Come back - all is forgiven

Ed Gorman looks at the fate of the Admiral's Cup.

The Admiral's Cup - remember that? The Royal Ocean Racing Club was supposed to have made an announcement on its future by now after cancelling this year's event due to what was ultimately - but for a bewildering variety of different reasons - lack of interest from competitors and owners.

One would imagine that the RORC would move heaven and hell to get its flagship event, once considered the unofficial world championships of offshore racing, back on track and get an early announcement out on how the event will change for 2003.

But, perhaps surprisingly, decisions on the Admiral's Cup are being made by the same committee which is sorting out next year's Rolex Commodores' Cup (a relatively obscure amateur regatta in comparison with the AC) and are second in line behind those.

In an interview for madforsailing, Janet Grosvenor, the racing manager at RORC, said she could not see an announcement on the AC for at least a couple of weeks and hoped it would be tied-up by Christmas. "Like all these things that go through committees, they take longer than expected," she said.

Grosvenor confirmed that the RORC definitely intends to re-stage the event in 2003 and that the committee charged with devising it is looking at a broad range of options on its format. However she hinted that the AC will remain true to its traditions, to some extent. "I think every option is being considered but one thing I would say, is that the Club is aware that it has an offshore tradition," she said.

The committee considering the issue is chaired by the current Club commodore, Peter Rutter. Whereas previously the AC was managed by an international committee, Rutter's is an in-house body which is charged with looking at all the Club's major events. "Whether subsequently they will go back to an Admiral's Cup international committee I don't know but certainly this is very much RORC looking after its own situation to start with," Grosvenor explained.

"But we are not looking inwards. You can imagine the amount of outside comment and suggestion we are getting on what to do with the AC, which is nice, because there is still a feeling that it ought to come back as an important event," she added.

Among the myriad problems facing the committee is, once again, a possible head-on clash between the next Admiral's Cup and the ORC's IMS-rated Nation's Cup which was planned for next year but may now be staged in 2003. "The events are likely to appeal to different types of competitors," Grosvenor said. "IMS in the Mediterranean will attract a different type of competitor to the Admiral's Cup," she added.

There is a limit to what any RORC official will say publicly at this stage. However some insiders are sounding positive about the prospects for the AC. One said he was optimistic about the 2003 regatta which he believed would be quite an eye-opener. "I think there is a commitment to making the Admiral's Cup a spectacular event again and to stop kowtowing to individual decisive forces," he said.

Meanwhile the RORC is currently assessing candidates to replace its long-serving general manager, David Minords, who has been at the heart of AC management and promotion for the last decade and who is leaving shortly. His replacement will no doubt play a key role in the success or failure of the rejuvenated event.

The fundamental question however remains. In the age of professional yachting, is an amateur Members Club the right organisation to be defining and running what purports to be the World Championships of Offshore Sailing?