Posts Tagged ‘zeilen’
via Bloomberg.com: News.
By Alex Duff and Aaron Kuriloff
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) — Billionaires Larry Ellison and Ernesto Bertarelli have turned an America’s Cup boom into bust.
A 30-month wrangle over rules canceled a 19-team qualifying event, scared off sponsors like Banco Santander SA, UBS AG and Nestle SA and shrank the organizing budget to 8 million euros ($11.1 million) from a record 230 million euros in 2007, organizers said.
The wait continued today. The start of the best-of-three sailing regatta in Valencia, Spain, was postponed for two days because of a lack of regular wind speed today, race officials said. The event is sandwiched between the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. International interest has declined so much that organizers gave away the television rights, officials of Bertarelli’s Alinghi team said.
“This is not going to be a windfall for anyone,” Gary Jobson, the president of U.S. Sailing and the cup-winning navigator in 1977, said in an interview. “It’s going to cost them both a lot of money.”
The economic impact of the 159-year-old event, sailing’s oldest competition, is less than 10 percent of the $7 billion last time, according to Tom Cannon, a sports business professor at the U.K.’s Liverpool University. There are no infrastructure benefits and most of the about-$500 million spent will be on the two competing boats, Cannon said.
Switzerland’s Bertarelli, 44, said his team has struggled to get sponsors to replace UBS and Nestle, which used the last event to promote its Nespresso brand. The 65-year-old Ellison’s BMW-Oracle retained Bayerische Motoren Werke AG while losing backers including insurer Allianz AG.
95% Legal
“It’s a difficult sell,” Alinghi captain Brad Butterworth, 50, said in an interview. This America’s Cup is “95 percent legal, 5 percent sport.”
Bertarelli got $10 billion in the 2006 sale of family drug company Serono SA, while Ellison, chief executive officer of Oracle Corp. is worth about $22.5 billion, making him the world’s fourth-richest person according to Forbes magazine.
Bertarelli has accused Ellison of turning the event into a spending race to suit his challenge, comparing the U.S. billionaire’s tactics to “corporate raiding.”
“Larry has more money than anyone else, so why would he like a Cup that costs less,” Bertarelli said in an interview last month. “He likes a Cup that costs more.”
Oracle team CEO Russell Coutts, 47, says Alinghi consistently tried to bend the rules in its favor. Ellison didn’t respond to a request for an interview for this story.
No Challengers
“Bertarelli’s new protocol did not make commercial sense,” Coutts said. “Most corporate sponsors want the competition regulations to be stable and provide a fair format and rules for the teams.”
The billionaires’ spat has even touched on which has the better business and sailing credentials. Bertarelli was to have been Alinghi’s helmsman today, while Ellison wasn’t named among 10 sailors on the BMW-Oracle boat, according to team statements. Ellison said early today his participation depends on the weather conditions.
It’s the first time there hasn’t been a qualifying contest since 1988, ostracizing challengers from countries including South Africa, Italy and New Zealand that competed last time. The 2007 event made a profit of 66 million euros shared between 12 teams. For this year, Geneva-based Alinghi ceded management of the commercial rights to Valencia’s city hall and regional government.
“The America’s Cup has lost the sense of national importance,” Cannon said. “From being one of the four or five biggest sports events, it’s become frankly parochial.”
TV Rights
The Spanish authorities are airing the event on the Internet for the first time. The value of the media rights is limited because the event could be over in as little as three days, according to Jerome Pels, general secretary of sailing’s ruling body ISAF, which is based in Southampton, England. The last edition, including a qualifying event sponsored by luxury- goods maker LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, lasted three months. Today, a few hundred spectators were milling around the port zone, where a big screen has been set up to show the racing.
The cup dates back to 1851, when John Cox Stevens, commodore of the New York Yacht Club, challenged U.K. skippers to a race off the Isle of Wight. Cox’s boat, America, won and his club defended the trophy for 132 years until an Australian challenger snapped the streak. Alinghi became the first European winner in 2003 and defended the title successfully four years later. CNN founder Ted Turner and the Aga Khan are among previous team backers.
Legal Tussle
The legal tussle over this year’s race began when the U.S. team challenged Alinghi for naming specially formed Spanish yacht club Club Nautico Espanol de Vela to co-write the rules. BMW-Oracle won the right to become challenger and in May 2009 a judge in New York ordered a resolution with a so-called Deed of Gift match.
To be sure, it’s not the first time there has been a dispute between wealthy America’s Cup team owners. The last Deed of Gift match in 1988 between Michael Fay’s New Zealand challenger and Dennis Conner’s Stars and Stripes also descended into acrimony over boat regulations.
In 1903, U.K. tea trader Thomas Lipton began a 10-year wrangle with the New York Yacht Club over rules, only for World War I to delay the contest until 1920, according to America’s Cup historian Jacques Taglang.
“It was the same type of discussion but with more politeness,” Taglang said. “There was a lot of letter writing and chatting.”
‘Dogzilla’ Boat
The boats for this edition will be the fastest in America’s Cup history, team officials said. Oracle’s “Dogzilla” has sailed at more than 41 knots, or about 46 miles-per-hour, CEO Coutts said. The trimaran, whose 190-foot carbon-fiber foil is bigger than the wing of an Airbus A380 passenger jet, gets its nickname from the D.O.G. moniker for the Deed of Gift match.
The Alinghi catamaran, with a width similar to two tennis courts side-by-side, is more geared towards lighter winds, Coutts said. With the boats too big for most regattas and tricky to transport, Ellison and Bertarelli may not get much mileage on their investment after this week.
The Swiss team’s boat, which had to be airlifted over the Alps from its landlocked base by a Russian military helicopter, may be transported back to Lake Geneva to try and set yachting speed records, Butterworth said
“It’s not something that you just give to a yacht club or weekend sailor,” Butterworth said. “It’s pretty quick.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Duff in Valencia at aduff4@bloomberg.net; Aaron Kuriloff in New York at akuriloff@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: February 8, 2010 12:47 EST
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| ‘33rd America’s Cup – BMW ORACLE Racing – Arrival of Oceanlady in the port of Valencia’ BMW Oracle Racing © Photo Gilles Martin-Raget Click Here to view large photo |
BMW Oracle Racing’s America’s Cup Challenger has arrived in Valencia in preparation for the 33rd America’s Cup set down as a best of three series with racing sarting on 8 February 2010.
The Oceanlady is dockside in Valencia’s commercial port. She came in around 04:00 local time this morning, escorted by a couple of tugboats and was tied up to the dock within minutes – a very smooth operation.
The crane that will be used for unloading arrived at 07:00 to be set-up, and depending upon the weather, unloading will begin later this morning.
It’s been raining overnight and into this morning in Valencia, but the real issue could be the wind. The breeze is forecast to be light until about noon today, picking up in the afternoon and easing again towards midnight. This will determine the pace of the unloading operation.
The 33rd America’s Cup defending team, Alinghi, arrived in Valencia, Spain today and will transfer to its existing base in the Dársena (the inner harbour of Valencia) over the next couple of days to begin its final preparations towards the Deed of Gift Match that starts on 8 February.
The team’s catamaran Alinghi 5, the masts and 20 support containers reached their final destination aboard the Cassandra B container ship on Monday afternoon after a 14 day voyage from the team’s previous base in Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates.
“We hope that the people of Valencia will be excited to witness the arrival and preparation of our catamaran. We understand the American challenger has also arrived to Valencia and hopefully both boats will be moored in the Dársena and will provide a great spectacle. Since these new yachts are so fast and the racing will take place a long way offshore viewing the yachts from the water will be difficult for the fans, the sponsors and the media; that is why we think the Dársena will form an important arena for this event,” said Grant Simmer, Alinghi design team coordinator.
The team completed a very successful two month training period on 16 December 2009 in the Arabian Gulf and cast off, bound for Europe, on the 21 December. The Cassandra B travelled 4,500 nm out of the Arabian Gulf, into the Red Sea, through the Suez Canal and across the Mediterranean to return the Defender to the Alinghi base in Valencia, which was home to the highly successful 32nd America’s Cup.
Alinghi plans to start sailing in Valencia mid-month and will focus on training for the 36 days that remain until the 33rd America’s Cup Match.
“The voyage from Ras Al Khaimah to Valencia went smoothly and over the coming days we will settle back into our base in the Dársena. The team will focus on readying Alinghi 5 for the final training session ahead of the first race for the 33rd America’s Cup, which starts on 8 February,” added Simmer.
In Takapuna, Nieuw-Zeeland worden van 4 tot en met 8 januari 2010 de wereldkampioenschappen Splash gehouden.
Veertien Nederlandse zeilers zijn vergezeld door Jildert Koopman, als trainer/coach, afgereisd naar Auckland op het Noordereiland. Het merendeel daarvan maakt deel uit van het nationale Top- of Talentteam van de Nederlandse klassenorganisatie SKON.
Het evenement kent een sterke bezetting. Zo doen zowel de Nieuw Zeelanders Ben Lutze (wereldkampioen 2008) als Declan Burn (wereldkampioen 2009) mee. Bij de meisjes zijn de wereldkampioenen 2008, Philippine van Aanholt (AHO) en 2009, Nienke Jorna (NED) eveneens beide present.
In het totaal doen er 75 zeilers mee uit 12 verschillende landen, waaronder landen die wij tijdens evenementen in Europa nog niet mochten begroeten, zoals China, de Cook Islands, Samoa en American Samoa.
Tijdens de openingsceremonie werd onder andere een Maori ritueel voor de ‘blessings of the sea’ uitgevoerd. De Nederlandse zeilers waren aanwezig in oranje polo en delfts blauwe zwembroek!
Inmiddels zijn de eerste races gevaren. Zes Nederlanders staan momenteel in de top 20. Bert Sluijter staat na drie races op plaats twee, titelverdediger Nienke Jorna staat als tweede geklasseerde dame op de lijst.
Alinghi 5 sailing in Ras Al-Khaimah, December 2009
De America’s Cup Defender, Societe Nautique de Genève heeft een brief gestuurd naar de Golden Gate Yacht Club vertegenwoordigers waarin de Amerikaanse Challenger wordt uitgenodigd voor een ontmoeting met David Tillett, de voorzitter van de 33ste America’s Cup internationale jury.
SNG denkt dat alle kwesties opgelost kunnen worden door middel van discussie en verwacht dat de 33e best-of-three America’s Cup Match plaats zal beginnen op 8 februari in Valencia, Spanje.
BMW Oracle beschuldigt Alinghi ervan onderdelen aan boord te gebruiken welke niet in Zwitserland gemaakt zijn (onder andere de zeilen). Alinghi zegt dat dat mag omdat in ‘the deed’ alleen beschreven staat dat de boot gebouwd moet worden in het land van het team en dat dat niet geldt voor onderdelen).
The America’s Cup Defender, Société Nautique de Genève, sent a letter to Golden Gate Yacht Club representatives today inviting the American Challenger to a meeting with David Tillett, the Chairman of the 33rd America’s Cup International Jury, to discuss various topics raised by both teams.
SNG anticipates all issues to be resolved through discussion and expects the best-of-three 33rd America’s Cup Match to take place without delay, starting on 8 February in Valencia, Spain.