On May 28, 9:49 pm, wrote:
Yes. They screwed up in design and in management. Too bad, there are a
whole bunch of good sailors on the team (including Chris Dickson) and
to me it doesn't look like the the boat is hopelessly slow. Looks more
like a case of poor priorities (which could be largely Dickson's
fault, or Ellison's).

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

From what I've read about Dickson personality, he is very driven
and seems to **** off his crew enough that some quit.

Would you race with a skipper that yelled? I'm not saying he
does, just that he is not a winner--he has lost every time
he competed for the cup, and there could be a reason for
this--perhaps driving too hard.

Dickson has the skills, but it seems not the right
personality to lead a team of really good sailors. It is
rare that team members on such a high profile event
leave--this is a sign of a very serious problem. Alarm
bells should have gone off in Larry Elison's head.

I just navigated in a race with a skipper that never once
raised his voice. If we spent more time together I think
the crew would do very well together. It is an amazing
thing to see a very well led team.

I spend a lot of time teaching sailing part-time and I've
taught all sorts of people. There is no question in my mind
that empowering people to take responsibility improves their
performance. Crew do not need to be thinking about a
skipper snapping at them. Feedback should be done
in a way that maximizes it's acceptance and without any
loss in self-esteem. A good skipper should have a
relatively minor role in a race because his crew should
be trained to function smoothly and efficiently before the
race starts. His biggest role is prior to the race. During
the race, the skippers eyes should be "out of the boat"
thinking about tactics, and less so "in the boat".

The other half of the equation is Larry Elison himself. As I
said earlier he is a hero to me. Yet, I have to wonder how he
could have failed to get into the LV Cup with his resources.

While it is easy to criticize Chris Dickson, I feel Larry
let us down by not picking from among the top American
sailors, each of whom has more motivation to win the AC
for America, that a Kiwi looking for another notch in his
resume, which will reflect honor on his country not ours.

If I had that kind of money, I'd chose Dennis Connor,
a proven winner, to run the boat. He has the experience,
and the love and passion to win for America. Chris Dickson
has a passion to win, but not for the US.

Larry has a lot of talented guys around him, I feel that if
they were all American's, he could have won the Cup and
brought it to San Francisco where it would be very easy
to hold for a long time, and provide a venue where spectators
could watch from the surrounding shores.

It would be even more exciting if the event was staged
in the bay in August! LV in early summer, followed by
wicked windy weather in August. Lets change the rules
on the wind parameters and watch stuff break!