The Ozboys

We speak to Sebastien Destramau about the new youth-orientated Australian America's Cup challenge

French born Australian Sebastien Destremau has been involved with most walks of professional sailing from racing on Kvaerner Innovations in the Whitbread to the Olympics (Barcelona in the Flying Dutchman) to keelboats and this time last year was wearing the flourescent yellow of Le Defi Areva in Auckland.

Yesterday the Ozboys America's Cup challenge was announced on the web, although precious little has been given away, if indeed there is much to give away at the present time. Like Syd Fischer's Young Australia in 2000, Ozboys Challenge will be a predominantly youth-orientated program, where 60% of the 83 personnel involved must have been born on or after 1983.

At present their partners include Seek, the leading Australia internet recruitment consultancy, international advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi and 'on line solutions' company Sumo. In terms of people the only ones sticking their head above the parapet at the moment are Destremau and businessman Philip Edmiston.

"We started to work on this project about six to eight months ago, when I came back from Auckland," says Destremau. "A group of people got together and started to work on the concept and that’s where we are at with the launch today. More announcements will be made later when the sponsors are signed. At this stage that’s all that has been announced today."

Since there are parallels with Young Australia one wonders if either Syd Fischer or James Spithill are involved again. "At this stage it is quite early," says Destremau. "There is a recruitment process we want to put in place. James Spithill is someone we will target. But if you want to target these big guys like Peter Gilmour, James Spithill, Ed Baird, then straight away you are in the big league and you are talking $100 million budgets and that’s not what this is all about."

One of the few pieces of data revealed has been their budget of Aus$ 58 million (US$ 40 million) which in the scheme of America's Cup programmes is meagre. Destremau explains their approach. "How much money did the Swedish or Mascalzone or Le Defi have in Auckland? They didn’t have 150$ million and for sure they were not in Alinghi’s league. But at the end of the day out of the top four boats, three of them - Oracle, One World and Prada - were wrong because they spent truckloads of money and they didn’t get anywhere.

"Today in Australia if someone says ‘we’re going to do a Aus$150 million challenge to win the Cup’ - well they don’t know what they are talking about. Because unless you are Alinghi and you can have the money right now and buy Russell Coutts - which you can’t do - you can’t win the Cup," he says referring to first time campaigns. "So what we are saying is that we are not going to win the Cup this time. If we get the budget in place in time, we will have a good solid campaign and we will have lots of experience after that and we will be ready to have a winning project for the following time. So it is a long term project, an on-going thing.

"I was involved with the French team last time and that is something that we have all learned - that you need time. And we didn’t have time. But given the budget we had with the French team with more time, we could have been better off. And if we can raise Aus$60 million in three months, they will be worth $100 million in three years."

At present, as with this period in any America's Cup cycle, it seems hard to conceive that anyone could rival the might of the defender or of the challenger of record. Russell Coutts told thedailysail in the summer that they had half the sailing team already in place and anyone questioning Ellison's drive to put Oracle on top should have witnessed the Oracle tour de force at the Moet Cup in San Francisco. Both have 'enough money' thanks to the financial clout of Bertarelli and Ellison, plus a head start on training and development.

Destremau points out the fallability of the super-teams. "Alinghi will obviously be there but who will be up against them? When Oracle decided to go ahead just after 2000 and they put together Dickson, Holmberg, Cayard and Cutler - you name them - and all these guys, everyone thought they would be unbeatable. Then there was OneWorld with all their money. And think about Prada! How many people they had on board and their program went brilliantly off track."

In addition to this Alinghi and Oracle are in the convenient position of deciding upon a format to the next event that suits them. "Obviously it does help these big guys playing their own game and not announcing anything and keeping all their cards very close to their chest as the defender and the challenger of record while the rest of the field are paddling in the mud because no one knows where it will be and when and how. For a team that wants to open up the Cup and make it nice and friendly and welcome, etc. Well - show us how friendly it will be...

"If there are some intricate visions where you have to be racing in 2004 in Newport, then Italy and then two weeks later in England to be eligible, then how ridiculous is that? I’m sure Alinghi is very aware of all of this but you have to keep a close eye on it, because you never know."

Thinking back to his old Cup team Le Defi, Destremau worries that every day that passes prior to the details of the next Cup being announced makes it harder for established teams from Auckland to continue their programs.

"I am hoping that as soon as AC Management make their announcement that everything will start to fall into place. I really hope that Le Defi or whatever its name will be, will be there and there will probably be another French team. But for the moment how can they go and raise however much money they need? How can they go back and see Areva and talk to them about an event when they don’t know how-when-where it will happen. For these guys it is so hard, because there is no continuity, especially when you are only working with corporate sponsorship and there is no rich guy behind it.

"If the defender announced where the game was going to be played six months ago I’m sure that some people would have used the momentum of the Cup to be ready early. But they are playing the waiting game for excellent reasons. They are bidding and doing all their business - no problem. They are making huge benefit and good on them because they deserve it. But they have to watch that they don’t kill the chicken that is laying the golden egg."

Back to Ozboys and Destremau points out there is some tradition in the America's Cup for introducing young talent in Australia - not just the boy wonder Spithill but also the equally young Chris Dickson in Perth in 1987. "There is lots of talent out there and Ozboyz Challenge will give them an opportunity to show their faces," he says, adding that 40% of the crew will be older and more experienced hands on board too.

"Today what we are doing is opening the door for lots of people to come in. After the announcement we received hundreds of applications and the recruitment doesn’t even open for a couple of months. That is when SEEK will be really valuable. Already they are pouring in, it is fantastic."

At present, although Destremau is Perth-based, the challenge is Australia-wide and they are yet to associate with a yacht club. However they have already aligned themselves with the Australia sailing federation, Yachting Australia, who will work alongside SEEK in the recruitment process. A team endorsed by a Yachting Australia selection team will be recruited through five training camps in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth. In each of these Ozboys will run a week long program, where a squad of the top locals will spend a week sailing and going through meetings and briefings. "We will select the best ones to come with us," says Destremau.

Will they only be looking for the best sailors? "On an America’s Cup you don’t just need the best sailors, you also need a lot of power, you need some very strong guys, and if their sailing skills are not that high well you need their power anyway. It is not ideal but that is the path we are taking. And look at what Young Australia did in 1999/2000, with no money and no training. They did extremely well and they were all 20 years old. You can go with young guys because they are going to work 20 hours a day and they are going to be so motivated.

"There was a guy who called me today. His son is 17 and just won a national championship. He is 17 and has won 16 matches out of 17. and this kid - no one has heard of him. He’s 17, he’s a kid and maybe as talented as James Spithill, maybe not, but if you don’t go there and watch these guys and give them a chance, like James Spithill had from Syd Fischer, you'll never know."

While it is possible that some of the ol' timers may be from overseas, the youth component will only be Australia. "In order to be in our syndicate you will have to be allowed to work in Australia. And that is not easy. You will need to have a resident’s permit."

So with the America's Cup bar being raised ever higher, is there still a place for B-list teams like Ozboys in the modern day event? Destremau, obviously, thinks there is.

"Take the example of the Formula One - it wouldn’t be anything without the Minadis, and the guys at the back of the field all the time. Without the small teams without Ferrari’s budget, Formula One wouldn’t mean anything. And the America’s Cup won’t mean anything if there is just Oracle and Alinghi playing their own game. That is what I believe. You need to have teams from all over the world that are involved and for sure you would prefer to have 20 teams each with $200 million, but that is not going to happen because up until now the America’s Cup was organised by small countries or when it was in the US when they weren’t interested.

"So up until now the America’s Cup has been poorly promoted as a worldwide sport, only because the location was not good for the event. I believe in Europe it will be absolutely massive. I am so keen to be there. It was good in Auckland, but in Europe it will be awesome."