FOIL-SPORTS
Coutts, Ellison to rival America’s Cup
Former America’s Cup holders Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts are set to announce a new sailing league called SailGP that will be contested in an enhanced class of foiling 50-foot catamarans.
Ellison, the software tycoon who co-founded Oracle Corp, and New Zealand sailing legend Coutts headed the Oracle Team USA syndicate that won the America’s Cup in 2010 and 2013 before losing it to Team New Zealand in 2017.
They have been working for several months on the concept of an annual league that will keep alive their vision of competing in fast, cutting-edge catamarans.
Plans call for SailGP to have five regattas in 2019, beginning in midFebruary in Sydney. The other regattas are expected to be held in San Francisco, New York, Great Britain and France. Reports have indicated there will be teams from the United States, Great Britain and Australia, and entries are also expected from France, Japan and China.
While SailGP isn’t intended to compete directly with the America’s Cup, it will launch two years before the next America’s Cup, which is scheduled for 2021 in Auckland.
As chief executive of the America’s Cup Event Authority before the 2017 regatta, Coutts championed continuity and stability via a framework agreement that called for matches in 2019 and 2021 in foiling catamarans.
Team New Zealand was the only team that didn’t sign it, and the Kiwis, in conjunction with Challenger of Record Luna Rossa of Italy, decided to sail the 36th America’s Cup in AC75s, a new class of foiling, singlehulled boats.
The SailGP catamarans will be called F50s — the F stands for foiling — and will be considered a new class. The fleet for 2019 will be a combination of AC50s used in the 2017 America’s Cup that were dismantled and redesigned, and new boats built in New Zealand. While they will look similar to AC50s, they are expected to be faster and will be sailed by crews of five rather than six.
In recent years, top-level sailing events, particularly the America’s Cup, have compared themselves to motorsport’s elite Formula One due to radical technological advancements in boat design and televisionfriendly formats.
Coutts, a fivetime America’s Cup winner, and Ellison first won the America’s Cup together when Oracle Team USA sailed a 90-foot trimaran to victory over Alinghi of Switzerland’s catamaran in a one-off match in 2010. They scaled back to 72-foot catamarans for the 2013 America’s Cup and then to 50-footers last year in Bermuda.
While Coutts served as non-sailing chief executive for Oracle Team USA, he previously won the America’s Cup three times as a skipper, twice with Team New Zealand and once with Alinghi. He sailed undefeated through three straight America’s Cup matches.
Plans call for Ellison to financially back the league initially until it moves to a franchise model.
The Australian team is expected to be headed by Tom Slingsby, who held a key role with Oracle Team USA in 2013 and 2017, and won gold at the London Olympics.
Last week, Sky News reported Sir Keith Mills will have a role in running the British leg of the league. Mills’ Origin Sports Group are holding a news conference next week.
The American team could include Rome Kirby, a former Oracle crew member and son of former America’s Cup sailor Jerry Kirby.