Why the America’s Cup and sportsmanship will not miss Alinghi.
Many observers from around the world have been amazed at the European (particularly UK Media) indifference or ignorance as to how poorly Alinghi has behaved in the America’s Cup at times over the last few regattas. It is sad that Europe has been represented in such a way.
I certainly look forward to a new era and hope the Americans and team ORACLE can honour and cherish the event the way it should be honoured.
It’s a big responsibility, so let’s hope they don’t let the other countries and teams down also. I expect that they can run the event like the pre-Alinghi era, or even better. Then we will see some amazing racing from all the worldwide teams – and may the best design and sailors win! Yacht racing and yachting will then be the overall winner.
A List of Alinghi Incidents:
Some of the many instances of Alinghi attitudes and behaviour that won’t be missed by many lovers of the Cup are covered in an interesting article here by Michael Burgess from: http://tvnz.co.nz/commentary-sport/why-alinghi-won-t-missed-3370993
Alinghi Attempted to Influence the Principal Race Officer America’s Cup 2010:
Alinghi departed the way they came – leaving bad feeling. The last bad taste left by them can be read here in an article about how Alinghi attempted to control the Principal Race Officer, Harold Bennett, before the beginning of race 2 of the Americas Cup 2010 – what a disgrace indeed.
“I have never seen such disgraceful behaviour on a committee boat, trying to influence the PRO [principal race officer] to the point of ordering me to stop the [start] sequence,” wrote Bennett
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/yachting/news/article.cfm?c_id=106&objectid=10626650
In fairness, Alinghi have done many wonderful things in a sometimes testing arena. The team certainly know how to design and race yachts. There are some remarkable individuals in the team. After all, the idea is to win and at times impossible conflict of interests can arise. But how reasonably did the team deal with these conflicts?
On balance, I think that not many will look back on their tenure with fond memories. Maybe the only way that will happen will be if instead of starting afresh Larry Ellison, Russel Coutts and team BMW Oracle make a worse mess of things.
Pictured: Alinghi boss ernesto bertarelli
