Cup Experience News

Issue 57 | Thursday 20 July 2017

The Rolling Stones must have been singing about the America's Cup. Opinions are flying about what the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and the Circolo della Vela Sicilia should put into the protocol for the 36th defense. It's easy to say, "We should go back to monohulls," or "There should be strict nationality rules for the crew," or "Yacht clubs should be in charge, like the Deed of Gift says," or "We need to keep the great LiveLine graphics." But it's a lot harder to come up with a complete Protocol, since some apparent desiderata are mutually exclusive. And there is the small matter of how to fund the event.

What's the Objective?

Before diving into details, let's think about what we want to achieve.

• Do we want to build the America's Cup into a profitable sports entertainment business? Is that possible? How big could it be?
• Should we return to a "traditional" America's Cup? What does "traditional" mean? The traditions of the Herreshoff era, with tycoon-funded American yachts with a Scottish skipper and a crew of Scandinavian fishermen? Or the traditions of the 12m era, sailed in the smallest yachts ever, until the AC Class catamarans of 2017? Or the traditions of the 1930's with huge, elegant J Class yachts helmed by their owners?

Some Popular Topics

• Monohulls or multihulls?
• The fastest boats (apparent wind always forward) or boats with downwind sails and sail changes?
• Stadium racing or racing in big waves and strong winds? (NYC ACWS or Freemantle Doctor?)
• Build a linear TV audience big enough to attract broadcast rights fees equivalent to, say, the Tour de France (about $50M)? Or use a "digital-first" strategy on a freemium model?
• Help owners build their teams into long lasting, financially valuable "sports franchise" assets? Or continue with varying mixes of patronage and sponsorship?
• Establish a permanent governing authority? Or give more authority back to yacht clubs? (What staff and funding does a yacht club need to run the America's Cup?)
• Provide visibility by defining the dates, venues and boats for multiple future editions? Or follow the Deed of Gift and have the defender and challenger issue a Protocol months after the conclusion of each Match?
• Encourage additional nations to enter? Or institute 80-100% nationality requirement for the crew?
• No racing among the teams before the Challenger Selection Series? No sailing with the Defender before the America's Cup Match?
• Frequency? Every two years? Every four years? Random, decided by the Challenger in the case of a DoG match; or by the Challenger and Defender under mutual consent?

With his role as sailing coach for Emirates Team New Zealand, Murray Jones joins a very small group of six time winners of the America's Cup. He sailed with Team New Zealand during their successful challenge in 1995 and their defense in 2000. In 2003 and 2007 he was on board Alinghi. For the 2013 defense he was on Oracle's sailing team, racing in the AC World Series. For the 2017 AC, Murray was recruited back to Team New Zealand, to help prepare Peter Burling and the other young sailors for match racing. Murray was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 2010.

The other six time winners are designers Olin Stephens and Nathanael Greene Herreshoff, who each designed the winning yacht in six America's Cup defenses.

The Kiwis are showing little interest in Louis Vuitton products. During the prizegiving ceremony in Bermuda, several team members decided to toss the Louis Vuitton bags they had just been given to the crowd.

It seems they have little use for the custom Louis Vuitton case that the Cup used to travel in.

Maybe that is not surprising, when their Challenger of Record is sponsored by Prada.