Spithill coy on Cup bid
Jimmy Spithill wants to see Australia back in the America’s Cup but is waiting to see ‘‘where all the cards fall’’ before committing to trying to win back the Auld Mug.
Spithill won the Cup twice with Oracle Team USA but lost it to Emirates Team New Zealand in Bermuda this year.
Oracle are yet to declare their intentions but the new national rules brought in by Team New Zealand for the next Cup in 2021 place a big question mark over teams full of hired guns.
Spithill’s Australian team-mate at Oracle, Tom Slingsby, is trying to organise an America’s Cup challenge from across the Tasman, dedicating a year to see if he can make the logistics work.
Spithill, who captained Young Australia for the country’s last crack at the Cup way back in 2001, is all for it – but won’t commit himself just yet.
‘‘I’d love to see an Australian team in the America’s Cup, if you look around the teams over the past few campaigns, you see Aussies littered throughout all of them,’’ Spithill said at a yachting charity event in Canberra, reported by The Age.
‘‘We’re so associated with the water in Australia and I think the fact that the next one in is in New Zealand it wouldn’t be surprising at all [to see an Australian team].
‘‘All the guys involved in that 2000 programme have gone onto some pretty successful careers... I was very young and it was a real bare bone campaign but it was a lot of fun ... I honestly don’t know what my plans are right now, just keeping my options open.’’
With teams waiting for the official entries to open on January 1 and the class rule for the radical new foiling 75-foot monohull to be released on March 31, Spithill said there was plenty to contemplate.
Spithill believes millionaire Anthony Bell, the reigning Sydney to Hobart winner, could be the man to back the Australian challenge.
‘‘He’s been pretty successful in a lot of his campaigns, certainly in the offshore world, they broke the Sydney to Hobart race record and I know he’s raised a lot of money for charity,’’ Spithill said.
‘‘I know Anthony a little bit and he’s a really good bloke but I don’t know any of his plans, I’m kind of waiting to see where all the cards fall, there are a few different projects outside of the America’s Cup that I’m pretty interested in.
‘‘Everyone in the sailing world is waiting on the final class rule, which is what the boat design is and that will come out in March next year, so before you commit to any sort of project or program you really need to know where the goal posts are.’’
Spithill has previously said he is eager to stay in the America’s Cup game and redeem himself from this year’s heavy loss to Team New Zealand.
He is set to race in the this year’s Sydney to Hobart aboard Comanche. The boat won the title two years ago and finished second behind Wild Oats in 2014.