Counting cost of the cash factor

By HELEN TUNNAH

When Le Defi grimace at the modesty of their America's Cup purse, they glance down syndicate row for inspiration.

Team New Zealand, they keep reminding themselves, have won sailing's coveted trophy on budgets a fraction the size of the big American and European players.

For the French, with one of the smallest campaigns battling the new billionaires, it provides much needed perspective.

This campaign their budget doubled from three years ago to €25 million ($50 million), yet they remained one of the least wealthy camps on the street, unable to compare their finances with the likes of Italian rivals Prada, whose coffers soared to €95 million.

Already Le Defi have begun work on putting together their next challenge, and their affable director general, Xavier de Lesquen, knows even more money will be needed next time.

But he is sure that while their team may never match the big spenders, it takes more than money to win.

"We are not looking for that amount of money.

"We are completely sure that with a bigger budget, not a huge budget, but a slightly bigger budget and with good timing and with good organisation we can do quite well in the future."

French teams have tried to win the America's Cup for more than 30 years, since the king of the ballpoint pen and disposable lighter, Baron Marcel Bich, put together a string of challenges.

It was only six years ago that Le Defi was created, when highly-regarded sailors Luc Gellusseau and Pierre Mas met de Lesquen, a former naval engineer-turned-senior civil servant, who was part of a Government taskforce investigating how France could win the America's Cup.

Three years ago, Le Defi exceeded expectations by squeezing into the semifinals ahead of the New York Yacht Club's boat, which had earlier buckled on the Hauraki Gulf.

But when the cup ended, like Team New Zealand, their talents were raided and they lost sailors and crew to other European syndicates - and also their helmsman, Bertrand Pace, to Team New Zealand.

In the past three years there has been a new team created, as well as the signing on of a controversial new sponsor, French nuclear company Areva.

Getting knocked out in the quarter-finals, had not been all bad news for the sponsors, de Lesquen said.

"The amount of coverage and return for the companies is very, very important.

"Even with our results the returns are very good for our partners.

"We know the media coverage was huge, it was six times more than expected in six or seven key countries."

That, according to an Areva survey, turned into exposure worth €25 million, significantly better than their sponsorship commitment of €15 million.

De Lesquen said in this campaign the main problem for the French was not the size of their budget, but the fact the money was secured late, which impacted on planning, design and research.

So he now wants to find funding quickly for the next challenge, probably in 2005-2006, to secure his team. He will not say whether the French will try to lure Pace home.

"After 2000, we were financially weak compared to the newcomers and the other teams, so we knew we were not able to keep some of our key people. Bertrand was one of them."

"Of course we miss him, but it's a professional sport.

"We know for all these people it is a question of money, of salaries, but it is also a question of being in a very good team.

"Bertrand must have had some marvellous times inside the best sailing team in the world. We have no difficulty with that, we think he has made a very good choice."

De Lesquen is relaxed about the America's Cup staying in New Zealand.

While a European venue would be good for sponsors, New Zealand remains a cheap host - much cheaper than Europe and certainly less expensive than having to fund a challenge to the United States.

He said he would be watching to see how the challengers and Team New Zealand fared over the coming weeks.

To develop his crew it would be important to pick up skills from the top syndicates.

"We started this campaign with not an experienced crew, but at the end we had a very positive team.

"We really want to keep some key people, we want to keep that momentum.

"But on the other hand we know that in a lot of technical and sports aspects we need to have some input from the best teams here."

So that might mean even the financial minnows will try to capture some of the top crew.

"We will try to speak to the right people and the best people to try to go further, faster.

"We will do what we can."

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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