From an early age Cayard showed great promise as a sailor and by his early teens was successfully sailing high performance dinghies such as the International 505 and Laser. As Cayard grew and became more proficient in sailing, he gained the notice of Tom Blackaller who invited Cayard to crew for him on his Star class sailboat. Blackaller would become an influential mentor and the Star Class would become a lifelong passion for Cayard.
Cayard has competed in a broad range of ocean racing events with an impressive record. He won the 1994 Kenwood Cup, the 1994 and 1996 Sardinia Cup and the 1995 Admirals Cup. His top achievement in this arena was becoming the first American to win the Whitbread Round the World in 1997-1998 as skipper of EF Language. He beat out ten other yachts for the prize over a course of 32,000 miles (51,500 km).
In 2007, Paul Cayard and Russell Coutts announced the launch of the World Sailing League in partnership with internationally renowned Portuguese sports promoter, João Lagos. The World Sailing League (WSL) was to have been held at premier sailing locations around the world with the series winner receiving $2 million in prize money.
America's Cup
Cayard's first America's Cup was in 1983 aboard Tom Blackaller's Defender as a jib trimmer. Defender finished third in the defender selection series. For the 1987 America's Cup series, Cayard moved up to tactician and alternate helmsman on Blackaller's new boat USA, which lost out to Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes for the right to challenge for the cup. [2]
For the 1992 America's Cup, Cayard was manager and skipper of Il Moro di Venezia from Italy, a syndicate backed by Raul Gardini. In 1991, he won the first ever International America's Cup Class world championship. Over the months long challenger selection series, Cayard's team beat out seven other teams from six other countries to win the 1992 Louis Vuitton Cup and gain the right to challenge for the America's Cup. Part of the challenge included protests where Cayard successfully protested the employment of a bowsprit on the New Zealand challenge.
Though Il Moro di Venezia was outclassed in the America's Cup races by the faster America³ , Cayard's expertise in sailing provided some memorable moments. In the second race of the series, his yacht won the start and maintained a small lead for the entire race. He employed classic match racing tactics throughout the race and at the downwind finish managed to beat America³ by three seconds, producing what was at the time the smallest winning margin in America's Cup history. Il Moro however, went on to lose this series 4–1.
In 1995, Cayard joined an American effort for the America's Cup with Team Dennis Conner Stars & Stripes as primary helmsman. Though Stars & Stripes was noticeably slower than other boats on the defender series, the syndicate managed to win the 1995 Citizen Cup for the right to defend the Cup. In an unprecedented move, Team Dennis Conner decided to use the faster yacht Young America from the PACT 95 syndicate to defend the Cup. Cayard and this syndicate ended up losing the Cup 5–0 to Team New Zealand, who had won the 1995 Louis Vuitton Cup.
With the change in venue and hemisphere for the Cup, the next America's Cup was not held until 2000. For the 2000 America's Cup, Cayard formed his own syndicate with backing from a number of sponsors and named it AmericaOne . The sponsoring yacht club was St. Francis Yacht Club of San Francisco. This syndicate competed against 14 challengers from 10 nations for the right to challenge for the Cup. AmericaOne reached the finals of the 2000 Louis Vuitton Cup racing against Prada for the right to challenge against Team New Zealand for the 2000 America's Cup. The final over the best of nine races was hotly contested, with neither yacht ever winning by more than two minutes. Prada won the first race, and AmericaOne the second. Prada went on to win the next two races, putting AmericaOne at a 3-1 disadvantage. AmericaOne then proceeded to win the next three races in a row and appeared on the brink of winning the Louis Vuitton Cup. However, equipment fatigue and failure proved decisive, several spinnakers were blown out, and Prada ended up winning the next two races and the series, 5–4, earning the right to challenge for the Cup. Prada ultimately lost in the America's Cup, 5–0 to the defender Team New Zealand. [3]
Following the conclusion of the 2000 America's Cup, Cayard recommended to the AmericaOne syndicate board of trustees that the syndicate should not compete for the 2003 America's Cup, citing significant financial and recruiting obstacles. Assets of AmericaOne were eventually sold to Larry Ellison who founded the Oracle Racing syndicate, later joining forces with BMW Racing to form Oracle BMW Racing, with Cayard as skipper. Cayard later was moved out of the skipper position into an administrative position and ultimately left the syndicate. [4] [5]
In March 2007, Cayard was involved in the 2007 America's Cup as Technical Advisor to Desafio Espanol 2007. Cayard also commentated on the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup and on the 2007 America's Cup for La7, the Italian broadcast rights holder. On 12 October 2007, Cayard announced that he was joining Desafio Espanol as sports director for the 33rd America's Cup.
For the 33rd America's Cup, Cayard provided commentary for Eurosport and in 2009 joined Torbjorn Tornqvist's sailing on Artemis Racing for the TP52 and Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas. Cayard also helmed RC44 Katusha on the RC44 Championship Tour from 2010 to 2012. For the 34th America's Cup, Cayard was the CEO of Artemis Racing, the Challenger of Record.
In 2020, Paul Cayard was the first sailor to be inducted into the Class of 2020 for the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, (BASHOF) [6]
