What Larry did next
Sailgp is a new foiling multihull circuit that hopes to move Sailing into the mainstream. talked to russell coutts to find out more
Russell Coutts reveals Larry Ellison’s plans for Sailgp, a foiling multihull circuit to bring sailing into the mainstream
Helen Fretter
What do you do when you don’t win the America’s Cup? What if, after years of relentless focus and millions of dollars of expenditure, you come away with nothing?
If you are Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts, and you suddenly go from planning how you were going to host the 36th America’s Cup to losing the Cup, you put on your own event instead. Or that’s what Coutts seemed to announce with the launch of Sailgp, an all-new foiling catamaran multi-stage global circuit culminating in a winner-takes-all final match race showdown.
There’s no getting away from the fact that it sounds an awful lot like an alternative to the America’s Cup. Is it a rival event? “Sorry,” Coutts says firmly, “But everyone keeps comparing this to the America’s Cup and really we’re not. I seem to have to keep trying to convince people about it – we’re a whole new sports league that I don’t think is comparable to anything else in the sport of sailing right now.”
It is undeniably hard not to draw comparisons. Sailgp will begin in 2019 with five events for six teams. Britain, France, USA, Australia, Japan and China will compete in Sydney, San Francisco, New York, Cowes, and the south of France. Racing will be a mix of short-course, broadcastfriendly fleet and match races held over a weekend in each venue, with a final winner-takes-all match in Marseilles for a US$1 million prize pot.
The catamarans are a modified one-design version of the AC50S, to be known as the Foiling 50s or F50s. Coutts is
CEO and Ellison has wholly funded the circuit for three years, taking it through to 2021 (the same year as the America’s Cup match).
Sailgp was a fairly open secret before it was formally announced. It was widely anticipated that Coutts and Ellison would want to do something after the
framework agreement, so painstakingly hammered out during the last America’s Cup, came to naught.
The framework was driven by Ellison’s Oracle Team USA and put in place a pre-agreed format of a two-year cycle in a catamaran class and a World Series, reducing costs and offering more stability to sponsors with the hope of increasing entry numbers. But when Emirates Team New Zealand, the only team not to sign up, won in Bermuda, the framework was filed firmly in the ‘ideas that will never happen’ box.
Sailgp actually goes considerably further than those proposals. There is a strong nationality component, which would never have been accepted by Cup teams cherrypicking talent. The F50s are going to be a strictly monitored one-design, the antithesis of the America’s Cup design race.
In fact, Sailgp bears closer comparison to another circuit announced a decade ago. The World Sailing League was unveiled to much fanfare in 2007 by Coutts and Paul Cayard, and promised 12 teams representing their nation, competing in one-design catamarans on a global circuit for a €2 million prize. So far, so familiar.
It never happened. “Unfortunately the promoter, Lagos Sports of Portugal, had a number of setbacks and was unable to fulfil the underwriting commitment to get the project started,” explained Cayard in 2009. The gap was partly filled by the Extreme Sailing Series – the shortcourse catamaran circuit which attracted plenty of teams and media interest, albeit in rather robust 40-footers.
‘EVERYONE KEEPS COMPARING THIS TO THE AMERICA’S CUP AND REALLY WE’RE NOT. WE’RE A WHOLE NEW SPORTS LEAGUE’
Spectator friendly
Coutts, however, wasn’t done with the idea. He remained convinced that there must be a way of creating a commercially viable, self sustaining, spectator friendly sailing event.
He joined BMW Oracle Racing as CEO for the 2010 America’s Cup (ironically one of the least sustainable, when just two gigantic mismatched multihulls competed off Valencia), and stayed on as team boss for 2013. Many of the building blocks for the Sailgp concept were introduced there: two seasons of World Series fleet racing events for one-design foiling catamarans, rules to limit costs, and short courses close to shore.
For 2017 he was boss of the America’s Cup Event Authority in Bermuda, which saw developments including high-tech television coverage with biometric data from the sailors mid-race.
Larry Ellison, the founder of software giant Oracle, was meanwhile busy confirming his status as the man who has spent most on yachting in living memory. The rumoured costs of his 2017 campaign range from US$150-200 million, and anything up to $300 million on the one before that. He’s backed five Cup campaigns, and also part-funded the Softbank Team Japan challenger. Forbes ranks Ellison as the 8th richest man in the world, with a personal fortune of $58 billion.
Ellison is the reason Sailgp can succeed where previous events failed. He has underwritten the entire event for three years, including all six teams
and construction of at least seven
Foiling 50s (a new one will be built next year).
“You would never be able to create these boats and this model without start-up funding and Larry Ellison has provided that,” said Coutts. “That’s frankly one of our big advantages I think over previous attempts to set up sailing properties.
“If we didn’t have that start-up capital I think we’d have no chance.”
Coutts made it clear after the last Cup that he was done with the Auld Mug. The most successful America’s Cup sailor in history has won it five times: three as skipper, twice as team boss.
Now 56, Coutts returned from Bermuda and took over the reins of his local sailing club, Manly, one of Auckland’s smallest. As commodore he has created a vibrant youth programme. His interest is personal – when we spoke he was watching his 12-year-old son on a foiling Waszp outside their Whangaparaoa home. But running a small dinghy club was never going to satisfy someone as driven as Coutts, no matter how much change you can effect.
“When you are a small organisation at the beginning, you can take advantage of that and get a lot done,” he told the New Zealand Herald about his Manly role, adding: “The good thing is we can do what we think is right and, in a way, there’s a magic to that.” The same comment could no doubt apply to the Sailgp venture.
Deep pockets
Besides Ellison’s own very deep pockets, Sailgp has already attracted some commercial funding. Louis Vuitton is a founding partner, as is Land Rover, Ben Ainslie’s former America’s Cup backer.
“[Land Rover] were very disappointed, I know, when Ineos took over the America’s Cup team and they made it clear to me that they do still want to support sailing,” comments Sir Keith Mills, whose sports management company CSM is delivering the UK stage of Sailgp.
The ambition is for teams to bring in their own backers. With running costs of just US$5 million per year, teams should be able to turn a profit with a relatively small investment. Costs are capped by a team personnel limit of 18 for the first year, and shared boatyard services. The goal is for teams to build a sufficient fan base and be profitable enough to have real longevity – of at least a decade.
Part of the appeal of the event to sponsors, Coutts says, is there is almost zero risk. “If, for example, a sponsor is interested in media return, we can agree on what that media return should be. We can say ‘OK, if we don’t deliver you don’t pay’. And because we’re producing the television and controlling all of the marketing, we can have the confidence to do that.”
Currently the teams are simply named after their home nation. The nationality rule is not applied evenly across the fleet – for this cycle France, Britain, USA and Australia must have a 100% national sailing team, while China and
Japan must have 40% of sailors from their home nation.
‘THE GOAL IS FOR TEAMS TO BUILD A SUFFICIENT FAN BASE AND BE PROFITABLE ENOUGH TO HAVE REAL LONGEVITY’
That increases by a further 20% each year, driving countries like China and Japan to develop an elite foiling programme.
The nationality rule, Coutts says, was absolutely critical for fan engagement. “We saw in the past that it’s hard to get a strong fan following for, for example, a US team when you’ve got almost no US sailors on the boat.”
Entries are on a ‘one nation, one boat’ basis, so a private backer would not be able to set up a second Australian team, for example. The long-term plan is for each entry to have a home event, with organisers in discussions about adding a Chinese stage for 2020 and a Japan event for 2021.
Racing will be over two days, with evening races planned for city venues like New York. Each grand prix will begin with five fleet races, before culminating in a final match race between the two leaders. The exception will be the season finale in Marseille, which will have three days of racing culminating in one, 20-minute match race for the two overall season leaders, racing for a prize of US$1 million.
Modular concept
The Foiling 50s are a combination of rebuilt AC50S and new builds, using parts including the cross-beams, central pods and wings from Oracle, Softbank Team Japan, BAR and Artemis Racing, together with two all-new builds. Coutts says that adapting the AC50S enabled them to get on the water at least a year earlier than if they had created a new class, as well as allowing them to build on the experience the Cup teams already had with the 50-footers.
The structural work has been taking place at Core Composites in New Zealand, which is owned by Ellison. It has been a huge undertaking, with a team of 110 people working for over a year at Core.
Although the F50s are one-design, the plan is for them to continue evolving. One of the first things to be developed will be new wingsails, using what Coutts describes as an “almost Lego-type modular concept” to build 18m2 and 28m2 wings alongside the current 24m2 size, using the same components with different mid-sections.
The 18m wing is planned for completion by Marseille, an event likely to be at the top of the wind range, with the light airs 28m wing following in 2020.
Software, hydraulic and control systems have been developed with Artemis Technologies, a new company formed from the design team of Artemis Racing.
“Team New Zealand ran a fantastic campaign and certainly had the fastest boat in Bermuda, but Artemis Racing arguably had the best design package of the remaining teams,” explained David Tyler of Artemis Technologies. “The hydraulic control system and associated software is a forward development of the Artemis Racing boat.”
The controls include push buttons in the steering wheel that control ride height, jib sheet and rudder differential, while a joystick console for the ‘flight controller’ crew member adjusts rudder and foil controls, including rudder pitch angle (a change from the AC50S, which had to preset this ashore).
Another significant change from the AC50S is that the hydraulics will no longer come from grinders or ‘cyclors’ driving oil pressure, but will be battery powered. A knock-on effect of this is that the crew numbers can reduce to five, with the grinding role reverting to trimming.
Sea trials under way
The first F50 sailed on 18 October for sea trials, and the sailors will get their hands on the boats in November, working up to the first event in Sydney in February. In the meantime the crews have been practicing on a simulator in Slough, of all the glamorous locations. Also created by Artemis Technologies, the simulator is a full-motion single hull with cockpits designed to radically accelerate training times. Chris Draper, Great Britain team manager and wing trimmer, said it was surprisingly realistic. “It’s quite scary. I mean it’s so real that you almost start to think about jumping out of your cockpit and running across the boat.”
The simulator gave the teams an opportunity to try the flight control joystick and systems, and begin developing some routines and communication loops, as well as getting a feel for the performance of the F50s.
“On our last few runs on the simulator we were getting 100% fly time. Locked in windward heel and ripping around, bearing away, rounding up and so on for seven or eight minutes. If that’s what we’re going to be achieving, then the fight control system is working very well.”
Once the teams get up to speed on the real F50s, significant performance leaps are expected. Two sets of all-new foils have been constructed for each boat, one light airs, one heavy.
Safety is a big component. The crews have already
been sent on a gruelling underwater training course, and Coutts says they are developing innovative systems ranging from a Gps-based mechanism to detect if any sailor falls off the boat to collision warning systems, and a harness which will allow the sailors to move around but will lock, seat belt-style, in the event of a collision or capsize.
The F50s will have to relocate to five different venues, so beam fairings, electronic and hydraulic systems have been made so they can be easily disconnected and reconnected, explains Coutts, whose target is for the F50s to be able to be packed up in two days.
Team build-up
At the time of going to press, three of the six teams had been officially announced. Great Britain is skippered by Olympian Dylan Fletcher with Stuart Bithell as ‘flight controller’, the pair balancing the Sailgp with a 2020 49er Olympic campaign. Former Luna Rossa helmsman Chris Draper is manager, wing trimmer, and brings huge amounts of foiling cat experience.
The likely early favourites are Team Australia, skippered by Tom Slingsby, another ex-oracle Cup winner and Olympic gold medallist. The team has Kyle Langford wing trimming. Surprisingly, Nathan Outteridge wasn’t named as part of the Australian team but is widely expected to feature in another entry, possibly Team Japan.
The USA team is headed up by Rome Kirby, from the 2013 winning Oracle Cup team, with a young squad.
Organisers are hoping to expand the line-up to 10 teams. The US$5 million annual costs will surely make Sailgp particularly appealing to any team wavering about putting in a late America’s Cup challenge.
The America’s Cup protocol could be interpreted as forbidding Cup teams from taking part in Sailgp. But while the current Cup takes place in monohulls is there a temptation for teams to run a separate squad in the GP to keep up multihull development? Keith Mills thinks not:
“The current America’s Cup cycle is the most expensive ever, as far as I can tell, and I can’t see an America’s Cup team having the appetite to invest even more in another circuit.”
There are synergies however. Nick Holroyd, chief designer for Ineos UK, was involved in the modifications of the F50s and remains on that panel designing some of the ongoing changes.
So is the Sailgp a thinly veiled rival to the 36th America’s Cup, or is it a genuinely game-changing addition to the sporting calendar?
It’s hard not to see the timing as deliberate – the Sailgp catamarans are guaranteed to race until 2021, when they will naturally compete for attention on the world’s stage with the AC75 foiling monohulls. It makes a certain sense that, having lost the battle of Bermuda, Ellison is now trying to win the war of ideas.
Credit where it’s due
But legacy is as powerful a motivator as revenge. “If you look at what’s been invested even in the last ten years, Larry Ellison didn’t have to commit to building a whole fleet of one-design 45-footers back in 2011,” says Coutts.
“He could have said at that point, the next America’s Cup is in foiling wing-sailed catamarans, I’ll see you on the startline. But he didn’t, he chose not to do that, and I don’t think he’s received as much credit as he should have.”
Ultimately the motives might not really matter. The worst-case scenario is that Sailgp will provide an adrenaline shot for all the foiling catamaran design and sailing skill development that was paused after that final race in Bermuda last summer. The best case is it that it builds a fan base for sailing that the sport has never seen before. It’s a phenomenal experiment.