Letter from 37th America's Cup #3 - Dream to dare by Mark Covell
Published 01:00 on 19 Sep 2024
Photo credit: Ricardo Pinto / America's Cup.
If my last Letter from the America's Cup was titled 'Dare to Dream' this one should be 'Dream to Dare'. As a verb, the dictionary definition of dare is "to have the courage to do something." Every sports person who steps up to compete, sets themselves up to potentially fail, this takes courage. The bigger the stakes the further the fall. The America's Cup is one of (if not the hardest) sporting trophy to win. The 174 year history is peppered with dashed dreams and bruised egos. Only four nations have ever won the cup, many more have tried.
After three failed attempts to win the America's Cup, the British born entrepreneur from Perth Australia, Alan Bond, took on the challenge for a fourth time in 1983. Just imagine how hard this must have been to keep coming back to America knowing that the trophy had been bolted to its plinth in New York Yacht Club, 44th street for 132 years. The cheeky Aussie, famously commissioned a gold spanner to be presented to the NYYC commodore to help loosen the nuts before handing the Auld Mug over. To have the courage to take on this challenge feels even more poignant now that we are at the business end of the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series. Some teams can see the locksmith of doom grinding out an exit door key, while praying that it won't fit the lock.
The French were first to say a bientot but not au revoir. At the time of penning this letter, Alinghi Red Bull Racing and NYYC American Magic are one loss away from the dreaded door. If I were to offer some YouTube punditry from the dock side, I would suggest that Alinghi drink more Red Bull as apparently it gives you wings and American Magic need to pull a star spangled rabbit out of the magician's hat. During last Monday's racing they both did exactly that, cunningly avoiding the snakes and climbing the ladders in a dying breeze. Watching an AC75 fall off its foils and slip into the slow drag of displacement mode reminds me of an animal wallowing uncomfortably in a muddy wadi praying for the rains to come. It looks so painful when you know how fast and efficient these boats can be, especially when your opponent is still sailing at 25 knots and your knots are not.
By now you Cup watchers will be fully up to speed on how much goes into an AC campaign and have probably formed an opinion on each and every decision made. Just turn on the live YouTube comments thread while watching the racing and you will see that everyone's a dockside deckchair expert. It doesn't take much courage to post a comment like 'I wouldn't do that if I was them.' I saw one comment from 'FastHank' posting from Idaho USA suggesting that the America's Cup should never been allowed to leave America because "it's unconstitutional."
This week also sees the start of the Unicredit Youth America's Cup of which the British are the past winners. More on this next week but for now tune into the live racing on line for what looks like being some very exciting fleet racing in the 40 foot, two thirds scaled down AC Prototypes. Magnus Wheatley explained the schedule to me as follows. Twelve teams are split into two groups of six representing all the AC teams along with a second fleet of Australia, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden. The top three teams from each side after eight races will race together in four fleet races to decide the top-two crews and from there it's a one-race, winner-takes-all, conducted in the glare of the world's media spotlight on Thursday September 26th. That final race will take place in-between races on the first day of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final, providing the perfect showcase for the world's best up-and-coming sailors to shine like the cup itself. Team New Zealand's very own Skipper and helmsman Peter Burling is a past winner of this event so the AC future is bright for these young competitors daring to dream.
The other dictionary definition of dare as a noun is 'to challenge'. INEOS Britannia is the official Challenger of Record. Ben Ainslie and his team together with all their sponsors and backers have stepped up to the plate. To get this far in the quest for boat speed and reliability, thousands of design, logistical and personal challenges have already been overcome by pulling together.
This week's forecast here in Barcelona has thrown it's own golden spanner into the mix. More unstable winds and potential potholes ahead must be giving these teams bad dreams. So much physical and mental effort has been put into this endeavour, you just couldn't start a mission like this without the courage to fail but daring to try anyway.