Chasing the Cup by Jimmy Spithill

Author:Jimmy Spithill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

TWELVE

Dogzilla

‘I think it would be really good if you came on board with the BMW Oracle team. Larry Ellison and I are putting together a new kind of challenge and we will be building the team from scratch.’

‘Yeah, I would love to come on board and be a back-up for you.’

‘No, no. I would be hiring you to hopefully helm the boat.’

I was pinching myself. Russell Coutts, one of the greatest sailors in the world, who had now been hired by Larry Ellison to run the American team, was proposing that I might have an opportunity to helm his boat. Was this for real?

‘There are a lot of sailors out there, but there are very few who can do everything. You have definitely developed as a racer; you have impressive sailing abilities. You are not a leader yet, but you could be – if you want. Do you want to be the complete package?’

I didn’t know how to answer, so I decided to shut up and listen. Russell was on a roll.

‘We want to build a sailor-run team with a real collaboration between sailors and designers.’

Then came more exciting news: the other guys he was about to sign would make this an America’s Cup dream team.

The essential ingredients for a team are real talent and being a team player. What I have found interesting is that many high-profile Olympic sailors have struggled to fit into the dynamics of a large team – although the best of them always fit in. Conversely, sometimes the most talented, perhaps lower-profile, sailors are easy to miss. Now, by creating sailing’s answer to Little League Baseball or college football with the introduction of the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup, they are easier to spot. It is important for me and everyone else directly involved in the America’s Cup to show kids that the sport requires athletes, it is cool and, most importantly, it provides long-term opportunities for them. Fortunately I have two ‘experts’ to advise me … Owen and Joe!

During the lead-up to the 2010 America’s Cup campaign, the Cup went through a tough spot where there was more action in New York courtrooms than on the water. It wasn’t the first time the America’s Cup as a contest had been debated in court by rival syndicates.

The America’s Cup is a charitable trust, to a large extent based on documents from the mid-19th century that were written when the owners of the yacht that first won the trophy in 1851 bequeathed it to the New York Yacht Club. The donation was made under a Deed of Gift, which stated that the Auld Mug was to be ‘a perpetual challenge cup for friendly competition between nations’.

The Deed states that the winner of the America’s Cup, and thus the defender of the next campaign, must appoint what is titled a Challenger of Record, a yacht club that will represent the interests of all the challengers and negotiate the terms for the next Cup match with the Cup defender.

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