AMERICA'S CUP
Vincenzo Onorato soutient Oracle
27.03.2008 : Vincenzo Onorato, le patron de
Mascalzone soutient publiquement Oracle et critique vertement l'attitude des suisses
depuis leur victoire en juin dernier.
How to save the America's Cup
by Vincenzo Onorato
I have received numerous requests to intervene, also in the light of the ruling
passed by New York Supreme Court. Over the past few years I believe I have been
quite restrained in commenting on the difficulties facing the Cup. You'll have
noticed that I wrote Cup with a capital "C", and this is indicative
of my respect and my passion for sailing and for the America's Cup in particular.
We undoubtedly now find ourselves in extremely choppy waters, and it is therefore
important to chart our position before plotting our course.
The whole problem stems from the protocol drawn up by Alinghi for the 33rd
America's Cup which was presented at the end of the regattas in Valencia. This
affirmation might appear a trite observation but, as time has passed, I have
become increasingly convinced that very few people, including journalists have
taken the trouble of reading this document. Whoever has done so with a minimum
of attention, but with a sense of humour, will not have been able to hold back
a smile, because this is a document designed to regulate a competition which
totally lacks any sense of fair play: Alinghi claims the right to choose, at
its sole discretion, the regatta judges, the committee, the umpires and themeasurers,
even going so far as to state that they must be its employees; in short, it
unilaterally lays down the rules of the game. Alinghi, again at its sole discretion,
claims the right to accept a challenge or to penalise a rival.
There were some who realised this immediately: it was immediately challenged
by the seven teams who, a few days after the protocol had been published, signed
a letter of objection (Oracle, Mascalzone Latino, Team New Zealand, Germany,
Victory, K-Challenge, Luna Rossa); it was challenged by the historic sponsor
of the challenger selection series, Louis Vuitton, who announced, in a press
release dated 13 July 2007, its withdrawal on the grounds that it did not agree
with the rules for the 33rd Cup.
To underline Alinghi's complete lack of respect for the role of "trustee",
as sanctioned by the "Deed of Gift", the central document on which
the regulatory framework of the event is based, it elected as "Challenger
of Record" the Spanish Nautical Yacht Club, a non-existent club with no
history or members, essentially a sleeping partner that would have given it
complete and unconditional control of the event. Alinghi's team worked hard
in the aftermath of Oracle's legal action brought before the Supreme Court of
New York to cry scandal and present itself to the whole world as the poor victims
attacked by the American bear which had in effect blocked the event by bringing
it before the courts. It is worth dispelling any misconceptions on this point:
the Cup was effectively brought before the Court by Alinghi, with its ignominously
unsporting protocol. Oracle's legal challenge was a courageous salvage operation
of the oldest sports trophy in known history. This explains why, here at Mascalzone
Latino, we supported Oracle at the Supreme Court of New York with our "amicus
brief".
Alinghi's media-oriented defence was to state that the other challengers, including
Team New Zealand, had been ready to accept the protocol. Today, after the action
filed by Team New Zealand, what we already knew has come to light: Alinghi took
advantage of the extremely weak economic position in which most of the teams
found themselves to impose its own will. It promised cash to Team New Zealand
in the form of waiving registration fees and even going so far as to offer an
option on Oracle's base!
To sum up, Alinghi's plan was to control the Cup and its challengers in order
to guarantee its subsidiary, ACM total economic control of the event. In this
context, Alinghi's terse comments seem completely superfluous when it recalled
how, in the past, it was the Americans who created the culture of the defender's
privilege. The actions taken by the American defenders were childish attempts
compared to the complex plot woven above all by Alinghi. The Americans from
New York Yacht Club were motivated solely by a deep sense of pride and privilege
in keeping the Cup in the States, not for base economic motifs!
This brings us to the second aspect of this affair, the economic and commercial
side. It is my opinion that the money offered by sponsors should be used to
fund the event. I keep my work, which brings in my bread and butter, separate
from sailing and I believe that the other businessmen leading the syndicates
should do the same. Therefore, I do not agree with Alinghi's avidity, which
unfortunately is not even backed by an intelligent commercial strategy. One
particular detail has escaped most people: Louis Vuitton decided to back out
of the Cup before and not after the legal action brought by Oracle before the
Supreme Court of New York. When I think of the America's Cup, I automatically
think of the Louis Vuitton Cup. The two are inseparable, not only blending tradition
but also class and culture. They backed out and walked away, on tiptoe, with
the good breeding characteristic of those who work for the French company. Given
that I had the pleasure of meeting them, I know how much it cost them to abandon
the event, the selection of the official challenger, to which only their brand
and no other had succeeded in giving such a profound sense of identity. Incompatibility
with Mr Bertarelli's vision. This was the gist of the brief comments they made.
Losing Louis Vuitton is further proof of the total lack of culture and respect
for tradition shown by the top management of Alinghi in handling this event.
Above all and paradoxically, it is an intellectual shortfall without precedent
in the Cup's history. As if that were not enough, it is also an irreparable
error of marketing: the Cup today is an enormous industry funded by major sponsors
and a few tycoons. It is an enormous engine driven - in media terms - by glamour,
status and tradition. Losing Vuitton has created a culture of suspicion among
the sponsors and Alinghi's decision to take the Cup to court has effectively
brought this enormous engine to a halt.
Let's come back to the story and to the work I have done in the past few months,
since the end of the Cup. I spent the entire summer of 2007 in a vain attempt
to broker a settlement between Oracle and Alinghi. I knew that a sure-fire way
of losing all the sponsors was to take the Cup to court and I wanted to avoid
this.I established contacts with Oracle in order to discuss our points of view.
Contrary to Alinghi's declarations, I found Russell Coutts very willing to talk.
Oracle's primary motivation was the same as Mascalzone Latino's: to achieve
an honest and reliable competition. So I drafted a protocol that broadly speaking
included the same rules that governed the 32nd Cup, specifying that, in order
to cut costs, the same yachts would be used as in the last event and the use
of the new 90ft A.C. class would be postponed until the 34th Cup. In the meantime,
the challengers would jointly draw up the new class rules, which would not give
such unfair advantages to the defender. I obtained - I have to confess, to my
great personal satisfaction - an informal guarantee from Oracle that if my draft
protocol was accepted by Alinghi, they would immediately withdraw their legal
action pending before the New York Supreme Court. The Cup would be saved, and
also the date of the event and the economic interests of the city of Valencia.
Then I presented the protocol to Alinghi, who did not even have the good manners
to reply with a "no thanks, we're not interested."
In the autumn, Oracle proved all too ready to negotiate with Alinghi, to the
point of accepting almost all the points imposed in the much discussed protocol,
only to be turned down again with a scornful refusal.
At Mascalzone Latino, although we had not been summoned to appear before the
Supreme Court, we joined the proceedings and presented a document summing up
our position: in short, this stated that Alinghi's protocol had completely distorted
the key principles of the Deed of Gift and the universal principles of fair
play. During those hot autumn days, I also had a feeling that an Italian challenge
was being prepared simply to exclude us from the Cup, once and forever. Alinghi
had declared that it would probably accept only one national challenger. So
we launched our challenge, following the dictates laid down by the protocol.
We also had to demonstrate the existence of the Reale Yacht Club Canottieri
Savoia, at its third challenge in the America's Cup and with a one hundred year-old
history to its name! Alinghi was a little less precise with its Challenger of
Records, the "Club Nautico Espano de Vela" which could only claim
to have been in existence for a few hours...
Since the start of this letter, I have given Alinghi credit for the fact that
the affair has an underlying sense of comedy, although this is probably unintentional.
Following the launch of the challenge, ACM sent us an invoice for fifty thousand
euros which we paid immediately. Are we perhaps the only ones to have done so
to date? They replied in writing that they would accept our challenge only if
we withdrew our declaration filed with the Supreme Court of New York. This is
not required by the protocol, but it is clear that Alinghi writes and rewrites
the rules to suit its needs. I answered by reminding them that a citizen accepts
the laws even if he doesn't agree with them and that in a democracy there is
freedom of speech and criticism. The simple metaphor was not understood. ACM/Alinghi
replied by claiming a public abjuration. It would have been pointless to remind
them that the last Italian forced to make such a strong retraction was Giordano
Bruno, in medieval times under the Holy Inquisition...
It's a harsh precedent that will weigh on the future of the Cup and those who
love sailing, but leaving irony aside, we must seriously consider that this
event has been profoundly damaged by Alinghi. The sponsors have disappeared
and people are tired of all these controversies.
The best solution now would be to hold the multi-hull challenge between Oracle
and Alinghi, even if, yet again, the latter try to delay the event using every
possible tactic. For the survival of the America's Cup, we must hope that Oracle
wins, and after that we'll have to roll up our sleeves and work hard. In my
humble opinion, the first step must be to reinstate Louis Vuitton. The French
company is not only a sponsor, the Sponsor, but is also and above all the leitmotif
of a long history that has survived to the present day and must continue into
the future. The event can be saved, and it could be held in 2009, or in 2010
at the latest, but to achieve this it is important to acknowledge the weak situation
of the event. It would be best to use the yachts from the last Cup for three
good reasons:
- To curb costs at a time when all the teams are struggling to survive. Permission
should only be given to build one latest generation hull.
- By using the existing fleet, the event could be held within a few months,
without requiring enormous economic and organisational efforts, and this would
also leave enough time to study the new 90ft A.C. class for the 35th Cup.
- Last but not least, from a sporting point of view: anyone who is a yachtsman
knows that regattas are great when they are "close". The yachts in
the last Cup had very similar speeds and the best thing about the last Cup was
that we watched some very hard fought and spectacular races. We don't want to
do without those, do we?
Personally, I am making enormous economic sacrifices to keep an organisation
going that will allow us to race in the next America's Cup with dignity and
sportsmanship.
I am profoundly saddened about what has happened to this event, but I am a sailor
and my experience as a yachtsman is based above all on Farr 40, M30, RC 44 and
now also on Melges 32
Many have lost that spirit of enthusiasm for sailing or perhaps they never had
it, but it is from this that we must start afresh...
Good sailing to you all,
Vincenzo Onorato
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