

Even when it was over and the gaudy silver ewer was changing hands, they were not the most gracious losers. Bill Endean, commodore of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, continued to twist the screws when he said, “Special thanks and recognition to the boys in black who made sacrifices and turned down what might have been more attractive offers to stay with their team, stay with their club, and stay with their country.”

Interesting.

If Clay Oliver had stayed with his country, the U.S.A., somebody else would have had to design the TNZ boat, “hula” and all. If Roger (Clouds) Badham had stayed with his country, Australia, someone else would have had to direct TNZ's weather-forecasting program. Finally, if Bertrand Pacé had stayed with his country, France, somebody else would have had to drive the TNZ trial boat and maybe replace a loyal Kiwi, Hamish Pepper, as tactician for the final race.

TNZ boss Tom Schnackenberg's congratulatory words to Coutts and the Alinghi team also were troublesome, on face value. “We trust you will get a warm welcome in Switzerland,” he said. “You have done Switzerland proud.”

Sarcasm? Hypocrisy? Hatred? I hope I misread the remarks and the behavior, because it wasn't at all typical of the New Zealanders I knew through other AC campaigns dating to 1986.

Actually, the Swiss Six did New Zealand proud.

Coutts spoke for all of them when he told New Zealand commentator Peter Montgomery as he sailed back to harbor, “I am a New Zealander. Make no bones about that. I'm a New Zealander . . . [and] as a professional sailor, frankly, I'm proud of what I've done.”

The moral strength of Alinghi can't be overstated when it's considered that amid death threats and their homeland's hate campaign, Coutts and the others quietly kept their heads down and their mouths shut and just sailed their boat close to perfection.

With Coutts, the Kiwis showed the world how to win and defend the America's Cup. Without him, they now seem unsure how to lose.

As for the racing, with such a crew all Alinghi needed was an equal boat to be best. At the end, it also was apparent that Larry Ellison's Oracle BMW was second best, leaving TNZ maybe on a par with Seattle's OneWorld.

Why TNZ's boat kept falling apart is a public mystery. At least two spectator boat skippers told friends of mine that TNZ collided with its trial boat about 10 minutes before the pre-start of the first race. No such incident was reported, but if it happened, did it set off a chain reaction of breakdowns?

Would it have made any difference? Alinghi was already leading when TNZ dropped out of two races.

The real difference was pure sailing. At one point, Gary Jobson said the most important man on the boat wasn't the skipper/driver but the tactician, and TNZ had no match for Brad Butterworth.

For the next few years, sailors will pay him the ultimate tribute in critical racing situations: “What would Butterworth do here?”



Coutts said, “I think we'll make some changes that will make it a better media event.”

Ehman said, “If we said, ‘Guys, you gotta be prepared to race in 5-to-25-or-30 [knots of wind],’ they would design and build boats to do that. And then you would be allowed to change the boats from a light-air package to a heavy-air package. Because of the ‘no-change’ periods, we haven't been able to do that, even though our sport is more influenced by the weather than any.

'For the sake of television, for the sake of spectators, for the sake of just sport,” he added, “you've got to be prepared to race and willing to race.”

Postponing or calling off races is a ratings killer. Just look at this year. On second thought, let’s not.

For the full story go to

www.thelognewspaper.com/news/newsview.asp?c=32997