The best weather is to be enjoyed in Canterbury (if you don’t mind the winter chill). It’s also the home of the best rugby team in NZ – and the one-eyed Canterbury Rugby supporter as it happens! But the sailing here is a bit limited.

So I guess wherever you are in NZ, you have to compromise somewhere along the line. But we are free to enjoy wide open spaces and with fewer than 4 million people there is more than enough room for everybody. Cheers, David G.

I DO think NZ is a wonderful place, Vale. What I was trying to say was that there are many Kiwis how do not appreciate/realise what a truly wonderful country we live in. My point to Andy was that he, like many other recent immigrants, obviously appreciate how great NZ is, because they decided to make it their home, while lots of us who are born here, just take the place for granted.

There are many beautiful and talented women here too, Vale. And, as for the men……we’ll I guess you’d need to as those Kiwi women. By and large, I think we are a pretty good lot, but then I’m a man, so you’d expect me to support the blokes! Ha, ha. Cheers, David G.

Ciao
Vale

Professor Boshier’s comments are interesting. Some of them are pretty much spot on, but he did seem to imply that BMW-Oracle was somehow a tool of the American military-industrial complex… I was down Halsey street this afternoon (came to spy on my beloved NZL20 – some monster has attached a motor to the back of the poor thing!) and saw the boys down at the Oracle shed moving about one of their “sharks”. I can’t say I saw a hint of Pax-Americana on any of their faces.

If we win, the nationality rules are going to be one of the most controversial aspects of the next cup, I’d invisage. Personally I think something has to be done to make it more about countries competing rather than just some big abstraction. ACM says they want to get more people interested in the cup, but between the debacle over TV rights or lack thereof (thank goodness TVNZ came through for us there) and the national teams with almost no compatriots onboard things don’t look so good. Well, even if we do win, if we don’t find a challenger of merit who sees things along similar lines then all will be for naught.
It’s probably too late to expect 100% of the teams to be from the same country (and it’s not like the Americans were avert to filling up their ranks with Norwegans during the 30s), but maybe we can compromise on a set percentage. 66%? 75%? 80%? Having a majority of one’s own country on board doesn’t have to mean that the John Cutlers of the world can’t lend a hand to the Desafio Espanols of the world, right? And it’s good for the teams, the results of ETNZ, Luna Rosa, Desafio, Shosholoza, Mascalzone compared to Oracle, China when you factor in the resources the teams had to work with suggest to me that there’s something extra about fighting for your country rather than just for money. It’s something that could see the cup coming back here even if we have a slower boat.

I’m interested in those VMG figures from ’03, Lee. It certainly looked to me like we had the boatspeed edge (albeit only just) back then. The team just didn’t have that all-important belief that they could win, you could see it in their eyes. Otherwise, while I think the cup would have still gone to Europe, it wouldn’t have ended up 5-0. Despite what has come out of the [especially British] media, Deano is really a top class AC helmsman. He was and is quite capable of beating the likes of Coutts.

There is no way that Alinghi would go out and do this.
Can you imagine the world wide shame.

I think GD’s comment was made in jest.

David, I don’t really know who’s going to win the AC. What I think is that our benefactor Ernesto might want to start collecting some excuses in case SUI 100 is not ‘that’ fast.

I just noticed an interesting Lester comment. He asserts LR was ‘probably’ strongest in flat water at 14/15 knots. Yet the turncoats beat what appears to be 91 in light winds! Is 100 ‘that’ much better?

Could Bertarelli’s latest outburst of hurt feelings have something to do with his negative prescience? Why, all of a sudden, should the precious wee rich boy be so ‘apparently’ worried about what a few ETNZ ‘fans’ may or may not have said to ‘some’ Kiwis in Ernie’s crew.

Lastly, a question to PL; prefaced by this….I listened to an interview with Grant-The Great. He asserted that is was ‘qite possible’ that Alinghi could have rammed ETNZ during their little duel. Here’s the q.

What would be the outcome if, during any race, Alinghi purposely rammed ETNZ, with such force as to effectively stop the boat completing the course and stopped them coming out next day? Would Alinghi win the AC by default?

Many indigenous Kiwis (those born here of any race) in my experience do not have your appreciation of just what a wonderful country this is. Thanks for your comments. I enjoy your perspective, mate. Regards, David G.