Flaws lead to demise of Admiral's Cup

Last Monday's announcement by the Royal Ocean Racing Club that the biennial Admiral's Cup has been cancelled did not come as a surprise for many people, least of all to those closely involved in the world of grand prix yacht racing. The writing has been on the wall for some time.

Chief among those involved with big racing boats have been the naval architects who relied on owners for design commissions of fast, custom boats. These would sail at events such as the Kenwood Cup in Hawaii or the Sardinia Cup before culminating in the "World Championship of Offshore Racing" - the Admiral's Cup itself.

Overlapping with the institutional Cowes Week, the Admiral's Cup comprised national teams of three boats of different sizes. At its peak, the event had more than 20 teams largely due to the success of the International Offshore Rule (IOR), a handicapping system that had global popularity at that time.

But IOR barely lasted 15 years before computers, in the hands of skilled designers, eventually exploited its weaknesses and wealthy owners could pay for winning boats. The phrase "cheque-book" sailing was commonplace and moves started to introduce more one-design classes where design anomalies were removed in favour of sailors' winning skills.

Ireland used to boast strong Admiral's Cup contenders from the ranks of its best club sailors, due in no small part to New Zealander Ron Holland, based in Cork, who led the field of IOR designs. But it was fellow Kiwi Bruce Farr who took over Holland's mantle since the mid1980s.

Today, Ron Holland continues to practice yacht design from Kinsale but aimed strictly at the mega-yacht market. But for Mark Mills, the 32-year-old Wicklow-based racing yacht designer, the changes in the marketplace that have led to the Admiral's Cup's decline mean refocusing his talents from the traditional racing scene.

Mills was one of a small breed of young naval architects who rode the coat-tails of dissention following the collapse of the IOR and its replacement by the cumbersome and American-dominated International Measurement System (IMS) that failed to gain a following in Ireland, Britain and France. Instead, the Channel Handicap System (CHS) that was aimed at club-level sailors found a willing market from would-be Admiral's Cup owners.

The Admiral's Cup has been in disarray and has been modified several times. For 2001, the event was to have been formatted as a stand-alone event for one-designs. However, by last Monday's deadline for entries there were only two nations interested in competing.

Asked to comment on the announcement yesterday, Mills said: "I think the Admiral's Cup (cancellation) is more of a symptom of something broader. I suspect it's part of the evolution of the sport away from its Corinthian origins; it's the last nail in the coffin of the handicap racing era."

At professional level at least, this would seem to be true as the world's top sailors have been snatched up by "the B's" - the billionaire-syndicate chiefs.

But the malaise that Mills refers to goes deeper than blaming the pros.

Beforehand, in its heyday, the Admiral's Cup was driven by club sailors and national teams. However, it has become owner-driven, with the flaws apparent as multiple groups of owners disagree about the event format. The changeover to one-designs has failed as the wealthy owners continue to dominate the top level of this part of the sport.

Whereas once the Admiral's Cup was within reach of the average crew and owner, it has now disappeared. In effect, the entire middle-layer of the sport has been removed, with the professionals existing at the very sharp end of the America's Cup.

It may well be that the Admiral's Cup will be staged again in 2003. Perhaps in it will be in a new format that can again replace that missing layer from the sport's structure. But the days of custom-racing yachts will soon be over as young designers face the prospect of competing for lucrative million dollar-plus maxi racing boats - few of which will ever grace these shores.