America's Cup tries to go mainstream

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NEWPORT, R.I. -- Oracle Team USA skipper James Spithill walks to the podium, still soaking wet from an afternoon of racing at the America's Cup World Series. He looks something like a cross between a rock climber and an astronaut, with his black neoprene wetsuit covered by a thick, flack-jacket-style life vest and helmet.

He's there to greet the public, answering questions from a moderator while on-lookers huddle around to hear the pearls of wisdom from the youngest Cup-winning skipper ever.

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AP Photo/Steven SenneWith the boats going faster and fans getting a closer look, the America's Cup will have the feel of NASCAR on water.

When he's finished, he runs the gauntlet through Newport's Fort Adams State Park, dodging between media obligations and stopping with fans for photos and autographs.

The 33-year-old native Australian whiz kid-turned-champion has become the face to the America's Cup's new image.

The weekend exhibition of high-powered sailing in Narragansett Bay, the culmination of the World Series events, was part of the Cup's concerted push to become more fan friendly. When the Cup makes its debut in San Francisco one year from now, the racing will be up-close-and-personal, not miles out to sea, as was tradition. That transition will be ushered in with the help of a new breed of awe-inspiring, double-hulled speed machines.

If Cup organizers have their way, the sport will no longer be exclusive to the wine-and-cheese crowd. Instead, it fancies itself as an extreme sport engineered for adrenaline junkies. Think NASCAR.

"This is on-the-edge kind of stuff," Spithill said Saturday behind a thick set of sunglasses on his meandering journey back to base camp. "These boats put you on the edge. If you're not careful, they'll make you pay."

Sea change

The first patent for a catamaran sailboat in the United States was filed by Nathanael Greene Herreshoff, the Amaryllis, in 1876. A wildly successful shipbuilder out of Bristol, R.I., the MIT graduate left his imprint all over the formulation of the America's Cup. Herreshoff designed and built the first five winning America's Cup yachts.

Yet, in his day, Herrshoff's catamaran design was considered a novelty. As America's robber barons spread their wealth, constructing sprawling summer homes in the port town of Newport, the leisure class took to the seas. The opulence found on Bellevue Avenue spilled over to the seafaring vessels of the megarich. Bigger was better, so was easy. The catamaran style involved hard work, no galleys and no place for cushy deck chairs.

It's as though things had come full circle this week, as the AC45s cut through the Narragansett Bay waters. Their wingsails (66 feet tall without extensions), stood like jumbo jet wings extending out of the calm harbor, but when at full speed, they enable the AC45 to cut through waves with relative ease. The catamaran's turning ability was a sight to behold, like Formula One cars at a grand prix.

However, the AC45s made Narragansett Bay feel a little like the cozy confines of Fenway Park, as evidenced in the rough start of racing by Emirates Team New Zealand. Skipper Dean Barker and crew capsized during a match race on Thursday. They were dragged about a mile off course by the current. Team New Zealand returned to the regatta on Friday after spending a sleepless night at team camp, repairing extensive damage to the wingsail.

On Friday, Team New Zealand finished seconds off Spithill's pace despite a broken daggerboard.

Barker, a native New Zealander with America's Cup experience, noted the AC45s have come with a learning curve -- one that will extend into next year with the transition to the America's Cup's AC72s.

"What this does is it gives us an understanding of how the courses will lie for the match racing," Barker said of the World Series experience. "We have several different components to racing that we haven't really encountered before, the course boundaries which are imposed, the courses that we sail are quite different from normal. You're learning about techniques and different boat-on-boat situations. For us, it's a very new thing."

Despite the crises earlier in the weekend, Team New Zealand was able to keep pace with Spithill to take second place in the World Series' overall points race.

"We're definitely enjoying the challenge," Barker said after Friday's regatta. "Every day you go to work and you're learning something new. It sort of feels like a new lease on life, in a way. The flip side is that we've devoted our whole life to racing monohulls."

What's next

Oracle Team USA trimmer Dirk de Ridder took a respite after winning Friday's fleet race. The barrel-chested Dutchman refueled with a sandwich of cold cuts, robust enough that it required both of his thick catcher's mitt hands to corral. He sipped on a protein shake.

The life of a sailor might seem glamorous, but hours of work go into getting the ship ready to sail. It also means the crews see little of their homeport. Following the World Series, Team USA will reassemble in San Francisco, the team member's de facto home away from home, to prepare for its defense of the America's Cup.

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AP Photo/Steven SenneJames Spithill, 33, became the youngest America's Cup-winning skipper ever in 2010.

"Honestly, I wouldn't trade this for anything," said de Ridder, whose claim to fame is as the only Dutch athlete ever to have met the President at the White House.

"How can you beat this?" he added, looking out the team tent back toward the harbor. "I wouldn't want my life to be any different."

De Ridder talked about his rapport with his skipper, Spithill. Their back-and-forth will be critical in the lead-up to the 34th Cup. He maintained that Spithill's management style is part of what has made him successful.

"He's not a micromanager," de Ridder said. "He trusts everybody's input. You don't have to call him for every little thing, he trusts his crew to make the right decisions. We all get to have our input."

While de Ridder admitted there will be an adjustment period moving to the AC72, he didn't believe it was too tall of a task for any sailor worth his weight.

"The big thing is to keep it as simple as possible," de Ridder said. "The next year will be spent making sure everything's set for the Cup. I think any good sailor, with seven to 10 months of preparation, can make that transition."

While the syndicates prepare, the question remains how the changes made to the Cup can grow the sport.

Newport is, for all intents and purposes, the Cup's ancestral home, since the time Harold S. Vanderbilt's Enterprise successfully defended the Cup for the New York Yacht Club in 1930.

San Francisco, the adopted home of Oracle cofounder and CEO Larry Ellison, is new to the game. The World Series participants remarked throughout the weekend some of the similarities Newport and the Bay Area share.

But what has changed is the landscape on which the America's Cup is built -- revenue.

The Cup, under the control of Ellison, has moved into an age of modern sports partnerships. Team syndicates (particularly Emirates Team New Zealand) are actively courting sponsors in order to stay afloat. The Cup also hopes to dip into deep advertising revenue pools with television broadcasts and on-site brand activation. The cavalcade of sponsor messages in Newport extended into Narragansett Bay with pontoons of luxury brand partners floating in the current.

"Whether it's sustainable like this, it's hard to tell," Barker said during a media event organized by team sponsor Omega. "The cost associated with such an amazing TV presentation is immense. I think Oracle's view, and Larry [Ellison's] view is to create a nice product, and hopefully the flow of more and more sponsors to come onto sailing will follow. It's a gamble, but it works, it helps everyone involved in the sport."

Spithill talked about his relationship with Ellison on Saturday. An avid yachtsman, Ellison, reported to be the third-richest American citizen, also shares an interest in tennis with Spithill.

"We're very close," Spithill said, "and we're both very competitive. Whether it's sailing or on the tennis courts, we have some pretty intense battles."

Gilded age

The Breakers, the summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, served as the backdrop to the official America's Cup World Series party on Saturday evening. Corks popped from vintage champagne bottles and flutes clinked in a side room before the competing teams of the World Series were introduced in the great hall. The party spilled out onto the lawn leading to the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.

After observing the scene, Barker declared on Sunday that it was "particularly stunning."

"It's hard to comprehend the expanse of it all," he added.

On Sunday, Oracle Team USA Spithill wrapped up the match and fleet racing championship at the Newport regatta, in addition to the World Series' overall championship.

"It was a great showing from the fans," Spithill said Sunday. "Seeing a capacity crowd of spectators, that's what we need in San Francisco. We'd want the support of all Americans, that's what we'll need to defend the Cup."

When BMW Oracle, as it was formerly known, captured the 33rd America's Cup, Ellison declared he was proud to return the Cup to the U.S. So it was no surprise to hear Spithill, the Aussie who shares a vague resemblance to Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke, talk about national pride.

"We could be in for some thrills and spills [in San Francisco]," Spithill said.

Buckle up.

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Scott Barboza

Reporter, ESPNBoston.com

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Scott Barboza joined ESPNBoston.com as a high schools editor/reporter in May 2010. He spent the previous three seasons working in the New England Patriots media relations department after a stint at the Taunton Daily Gazette, where he covered everything from Little League baseball to the Boston Red Sox.