John was involved in the America’s Cup from 1999-2010.

How did he get into it?

John was fortunate to get selected for the 1999-2000 Cup in New Zealand having only been an International Umpire for a couple of years but he had a good regatta and, despite only being contracted for the initial stages of the Louis Vuitton Cup he went on to umpire in the Louis Vuitton finals and all the Americas Cup races.

John also had the opportunity to take part in several jury hearings during this Cup cycle and these provided a completely different insight into the way things work at a top professional regatta. Whilst the rules are the same the team lawyers always seem to have a different take on things!

Success at this event opened up the opportunity for John to be part of the first, almost professional, umpire team that was formed for the Swedish Match Tour and this enabled him to establish myself on the wider match race scene all round the World.

What sort of people were ideally suited to the role?

Apart from the obvious need to be a good umpire the Cup certainly brings extra pressures. Decisions are being made that can send home syndicates that have spent many millions of dollars to be there and there is quite rightly, the expectation that all decisions are correct. Umpires need to be able to stand up to scrutiny and be able to fully explain their decisions.

There is also the need to be able to switch on and off at appropriate times. There were long periods of inactivity waiting for races to start followed by short but intense periods of umpiring. 

It is also important to be able to handle difficult situations. During one race John was unfortunate to get a trailing spinnaker sheet caught round the prop during the race. He said “The way one handles these situations can make or break you and believe it or not I came out of this situation much stronger and still maintained the confidence of the sailors and fellow umpires. For this transgression I was awarded the ‘monkey’”.

Unique tools and work environment

When John was involved with the Cup the umpiring was very much in accordance with all other match racing. As proper funding was available, they had top end equipment to work with. This allowed them to develop and evolve communication processes. For example, the umpire boats with flashing lights, development of direct communications with the boats and on-board umpires to replace wing boats.

Having a large group of umpires together for months at a time also led to development and improvement of umpiring techniques, boat positioning and rule improvement. This was much to the benefit of the sport as a whole.

Overlap or commonalities with other umpired events

In the past there was a close connection between the Cup and general match racing throughout the world. This is not really the case today and it is hard to see the techniques being developed to successfully umpire the current high-speed cup boats is unlikely to impact on other match-racing in the foreseeable future as they are not really relevant or cost effective for other events at this time.

Culture of other officials, teams and sailors

The America’s Cup brings with it a team culture and teams try to gain both a technological and psychological advantage over their fellow competitors. There is a high degree of secrecy and the umpire team needed to respect this. It was also important that the umpire team was not only independent but clearly seen to be. If this was not the case, then the whole umpiring philosophy could have broken down. At times this meant one could not socialise freely with friends who may be involved with various teams or syndicates.

Closing comments

There are certainly some tough times during a cup cycle, a poor decision brings pressure. There are long periods away from home and considerable travel requirements.

On the plus side the ability to develop and work in a team environment, rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous, being in a privileged position to watch the Worlds top sailors in action and, of course, some superb Louis Vuitton parties make it all worthwhile and John said he would do it all again without hesitation.