Candidly Cayard

As CEO of a Swedish America's Cup team that's currently based in Valencia, Spain, because that's where its critical mass of designers live along with primary designer Juan K., Paul Cayard, CEO Artemis Racing (SWE) isn't spending too much time on his home shores of San Francisco Bay. He cites having a team scattered around the world as just one challenge of the next America's Cup, but probably less so than the ultimate challenge - racing AC72s on San Francisco Bay:

"It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that the handle-ability of this seriously over-powered boat which is under-crewed on an extremely short course in the windiest venue in the world - you multiply all that together and you have a fight on your hands."

Meanwhile, he's upbeat after the first of the America's Cup World Series events.

What was your take home after these past three events?

If you look at the skill level and the speed, Artemis Racing has it - they just need to work on the consistency a little bit. What separates Oracle and Team NZ right now is that they’re a little more consistent with their performances and we need to strive to attain that level of consistency.

To be fair to Terry and the guys, strategically as a team we decided to rotate the crew and that’s something ETNZ absolutely doesn’t do and Oracle hadn’t much but for example, in San Diego when Darren Bundock steered - he’s a very accomplished multi hull sailor - and had trouble also. It’s not that easy to move people around. That maybe something we don’t do as much of next year. We do now have a second AC45, which is a different way to get the crew the exposure so we can have 10 guys sailing without having to rotate crew and we’ll start doing that in January. But we now have eight people with experience and in some ways we'll be a little wealthier for that experience.

* Artemis has 13 sailors on the Team, including new hire Chris Brittle who came over from Team Korea. Cayard plans to steer their new AC45 for a bit in February before turning it over to alternate helmsman Santiago Lange. They’re on schedule to launch an AC72 July 1, 2012, with molds built and soon ready for lamination.

Has the investment in the World Series been worthwhile?

The events are very useful for promoting the America’s Cup. The teams need a road show - what’s the road to the America’s Cup? Where are the teams? What’s the visibility? How do they get the sponsors? So, having a circuit that’s identified that the teams and sponsors can count on and that the public can watch on the internet, on TV or in person, all that is part of building the fan base and creating a bigger value in 2013.

To walk into 2013 cold especially after the 33^rd America’s Cup which wasn’t particularly glorious in our history, I’m not sure spending any amount of money on the finals would have done as good a job as the World Series will do. It’s a difficult time. The economy is what it is but the America’s Cup was handed over in a pretty difficult state between the lawsuit and the boats racing two races - that was fairly pitiful - it was a low point in our sport and this event. To build on that and to create a product that can really win the fans back to sailing is a big challenge.

Anything you’d improve?

There’s been some money that didn’t need to be spent but things are going to be trimmed back. But the concept of a road show to help all the teams and the event build value and get fans and sponsors therefore interested again in the America’s Cup is necessary. I think they’ve been top-shelf events, from the hospitality to the event side with lots of activities at night. It’s a lot more than just the racing. The television product is very enhanced over anything we’ve ever seen before. The races are shorter and the 25-30 minute format is great. Exactly what detail and level of expenditure should be consumed is what is being fine tuned right now but to say we’d be better off without it at all is not true.

Anything on the racecourse you’d improve?

For the racers, they’re pretty happy with things. There could be a few questions from a marketing standpoint as to the blend of match racing versus fleet racing - I think the public really likes the fleet racing, it’s really exciting - it’s a little more NASCAR-ish - you have more passing so you may find a bigger blend of fleet racing than match racing but obviously the America’s Cup in the end is a match race so there’ll be an element of match racing that stays with the event. Just tweaking like that. Artemis is happy with the racing and looks forward to 2012.

Shifting gears, what’re your thoughts on the current status of the Volvo?

They’re doing a good job within the reality of what we’re living in right now, same thing with the America’s Cup. It’s having trouble with entries too. The world economy is what it is and I’m sure all sports sponsorships are getting squeezed. The Volvo’s had its teething problems on the first leg, we had the exact same thing when we did Pirates when everybody was thinking the world was going to end because on the first two legs keels broke and then everybody was basically good until Telefonica sank. They’ll have a good race, the boats are closer than they ever have been in competitiveness so hopefully they’ll have some great battles. The in-shore races are good - I watched that myself the other day on the internet and I think there’s good value there.

You were recently inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame - what’s been your most personally satisfying achievement?

Probably Pirates of the Caribbean (Volvo Ocean Race 2005-6) because the hill was the steepest. Talk about being under the gun. I met with the organizers just six months before the race started and it takes eight months to build one of those boats, not to mention that the keel almost fell off on the first night and that we had to finish building the boat in Cape Town. I know the meaning of that and the uphill battle it was, I lived it and I’ve lived the other achievements as well but outwardly it’s probably hard for other people to see that.

What would you do differently if could have your career over again?

I’m sure there are things but I haven’t really dwelled on that. Looking forward though, I’d like to win the America’s Cup. I’ve been in the finals twice, I’ve won the Louis Vuitton Cup and have pretty much knocked on the highest door without winning the Cup so that’s what I’m looking forward to now, that’s my project and my passion, that’s where I’m investing myself. I’ve still got plenty I can achieve in the sport and I’m working on it.

ARTEMIS' CEO UPDATES ON TEAM'S PROGRESS

SailBlast caught up with Paul Cayard after Katusha’s win at the ORACLE RC44 Cup San Diego. We talked about what’s happening at Artemis Racing and how the Team is coming together…

How’s the transition from the RC44 to the AC45?

PC: I have only sailed the AC45 the one day down in New Zealand. Terry Hutchinson is the guy to ask about multi hulls because he’s done a big transition program. He’s been training on the Extreme 40 for a few months now. The little bit of multi hull sailing I did do when I was in NZ was very interesting. I steered the boat for about three hours and it requires a lot of focus and concentration. Essentially you’re trying to sail the boat with the windward hull just skimming the water and it’s a very narrow groove to keep the boat in and the boat’s going very fast all the time so things happen quickly. I’m sure when you’re good at it, it becomes second nature but for me at this point it was just total concentration. I was quite worn out. I said to the guys, “Gees, if we race four or five races a day like this we’re going to be exhausted.”

Will you helm at all in the next Cup?

PC: No, I’m not thinking of steering at all. Terry’s going to be the helmsman and I’m the CEO. We’re all trying to be utilized in our highest and best use. With my experience, I think I’m in the right spot being the CEO and leader of the team. Terry’s a very accomplished sailor and in his prime, he’ll do a great job of being helmsman. I will sail some because I also plan to have a pretty active role in helping to develop the boats because that’s the experience I have. We have excellent people - we’ve hired Iain Percy for example, who is a double gold medalist in the Star and the Finn, we have Santiago Lange who is a double silver medalist in the Tornado - we have some very good athletes on the Team and that’s their job to concentrate 100% on being good sailors. If I’m doing my job well as CEO for the team I don’t have time to put that much time into sailing. There comes a time when you have to let certain parts go and concentrate on what you do and what you bring to the team and being a CEO is what I’m doing this time.

What’s the Team’s near term priority?

PC: We now have our AC45, which is getting rigged up and will be launched about March 19 in New Zealand. We’ll spend a month there training and getting used to the boat. We’re beginning the construction phases of our AC72, however it won’t be launched until early next year. We have a huge R&D project going on - our design offices are based in Spain. There’s a big body of work going on over there with about 40 people. We have 65 people on the team now so we’re a truly operating team. It’s been a big job gluing the team together with the management, communications and all the administrative functions that you have to have to run a company like this. We were a virtual start up so we have a lot of legal things - we have Melinda Erkelens on board as legal counsel who was previously with ORACLE, Chris Perkins as CFO who was with America One and ORACLE, and Bob Billingham, COO who was also with America One and ORACLE. We have an experienced management team but still it’s a start up and interesting issues this time with the World Series being sailed in different parts of the world. As a team we operate in different jurisdictions with a big part of the team in Spain but eventually we’ll be racing in the US…you get the picture. Administratively and managerially coordinating the group and contractually having things buttoned up is a big amount of work unto itself. That’s the body of work that nobody watching the race ever thinks about.

Has organizing a team necessarily become more sophisticated?

PC: Yeah, like everything in life, the ante just keeps going up. I woke up one day in January and said, you know, I want to work on our management the same way one would work on design, or the way in which Terry is working on the sailing. I want to put that kind of effort into having the best management team in the America’s Cup so I’ve dedicated myself to that these past few months. We started with a retreat we did with a management consulting firm call Bonfire and we had a big all-team meeting a week or so after that. We had the top ten managers on the team for a retreat, had an all team meeting in Valencia for three days - we’re getting our act together. It’s a challenge because we’re very decentralized. All teams are really. It’s one thing if everybody would move to Valencia or move to San Francisco for a couple of years and just park there but it’s very challenging to keep that team atmosphere, efficiency, management and organization when you’re spread out all over the world.

Certainly it’s early days yet, but as a Bay Area guy, how would it feel if Artemis won AC34 & took the Cup to Sweden?

PC: I don’t know for sure what Torbjorn Tornqvist’s (Chairman, Artemis Racing), has told the Royal Swedish Yacht Club. My guess is that being responsible for hosting the next Cup is something that Torbjorn would take very seriously. There’s a huge commercial aspect to running a successful America’s Cup. If he feels like it can be done in Sweden, I am sure he’ll do it there. If he thinks SF has proven to be a great model he might entertain the idea of keeping it in SF. I’m not sure it’s necessarily a foregone conclusion if we win the America’s Cup that it’ll go to Sweden - but I have to be clear, I don’t know what commitment Torbjorn has made to the yacht club.