Latitude 38 March 2010

MarchCoverTemplate 2/22/10 9:00 AM Page 1 Latitude 38 VOLUME 393 March 2010 WE GO WHERE THE WIND BLOWS MARCH 2010 VOLUME 393 AMERICA'S CUP 33 Larry Ellison won the America's Cup on his third try, leaving few stones unturned in the process. — THE RIGHTEOUS VICTORY This picture says it all for the week of reckoning borne by Ernesto Bertarelli. The events of the last 2.5 years have defense of the next Cup match. Before we knew dominated the narrative of the 33rd America's it, the successful partnership had dissolved, Cup, but the roots of the confl ict that was re- leaving Coutts on the sidelines — hostage to solved in Valencia February 8-14 stretch back a non-compete clause in his contract — while to the year 2000, and the events following the Butterworth and the rest of the boys he'd 30th America's Cup in Auckland. Back then brought with him successfully defended the Russell Coutts, Brad Butterworth and a whole 32nd match, held in Valencia, Spain, in the host of Team New Zealand sailors, designers summer of 2007. and builders jumped ship after successfully Meanwhile, software mogul Larry Ellison, defending the oldest trophy in sports which CEO of the Bay Area-based Oracle Corpora- they'd won in San Diego in '95. tion, had also challenged in 2003, with a team They signed with a hitherto low-profi le bearing his company's name. Ellison lost to Swiss yachtsman Ernesto Bertarelli — who Alinghi in the Louis Vuitton Cup fi nals, but had founded a sailing team named for a he and Bertarelli had formed a friendship and nonsense word from his childhood. Bertarelli agreed that what would ultimately become created the sailing machine that would come BMW Oracle Racing would be the Challenger to be known not only as Alinghi, but also as of Record for the commercially successful 32nd the successful challenger of the 31st America's Cup match. Despite having one of the largest Cup some three years later. Coutts' contract budgets in Valencia, Ellison's team, led by with Bertarelli called for him to have com- the abrasive Chris Dickson, ended up being plete control over the next defense, should swept in the Louis Vuitton Cup semifi nals. At they win. But after the glow of victory had the same time, relations between Ellison and / BMW ORACLE RACING GILLES MARTIN-RAGET PHOTOS subsided Coutts and Bertarelli had a series of Bertarelli had soured, and tension between the contretemps over issues like where to hold the two began to surface during the work-up to the The two most technologically-advanced inshore, 'round the buoys multihulls ever built: 'USA' and 'Alinghi 5'. AMERICA'S CUP 33 event, as they established the conditions for the match. When Alinghi successfully defended other executive department, having for in Valencia, Bertarelli and his team de- its annual regatta on ocean water course cided that it would set up a paper yacht on the sea, or on an arm of the sea, or club, the Club Náutico Español de Vela one which combines both, shall always or C.N.E.V., to be the next Challenger of be entitled to the right of sailing a match Record. They wrote a protocol that would for this Cup." make even the New York YC blush, giv- Bertarelli's and his lawyer Lucien Masmejan's understanding of the English language failed to recognize that "having," func- tioned as a present participle. The problem for the pair was that they interpreted the word as indicating that they could have an annual regatta when- ever they wanted. So rather than playing it safe and host- GILLES MARTIN-RAGET ing the sham of an Optimist pram regatta they called their Russell Coutts and Larry Ellison made a formidable team; this was "annual regatta" before signing Coutts' fi fth America's Cup win, his fi rst as a team CEO. the papers with their puppet ing them complete control over aspects C.N.E.V, they scheduled it for after that like the division of revenue, the jury, re- But what the New York Supreme Court gatta administration and, perhaps most ultimately upheld was that "having," importantly from the sailing side, the meant "having already had." right to sail in the challenger elimination Ellison's response? Challenge. So it series. While the latter point might not came to pass that the Bay Area's own seem like a big deal, the one advantage Melinda Erkelens, the team's General the Challenger has traditionally had in Counsel, and a Swiss Process server the America's Cup is that it's boat has walked right into Alinghi's home club, been battle-tested by the time it meets the Société Nautique Genève, and served / BMW ORACLE RACING GILLES MARTIN-RAGET the defender. the club's commodore, Fred Meyer, with Ellison, who later hired Russell a challenge for the 33rd Cup. be longer than 90-ft on the waterline Coutts to be his team's CEO, didn't The 2.5-year legal battle that ensued if it's single-masted. In its challenge like any of it. But given that there was was, well, boring, so we'll spare you Ellison's team described their boat as already a Challenger of Record in place, the details. But the short story is that 90-ft long by 90-ft wide, which ended there wasn't much he or anyone else C.N.E.V. was declared an invalid chal- up being USA, the 90-ft carbon-black could do about it. Except . Bertarelli lenger and the Golden Gate YC's BMW trimaran they brought to Valencia. With hadn't dotted his i's or crossed his t's. Oracle Racing Team became the right- their head start, Ellison's team initially The Cup's Deed of Gift doesn't require ful one, and the rest of the time was had an advantage in that they had more that a valid challenger have a clubhouse, spent deciding how the match would be time to build, test and sail the monster that would become known as DOGzilla — a nickname that marries the acronym for Deed Of Gift with everyone's favorite mythical monster, Godzilla. Built in Anacortes, Washington, and later modi- fi ed with a whole new set of longer amas at the team's sailing base in San Diego, the massive tri that went through three iterations of progressively-taller soft-sail rigs looked wickedly fast from the outset. The sailing world waited to see what Bertarelli and his team would produce, given that neither team yet knew where GUIDO TROMBETTA / ALINGHI / TROMBETTA GUIDO or when the match would be held. GILLES MARTIN-RAGET / BMW ORACLE RACING GILLES MARTIN-RAGET Alinghi's response was a 90-ft long Local boy made hero John Kostecki was all smiles after fi nally adding a Cup win to his resume and complet- by 80-ft wide catamaran named Alinghi ing the sport's triple crown of the Cup, an Olympic medal (silver '88, Soling), and Volvo Ocean Race (2001-'02 5, built in Switzerland, per the Deed of 'Illbruck'); Kostecki's counterpart Brad Butterworth was left looking a little sheepish, if not stunned. Gift's stipulation that the yacht and com- but it does require that said club be, contended, as well as when and where, ponents be built in her home country. "Any organized Yacht Club of a foreign through the New York Courts. When it was revealed, it appeared that country, incorporated, patented, or li- The Deed of Gift prescribes that a Ellison's team would have a fi ght on its censed by the legislature, admiralty, or yacht that sails in the match must not hands. The cat looked much lighter than Page 94 • Latitude 38 • March, 2010 — THE RIGHTEOUS VICTORY GUIDO TROMBETTA / ALINGHI / TROMBETTA GUIDO GILLES MARTIN-RAGET GILLES MARTIN-RAGET From left — 'USA' had a lot of modes, they all looked a lot faster than any of 'Alinghi 5's; Alinghi's Ed Baird, one of the world's top match racers, was noticeably absent from the sailing roster; James Spithill, at 30, the youngest Cup-winning skipper ever; Loïck Peyron got the nod to helm 'Alinghi 5.' members and the saying, "You fi rst," "No, you go ahead," ISAF-appointed PRO, "No, please, after you?" Kiwi Harold Bennett As the boats approached each other — capitulated. for the fi rst time, the speed difference Back at the dock, allowed Spithill to attack and force Loïck the now-frustrated Peyron to tack to stay clear; Alinghi was press corps and spec- successful in the former but not the tators demanded to latter, and it wasn't long before USA's know why the boats tactician — Bay Area born-and-bred hadn't raced. Bennett John Kostecki — raised the Y-fl ag while appeared to be genu- USA followed suit. After 45 seconds of inely empathetic, but deliberation, the on-the-water umpires the day was history. signaled a penalty against Alinghi. Following yet an- Penalty in hand, Spithill and company other Deed-mandated tried to hang head-to-wind near Alinghi lay-day, race number above the starting line, but it didn't take one fi nally got off on long for the directional stability of those Friday, February 12. 100-ft long hulls to start working against the skipper, as the boat drifted astern the tri, and sported a complex but el- with the wing stalled. Alinghi 5 was able egant system of compression struts and A fter winning a coin toss and to get clear and gybe away, re-crossing tension cables that distributed the loads electing to start the fi rst race from the the line on time, while USA drifted back- from the massive 180-ft-tall sailplan.

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