Vincenzo Onorato replies to criticism on his role in the 34th America's Cup

Vincenzo Onorato, owner of Mascalzone Latino, Challenger of Record of the 34th America's Cup, has been widely criticized for his silence and the, allegedly, inexistent role his team has in shaping the current edition of the pinnacle event of the sport of sailing. Onorato being Italian received the bulk of the criticism in his home country. As a result, he used Italy's main sailing media, FareVela, to reply to his critics. We would like to thank our friend Michele Tognozzi, editor of FareVela, for allowing us to reproduce Onorato's letter.

Here's what the owner of the Challenger of Record had to say [Note: the translation of the original text in Italian is mine]:

"Dear Michele,

I read Fare Vela Online with interest, every day. I have also read the criticism leveled at my club, seen as a sleeping partner of the Defender rather than a Challenger of Record worthy of its name. I partly feel responsible for these opinions as a direct result of our scant communication on the work we are carrying out. Oracle and Mascalzone, and their respective yachts clubs, inherited a disastrous Cup in terms of image, a result of the long and, I point out, legitimate litigation with Bertarelli. Russell and I meet almost every week and our teams are in daily contact.

All decisions taken are thoroughly discussed and thought through. It is also true we are going through an international economic environment to say the least disastrous and this is a further incentive to act with utmost care and caution. My silence doesn't mean I'm not doing anything but that we are humbly working, among other things, on carrying water to our mill. I'm Italian and my mill is called Italy, I would like to take to our country a series of events of the next Cup, just like I did last summer in La Maddalena.

A Jesuit that taught me in school used to say: Look at the substance of things, not their form. That's what I'm doing.

Your faithful and devoted reader,

Vincenzo Onorato"

Mascalzone Latino is not the "sleeping partner" of BMW Oracle, according to Vincenzo Onorato

Here's what Michele Tognozzi wrote, regarding Onorato's letter [Note: the translation of the original text in Italian is mine]:

We thank Vincenzo Onorato for his prompt reply and for the attention with which he follows us. We would like to point out that FareVela Net has echoed the large number of readers that wrote, replying to our invitation to voice their own opinion on the Cup. Our doubts are simply those of the majority of emails we received.

With two years and a half left until the 34th America's Cup there are still many unknowns and Onorato's very admission of a "difficult international economic environment" can only give rise to questions on the real costs of the event, the potential participating teams and the role of the Challenger of Record, questions to which Onorato has promptly replied. Many of the questions, certainly, derive from the "scant communication on the work we are carrying out", as the owner of Mascalzone Latino Audi Team pointed out.

The Defender's advantage

"The concern has always been about the defender having several months lead-time ahead of challengers to design and build a new boat, without anyone else knowing what the design rules were."

Who made the above statement regarding the alleged design advantage the Defender of the America's Cup might have? Was it Ben Ainslie, Grant Simmer, Grant Dalton, Paul Cayard or Sir Keith Mills?

Well, it was none of the aforementioned representatives of the potential 34th America's Cup challengers. The quoted text was part of a statement made on November 1st, 2007, by Tom Ehman, spokesperson of the Golden Gate Yacht Club, later challenger of the 33rd America's Cup. The Defender then was Alinghi and the design rule concerned the AC90, the monohull yacht the Swiss had chosen in order to substitute the IACC.

However, this is the America's Cup and the Defender will always have an advantage, like it always has. Sailing's pinnacle event was never meant to be fair and that's part of its attraction, to challenge the Defender and try to win, knowing the cards are stacked against you (to some extent at least).

Don't get me wrong, just as I praised the Valencia TV Trials, Valencia Sailing will be the first to praise the AC72's and the new direction of the Cup if in the second quarter of 2012 we get great and exciting races. It's only normal though for the Defender to be scrutinized more than the challengers. They set the game. Is there any reason to scrutinize Synergy, Artemis or Team Origin? They will be judged by their performance (if and when they formally enter the Cup).

Facebook generation?

It is exactly one week ago that Russell Coutts, during a presentation in his team's base in Valencia, argued that a change in the America's Cup was necessary since his target audience would now be the "Facebook generation" and not the "Flintstones generation" as it has been the rule in the previous editions. Since the Facebook generation, according to Coutts' argumentation, wants cool and fast boats, the only way to achieve this is with multihulls.

Although I personally disagree with the choice of boat, arguing about that is meaningless. This is the America's Cup and the Defender will always take the decisions that minimize the risks of defeat. Given the liberty to set the rules of the game, nobody would be naive enough to give up any advantage they might have. Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts have decided that the best option is for the next edition of the Cup to be sailed on 72-foot wingsail catamarans, so we have to live with that and move on.

Facebook generation or "old guys in blue blazers" for the Frank Sinatra generation? Valencia, 13 September 2010. Photo copyright Gilles Martin-Raget / America's Cup

Yet, in the presentation there was a discrepancy, in my opinion, between the message and the way it was conveyed. If the target audience was indeed the Facebook generation why have a show where the old-age stereotypes about sailing are perpetuated once again? With all respect to the commodores of the two yacht clubs, does anyone think that a dull presentation with white-haired old people wearing blue blazers was the right approach? It seemed as if the target wasn't the Facebook generation but rather the Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin generations. One wouldn't expect to have Justin Bieber sing before Coutts made his speech but why not bring a young sailor to make the pitch, especially concerning the Youth America's Cup?

Adam Minoprio is still the world's number one match racer but having now crossed over to the "dark side" by joining Emirates Team NZ, I understand he wouldn't be very welcome in the BMW Oracle base. Still, there are several young, aggressive and successful sailors. Take Torvar Mirsky, Keith Swinton or Phil Roberston. Why not give the stage to them to talk about how "cool" the new boats are and how exciting the Youth America's Cup will be. In fact, I think it's one of the best concepts we heard in the presentation last week and I was surprised how nobody had thought about it in the past. It appears it was an original idea of Tom Ehman, surprisingly another member of the blue-blazer-wearing crowd.

I hope it was just teething problems of the new America's Cup organization and it will be fixed in the near future. They might want to have a look at this video to check what kind of sports the Facebook and YouTube generation is practicing. That's definitely "cool stuff"!

Vincenzo Onorato: Go to hell Alinghi

"I'm happy with BMW Oracle's victory. I would like to remind that it was Mr. Bertarelli who excluded Russel Coutts from the last America's Cup edition: the world's greatest regatta without the greatest sailor of all times! Go to hell Alinghi and all these teams of sly professionals that hypocritically supported them up to now.

The regatta will now be back on the water, as the judges of the NY Supreme Court wrote and ratified. We will watch the third millennium's super match between Oracle's and Alinghi's monster trimarans in a challenge similar to the OK Corral gunfight."

Vincenzo Onorato

Note: The link to Wikipedia's entry for the 1957 western film was added by Valencia Sailing and was NOT part of Onorato's statement. Who's going to be Burt Lancaster and who will take Kirk Douglas' role?

Vincenzo Onorato writes letter to Ernesto Bertarelli

Dear Ernesto,

I have read the list of the last - minute registered teams to Your America's Cup.

You would forgive my insolence, but in such a very short time a number of teams without history or "art" have been promptly and immediately accredited to the highest world sailing competition. These teams "by chance" have filed an Amicus brief against GGYC - BMW Oracle Racing team. The above would be nearly - and I repeat nearly - marginal if you would have not taken more then an year to issue a confirmation letter of acceptance of our Club and Mascalzone Latino! You asked for the proof of the existence of Reale Yacht Club Canottieri Savoia which has more then a century of history and participations into two America's Cup.

The matter raises existential questions: which rooms near the sea I have visited in the last decades in Naples? Where I have had dinners hundreds of times thinking to be my yacht club? Should I now question whether my club exists? I' m proud of my Neapolitan origins . You Mr Bertarelli , you should be ashamed to offend my club and the city it represents only because we have supported Oracle arguments. You could make other amicus brief being signed by teams which from the America's Cup expect anything but a loyal competition; the so called "professional" of sailing which means those who wish to make money from sailing, have not always honoured our sport, too eager for money and not for the competition. Congratulation to Russell who has the courage to give up with you, and to Ellison to defend our sport. A pray: for once please reply to me, and do not hide you behind your "rubber wall" which does not honour you .

Vincenzo Onorato

P.S.: I kindly ask you to provide me with the proof that all the other teams registered have paid the registration fee as we have done!

Letter from Vincenzo Onorato

[Source: Mascalzone Latino] With reference to the last meeting held on October 30th in Geneva among the Société Nautique de Geneve, Alinghi and the challengers to the 33 America’s Cup, Mascalzone Latino apologizes for not having attended due to previous commitments and confirms its participation to the next meeting scheduled on November 11th.

It further occurs to me to say that, even if we would have attended last week meeting, we would have not signed the letter with the request to the Golden Gate Yacht Club to withdraw the case before the New York appeal Court. As we have said several times, Mascalzone Latino agrees with Oracle’s goal to organize an event with fair rules in order to give all challengers a chance to win. The most simple solution, in order to put and end to this dispute, is to go back to the 32nd America’s Cup Protocol.

With respect to the class of yacht, it doesn’t make sense to create a new class, while the world is getting through the deepest economic crisis after the one in 1929.

A new class means new immediate investments for research, and at the same time throwing away a class with more than 100 boats already built.

In order to make the Cup face both the external trauma due to the current economic crisis, and the internal trauma due to the Alinghi’s Protocol and the legal dispute, it’s necessary to go back, at least one more time, to the ACV5 which have already guaranteed exciting regatta. This would help increase the teams’ participation in the event with a low budget - why not using the yachts from the last edition of the America’s Cup - and above of all, with a realistic economic sense in the search for sponsors.

Vincenzo Onorato: Now it's choice: The America's Cup or the "Alinghi's Cup"

[Source: Mascalzone Latino] Now that there is only one last chance left for an appeal, last week's decision by a New York court to re-instate CNEV as Challenger of Record puts the whole future of the America's Cup at risk. For if their decision stands, our sport's premier match will come to an end as a genuine sailing competition. What we will have instead will be a regatta that just pretends to be the Cup.

Predictably, we have heard panicky cries for a multi-challenger event at all costs. It is almost as if the rules don't matter. But what sort of event will it be when a sham COR has already connived at ensuring the defender can't lose?

In case you've forgotten, let's recall the protocol Alinghi now brazenly promotes as its "vision."

Alinghi claims the right to choose, at its sole discretion, the regatta judges, the committee, the umpires and the measurers, even going so far as to state that they must be its employees. Alinghi, again at its sole discretion, claims the right to accept a challenge or to penalize a rival and to change the rules at any time. Little wonder this protocol was immediately opposed by seven syndicates.

Faced with a stacked deck, top-level syndicates will stay away. You can argue it is still better to join and hope for change. But that's how a lamb thinks before it gets into bed with a wolf. We might as well rename it the Alinghi Cup now.

The three judges may have swallowed the bait that any multi-challenger event is better than a Deed of Gift match. But if so why even have rules? For a defender can now collude with anyone to fix the game. Incredibly, this ruling says the America's Cup Challenger of Record doesn't even need to own a boat!

Sure, we will still have an event called the America's Cup. But top sailors will know it's a sham. And it won't take sponsors and fans long to catch on either. Already we have seen Louis Vuitton, who have been a key part of the Cup's whole identity, go. What looks like a race will in fact be a procession. Ernesto Bertarelli's vision turns out to be a cynical marketing ploy that gives his commercial subsidiary, ACM, total control.

Oracle have courageously tried to stop an Alinghi take-over. There is only one round left in the court process. We have to hope Oracle will win. Because if they don't the modern Cup will have just come to a shameful end.

Vincenzo Onorato
Mascalzone Latino

Vincenzo Onorato talks about the Barcolana and the America's Cup

Vincenzo Onorato, the Italian owner of Mascalzone Latino, talked to the media on Saturday in Trieste where he raced for the RC44 Trieste Cup, an event of the Barcolana. Onorato's boat had a difficult start at the Trieste Cup and was unable to recover due to its uneven performance. Mascalzone Latino finished 6th overall out of 10 boats that took part in the event.

In addition to expressing his admiration for the Barcolana, Onorato briefly comments about the current state of affairs of the America's Cup, making a disadvantageous comparison to the Italian event.

"The Barcolana is an incredible thing, a true sailing party. I haven't seen anything like it, neither in Valencia nor in Auckland. It's been more than 30 years that I have been racing throughout the world but this is the first time I see an event such as this one. It's fantastic to take part in it and Trieste gives the sailing world a lesson in style."

"It truly is a party for the sport of sailing and the people, and to see so many boats and so many people united in the same spirit, the genuine one, the sporting one, it's incredible. As far as the last day of racing is concerned, I hope to have fun, to be with my friends. Here in Trieste, it's not like the America's Cup which has turned into a drugged event, slowly distancing itself from people. The America's Cup should learn from Trieste and in particular from the Barcolana."

Vincenzo Onorato helming the Mascalzone Latino boat at the RC44 Trieste Cup where he finished sixth overall. Photo copyright Fabio Taccola/Farevela

"The relation I have with the city of Trieste is a sort of twinship, my crew has a long history of local guys and especially Vasco Vascotto, with whom I won two world titles. It's a very strong bond and this city has inspired me to create the sailing school in Naples. In Trieste, sailing is a popular sport and for that reason it can be considered a cradle of champions, unlike Naples where we hope that some day things will change."

"I chose to race in Barcolana with the RC44 because it's an innovative and extremely competitive boat, created and managed by the greatest sailing champion of all times: Russell Coutts."

"The America's Cup in 2009, with the same boats as the previous edition, would be perfect for Mascalzone Latino and with that solution all problems would be solved. During summer we proposed that solution, which would have given the opportunity to race within a very short time and enjoy very close and spectacular competition. The last edition of the event was characterized by close and breathtaking duels and I hope the next America's Cup can truly convey spectators the emotion and conquer them, just like here in Barcolana."

Vincenzo Onorato helming the Mascalzone Latino boat at the RC44 Trieste Cup where he finished sixth overall. Photo copyright Fabio Taccola/Farevela