America's Cup: Organisers slammed again

Bob Fisher

A leading figure says the America’s Cup has been ‘abused and misused’ among a long list of criticisms.

Another traditionalist lamenting the loss of direction in the America's Cup has surfaced this week - with a claim that Oracle and the other organisers have arranged a regatta which is "a disgrace to the America's Cup and yourselves".

Last week, former Cup sailor and Louis Vuitton representative Bruno Trouble commented on the change to smaller boats and broken promises by saying: "What we have now is a vulgar beach event smelling of sunscreen and french fries. This is definitely NOT the Cup."

This week, Bob Fisher, a multihull sailor, America's Cup historian and sailing journalist who covered the last Cup regatta for the Guardian, among others, has written an open letter to the America's Cup Events Authority (ACEA) whose chief executive is also Oracle Team USA chief executive, Sir Russell Coutts.

In his letter, published in Sail World New Zealand, Fisher says: "You have abused it, misused it and reduced it to no more than an average regatta, losing on the way its prestige and at the same time driven away the most serious competitors.

"Gone is all semblance of stability and adherence to rules unanimously agreed at the outset and in their place an undercurrent of commercial misunderstanding and constantly changing rules without the unanimity of the challengers as initially agreed. Both of these are a disgrace to the Cup and to yourselves.

"It was brought to my notice by you [Coutts] in Auckland that it was important for a part of the Challenger Final Selection Series to be held in the City of Sails in order to generate publicity for the America's Cup in Asia; the reason for that was a Japanese team would shortly emerge, and that this would encourage television networks to purchase the rights.

"Subsequently ACEA has made it clear that all Challenger Selection races will be held in Bermuda, effectively slapping ETNZ in the face and reducing the Kiwis' chances of Government sponsorship (which hung on a major AC regatta in Auckland), possibly even eliminating this team from AC35."

Fisher also hinted Oracle had set matters even more in its favour by eliminating defender trials - which allow other US yacht clubs to challenge Oracle for the right to defend the Cup.

"You have excluded any chance of another US yacht club from competing for the Cup, maybe even giving ... the type of competition needed ... to retain the Cup. Not even the New York Yacht Club felt sufficiently confident to resort to that."

The move from the AC62 to the AC48 had been "very last minute and particularly hard on the teams that had set up their design groups well in advance.

"It is hardly surprising that you have put Patrizio Bertelli's feelings in disarray to the extent he has withdrawn Luna Rossa from AC35. His team had been working since early January 2014 at its headquarters in Cagliari with a design office of 40, all working on the design of a 62-footer.

"I suppose your comment will be: 'Silly him,' but you have lost one of the biggest commercial sponsors of the Cup - just look where the Prada advertisements for Luna Rossa appear. To throw fat on the fire, you are offering to give design and financial sup-port to the French team, which has made little progress, and what is worse attempting to justify this with the terms of the Deed of Gift, where it indicates that the event is to be, 'a friendly competition between foreign nations'.

"Everything this time around has been late and bringing in new entries at this stage is another breach of the Protocol. I implore you to get your act together, remember the event with which you are dealing, with its glorious past, and begin to act in a proper manner."