" . . . best served cold"


The financing driving Cayard's/AC-32 negotiations to purchase OneWorld's yachts, equipment and design information is likely that of Domenico Cilenti of Padua, Italy. Earlier there had been about eight other ITA "Ricos" chatting-up challenge syndicates but that was before it became obvious that a venue deal had been made long ago (why else had Alinghi visited the tank so many times before last week's announcement?) and Italy was never actually considered as a venue. Besides, no one in their right mind would ever base an important international event like the America's Cup in Italy given the inherent cultural, social and infrastructure deficiencies extant. But let's get back to Cilenti. He's a client of German Frers, Sr., the principal designer of the Il Moro boats Cayard drove for Raul Gardini in America's Cup-27. After being thrown together in the 1992 Italian campaign, the two expatriates have enjoyed a close financial relationship centering on Nautor Swan/Ferragamo.

Although German Frers did none of the design work on Prada's successful AC-30 boats, he used the a rule successfully employed for years in his yacht design business - that of 'form over substance' - and utilizing his mastery of the Italian language, German managed to pickup a cool US$3.5M from Patrizio Bertelli for doing absolutely nothing!

Alessandra Pandarese, the Milanese Avvocato currently fronting for the Cilenti/Cayard/Frers confabulation, is a Cayard and Frers confidant who used those relationships to insinuate herself into 3 Italian AC campaigns. Pandarese's America's Cup career appeared permanently ended when, for as-yet undisclosed reasons, she was fired by Prada and removed as Challenger General Secretary earlier this year. However, her familiarity with both extremes of the AC ethnic spectrum - Anglo sellers and Latino buyers - seems to have put her back in the game, at least for the moment.

Pandarese's current involvement is not surprising because of these relationships, but her role as lead negotiator for purchase of the OneWorld assets is bizarre indeed. With so many truly competent and ethical counselors and advisors to choose from, why would anyone in their right mind use an attorney who, only 11 months ago, viciously attacked the OneWorld team, impugned the integrity of its principals and team, in an effort to kick them out of Cup competition. Pandarese's whole case relied on the testimony of OneWorld's sworn enemy, Sean Reeves, who will be forever remembered as the Kiwi lawyer who failed ethics 101. Simply put, Pandarese sought to illicitly win in the hearing room what Prada was incapable of doing on the water. How in the world can the OneWorld folks stand to be in the same room with that shrill bitch, the same gal who accused OWC of breaking into her Auckland office to steal her laptop computer?!

For sure, with the Cup moving to Europe new alliances will form between past adversaries, that's Machiavellian Latino culture at its finest. But Paul Allen and Craig McCaw aren't Latinos. Instead, they are American entrepreneurial descendants of the northern tribes that swept through Europe for centuries conquering all in their way, pillaging and wreaking revenge on their enemies or anyone that stood in their way. Those inbred genetic traits created a strong and enduring race that learned to survive by eliminating that which threatened, a disposition that left little room for either forgiveness or forgetfulness. To hedge one's bet on longevity and wealth, descendants of these tribes adhere to maxims like "revenge is best served cold," "never forget" and "only fools ignore dogs that have once bitten." Folks like McCaw and Allen, whose lives have been guided by these principals, neither forget nor forgive, and the compelling need for revenge runs deeply in the northern European tribal mindset, even generations removed from the ghettos of Belfast and the mean streets of Liverpool.

Latinos mistakenly assume Americanos will always bury the hatchet and "let bygones be bygones." In the AC business, that's a dangerous and dicey assumption, especially when dealing with these two very wealthy gentlemen from the Pacific northwest. Perhaps the buyer is unaware of the reputational damage and horrific shit-storm these OneWorld principals were forced to endure because of Pandarese's conduct and at her hands - or maybe he is unaware of the wholly opportunistic timing and gratuitous nature and manner in which Pandarese championed the Prada protest.

If Alessandra or her clients honestly believe that all of this was left at the door of the bargaining room - that a few million Euros means more to Craig and Paul than does their character, pride and reputation they should think again. While the Italians use the Lupo to mete out revenge, these modern-day descendants of the Northern European tribes, deal with enemies in a more modern way which, coincidentally, also involves lawyers. That methodology is sometimes described as the rich man's sport of litigation - described in detail on McCaw's biography - one example being the OneWorld Challenge, LLC, plaintiff, vs. Sean Reeves, defendant, lawsuit recently filed in New Zealand, and another being the court order requiring Reeves to be jailed unless he appears for a judgment debtor's examination. Allen and McCaw have no expectation of collecting the almost US$2M Reeves owes and it costs plenty of good money to continue these legal efforts all of which is likewise probably uncollectible. Obviously, ITS NOT ABOUT THE MONEY!

Its great, of course, for Ricos like Cilenti to spend their wealth on the Cup, and to do so requires delegation of important functions such as asset acquisition, to trustworthy advisors. McCaw made a mistake in hiring Reeves, there's certainly no doubt about that, but was it preventable? In the absence of information indicating his propensity for ethical defalcation, OWC's hiring of Reeves was probably reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances. But the same isn't true when the candidate under consideration comes with baggage of the type and recent-vintage that accompany Pandarese. Sure, she speaks Italiano and pidgin-English, and her hygiene is consistent with the water conservation practices of southern European, but, as the Poms say: "why start on your back foot?!"

The "New" America's Cup has no room for a gratuitous shit-stirrer like Prada's ex-lawyer, and hopefully Frers and Cayard will share this simple fact with their new Italian sugar daddy. If not, Cilenti and his posse will travel a long, expensive way down the road of negotiations, losing the most valuable commodity of the AC - time - only to lose out on any purchase. Worse will be the collateral damage and cost to those remaining near Pandarese when the other shoe drops as it ultimately will.