11:30 AM Fri 30 Apr 2010 GMT
Back in January 2005, things were a little different from what they are now.
Alinghi had won the 31st America's Cup, in Auckland, and was preparing to defend. The recession was on no-one's radar. CNEV definitely wasn't operational. And, it was a time when all was sweetness and light on the America's Cup scene.
Passing through New Zealand in late January 2005 on this way to the next Challenger meeting in San Francisco in early February, was then Chairman of the Challenger Commission, Tom Ehman (USA) - whose America's Cup pedigree extends back into 1980 when he was a rules advisor for the New York Yacht Club and the defenders.
After a diet of Cup campaigns, 1987 in Fremantle with America II, organisation of the '88 and '92 Cups in San Diego and as Dennis Conner's rules advisor in 1995, followed by an involvement in Formula 1 motor-racing, Ehman got back into the Cup in 2000 with AmericaOne and with then Oracle BMW in 2003.
He was the first Chairman of the Challenger Commission - a group representing all Challengers - following the appointment of BMW Oracle and the Golden Gate Yacht Club (San Francisco) as Challenger of Record.
The first half of the interview, was an update on the agenda for the Challenger Commission, and was straight down the party line.
With that out of the way, Ehman started thinking laterally, and the ideas flowed.
Sail-World presents the following not trying to be clever or smart, but to show that maybe there is another way of thinking about the America's Cup - by playing the short game, rather than the long version that seems to be on the table.
While Ehman's focus then was on the 2007 regatta, he couldn't help but try and peer over the horizon beyond Valencia.
'The biggest problem with this event, in my personal opinion', he says, 'is the time.'
'It's way too long between events, when we are not changing the boats. This event (31st America's Cup) should be happening right now in '05. We should have raced here in 2003, gone off and done some events like we did. And the Challenger selection series should already be starting in March or April. If that were the case then the cash-burn rate for the teams would be half what it is at present. So you get as much or more sponsorship revenue (some would say more, because you get two big events in four years) for half the price!
'If this event were happening every other year you would get many more teams because it costs half as much money to get the team up and running.
'We have come a long way from America's Cup 31 to America's Cup 32. And now you have to make the next step which is to figure out how to have a main event every other year. If we can make this next event, who ever wins, held in 2009 rather than 2011, then we will have done the sport a huge service.
'We need to regularise and it needs to happen more often, that is the next big goal.
Had Tom Ehman had his own way, Auckland would be sitting back in its armchair and preparing to watch Amercia's Cup 2005 sailed in the Hauraki Gulf. 'From my personal perspective, and I proposed this at the time, regardless of who ever won in 2003, the 32nd America's Cup would have been in Auckland in 2005. Whoever had won in 2003, would have had the venue in 2007. So you give everyone their four years to prepare the venue, and you know with regularity when the next event is going to be and where.
'If everyone gets it in their mind that we will have more teams, more promotion, more excitement and more interest. It is better for everybody that we do it every two years - or conceivably every year.
'As we are showing with these preliminary regattas it's not difficult to move these teams to somewhere like Marseilles, set them down on a big hard surfaced area, lift the boats into water and have a regatta. That, to me, is the next big step the Cup has to make. But that is only possible when you are bidding the venue, and only possible when you have a central organising committee.
'The big problem with these campaigns is that they run for too long. The marginal cost to the teams to participate in these Acts is not that great. What we are learning is that the more events you have the more revenue you are getting. So if we have more events with less burn rate, then the cost drops, and it's good for everybody.'
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That's how Tom Ehman saw the America's Cup unfolding, just over five years ago.
Now it's back to Rome in May 2010!
by Richard Gladwell
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Davis, TAS
Windsurfing - Sails
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