Looking Toward AC 2000 – Gearing up for New Zealand

The focus is heating up for the 30th America

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Funding AmericaOne

It has been a good two months for my AmericaOne Challenge, landing two Official Sponsorships with Bellcore/SAIC and Ford Motor Company which brings our total to three Official Sponsors, including Hewlett Packard, who signed on in April. We still have three more Official Sponsorships to sell but these recent successes plus the fact that the America

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Whitbread Wrap Up

First let me say that I am flattered by the amount that has been written about EF Languages’ victory in the Whitbread Round the World Race, most notably in the July issue of this very Seahorse. I guess the realization that is occurring for those of us that participated in the race is how much the public followed the race and therefore their interest. One thing I would like to point out is that an inordinate amount of the attention and compliments in these articles goes to the skipper. The fact is, that to win in anything requires a talented team that covers all the bases well and one in which every member is fully committed to winning. The best example of this that I have seen, is in fact, the Round the World Race. All of the normal requirements of successful sailing exist coupled with the necessity of being self-sufficient in some isolated situations. For this reason all 12 of the crew on EF Language were equally responsible for the win!

Second issue is the reality that I landed in on June 2…the America’s Cup. I have read plenty of nice stories about how good the America’s Cup will be, especially in a newsletter named AC2000, but I feel that there are some glaring omissions in these reports. In my first week back we received notice from New Zealand that their version of the Coast Guard wanted to charge the competitors $800,000KZ to “cover their costs” associated with patrolling the waters off Auckland during the America’s Cup races they are planning on hosting there. Included in “their costs” were capital investments to the tune of $300,000 for new boats which would obviously be used for the event but then remain the property of the local authorities. I think this has been shot down due to strong objections from the participants but like the original pricing of the bases that was set ridiculously high, the fact that it takes strong objection to get to realistic and fair treatment is a bad sign.

The week after that, the subject was charging for airspace over the race course. Still ongoing is the battle over TV production and getting a “clean feed” from AC 2000 who apparently already committed to their sponsors exposure on the “pool feed” that goes to every subscribing country. The Mini America’s Cup is a great idea but when you have to pay Team New Zealand an entry fee and pay all your expenses and then you have to promote Team New Zealands’ sponsors, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Also, these races are scheduled after the racing season down there so the experience is of little relevance.

I really want to participate in this event but frankly these added obstacles are making it very difficult. I have got to believe that by the time you read this in August, the US television deal will be done, not for 200 hours of air-time as reported, but more like 85 hours which is the proposal that is on the table. Hopefully the Kiwi’s will let Louis Vuitton use the words “America’s Cup” in conjunction with the Louis Vuitton Cup so that deal will be done too. We really need sponsors like Louis Vuitton so we should not discourage them. It is just 15 months prior to the start of racing and, at the time of this writing, some very key components of selling sponsorship are still not concrete. All of this was not very refreshing to come back to. Maybe that is not by accident.

Having said that I think the America’s Cup Village is going to be a great venue for hosting the event. It will centralize all the activities around the Cup and create a “Big Time Event” atmosphere. This is a critical piece of creating the commercial value the Cup needs to justify the cost. I think the Millennium will also be a bigger deal than we realize now and many people will show up in KZ because of that.

Coming back to sailing…which is what this is all supposed to be about, I will be sailing with AmericaOne tactician John Kostecki on his One Design 48, Pinta, in the Kenwood Cup and San Francisco Big Boat Series. I am looking forward to sailing in this competitive fleet on a short course and working with John on our afterguard relationship for the Cup. Both Hawaii and SF Bay are on my short list of favorite venues for racing. John and I will also be participating in the Bermuda Gold Cup in October to start sharpening up on Match Racing along with some others of the AmericaOne crew.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge that I am firing some hard shots across the bow of the Kiwi’s but I feel that the whole story needs to be told.

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Seahorse-Whitbread Wrap Up

The 12 man luge ride is over. What an experience! I think the scene that can best sum it up is; It is 02:00 in the Southern Ocean. The sound inside the boat is that of breaking glass in a car accident. The boat is slamming and shuddering violently as it is hurtling down 30 foot waves at 25 knots. You roll out of your bunk and start the process of getting dressed putting on three layers of pants, this takes ten minutes because you fall down every thirty seconds. Three layers of upper garments, two glove liners, rubber gloves, two hats, thick socks plus Goretex socks before slipping on those nice smelling boots. Then it is up forward to find you wet weather gear. The smock top, the pants, don

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Seahorse August 98

First let me say that I am flattered by the amount that has been written about EF Languages

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It’s Official Cayard EF Language Win The Whitbread

It’s official: Paul Cayard and his EF Language crew have won the months-long Whitbread Round the World Race, which began Sept. 21, 1997. Although they had clinched the victory last week after tallying an insurmountable lead, they had to complete the ninth and final leg to receive the trophy.

The victory makes Cayard the first American skipper to win the prestigious Whitbread Race. With finishes of 1 5 1 4 1 2 3 6 2, EF Language won three of the nine legs and had podium finishes (top three) in six legs.

EF Language sailed into Southampton, England, in second place, just 13 minutes behind Merit Cup, crossing the line at 1211 GMT. The 92 points raised the Swedish boat’s overall score to 836 points out of a possible 1,035. This put EF Language 138 points ahead of Merit Cup, which overtook Swedish Match in points to capture second place overall.

“Coming into the finish was unbelievable. We got hit once by a motorboat; not too badly damaged,” Cayard said. “There were so many boats jamming the Solent and Southampton Water, it was really remarkable.”

But it’s this close involvement of the spectators that makes the Whitbread unique, he added. “It’s one of the parts of the Whitbread that makes it tougher on the helmsmen and skippers, but it’s also one of the things that makes the Whitbread a great event. The people are right in there with you.”

Swedish Match, trailing EF Language in second place overall for much of the 32,000-nautical-mile ocean marathon, was fifth today, dropping to third place overall.

Final Standings

Boat / Points

1. EF Language / 836

2. Merit Cup / 698

3. Swedish Match / 689

4. Innovation Kvaerner / 633

5. Silk Cut / 630

6. Chessie Racing / 613

7. Toshiba / 528

8. BrunelSunergy / 415

9. EF Education / 275

Chessie Racing, skippered by AmericaOne tactician John Kostecki, was looking to move into the Top 3 this final leg, but finished a disappointing eighth and fell to sixth place overall.

Norway’s Innovation Kvaerner had one of its best finishes at third, moving into fourth overall, and Britain’s Silk Cut was fourth to leapfrog into fifth place overall.

Not the Way He Envisioned It

It goes without saying that Cayard is pleased with the win, although it didn’t happen in the way he expected.

“When you’re a competitor on [this] level, you always think you can win a race that you’re in. [Although] your vision of how you’re going win it can be different from time to time,” he said. “My vision of how we would win the Whitbread Round the World Race is we would have struggled a lot in the beginning, being in the middle of the pack after four or five legs, and slowly climbed our way out of it and won on the last leg.”

Will he do it again in 2001 when the race will make a new debut as the Volvo Round The World Race? “I don’t know if I’ll do it again,” Cayard said. “I must consider my family in that decision. If I don’t do it, it won’t be for lack of interest in the event.”

Focus on America’s Cup

In the meantime, he’s going to focus “110 percent” of his energy on his AmericaOne America’s Cup campaign. Sailing in the Whitbread was a risky decision on his part, he explains, but with the high visibility of not only competing in but winning the race, the round-the-world event was something of a booster rocket for the AmericaOne Challenge, improving the fund-raising picture.

After a few months’ break from sailing, Cayard says he may compete in a few match races later this year before beginning training on America’s Cup boats in Auckland in January 1999.

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Seahorse-February 1998

Another new year. This is my seventh year of writing for Seahorse. I really enjoy the opportunity to express myself in this high quality publication. I hope that some of what I have had to say over the years has been of interest or amusing at times. Being at the heart of one and looking forward to the other, I thought I would review the path of the two Prime Time events in our sport over the past several years and editions and offer my observations.

Offshore sailing, led by the Whitbread Round the World Race, is enjoying growing popularity, not just amongst those of us in the sport but, in some ways more importantly, with the general public. Offshore has always been big in countries like France. The story of man against the sea, the adventure, the danger, the dream, has always been an attraction in France. Tabarly, Peron and Autissier are heros

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