Sausalito Challenges for the 2007 America's
Cup
December 13 - Sausalito
The following report was written by Jan
Pehrson of Sausalito, who closely follows the America's Cup around
the globe, and appears in today's Marin County Independent
Journal:
A quorum of members from the Sausalito
Yacht Club voted Sunday, December 12, to adopt the Sausalito
Challenge's entry for the 2007 America's Cup. The vote means
that the yacht club will immediately file paperwork for an official
challenge, and that John Sweeney's organization has cleared enough
hurdles to post a bond worth more than $1 million to ensure the
Marin team's spot in the series.
"We are really gratified there was
such a large amount of support," said Sausalito Yacht Club
Vice Commodore Tim Prouty. "In our largest business meeting
in years, with more than 200 members voting, the approval was
resounding and nearly unanimous. Now the easy part is over and
we are out to win the Cup."
"This is a big honor for us,"
Sausalito Yacht Club Commodore Marge Bottari said. "The
conditions here for sailing are the best in the world. I look
around me here and all I see are masts, which shows me what people
like to do around here."
"The club did a great job of getting
out the membership," said Sweeney. Sweeney, a Tiburon resident,
is passionate about America's Cup yachting. In his quest to bring
the sport's most prestigious event to the natural amphitheater
of the San Francisco Bay, he decided, along with partner Tina
Kleinjan, to mount a challenge for the 2007 series in Valencia,
Spain.
The America's Cup, the oldest trophy in
sport, is governed by the Deed of Gift written in 1887. The deed
says that all challenges must come from yacht clubs. No individual,
no matter how rich or famous, can qualify. This rule necessitates
partnerships between the syndicates, called challengers, and
the yacht clubs, called challenging yacht clubs.
"The syndicate puts up the dollars
and runs the event," said Sausalito's Chuck Riley, co-founder
of Marin's first cup challenge, America True, with his daughter
Dawn.
"No individual can challenge,"
said Riley, "hence we chose San Francisco YC. Larry Ellison
has Golden Gate YC. Tom Blackaller, skipper of the first San
Francisco challenge for the America's Cup in 1987, had St. Francis
YC; Dennis Connor had San Diego YC, etc."
Sweeney is a veteran of two previous Bay
Area cup campaigns, sailing for Dawn Riley's America True in
2000 and Larry Ellison's Oracle in 2003. He is characteristically
tight lipped about fund raising and is not naming his sponsors
yet. He says only that they are in final negotiations and will
re-name the Sausalito Challenge when the sponsors are announced.
"BMW Oracle has said their budget
is about 200 million and Alinghi's (the Swiss 2007 Cup defender
and winner of the Cup in 2003) is about the same," Sweeney
said. "Luna Rossa's is about 150 million, and Team New Zealand's
is about 70 million."
According to Sweeney, the Sausalito Challenge
is the seventh official challenge for the 2007 Cup, joining San
Francisco's BMW Oracle Racing, France's K-Challenge, Emirates
Team New Zealand, South Africa's Team Shosholoza and two teams
from Italy, Luna Rossa and +39.
"A year ago about twenty teams were
at meetings and said they would be filing a challenge,"
Sweeney said. "There has been a good attrition rate. Some
big teams, like Dennis Connor and One World of Seattle, have
dropped out. We have paced ourselves by slowly gathering
momentum."
Sweeney feels that the sailing team and
the boat are on track for the Acts Series, which are races to
be held in 2005 and 2006 as a build-up to the actual 2007 America's
Cup. According to Sweeney, the sailing team has been assembled
and will be announced in January. "They are all USA guys
and have all done America's Cups," says Sweeney, who plans
to buy a boat to take to the Acts in Europe next year before
building one starting January 2006.
The Sausalito Yacht Club was founded in
1942 and has more than 500 members. "This is fantastic,"
Sausalito Vice Commodore Tim Prouty said. "We are only the
second American yacht club to file a challenge, both of us from
San Francisco Bay. We just doubled our chances to bring the Cup
back to the Bay, and with two teams here, they should hold the
Acts here in 2006. And you don't have to be a sailor to enjoy
this because of the pageantry. What great fun."
John Sweeney, Challenge co-founder, Marge Bottari, commodore
of the Sausalito Yacht Club and Nic Clarke, Challenge Partner
Photo Tim Prouty
What do we at Latitude think of
all this? We think it's wonderful, of course - but we're going
to withhold some enthusiasm until we know where the $50 to $100
million is going to come from.
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