Sail-World NZ e-magazine - 11 Oct, 2018 - Adieu Christine...Team NZ on the move
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/nz 11 Oct 2018 03:42 PDT
11 October 2018
Christine Belanger and Yves Carcelle in a relaxed mood at a daily prizegiving for the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in Auckland in February 2009 © Richard Gladwell
Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for October 11, 2018
We've had a quiet week so far, but as always, still waters run deep.
Christine Belanger
Sad news early in the week regarding the sudden death of Christine Belanger, one of the group of three who lifted the Louis Vuitton Cup to the point where it became the sailing epitome of its sponsor's high-fashion brand.
Christine, along with Bruno Trouble and Louis Vuitton CEO, the late Yves Carcelle, were a unique troika never seen before in sailing.
For those in the America's Cup team and media, Christine was a omnipresent figure.
America's Cup fans would have rarely seen her, but Christine's fingerprints were all over any event that carried the Louis Vuitton name, and particularly the Louis Vuitton Cup which became the longest and one of the most success sponsorships in international sport.
Her time with Louis Vuitton began in 1986, a year after New Zealand first raced in Fremantle, and continued to San Francisco in 2013 albeit in a changed form.
The final act of their original sponsorship model was in the various Louis Vuitton series created to keep the America's Cup Challenger family together, during the Deed of Gift Challenge fought out in the New York Supreme Court from 2007-2009.
Christine and Bruno were a superb double act.
Bruno, always the America's Cup supremo, was the face of the Louis Vuitton Cup. The one who is larger than life, with the big ideas and running the front of house - from his desk in the media centre, or getting around the teams. It was he who decided the stories for the day, culminating in the nightly media conference and ensured that there was only ever one show in town - the Louis Vuitton Cup.
Christine was the juggler - much quieter but ruthlessly fast and efficient - and missed nothing. Putting in place the finesse, elegant style and detail where it was needed and would be noticed.
What Bruno couldn't achieve with bluster, Christine achieved with a smile, charm, and always very simple and elegance appropriate to the occasion. No-one ever said "no" to Christine. She epitomized the very style of the Louis Vuitton brand and took on the directorship of their events in 1991.
Yves was similar in character to Christine. He was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame in recognition of his leadership and understated contribution to the Louis Vuitton and America's Cups. Christine was a member of the Selection Committee America's Cup Hall of Fame recognising her contribution and knowledge of the America's Cup history and sailors.
In Auckland in February 2009, we saw Bruno, Christine and Yves working at their finest as they pulled together a ten team event. The participants included the two teams fighting it out in centre ring in the New York Supreme Court, and also against the backdrop of ETNZ suing Alinghi, the then America's Cup champion in a separate action.
Christine, Bruno and Yves along with plenty of local support spun the four boat/ten team series into a classy event which had all the hallmarks of an America's Cup - but without the presence of the most prestigious trophy in sailing.
We have a more extensive story on Christine Belanger in this edition, with contributions from 2009 from Suzanne McFadden and Amanda Linnell, who paint their impressions of Christine at her finest.
Laurent Esquier
Another who has been around the America's Cup scene for as long, and maybe longer than Christine Belanger is her compatriot Laurent Esquier - the urbane Frenchman probably best known as the first coach of then New Zealand Challenge in 1985-87 in Fremantle.
Laurent sailed in his first America's Cup campaign in 1974 when he was just 20 years old, and competed in the Challenger Selection Series - pre-dating even Louis Vuitton's involvement.
Now Laurent is heading up the Challenger of Record organisation, based in Milan, Italy but will be coming to Auckland in 2020 when the Challenger sets up base.
Yesterday I interviewed Laurent in Auckland. The story will be published later tomorrow, Friday, or over the weekend.
This America's Cup is unfolding like no other. Already we are 15 months into the 36th America's Cup cycle and with just over 100 weeks left until the start of the Christmas Cup, and there has not been a bad word, in public between the teams.
Sniping and sledging between the teams has always been part of the America's Cup. Books have been written about it. Amongst the mainstream media, the common perception is that an America's Cup team's lawyer is the person to be signed onto the payroll, and is just as critical to the result as the boat designer.
For the first 15 quiet months of AC36, it has all been sweetness and light. That's aside from the Battle of the Bases which ran for nine months, and at the end of which the 36th Cup was very close to being sailed in Italy.
One of the reasons for that bonhomie is because many of the key players go back a long way.
The relationship between Luna Rossa and the New Zealand nation is well known, back to when the first time Italian team won the Challenger Final. Such was their impact on Auckland and New Zealand that skipper Francesco de Angelis received an Honorary Award in the New Zealand Honours List for 2000. "El Duce" was also voted a second in a poll of housewives for New Zealand's sexiest man in that year.
Laurent Esquier and Grant Dalton also go a long way back - with both being part of the New Zealand Challenge in Fremantle along with ETNZ's COO Kevin Shoebridge.
The key takeouts from the interview with Laurent Esquier were that the two America's Cup World Series Regattas will definitely take place in Europe in 2019, which will be the first opportunity to see the AC75's racing together as a fleet.
The venues are yet to be announced, but the first will, be assured, sailed in a venue with plenty of wind. All the parties - teams and Prada as sponsor are keen to see the new America's Cup class get off to a solid, and exciting, start.
The minimum of three events the following year will be sailed in Europe, USA and Asia before the AC75's are shipped back to New Zealand for the Christmas Cup in December 2020. Esquier says they are considering 27 possible locations at present.
On the question of further Challengers, Esquier believes that three are "knocking on the Trustee's door" - quickly pointing out that it is the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron as Defender who gets the first approach, not the Challenger of Record.
Esquier says he is impressed with Auckland as venue describing the location in Downtown Auckland, for the bases and America's Cup Village, as being a "long and narrow stretch" meaning the access is not just through a single or narrow point as with most previous America's Cup venues.
A Race Director is in the process of being appointed, and it will be that person who decides which of the five course-areas will be used each day based on the weather forecast. That will give some certainty for fans and TV coverage, rather than the usual of just heading out each day to the America's Cup buoy in the centre of the America's Cup course and being at the beck and call of the God of the Winds.
Esquier emphasised that the event will have a strong Prada/Italian stamp on the Challenger side of the venue, at least - bringing their vital style and elegance to the Auckland waterfront - lifting the event to its unique position.
The expectation is that Prada will continue the tradition created by Bruno, Christine and Yves with Louis Vuitton to create the 25 year and longest running sponsorship in international sport.
The television and media package will be the big point of difference for Auckland, New Zealand and the 2021 America's Cup with its preliminary events.
As previously confirmed by Grant Dalton, joint CEO of ETNZ and ACE (America's Cup Events), the media packages will be free to air and will be aimed at maximising viewership. "Quality and breadth" are the two words used by Esquier to describe what the organisers, sponsors and teams are seeking from the arrangement.
Currently, he says, discussions are underway with 340 networks worldwide. It would seem that the process is centred around what each network can bring to the event in terms of audience and added value, and the decisions will be made from there. Current thinking is that there will be no territorial exclusivity and multiple media outlets could be carrying the Cup in their territory.
A similar process will apply with all other media involved in the coverage of the 36th America's Cup and Prada Cup regattas.
The full interview will appear in Sail-World in the next day or two, followed by a second major story at some stage over the weekend.
Stay tuned.
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Good sailing!
Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor
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