From the feedback - 27/3/01

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From Julian Everitt
Admiral's Cup past its sell-by date? Purists have sunk the Admiral's Cup. It is sad to read and amazing that a self-proclaimed World Championship that once attracted upwards of 19 nations has reached such a low ebb. But the demise of the Admiral's Cup - once the ultimate prize in ocean racing - has been long and slow. Once formulated as a true test of offshore racing skill in a mixed big boat fleet it has degenerated into an inshore orientated (with token offshore races) one-design event where the three team boats don't even race against each other. The Admiral's Cup started in 1957 when America raced under a completely different set of rules to Europe, but as the event grew in stature it became apparent that a common formula was required and so by 1971 the event was raced under the International Offshore Rule ( IOR). From that time unprecedented growth existed in ocean racing around the world and the Admiral's Cup became the pinnacle event.

By 1985 a remarkable 22 new boats were built to compete for the three places in the British team. Trials took place in virtually all of the major sailing countries in the world for their respective teams. Professionalism had however now entered the equation and with it rapidly escalating boat costs as development was pushed further and further. As rapidly as the event had grown, interest from boat owners dwindled just as quickly. It was commonly thought, as the event went into decline, that sponsorship and professional sailors would allow the Admiral's Cup to reinvent itself and with this notion began a series of damaging rule changes and alterations to the event format .

Firstly the International Rule was dropped to be replaced by a handicap formula called the International Measurement System that has proved to be so complicated and misleading that most boat owners around the world simply don't want to race under it. The Royal Ocean Racing Club, seeing the dwindling number of countries that wanted to continue to compete for the Cup, instigated further changes of their own. Firstly the event was broken up into three separate competitions. No longer would all the boats race against each other. Instead mini-fleets of near identical boats would race separately and the points scored from each fleet would be totalled up for the overall score. This was done to appease the professional sailors who only wanted to be judged by their sailing skills rather than the vagaries of a handicap system. The press also weighed in with the opinion that nobody was interested in handicap racing. First across the line was all that mattered to the readers. At the same time a less expensive and smaller 'One Design' was introduced to try and encourage entry level interest.

However the Mumm 36, as it was called, soon became a prohibitively expensive playground for professional sailors. So much for a cheaper and more popular boat. The professionals then complained that the Mumm was too small to race in the Fastnet Race - the ultimate offshore test for the competing crews. But rather than allowing a different boat to compete the RORC elected to drop the Fastnet Race - hugely devaluing the event as an offshore series. In yet another bid to 'save' the competition the RORC decided to introduce a second 'One Design' class which, has proved to be so unpopular that, virtually none of the boats are raced by their owners. Rather than seeing the obvious the RORC have continued to pursue the holy grail of 'One Design' racing as the way to re-popularise the event. For 2001 they signalled the final whistle on any form of handicap interest by replacing the big boat fleet with yet another 'One Design'. Net result - the likely cancellation of the Admiral's Cup. As a past editor of the Royal Ocean Racing Club magazine Seahorse and a designer of many International racing yachts I got the message a long time ago. Why can' t the RORC realise that what the Admiral's Cup needs are boat owners. Not sponsorship, not a pseudo-professional circus and most definitely not 'One Designs'!


From Peter Crockford
The Admiral's Cup: past its sell-by date? Perhaps it is, but look at the America's Cup some years ago . 1987 in Perth and who would have thought it would be the last of the 12-Metres? Then the years in between with 'Stars and Stripes' super fast cat and the 'monster thing' from New Zealand , and let's not even talk about 'Blue Arrow'. But it brought about change and now it is alive and kicking (even the Brits are back in the game).


Bob Johnstone ( the J in J Boats - Ed )
The Admiral's Cup: past its sell-by date? A selection process by committee, such as when RORC picked the Sydney 40 over the J/125 and Farr 40 or ISAF picking the Yngling over the J/22 and Sonar, usually doesn't work. Administrators of the sport, playing yacht designer/boat builder, have little experience in weighing the market dynamics which drive owner enthusiasm, owner investment in boats and ultimately... event participation. Their lives don't depend on it. Maybe their focus is too political and lobbyist driven. It's no accident (and it doesn't happen overnight) that 34 per cent of all boats racing at 13 major race weeks such as Key West, Block Island, the Big Boat Series and Sailing World NOOD (National Offshore One Design) events in the USA are J Boats.

What's more, attendance by just about all classes at these events is rising. One would hope that the administrative leaders of our sport would be more realistic, more enlightened, perhaps less autocratic and more democratic in their approach to picking classes. Rather than telling the sailors what they will sail (based on their limited knowledge of the market), they'd be wiser to ask sailors what they'd have fun sailing...or simply observe what boats sailors of the world enjoy racing in large numbers. Recognising popular racing classes will guarantee greater event participation than trying to create world classes virtually from scratch or from designs having little proven international appeal, particularly without the support of an established worldwide marketing/dealer/class brand consortium. What are they thinking? I see two ways for the Admiral's Cup Committee to stay afloat.

1) Piggy-back the best brands. Anyone can pick or build a new boat. But, there are only a few organisations in the world capable of building distribution to conduct national and world championships, let alone build local fleets. There's a long steep road between picking a boat and a true world championship. Look at US Sailing's efforts to get women to sail Ynglings. You have Mumm 30s, Farr 40s, 40-foot J/120s (160+ sold) and 35-foot J/105s (530+) not to mention a Beneteau or X-Yacht or two. It appears that the RORC and ISAF, while all too ready to team up with sponsors of products found at the local pub, have been a bit slow to take advantage of the suppliers of boats populating the race courses of the world, eg. to leverage the built-in owner loyalties, regatta support experience and worldwide marketing clout of the leading performance sailboat companies and their affiliated owner class associations. The Admiral's Cup can work if it becomes the concurrent World Championship for each of three (or even 4) popular offshore one-design classes...resembling a 'super NOOD', not unlike the team trophy at Key West Race Week. There's no reason that it must be the same three classes each year. Why? The existence and survival of a "popular" class doesn't depend upon Admiral's Cup Selection, but on the joy of owning and sailing the boats. The AC becomes icing on the cake.

2) Piggy-back the best events. Much easier to move the trophy than the fleet. Try Key West next year, then Antigua, then Hawaii, then Sydney, back to Cowes, then Mallorca. You get the picture. Go with success. Make it the travelling Offshore World Team Racing Trophy. Take the high ground. Go with the boats that are populating each event at the time. Run to daylight, share the wealth, roll with the punches. Get out of London. Too many foggy days. Or, is it the smoke-filled rooms? Britannia could rule the waves,again.