{"id":3195,"date":"2017-06-27T15:52:05","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T14:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.guillaumeverdier.com\/?p=3195\/"},"modified":"2025-02-17T10:53:57","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T09:53:57","slug":"for-the-kiwis-a-win-could-mean-rewriting-rules-for-the-next-americas-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guillaumeverdier.com\/en\/for-the-kiwis-a-win-could-mean-rewriting-rules-for-the-next-americas-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"For the Kiwis, a Win Could Mean Rewriting Rules for the Next America\u2019s Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
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HAMILTON, Bermuda \u2014 New Zealand is one victory away from repossessing the America\u2019s Cup<\/a>, which is minimal assurance for Kiwi fans who watched through their fingers as Oracle Team USA put a fist through the top of its own coffin and came from very far down to win in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u00a9NyTimes >><\/a><\/p>\n

But there is no doubt that Emirates Team New Zealand is in a commanding position. Brimming with bright ideas and fast in the light winds expected to keep prevailing in Bermuda, it has a 6-1 lead on Team USA in this first-to-seven America\u2019s Cup rematch.<\/p>\n

Still, if the Kiwis have truly learned from the past and can find a way to hold a lead in the present, and thus earn the right to draw up the rules for the next competition, they will have hard choices.<\/p>\n

The hardest: Should they stick with foiling catamarans or listen to Patrizio Bertelli, the head of the Luna Rossa team, who has a thing for big monohulls and whose Italian syndicate could well be back in the next Cup as the Kiwis\u2019 challenger of record?<\/p>\n

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Peter Burling, left, the Kiwis\u2019 helmsman, dipping a bow into the water during the America\u2019s Cup competition last Sunday.<\/span> Credit<\/span>Gregory Bull\/Associated Press <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What does seem clear is that the New Zealanders and their chief executive, Grant Dalton, are eager to tighten the America\u2019s Cup nationality rule.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This is to their own advantage \u2014 talented Kiwis are everywhere in the Cup. But it is also an acknowledgment that many of the current Cup teams have failed to create a genuine connection with the countries they represent but do not necessarily reflect.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about trying to find a compromise of what the right level is, I guess,\u201d Kevin Shoebridge, Team New Zealand\u2019s chief operations officer, said last week. \u201cI do think it adds something to the event. Once you get national interest, passion goes through the roof. So, yes, I support the idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

This Cup match is, more than most, about what the venerable event should become. Oracle and its owner, Larry Ellison, who loves to transform what he touches, want to continue turning the Cup into something resembling a professional rinse-and-repeat circuit like Formula One auto racing. The Kiwis, who are not convinced the league concept is a sustainable model given the current participation rates, want to preserve the traditional defender-challenger divide. They also quite likely want to reverse the trend toward one-design elements that may not cut costs as much as Oracle and others believe.<\/p>\n

But this Cup match is also a contrast in means and identities. The Kiwis are on a tight budget; many returning members of their team have taken pay cuts since the Cup in San Francisco in 2013. Oracle continues to enjoy Ellison\u2019s beneficence, although even a billionaire like him realizes that spending to great excess only dissuades others from coming to play in his sandbox.<\/p>\n

As for identity, the Kiwis have a sailing team consisting of New Zealanders with just one exception: Glenn Ashby, the skipper and wing trimmer, is Australian.<\/p>\n

Oracle has a sailing team that is as international as a Silicon Valley startup. Of the nine sailors who took part in the two races last Sunday, only one \u2014 the grinder Cooper Dressler \u2014 is a full-blown American, although the tactician Tom Slingsby and another grinder, Louis Sinclair, do hold United States passports.<\/p>\n

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Tom Slingsby of Australia after winning the gold medal in men\u2019s laser sailing at the 2012 Olympic Games. He is a member of Oracle Team USA.<\/span> Credit<\/span>Clive Mason\/Getty Images <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Kyle Langford, right, of Oracle Team USA crossing the boat during an America\u2019s Cup race last Sunday.<\/span>Credit<\/span>Gregory Bull\/Associated Press <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In contrast, seven of the nine hold Australian passports, including the skipper Jimmy Spithill, the wing trimmer Kyle Langford and Slingsby, who grew up in Australia and has represented Australia \u2014 and only Australia \u2014 at the Summer Olympics.<\/p>\n

Small wonder that a Kiwi supporter on social media made mischievous use of photo-editing software the other day to change the lettering on Oracle Team USA\u2019s boat to Oracle Team AUS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mischief is, of course, an America\u2019s Cup specialty, and there are good counterarguments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe risk you run is that it becomes less of a professional sport,\u201d said Graeme Spence, a sailor for Oracle who holds dual Australian and British citizenship. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to see people who got their job because of their nationality or because of their attachment to a sponsor, or something like that. That\u2019s what\u2019s been so great about working with Oracle. Every single person you see day to day is there because they are the best person who could be found for that job.\u201d<\/p>\n