Battle of the high rollers
Then, Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf becomes the ultimate playground for a fistful of billionaires, as the Louis Vuitton Challenger starts the arduous selection series which, by January 21 next year, will produce a challenger who will go head to head of the America’s Cup sailing’s ultimate holy grail.
Into a league in which the high rolling backers include Paul Allen, the co founder of Microsoft and the USA’s third richest man, Larry Ellison (ranked ninth richest in the US) founder of software giants Oracle and Seattle mobile phone magnate Craig McCaw (ranked 17 in the USA), steps Britain’s Peter Harrison’s GBR Challenge.
They may have a clutch of Olympic medals, World titles, and have sailed some of the world’s toughest ocean races, but when it comes to the actual America’s Cup, then the 30 strong sailing team are virtual greenhorns.
Harrison, whose company Chernikeeff Networks were pioneers and a market leader in computer networking, between July 1999 and August 2000 sold his company to South African based Dimension Data for over £300m.
A long time competitive sailing enthusiast who graduated from competing in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, the sun worshippers downwind cruising odyssey from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean, through to competing at Cowes Week, the Admiral’s and Commodore’s Cups, Harrison made an early pledge to support British sailing when he backed the Olympic trials prior to the Sydney 2000 Games where Britain won a record five medals.
In a rarefied arena which egos tend to be directly proportional to the bank balance, Harrison is little different. He thrives on the publicity, but his love of sailing runs deep. As happy to be checking the bilges of his latest craft alongside his four America’s Cup IACC boats, he has a 52 foot and 50 foot handicap race yachts, and a 50 foot cruising yacht, plus a hospitality launch in Auckland, and a new 115’ state of the art sailing superyacht under construction in Cowes Harrison, most of all is a pragmatist, and one who is proud to facilitate be facilitating the first British challenge for the Auld Mug since 1987.
Initially he pledged £7m, then £11m but in the absence of any major top line sponsorship, he has underwritten GBR Challenge to the tune of £22.5m so far. Since Day 1 of his challenge he has talked of ‘mountains to climb’ and ‘playing catch up’, and his team have worked relentlessly with a fervour which, according to most team insiders, is beyond that of the other eight syndicates.
While the top teams, backed by ‘the B’s as four times America’s Cup winner Dennis Conner calls the Cup’s billionaires, Allen and McCaw’s Seattle based OneWorld, the Italian Prada team who challenged last time and lost 5 0 to holders Team New Zealand, Ellison’s BMW Oracle, and the Swiss based Alinghi challenge backed by pharmaceuticals billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli, all have budgets between US$50m and $85m and hence shore crews to do most of the boat maintenance and preparation work ashore, the Brits burn the candle at both ends, working long hours on their shoreside support programme.
“Speaking with just one other British sailor who is with another team he says there are those who are just going through the motions, knowing where and what is likely to happen. In our team everyone has been giving it 110% from day one and this means there is a very strong and obvious team bond. You see it every day in the compound, from the riggers putting the ropes together to the office staff,” says 6 foot 4 in Mark Covell, the 2000 Olympic Silver medallist in the Star class who has made the transition from day keelboat crew to part of the highly muscled team of grinders who power the battery of winches to control the sails.
Having overlooked the established ‘old guard’ with America’s Cup experience such as Cork’s Harold Cudmore, who coached Bill Koch’s team to win the America’s Cup ten years ago, and former World Number 1 Chris Law, the GBR Challenge have put their faith in the future and Harrison’s eyes are very much on the long term, talking of laying the foundations of a subsequent challenge.
Their inherent weakness is their lack of match racing that is the head to head, boat against boat knockout duelling that is sum and substance of the America’s Cup. Conventional thinking among even the most fervent British sailing media cognoscenti, suggests a place in the last four is within the reach of Harrison’s team, but that the might of Prada, Alinghi who reputedly offered a bounty in excess of $1m for the services of team New Zealand’s Cup winning skipper Russell Coutts BMW Oracle and OneWorld, will probably be beyond them at their first attempt.
Having built two boats, GBR Challenge chose to fly out the second one to Auckland in a hurry at a cost reported to be £350,000 but their decision may yet be well founded, as the second boat, GBR 78, which took to the water last week, has proven to be a lot quicker.
Everything that can be should be done by now, so while the teams will spend the next few days winding their efforts down to be fresh for racing in the first Round Robin, the favourites to challenge holders Team New Zealand are reckoned to be Alinghi and Prada.
It will be a long and fascinating battle.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
