Getting the house in order - part 2

In part two of this interview Challenger Commission Chairman Tom Ehman looks at

This article follows on from part one published yesterday.

While the effect of the Acts and format of the Challenger Series may have the biggest impact on the 32nd America's Cup, Challenger Commission Chairman Tom Ehman says that their biggest bone of contention with America's Cup Management at present is over the joint weather program.

New in the Protocol for the 2007 America's Cup, was for Challengers and Defender alike to use one centralised weather program, the cost of which would be shared between the defender and the challengers alike. This was a great idea and well received among the Challengers as it would not only level the playing field for large and small teams, but would reduce costs and would also cut down on the number of weather boats bobbing around on the waters off Valencia. However in ACM's implimentation of the weather program, the Challenger Commission feel they have been steamrollered.

"The Challengers are extremely disappointed in ACM’s handling of this," says Ehman. "Long ago they chose Alinghi’s weather program and said ‘we are just going to fund that and we are going to hire some guys’. In fact these are guys who worked for Alinghi last time and they have installed a program speced by Alinghi."

Alinghi's proposal, accepted by ACM, has been to place 20 weather buoys over Valencia's two racing areas. Meteorologists from the Challengers preferred a much simpler, less costly set-up with one weather buoy in the middle of both courses each supplimented by weather boats. "It wouldn’t cost us much money and it would be easy to ensure that the data was good," says Ehman of the Challenger Commission's proposal on this subject. "If you start putting all these buoys out, it is very difficult to keep these things calibrated and so on.

"We scratched our head and said ‘why spend 3 million Euros, doing this enormously expensive program and put these buoys all over the place? They are a hazard to navigation - as we have written to the port [authorities in Valencia]. And then it finally occurred to us what this does for Alinghi: We are out racing in our Challenger selection series and they have weather buoys all over the course. In the past all they had was the Go Virtual GPS data from the TV and internet show, but they didn’t have both pieces of the puzzle [the boat telemetry and the on course weather info]. They didn’t have the wind conditions local to our boats and you need both to make a good performance profile.

"So now by putting buoys over the course while we are racing, they are going to have the Go Virtual data from us and they are going to have the local wind, right there because you can’t help but sail by these buoys. And they will be able to develop performance profiles of each of the competitors. You say ‘well, you can do the same thing on them.” No. They might be training on those waters and we might be able to get the wind information, but we won’t have GPS data from them because they won’t be racing and there’s no Go Virtual. So it is grossly unfair. The teams have been bitterly complaining about it for over a year and ACM have just proceeded on. So from a standpoint of fairness, expense, safety, we have been politely, firmly objecting to this and so far ACM have done nothing but turn a deaf ear and go ahead spending our money. It is not on and if we can’t reach agreement - we have appointed a working party who are once again going to try to get ACM to see the light and if not, I’m afraid we’ll be in front of the Jury."

More racing for the Challengers

Another less thorny development has been over the proposal, originally mooted by GBR Challenge, that an additional series of racing should continue through Louis Vuitton Cup final rounds and possibly the America's Cup itself for those teams which have been knocked out.

"There is a lot of support for it," says Ehman of what he terms 'the undercard racing'.
Traditionally teams cut and run as soon as they are eliminated, but the feeling among the Challengers is that the undercard racing will provide more value to their sponsors. "If teams know it is going to happen and their sponsors know it is going to happen and they are going to get more television and they are going to schedule their corporate hospitality accordingly and can guarantee they will still be sailing whether they are still racing or in this 'undercard'. So I would say there is fair bit of enthusiasm for it."

Race Director Dyer Jones is proposing that the Acts this year and next will include semi-finals and finals rather than just round robins as a dress rehersal for the main event in 2007. It has since been suggested within the Challenger Commission that the 'undercard racing' be held during the 2005 and 2006 Acts too. "The question is do you do fleet or match racing? Well since you might have an odd number of boats, it is just simpler to do fleet racing. So that is our suggestion out of the meetings here," adds Ehman.

While ACM's point of view may well be that this 'undercard racing' may detract from the focus on the finals of the Challenger Series and the Cup itself, the Challengers Commission believe it will add to the spectacle. "There needs to be a trophy and maybe even a cash prize and there are bragging rights, so I think it is a good idea," says Ehman. "We’ll see if it is cost beneficial. It will cost a little more money to keep operating, but it will certainly be good for ACM," says Ehman.

Proper course

On to more technical issues and Jury Chairman Bryan Willis has come up with a proposal to solve the problem with Rule 17 ('On the Same Tack; Proper Course'). "Everyone can remember John Kostecki and Torben Grael in 2000 shouting from the backs of their boats “proper course”," recounts Ehman. "It is not a good way to run the sport when the sailors don’t know what the umpires are thinking and vica versa.

"We’ve talked about getting rid of the rule or an electronic signalling system. So Bryan’s suggestion which I put to the commission was warmly received - it is elegant and simple, it gives more power to the umpires: they are going to make a signal saying ‘Guys, it is time to gybe’, ie the leeward boat without luffing rights you now have to gybe to assume a proper course to the gate or to the finish line. And you say - what if the umpires make the wrong decision and make them gybe too early or too late... Well so what?’ If they made the wrong decision and decided that you did gybe too early or too late and you didn't know it, then you’d get penalised. So this way everyone knows what the deal is."

This system will eliminate all the flags and the potential for a contentious penalty without changing the game significantly, says Ehman. "If you eliminate Racing Rule 17 it is a big change to the game, how designers will pitch their boats upwind and downwind. You’d have to rethink your entire design program and no one wants to do that at this stage."


AOB

Aside from these specific issues Ehman says there are other concerns the Challengers Commission have with ACM's overall management of the 32nd America's Cup. "There are some things which ACM are doing a very good job with. There are some other things which could be done much better. We are particularly concerned about the television. Just being sure that the shows that are getting produced are getting on the air and that there is reach and frequency.

"And there are a few other things - the cost of doing business for the teams. We think ACM are the regatta authority and they should not be deriving revenue from the teams. We think they should be helping teams to operate as inexpensively as possible. I don’t want to go into it more than that. In fairness to ACM they are doing a lot of things well. This is a whole new ball game. None of us have even been through this kind of arrangement before with a central organising committee and a host city which is not the home town of the defender. So it is a big learning curve, but sometimes we don’t think ACM is learning as quickly as they might.

"Before when we had CORM we were masters of our own destiny. Now we have put our destiny in the hands of ACM and there is not a lot of accountability at times. But the good news is that the Challengers are quite unified and we are quite an effect unit. In the last week, having a meeting and an agenda which gets people’s attention, we have of late seen some significant progress on the part of ACM and we hope that continues."

More frequent dialogue is now taking place between the Challengers and ACM and to help iron this out further Ehman is advocating more meetings between the team principles - the Daltons, Dicksons, Butterworths and de Angelises - and Michel Bonnefous and Michel Hogara and ACM, along with Dyer Jones, Bryan Willis and Chief Measurer and Technical Director, Ken McAlpine

"We want them sitting down together with a common agenda and going through the problems and working on them together constructively. Yes, the Challengers have to be organised as a group, so that they have a common position vis-à-vis the Defender. But on a lot of issues, the Defender has the same concerns as the Challengers do. So I hope we get to that stage. Gradually people are relocating to Valencia and I urge this on the AC community."

To follow the goings-on at the Challenger Commission - click here .