It’s the downtime between the Louis Vuitton Cup and the America’s Cup...
As usual there’s as much or more speculation about what the America's Cup community can expect from each team in the way of a future event, as there is about who will win. And apparent differences in opinion between the two finalists on that former topic continue to generate more heat than light.
There’s an excellent article by Christopher Clarey at the International Herald Tribune which quotes Alinghi’s head honcho, Ernesto Bertarelli, as being miffed by Grant Dalton’s reported desire to reinstate the nationality rule, should Emirates TNZ win the Cup. In an earlier Tim Jeffery Telegraph article, Dalton had said that, were TNZ to succeed in beating Alinghi for the America's Cup, he would reverse the relaxation to the nationality rules made by the Swiss. ‘A fundamental corner-stone to a win environment would be to take the Cup back to a contest between nations,’ adding, ‘this would ‘play to Kiwi strengths.’
Bertarelli responded to that by saying, ‘If he was to win, that basically would put three-quarters of the people around this harbor out of work. And more surprisingly so, they are probably friends of his, since a lot of teams have Kiwis in their ranks.’ If Bertarelli is annoyed at this, it's because he supplied the loan that rescued Team New Zealand after the 2003 debacle. Now the Kiwi team are proposing a rule change that would shut out Alinghi - as it is currently constituted - from the next competition. You can see how Bertarelli might view Dalton's comments as a little ungrateful...
But Dalton - when asked by the IHT about nationality - was more conciliatory than the earlier quote suggests. ‘We will look at nationality, but we haven't made a final decision, compared to what everybody thinks we have,’ he said. Reckoning that there were understandable differences in their perspectives, ‘You can probably assume we don't share exactly the same view on that just based on where we come from,’ added Dalton – Bertarelli is a Swiss national who was born in Italy.
My two cents worth is that it’s a backward step to return to the nationality rules we’ve seen previously in the Cup, as they make it harder for teams to compete, while adding little to the flavour of the competition. The two-year residency rule used in 2003 just played into the hands of the big teams. They will always be able to find a way round the problem, as Alinghi did in Auckland, by having the budget to hire people on full contracts for the whole period and ship them and their families around the world. It just raises the cost of entry into the competition, and makes it harder for start-up teams to come and do what Shosholoza have done at this event.
But if you go all the way with the nationality card and require citizenship, you’ll shut down half the teams around the port because they just don’t have people that can do all the tasks required in a modern Cup team. Never mind making it impossible for any new country to get started in the way that China and South Africa have this time. Yes, this would play to Kiwi strengths - as they have the personnel to staff two top Cup teams, but very few other countries can manage even one. A strict nationality rule would doubtless make it easier for the Kiwis to defend in Auckland, but it would be nice to see self-interest trumped by a desire to continue to grow the event.
We’ve had ten weeks of intense racing, and guess what? No drugs scandals, no corruption of referees, no ticketing scams, no violent fans, no violent competitors… wouldn’t it be nice if we could continue to grow and export that to as many people as possible? If there’s a desire to see greater nationalism in the America’s Cup (and personally, living in this crowded little corner of the planet, where it’s caused a whole world of trouble over the years, I don’t…), then perhaps a softer rule would do it, such as 30 or 40% of the racing crew to be citizens of the same nationality as the challenging yacht club. Most countries could front up with that condition, while still hiring from abroad for the specialist technical roles. But going back to the 2003 rules is just going back to the bad old days…
America's Cup Live Race Commentary at:
www.tackbytack.com
www.markchisnell.com
Mark Chisnell ©
As usual there’s as much or more speculation about what the America's Cup community can expect from each team in the way of a future event, as there is about who will win. And apparent differences in opinion between the two finalists on that former topic continue to generate more heat than light.
There’s an excellent article by Christopher Clarey at the International Herald Tribune which quotes Alinghi’s head honcho, Ernesto Bertarelli, as being miffed by Grant Dalton’s reported desire to reinstate the nationality rule, should Emirates TNZ win the Cup. In an earlier Tim Jeffery Telegraph article, Dalton had said that, were TNZ to succeed in beating Alinghi for the America's Cup, he would reverse the relaxation to the nationality rules made by the Swiss. ‘A fundamental corner-stone to a win environment would be to take the Cup back to a contest between nations,’ adding, ‘this would ‘play to Kiwi strengths.’
Bertarelli responded to that by saying, ‘If he was to win, that basically would put three-quarters of the people around this harbor out of work. And more surprisingly so, they are probably friends of his, since a lot of teams have Kiwis in their ranks.’ If Bertarelli is annoyed at this, it's because he supplied the loan that rescued Team New Zealand after the 2003 debacle. Now the Kiwi team are proposing a rule change that would shut out Alinghi - as it is currently constituted - from the next competition. You can see how Bertarelli might view Dalton's comments as a little ungrateful...
But Dalton - when asked by the IHT about nationality - was more conciliatory than the earlier quote suggests. ‘We will look at nationality, but we haven't made a final decision, compared to what everybody thinks we have,’ he said. Reckoning that there were understandable differences in their perspectives, ‘You can probably assume we don't share exactly the same view on that just based on where we come from,’ added Dalton – Bertarelli is a Swiss national who was born in Italy.
My two cents worth is that it’s a backward step to return to the nationality rules we’ve seen previously in the Cup, as they make it harder for teams to compete, while adding little to the flavour of the competition. The two-year residency rule used in 2003 just played into the hands of the big teams. They will always be able to find a way round the problem, as Alinghi did in Auckland, by having the budget to hire people on full contracts for the whole period and ship them and their families around the world. It just raises the cost of entry into the competition, and makes it harder for start-up teams to come and do what Shosholoza have done at this event.
But if you go all the way with the nationality card and require citizenship, you’ll shut down half the teams around the port because they just don’t have people that can do all the tasks required in a modern Cup team. Never mind making it impossible for any new country to get started in the way that China and South Africa have this time. Yes, this would play to Kiwi strengths - as they have the personnel to staff two top Cup teams, but very few other countries can manage even one. A strict nationality rule would doubtless make it easier for the Kiwis to defend in Auckland, but it would be nice to see self-interest trumped by a desire to continue to grow the event.
We’ve had ten weeks of intense racing, and guess what? No drugs scandals, no corruption of referees, no ticketing scams, no violent fans, no violent competitors… wouldn’t it be nice if we could continue to grow and export that to as many people as possible? If there’s a desire to see greater nationalism in the America’s Cup (and personally, living in this crowded little corner of the planet, where it’s caused a whole world of trouble over the years, I don’t…), then perhaps a softer rule would do it, such as 30 or 40% of the racing crew to be citizens of the same nationality as the challenging yacht club. Most countries could front up with that condition, while still hiring from abroad for the specialist technical roles. But going back to the 2003 rules is just going back to the bad old days…
America's Cup Live Race Commentary at:
www.tackbytack.com
www.markchisnell.com
Mark Chisnell ©