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  Pondering the 36th America's Cup—Sailing news from the U.S. and beyond
 | | Emirates Team New Zealand won the 35th America's Cup vs Oracle Team Usa 7-1 © BMW | Studio Borlenghi |
With summer and the Fastnet Race in full swing, not to mention all the other cool regattas that are rapidly approaching the (metaphoric) windshield, it's sometimes easy to forget that the America's Cup took place less than two months ago and that the Auld Mug now has a new Defender, namely the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, which will be represented on the racecourse by Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ). While nothing is etched is stone yet, popular opinion holds that the 36th America's Cup (AC36) will take place in 2021, likely on the waters just off of Auckland, New Zealand, however the Protocol that will govern AC36 isn't expected to be publicly released until this September.
Much like the passing of presidential batons here in the USA after eight years with one ruling party, it can take some settling in for the sailing world to grow accustomed to the Cup's new Defender, but-at least at the time of this writing-there's a lot of optimism that the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and ETNZ will attempt to fix several of the issues that plagued its former Defender, the Golden Gate Yacht Club, and its representative team, Oracle Team USA.
 | | 35th America's Cup Match - Day 4 - ORACLE TEAM USA © BMW | Studio Borlenghi |
For anyone who did not follow AC35 closely, the Defender, the Golden Gate Yacht Club, and Larry Ellison's Oracle Team USA were the first team in history to elect to host the America's Cup overseas, despite having access to “an arm of the sea” right here in the good ol' US of A. This didn't earn the Defenders many “likes”, nor did AC35's Protocol, which was extremely light on nationality rules.
As a result of these two decisions, AC35 was a regatta that wasn't seen by a large number of in-person spectators, and it was also an America's Cup where only a single “American” (tactician Tom Slingsby) sailed aboard the Defender's yacht during the races...and Slingsby-an Australian by birth and identity-holds dual passports, rather than a single blue and gold book.
 | | Tom Slingsby (AUS and USA), Oracle Team USA's tactician for AC35 ACEA /Gilles Martin-Raget |
To say that the Defender failed to grasp the nation's heart and mind is a bit like saying that a certain high-profile world leader is utterly failing to gain the respect or support of his constituents.
Contrast this with ETNZ's boat, which was staffed by an entirely Kiwi crew, with the lone exception of skipper and wingsail trimmer Glenn Ashby (AUS), who has lived in New Zealand for years and is raising his children there. To say that national pride was involved is a dramatic understatement, and while David clearly used better design and system controls to best Goliath, all witnesses to AC35 also know that Kiwi pride played a big role in the ETNZ's decisive win on Bermudian waters.
 | | Glenn Ashby, skipper Emirates Team New Zealand - 35th America's Cup - Bermuda June 26, 2017 Richard Gladwell |
So what can the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and ETNZ do to prevent making the same mistakes that the Golden Gate Yacht Club and Oracle Team USA made with AC35?
For starters, all sailors, players and pundits seem to want a strong nationality clause added, and-given Dennis Conner's famous quote about always betting on self-interest with the America's Cup as it's always in the running-it could certainly be in New Zealand's best interest to implement this clause given the large numbers of highly skilled Kiwi sailors afloat. Also, the Kiwis seem to be committed to the idea of hosting an America's Cup on their home waters, which is a heck of lot more than can be said about the Cup's previous custodians.
 | | 35th America's Cup Match - Day 4 - ORACLE TEAM USA and Emirates Team New Zealand © BMW | Studio Borlenghi |
Things get interesting when discussing the hypothetical vessel. Here, old-school Cup fans yearn for the days of lumbering monohulls, while the go-fast generation cares about hydrofoils and state-of-the-art wingsails. While selecting the proper horse for the course is obviously of high importance, the reality is that hard-core sailors will follow the Cup's twists and turns, irrespective of whether it's contested aboard monohulls, catamarans or trimarans. Instead, the trick will be wooing the less dedicated crowds to the AC36 village.
Given the reaction that most of my non-sailing-obsessed friends had to AC35 (read: yawn), odds are excellent that the Kiwis can avoid the pitfalls that make AC35 seem like a distant memory by simply hosting AC36 in Auckland and requiring that a large percentage of each crew be comprised of national sailors.
 | | 35th America's Cup Match - Day 4 - ORACLE TEAM USA and Emirates Team New Zealand © BMW | Studio Borlenghi |
Case-in-point: While my mother doesn't know a foiling gybe from a roll tack, she certainly knew that there weren't any full-blooded American sailors on the American-flagged boat, which didn't do a lot to keep her riveted to the racing action. But back in 1987, she certainly knew that “DC” and the Stars and Stripes boys were on a mission to correct a historical wrong (from a decisively American perspective, of course), and she was more than happy to watch the ticker-tape parade that was bestowed upon this winning American crew when they brought the Auld Mug back to the Western Hemisphere.
 | | Stars & Stripes, winner of the America's Cup 1987 in the Victory Parade in New York - with the parade funded by now-President Donald Trump(right) Daniel Forster © |
Hopefully she will have reason to get pulled into AC36's drama, rather than get repelled by its pay walls and lopsided Protocol.
May the four winds blow you safely home,
David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor
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A QandA with the RORC's Nick Elliott about the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race
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