FOILING!

FROM NOVEMBER BAY AND DELTA YACHTSMAN MAGAZINE

Photo:©2012 Guilain Grenier/Oracle Team USA & ACEA

The Pits, a Pendulum, the Protocol and Foiling too!

All the numbers emanating from the America's Cup here can be mind boggling. This month we will try to make some sense on what it all means. For all of you out there listening to the critics crying about next year's main event; think again. These boats are going to be spectacular! Not since the days of the magnificent J-Boats off Newport, RI in the 1930's will there be a splendor of spectacle to behold like what will be in store for the Bay Area in 2013. Eight behemoth catamarans from 4 teams and possibly a ninth (if Team Korea stays in the game) will showcase speed, technology, daring maneuverability as these massive yachts will show incredible bursts of acceleration as they literally fly on foils at unheard of racing speeds approaching 50 knots! Yes. They are foiling! It shouldn't be too much of a surprise considering that they are catamarans with dagger boards and the sailing conditions here will allow them to power up in a short amount of time. Make no mistake the grandeur and majesty of this event will be a transcending experience that will send chills down the spines of your grandchildren as you thrill them with the tall tales of the 2013 America's Cup. If you are among the non-believers, just take a stroll down the marina waterfront in the next months and take a gaze at the space age when as the carbon creatures draw your breath in like a black hole when they lightning past you at speeds that Jules Verne could not even have conjured up or dreamed of. Oracle Racing finally got its AC72 back out on the water after an initial foil failure, that kept it in the shed for an additional 3 precious weeks. The team fashioned a new dagger foil out of one of the one's off the “old” trimaran. In a sign that the technology is again outpacing the rules “hinged daggerboards” were approved by the ACRM for racing. The hinged foil is similar to the concept employed by the French tri-maran Hydroptère and probably not originally envisioned by the rulemakers back in 2010. The only comparison that one can make is that foiling is like flying. Foiling is when the hull actually comes out of the water and the only remaining wetted surface to the water is the daggerboards or foils. The reduced wetted surface allows to boat to “lift” and go faster. “The 72's will be foiling, no question!” exclaimed Oracle Team USA skipper Jimmy Spithill. “We pushed our AC72 harder to show all the other teams, though its harder to steer when your foiling.” “It was only a matter of time,” said ACRM Director Ian Murray. “There is a 6 to 10 knot jump in speed when they foil. Who can get up and stay there the longest will go the fastest.” The chase boat for Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) has four 300 horsepower engines and their AC 72 was seen gybing down wind while foiling! Murray estimates that there will be at least 3 gybes on each run leg. “It's awesome!” said ETNZ skipper Dean Barker. 'We are enjoying the boat. Its challenging. We feel we are making good progress.” As far as foiling is it an advantage on the race course, especially when the legs are so short. “We have to decide ourselves whether it is going to be an advantage or not,” said Barker. “The boat is capable of doing it, I have to work really hard at keeping (the boat) stable. When you're foiling you don't have a lot of rudder maneuverability.” “It's a challenge because you have 11 guys on the boat and when your sailing upwind, its impossible to talk to a guy that is only 2 meters away, even yelling and with the timing of maneuvers the “intercom” system (headset mics) has to work really well,” said Barker. As for Spithill, Oracle Racing was showing off foiling in a spectacular fashion along the San Francisco waterfront. Its different than sailing on the trimaran. “We never really got it out of the water'” said Spithill. “We also had an engine to power all the wiches, but they are similar that there are lots of loads and a lot of risk.” “The only control you have is the steering and the daggerboards,” said Spithill. “The loads and the speeds are going to be insane!” Oracle Racing built the components for its massive wing-sail at Core Builders Composites in Warkworth, NZ. Under the liberal terms for the “constructed in country” clause for the 34th Protocol only the hulls for the most part are regulated to the home country as most the critical parts of the new generation AC 72's are allowed to be built elsewhere. Repairs and patch the hulls for the AC 72's will probably become as interchangeable as tires on an IndyCar next year as accidents and “pitch poling” are bound to be frequent occurrences on volital San Francisco Bay where winds routinely reach into the 30's and the infamous ebb-tides can bring a submarining hull to a screeching halt. Regardless, we are all in for incredible cat show next year! Game On? Ben Ainslie isn't Jack Sutphan after all. The assumption initially was, when Ainslie, the 4-time Olympic Gold Medalist from Great Britain was brought onboard at Oracle Team USA it was to serve as a tune up partner for Jimmy Spithill. At the end of the day all would be well and Spithill would drive the team's AC 72 in the America's Cup finals next year. Well, all things being Ellison, there are no free rides or passes, in an effort to either sell sponsors on actual Defense Trials next year or to remind the team that no one's seat is safe Ainslie and Spithill will actually be competing for the helm this winter and next year for the right to steer USA 17 in the America's Cup finals. Sutphan was Dennis Conner's longtime sparring partner beginning with Freedom in 1980 thru more than a few of the Stars & Stripes campaigns. Sutphan would steer the “B” boat against Conner's primary crew, but make no mistake, he was a world class skipper in his own right. That being said, there was never a “quarterback” controversy in Conner's camps. As for Oracle Racing, team CEO Russell Coutts is currently “Mr America's Cup” with a 14-0 record as skipper and 4 titles to his name. He has made it clear that he will not be steering the boat next year. Spithill was brought on in 2007 and make no mistake, he is immensely popular here in the Bay Area as “our quarterback”. He was the skipper in 2010 when Oracle won the America's Cup. In addition to the vaunted massive wing sail, it was his talent and John Kostecki's tactics that insured victory. Coutts is making it very clear that Ainslie isn't here on vacation. In a sport where Olympic medals, sailing championships and America's Cup victories serve as college degrees, Ainslie, Spithill, along with ETNZ's Dean Barker and Artemis's Terry Hutchinson are the cream of the crop in the world right now. “You can practice all you want,” said Coutts. “But, there is nothing like a race to test your performance. It's a different kettle of fish. People are competing for their careers.” “This regatta here is important to the sailing team,” said Coutts. “Actually, there is nowhere to hide. You either perform or you don't and you can make all the excuses in the world, you either win or you don't. That is one of the great things in sport.” “You think these wealthy backers in ours or other syndicates are going to tolerate non-performance?” said Coutts. “They're not.” “There are 3 parts, three componants to a successful program,” said Coutts. 1] “You obviously have to sail good. The guys are vying for positions on the race boat. You are judged by your performance on the race course. Ultimately, your'e fighting for you position on the boat. You either win or you lose.” 2] “You have to design a good, really fast boat. It has to perform as designed. There is always discovery in this game.” 3] “The boat building operation. We had a failure recently.. It wasn't a design failure, actually it was a manufacturing error. That isn't a slight against the people who did it, it just shows how difficult it is to use the technology.” “If you are strong in one area and weak in another, you will lose,” said Coutts. “You need to be near the top in all the catagories and if you are weak in any one, you will be exposed.” “Ben is up to speed now,” said Spithill. “Everybody has a chance at winning, there's no excuses now.” “It was a no-brainer bring Ben in,” says Spithill. “He is the best sailor in the world!” “These boats are incredibly hard to sail,” said Ainslie. “I'm not nervous, I'm excited.” Ainslie has announced his intention to challenge with Great Britain for the 35th America's Cup. Given Ellison's proclivity for ensuring the continuity to the current Cup formula would seem to guarantee that Royal Cornwall Yacht Club (RCYC) in Falmouth, England will be the Challenger of Record (COR) next time. The Royal Cornwall Yacht Club (RCYC) was formed in 1871 and is the 15th oldest “Royal” yacht club in England. The first patrons of the club were Queen Victoria and the Duke of Cornwall (the future King Edward VII). The current patron is HRH the Prince Charles who succeeded his father, The Duke of Edinburgh, in 1977. The Pit-Falls and the Protocol As an event AC 34 has not been above pitfalls of late with the latest brouhaha emanating from Emirates Team New Zealand on where the team bases for the remaining challengers will be located as ACEA CEO keeps stripping Piers 30/32 bare leaving Reds Java House, a lot of concrete, fences and a “Field of Dreams” in its place. ACEA CEO Stephen Barclay trying to navigate San Francisco's shifting visions of where the best place to host the masses would be as the concept of the racings center of gravity keeps changing. Originally, Piers 30-32 was going to be where the challenging team bases; the “pits” would be located. Oracle Team USA as the defending team is allowed its own base of operations as is Team Artemis as the Challenger of Record. Oracle is down at Pier 80 in the DogPatch and Artemis is over at the old Naval Air Station in Alameda. The remaining teams which will probably number two, if Team Korea pulls out as expected want to be able to host and hoist at a common facility which was to have been at Piers 30-32 in the prosperous area South of Market (SOMA). Adjacent to downtown SF, Giants Stadium and many restaurants, bars and hotels it is an excellent area to stage hospitality. ETNZ skipper Dean Barker wrote in his blog that the changes made by the ACEA removing the financing from a hospitality area where the teams would be based on Piers 30-32 to Marina Green to be closer to the racing was a “bombshell.' “Event organizers dropped a bombshell on the Americas Cup competitors when they announced they will no longer be requiring the Teams to be based on Piers 30 and 32,” wrote Barker. “More importantly would not be paying for any redevelopment of the Piers as has been promised for the last 18 months.” “I am sitting here completely stunned,” Barker continued. “We are a little over 6 months from relocating our base to San Fran to what we have been told would be a fully functioning base area complete with Team hospitality spaces and full access for the public to watch the teams preparing and launching their boats. It is now going to be a concrete slab with absolutely nothing on it which will now require us to secure cranes, jetties, and all services required to function. We have never budgeted for this and to be dropped on us now is quite unbelievable.” “A site plan showing team bases and the facilities has been in circulation for months and, as recently as the last regatta at San Francisco, event organizers promised to provide hospitality facilities,” said ETNZ Managing director Grant Dalton. “The original vision of locating all team bases on Piers 30-32 along with all the facilities required to operate the AC72s, will not be fulfilled.” “Teams have been planning their operations in San Francisco next year on the strength of these promises,” said Dalton. “To hear that those plans have been abandoned six months from when the teams would move to San Francisco is scandalous. Oracle, which has a permanent base on city limits, will not be adversely affected.” The ACEA budgeted the cost of that hospitality at $1.25million and the cost in a centralized location at Piers 30-32 would now be a team cost. Construction of the old piers is scheduled for completion on January 14, 2013. “Moving the hospitality from Piers 30-32 to Marina is a very positive action,” said Barclay. “ It puts the fans first. We have applied some of the lessons learnt. The choice to move some elements from Piers 30-32 was driven directly by the success of August regatta.” “Yes, there has been criticism of this initiative by Emirates Team New Zealand,” said Barclay. “But a more fan-focused, fan-friendly event is to everyone's benefit and there will still be team activity at Piers 30-32 with teams continuing to have the option to base themselves there if they want to.” The ACEA still smarting after pulling up stakes in February on a proposed 100 million dollar fix up on the aging piers appears to be changing the game again by shifting its limited resources to the Marina Green where, it wants to center its hospitality areas for the teams, so it would be close to the racing action. Fine, except that the finish line will be out of sight for a majority of the thousands in attendance, who are likely to come watch the races. As the race course now stands, just wait a moment, like the weather it will probably change again, the proposed finish line will be located off Piers 27-29 where grandstands are being constructed for the majority there to watch the race on the Jumbotron screen, but not necessarily the race course itself. So if it's a close race, the minority will see it the majority will have to watch it on TV. Marshall McLuhan would be proud! In reality the finish line should be off the Marina Green where everyone can see it like the ACWS events here. Which brings us to the whole concept of protocols; in the modern format of the America's Cup which dates back to 1990, after the DoG monohull and catamaran court ordered race took place between New Zealand and Stars & Stripes mutual consent agreements called protocols were put in place to eliminate costly, Cup killing litigation. The peace lasted for seventeen years until in 2007. Days, it seemed like minutes after defending the America's Cup, Alinghi representing the Societe Nautique de Geneva (SNG) accepted an “in house” challenge from a phantom yacht club the Nautico Club Espanol de Vela's (CNEV) for the 33rd America's Cup and a controversial new protocol is written. The following week the Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) filed a formal challenge for the America's Cup under the strict terms of the Deed of Gift. The GGYC contend that the challenge from CNEV does not meet the defining criteria in its acceptance as the challenger of record. When that challenge was rejected by SNG, the GGYC filed suit in the New York Supreme Court, to invalidate the Spanish challenge. The New York court is bound by the Deed to arbitrate all disputes relating to the America's Cup Trophy, which is held as a charitable trust by the state. Oracle Racing representing the GGYC won the Cup in another court ordered DoG race in 2010 and signed a new “bullet proof” protocol with Club Nautico di Roma as COR . Vincenzo Onorato Mascalzone Latino's paper (pauper) challenge has long ago gone the way of the Dodo giving way to Paul Cayard's Kungliga Svenska Segelsällskapet Yacht Club in Sweden. The Swedish team inherited the COR responsibilities when Onorato's Team Mascalzone representing Club Nautico di Roma dropped out citing “funding limitations”. Mascalzone became Oracle's foil after the American team won the America's Cup match. That club, ironically was similar in scope to the denigrated Spanish COR, the Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV), only with a telephone and a website. Since New Zealand's surprise challenge in 1987, the Deed has generally been usurped of its authoritative grip on the rules by mutual agreement provisions called the America's Cup Protocol. The protocol's enabling resolutions allow the Challenger of Record (COR)to establish the rules and regatta format to determine who will challenge the defending boat for the America's Cup. The America's Cup is a charitable trust in the State of New York. It is governed by the NY Court System. Terms can be negotiated by the winning yacht club (defender) and a challenging yacht club through mutual consent. The Cup is held by the GGYC in San Francisco and it has chosen Oracle as its racing team. In years past there have been trials to determine a defender, but obviously it is tough to compete against Larry Ellison's pocketbook! Under the new concept many of the obligations of the defending yacht club and the COR have been assumed by the ACEA. The GGYC has established two authorities to manage the event. The ACEA, which is charge of most aspects off the race course such as raising money, sponsorship, property rights etc. The current CEO is Stephen Barclay. Barkley has done an excellent job reorganizing and re-energizing the event after a sluggish start. Certainly trying to get anything done in San Francisco can be a challenge. As Tom Ehman put it: “sometimes you can't even get an unanimous vote by the City Council to adjourn!” The America's Cup finals will run from September 7 to September 22. The new format will feature two races per day, with nine victories required to win the America's Cup in a best of 17 (seventeen again!) format. In between the Louis Vuitton Cup and America's Cup Finals the future stars of the sport will take to the water in the Red Bull Youth America's Cup. “The amount of racing we're going to have on San Francisco Bay next summer is simply phenomenal,” said Barclay, the CEO of the 34th America's Cup. “The competition is going to be spectacular, the racing will be close, and spectators will be a part of the action with the shoreline along the city front literally making up one of the race course boundaries.” The AC Village for the 2013 season will be at Piers 27-29 The America's Cup The original contest for the Royal Yacht Squadron Cup or the One Hundred Guinea Cup took place off England's Isle of Wight in 1851. The contest was won by the yacht America and it dominated the event to such an extent, that Queen Victoria was said to ask, "Who's in second?” In which she was told, "You're Majesty, there is no second!" The America's Cup was forged in Britain in 1848 during the Age of Queen Victoria by the prestigious Garrard Company. The Cup itself is a very ornate hollow sterling silver gilt ewer that has been layered over the years to include recent winners and defenders of yachting's most prestigious event. It was originally called the Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS) Cup. It was purchased “off the shelve” by Henry William Paget of Anglesey, who donated it to the RYS for its annual regatta around Isle of Wight. . 1851 was a regal year for Great Britain with the“Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations” and the opening of the Crystal Palace a massive cast iron and glass building in Hyde Park constructed to house the Great Exhibition where exhibitors from around the world gathered display the latest technology of the Industrial Revolution. The exhibition was organized in part by Prince Albert. The Queen's favorite royal vacation retreat in East Cowes is the Osborne House, which was designed by her husband Prince Alfred and with his birthday only a few days after America made off with the Cup must have taken a bit of shine off the celebration. The diamond shaped island with its infamous jagged landmark “the Needles” jutting out into the English Channel. The Isle's rich history included ferocious naval battles in the late 800's as King Alfred's forces clashed with Viking ships off Brading Haven and Charles Dickens wrote “David Copperfield” at Winterbourne Aboard America was Commodore John Cox Stevens, who later with fellow members of the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) in an act of conveyance presented the trophy to the club in 1857 charitable trust as a perpetual challengers' trophy. Members included financier James Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton's son and George Schuyler's father in-law. Schuyler drafted to wordings of the America's Cup Deed of Gifts in 1857, 1880 and finally in 1887. After finally getting his race and with wagers in place, Stevens's America won the contest against the 18 British cutters, schooners and yachts. The America's Cup trophy was named after the yacht. It shocked the British yachting community as the young nation used the event; wagers and all as a showcase to the world that it was an emerging naval power to be reckoned with. Legend has it that a butler retrieved it from the trash during a move before it finally landed back at the New York Yacht Club's downtown Manhattan clubhouse for its rightful place in its trophy room. Tiffany's removed its bottom in the 1880's so the trophy could be secured in its case. The first race for the “America's Cup” was in 1870 off of Staten Island in New York as the schooner Magic won a fleet race against the British challenger Cambria. Tiffany's removed its bottom in the 1880's so the trophy could be secured in its case. The Deed of Gift, which is the bylaw that governs the race, was amended for a third time by the last surviving member George Schuyler in 1887. The defense of the “Auld Mug” for the most part, takes place every few years. It attracted such luminaries as legendary yacht designer Nathanial Herreshoff, Captain Charles Barr and tea baron Sir Thomas Lipton. The NYYC moved the regatta to the exclusive resort community of Newport, Rhode Island in 1930. The America's Cup was graced in the 1930's by the magnificent J-boat class. Led by railroad and banking blueblood Harold “Mike” Vanderbilt, he matched up victoriously against the aeronautical wizard T.O.M. Sopwith, from over the pond in England. After World War 2, the races were revived in 1958 with the 12-Meter Class boat. These 60 ft. yachts provided challenging matches in Newport's moderate and shifty wind conditions. Throughout the next three decades, the NYYC conducted defense trials served up most of the drama. That was until 1983, when the controversial winged keel yacht Australia 2, won the America's Cup in the best of seven races over Dennis Conner's Liberty. The men from the land “downunder" unbolted the trophy and took it back to the picturesque fishing port of Fremantle, Western Australia, to defend it against all comers. In one of the greatest sports comebacks of all time Conner, challenging under the burgee of the San Diego Yacht Club went down to Australia in 1987 and brought the 'Cup back to America, crushing the Australian yacht Kookaburra in the process. The Cup has changed hands several times since then landing in New Zealand and Europe, before arriving here in San Francisco in 2010. The trust that George Schuyler placed in his associates, family, friends and ultimately unto the New York Yacht Club, as the last surviving member of the America Syndicate, the sailing team that won the infamous yachting trophy some 36 years earlier off the Isle of Wight against the best that Great Britain could offer at the time; has offered an unwavering conviction. It was in that trust that his written words and deeds would further transcend generations of yachtsman that ultimately would survive the tests of time and technology. When the dust finally settled in 2010 on the thirty-month skirmish that has redefined the terms and conditions upon which the State of New York's most cherished charitable trust can be consummated between a challenger and defender. As ugly as that divorce has been, the New York Courts have ultimately been able to redefine many aspects within the Deed of Gift (DoG), a document that has tested its mettle and weathered the test of time well. Now, thru the efforts of several judges, some actively willing, while others are being dragged serendipitously kicking and screaming thru this debacle that ultimately has led to the second DoG race in America's Cup history. When the Societe' Nautique de Geneva and the Golden Gate Yacht Club finished pounding it out in court, and finally resolved their differences out on the water with their behemoth multi hull scientific space creations; the Deed of Gift has shown itself to be a formidable text that has the staying power of a Constitution, Magna Carta or the Declaration of Independence. Despite attempts by certain syndicates to own or establish their control on the event known as the America's Cup over the years the charitable trust itself is a testament of endurance that will survive and thrive this sometimes maddening attempt to hijack its spirit. Undoubtedly, even if it winds up back in the judge's chambers on 60 Centre Street, Room 649 New York, New York the indomitable trophy will live on as mutual consent and new protocols will shape the event for the next century. What has been inherently defined in this whole process of angst, anger and litigation is the author himself George Lee Schuyler. What words, foresight, plus a damned grand amount of legal clarity was poured into his third attempt to rectify concerns for the past, present and future custodians of the America's Cup. With Schuyler's Deed of Gift, that he again bequeathed to the New York Yacht Club, defenders of the world's oldest sporting trophy have deftly shaped the affair away from a latitude attitude of aspiration towards a drive on a longitude tack towards the pin line set for the next set of challengers to try to capture the Auld Mug into perpetuity. In his third and final attempt at a lasting Deed with staying power that Schuyler desired, he showed that when it came to carving out a document, or negotiating terms, Schuyler was as shrewd and astute that an entrepreneur, with lawyerly inclinations could be. He served as an acronym, born to privilege and persuasion from one America's founding families and marital dynasties Schuyler forged a lineage that have if General George Washington would have had, if it were his bloodlines not the Schuyler's and Hamilton's. Schuyler, through all his business interests in finance, railroads, defense and shipping was a consummate fixture at the Yacht Club's regatta events, not as the Commodore or President, but as a referee, measurer and race committee member It was Schuyler's idea that the America's Cup should become an International Trophy and was convincing in his discussions with the remaining surviving syndicate members that on July 8, 1857 he drafted the original conditions on which the “Auld Mug” could be challenged for as a perpetual sailor's trophy between friendly countries. Contrary to popular belief and America's Cup historical accounts, Schuyler did not miss crossing the Atlantic to sail with his yacht America because of business interests, but to help care for his dying mother and build a summer bathhouse at their home in Dobbs Ferry for his children by the beach. While NYYC Commodore John Stevens was wining and dining with English Royalty after America's victory for the Royal Squadron Cup, Schuyler was home toiling in the boiling August heat, knee deep in mud working on finishing his summer project. In the years after winning the America's Cup; Schuyler struggled with issues involving his half brother and business partner who had secretly defrauded Cornelius Vanderbilt in a massive Wall Street scandal out of millions of dollars of worthless stock in the Illinois Central Railroad. One of the railroad's chief lawyers was a young rail splitting congressman from Springfield, Illinois; Abraham Lincoln. Prior to that the Schuyler's were involved with the purchase of the steamship USS Independence, which sank off the Mexican Coast in 1853, with significant loss of life and litigation (Quimby vs Vanderbilt) that led to changes in many maritime passenger laws. His father in law; James Hamilton followed in his own father's (Alexander Hamilton) footsteps in crafting banking policy in several administrations; including Andrew Jackson & Martin Van Buren, at a crucial time in our country's infancy. Schuyler was extremely close with his father-in-law Hamilton, marring his other daughter when his first wife Eliza passed away. He and Hamilton were principles in the yacht America Syndicate, in addition to being co-founders of the New York Yacht Club. Schuyler had three children. Louisa, Georgina and Phillip. Louisa worked tirelessly her entire life in charitable, benevolent causes; including seeing to the health & welfare of soldiers in the Civil War. She founded the Bellevue School of Nursing in 1873. Georgina a forceful voice in New York society helped raise funds for the Statue of Liberty, eventually having the poem by her friend Emma Lazarus “A New Colossus” inscribed at the base of the statue. Philip served on many race committee's with his father, undoubtedly had a hand in the third and final draft of the Deed of Gift. Philip, who was active at the NYYC on a variety of race committees was tragically killed in a train crash that also took the life of the president of Southern Railway, Samuel Spencer. Schuyler achieved the rank of Colonial in the Army served his country with honor at the outset of the Civil War traveling to Europe at great peril to purchase arms and weapons for the Union forces. While there, his mission was certainly shrouded in secrecy in order to evade and outmaneuver Confederate spies like Caleb Haney who where abroad with similar tasks for the South. He also was on hand during the infamous New York City Draft riots in 1863 to lend command assistance to Army troops seeking to help bring the city under control. Eliza Hamilton Schuyler corresponded throughout the war with William Seward, Lincoln's powerful Secretary of State and on her deathbed in 1863 wrote powerfully to him that; “you have preserved the inevitable laws of human nature and of God's progress, seeing the end from the beginning that the abolition of slavery was accomplished.” George L Schuyler passed away in the state room of the NYYC's flagship Electra, while it was in Newport, RI in 1890. He is buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Westchester County. He was meticulous on recounting his family's famous ancestors, authoring 2 volumes; including one on his famous grandfather; the Revolutionary War hero General Philip Schuyler. Schuyler's legacy, ancestors fore and aft, as well as himself left an indelible mark on American history that extends beyond the boundaries and borders of an America's Cup Deed of Gift. All who enjoy the riches of the competitive fair play of good sportsmanship owe his enduring document a debt of gratitude! Oracle Racing CEO & legendary America's Cup Skipper Russell Coutts has largely kept to his vision, after making the dramatic and radical transition to a multi-hulled formula for 161 year old event. Sailing for the America's Cup is the longest continuous sporting event on the planet. Front Rudder as a column byline pays homage to the Bay Area “scientist who sail.” In 1984 the prestigious St Francis Yacht Club (STFYC) in San Francisco challenged the Royal Perth Yacht Club (RPYC) for the America's Cup. The previous year Australia 2 representing the RPYC had won the America's Cup in Newport, RI. The Cup had been successfully defended for 113 years after the New York Yacht (NYYC) captured the trophy in 1851 with the yacht America. The STFYC created the Golden Gate Challenge (GGC) as a non-profit syndicate and organized its effort behind by the club's charismatic sailing champion Tom Blackaller. When the GGC christened its first 12-meter yacht it was nicknamed Evolution or E-1. Blackaller initiated the challenge's war cry; “We don't just want the Cup, we want the whole damn island!” The challenge brought in a team of high tech all-star scientists who also sail to create a revolutionary new 12-Meter boat. The design team was led by Gary Mull, Alberto Calderon and Heiner Meldner. Mull was a naval architect from Oakland, who loved going toe to toe with the authorities in charge of overseeing the design and construction parameters of the 12-Meter Class. Meldner was a physicist from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and at the time was considered the world's foremost authority on super computer simulations. His fluid dynamic programs have been incorporated on everything from the super-secret skins on nuclear submarines to America's Cup thoroughbreds. He was one of the chief architects behind Enterprise US-27's fast hull design in 1977 and later America 3 in 1992. The initial concept of a front rudder steering system has been credited to Calderon and his company, Advanced Aero-Mechanisms in La Jolla, CA. Calderon specifically worked on the idea of reducing hydrodynamic resistance to US 61's hull. “The emphasis of the new design is control and acceleration”, explains Calderon. A rudder in front of the keel is expected to give the yacht quicker tacking capabilities and the key to next year's attempt to acquire sailings “Holy Grail”; boat speed. My passion for the Cup began on my first trip to Newport, Rhode Island, it was nearly winter's end and with spring's early airs not quite in reach, I remember crossing over to the island on an eerily dark evening. The wind that night provided a mournfully howling, as it ripped through the metallic tapestry of the bridge, like the climatic roar of a majestic symphonic crescendo. With the restless churning waters of the Atlantic Ocean below and as the lights illuminated the darkness of the night from above, you could almost imagine the specter of ghostly yachts of the past and present, sailing across those wisps of wind, while cutting through the waves, towards some mythical adventure at sea. On that particular evening, while feasting on the chateaubriand at Christie's Harbor Restaurant, I was struck by all the pictures on the wall about the America's Cup races that had taken place in years past on Rhode Island Sound. Images of Sir Thomas Lipton, “The Wizard of Bristol,” Nathanial Herreschoff; the lordly Vanderbilts and Sopwiths on their mighty J-Class boats, Ranger and Endeavor; graced the mahogany paneled walls as a testament of their magnificence. Amongst the assembled patrons that night, there was an air of excitement and anticipation of the races scheduled to be sailed, and even though it would be months before the racing commenced, the seeds were being sown for a passion of this sport, that has held sway over me henceforth. That night we stayed and played out at the Inn on Castle Hill, and as the spring slowly gave way to summer, it played host to the many who would come out to watch those magnificent 12-Meter yachts sail by. Castle Hill became our front row seats on many an America's Cup afternoon and between hanging out at the Candy Store or at Christies during that summer and beyond, the yearning turned to learning as I crisscrossed the coasts catching the action over the next several years at every opportunity. It is within that spirit that the passion for this sport was created and much that was represented in Newport and later out in San Francisco becomes the tapestry of the heritage of the America's Cup that has been interwoven into the fabric of my life.