Vindleka
Well-Known Member
Unique appeal
There are plenty of 'tidy' Grand Prix yacht racing events on the calendar. To my mind, the Americas Cup provides an element of unpredictability that makes it different, exciting and fresh. Originally, I thought that Oracle's complaint was due to frustration at having failed to make the finals over the last two cycles, and I expect that played a part. But having read some other material, it seems that Alinghi were trying to use their position to make the race more established and more predictable, with a permanent base in Valencia and with their own team running the show along the lines of the motor racing Formula 1 format.
That doesn't seem to me to be consistent with the spirit of the Americas Cup which has historically provided innovation and excitement from exactly that unpredictabity. This is not the first time that clarification of the 'spirit' of the race has been established by the courts, and it always gets ugly! It obviously takes a serious amount of money to challenge the interpretation of The Deed Of Gift and Ellison may be one of the few people in the sport that could stand up to Bertarelli. The fact that the challenge was upheld by the US supreme court must mean something. People like Ellison and Bertarelli are the latest in a long line of yacht-racing-obsessed, multi-millionaires who have provided the ultimate in spectacular yacht racing over the last 200 years. I don't think we should be trying to tell them how to do it.
There are plenty of 'tidy' Grand Prix yacht racing events on the calendar. To my mind, the Americas Cup provides an element of unpredictability that makes it different, exciting and fresh. Originally, I thought that Oracle's complaint was due to frustration at having failed to make the finals over the last two cycles, and I expect that played a part. But having read some other material, it seems that Alinghi were trying to use their position to make the race more established and more predictable, with a permanent base in Valencia and with their own team running the show along the lines of the motor racing Formula 1 format.
That doesn't seem to me to be consistent with the spirit of the Americas Cup which has historically provided innovation and excitement from exactly that unpredictabity. This is not the first time that clarification of the 'spirit' of the race has been established by the courts, and it always gets ugly! It obviously takes a serious amount of money to challenge the interpretation of The Deed Of Gift and Ellison may be one of the few people in the sport that could stand up to Bertarelli. The fact that the challenge was upheld by the US supreme court must mean something. People like Ellison and Bertarelli are the latest in a long line of yacht-racing-obsessed, multi-millionaires who have provided the ultimate in spectacular yacht racing over the last 200 years. I don't think we should be trying to tell them how to do it.
