David vs. Goliath

I'm confused. If what David Barnes recently claimed Sean Reeves offered him is true, why isn't Team New Zealand the plaintiff and One World Challenge the defendant? Perhaps more mystifying is what was OWC doing with the lines plans, measurement certificates, tank testing and parametric progression data for Team New Zealand's four 1995 and 2000 ACC yachts as well as the "next generation" design Davidson drew and tested while on the TNZ payroll? If those mysteries aren't enough to fill an Agatha Christy novel, add this: what in the world was OWC doing with copies of the the plans for TNZ's highly successful "Millennium" rig - plans that have already been used to construct a clone for OneWorld. It seems that the "law of unintended consequences" has returned to bite OWC on the ass and probably put them out of the game, all "with a little help from (their British) friends" (the quote seemed suitable seein' how the Beatles and GBR are all a bunch of POMMY blokes and all . . )

Me thinks that the loyal New Zealander David Barnes has chosen to try to sink the OWC challenge by his unsolicited (and one hears unwanted) assistance in offering a declaration chalk-a-block full of nasty details of the "design package" purportedly offered to him by his former sailing buddy, details one would only want to have if cheating was what you were really up to (the declaration makes fine reading aside from the often-annoying episodic Legalese, no doubt a contribution from GBR's Julia Harrison-Lee, legal counsel and the boss's daughter who is no doubt enjoying this rare opportunity to make her mark on the fire hydrants of the American jurisprudential system like the young pup she is.) While Dickson's earlier declaration is vague and ambiguous (OWC no doubt breathed a big sigh of relief when they read its contents) the Barnes affidavit is a killer and more akin to an indictment, not of Reeves but of his former employer who it now appears purchased the very heart of New Zealand sailing for a paltry Judas-like sum of chump change - Funny how Davidson's US citizenship coincided so sweetly with his traitor-like behavior . . . As an American statesman once observed about Kiwi ethics when applied to America's Cup sailing: "why would you . . . unless you were trying to cheat?"

Mr. Barnes is a likeable fellow but no one's first choice for operations boss - he's certainly no Larent Esquire or Bill Trenkle and he reportedly spent thousands of dollars in long distance charges begging OWC and other teams for employment after getting the flick from AmericaTrue (when they can your ass you KNOW you're in trouble!) With the wealth of competent managers with world class competitive achievements available, none of the team's were really interested in Barnes whose resume was bereft of any success in sailing or proper syndicate operational management of any substance - it was no more than dumb luck that he was picked up by Peter Harrison to play some sort of GBR organizational role not yet clearly defined - maybe to prepare GBR's defense when they are protested for purchasing and incorporating Nippon design materials and technology into their current design program. Throwing stones and glass houses come to mind.

Back to the central question: what in the world was OWC doing with Team New Zealand design materials? And how in the world can OWC sue Sean Reeves for supposedly offering Team New Zealand designs to another syndicate if they were misappropriated by OWC FROM TNZ in the first place? Its kind of like you (yeah You!) stealing my car and then some asshole steals my car from you - what do you do? Well, first of all you DON'T call the cops, that's just plain stupid because then they'll find out that the car wasn't yours and that you stole it from me and then you get punished real bad (unless you have a good lawyer and then he punished you with his bill) and . . . well I think you can figure it out from there.

But since we're talking about punishment, what do you do with a team like OWC (and GBR for that matter) that knowingly and willfully violates article 15.3 of the Protocol Governing the 31st America's Cup - the rule that prohibits one team's acquisition of another's design materials: technology, plans, test data, lines, parametric, tank models, baseline results, etc? First off you hit them upside the head for being stupid fucking idiots for paying Davidson ONE MILLION DOLLARS(!!!) for stuff that didn't belong to him in the first place - next thing you know Doug Peterson, Clay Oliver Tom Schnack and everyone else on the TNZ 1995 and 2000 design teams will want a cut of the action too and there goes the lawsuits which is probably okay because lawyers need to eat too. Would you buy a house for $1M unless the seller could prove he was the owner? These guys think differently than me that's for sure.

But what about adherence to the Rules of the sport and the Corinthian traditions of sailing and all that? It seems a tough task - probably impossible - to separate what new design iterations and development resulted from OWC's designers' use and review of the TNZ plans (as well as the America True materials but that, too, is another story) and what, if anything,e OWC's designers were able to independently develop in the way of a new hull shape, fin, bulb, rudder, winglet, mast, etc. I suspect that the intertwining has by now become so inextricable and the taint so permeative that it is no longer possible to sort out what came from where - besides, their boats are already half built from talk along the waterfront and it might be just a little tough to shit-can those and start from scratch especially with the financial difficulties these folks are confronted with.

Which brings us back, albeit circuitously, to the original premise for this admittedly rambling exposition: those unfortunate and unintended consequences flowing from actions taken without adequate forethought and those who attempt to pounce on seeming opportunities when watchful inaction would better serve the ultimate goal of surviving the 31st running of the America's Cup. OWC made a serious and probably fatal error in pursuing Reeves when it should have left things as they were - it now appears they will pay by now having their dirty secrets revealed. David Barnes, who wasn't raised in the States, will also learn a lesson Yanks learn from an early age when you hear a knock on the door and open it to see a burning paperbag: NEVER JUMP ON IT TO PUT OUT THE FIRE, you might just be jumping into some big shit!