PHOTOGRAPH: XXXXXX
http://www.boatinternational.com | June 2017PHOTOGRAPHS: GETTY IMAGESwere unstoppable. In New York’s Studio 54 one
night he got up to ask a leggy model to dance. “I
thought you were taller,” she sniffed. “You should
see me when I stand on my wallet,” Bondy
returned. He was certainly rich. He piled money
into three doomed challenges, losing in 1977 to
Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, bon viveur and
a brilliant helmsman. Turner was married to Jane
Fonda and after they divorced in 2001 he divided
his time between a quartet of girlfriends, he has
said, spending one week a month with each.
Turner, by any measure, is an extraordinary
character, but in the context of the America’s Cup
he’s very much par for the course. In 1980, Bond’s
challenge went down at the hands of Dennis
Conner, probably the most gifted sailor of the age
who is still known as “Mr America’s Cup”.
I remember the gasps from the crowd one Cowes
Week when, as guest helmsman, Conner steered
a maxi on a beam reach under full plain sail up the
Medina River, doing better than 10 knots, then
spun the 25 metre boat through 180 degrees and
sailed back into the Solent on the opposite tack.
With Conner skippering the defender, the New
York Yacht Club thought, quite reasonably, that
the Cup was perfectly safe bolted down on the
plinth it had occupied for more than 130 years.
The NYYC grandees reckoned without Bond’s
designer, Ben Lexcen. When Bond returned to
challenge in 1983 with Australia II, the yacht had
an innovative feature – a winged keel. Lexcen had
developed the design in secret and Australia went
on to win the Cup. Conner, distraught, said later:
“It was like losing the Panama Canal.”
There was another challenger in 1983, Peter de
Savary, the British entrepreneur who put
together a campaign with the help of friends and
sponsors. Their boat, Victory 83, was reckoned to
be the best British effort anyone could remember,
but she was ultimately beaten by Australia II, the
winning boat. “We put up a credible show,” De
Savary, 72, told Boat International. “It took a lot of
effort and cost a lot of money, but looking back I
have nothing but fond memories.”De Savary, whose business interests include
luxury hotels and resorts, thinks the America’s
Cup entices a certain kind of person. “It’s like
Everest,” he says. “It’s the biggest and greatest
challenge if you are a sailor. There is no buzz like
it and if you have something of the buccaneer
about you, which I do, then it’s irresistible. And
people remember. I was in a London cab the
other day and the cabbie said: ‘Aren’t you that
bloke who did the America’s Cup?’”
In 1995 New Zealand emerged as a major
player, winning the Cup and successfully
defending before losing to Swiss billionaire
Ernesto Bertarelli and his Alinghi team in 2003.
Alinghi won again in 2007, then lost to America’s
Larry Ellison, the Oracle multi-billionaire, in- Oracle narrowly held off a challenge from
the Kiwis in 2013 in one of the most astonishing
comebacks of all time. The Americans, who had
called in Sir Ben Ainslie as tactician when trailing
4-0, found themselves 8-1 down and on the point
of defeat. They recovered spectacularly to win the
last eight races and retain the Cup.
The dominance of billionaires has long been
seen as a negative factor: the America’s Cup was
once described as “a pissing contest for the
world’s wealthiest men”. That is about to change.
The rules have always favoured the defender, who
can virtually dictate terms. This created
uncertainty for challengers and the need to cover
a number of options increased costs significantly.
Now, five of the six teams contesting this year’s
Cup – including the defender, Oracle Team USA
- have agreed to a framework in which the event
will be held every two years with a World Series
of qualifying races. There is also agreement on
the design of boats.
“The America’s Cup has an incalculable magic,
a fabulous heritage that is unique,” says Martin
Whitmarsh, CEO of Land Rover BAR, Sir Ben
Ainslie’s British challenge. “But it has always
been stop-start with no one really knowing what
the rules, format or time frame are. The cost is
high and the return limited, so it has always
depended on a deep-pocketed
benefactor to sign the cheques. But
there aren’t many billionaires who
want to do it, so we had to find a way
to get the cost down and the value up.”
Under the new framework, a
campaign could typically cost around
$30 million to $40 million. Land
Rover BAR has spent more than twice
that amount already under the old
arrangement. But not everyone likes
the changes: Emirates Team New
Zealand has declined to sign up so far.
“The framework agreement will
give the event continuity,” says Sir
Charles Dunstone, chairman of the
British campaign. He is the Land
Rover BAR founding shareholder and
in many ways he fits the historic
profile of the America’s Cup
challenger – a man who created his
own fortune, and is also a sailor. But
Sir Charles, the co-founder of
Carphone Warehouse, does not get misty-eyed
over the Auld Mug’s legendary allure. “I got
involved to support Ben,” he says. “It had long
been his ambition to bring the Cup back to
Britain and I wanted to help him do it.”
His fellow board member, Lord Michael
Grade, the television executive and keen sailor,
echoes this. “In Ben we have an incredible leader.
He strikes fear into the hearts of the opposition.
This is the best bid Britain has put together in my
lifetime. It’s a huge ask but the America’s Cup is
the only big international trophy we have never
won. It’s hard to articulate the magic but it
probably comes from years of tradition and
history. It’s definitely the history that creates the
allure, the glamour and the excitement.”
The history is the people who made it, and
they are a unique collection of one-offs. The Cup
may be no more than an Auld Mug, but the
memory of those exceptional individuals is
forever alloyed into the silver. BAbove: President Kennedy and his
wife watch the Cup action in 1962.
Above left: the launch of challenger
Thomas Sopwith’s Endeavour
in Gosport, Hampshire, in 1934.
Left: Dennis Conner’s winning
challenge in Australia in 1987Dennis Conner is probably the most gifted sailor of the age and is still known as “Mr America’s Cup”
1964-80
One campaign
from Britain
(Sovereign)
and five from
Australia all
fail to beat
the Americans1983
Alan Bond’s
Australia II
wins – breaking
the New York
Yacht Club’s
132 year hold
on the Cup1987
Dennis Conner
wins back the
Cup with a
4-0 victory
in Fremantle1995
The year of the Kiwi – Sir Peter
Blake and Russell Coutts win the
Cup for New Zealand. The Kiwis
successfully defend in 20002003
Team New Zealand
is beaten by Swiss
newcomer Alinghi.
The Swiss hold on
to the Cup in 20072010
After prolonged action in the courts,
Alinghi 5 faces BMW Oracle Racing’s
USA 17, only to lose 2-02013
The San Francisco
thriller – Larry
Ellison’s Oracle Team
USA recruits Britain’s
Sir Ben Ainslie to turn
around a massive
deficit and hold
on to the Cup0123456789 0123456789136 137
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