SAILING/Admiral's Cup: Following the announcement earlier this week that the Admiral's Cup will be staged in Ireland in 2003, clubs and sailors around the coast will be taking a fresh look at the next two years and beyond.
The Royal Ocean Racing Club's (RORC) decision to radically overhaul the event is designed to produce just such a stimulus to high-end club sailors who can now see a clearer path to international competition.
The challenge facing Irish sailing is two-fold. RORC Commodore Peter Rutter stated clearly that while the newlook Admiral's Cup is designed to be transportable, the new host venue could well retain the event after 2003 if the event is a success and an attractive package is produced.
That outcome must be the goal for the local organisers and a clean-sheet start, based on a wealth of national event management experience, will be essential.
To that end, the Royal St George YC have this week advertised for a new full-time position in the club to deal with the massive workload involved in hosting the Admiral's Cup.
The arrival of the event in Ireland will be a one-off opportunity for Dublin Bay to endorse itself as a prime racing location. A visit to any number of overseas venues such as Newport, Rhode Island or any Mediterranean venue will provide a worthwhile guide to the standards required. Fortunately, much of this infrastructure is already in place in Dublin though an element of orchestration may be needed to ensure a flawless operation.
In terms of payback, the Admiral's Cup delivers both economically and longer-term by way of massively increased media exposure. The RORC hopes that it can attract between 10 and 20 teams of two boats each. This is nothing like the former event at its peak more than 20 years ago but its cachet remains. Convincing owners to back the event by committing to campaign their boats or build new ones is a marketing exercise involving both the RORC and their Irish hosts.
The format of creating an umbrella class association for IMS rule designed boats is instantly appealing to many existing owners of around 40 feet in length in numerous countries. This is half of any potential team. The larger boat is only known to be a size larger than 50 foot measured under the IRC Endorsed system. This could conceivably see many of the new generation of maxi yachts involved in the Admiral's Cup. Clarification of the exact sizes permitted will be needed urgently from the RORC before teams can know what costs are involved.
However, perhaps the major challenge to Irish owners and sailors will be to produce one or two host nation teams to credibly challenge for the Admiral's Cup. Since Ireland's last foray at the event in Cowes in 1995, offshore racing has steadily declined to a hardened-core group. The cause of this downturn has been variously blamed on changing social habits such as greater family pressures as well as the growth of 'one-design' sportboats offering cost-effective, time-efficient, exciting racing.
There is strong evidence abroad to suggest that this international trend is reversing and long-distance racing is coming into vogue once again. This is good news for the Irish offshore sailing scene and Cork is, as with the heyday of the Admiral's Cup in the 1970s, leading the national charge.
Already, the South Coast Offshore Racing Association (SCORA) has received the imprimatur of the Irish Sailing Association to organise a team to compete in this summer's Rolex Commodore's Cup event.
This RORC event is biased more towards amateur crews but is certain to form the basis for an 2003 Admiral's Cup challenge once full details of the boats have finally been decided.
