New Sailboat Racing Format??

[brian eiland]

Rod, Russell, And Paul: Rivals, Friends, Partners


By Rich Roberts


THREE OLD VETERANS - Rod Davis (left), Paul Cayard (center), and Russell Coutts go back a long way.

What do Rod Davis, Russell Coutts, and Paul Cayard have in common - besides the obvious?

Among world-class sailors they share a deeper bond, which they discussed during a brief reunion this month when they sailed as tacticians aboard rival boats in the Los Angeles YC's Watts Trophy/Farr 40 North Americans at San Pedro.

They're Californians

Without much of a stretch, they're all California sailors. Davis grew up in Coronado and Cayard in San Francisco, and while Coutts' homeland is New Zealand, some of his major successes have come in California waters.

All benefited from and appreciate the transition from a time when sailors were lucky to find room and board to when their sport was a true profession, with paychecks.

Rewind two decades. It's 1984 and the Olympic sailing is winding down at Long Beach.

Until now, these guys were nobodies, especially the young and nervous Kiwi who has just finished first in the Finn class but now faces disqualification from the last race because his weight jacket is too heavy.

As officials check it inside a little tent on the beach, Coutts is thinking, "This is not good. I've lost it."

Now he reflects, "In those days you had water-filled weight jackets. They'd soak it for X-number of seconds, then hang it for X-number of seconds [to let it drip]. The weight was point-four of a kilo [almost 1 pound] over on the first weigh-in, which is a lot. On the third weigh-in, it weighed in under. It was really close."

But, Coutts had his gold medal.

A day earlier Davis had secured his as a member of Robbie Haines' Soling crew, along with Ed Trevelyan. Then he was introduced as skipper of the 12-Meter Eagle, the Newport Harbor YC's challenger in the 1986-87 America's Cup at Fremantle.

Cayard was hanging around anonymously, absorbing the Olympic grandeur as an alternate on the U.S. team. His first medal shot would come in 2004 at Athens, long after his immortality in the sport had been assured.

That Was Then

That was where they were then, 20 years ago, with no clue as to how their careers would evolve and intertwine.

In '95, Coutts would sail Team New Zealand to an America's Cup victory at San Diego, then return to Long Beach a year later to win the world match-racing championship. But, that's getting ahead of the tale.

In '92, in the San Diego YC's first traditional AC defense (forget the catamaran fiasco in '88), Davis was skipper for Team New Zealand. He had settled in Auckland in '87 with his Kiwi wife Liz after the ill-fated Eagle adventure.
[BE noted: They still refer to this monohull wipping as a fiasco....a failure to deal with reality like some other parties these days. Also required multihull content least someone whats to comment to the contrary]

In their radical little red boat designed by Bruce Farr, the Kiwis were breezing through the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger trials toward a title showdown with Italy's Il Moro di Vicenzia when a glitch appeared on the horizon: their bowsprit.

The Il Moro skipper protested that it was being used illegally. The Il Moro skipper was Cayard.

"To me, it was very, very clear that that thing was illegal," Cayard said. "The rule said you couldn't sheet the sail through the bowsprit. The bowsprit can be used to put downward pressure on a pole. To me, that meant the line that came out of that thing should be attached to the pole. And theirs wasn't. It was attached to the sail."

Davis and Cayard had been friends for years, through the days of unpaid America's Cups at Newport, R.I. when an ambitious young sailor would sell his car, as Cayard did, or empty his savings, as Davis did, just for a chance to crew on a boat that might not even make it to the final match.

Each Was Doing His Job

"It wasn't personal" Cayard said of the bowsprit dispute. "I wasn't looking at Rod when I looked at Team New Zealand."

Davis: "Between the two syndicates, it was bitter. But, between Paul and me, no, because he was doing his job, and I was doing mine. Before the final series, the Cayard family and the Davis family had a big picnic on the beach."

But, the episode, although it merely caused one race to be re-sailed, so shattered Team New Zealand's composure that owner Michael Fay and manager/grinder Peter Blake replaced Davis with the backup helmsman within two races of elimination. The backup helmsman was Russell Coutts.

But, it didn't seem to harm Davis' career. He's had a job in every AC since - and will coach Team NZ's afterguard in 2007.

Davis smiled slightly and said, "I suppose it would have hurt my career a lot if Russell had gone out and won the last two races."

Instead, Cayard polished off the Kiwis and went on to lose to Bill Koch's America3.

Cayard: "That was the only time I beat [Coutts] in the America's Cup. That was the last time anybody beat Team New Zealand, until this last time when Russell did with Alinghi."

Coutts, in '92 thrust into the limelight he would soon dominate, says now, "I generally believe that [Cayard] believed the use of [the bowsprit] was illegal. Actually, I tend to agree now."

Now They Are Partners

Now they are partners in a mysterious venture. Just after Cayard, with crew Phil Trinter, won the U.S. Olympic Trials in the Star class, he flew with Coutts to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

"We can't talk about that," Coutts said. "Right now it's just ideas. We've seen some things in the sport over the years that we think, with our experience, we can capitalize on. I couldn't be straighter about it. We haven't talked about America's Cup."

But, what the heck, let's leap to conclusions here: Dubai = oil = sheiks = $$$.

Speaking separately, Cayard said, "Yeah, we've got a little scheme going on."

That scheme may be an alternative to the America’s Cup, which has become a rich man’s playground.

"I think the Cup is very expensive and hard to justify, but it will always exist and may exist as it has in the past," Cayard said.

"If there is a future for sailing, a way to make a quantum leap for spectators and commercial value, I think the business model has to be different from the America's Cup model, and someone has to come along who has the ability to pull enough people together and enough money together to group up in critical mass and start something up.

"If we could create a great racing event with costs inferior to the value generated, maybe there is a business opportunity."

Whatever that opportunity, Davis also would be interested and no doubt welcomed.

Cayard said, "There are different people on the sailing circuit, and some of 'em may be good sailors, but not all are people you'd want to be in business with or friends with. Rod and Russell are good guys, apart from being good sailors."

The Log
California boating guide
Thursday, June 24, 2004

BE noted: This might prove interesting, probably not for multi's though