After the US Sailing Association (USSA) accused America One Racing Foundation of a ‘variety of wrongful, tortious, and duplicitous conduct, intentionally and maliciously designed and undertaken to harm, if not destroy,’ its reputation, the foundation has hit back. It’s released a statement to set out its side of the story after a ‘disheartening and disappointing week’. In it, Lawrence Finch, chair of the America One Foundation, says his organisation “is being targeted as a scapegoat for US Sailing Association’s (USSA) own shortfalls in supporting American sailors.”

Now the privately owned foundation is accusing US Sailing of ‘actively defaming’ its reputation, and says the actions the governing body has taken are ‘unfathomable’, especially given the timing: “Now is when our sport’s national governing body should be doubling down to help our sailors, but instead, USSA is trying to attribute blame for their shortfalls to America One. Instead of ramping-up focus on fundraising and athlete support, they are working to divide our community by publicly attacking their largest supporter,” says Finch.

Last week, US Sailing Association, the USA’s governing body for sailing, filed the lawsuit against the organisation, alleging that its actions have ‘harmed, and continue to harm, athletes, the US Sailing Team, and US Sailing.’ In essence, US Sailing is accusing America One of trying to position itself misleadingly as the de facto national governing body for the sport of sailing in the United States, to eventually succeed US Sailing. The lawsuit stems from an incident a year ago, in February 2023, when the US Olympic Sailing Programme faced a suite of resignations and which led to the formation of America One Racing, a private foundation and developmental programme for elite sailors.

Finch’s statement sets out his version of events around the resignations, weaving an intriguing story. According to Finch, when Bill Ruh and Paul Cayard (directly named by US Sailing in the lawsuit alongside Leandro Spina) started work for US Sailing, the governing organisation “had no significant donors and a multi-million dollar hole in its Olympic budget.”

In 2021-2022, Ruh and Cayard secured $18 million in commitments for the US Olympic effort.

“The Olympic department of US Sailing has always been on its own to fundraise for itself, and because of this, it had to operate on a meagre budget. Our results over the past cycles reflected that lack of investment in our sailors. At some point, US Sailing began charging the Olympic department an ‘administrative fee’ – which the Olympic department had to cover itself from its own fundraising.

“In 2022, Paul and Bill became concerned about the amount of this fee and how it was continuously increasing. The final straw came when USSA decided to double the fee — now almost seven figures — for 2023. Paul objected in writing to USSA CEO Alan Ostfield and the US Sailing board, explaining how this fee would take significant donor-dedicated funds out of athlete hands without providing commensurate value. Unable to convince the board, Paul, Bill and the entire coaching staff resigned in protest.

“Because donors contribute based on trust and confidence, when this team resigned, it was no surprise that many donors withdrew their support and commitments from USSA. Some of these donors chose to move their donations to America One because they believed in the coaching staff and their programs. It is known that we operate at a much higher rate of efficiency than USSA, which means more money goes directly to athletes.”

Finch says America One is being targeted as a scapegoat for USSA’s own shortfalls in supporting American sailors.

He says that over the past six months alone, America One has contributed $1.5m in the form of direct financial support, 648 days of on-the-water coaching from world-class coaches, physical fitness and conditioning guidance, funding for a weather study for the Marseille Olympic venue, performance planning for 22 athletes, physical therapists for athletes at various events, and the direct support at 45 events, camps, clinics, regattas and World Championships.

“In addition, we provided an $81,000 special trials grant to 30 athletes to help them with costs incurred for competing in the Olympic trials.

Main image: America One Racing ILCA7 squad preparing for World Championships.

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