Jump to content

SNG ... What F**king Wankers


SloopJohnB

Recommended Posts

They're simply EB stooges doing as they're told. Having worked for an egotistical bastard who believes that he is superior to all other living matter, and also just doesn't give a rats arse if people like him or not, I know they (the mutineers in this case) just do as they're told. Trouble is, when as an employee you become a part of it, you end up becoming a victim of it. Ask Russell. They try to own you and try to destroy you if you don't play ball. If they can't get you, they'll try your family. Leaving it is the best thing that can ever happen to people caught up in it. That process is also destructive, but once you're away from it even fetid Rotorua air smells fresh. The money was NEVER worth it. There - that feels better! OK, I'll stop now...

Link to post
Share on other sites

yup, bunch of wankers that have no place in our sport. I loved seeing this on the front page of SA. Not very grown up, and rather childish, but I love it!

 

http://www.sailinganarchy.com/index_page1.php

 

the ultimate loser

 

Ernesto Bertarelli has finally proven to the world that he is, indeed, the ultimate loser. Outmaneuvered in every possible way for more than two years by a combination of Russell Coutt's leadership, Larry Ellison's cash, Tom Ehman's gamesmanship and James Spithill's driving. All of which culminated in the beating Bertarelli received in the AC in Valencia over the past few days. How'd that taste, Bertie?

 

Ernesto's misbegotten attempt to hang on to the America's Cup at all costs while diverting the blame to others is classic narcissism, and the level of vitriol and venom he's thrown around during this America's Cup campaign has made him more enemies than perhaps anyone in sailing today.

 

For these reasons, it was disappointing to hear Russell Coutts' post-event conference in which he answers a question on whether Alinghi would be permitted to challenge for the 34rd Cup in the affirmative, something like, "They are great competitors and that is what sailing is all about," said. Did he forget the vicious cartoons, the vile and nasty slurs, and personal attacks on everyone who ever screwed Bertarelli, real or imagined? We imagine the truth is that while happy faces were on public display, there is real and true animosity just below the veneer.

 

We're not going away quite so easily, and if the sailing world's 'sportsmen' are going to give Bertarelli and company a free pass and let such a selfish, arrogant and spiteful prick back into the game, that's their problem. Maybe they can ban us at the next AC press conference, but we're not having any of it, and we're looking to document just how bad this guy was.

 

So for all you media folks, competitors, or support personnel that have been abused and intimidated over the years by Lucien Masmasjan, Michel Hodaa, Ernesto, Brad, or the power of the Alinghi brand - now is the chance to come clean after 7 years of fear you've lived under. Be as anonymous as you'd like, and remember that we're looking for stories of Bertarelli - anywhere, anytime. He's got it coming.

Link to post
Share on other sites
They're simply EB stooges doing as they're told. Having worked for an egotistical bastard who believes that he is superior to all other living matter, and also just doesn't give a rats arse if people like him or not, I know they (the mutineers in this case) just do as they're told.

I'd have thought just refusing to take down flags would be regarded as quite a passive protest and anyone who really valued their standing with EB should have been contemplating more drastic measures like charging down the starting gun etc.

Link to post
Share on other sites
For these reasons, it was disappointing to hear Russell Coutts' post-event conference in which he answers a question on whether Alinghi would be permitted to challenge for the 34rd Cup in the affirmative, something like, "They are great competitors and that is what sailing is all about," said. Did he forget the vicious cartoons, the vile and nasty slurs, and personal attacks on everyone who ever screwed Bertarelli, real or imagined? We imagine the truth is that while happy faces were on public display, there is real and true animosity just below the veneer.

 

Except that Coutts being the consumate pro has just shown the EDL how one should behave - by refusing to let Alinghi race would be to slip into the very same conduct that the EDL is so hated for in the 1st place. They've won - the rest is irrelevent - end of story.

Link to post
Share on other sites
I think EB should be made to go sit in the corner.

 

From a source deep inside Alinghi.

They absolutely hate EB with a passion.

Very few of them will ever have anything to do with him again.

 

Don't be surprised if a few very big names get signed on by Coutts and Oracle!

 

At times during the racing I think it showed that some of the crew were well and truly

over it !

Link to post
Share on other sites
At times during the racing I think it showed that some of the crew were well and truly

over it !

Arrr click!! I wondered what those guys were doing trailing the Warps over the back of the boat. :roll: :wink: :D

Link to post
Share on other sites

At times during the racing I think it showed that some of the crew were well and truly

over it !

 

Watching Brad over the last couple of months and each time he looked older and less happy.

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

Watching Brad over the last couple of months and each time he looked older and less happy.

 

I thought that was part of the growing old syndrome ... It's certainly happened to me, the older I look, the grumpier I get ....

 

R.

Link to post
Share on other sites

From Sailing World

 

"A Bit of a Mutiny"

 

As was widely reported, Race 2 of the 33rd America's Cup was the race that almost didn't happen—and not for the reasons with which most sailors are familiar. Struggling against a fickle breeze and with poor weather looming for the foreseeable future, 33rd America's Cup principal race officer Harold Bennett kept the two multihulls on the water until late into the afternoon on Sunday. A half hour before the 4:30 p.m. cutoff for the start, the breeze finally solidified, 7 to 9 knots from the east, and Bennett indicated the he was aiming for a 4:25 p.m. start.

 

 

Courtesy www.AmericasCup.com

New Zealander Harold Bennett was the principal race officer for the 33rd America's Cup.

However, the Swiss team on Alinghi 5 didn't want to race, feeling most likely that the waves were too high, and relayed that to members of the Société Nautique de Genève working on the race committee boat. What happened next is just one last piece of absurdity in what has been a fairly unique chapter in the history of the America's Cup. Bennett sat down with four journalists yesterday (myself, Stuart Alexander of the Independent, Angus Phillips of the Washington Post, and Jim Doyle of the San Francisco Chronicle) to talk about the incident.

 

Harold, what happened on the boat when you tried to start Race 2? Is it true that the SNG members on the boat refused to perform their jobs?

We had a bit of a mutiny. I don't think SNG wanted to go, so they decided they weren't going to do flags. So Tom [Ehman, BMW Oracle Racing's head of external affairds] took the AP down and my boat driver, who's also an international umpire, he shot up forward and did the rest of the signals.

 

Does this stray into Rule 69 territory. Would you normal write a report for ISAF?

Yes I do have to and obviously that's going to be included in any report. That's what you do, you've got outline what's going on on the boat, whether it's good or bad.

 

What could've been their motivation? The wind was as light as it could get and still be stable.

We had a perfect breeze the way I saw it. I had good weather information from the Alinghi weather team. It was perfect, everything lined up, 8, 9 knots up the course. And it was like, well, let's do it.

 

Have you heard of a race committee at any regatta deciding they want to prevent the race being run?

No. Well I've certainly never experienced it. No I've never heard of that before.

 

When you said, 'Let's get this race off.' They just said, 'We're not doing it.'? No reason?

Well one guy was over my shoulder, telling me that the waves were too big, that the boats were going to break. I just said, I don't believe that. I know that boat boats when they were going upwind the alarms were going off. I understand that, I was told by the sailors of both teams afterward, last night. They were taking a little bit of strain. But crikey, if the boats are that flimsy, I guess it's a problem, isn't it.

 

They said they were pushing the boats as hard as they'd ever pushed them.

I think the guys have said that to me, that they did push them hard.

 

Strain in those situations is a matter of mainsheet load, and a lot of other things. There are a lot of things they can do to ease the strain.

You're right with that. But I guess if you look at the intricate systems that's underneath that cat, God you'd only need one of those to fail and the whole thing would fold up like a pack of cards.

 

But they always knew that?

I guess they would, they would know that.

 

I don't know of any race boat that you don't push hard on occasion.

Isn't that what you do with the boat, you drive it, you drive it hard. I don't know, I guess both of them have built their boats to a, I don't know, a fairly low spec as far as strength is concerned. They're obviously very strong, if you have your alarms going off yesterday, stuff like that…

 

Well it depends where you've set the alarm?

I guess it is, yeah.

I said in the press conference, after the first or second day we didn't race, I had now idea where the limits where in these boats. Up until we'd had these boats on the water that was the first time I'd seen the Oracle boat, apart from one day it came past us and then went in. I'd not seen that one wound up in anger, if you like to put it, around us. I'd seen the Alinghi boat a bit, we ran a couple of races for them leading up to the regatta. I had no idea where the limits are, I don't know, but I've got a better idea now. I don't think you would be able to put them out into much seaway, it would be dangerous for them.

 

What kind of wave heights were you seeing yesterday?

I would've thought the swells were close to a meter. They were some quite big swells that came through at one stage. They were long; they were fairly well apart. But I think for those boats they were probably not quite straddling them. They were into them and over them, so I guess that was putting quite a lot of pressure on them, when they dipped the hull into the wave in front.

 

In the U.K. there's an obsession with health and safety, duty of care. Were those concepts being voiced at all by fellow members of your race committee.

No their concern was more over the club's insurance on the event, liability for the event, if there was an accident, which if I understand it, surrounded the notice of race. So what was written in the original notice of race, and subsequently pulled out, left them in a bit of a position where it was like, 'Wow, if we're outside of these parameters, we've got a problem.'

 

So the concern was financial and not for people?

I can't answer that. I don't know what their thinking behind it was. I certainly was concerned about the safety of the guys on the boat, if one of these things folded up, or they had a collision, that was a concern that I had. That was one of the reasons with the length of the starting line. I had no idea what we should do with the starting line. I know that for match racing, a 30-second line is ideal, but with these boats, a 30-second line is only like 400 meters. You put them head-to-head doing 20 knots, that's a 40-knot collision course as they're coming together. If one of them got it wrong, you'd have a real problem. That's why I settled on what I did, which was like 800 meters. At the end of the day I don't think that was too far wrong.

 

What parameters did you think the conditions yesterday exceeded?

Yesterday, that was the point that was being made to me, that the waves were too big.

 

It's a tough job, being a PRO. There's no real hard and fast standards. Everything is on a variable scale. There's no way of saying this is OK and this isn't other than common sense.

Absolutely. It's common sense, it's what you see; it's your gut feeling. Which was a point I was trying to make with the guys on the race committee with me was that you can't make a committee decision on every thing that's going to happen on the water. It doesn't work. One person has got to deal with that and that's what a race officer does. From my perspective looking at that, it's your gut feeling about what you think is going to happen, what you can see, and you do it. From my point of view; that's worked out fine. But there are people probably have other views about that. I did it the best of my ability and I don't see an issue with that.

 

Who was on the race committee boat?

Lucien [Masmejan, Alinghi counsel] and Tom Ehman were the two observers from the team. Not participating, there just to observe. Then myself, a boat driver who's Spanish, who's also an international umpire. Then another Spanish guy who coordinated my thoughts about what I wanted on the race track as far as position on marks and stuff like that. He did all the communications for me. The guys on the mark boats, they were all Spanish as well, so his role was vital. The SNG guys there were four of them, one was Fred Meyer, he didn't really participate, he watched. The other three guys, two of them were doing flags, one was doing the time keeping and calling the flags. I have to say that Pascal, the guy doing that, he stood by his post, he did the job, doing the time and calling the signals. I applaud him for that. I thanked him sincerely for that. If he'd have walked off too, we had a problem. So my boat driver did the flags on the front, Tom Ehman took the AP down when it was time and we just got on with the rest of it.

 

Can you remember the names of the other two guys from SNG?

One was Marcel and the other was Nicolas Grange. Granche is the cat sailor, who was, I guess, the expert for multihull sailing. [ed's note: Grange is president of the Swiss Multihull Assocation]

 

Technically they were under your direction?

Absolutely. That's how you operate on a boat. My role was to coordinate the whole thing and make the calls and the rest of them were to do the job.

 

Larry Ellison made a definitive statement at his victory press conference that he will use an independent body to manage and run the 34th America's Cup. How do they do that so that you can do your job, without your impartiality coming into question, warranted or not?

I think the concept of America's Cup Management [the body set up to run the 32nd America's Cup] was fine. It got to be an ugly animal, there was a lot of people involved in it. But the race side of that, the racing part of it, was like it's own group that was in ACM. Dyer Jones headed that and Peter "Luigi" Reggio and I were the two principal race officers doing the job, well he was principal and I was senior. There was a committee there that was three of us, plus two Spanish guys who were our deputies, that was the race committee and we would discuss things. When you go to the water, the two race officers, they do that. I think what Larry Ellison has pointed out, and Russell has mentioned it as well. An independent body to run the racing, yup, I think that's a damn good idea. You pull n from wherever the key people to take up those roles. As long as it's not all from the same country, or something like that, then you probably have a pretty good mix of people.

 

How do you make it independent? ACM was ostensibly independent, but we still had these questions.

I would think they may set up a company that has a board which involves people from all the teams, or something like that. That's what I would think, I don't know, but that would be sensible and they'd hire the right people to do the job. If I happen to be one of those, then so be it. I'd probably do it again. But that's for someone else to decide.

Link to post
Share on other sites

From America's Cup View.

 

http://americascupview.blogspot.com/201 ... nship.html

 

 

 

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2010

Overcoming Swiss sportsmanship

 

America’s Cup Principal Race Officer Harold Bennett (NZL)

banishes Swiss official Nicolas Grange (SUI) from the

committee boat’s flybridge control center.

Apparently, for insubordination.

 

We really wanted to put Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI) and his yacht club Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) behind us.

We really wanted to move forward to America’s Cup 34 in a very positive way.

In fact, we even wanted to salute Ernesto for his commitment to his team, his passion for America’s Cup, and his sportsmanship.

On Sunday, we learned you can’t have everything.

In fact, when it comes to Ernesto –and his Swiss confreres – you had better be prepared to be disappointed.

First, Firmenich

If you were expecting Pierre-Yves Firmenich, Commodore of Société Nautique de Genève, to be courteous and salutary at the ceremony in Valencia when the America’s Cup trophy was passed to Golden Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco (GGYC), well, you were mistaken.

Firmenich couldn’t find the words to congratulate his peer, Commodore Marcus Young of GGYC, on his victory on the water. He couldn’t even shake his hand. The only thing he had to say to the world was that he was pleased to win the trophy in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2003.

Now Commodore Firmenich is a gentleman of the old order, held in high esteem in Switzerland, and in business circles around the world.

But there was no courtesy from Firmenich on Sunday. We are forced to conclude, therefore, that no courtesy was intended, therefore no honor was shown.

That absence of honor sits on Firmenich’s doorstep.

If that wasn’t enough, as the excitement of BMWOracle Racing (USA)’s victory settled, we learned about the bizarre behavior of SNG representatives on the official Race Committee boat, just prior to the start of Sunday’s race.

Second, Meyer

You have to remember that the Principal Race Officer (PRO) of AC33 was Harold Bennett (NZL), a long-time race official, highly respected around the world for the thankless task of adjudicating major racing events. One of his major roles in America’s Cup is to decide when race conditions are suitable for racing and to manage the start and finish of the event.

Accompanying him on the committee boat on Sunday were a number of SNG officials, including that alpine partisan, SNG Vice Commodore Fred Meyer (SUI).

For the first race, Bennett shrewdly decided he needed a GGYC representative on the boat – for fairness and balance – and asked BMWOracle Racing’s Tom Ehman (USA), a longtime race official and sailing judge, to come aboard as a representative of Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC).

Knowing exactly what a GGYC voice might mean to SNG’s strategies, whatever those might have been, Meyer went ballistic.

But Bennett held his ground. Ultimately, an Alinghi lawyer, Lucien Masmejan (SUI) was drafted to accompany Ehman, and the boat finally departed the dock in Valencia for Race One.

Then, on Sunday, as Bennett labored mightily to ensure that the 39-mile triangular course was effectively set up, providing balanced conditions across the 13x13x13 mile course, he waited patiently until he felt conditions were acceptable. Then, as he was about to authorize the flag sequence that would signal the start of the race, SNG staged a mutiny.

In contact with the Alinghi sailing team on the water, SNG officials on the committee boat decided that conditions didn’t favor their contender and wanted the race postponed. Bennett ignored them. He ordered a race “go”.

Despite the fact that any PRO like Bennett has sole authority to control events on the race course, SNG officials on the boat refused to obey Bennett’s orders. Refusing to be a puppet for Swiss partisans, Bennett himself took action.

Peremptorily, he ordered the SNG flunkies out of the control center on the flybridge, co-opted Ehman and a Spanish chase boat driver – a former race official – and ordered them to man the flags while he personally managed the critical, time-sensitive signal sequence.

Finally, Race 2 got under way.

Three days later, the sailing world is still abuzz about Swiss manipulation.

Third, Ernesto

This is a man we strive to like, believe it or not. He is a passionate sailor. He has invested millions of his own money to participate in America’s Cup. He loves fast boats, competition, and winning.

What’s not to like?

Well, a great deal, unfortunately.

This man should be a class act. Actually, he is a class apart.

As a major player on a global stage, you’d expect this man to have a lot to offer. Do you know what he really has?

Try this:

(1) No sense of sportsmanship, as most people accept it. We don’t want to get into Ernesto’s status as a gentleman. But we do know that a gentleman, in defeat, congratulates his victor, salutes their achievement, and commends their enterprise, enthusiasm, and accomplishment. There was not one word from Ernesto about this in the post-race press conference on Sunday. Oh, yes, he did say the wing was “efficient”. Otherwise, he looked for reasons to diss the victors.

(2) Nothing nice to say. Any time Ernesto Bertarelli has anything positive to say, it’s about Ernesto Bertarelli. Like the classic narcissist he seems to be, Ernesto’s thoughts and feelings are the center of the universe. There is no other center. It is psychologically impossible for him to say anything complimentary about any other person, thing or event, unless it’s an (in)elegant construction designed to compliment himself.

(3) A gift for whining. In his defeat, Ernesto didn’t blame an inferior yacht design that cost him the America’s Cup. He blamed the New York Courts. He blamed America. He blamed both because the courts give Americans an advantage that Europeans cannot overcome. He blamed the wing because it meant the winning boat USA had to be moored at the commercial port, not the darsena. He blamed Sunday’s wave height (about a meter). He blamed the wing again because it was the third version of USA’s sail design, not declared in the boat’s paperwork. He even stiffed lawyer and novo journalist Cory Friedman of Sailing Scuttlebutt for asking questions at the post-race press conference that he, Ernesto, didn’t like.

(4) No balls. When he won America’s Cup in 2007, Ernesto didn’t invite Emirates Team New Zealand to participate in the ceremonies. They were banished. Just like Russell Coutts (NZL), chief executive of BMWOracle, was banished from the AC33 owner’s press conference this year, even though Ernesto’s skipper Brad Butterworth (NZL) was invited and did participate. In 2007, like a king, Ernesto crowned himself. On Sunday, he didn’t even show on the platform. He left that to his fellow directors of SNG. True sportsmen, everyone knows, have what it takes. They show up, win or loss. Ernesto … well, you get the picture.

After all our whining, where are we left?

Depressed, actually.

This America’s Cup should never have been like this.

After AC32, the future of America’s Cup looked fabulous. The world was watching. Everybody learned to love big boat racing. Every sponsor we met was excited about the sport and looking forward to the next event.

Then, after the new AC challenger and draconian protocol were announced in July 2007 – a cataclysmic nosedive. America’s Cup plummeted. The world watched that, too.

Two and a half years later, this Deed of Gift event has been an America’s Cup of Redemption. Perhaps that’s what DOG races are all about.

Having brought the Cup back to zero, from the ugly depths to which it had sunk, Larry Ellison (USA), head of BMWOracle Racing and a director of Golden Gate Yacht Club, now has the opportunity – and the challenge – to restore the luster to this glorious competition.

He can also move it forward, decisively, into the future.

Anyone who won the Cup from Ernesto Bertarelli and the Alpine Nation would have that challenge.

We think Ellison might actually achieve it.

Link to post
Share on other sites

. . . Anyone who won the Cup from Ernesto Bertarelli and the Alpine Nation would have that challenge.

We think Ellison might actually achieve it.

 

I hope that he can.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...