High life
Better days
Taki
speisal T see that my old friend the Aga has been .I. to Newport, looking over his investrnent in the Italian boat Azzurra, now thankfullY eliminated from the America's Cup. I ?,,Y thankfully not because I have anYthltle against the Italian challenge — on the con- trary, my good friend Gianni Agnelli is Une of the sponsors — but because I am a believer that the Anglo-Iranian Pakistani in it for the money. But perhaps I a', being a bit too harsh on him — after all, II wonder, why Peter de Savary is involved' Could it be that he loves the sea? Speaking of de Savary, it was three Years ago that my father got his comeuppance,a,s. a result of his ridiculous belief that a Brit's" passport makes one an English gentler'' My papa was looking through a yachung, magazine when he saw an advertisenlent.' for an 85-foot boat that would react' 40 knots. Being a very impulsive man, he had to have that particular boat right awaY When he discovered that the boat belonr,' t to a British subject, he tried to buy it sigh unseen. Cooler heads prevailed, however' and he did fly to New York to inspect het' Once there he was informed that she wasi.)fr mg off Newport. Father was ecstatic; Newport meant that he would see sortie his old buddies. Father, you see, member of the club that has succession) defended the America's Cup since its .10" ception by using the rules of ocean ract,l, the way Uncle Joe Stalin used Yalta. Savary gave him a quick ride, Fathe! a' declared himself satisfied, the boat ul
ers surveyed and more than a million smack changed hands.
Three months later, when the boat vie;s unloaded in Piraeus, my papa began howl' ing like a hungry wolf. He had bought the boat 'as is', which in maritime lingo men.° what it says, that the buyer gets everything except the personal effects of the vend°rv. Well, Senor de Savary had an unusual of interpreting the term 'personal effects • So, I shouldn't complain too much abclu,t the Aga getting involved with the America s Cup. Sailing, after all, like everything else,i ain't what it used to be, so why should°, people like those two Senors be involve°' J. P. Morgan had seen the writing oil the wail long before he gave up sailing, when 1,1!t lamented the lack of people one co UT. cruise with. 'You can do business Ow anyone, but you can only sail with .1 gentleman,' was the way old J. P. Put once. And he was right. I would assurn- that sailing with people like the Aga and de S,avarY must be a bit like dining with Sebas- tian Taylor. Not very salubrious. Rut I don't know why I'm complaining. The world has changed, and one has to ac- cent the inevitable. Looking at today's boats, of course, doesn't help matters. The 19th century was a heroic one, it thought big and built great bridges and beautiful clipper shiPs. It also built great empires. Today's excitement is on small frontiers. Things like microchips, chromosomes, even small-time dictators like Mugabe. Just look how some of our leaders (leaders?) went grovelling in order to have him play god today. And, in (71, rider not to get side-tracked, boats. Just look at the ugliness of today's boats. So,i suppose God in his infinite wisdom keeps things in relative order. Ugly boats draw ugly people with uglier manners. And 'Port draws businessmen because the adver- tising is cheap. Marcel Bich wants to sell his Ale Pens, and Cinzano their vermouth, and glista their helicopters, and the Aga his suotel rooms. As I am not familiar with de aivarY's business, I assume he also wants to sell something, but I do not know exactly what.
Rack in Newport Town, in the meantime, nY spies tell me that there, too, things ain't That they used to be. Social climbers galore blave abandoned the Hamptons in order to he seen by the thousands of journalists who il,ave descended upon the once quiet and elegant village. Even Kennedy groupies, People like Arthur Schlesinger and Ken , albraith, have deemed it socially impor- litont enough to attend and so too, needles f: say, has our very own Edward Heath. In cet Mrs Jan Olympitis, a lady who is cilt1) as the Sir Edmund Hillary of social %A:Ting, gave a ball in his honour only last eeK. Or was it two weeks ago? The pros- rnect of Heath autographing books on sail- 8 While hundreds of American boats quell e LIP for him has me confused. In fact Sti,aPP4Iling is that prospect that I would r,'“°s1 prefer to have seen the Aga win the 111) and take it back forever to his ghastly ardinian paradise.
Previous page
