The Poisoned Chalice: Dirty tricks and double-crossing at the heart of the America's Cup

The America's Cup is the holy grail of sailing, and people will do anything within their power to win it. From its beginnings as a race around the Isle of Wight won by an American 'invader', the event has been charged with intrigue, deceit and gamesmanship. Billions have been poured into the bottomless ewer that is the highest honour in the sport, but greed and the lure of the Cup itself have driven challengers and defenders to go beyond the limits of honour and sportsmanship time and again. This gripping expose shows how dirty dealings have been there from the very beginning, but mainly focuses on recent years. The players in this drama are billionaires and tycoons wanting to use the Cup to enhance their fortunes, mavericks trying their luck, and the establishment supposedly defending tradition but not always playing things straight. This isn't just rule tweaking either - this is spying of the highest order (one skipper admits 'I have forgotten exactly how much we spent on spying. It was probably two or three million dollars, maybe more'), stealing opposing teams' designs, poaching other teams' sailors (such as Olympic gold-medallist Russell Coutts), acrimonious court battles and downright cheating. There are big names involved here too - backers including billionaires Bill Koch, Larry Ellison of Oracle and biotechnology tycoon Ernesto Bertarelli, high profile sponsors such as Louis Vuitton and Prada, and world-class sailors including Ben Ainslie. This will be a controversial book - one that lifts the lid on the behind-the-scenes dirty dealings that this incredible 'poisoned chalice' inspires.