Oil-trading tycoons fund battle for sailing’s greatest prize

QUOTE-UNQUOTE: "Billionaire Tornqvist, who controls about 61 percent of Gunvor’s equity, is ambitious to topple Ellison, whose team is angling to become the first to win the cup three consecutive times.'Our long-term goal is to dominate the America’s Cup arena for the next decade and inspire a new generation of sailors,' Tornqvist said on Artemis Racing’s website.Tornqvist joins a list of race patrons that include legendary U.S. financier J.P. Morgan, who co-owned a yacht that defended the three-foot silver trophy, known as the “Auld Mug,” in 1899 and 1901. In 1983 Australian billionaire Alan Bond’s Australia II ended the New York Yacht Club’s 132-year hold on the trophy, while Switzerland’s richest man Ernesto Bertarelli won the 2003 and 2007 editions of the cup for the Geneva yacht club." –Andy Hoffman and Javier Blas, authors of an article for Bloomberg News that is being widely picked up on social and other media.

Photo: ARTEMIS Racing owner ARTEMIS Racing owner Torbjorn Tornqvist (SWE), by Stephen Lam/Getty Images