Kiwis raced the world not just USA

[Baddad]

Why Is It So?:)

4 Australians, 2 NZ, one USA member and the rest from other countries are Oracle Team USA sailors that won the America's Cup.
There was a second USA member, tactician, replaced by a Brit after 5 races. Leaving one USA member in the team that managed to come from 8 races to 1 race down and proceeded to win the next 8 to attain the winning score of 8 to 9 for the Cup.:mad2:

http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Nationality-rules-likely-in-America-s-Cup-future-4853320.php

I see the event as ' We have stronger financial backing, therefore we win'.
USA bought the cup. The Oracle Team was skippered by an Australian. The team is a squad of mercenaries, purchased to defend the cup.
Are the Americans not good enough to defend the Cup?:shrug:

FYI My Son and his family are USA citizens. This is not an opportunity to verbally bash USA. The Kiwis if they had won, intended to change the rules to have common sense and fairplay invoked.:)

The Kiwis were beaten by a world combined team. I am disgusted. Only one USA member in the team. With two Kiwis.???? Where is their loyalty?

Can anyone defend the USA's actions? :shrug::screwy:

Cheers:)

[Larryp]

I have to agree with you, Marty. The America's Cup is a far cry now from when Bondy's crew won it.
But how fast are those catamarans!

[OzEclipse]

Yes fast but oh so flimsy, they cancelled races whenever the wind speed exceeded 20 knots. Gimme a break. When I raced sailboats 20 years ago, we groaned whenever the wind speed was below 20 knots.

Bring back real sailing, big capable boats and races that aren't over in 5 mins because the boats are so fast.

Joe

[blink138]

it was new zealands to lose!
and guess what?........ they lost!
i, like many others were waiting for one more .....bloody win!
it never came, the best boat won with the best team, new zealand choked, it happens to the best in every sport
new zealand were courageous but ultimately failed
just as a side note werent the US caught cheating in the vuiton(?) races that led to an instant two race handicap at the start of the series with NZ?

[blink138]

oh and by the way its not called "the americas cup" for nowt you know, the dont like losing and are constantly changing the goal posts to suit themselves
was it not the kiwis whom exploited a (clever) loophole to race a catamaran against the ol' 12metre american and blitzed them?
i remember they made the rule that the sail material had to come from country of origin........ and of course nobody else had the technology for good sail cloth!
pat

[ourkind]

How do you put a cork back into a champagne bottle?

Ask a Kiwi skipper.

[ZeroID]

Both boats were made primarily with NZ sailing technology, about the only part made outside NZ was the hulls which had to be from the country of origin (but it was a kiwi design ) WingSails, sails, foils etc etc, all from NZ.
But Larry Ellison owned Core Composites, the NZ based company that built most of the boats. So the technology breakthrough that got Oracle some speed was not available to ETNZ
That being said, remember there were a couple of Aussies in the ETNZ team, it wasn't an exclusive group. And there had to be input from other countries as well. Big kudos to Luna Rossa who stayed on to help ETNZ tune up before the real thing, they could have sulked and walked.
Ok, so we didn't win it this time but we're still the only country that has ever won it and defended it successfully in past events.
We'll be back, it's only a piece of metal after all and all NZ is applauding the ETNZ team for the heroic efforts and the incredible racing and spirit they did it in.
Remember, we came second, the rest of the world didn't even get close .... :thumbsup:

[BPO]

Jeez, I wasn't aware that boat race was even on until a visitor from Auckland mentioned it.

The level of hysteria within NZ is pretty funny considering there are only twenty people and a dachshund who have ever heard of the America's Cup, yet Kiwis still pretend "The whole world is watching!" and it's somehow "putting New Zealand on the map"!

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[Baddad]

Hi ZeroD,:)

You said, "Remember, we came second, the rest of the world didn't even get close .... :thumbsup:"
It was the rest of the world that beat NZ. NZ was racing against not just USA but Australia, Britain, NZ and others.:)

To beat USA a country has to also whip them in the court rooms as well.
If NZ had won USA would have taken the match into a legal battle, as has happened before.

Cheers

[BPO]

That's because the vast majority of the rest of the world has never heard of the America's Cup.

We should never lose sight of the fact it's nothing more than a tiny little hobby race for bored Richie Rich trustfund kiddies.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[Kal]

Well you can blame the Aussies for the "international" composition. From the AC wiki:

[BPO]

The reason almost everyone involved in the America's Cup is a New Zealander is due to the fact that New Zealanders are almost the only people interested in the America's Cup.

[AstralTraveller]

Plus Bob Hawke. He loves it because he gets to bathe in past reflected glories - and tell bluies on TV.

On crew composition; in any other sport there are eligibility criteria for the competitors. Why not this sport? What part of the effort was from the USA or NZ? I'm tempted to say it was the only bank book but I'm not even sure of that.

In some sports it is common for coaches and other support staff to be bought in but there is even resistance to this in some sports. In Australia soccer seems to work well with international coaches but in rugby union and cricket there has been a backlash against the idea. Technology, training methods and tactics are of course fully international.

[Rob S]

Team NZ - snatching defeat, from the jaws of victory.

Rob.

[BPO]

That seems to be a common trait of Prime Ministers everywhere.

:lol:



Well, for one thing it's barely an actual "sport," as opposed to a passtime for jaded billionaires.

To put things in perspective, I was once in a room with a bunch of overexcited Kiwis during the fever-pitch phase of an earlier A.C. outing, one that was taking place in San Diego. Here in NZ it was all akin to D-Day, and everyone was telling everyone else that, "The Whole World is Watching New Zealand!" and "It's Put New Zealand On the Map!"

So it was with enormous and hungry glee that these Kiwis watched as a NZ TV crew stopped passersby in downtown San Diego -- "a town in the grip of Cup fever," we were assured, repeatedly -- and asked their views on the event... Only for the shocked and dumbfounded Kiwis to discover that not even one of the dozens of San Diegans interviewed live had ever heard of the America's Cup -- one thought it was soccer, then asked if he was going to be "translated" -- and none of them had any idea it was in progress.

Nothing has changed: friends overseas know little or nothing about the America's Cup, and care even less. And in a week I'll be flying to Vancouver then driving south to L.A. and I'm pretty certain nobody I'm going to encounter will be wearing an A.C. T-Shirt.

:lol:

The America's Cup: Wuld Fummus un UnZud.

:D

[Rob S]

Sweet, lucky for you - will you be going to any star parties in USA, or visiting any scope manufacturers? Aren't Astro Physics and Stellarvue in that area :eyepop:

Rob.

[ZeroID]

NZ won, the event returned on the Govt's investment of 36 mill about 5 fold.. and ongoing for the whole marine industry.
ETNZ took on Larry Ellison, not the USA .. or the world, .... just $$$$$.

And it was a good event to watch, win or lose. :thumbsup:

[BPO]

Where's my prize? They took my tax dollars and gave it to the challenge without my permission, so they owe me the prize.


How so? The government donated NZ$36m of NZ taxpayer's money to a bunch of rich guys to have fun messing about in boats, and they lost. We get that donation back... How, exactly?


And yet the NZ marine industry has been whinging like girls since forever that they need yet more NZ tax dollars thrown their way.

And it's been estimated that well in excess of a billion NZ dollars has been poured into the NZ America's Cup challenges since billionaire Michael Fay began soliciting donations from the NZ public to fund his first crack at it. Hard to see where NZ got much in the way of value.


And yet all we ever hear is how NZ has conquered an admiring world, that the A.C. put NZ on the map, etc etc.

So, NZ$36m of our tax dollars is thrown at rich guys to yacht race a billionaire with nothing better to do than laugh as a big chunk of an entire nation's population wears little red socks and waves little black flags and tells itself the whole world is watching.


Seriously? It's "exciting" to watch a pair of expensive plastic boats slooooowly sail about, being overtaken by paddling seagulls and drifting clouds and dead fish? To each their own, I guess.

:lol:

[Kunama]

Agree wholeheartedly Joe, Whilst I have sailed catamarans for 20 years, I think the America's Cup should be sailed in 12 metre or similar.
Let the cats race for the Little America's Cup (International Catamaran Challenge Trophy).
I too hated anything less than 15 knots.

I think national teams should be all from the one country, including coaches.

[g__day]

Must say - it felt good to watch the Australians come back and beat New Zealand! Oh - forgot - there was an American aboard too - as I tell my Kiwi friends!

Those boats can sail in much stiffer winds, but after the fatality for safety reasons they limited them to under 25 kmph winds I believe? I read somewhere they have been clocked up to 89 km per hour - I'd guess they travel around 2.5 times wind speed when foiling - so you could take them out in 35 kmph breezes, but they are do expensive to risk lives and serious gear breakages at those speeds. When foiling they travel above the waves - so it might be a smoother ride than would be expected; but catamarans are prone too nose dive when over-powered. On a broad reach or downwind you don't want over five tonnes of boat going from say sixty to zero in two seconds.

Must say it was the most thrilling sailing I've seen since the '83 cup - hugely enjoyed it and the information whilst racing was unparalleled. I just wished there was 5 - 10 knots more breeze and a 40km per hour wind speed race limit!