As thousands sat by their computer screens getting increasingly frustrated, the official America’s Cup internet feed showed flags happily fluttering. At one point, a Version 5 America’s Cup boat could be seen sailing in the background while the race missed it’s advertised television slots. Fans switched from sailing to Rugby, the Winter Olympics and the lead up to the Daytona 500, many missing the eventual race.

The Scuttlebutt is that Race organiser Harold Bennett had to deputise helpers to run the race after officials from the defending club refused to comply with his orders to run the race. The ramifications of not holding the second race yesterday would have been far-reaching and Bennett might have single handedly saved the future of the America’s Cup as a televised event.

When it finally started, the race was compelling viewing – at least for 13 miles. Those who had walked away from the Cup as ‘not being a proper match race’ were proved wrong with the second penalty given to Alinghi in as many races. Alinghi once off the line looked like a different boat, leading for much of the first leg due to calling the favoured side of the course. It looked like we had a boat race on our hands.

Once around the top mark though, the BMW ORACLE wing took over and the gap went from 28 seconds at the first mark to 2 minutes 28 at the second. As the sun set, BMW ORACLE had notched up two wins from two races and barring any legal complications had secured the America’s Cup.

Larry Ellison was on board USA 17 as the boat crossed the line, and once it did, speculation began in earnest about America’s Cup 34.

The Golden Gate Yacht Club and BMW ORACLE will now celebrate their win, which has come at great expense. Not only has the financial outlay been significant, the competitors in the 33rd America’s Cup have used up all the goodwill and brand equity of the event. This will have to be built up again and the behaviour and statements of the American team over the last few years will come back to haunt them should they appear to copy any behaviour they accused Alinghi and SNG of being unfair.

Every protocol and rule will be scrutinised against the statements made on the record in a pile of public letters and court submissions. As Kimball Livingston said in his blog:

“With his hostile challenge and gut-level determination to see through a Deed of Gift match if need be, Larry Ellison led our sport into a wilderness of two and a half years, blowing a hole in the development of professional sailing but promising to rescue the Cup from a future that I agree we didn’t want. Had he lost here, I don’t know how he could have excused himself. Now he shoulders the burdens of the Defender of America’s Cup.”

There are now some big questions that the America’s Cup community and the sport of yacht racing are asking. 1) Where will the 34th America’s Cup be sailed? 2) What will the boats be like? 3) What structural changes will take place, if any, in the management of the America’s Cup?

We do know that Mascalzone Latino Team Audi will be the Challenger of Record. The team headed up by Vincenzo Onorato has been a very public supporter of BMW ORACLE and the GGYC over the past couple of years. Lara Ciribì Onorato, newly nominated President of Mascalzone Latino Team Audi will also be measured according to the standards that were imposed on Alinghi and SNG. He said yesterday:

“Thanks to this victory, the America’s Cup will become a high profile sporting event, run by fairer rules than the ones the previous Defender wanted to impose”.

A period of consultation is probably wise. Some statements may be made immediately, but if Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts are true to their word, teams interested in competing in the 34th America’s Cup will be asked to provide their input.

The world, after being frustrated to the point of apathy is now watching again.

America’s Cup coverage is presented by the DARK BLUE BOOK

Do you have an opinion? Open comments are below.

Vincenzo Onorato, who is the driving force behind Mascalzone Latino said:

“I am very proud of the fact that Audi, a prestigious car company with such great tradition in sponsoring the sailing world, has chosen to link its name to Mascalzone Latino. I would like to thank the President of the Volkswagen Group, Dr. Tartaglione, the Director of Audi Italy, Dr. Frisch and the Director of Audi Marketing, Dr Migliorini for the trust they have put in us. We share the values of excellence and of fair competition as an incentive to constant improvement, as individuals, as a team and from a technology development point of view.”

Vincenzo Onorato’s team will campaign in the Louis Vuitton Trophy, the Farr 40 and the Melges 32 class. Mascalzone Latino Audi Team will host the Italian round of the Louis Vuitton Trophy at La Maddalena in Sardinia from 22nd of May to the 6th of June.

Onorato said:

“La Maddalena will be at the center of media interest right at the beginning of the summer season and attention will be directed to the new infrastructure created for the G8 summit, later transferred to L’Aquila for the well-known reasons. This success was possible thanks to the decisions taken by the Government and by Dr Guido Bertolaso, who has asked me to coordinate the event. As the “hosting team”, Audi Mascalzone Latino Team wants to offer all competitors the best hospitality. My heart full thanks also goes to those who welcomed us, the Region of Sardinia, that is sponsoring our team in all stages of the Louis Vuitton Trophy, and that here is represented at the highest institutional level by the President of the Region Ugo Cappellacci.

Sardinia is a region with an enormous untapped potential, both in terms of nautical tourism and of all it offers as a whole. The interior landscape is extraordinary, but still unknown to most. The Louis Vuitton Trophy is a global event and Sardinia will have the opportunity of being added by travelers to their “Italian Grand Tour”.

The UK based TEAMORIGIN has a video on it’s YouTube page that is aimed at potential sponsors. It’s titled – ‘Value‘. The video runs through a lot of very big numbers including things like “4 billion viewers in 150 countries” which we can only assume come from the 32nd America’s Cup held in Valencia. Even if the number is right (which would mean that 59% of the total world population tuned in), there is no guarantee that sailing will ever see such interest again – especially if the industry doesn’t start to think of those people watching as valued stakeholders.

Obviously sponsors are looking for different things, but a quick survey of the teams competing in the new Louis Vuitton event shows that most are still working on the old “exposure” model of sponsorship and focusing heavily on traditional media that their PR companies understand. No doubt, there will be lots of VIP guests invited down to Nice for some B2B deal making, but the most teams are failing to engage their supporters.

Many people like to throw around the phrase “the F1 of sailing”. Regular readers will know that we think it is a meaningless statement, but for the sake of argument, lets compare how Brawn F1 engage their fan-base versus the teams entered in the Louis Vuitton Series. This is a pretty unscientific poll, we spent a bit of time using ‘Google’ and the team’s own websites to see what each team were doing for supporters. We might have missed some activity, but a fan is only going to look so hard for these things.

The Brawn F1 site is best practise for a modern day sporting team. A fan feels welcome, with one of the main navigation items in the menu being the ‘Fan Wall’. The team also has home-page links to their Twitter feed, Facebook Group and YouTube videos. Sailing brand Henri Lloyd are busy selling merchandise and fans can also sign up for email updates, not just “press”.

Looking at the sailing teams, Mascalzone Latino get full marks. The team site is engaging for supporters and provides several platforms for fans to interact with the team. The Twitter feed has not been updated since June 28, but at least they have one. The team references their Facebook group from the homepage of their website and are providing regular updates (last post October 22) to their 1884 fans.

BMW ORACLE comes in next. The team’s Facebook group is a little hard to find. The Official group has 180 fans while a similarly named page focussing on the team’s old extreme 40 campaign has 724 fans. The Official group is up to date, with several memebers of the team including COO Stephen Barclay contributing. The team does offer their SLAM gear for purchase off the website and they have been releasing video via YouTube. BMW ORACLE also has a live ticker, which is bespoke.

The team have someone dedicated to this part of the communication strategy and say that they are ramping it up as well as planning events for fans in Nice.

Emirates Team New Zealand surprises us a little bit. We expected a little more. The team does have a Facebook page with 1,484 fans subscribed, however the page was last updated on April 10, 2008. The team used to offer merchandise, however this was provided by Line7. The team does provide wallpapers and a screensaver.

TeamOrigin‘s offer to fans is also surprisingly thin. The team has big names, a great message and potentially an entire nation of followers, yet with 10 days to go, there is nothing available for fans. The “Race for Change” is a concept that is perfectly suited to be activated through social media, yet there seems to be a mad scramble to change the PR culture from gaining collumn inches in newspapers to building relationships with a community. It’s coming we’re told.

Sailing has always been a B2B sport. The brands on the sails and hulls of boats are, for the most part, trying to influence decision makers who make purchasing or investment decisions at a corporate level. Activation of sponsorship with this mindset has traditionally been around hospitality, with a bit of TV and newspaper exposure a bonus, but marketing directors are becoming more savvy. It’s not just companies like Dell and Honda that are using Twitter for business. Sponsors connected directly to the teams are using Twitter; like The Carbon Trust and Louis Vuitton.

The Louis Vuitton Trophy is an unknown, unproven event. Even with the brand might of the presenting sponsor, the series will need to justify its existence by producing figures that make it worthwhile to make the large investments. TV numbers that count the number of households, or press numbers that use circulation are becoming increasingly irrelevant. Smart marketing people are counting real, measurable numbers like page views, unique visitors, followers, fans, retweets, comments, ratings, subscriptions and sales.

Yesterday, the New York Court of Appeal found in favour of the Golden Gate Yacht Club and BMW ORACLE. It’s been a long time coming, but finally we will have some clarity on how this supreme sailing prize will move forward. Or will we?

The first news we got was from Scuttlebutt’s incredibly informative North American newsletter. That was at 14:54 GMT. The first ‘twitter’ of the news was by David Fuller moments later. At 18:00 GMT (3 hours later) we got a press release of a whole 58 words. The statement read:

“It has consistently been our view that the America’s Cup should be fought on the water. Today through the American courts the Golden Gate Yacht Club has won the right to challenge the Société Nautique de Genève. We will now discuss the terms for the regatta with them and will prepare our defence of the 33rd America’s Cup.”

Onorato issued a vicious response to yesterday’s decision.

‘I am happy for Oracle’s victory. I would like to remind everyone that Mr. Bertarelli was the one who excluded Russel Coutts from the last edition of the America’s Cup: the greatest race in the world without the greatest yachtsman of all time!

Get lost Alinghi and the same goes to all those teams of cunning professionals who hypocritically supported him until now.
The boat race returns to the water, as the judges of the Supreme Court of New York have written and sanctioned.
We will live the super match of the third millennium among the two “trima-monsters” of Oracle and Alinghi in a showdown at the OK Corral.

3. The Monster Multi-Hull Fans (MMF)

These folk are real anoraks. Technology junkies who get off on tons of carbon being weilded at massive closing speeds. The MMF are happy with the decision because they get to see a once in a lifetime race between incredible machines.

4. The ‘I Just Want Some Sailing Soons’ (IJWSSS)

This group includes people who make a living from the sport of sailing. Professional crew, designers, sponsors, people who own bed-and-breakfasts in Valencia, sailing fans from countries other than the USA or Switzerland. These people were willing to accept the Alinghi Cup for the sake of continuity, even if there were some holes in the rules. These people have the most to lose from a potential 10 month delay caused by a one-one-one multihull matchup. This group also includes the the casual fan, who doesn’t care about the deed of gift, who really enjoyed AC 32 and have been left with nothing to follow in the vacuum.

Whichever type you are, you need to wait a little longer until BMW ORACLE and Alinghi work out what they do next. While some (most?) would like BMW ORACLE to stick to thier intention of holding a multichallenger event as soon as possible, they don’t seem to have any incentive to do so. With their 90ft trimaran already built, it would be a charitable Larry Ellison that decided not to proceed with a ‘DOG’ Match.

The biggest losers? Well it’s not Alinghi. The Swiss team are still very much in the game. They get to choose the location of the DOG Match, they get to build their multihull. If they win the ‘DOG’ Match then they get to do it their way with an absolute mandate. No. the biggest losers are teams like TEAMORIGIN from the UK and Emirates Team New Zealand. These teams are already operating on a shoestring budget and another 10 m0nths may send them to the wall. The other losers are the fans. While the MMF get to see a battle of technology, the casual fan may just lose interest altogether consigning the America’s Cup to an irrelevancy of the past.

Which America’s Cup Type are you?

The wording of the statement below makes the maths seem a little strange, (you need to work with 23 as the starting number, not 21).

Aside from the Defender, Alinghi and the Challenger of Record, Desafío Español, a total of 21 teams presented a Notice of Entry and 17 were accepted. Three of the entered teams are pending minor details towards their official registration and have been granted an extension until January 15. Three other teams were denied entry as no further documentation beyond the Notice of Entry was received by the December 15 entry deadline. Carbon Challenge has withdrawn.

Many of the teams have been working together over the past few months at regular Competitor Meetings to amend the 33rd America’s Cup Protocol and to design the new class rule; this process is ongoing and will continue into the New Year with further meetings planned and a publication date for the class rule scheduled for the end of January.

Brad Butterworth, Alinghi team skipper, comments on a very exciting fleet:

“Having 19 teams from 12 countries entered for the 33rd America’s Cup is a clear expression of the huge worldwide interest in the competition. It’s fantastic to see such an international fleet with newcomers such as Russia. It is also significant that all but one of the teams from the previous edition have entered again. We will continue to work together with these challengers to make the 33rd America’s Cup a success, regardless of BMW Oracle’s decision to pursue their legal strategy to eliminate all challengers and force their way into an America’s Cup Match, something they have never achieved on the water.”

So who are the 19 teams? The List for the 33rd America’s Cup teams (in order of entry):

• Alinghi, Société Nautique de Genève (SUI) – Defender 
• Desafío Español, Club Náutico Español de Vela (ESP) – Challenger of Record 
• Shosholoza, Royal Cape Yacht Club (RSA) 
• TeamOrigin, Royal Thames Yacht Club (GBR) 
• Team New Zealand, Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (NZL) 
• DCYC, Deutscher Challenger Yacht Club (GER) 
• Green Comm Challenge, Circolo di Vela Gargano (ITA) 
• Ayre Challenge, Real Club Náutico de Dénia (ESP) 
• Victory Challenge, Gamla Stans Yacht Skallskap (SWE) 
• Argo Challenge, Club Nautico Gaeta (ITA) 
• Mascalzone Latino, Reale Yacht Club Canottieri Savoia (ITA) 
• Team French Spirit, Yacht Club de St Tropez (FRA) 
• Luna Rossa, Yacht Club Punta Ala (ITA) 
• Russia Team – Fiona, Yacht Club Seven Feet (RUS) 
• Joe Fly, Società Canottieri Lecco (ITA) 
• K-Challenge, Cercle de la Voile de Paris (FRA) 
• Greek Challenge, N.O.K. Poseidon – Nautical Club of Kalamata (GRC) 
• Dabliu Sail Project (ITA) 
• China Team, Qingdao International Yacht Club (CHN)

The team website includes the statement which includes:

This decision is the result of a lengthy deliberation, and it doesn’t reflect my wish. It is due to the difficult international economic situation which is making nearly impossible to find sponsors that would cover, even partially, the operational costs for a participation aiming a good performance.

For this reason, I wish ‘good wind’ to this event and to all participants and I hope its promoters will keep on with their dedication into our sport with the same passion they always had.

The letter goes on to say that Mascalzone Latino will campaign a Farr 40 in 2009.

Italia and French Spirit are currently on the reserve list for the Louis Vuitton event. It is expected that they will be invited to maintain the original fleet size.

With reference to the last meeting held on October 30th in Geneva among the Société Nautique de Geneve, Alinghi and the challengers to the 33 America’s Cup, Mascalzone Latino apologizes for not having attended due to previous commitments and confirms its participation to the next meeting scheduled on next November 11th.

It further occurs to me to say that, even if we would have attended last week meeting, we would have not signed the letter with the request to the Golden Gate Yacht Club to withdraw the case before the New York appeal Court. As we have said several times, Mascalzone Latino agrees with the Oracle’s goal to organize an event with fair rules in order to give to all the challengers a chance to win. The most simple solution, in order to put and end to this dispute, is to go back to the 32nd America’s Cup Protocol.

With respect to the class of yacht, it doesn’t make sense to create a new class, while the worldwide is getting through the deepest economic crisis after the one in 1929.

A new class means new immediate investments for the research, and at the same time throwing away a class with more than 100 boats already built.

In order to make the Cup to face both the external trauma due to the current economic crisis, and the internal trauma due to the Alinghi’s Protocol and the legal dispute, it’s necessary to go back, at least one more time, to the ACV5 which have already guaranteed exciting regatta. This would help to increase the teams’ participation in the event with a low budget – why not using the yachts from the last edition of the America’s Cup – and above of all, with a realistic economic sense in the search for sponsors.