AC Dope

Why is This Man Smiling?

You would be too if you were being paid a half million dollars for a few months work in a no lose situation.

But would you buy a used car from him to say nothing of trusting him to save your 150 million euro America's Cup campaign?

Peter Gilmour is a gentleman and champion match racer. But he has been the kiss of death for every America's Cup syndicate that has ever hired him. Just ask the Kookaburras in 1987, or anyone who was with OneWorld in 2003. And every Gilmour team in between.

There is little secret that Bertarelli and Butterworth are not exactly happy with the Americans Baird or Holmberg. If they were, Alinghi would not be staging kangaroo defense trials again this week, nor, speaking of Australian hoppers, bringing in Gilmour at the last minute.

Have Ernesto and Brad, in their desperation to find someone - anyone - to replace Russell Coutts, just committed hari-kari by drinking the historically fatal Gilmour kool-aid like the Japanese did in the 2000 Cup? Nippon haven't been back since.

Or is this just another sign that the real campaign boss is not Bertarelli or Butterworth, but the Australian (and longtime Gilmour compatriot) Grant Simmer?

Coutts must really be laughing his arse off now. Just biding his time and waiting for Alinghi to lose so all his old mates come running to the new AC challenge he is quietly setting up - after leaving Bertarelli to twist slowly, slowly in the equally dusty Dubian and Valenciano winds.
Photo: Ivo Rovira/Alinghi

After that period, the Spanish team will decide whether he'll take a more important role. They are well aware of their weaknesses in match racing and are trying to strengthen their skills. Comments?

12/12/06

AC

Cash Out
We reported many months ago that Ernesto Bertarelli was looking to put his family cash cow, the biotech company, Serono on the blocks, and indeed he has. He has agreed to sell 64.5 per cent stake in the biotechnology company, Serono, to German drugmaker Merck. The deal values the Swiss firm at $12.9 billion and gives Merck 75.5 per cent of voting rights in Serono. Well, ol' Ernesto should have plenty of cash to play wit his AC toys now, eh boys? Read more.

09/22/06

AC

Team Spirit
There's no Anarchy in Spain. At least none I can get on camera. Just a bunch of the same shots we've seen a million times. Nice, but boring as hell. Racing was good, but not a damn thing happened. Pretty hard to squeeze any news out of that. I know SA needs better than another pretty sailboat picture!

However, I did scout around and make a few friends. The real story in Valencia is the city spent a HUGE amount of money on this project. The port is un-fucking real. High quality buildings everywhere. It is amazing. Valencia is making a bet that whoever wins, they will love the place so much they will return next year. They may win that bet. It is a fantastic facility. Much better than say, San Diego. San Diego didn't spend much on a great fancy facility to support the cup. Opposite here. However, (and now the bad news) the city is a piece of shit! Ugly as hell everywhere. A bit dirty and the air is freaking brown like Los Angeles in 1969. The background of many photos is the cargo lift cranes in the harbor just adjacent to the whole thing. You really have to keep a good imagination to forget you are in the heart of a dump. It is a giant contrast between the new beautiful sailing port and the immediate surroundings. In this, San Diego was the opposite.

-JP

05/18/06

The attached photo is scanned from the Italian magazine SoloVela that pretends to know the secret under BMW Oracle’s skirts!!!

According to them, when the boat is washed and under the corresponding light conditions, one can see the reflection of the keel on the concrete floor when standing on the balcony of the team base. This is what the photo is supposed to portray. Whatever....

05/03/06

Have And Have Not

Alinghi's "normal" rig and one sans jumpers. So how do they support the top of the rig? It looks like there is some external stiffening or maybe the jumpers fold out when needed! Thanks to our friends at Valencia Sailing.

04/06/06

Bad Wrap

SA has another world exclusive. From a disgruntled source inside Luna Rossa we have learned that, on the day of Luna Rossa's christening of their new Version 5 ACC yacht ITA 86, which was late in arriving Valencia by almost two weeks, we can now reveal the reason why.

When they were shrink wrapping the boat for shipping from Italy, the 86 caught fire. The shrink wrap guns that heat and shrink the shrink wrap did the trick, or should we say the operators of said guns. It took them a over a week to repair the damage. SA had the original delivery date right after all. Can the Itals ever get it right?

Mr Bertelli, you will never win the Cup until you get some real pros to build your boats - that means Kiwis - like all the other top teams.

03/23/06

Bloody Italians

First Mr. Onorato dithered and blathered until John Cutler and Phil Kaiko jumped ship. A year later he axed team manager Tom Weaver (revealed by SA in another of our world exclusives initially denied by the team - as usual SA had it right). Key sailors have bolted for other teams, or the sidelines, as well.

Now, after losing two practice-race shockers to lowly Shosholoza, our spies report another bloodletting for "Team Asscalzone," as some former team members call it.

In yet another world exclusive, we can now reveal that British designer Derek Clark has arrived in Valencia and is working with Mascalzone. Italian naval architect Niccolo Sironi, an official with the Offshore Racing Council, has also signed up. Does that mean Harry Dunning got the ax? Anyone else found a horse head in their bed?

Hey, Mr. Onorato, if you really want a good designer recall Mr. Kaiko from exile in Perth.

03/25/06

Oracle's Early April Fool's Joke?
First the facts. In the last Cup Oracle built two new boats. USA 71 and USA 76 have been training in Valencia, and each has sailed in some of the ACM regattas. In December Oracle’s first new boat for this Cup, under construction in Seattle, was assigned number 87. Three weeks ago it was delivered to Valencia by plane with much hoopla. The christening ceremony for “87” is next Monday, their website says.

We already reported that Oracle briefly launched their “new” boat for dockside testing and tweaking on Monday. Reliable sources confirm that the boat then sailed for the first time on Tuesday, and that it has a bowsprit. Read On

03/24/06

Sprit Job

Oracle's USA 87 had her first sail today, but flying a mainsail with the number 71 while their old boat, USA 76, had a mainsail with 87. But there is no confusing the two...and you heard it here first:- 87, unike any of the other current Cup boats, is sporting a small bowsprit.

03/22/06

The new yacht of BMW Oracle, USA 87 the one flown from Seattle in the Russian cargo plane several weeks ago, was lowered into the water around 5:00 P.M. today at its base in Valencia. Shosholoza and Luna Rossa (Prada) watched from the upper deck of their neighboring bases. Oracle did not go sailing - looking like just the usual dockside stress and rudder bearing (leak) tests.

Shosholoza had the first new Version 5 ACC yacht in Valencia last year with RSA 83. Team New Zealand was next in the water with their number 84 which sailed in December and January around Auckland before being shipped (by ship) in Feburary. 84 is due in Valencia any day now. 85 is the half-built boat of +39. Construction was stopped on 85 when they ran out of money earlier this year though some are saying it has now resumed. 86 is Luna Rossa's new boat. From the media center we can see the bow sticking out of the shed with the mast in. Their christianing ceremony is the day after tomorrow, but appears they will not go into the water until after.

Despite Oracle's later start, and shipping from the west coast of the USA (only from Italy for Luna Rossa), Oracle beat Luna Rossa and the other teams with new 2006 boats into the water. With all their money what else would you expect? We'll keep watch on both teams to see who is the first to take their new babies sailing.

03/21/06

Dupes

A rumor gets going about Russell Coutts joining Alinghi again, and everyone goes nuts. Looks like it was just a "joke." Pretty sure if there was something to it, you would have heard it here first.

03/10/06

-39

Dear Ed - While walking by the +39 base, someone came out from the door and walked away. Because of the strong wind, the door didn't close and I managed to have a peek inside.

Guess what? It is empty! I mean there was a mast, achase boat, a container and a few tools and sails. That's all. The biggest surprise was that the area that was supposed to house the team's offices has not been built! All the plans that they have on their website have not been carried out. The only thing you can see are the steel beams of the structure. There is no first floor, no second floor, nothing!

This surely is the reason they are still working in tents in front of the base. I am just a local sailor here, but It must be really crunch time at the Sicilian team and I wonder if anybody else has noticed this?

-39II

We also hear they not only owe money to sailors for four months of back wages from last year (and a lawsuit is now pending), but that they also owe money to contractors in Valencia for what little work was done last year on fitting out their base.

Unhappy members of +39 have made no secret of the fact that +39 was nurtured along by ACM (yes, ACM is owned by the Defender, Ernesto Bertarelli) in early 2004 to get another challenger in the door after Oracle. ACM also hoped +39 would be their fox in the Challenger Committee chicken coop. Now Bertarelli (and ACM) will be left holding the bag if +39 collapses.

Besides helping to launch +39 and loaning $10 million to Team NZ's Grant Dalton, how many other teams did ACM give preferential treatment to? the China Team? Did they recently shore up the Swiss? And how do the teams feel that got, or are getting, little or no help?

02/23/06

Red Moon Rising

Amid much secrecy the Italian America's Cup team, Luna Rossa (ex Prada), will take delivery of their new AC yacht ITA 86 at their base in Valencia next Monday. This we have learned from our "deep throat" inside the organizing committee in Valencia known as ACM. Internal documents leaked to SA about ongoing roadworks around the team bases has spilled the beans on what Luna Rossa hoped could be kept secret - to keep away the prying eyes of their competitors.

This will be the first new AC boat to arrive in Valencia since Shosholoza's 83 arrived almost one year ago. 84 is Team NZ's new yacht which is now en route to Valencia after a month of testing in Auckland. Read On

02/17/06

Down For the Count?

SA continues to get emails with "insider info" about the supposed demise of this or that AC team. We always appreciate the tips, but we work hard to verify rumors before publishing. So far we have batted almost 1.000 in our 2007 AC prognostications.

We got the Coutts story right long before any other media dared report it let alone make a prediction. We took shit in the meantime, but came out smelling like roses when all was said and done.

Long ago we predicted the demise of the Swedish Meatballs, and we continue to hear that we called that one right, too. Stay tuned -- it is only a matter of time.

Today ACM finally confirmed the appointment of the USA's Brad Dellenbaugh as AC "Chump" - almost a month after we broke the news. And we ran a decent story about him, including a nice photo. ACM, however, barely gave any background on him, and did not even run a photo. What arrogant, self-centered pricks.

But back to the AC teams.

As to the other fragile teams, it is too early to tell. SA hears reliably that K-Challenge is shaky at best and probably is not long for the count; that +39 owes a lot of money to their sailors and to contractors around Valencia; and that the old Le Defi team now fronting as China Team are not awash in cash. But our best info is that all of them are still likely to make it to the starting line for this year's "Acts." Whether they get beyond that is, for now, anyone's guess.

01/18/06

AC Chump
The Chief Umpire at a match (or team) racing regatta is often called "Chump." Not normally by the competitors, at least not to his or her face, but by the other umpires as a radio call sign.

Two months back, America's Cup Jury Chairman and "Chump" Bryan Willis of Great Britain announced that he would step down as Chief Umpire, citing a potential conflict of interest in wearing both hats. He will remain head of the jury.

As America's Cup racing becomes closer, more tactical and more aggressive, the role of the umpires - and the pressure on them - is greater than at any time since umpiring was initiated for Cup racing in 1992. So Willis' successor will likely play more than a passing role in the outcome of the next Cup. Not just in any calls made out on the water, but in the Chump's selection, training and management of the Cup umpire corps.

Since Willis' resignation as Chump, SA has been trying to find out who will succeed him. We now have it on good authority that the next Chump will be America's own Brad Dellenbaugh, sailing author, formerly a coach at the Naval Academy and now sailing director at New York YC. Dellenbaugh was an AC umpire for the Cup in Auckland, and has been deputy chief umpire to Willis so far in the pre-regattas for the 32nd Cup.

SA has learned that Dellenbaugh was nominated by Regatta Director Dyer Jones, himself a past commodore of NYYC (is there a pattern here?), and that Dellenbaugh was confirmed in December by both Alinghi and the Challengers' Committee. ACM will make the announcement shortly. As usual SA has the scoop, thanks to a reliable Downunder Cup source.

We have heard nothing but good things about Mr. Dellenbaugh. With all that's at stake, let's hope he turns out to be a Cup Chump we can all be proud of, not chump change.

01/03/06

So Long Swedes?

These days those in the know in AC circles are making two lists and checking them twice, and neither has to do with Christmas.

The first list: Which teams have new boats under construction and when will they be sailing in Valencia? (and will they be entered in any or all three Acts in 2006?)

The second: Which teams will not be around in 2006? Read On

12/08/05

Selling the Family Farm
Over the past week it has been widely reported in the financial press that Alinghi head Ernesto Bertarelli has put the family biotechnology business up for sale. Some reports have said that he is selling the company to clear the decks, and his diary, for the 2007 defense of the America's Cup.

However, the decision comes on the heals of an announcement by the US Department of Justice that Serono Labs, a unit of the U.S. subsidiary of the Swiss corporation, Serono, S.A., has agreed to plead guilty to the illegal marketing of its AIDS drug Serostim. The corporate parents (Bertarelli's Serono, S.A.) will pay a $136.9 criminal fine and an additional $567 million to settle civil liabilities – including liabilities under the False Claims Act.

That's nearly three-quarters of a billion smackeroos, not exactly chicken feed - not even for someone as rich as Ernesto "Lucky Sperm" Bertarelli. Larry may be a bit of a hard ass, but at least he made all his own money.

Serono Labs also pled guilty to offering physicians an all expense-paid trip to a medical conference in Cannes, France in return for the doctors writing up to 30 new prescriptions of Serotism, which cost $21,000 per course of treatment, for a total value of $630,000 per doctor.

Read more of the sordid details here.

So is Ernesto clearing his diary, or actually covering his ass by raising enough dough to cover what the Justice Department described as "the third largest health care fraud recovery by the US"?

Regardless, the chickens have come home to roost down on the Bertarelli family farm, now on the auction block.

11/18/05

"Complete Idiots"

After reading the latest article on Team New Zealand in the New Zealand Herald, we knew it was time to revive one of our popular features from the last A-Cup, the prestigious Sailing Anarchy "Dumb Ass Quote Awards" or SADAQA for short. And not to be confused with that third-rate singer/songwriter Neil Sedaka.

Third-rate is about all you can say for the quote uttered, to his hometown newspaper no less, by our latest Dumb Ass Quote Award recipient.

At the end of an article by Julie Ash about how good Team New Zealand is, and how they will get even better, Managing Director Grant Dalton said in closing, "We are complete idiots if we bugger this up."

Where we come from, them there's fightin' words. It won't be long before you see that quote pinned on the crew room bulletin boards at the other team bases.

In one breath, Managing Director Dalton managed to (take your pick):

1. Show the world he was arrogantly overconfident.
2. Insult Alinghi and the other challengers as being fuckwits that anyone short of complete idiots could beat.
3. Bugger his own hard-working team members who will be haunted now throughout this A-Cup campaign by the words "complete idiots."
4. Write his own epitaph that, short of winning the Cup, the media will bury him with.
5. All of the above.

Dalts, we got news for you. Alinghi is going to be very, very tough to beat. And before you even have the chance to race them you must conquer at least Oracle and Prada, and maybe even the Swedish and Spanish teams. Lordy, even K Challenge and Shosholoza might turn out not to be pushovers.

You did good work recruiting Terry Hutchinson, and we hope to see him and the rest of your TNZ boys in the fray to the end. And if they give it a good shot, and still lose, they won't be complete idiots in our books.

10/19/05

U R FYRD!

It has to be an America's Cup first - being fired by text message.

In another world exclusive SA has learned that Mascalzone Latino's team manager Tom Weaver was fired earlier this week by ML's mercurial and superstitious team owner, Vincenzo Onorato, via text message following that team's dismal performance in Trapani.

We hear Weaver, is a good guy caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place, in this case an Italian owner and a lame, and largely Italian sailing team.

But how low can you go? An SMS sacking? Get a grip, Vincenzo. Even Donald Trump has the decency to do it in person.

And while you're at it, paint your boat some color other than red. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Talk about a long litany of red losers: Mariner, Liberty, NZL 20, Il Moro, China Team, and, you guessed it, Mascalzone's ITA 77.

10/14/05