When the America’s Cup was already in Rome, but…

I leave room for the story about the faded dream of holding the America’s Cup in Italy, in Rome. This is narrated by Claudio Gorelli, in 2010 a magistrate on loan to the government, then president of the Rome Yacht Club.

An episode that is back in the news following the announcement by Patrizio Bertelli, Luna Rossa’s owner, that Cagliari will be the venue for the next America’s Cup, which kicks off in Barcelona on Aug. 22, should they win. (Luca Oriani, editor of GdV)

When the America’s Cup was already in Rome, but…

The launch of Luna Rossa in Cagliari reopened the Italian challenges to the America’s Cup and was born with the mission of bringing the final of the world’s most spectacular sailing trophy to Italy for the first time, specifically to Cagliari.

Many have forgotten that the 34th America’s Cup in 2013 had real chances to see the final contested in the waters of the sea of Rome as a result of the meeting (friendship) between Vincenzo Onorato and Claudio Gorelli, then president of the Club Nautico di Roma (CNR), who issued the challenge as the Cup’s Challenge of Reccord club to BMW Oracle of the Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) of San Francisco, the Cup holder. Challenge readily accepted by Oracle!

The tried-and-true friendship between Russell Coutts for the GGYC and Vincenzo Onorato for the CNR had paid off: presenting the 34th America’s Cup to the world sailing world in the Eternal City home of the Challenger (challenger) team.

The challenge was made official in a spectacular way through live streaming: on May 6, 2010, the Silver Cup flew from San Francisco to Rome and landed in the Exedra Hall of the Capitoline Museums in the shadow of the statue of Marcus Aurelius. During the presentation of the teams and in the presence of the then Mayor of Rome Alemanno, to emphasize the City’s support for the sporting event, some rumors emerged about the innovations that would characterize the 34th America’s Cup, in particular and great innovation the desire that the races would be followed from aboard the boats allowing spectators to sit at the stern of the boats!!!

A virtual crew to allow everyone the excitement of being on board.On the same occasion the choice between monohull and multihull remained uncertain, which was postponed until the signing of the Protocol. It was agreed that there was a desire for greater collaboration between the Challengers and Defender teams to overcome the many disputes that developed during the previous edition.

The revolution announced in Rome had its definition on September 13, 2010 in Valencia at BMW Oracle’s base, where Golden Gate Yacht Club presidents Marcus Young and Claudio Gorelli for the Club Nautico di Roma signed the historic Protocol that would govern the 34th challenge of the sailing event par excellence.

Historical protocol because it introduced the 72-foot (22meri approx.) AC 72 catamarans into the Cup races, with the possibility of using the rigid wing to race in all wind conditions and thus provide a wider and younger audience with the excitement of the spectacular speeds made possible by the technical innovations introduced on the hulls, as well as to follow the event from “on board” thanks to the presence on the hulls of “cameras.”

In this way, as never before, live images from the competing boats could bounce around on TV and all social media thus reaching even the youngest audience.
The Protocol stipulated, before getting to the actual Cup challenge, that all participants would compete, with catamarans smaller in size than the 72-footers; the AC42s (about 14 meters), in an annual racing circuit called the “America’s Cup World Series.” These annual circuits-held from 2012 to 2013-had the dual purpose of keeping enthusiasts’ interest in the final event high as well as fine-tuning, through various experiments, the techniques required by the new boats in the
Nothing was said in Valencia about the venue where the 34 AC challenge would be held, thus fueling the numerous rumors that gave among the possible candidate venues besides San Francisco, some Arab countries and especially Rome.

In fact, already before Valencia, in a confidential manner, negotiations had been initiated to hold some stages of the World Series in Italy as well as the America’s Cup Final itself in Rome. To follow up on these negotiations, a discreet tour, with the participation of top representatives of the two teams, was initiated immediately after the signing of the protocol to the main Italian cities where stages of the Louis Vuitton Cup could be held, namely Venice, Naples, Cagliari, and Trapani,

As the dream faded

Oracle’s financial demands to support the event and realize Italy’s ambitions were initially very high but reduced dramatically over time as a result of the negotiations that took place. Everything seemed to be going full sail toward the dream goal: to hold the final of the 34th America’s Cup in the Roman stretch of water.

The realization of this dream would have been for our country an important international showcase with important spin-offs not only on the purely sporting level but also on the tourism and more generally economic level. For these reasons, the project was appreciated and supported by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Undersecretary Gianni Letta himself, who met confidentially with Oracle patron Larry Ellison.

While the economic difficulties were easing the submerged stumbling block of politics that became more and more insidious made the laboriously and long-continued project run aground and then founder.

And the beautiful dream vanished, Vincenzo Onorato and the Club Nautico di Roma withdrew from the venture. However, as a testament to the great preparatory work done and the good relations developed with Oracle’s team, three of the twelve America’s Cup World Series elimination races were held in Italy between 2012 and 2013 , including one in the extraordinary city of Venice (May 2012) and two in Naples (April 2012 and 2013) in the fantastic Gulf.

Thus died the great dream of the America’s Cup Final Regattas in Rome, Italy: no one can stop us from continuing to dream.

Claudio Gorelli