Scramble Begins for Next America’s Cup

Now that New Zealanders have swigged champagne from the America’s Cup for the second time, everyone else has to figure how to wrest away the oldest trophy in sports.

Russell Coutts, skipper of the victorious Black Magic, thinks the Kiwis can hold onto the America’s Cup for 25 years.

New Zealand already has held the Cup for five years, and it got a great jump on the quarter-century mark with a 5-0 sweep of Italy’s Luna Rossa, becoming the first country other than the United States to defend the Cup.

Even though the Kiwis had a second straight finals sweep, the challengers have gotten closer in boat speed. What really hurt the Italians were tactical mistakes either at the start or early in the races that turned close contests into runaways for the black boat.

“I think the gap closed a little,” Coutts said Friday, looking weary after a night of celebrating. “There’s probably still a little more than what I thought it probably would be.”

Tactician Brad Butterworth agreed that the boat speed was closer than in 1995, when the Kiwis were so far ahead of the design curve that the closest race in their sweep of Dennis Conner off San Diego was 1 minute, 51 seconds. This time, the closest the Italians got was 48 seconds, in the clincher.

“I think we have to be a lot better next time if we hope to win,” Butterworth said.

There will be changes within Team New Zealand, but it’ll probably be just as formidable. The CEO, Sir Peter Blake, is leaving to run the Cousteau Society. Coutts, Butterworth and Tom Schnackenberg, a key member of the sailing and design units, will run the team.

They’ll also still have a hand in sailing, although Coutts showed just how strong Team New Zealand is when he took himself off the boat hours before Race 5 and introduced his protege, 26-year-old Dean Barker, to the world.

Barker didn’t flinch under the pressure of protecting a 4-0 lead, sailing Black Magic as flawlessly and with the same unflappable demeanor as Coutts, setting off a wild waterfront celebration.

The next America’s Cup regatta is scheduled for 2002-03, and syndicates are already going to work.

“The thing to do for next time is we all have to start immediately,” said America True CEO and sailor Dawn Riley, the first woman to head an America’s Cup syndicate. “I’m back to the States next week to start on the sponsorship trail.”

The Italians spent the most money this time, an estimated $55 million that came from the chic Prada design house. That didn’t even get them a single victory against the Kiwis.

While New Zealand made history, so did the Americans. For the first time ever, they didn’t make it to the finals.

“I think not having an American in the America’s Cup was not good, but I don’t see it as America giving up,” Riley said. “I see us fighting even harder.”

But they’ve also got to fight among themselves for sponsorship money. Paul Cayard, whose AmericaOne was eliminated by Luna Rossa in the challenger finals, thought the American effort was diluted with five syndicates here.

George M. Isdale Jr., commodore of the New York Yacht Club, felt the American performance was embarrassing based on the available resources, and would like to see a super-syndicate developed.

Conner understands such reasoning, but doesn’t think it will work. After all, the America’s Cup is pretty cutthroat.

“Could you imagine the New York Yacht Club raising $47 million and giving that to St. Francis so they could win the Cup and bring it to San Francisco? No,” said Conner, who’s won the America’s Cup four times and lost it twice.

Conner, Cayard and Riley will all head off trying to raise money for next time. Isdale doesn’t know yet whether the New York Yacht Club will back another challenge. It supported Young America, which saw the older of its two boats crack in two and nearly sink in an early round. Young America didn’t even make it to the challenger semifinals.

The Punta Ala Yacht Club, which backed Luna Rossa, issued a challenge minutes after Black Magic’s clincher and will be Challenger of Record, coordinating the interests of all the foreign syndicates.

In one change already announced for 2002-03, there will be just two round-robins for the challengers instead of three, with yachts seeded into the semifinals.