Cup Spy: "Burling Rule" unlikely to be changed. Pressure goes on for Protocol sign-off
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 20 Jun 12:38 PDT
America's Cup Prizegiving - Peter Burling - March 2021 - Auckland © Stefano Gattini
Despite the shift of three times America's Cup winner Peter Burling from Emirates Team New Zealand to Italy's Luna Rossa, it is understood that there is unlikely to be any softening of the Nationality rule to enable the former Kiwi skipper to get any closer to the action than a chase-boat in the 38th America's Cup.
The rule in the "Final Draft" of the Protocol for the 2027 America's Cup prohibited sailors who competed in the 37th America's Cup in Barcelona from sailing for a new team in the forthcoming or 38th America's Cup in Naples.
While that rule has been one of the negotiation points between the Challengers, currently represented by the Royal Yacht Squadron as the Challenger of Record, it is believed that the Defender will not yield any further ground on that point.
Emirates Team New Zealand has now lost two of its sailing team members to the Italian Challenger. While it may be hard for some of the Challengers to understand, the Defender is unlikely to make a suicidal rule change that would allow open season on its sailing team.
Although no formal announcement has been made, Josh Junior, a former winner of the Finn Gold Cup - the most prestigious trophy in monotype sailing - slipped over to the Italian team earlier this year in a coaching and support role. He had been on the sailing crew of two America's Cup winners but was moved to a super-sub and support team role for the 2024 Cup in Barcelona. It is a moot point as to whether he too is caught by the Burling Rule - depending on whether he actually sailed on the Kiwi boat in a race in the 2024 America's Cup (AC37).
Burling is expected to occupy a similar role to Junior within the Italian team, which means many hours in the support boat watching the Italian team train. He is also expected to have an F1-style test driver role, setting boat performance benchmarks for the two already nominated Italian helmsmen, Max Gradoni, a four-time World Optimist champion, and double Olympic Gold medalist Ruggero Tita, and passing on some AC75 tips.
Of course Burling and Tita will still be helming in the SailGP events, except from now the Kiwi and Italian will be part of the Luna Rossa sailing team.
While Burling may nominally be in the “Sailing Team” that is not the same as being in the race crew sailing on the race boat - under the "Final Draft” of the Protocol that is not permitted. A similar blocking rule applied in the 2024 and 2021 Cups.
Luna Rossa has to replace both its co-helmsmen from the 2024 America's Cup following the retirement of two-times America's Cup winner Jimmy Spithill. He now leads the Italian SailGP team. Also gone is one of the great characters of America's Cup sailing, Francesco Bruni - who sailed five America's Cups - four with Luna Rossa and in 2003 with the Latin Rascals, Mascalzone Latino (ITA).
After being eliminated in the Louis Vuitton Challenger Final, Luna Rossa went sailing for a final day with Gradoni and Tita in the co-helm positions, and made a clear statement for all to see that they were the future of Italian America's Cup sailing.
Both will need tutoring at the feet of a Master, and that is likely the role Peter Burling will fill. Whether they can come up to speed and win the America's Cup at their first attempt was always a big question - but their task has certainly been made easier with the addition of Burling.
Curiously, the media statement issued by the Italians said that; "Even though his [Burling's] exact role has yet to be defined, he will certainly be part of the sailing team, reinforcing Luna Rossa's core leadership group and contributing to key areas of our development program."
The comment raises the question of whether Burling's hire was a propaganda move as much as it was strategic, in the expectation that hiring their former skipper was also about rattling the Kiwi's cage. It seems to have had limited effect in New Zealand, and similarly in the normally Cup-passionate Italian media.
The addition of Burling and Junior to the Luna Rossa coaching team raises questions about the fate of the other coaching team members from 2024: Hamish Willcox, Philippe Presti, and Jacopo Plazzi. The latter did not have a high-profile role externally but proved to be a very good coaching and training organiser, enabling the Italians to get through their training routines with a minimum of downtime - an area where many challengers suffered in the last Cup.
Plazzi's skills will be critical in the upcoming Cup, assuming the cap on sailing days in the AC75 and AC40 test boats remains in place. Teams won't be able to play catch-up in the way they did previously, with no limits on training time. This time around, the training days meter will be running as soon as the towline is dropped and the boat is free sailing. Having Burling use valuable sailing days when the cap is in operation will require careful management.
Presti and Willcox bring a considerable amount of Cup experience to any team - both have won two America's Cups as coaches - and some hard decisions are going to have to be made by Luna Rossa CEO Max Sirena on the size of the team, assuming Presti and Willcox are still available, and where Francesco Bruni fits in.
Having an abundance of coaching riches may be a nice problem to have. However, only one of the potentially six coaches on the Italian team is an Italian National. As a side note to that point, with Spithill's departure, the Luna Rossa AC75 will be able to revert to Italian-only on-board conversation. That has the benefit of other teams being unable to understand what is being said on board during commentated races. However, it is also more challenging for a predominantly English-speaking coaching team to comprehend what is being said on board during training and racing.
In the broader context, the Defender may adopt a more lenient approach towards crew engagement from first-time America's Cup Challengers to encourage new teams to enter the Cup. However, the established teams live and die on the success or otherwise of their Nation's Olympic development and Medal Count. Easing AC nationality rules is just an escape clause for nations with poorly performed Olympic teams.
The Protocol and Rules for the forthcoming Cup are still in limbo, and everyone, except the Defender, is just shadowboxing at this stage.
Today, eight months have lapsed since the conclusion of the 2024 America's Cup in Barcelona. That is about the median time between the end of a Match and the announcement of the Protocol for the next America's Cup.
Sail-World's sources say that while progress is being made, the fact remains that a Protocol has not been announced, with the upcoming America's Cup less than two years distant.
There has been no word from Athena Racing, the Challenger of Record's team, indicating that they have the financial ability to mount a credible challenge following their estrangement from their original backer, INEOS, and the collapse of the named Challenger, INEOS Britannia.
That situation is more critical for the 2027 America's Cup than ETNZ's loss of their former skipper.