Dennis Conner warned us. He said the billionaires were only used to winning; only used to 'Yes, sir!" type of men; and that how they would react to losing would define America's Cup 2003.
Prada's Patrizio Bertelli has shown us how it's done in the fashion world with a snip here and tuck there - Doug Peterson out, new bows on both boats. Now Larry Ellison has shown how the software barons do it. You de-bug the program with nifty code-writing.
But what code? A sporting one? An ethical one? Even a logical one?
To say that Ellison's decision to axe Peter Holmberg has left jaws gaping is not far off the reality. Why so? For starters, it seems as if Holmberg is the human sacrifice for a technical problem. To everyone outside Oracle BMW Racing Team, the issue facing Ellison was not whether Holmberg was doing a good job but did his boats occupy the right design space?
In Round Robin 1, the lower sail area/lighter displacement choice of designer, Bruce Farr, was at variance with the body of the 2002/3 generation boats. The analysis showed USA 76 made most of her gains upwind but had the highest losses downwind of any challenger.
Two races in Round Robin 2 against Mascalzone Latino and Prada (one loss, one win) have yet to show how effective the re-moding of USA 76 has been.
Yet Ellison has decided human factors are to blame for USA 76's perceived under-performance. Watching OneWorld and Alinghi draw away from the other seven challengers was something that taxed his patience. In the loss against Prada, the onboard TV lens sought out Ellison wherever he sat. Television has an uncanny ability to strip people bare. Ellison's black mood was palpable.
That night, his mighty Katana superyacht was late back into the Viaduct Basin. That same day, Chris Dickson returned from enforced gardening leave to steer the tune-up boat. The next morning, Oracle BMW announced that the gentlest, most self-effacing and classiest match-racer of the 2002 season, Peter Holmberg, was out and Dickson, the firebrand, was in.
This is the same Dickson whom Ellison was obliged to reassign off the boat when the crew threatened a walk-out at the Ventura training base last year, the same Dickson who, if you follow every one of his big campaigns - New Zealand 1987, Nippon 1992, Tokio (Whitbread) 93/4, TAG Heuer 1995, Toshiba (Whitbread) 97/8 and Olympics 2000 - has a history of crew unhappiness.
The pattern is consistent. There are, you notice, no repeat campaigns.
Tactician John Cutler sailed with Dickson at Nippon in 1992. He must be staggered to find himself realigned with Dickson ten years on, rather than Holmberg with whom he has developed an effective partnership over recent years; the same Peter Holmberg in whom Ellison declared unstinting pride just days ago.
In his corporate life, Ellison is known to be ruthless. He has fired senior Oracle executives days before their stock options reached their maturity date. "I don't like firing anyone. It's the worst thing I have to do. But it's also the single most important thing I do apart from hiring people," he explains.
Paul Cayard can vouch for that. So, now, can Peter Holmberg.
Don't expect Ellison to change. He has created fabulous wealth and one of the world's most influential corporations by being passionate, tyrannical, mercurial, intolerant, incisive and driven. In these terms, he and Dickson are kindred spirits.
Ellison's favourite saying is the Chinese proverb: "Predictions are very dangerous, especially when they pertain to the future."
Yet he, out of all of us, must burn with desire to know exactly what the future holds for Oracle BMW Racing now...
Tim Jeffery, 25 October 2002
