Vulgarize the Sport
I’d love to be able to get anarchist David’s consent to republish his articles, but I can’t work out how to get it touch…. If you’re reading this David… apologies for the unsanctioned re-use and thanks for your always refreshing take on competitive sailing. It seems to unfailingly align with our values here at SWS.
From the Sailing Anarchy website
It used to be that the most potent expression of patriotism any person could make was to declare: “My country – right or wrong”. These days in sailing it’s more like: “My country – or whoever wants to pay me more”.
The idea that elite sailors should aspire to no greater honor than to compete for the nation of their birth now seems as antiquated as the gaff rig.
There has, of course, always been professionalism in yachting but that a fat paycheck outweighs national pride is a relatively new development. The rock stars have become hired guns – unashamed mercenaries prepared to compete for whichever country offers them the best deal.
If you don’t think that’s odd, consider the outcry if LeBron James were to suit up for the Bulgarian basketball team rather than for the USA. Or if Rafael Nadal decided to play for Botswana in the Davis Cup (let alone Tiger Woods teeing off for Europe in the Ryder Cup). Yet in sailing, we have come to accept such opportunistic changes of national allegiance as unremarkable.
How has this come to pass? For almost two centuries the sport was dominated at the elite level by very rich individuals who loved to win and hated losing. The difference now is that the influx of aggressive corporate sponsorship has ranked global brand name exposure above country. Few, if any, of the world’s major events now set genuine nationality requirements. Everyone is sailing for Rolex anyway.
Nationality was previously not just an issue about sailors but of boat design and even the materials used. After the 1962 Gretel America’s Cup challenge the New York Yacht Club refined their rules to exclude sailcloth not manufactured in the challenging country. The same NYYC was again firing from the nationality ramparts in 1983 with their desperate attempt to disqualify Australia II on the spurious grounds that its upside-down winged keel had been designed by a Dutchman, not the Australian naval architect Ben Lexcen.
National pride was still a defining characteristic for the 1987 AC defense sailed in Fremantle. It featured yachts named Sverige, Australia, Canada and France. They left us in little doubt as to their countries of origin. Stars & Stripes – boldly painted in red, white and blue – was unlikely to be sailing for Russia.
But big dollars eventually won, as they always do. In 2000 the two key members of New Zealand’s successful America’s Cup team – helmsman Russell Coutts and tactician Brad Butterworth – jumped ship to sign lucrative contracts to sail for the new Alinghi syndicate. They also took six of the most experienced members of the Team NZ crew with them. Sailing against their own country, the Kiwis then won the 2003 Cup for Switzerland.
To my mind that moment set the template for full professionalism and the end of true national allegiances. It was no great surprise when Coutts switched sides again to head the US Oracle team, or when a later American challenger was named BMW Oracle Racing. At least for Larry Ellison, corporate promotion trumped any direct identification with his own country. So much for the Deed of Gift stipulation that the Cup was for “friendly competition between foreign nations”.
The most blatant current example of this debasement of national identity is SailGP (a format coincidentally devised by Coutts and Ellison). It is a competition that pretends to be between countries but in which genuine loyalty to the flags under which the boats sail seems no deeper than the logo paintwork on their hulls and sails.
The TV commentators employed by SailGP routinely refer to the boats as “the Spanish”, “the French”, “the Germans” or “the Americans”. Just don’t tell the skippers and many of the key crew. For example: Nathan Outteridge (an Australian) has driven for both Japan and Switzerland. James Spithill (another Australian) did three seasons steering for America. Phil Robertson (a New Zealander) has skippered for China, Spain and Canada.
We can’t decry these talented young men for chasing the main chance – they’re professionals – but all this boat-hopping as they keep turning their coats inside out diminishes any remaining regard we might have for the notion of national loyalty in sport.
Even the Admiral’s Cup, which was founded in 1957 as an ocean-racing competition between national teams, has quietly abandoned that fundamental aspect of the event’s original character. The Notice of Race states that “the nationality of a team will be determined by the location of the entering club”. That sounds fine, except that there are no limitations on professional crew or crew nationality. So, the Royal Suva Yacht Club could enter a team representing Fiji entirely crewed by professionals from California. Says it all, really.
Meanwhile, for the America’s Cup later this year the co-helmsman for the NYYC challenger American Magic will be Tom Slingsby who is, er, a proud Australian. He won an Olympic gold medal representing his homeland but now, rather sheepishly, explains that he’s delighted to also hold “dual citizenship” (as if we care anymore).
The moral dimension to all this was best summed up 34 years ago when the New York State Court of Appeal announced its decision in the fight between the San Diego Yacht Club and Michael Fay’s ambush challenge from the Mercury Bay Yacht Club of New Zealand. It was the end of a bitter legal battle during which the ethics of yachting itself were on trial.
In his conclusion, Chief Judge Sol Wachtler wrote: “Here at stake are grand principles – sportsmanship and tradition – pitted against the greed, commercialism and zealotry that threatens to vulgarise the sport.”
And so say all of us.
– anarchist David
