A Very Sad Sporting Story
Over the last few weeks I have been watching the Americas Cup which is a sailing event thought up by the British thinking they would win it. Way back in 1875 the Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron thought it would be a good idea to have a yacht race round the Isle Of Wight. The problem is they thought they had the fastest Schooners and this would be a competition they could dominate. How wrong could you be lol.
(Karma) A Bad Idea?
The problem with this competition is Great Britain never won the first race in 1875 and what makes this even worse is they have never won the trophy. I had no idea they had never ever won this event until today when after Ineos Great Britain won the Louis Vitton Cup the commentator mentioned Great Britain is contesting the Americas Cup for the first time in 69 years. September 1964 was the last time Team GB won the right to challenge the defending champion.
Prestigious And Elusive Trophy
Not only is the Americas Cup the oldest sporting trophy in the world being 149 years old, but has only had 4 countries able to win this event which up till now has been fought over 36 times. The USA has dominated this event winning the cup on 30 occasions followed by New Zealand 3 time, Switzerland twice nd Australia once. The trophy was named after the American Schooner America that wo the very first race so this is a constant reminder of how bad this idea was. Funny Switzerland a land locked country has won this event which would drive the sailing fraternity crazy especially if you have never won the event.
After knowing that Team Great Britain has failed 36 times before as this is the 37th event you can understand why it has become an obsession to gain their sailing pride back. Hundreds of millions of dollars has been poured into this event because the defending champion holds all the aces. Why the British had to be so cock sure allowing the champion to select the boat class and the rules for the race is kind of mad and arrogant all at the same time.
The rules is what makes this event so tough as once the event is won the first team to challenge the champions becomes the official challenger on record. These two teams set the rules for the next event which will favor their known skills especially if it is on home water giving you an advantage on the water conditions they know so well.
The problem is for all the competing teams is they have a round robin tournament ending up with the final two competing with the winner going on to challenge for the Americas Cup. That team has already been racing competitively for a solid month and now has to do it all over again under serious pressure as mistakes will lose you races and this is the first to 7 race wins who wins the trophy.
If you think about Great Britain/England and team sports in general they do struggle. Look at football which has been almost as elusive as the Americas Cup. There have been 22 Football World Cups and England's 1966 victory is the only one. I am sure over the next month the Americas Cup will become a big news story in the UK as just maybe they can win this event finally that they created.
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While I don't remember at all what it was called I recently watched a doco about some new type of boat that either the Aussies or the Americans introduced in a race in the 80's I believe it was. It was a crazy new addition to the underside of the boat and you can tell by my terminology that I know next to nothing about boats. I believe it was the same year that Australia won the event and their innovation ended up becoming the norm after that time.
I think this happens quite often nd why these types f races are great for innovation and developing technology. Ineos Brittania has the Mercedes Formula One team helping them and these boats will only get faster because of these types of partnerships.