KEY POINTS:
New Zealander Gavin Brady will lead the Oracle sailing team after the resignation of Chris Dickson, but it is not yet known who will be the next chief executive of the US syndicate.
BMW Oracle Racing announced yesterday that Dickson had resigned from the team, effective immediately.
The syndicate was bundled out of the semifinals, losing to Luna Rossa 5-1. Their major failing was the lack of chemistry in the afterguard, which featured the highly volatile Dickson.
The present management group will run the team day-to-day in the interim. Brady is organising some match racing events for this year as well as Oracle's participation in an America's Cup boat regatta in San Francisco in September.
Dickson was appointed chief executive officer and skipper for the 32nd America's Cup. After his team's exit he directed the debriefing process until his departure.
"Rather than see out the final weeks of my contract, I have decided that leaving now will allow both me and the team to move on and make plans for the future," he said.
Business director Russell Green, a New Zealander, said syndicate owner Larry Ellison would appoint new leadership for the next America's Cup.
"Clearly many decisions are on hold until the 32nd America's Cup has run its course and we know where, when and in what form the next cycle will take place."
Green said it was up to Ellison to decide if Oracle would continue to have a chief executive who was also the skipper of their boat.
He would not say whether he was interested in becoming the new chief executive.
He denied that Russell Coutts had been spotted at the Oracle base in recent days.
It has been rumoured that BMW will split from Oracle at end of the campaign.
But Oracle's marketing director, Mirko Groeschner, said the cup had been good for all their commercial sponsors.
"We will have discussions with them in the next weeks. BMW's biggest market is in the United States ... so we have a good chance ... to have another go with BMW."
