Roland Neubauer is our dedicated webmaster. He works for an agency in Munich called Sport Media Service GmbH, and is their Chief Editor, Sailing. Roland makes our team website happen, and without him I promise you this blog would have never gotten off the ground let alone grown this year to become one of the more popular online sailing publications. Once promised, Roland rarely misses a deadline. Definitely a cool person, and on this last day of the year I wanted to thank him for his continuing support, dedication and guidance.


Herr Neubauer.


Moreover, I wanted to keep a promise to Roland. Months ago he asked a good question about the term "Challenger of Record," and your editor promised to post something about it "at some point before the end of the year." Clock's ticking on that one....

"Challenger" is not the problem. It's the expression "of record" that is confusing, whether or not your native language is Englisch. Roland is right -- "record" is one of many words in our language that has different meanings in different contexts. Not only that, it's both a noun and a verb. (The German language is, of course, more precise!)

Just look at the long entry for the simple word "record" at Answers.com. Most helpful to us is an example found way down in the Legal Dictionary: "On the record of the court in connection with a particular proceeding (the attorney of record)."

It's not that BMWOR, as a challenger or former challenger, set some sort of "record" sporting or otherwise. Nor, per se, are we challenging Alinghi's winning record in the last Match; though, one supposes, in some ways we are. Rather, "Challenger of Record" is a legal expression stemming from the Deed of Gift.

As most of our readers will know, the Deed of Gift contemplates only one challenger at a time, and prior to 1970 there was only one Challenger for each AC Match. The Cup grew in popularity following its 1958 re-awakening in the smaller, more affordable 12-Metre Class yachts. By the mid 60's clubs in both the UK and Australia were vying to challenge the New York YC for the Cup. Likewise France's Baron Marcel Bich (of Bic pen fame and fortune), who became a proponent of allowing multiple challengers.


Baron Marcel Bich, 1914-1994.
The initial non-Anglo challenger,
in 1970 Bich launched the first of
four consecutive challenges.


Wanting to accommodate all, NYYC made one of the more innovative moves in the Cup's history when it suggested the prospective challengers compete in a series of races off Newport in the summer of 1970. The series would determine the ultimate Challenger for AC 21 to be held in September that year. But first, NYYC's lawyers had to find a way to make it legal under the Deed.

Well, as we say in English, "Where there's a will, there's a way" and, "Necessity is the mother of invention."

To make multiple challengers possible, the lawyers drafted the Conditions Governing the 21st AC Match to state that one of the challenging clubs was the "Challenger of Record," and, that if they were beaten by the other club in the challenger racing that summer off Newport, the other club would become the "substitute challenger" with all the rights, priveleges and obligations of the Challenger of Record.

Essentially that framework remains today. BMWOR's Golden Gate YC, by agreement with Alinghi's club Societe Nautique Geneve, was the first club to file a challenge for AC 32. As such, we became the Challenger of Record under the Conditions Governing the 32nd America's Cup -- known today as "The Protocol."

As in 1970, and every Cup since (except, of course, the unfortunate 1988 Match), we are sailing a series of races to determine which of the eleven challengers will be the ultimate challenger. Since 1983 that series has been known as the Louis Vuitton Cup. For AC 32 it spans not three months but, in effect, three years -- certainly another significant AC innovation.

It's a bit disconcerting to note that the Challenger of Record has never won the Louis Vuitton Cup let alone the America's Cup. BMWOR promises to give it our best shot to change that little bit of Cup history.

Abraham Lincoln said, "We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot." No doubt BMW ORACLE can so perform; however, with a number of other strong Challengers to say nothing of the Defender, our work in the 18th months ahead is cut out for us.

As to the BMW ORACLE Racing Blog, we promise best efforts to keep it going in 2006. It's not always easy, but, as noted above, "Where there's a will, there's a way."

Finally, may we take this opportunity to thank our families, friends, and fans, -- and Cup fans in general, wherever in the world -- for your interest and support throughout 2005. Best wishes to all for a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.


Out with the old, in with the new: Italy's beautiful naval training
ship, Amerigo Vespucci, saluting USA-76 at Trapani in October.