A new era for the America's Cup

As the protocol for the 32nd America's Cup is launched

The Protocol for the 32nd America's Cup has just been announced by the defending Club, the Society Nautique de Geneve represented by Alinghi's Michel Bonnefous and Russell Coutts, Alinghi lawyer and architect of the new protocol Hamish Ross, and the challenger of record, the Golden Gate YC in San Francisco represented by Tom Ehman.
The result seems to be a generally modernising affair, completely revamping the organisational structure of not only the America's Cup but also the Challenger series, yet performed in a way that should ruffle the minimum of feathers among traditionalist guardians of the Cup.

"We want to organise a great event," commented Alinghi General Manager, Michel Bonnefous. "The new protocol has many of the same features as the previous regatta but also many reforms."

As previously reported the next America's Cup looks certain to take place over the summer of 2007. 2005 is too early, while Europe will be occupied in 2006 with the Winter Olympics and the Football World Cup.

The principle change is in the structure of the organisation behind the America's Cup and the challenger series (Alinghi say they do not envisage a defender series). There will now be one umbrella organisation controlling the whole event the structure of which is best understood by examining the photograph above.

CORM/CORC has been replaced by the Challenge Commission who have no sway over the Event Authority who are responsible for the establishing the venue, organising the timing of racing and the commercial aspects of the racing. This latter point is significant as under the new format the Challenge Commission are handing over commercial rights to the challenger series to Event Authority, who responsibilities (although not their representation) are an amalgamation of CORM/CORC and AC2003.

While the commercial aspect of the event has been taken out of the challengers hands Alinghi General Manager Michel Bonnefous says that accounts of the Event Authority will be audited regularly and provided to the challengers.

While all this sounds like a case of Alinghi creaming off more cash and responsibility for the event, there is an important new additional concept. In true Swiss style there is a 'neutrality' clause which the various bodies within the new organisation must abide by in order to remain impartial from both challengers and defender. In principle this should be different to the present arrangement where Team New Zealand, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and AC2003 are all basically in bed with each other.

So the Regatta Director is to be independent and is to be appointed to take charge of both series, while the role of the jury has also changed. Although Hamish Ross says that it is likely to be similar in make-up to the present jury, it will take on the added responsibilities of the present Arbitration Panel.

"Our goal is to create a competitive sporting regatta for all competitors to release the commercial potential and to promote it as the premier event in world sailing with the traditions and regulations in the Deed of Gift," explained Russell Coutts. "The Cup is back in Europe for the first time in 152 years - that is an exacting development for many people. It will bring a new era in America's Cup history and in yachting.

"Most features in this protocol are similar to the previous protocol, but we have allowed for some innovations that will make it a better event."

The outline for the changes was created at two meeting between the challengers and defenders of this last Cup in September followed by another meeting in November. Coutts says he was surprised about the degree of unanimity between those at the meeting.

One of many decisions that need to be finalised is the choice of venue. Leading contenders are said to be Cascais near Lisbon, Portugal or Palma (the King of Spain, a keen yachtie, is mates with Alinghi chief designer Rolf Vrolijk, who worked for the Spanish challenger in 2000). However bids are believed to be in offing from Marseilles, Sete, any number of Italian ports (Naples is a favourite) or in Sardinia, even Cowes apparently. Prince Albert of Monaco has said they will not be making a bid (although they might field a challenger...)

"We have allowed ourselves the flexibility to consider various aspects before naming the exact place the regatta will be run," continued Coutts. "We've named European waters as the waters it will be raced in. Potential venues need consistent weather conditions and breeze to plan a schedule of racings where we know racing can start at 1pm every day and we know the time of racing." Coutts is keen that the venue is similar in its functionality to the Viaduct Harbour, but also that shoreside spectators are able to see the racing, by possibly having a mark close to shore.

Aside from offering favourable sailing conditions, Bonnefous says that potential venues must also have adequate hosting capacity and transport logistics. Venue have three weeks from now to express their interest, they will then shortlist this down to 3-4 before making a final decision after more details negotiations with the prospective cities involved.

The deadline for the choice of venue is to be decided by 15 December, 2003 although Michel Bonnefous says it may well happen before this.

Under the new protocol they are sticking with current breed of ACC yachts, although Coutts says this may be tweaked. "After a choice of venue has been made, we may choose to mae some subtle changes to the rules. One idea I've got is perhaps to allow free use of A0 sails. So in a venue when there might be 7 knots of breeze, these will really power these boats up and we will also allow races to be run in strong winds too, so that we won't have to call sailing off if it is blowing 25 knots."

Under the old protocol a team buying a second hand ACC boat could not buy the accompanying design details to go with it. Tom Ehman made the point that when Oracle BMW Racing purchased the two OneAmerica boats from 2000, both keels fell off, because they had no information about what structural tolerances the boats had been built to.

This has now been amended so that when a new team purchases an old ACC boat teams it can also purchase its accompanying design portfolio. "That will encourage new competitors into the event. We are hoping to get a lot of challengers and allowing the technical information will prevent keels falling off. " As much as anything it is a safety amendment. Coutts says he anticipates as many as 20 challengers for the AC2007.

To avoid a repetition of the OneWorld design secrets scandal, the new protocol allows a free trade on old technical information. Specifically it means that information that has been discovered during the R&D period for this last America's Cup. "It will allow new teams to come in on a more level platform," explains Coutts. "They are not necessarily starting so far behind the existing teams that it is hard for them to catch up."

At present it is proposed that the trade in design information can take place up until 1 October 2004, which is probably too early for teams that are late in getting their funding. It seems likely that this date may be amended. In addition it is now possible for designers or teams (according to what is negotated) to own rights to design information.

In terms of courses, Coutts says that they will stick to windward-leewards, but the race course, the length of the race and the number of laps will be more at the discretion of the race director and committee, so that is more friendly for the TV schedule - which the present Cup certainly wasn't. Coutts has suggested that races will last for somewhere between one and three hours.

Skirting boats in the challenger series will also be banned - there will be an unveiling ceremony before the challenger series begins. "We're going to have all competitors unveil their boats at the same time," says Coutts. "It is nice to see the technical innovations - that is one of the interesting things." He added that this way spectators might understand that the event was more of a team competition ie including the design teams.

The entry fee is obviously significant (and more than it is currently) starting with a non-refundable entry fee of 450,000Euros (650,000 for late entries) plus a performance bond of 1 million Euros. However in terms of profits from the event this will be divided with 50% going to the defenders and the remaining 50% being divided between the challengers, so there is potentially less reward for a challenging syndicate than last time.

A significant cost saving for campaigns will be the binning of the nationality rules for sailors and designers. This has proved a huge cost for campaigns with for example teams having to pay for apartments for non-national sailors in their new country of residence, which aside from a few weeks at the beginning of the campaign they are unlikely to ever live in. However designers must commit to one team within a certain time period before the event starts. Boats must still be built in the challenger's country, although periferals such as spars and appendages can be built abroad. "We have retruedn the America's Cup to the position pre-1980," says Hamish Ross adding that in the original Cup America had an English pilot and six English sailors (traitors!).

The ACC class itself is to have a short in the arm with an effective world championships to be held annually. A dry run of this is to take place in San Francisco this summer, and the first event to 'count' will take place in 2004 either in the US or Europe. The 2005 and 2006 events will take place in the chosen venue of the 2007 Cup. The format of these races will include a fleet race aside from match racing and this will include 2007. Results from these regattas will go towards seeding the entries prior to the first round robins (now known as 'pools').

Timing wise in 2007 this regatta and the initial pools are likely to take place between mid-April and mid-June in 2007, while the quarters for the final eight, followed by the semis and finals of the Challenger series and just 10 days later by the AC itself will run from mid-August to mid-October. This is to avoid to peak holiday season in the chosen port and will be negotiated and fine tuned with the port in question. "It will concentrate activity, corporate hospitality and make for a real punchy event," commented Tom Ehman.

And, thankfully, we can expect to see the hula banished from the next event.

Download the compete Protocol as a Word document by clicking here

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