Greensleeves

In his first column for thedailysail former GBR Challenge helm Andy Green gives his views on the America's Cup

As the winter draws in, the hectic year seems to take a bit of a break with a lot less regattas and only a few big races going on around the world. Now is a good opportunity to take stock, relax a bit and work on some of those little neglected projects that provide interest and opportunity for the self-employed sailor.

Before the present downtime I spent two months with Team Shosholoza, the South African America’s Cup Campaign. Paul Standbridge had asked me to go and do some sailing with them. Having explained the ambitions of the team it sounded like a lot of fun and a huge challenge. We held up pretty well in the breeze of Marseille, where the highlight for us was a fleet race with gusts of over 30 knots, in which we beat Le Defi and managed to luff K-Challenge. They tore their spinnaker and we bore away to finish in 4th place. A great result for the team. Valencia gave us some more highs and lows and we very nearly beat BMW Oracle in light airs. I made a big mistake when we were ahead of K-Challenge down the last run of our match race against them but the fleet racing was a success. In this we challenged Le Defi and beat +39 to end overall seventh out of eight for the first three Acts, achieving out first goal (not to be last).

When Ernesto Bertarelli won the Cup in 2003 he promised big changes to its format: better racing better management and more public appeal. All of these were sensible strategies to grow the event and somehow justify the budgets. The biggest single change has been the introduction are the Acts. With 13 proposed in all and with three completed they have already revolutionised the Cup, offering European cities like Marseille, who lost out to Valencia for hosting the America's Cup itself, the chance to bid for hosting one of these pre-regattas.

What at first sight was dubbed by cynics as ‘a pillow fight’ between the top teams actually turned into a very competitive and useful process of blooding new afterguards, optimising sometimes underdeveloped boats (in the case of the Kiwis) and going head to head with the defender. Initially it was suggested that this would mainly benefit the big teams, allowing them to stretch their superiority by racing the top teams. This is the case to an extent but in fact I think the greater benefit has been for the smaller teams.

Firstly they get to see and guage the level of competition they need to achieve and secondly the small teams get to give big value to their sponsors. Importantly I think the Acts will make the America’s Cup itself a whole lot more competitive - for the first time teams, small and big alike, will have a very good idea of where they stand speed-wise after all this sailing.

There are now two and a half years and 10 regattas to excite the public, not least the guaranteed worldwide TV coverage and hospitality all set up because AC Management have been able to get proper money from event sponsors for staging the event. The schedule for the Louis Vuitton series has also changed so that teams are only knocked out a maximum of three weeks before the final show down. I remember how galling it was with GBR Challenge to be knocked out and then have to wait three months to see the AC finals. With the new format sponsors get better value for money, sailors get more sailing and the excitement of the Louis Vuitton series - which is often much more dramatic racing that the Cup itself - is rolled over quickly to the final teams. The momentum of the entire event will work much better in 2007 and the Acts preceding it.

I think the reports and drama from Marseille and Valencia gave us a taster of what is to come. After the victories of Emirates Team New Zealand it would be hard now not to look at them as a real contender. A very strong head in Grant Dalton who leads the team with belief, some smart sailor signings, a big sponsor in Emirates and a much faster boat than they were able to show in NZ gives them a high start point. They are already asking questions of their rivals, not least Alinghi who despite winning the third Act looked like they could do with a passion injection in Valencia. Without having had a huge amount of training and obviously suffering from not having their proven leader to settle the ship caused Alinghi to make a few mistakes and made them look slightly vulnerable in some areas during the Acts. The signing of Ed Baird is clearly a good move and continues to strengthen their team but I wonder if the lack of inspirational leadership will cause issues as the campaign progresses…

BMW Oracle show what can be done with maximising the sponsorship opportunities of the Acts. A huge deal with BMW means not only are they using some great F1 technology and driving around in ‘pimped out beamers’ but they are shipping in literally thousands of clients, prospects, partners and employees to come and watch AC racing in the flesh, three years before the Cup. By all accounts they were loving it, but at a $65,000 per day for chartering the Christina O, you’d better love it! And by the way the barstools on board are made from whale’s foreskin (just in case you were wondering!)

Prada have obviously hit the ground running. James Spithill is a great helmsman and with the steady hand and experience of Francesco Di Angelis to take much of the pressure off him the team will clearly be one of the big contenders. Signing TIM and Alice, the mobile and internet services of Telecom Italia will lead to a fairly easy nickname but it shows the value to new sponsors of getting into the America’s Cup.

I’m now enjoying being at home, being able to follow the great sailing going on in the Vendee Globe.We have a special family interest because my brother runs the website for Mike Golding. Ever steady and a stayer, ex-fireman Mike reminds me of someone you’d want by your side if you ever went into the jungle. Alex Thompson had a superb run up until last week but a more different character from Mike would be hard to find - racey, pacey and wild. I wonder how the two of them would get on in the jungle together. This thought got me started and I began to wonder if there might be something in this, I have a few suggestions for pairings that might make a very interesting nautical version of…. “I’m a Sailing Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here…”

How would Larry Ellison and Tony Bullimore get on?
Or maybe Ernesto Bertarelli and Russell Coutts?
Perhaps Dennis Conner and Tracy Edwards?

Reader suggestions received with interest….