Emirates Team New Zealand boss, Grant Dalton knows more than most about what’s really going on with the America’s Cup. In a wide-ranging interview with Sailing Anarchy, Dalton has put on the record several issues that have been bubbling away under the surface for a while. Remember that the America’s Cup is not your average boat race. Lawyers and back-room machinations are just as much a part of the process as on-the-water performance – something that newer teams may not be set up for.

Here are some of the issues covered in the 53 minute chat.

EmiratesTeamNZ.com will be redirected to AmericasCup.com?

The protocol governing the America’s Cup requires teams to redirect their URL to the official America’s Cup site. He says that the team were approached by a heavy hitting lawyer with a Dubai address which is why the team went down the route of trying to get some clarification of the rule.

With off the record support from all teams other than ORACLE Racing and Artemis Racing, Emirates Team NZ are looking to try and get the best deal for their sponsors who see online as a large part of the offer. Dalton refers to our article that highlights the improbability of Manchester United agreeing to redirect their website to that of UEFA.

For Dalton, the perfect solution would be a mirrored site. While ORACLE Racing say that all other teams have complied, the fact is that none of the other teams are really active and:

…have bigger problems than where to put their website. Like where they put the wing.

The solution for Emirates Team NZ will be to “live in social.” Dalton says:

In the end, we will give that away and supply it what it needs and live in social, because they are not controlling social. We’ll be on the site, but it will be pretty boring. Half the teams will be gone by the this time next year anyway. We will live in social to the detriment of the site because our sponsors need hight visibility.

The team also know that if the rules were applied to the letter, then they would have to comply, but the organisers have been willing to compromise on other issues.

They can beat us with a big stick over the protocol and they will win… If they roll us, and they can, then we just wont co-operate on anything, and we will just keep chucking grenades over the fence.

Sticking up for the Commercial Teams.

Despite America’s Cup organisers stating that they are trying to create a long term commercial success of the America’s Cup, Dalton believes that with the Defender and the Challenger of Record being funded out of private bank accounts, this will never happen. Emirates Team New Zealand just think differently.

As a (the) commercial team, we represent the commercial teams not the billionaire teams – we just think different. It is an impossible commercial model. The America’s Cup is in no shape or form at the moment a commercial model that is sustainable or even achieveable.

Dalton refers to a situation where organisers tried to take away the right to put the America’s Cup symbol on team merchandise. First they said it was allowed and then that right was taken away. Emirates Team NZ had minutes of the discussion and held their corner, but Dalton believes they are the only team that has the experience and the support to back themselves. This could be because the other teams are so indebted to the organisers for their existence so far. Dalton says:

The other teams are either too small or too timid to be able to fight these corners and we will continue to fight. Many of the teams will be too scared to write to them because they are scared for their own survival and I am sure that many of them haven’t paid for their AC45s in Cascais – if the reality is known.

America’s Cup World Series Vs Extreme Sailing Series.

The America’s Cup has set some big expectations, and they have set themselves against one of the most respected events and organisers in the industry. Dalton says:

Cascais is a pretty important event.The Extreme Series is a pretty good series. It costs a zillion times more to be in the Cup, and they have to get to that level yet. They have to be better, but frankly, they are going to have trouble getting to that level.

It’s fantastic to hear one of the sport’s leaders thinking about sailing as a whole and not just focussed on one little part of it. Grant Dalton knows that all entrepreneurial and commercial events should support each other and by doing so the whole will be increased. This trick has been completely missed by the America’s Cup. Emirates Team NZ have competed in the Extreme Sailing Series throughout 2011 and Dalton knows that relationships are as important as anything else. Emirates Team NZ will be at the Cowes round of the Extreme 40s depsite a (deliberate?) date clash with the America’s Cup World Series. Dalton says:

We are doing the Extreme 40. There are two reasons for that. One is that we want to support Mark (Turner), and as leader of the event it wouldn’t look good if the leader of the event pulled out. I hope that next year they can co-habitate because the Extremes 40 are great. We want to do both.

The America’s Cup World Series still haven’t provided a good reason why two of their events clash directly with the Extreme Sailing Series. While many in the business have speculated, Dalton has said it out loud:

(Ernesto) Bertarelli has money in the Extreme 40s now and I guess that hatred is still pretty strong.

The sport can work together on the calendar and even America’s Cup teams have worked to make sure that events didn’t work against each other:

But the TP52s do it well, the TP52 and the Farrs – we had guys on both and we never really had clashes. When we were putting the Louis Vuitton together, we made sure that we didn’t clash with the TP52s – and we didn’t want to hurt them.

On Different Approaches, Cultures and Budgets.

Emirates Team NZ, is a commercial team, and therefore they do things a little bit differently.

If you haven’t got any money issues, you could use AC45s for testing or a giant trimaran – Emirates Team NZ is instead using 33ft catamarans.

You couldn’t alter your 45, but now you can. Two more AC45s being built and we think they are for ORACLE for a test platform. 800,000 euros for a 45 and 2 33′s in the water for 2. You could spend 10 million dollars and stick it on a trimaran for testing like Artemis are doing. That’s way more useful. It’s a fallacy to think we have a lot of money.

There are about 4 people in the office in this place, then we have a lot of designers, but we are very careful how we spend money. There’s not a bunch of pixies that appear from santa’s sleigh and take the boats sailing when the other guys are not around – we’re a little team.

On Safety

The Extreme nature of the new America’s Cup means that there are things teams have to think about that they have never had to think about before. Dalton has had to completely change his approach to safety – and that’s just for the 45 foot version of the catamarans. When it is scaled up to 72 foot, then there is a high chance of serious injury.

I haven’t changed my opinion. I think it’s all very cool until someone gets seriously hurt. We have a medic on the water. We have two chase boats. There is no point having a diver, because once he has his regulator on – someone’s dead. You need a surf rescuer who can swim two lengths of a pool underwater, because I do believe they are dangerous.

That’s extreme, that’s cool and that’s neat, but it’s amazing how motorsport is not cool anymore when someone gets badly hurt. In San Francisco, the added element is cold-shock. And San Francisco is cold. The only thing we learnt when we tested cold-shock was that you would die.

Everything changes and you have to adapt. Maybe if its over 15 knots you need a chopper with a guy on the skids, ready to jump. Its a big issue and it hasn’t gone away, it’s just no-one has got badly hurt yet.

ACRM and Iain Murray are addressing it. Iain Murray is a really good bloke. That side of the organisation is great. ACEA is ineffective and we don’t even know what they do. When I think ACRM i think Mark (Turner) and when I think ACEA I can’t think of anybody.

Watch the Full Interview

Multihulls are great for the America’s Cup. We get it. Sport changes and sports where technology is a driver become almost unrecognisable from one era to another. The new America’s Cup has the potential to be exciting, and spectators will come to see a new kind of sailing, however it is sad to see the ambassadors of the sport, denegrate the tradition that made the America’s Cup what it is.

It’s great to see Jimmy Spithill on ‘everyman’ sports shows like Chronicle Live, but the current PR spin that everything that has come before was “boring” is a little insulting to those who have built the brand that now allows sailors like Spithill and Coutts the opportunities they currently have.

Rather than denigrating past Cups, like the event which took place in Fremantle, which until the most recent re-invention of history was considered one of the most successful ever – ambassadors like Spithill should recognise that though different, the America’s Cup events that came before were fantastic, athletic, technology led competitions. Otherwise, the new America’s Cup has no soul.

If the new format for the 34th America’s Cup has a solid foundation in marketing fundamentals, then it should appeal to the markets that allow Oracle Racing and the America’s Cup Event Authority need to sell sponsorship and television rights against. It’s different and perhaps its better, but trash talking every America’s Cup event that has come before is not good for the America’s Cup brand and is not good for sailing.

Without the ‘boring’ America’s Cup events of the past, where the skill level was so low and the action so tedious that sailors ‘could read a book while competing’, leaders of the sport like Jimmy Spithill would not get invitations to live sports shows.

So let’s think a little more long term shall we. Let’s try to bring a few more people along for the ride and stop sticking two fingers up at the past. The new deal America’s Cup promises to make the sport of sailing a little more accessible to a wider audience. Catamarans with wing-sails will promote speed and technology over match-racing tactical skill, but let’s make the 34th America’s Cup part of the long tradition rather than a new event that just happens to have the same name.

More America’s Cup News

Last week, we were off taking a look at sailing from the other side of the Atlantic. As well as catching up with a few of our fans in Boston at the Extreme Sailing Series, we also talked to some of the top sports marketing people in the US about sailing and its place in 2011. More of that later, but in the mean time, there are a couple of stories that we need to catch up on.

Some positive news for the IMOCA 60 Class and the Vendee Globe with the announcement that UK sailor Mike Golding has secured sponsorship from wind energy technology company Gamesa.

Sailing and wind energy seems to be a pretty obvious tie-up, and with the renewable energy sector becoming increasingly competitive – sponsorship is one way to create awareness and build momentum in both home and new markets. Previous energy sponsorships have included Iberdrola’s backing of the Amercia’s Cup and TP52 campaigns and the 34th America’s Cup may also feature a team with significant sponsorship from an energy brand.

Mike Golding is one of several UK sailors who are looking for budget to compete in the next Vendee Globe. The announcement that he has secured the money to compete in the race might help other sailors like Dee Caffari in their quest to be on the start line in Les Sables d’Olonne, France, on 10 November 2012.

According to Gamesa’s website – in 2010, Gamesa’s consolidated revenues amounted to more than 2,764 million euro and the net profit was 50 million euro. International markets accounted for almost 93% of whole sales.

While Gamesa is a Spanish company, it will have a significant UK offshore operation in the next few years. The company is working to launch two offshore platforms and plans to invest over €150 million in this activity by 2014. Gamesa’s offshore business will be headquartered in London. The announcement about The Gamesa Sailing Team was made to 135 of the company’s top global executives at their annual convention in Windsor, England.

Jorge Calvet, Chairman and Chief Executive of Gamesa commented on the synergies between the company and Mike Golding’s offshore campaign:

“This sponsorship comes at an important time for Gamesa and our planned programme of expansion into the offshore market in UK. The sea and the wind are similarly part of the Gamesa challenge and there are synergies between Mike’s Vendée Globe campaign and our own activities in the wind power market in the UK and globally. We have a vigorous business plan over the coming years with many common values, including innovation, teamwork, leadership and passion for our customers, and we look forward to working with Mike and his team to achieve both our goals and his.”

Mike Golding said:

“This is obviously fantastic for us to be able to formally announce our partnership with Gamesa. With Gamesa’s support and our existing infrastructure we are now certain to be able to mount a very competitive campaign for the 2012 Vendée Globe – which is simply wonderful news. Having enjoyed enormous success in the sport of sailing, the Vendee Globe remains ‘the event’ I would most love to win.”

“Furthermore, having spent the past decade championing environmental products and issues, it is really exiting that Gamesa’s core business is in renewable energy – an area increasingly critical to performance in competitive round the world yacht racing.”

More Open 60 and Vendee Globe News

How do you make your sailing event touch the widest group of people possible?

One way is to make as many spectators as possible engage through social media like Twitter or Facebook. The other way is to engage as many participants as you can. Of course, the more participants you have, the more engagement on social media you have…

The entry list for the 2011 J P Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race featured 1908 boats. Assuming an average of 6 people per boat, that’s about 11,000 stories.

Some of those stories feature the current and past rock-stars of the sport, and as if that wasn’t enough to get the masses interested, other stories featured celebrities, brought in to create a story that might be interesting to someone editing the entertainment pages rather than the sports section.

Either way, the Round the Island Race exposes the sport of sailing to a huge audience, and for many of the participants, the experience of getting up early, being on the start line with thousands of other boats is unforgettable. Many of those participants are journalists – and many of those are journalists that usually write about ‘other things’.

The result, scanning Google a couple of days later is an incredible level of coverage for a sailing event. News outlets like the Financial Times, BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph and Eurosport have all given time and space to the 2011 Round the Island Race and many more stories will follow in journals that run to a weekly or monthly deadline.

One journalist I spoke to had only bee given 250 words to play with and given his story on the day, he could have written 5000. Another features editor had been given a bit more leeway –  5 pages of a glossy magazine to fill, and 5 pages in a magazine that never covers sailing is a big deal.

For a sponsor of the race, having 11,000 stories might seem like a very noisy media landscape to generate awareness in, however the J P Morgan Round the Island Race is actually a great exercise in micro-segmentation. Rather than treating the audience of the event as a big monolithic block of ‘sailing fans’, each brand has a constituency who are looking for something different.

Given the conditions for this year’s race, there are some guests who may never set foot on a boat again. But while they might not become participants, those people will have a much greater appreciation of the skill and character of the people who sail at the top level of the sport. There are others who reveled in the fact that this was “real sailing” – not just a cruise in the sun. These people will become (social) brand ambassadors for the sport.

It’s events like the Round the Island Race that give you confidence about the future of sailing. Unlike the cynicism, politics and posturing that sours some parts of the sport, the Round the Island Race seems to combine racing with charity, competitiveness with participation and commercialism with Corinthian ideals. Legends of the sport mingle with ‘newbies’ in the  beer tent and share stories in a manner that just doesn’t happen in many other sports.

The Round the Island Race has had 80 years to get it right. Organisers have stuck to a formula that gets better with every edition. Rather than change the ‘product’, the Island Sailing Club, its sponsors and partners, manage to educate and promote the benefits of the offer to a wider and wider group of ‘customers’. It’s a strategy that seems to work, and sailing is better for it.

Video from the media day…

Three very different female round the world sailors talk about the Round the Island Race

With about 8 weeks to go, the America’s Cup have started to do some marketing. The Cup has a shiny new heavy metal inspired logo and a grainy, grunge video to inspire new audiences to get to Cascais to watch the boats compete.

But while the logo is bold and black and silver, the call to action is less confident.

“Sailing? You may like it now.”

How very… polite. Millions of bucks to create a shiny new sport and the pitch is not the Californian brashness that we are used to from brands like Apple, but more like a whimpering plea to pay attention.

The message is a little – ‘Excuse Mr (this is an ad aimed at men) Soccer fan and Mr F1 fan, would you mind terribly switching the channel over. We know that you have years of preconceptions about sailing, but we’ve made it better and you might like it, but we understand if you don’t. Have a nice day.’

Not one name is mentioned in the video, which features a looped set of soundbites, but the introduction features a set of blokes who want you to know that is not just another catamaran event – this is the America’s Cup.

The PR that goes with the new campaign is a little more confident. It says:

…the America’s Cup World Series is set to become the stage for nothing less than a transformation of sailing. …If you’re fortunate enough to be there in person, the racing will take place just metres from the shoreline. But if you’re not, don’t worry. Major advances in the television and web coverage of the sport, tested during the trials in Auckland, mean watching the America’s Cup has never been more compelling.

You will see and hear all of the action, as it’s unfolding, from multiple angles on board the boats. Revolutionary graphics technology will make the fast-paced action easy to understand. This is sailing from the inside out.

The best sailors on the fastest boats. That’s the promise. Now see it delivered.

Delivery of course will be the key. What do you think of the video?

More America’s Cup News

One of the key considerations for brands looking to use sailing, or any sport for that matter, as a platform to market themselves is the markets that will be exposed to the event. In 2011, the Extreme Sailing Series is venturing outside of its more traditional markets in Europe and visiting cities around the world including Istanbul, Boston and Qingdao.

For teams like Oman Sail, some of the venues are more important than others. For their sponsors, especially Oman Air, there are markets where activation is essential and other countries where local marketing will not be as intense.

Oman Air operates direct flights from many of the countries that the Extreme Sailing Series visits including the UK and has new routes to and from Italy, where the series will visit later in the year.

On the other hand, Boston in the USA, which will be the next event for the series is not as key to the team’s sponsors marketing objectives.

The team has had mixed results in 2011 after dominating the podium for the last couple of years. Both The Wave Muscat and Oman Air have new skippers and in Qingdao, Torvar Mirsky got worldwide media attention for all the wrong reasons – capsizing in spectacular fashion.

The results were a bit better in Turkey, where Oman Sail’s communications team brought along some local celebrities to make the most of the live television coverage and local interest.

We caught up with Oman Sail’s David Graham on the banks of the Golden Horn where racing was taking place. (Watch the video on Youtube here)

More Extreme Sailing Series News

In December, the Extreme Sailing Series announced a new deal with sailing clothing brand Marinepool. The 3 year deal means that Marinepool is the official clothing partner of the, now global, series and also includes merchandising rights.

At the latest round of the Extreme Sailing Series in Istanbul, the new clothing line went on sale to the public for the first time and interest from fans seemed to be high.

The sailing clothing market is changing and brands that have enjoyed strong support in their home markets are looking to generate awareness around the world and open new markets.

Christoph Stadler, Marinepool’s Marketing Director says about the deal with the Extreme Sailing Series:

It’s an important co-operation to broaden the reach of our brand worldwide. It’s a global circuit and it’s just the right partner for us.

We’ve started selling the product in Turkey. We have developed a merchandising collection for the Extreme Sailing Series, particularly branded, trying to put the action and the close quarters sailing on the garments. The range will go on sale online very soon.

OC Thirdpole boss, Mark Turner is also happy with the Marinepool deal. He said that finding the right clothing partner, who has the same goals and wants to invest for the long term can be difficult. The OC Group has worked with many recognised sailing apparel brands and high-street fashion labels, but often they can be too big, or too small to devote time and resource to developing the partnership.

We caught up with Christoph Stadler in Istanbul outside the merchandising tent. Here’s what he had to say about the partnership with the Extreme Sailing Series and the city. (Or watch the video on YouTube)

More Extreme Sailing Series News..

The first of the America’s Cup 45 boats, has been launched in New Zealand. The 45 foot version of the wing sail powered catamaran is destined to become the mandated boat for the planned Youth America’s Cup, but in 2011, the America’s Cup Event Authority are still trying to put on a World Series, with signed up challengers using these boats for some practise.

Oracle Racing (the BMW era is now over), get the first one and then the Challenger of Record get the next one and then the other teams in order get theirs.

The mono-vs-multi hull debate continues. Comments on the Official 34th America’s Cup YouTube Channel and Facebook page show that the Event Authority still has some way to go to convince people that this is the way of the future, but the entertainment value and the commercial imperatives sometimes don’t match up with the nostalgia for the past. Its the same reason why people complain about the lack of aesthetic beauty of a modern day F1 car and more people attend the Silverstone Classic than the British Grand Prix.

But the America’s Cup Event Authority can’t turn back now. They are committed to the 2 hulled boats with wing sails for the next edition of the event and by the looks of the boat sailing on it’s maiden outing, it’s fast. AC 45 #1 isn’t yet rigged with the next generation of cameras and media capture devices that we are expecting from the organisers.

Early footage is pretty standard stuff, with the classical soundtrack swapped out for something a bit more modern, but the purpose of this launch wasn’t to excite people about the boats, or prove the capabilities of the communications team, it was to see if it hit the numbers that the CFD boffins said it would.

It will be interesting to see how the photographers get more than 2 into a single shot.

First Video of the AC 45 America’s Cup Boat

More America’s Cup News.

8 Business Of Yacht Raching Questions. Part 3.3 – Knut Frostad

The next in our series, questioning the leaders of the sport of sailing about how the business of yacht racing works and how it could change to compete against other professional games. CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race, Knut Frostad has some long term goals for the race and he also talks about who he sees as competition and what innovations have changed the game.

This interview was conducted at the 2010 World Yacht Racing Forum. Coming soon – Richard Worth from the America’s Cup Event Authority answers the 8 business of yacht racing questions. The responses are a real eye-opener!

8 Business of Yacht Racing Questions. Part 3.2 – Knut Frostad

Next in our series of interviews with leaders in the sport of professional sailing. Knut Frostad; CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race talks more about the customers of the race and explains how a team business model works.

Much of the discussion at the 2010 World Yacht Racing Forum was about sustainability and the goal of the very top operators is to make owning a sailing team a profitable business. This is a change from the purely amateur or privately backed model and is also different from the idea that a sailing team is just a marketing expense. Such a concept requires continuity over a long period of time and also requires the property to become big enough to command revenues from television.

This is part 3.2 of a series where we asked the rights holders of several top level sailing events to answer 8 questions.

• Part 1 – Mark Turner; Extreme Sailing Series
• Part 2 – Jim O’Toole; World Match Racing Tour
• Part 3.1 – Knut Frostad; Volvo Ocean Race