Marcel Bich and the conquest of America
Daring gamble against American supremacy
Like the Irish emperor of tea, Sir Thomas Lipton, before him, the French baron of disposable ball-point pens wanted to combine a breakthrough on the American market with a quest for glory through his four participations in the America’s Cup.
In spring 1980, Marcel Bich, the Bic ball-point emperor, revealed his secret weapon: the yacht France III, carrying all his hopes for his fourth attempt to win the oldest, most prestigious and most technological of the world’s sports competitions: the America’s Cup. And this baron, from Italy, did not mince his words: “This is my final attempt. In four years, I will be 70. My wife tells me that I will be too old for battles like these. So, our mission is simple: in Newport, in September, we need to win!”
13 years earlier, the daring entrepreneur had managed to convince the New York Yacht Club to change the competition rules.
The club had held its cup since 1851. Back then, the New York schooner America annihilated the fastest English yachts of the time, with Queen Victoria looking on. The owner of the America took the “Queen’s Cup” to New York and immediately renamed it after its schooner. Since this humiliation, the Yankees had never lost their precious cup. Since 1871, the regattas had been based on a duel format. In line with a simple principle: if a foreign pretender – known as a challenger – wanted to try to win the cup, they had to issue a challenge to its holder – the defender.
They then battled it out on the water, initially off the coast of New York, then Newport, America’s Saint Tropez, in a series of duels that were often incredibly boring because the Americans dominated so much.
In 1967, when Marcel Bich decided to become the first non-English speaker to issue them a challenge, the spirited baron managed to successfully convince the heads of the New York Yacht Club to accept several challengers, even if they faced an elimination round against one another before the winner went on to race against the American defender. Immediately afterwards, he bought three of the boats that competed in the 1964 event, recruited helmsmen and crew members, organized training sessions in Hyères Bay, before moving to Trinité-sur-Mer and launching work to build two thoroughbreds, with the second proudly featuring the name France on its transom.
On three occasions, the baron, so triumphant in business, had experienced the bitter taste of defeat, in 1970, 1974 and 1977. In 1980, with his helmsman Bruno Troublé and his magnificent France III, he finally reached the challengers final… and lost it 4 to 1! This is still the best result ever achieved by a French crew in these cruel duels.
History will recall that by managing to convince the New York Yacht Club to accept several challengers, Baron Bich paved the way for the inevitable end of the Yankees’ reign in the America’s Cup. The qualifying rounds between challengers enabled them to reach the defender’s levels of excellence. In 1983, the Australia II yacht put an end to 132 years of American dominance.
