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SCUTTLEBUTT EXTRA - July 2, 2004Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is adigest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere. OH MY GOODNESS! The oldest regularly contested trophy in the history of sport, the America's Cup, could come under threat from a new event being proposed by two of its best-known competitors. New Zealander Russell Coutts and American Paul Cayard are believed to be close to finalizing details for the creation of an international sailing event aimed at attracting the world's best sailors and a massive television audience. The proposal is for the establishment of a fleet of extreme high-performance yachts built to an identical design that will compete for a major prize. If plans continue on their current course, the announcement of the event could come within the next two weeks. However, although both men have left no doubt that something is developing behind the scenes, they are keeping mum on details. News of their project comes at a time when Coutts, the best America's Cup helmsman of all time, is locked in a bitter mediation process with the management of the Swiss America's Cup team, whose yacht Alinghi he steered to victory over the New Zealand defender last year. Coutts is not enjoying his role in the new Alinghi Cup defense organization, and he doesn't like the choice of Valencia as the venue for 2007 over his preferred option, Lisbon, nor does he think the style of yacht chosen is exciting enough. Trouble was brewing in the Alinghi camp within months of their success. Bertarelli decided to split the defense organization, putting his long-time business associate Michel Bonnefous in charge of America's Cup management while leaving Coutts in the role of managing the sailing team and little else. That wasn't what Coutts expected, and when his thoughts on the venue or style of boat for the next event went nowhere he was left started to think about his future. Cayard found himself in a similar predicament to his friend Coutts within Ellison's San Francisco-based syndicate before the 2000 America's Cup. Cayard was an ill-fitting piece of the syndicate jigsaw and finished up on the outer. Now the two are set to unite around the new event. The event the pair is formulating involves fleet racing one-design yachts similar in length to the existing America's Cup yachts, about 24m (80ft). But that's where the similarity will end. The new boats will move into the next generation of performance sailing. It is proposed that they will be created along the lines of the radical and extremely fast monohulls that race on Italy's Lake Garda. They are planned for a crew of only 10 or 12 with a significant number suspended over the side from trapeze systems to enhance stability. In being identical one-designs, the cost of entry to this competition will be considerably less than the $100 million-plus required to enter the America's Cup. And with all the hulls being the same, the racing promises to be close and exciting. Excerpts from a story by Rob Mundle in The Weekend Australian, full story: http://tinyurl.com/2oq3o |
