THE PRESS THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 1989. New America’s Cup era

Press, 30 March 1989, Page 12

THE PRESS THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 1989. New America’s Cup era

In spite of the worst and best efforts of the assorted millionaires and egotists that the America’s Cup has attracted over 136 years, competition for the rather ugly, bottomless Victorian ewer has established itself as sailing’s premier contest. The turmoil of litigation that has marked the twenty-seventh defence of the Cup has been resolved in favour of Mr Michael Fay’s New Zealand challenge. The Mercury Bay Boating Club, in whose name the challenge was issued, has become the holder of the Cup not through winning it on the water but principally through the tenacity and financial commitment of Mr Fay.

The development and building of the huge K boat and the campaign against the Sari Diego’ Yacht Club’s catamaran cost vast sums;the courtroom costs will be just as daunting; Mr .Fay’s critics — and he has had to facfe harsh criticism, mainly at home, ever since; he first exploited a loophole in the competition rules —' prefer to dismiss these costs andthe financial risk involved with the statement -that Mr Fay and his merchant bank and property interests stand to triake a lot of money when the Cup is defended in .the Hauraki Gulf in 1991. Mr Fay’s-business arid probably his personal-fortunes' are indeed set to prosper, but the legacy of his challenge is far more than that. f< . . . ...

; Mr Fay’s challenge was reduced to farce. Perhaps it was always fated to be so, given that it was such a departure from convention. The bizarre mismatch on the water was overshadowed by rancorous clashes on shore, and the control of the Cup rested with lawyers and commercial interests. The competition’s image suffered, certainly, but it is not exaggerating to say that the competition’s very survival was at stake. If Mr Fay had not persisted with his challenge in the New York Supreme Court, there would have been no precise, legal statement of what was intended by the 1887 Deed of Gift that governs competition for the America’s Cup.

Judge Carmen Cipariek’s 14-page ruling to disqualify San Diego from the September, 1988, competition, and order forfeiture of the Cup, also established some ground rules about competition for the Cup. Without these, there was always the chance that contenders would not bother with an event in which the rules were uncertain, or plainly unfair, or subject to unappealable whim. The world’s yachting press and most sailing

administrators firmly supported Mr Fay’s case. This had little to do with Mr Fay’s personal charm — which won over many Californians to the New Zealand side — or with the antagonism that San Diego’s skipper, Mr Dennis Conner, seems to arouse in many quarters. It was a simple acknowledgement that the archaic Deed of Gift was no longer an adequate document to serve the best interests of challengers and defenders and of yachting.

Just as the historic capture of the Cup by the Australians in 1983 brought to an end more than a century of American tenure and sparked a new enthusiasm for competition for the Auld Mug, Mr Fay’s adventure also brought 'a burst of fresh thinking to the contest and highlighted exciting developments in yachting technology. The real legacy of the Fay challenge will be a new, faster monohull established as the America’s Cup class. This has already been agreed on by technical and yachting representatives from more than 10 countries and endorsed by almost three dozen clubs and syndicates hoping to challenge for ,the Cup in Auckland in two years time.

? What has been agreed on is virtually a smaller version of the K boat without the wing decks. The new yachts, will be about two-thirds of the weight of the 12-metre yachts used until the Fay challenge, but they will be much longer and carry something like 55 per cent more sail. They can also be built from exotic materials; the world has also accepted that plastic fantastics are legal. The point of all this is that Mr Fay’s challenge has been accepted not only by the courts as a legitimate avenue for America’s Cup competition, but also by the international yachting community. The Fay challenge has set the course for America’s Cup racing for some time to come.

No doubt a great many people in New Zealand expect to make money from the 1991 defence of the Cup; no doubt some of them will do so. The country could benefit immensely from increased tourism and exports directly and indirectly created by the America’s Cup competition. Mr Fay would probably be the first to admit that the real challenge still lies ahead, however. The ruling of the New York Supreme Court gives the Cup to the Mercury Bay Boating Club, but Mr Fay and most New Zealanders will want to confirm that decision in fair and friendly competition on the water.