NZ's Cup Again

Michael from Pinehaven

Listen to the general public and you get to hear more nonsense than you get from most other sports.

Going Into the final at Bermuda and the amount of people who didn't know what the actual score was and what was the maximum number of races required. This included talk-back hosts.

Then we had the guy who said that the previously cheating American team would race with two boats on what turned out the last day of racing in Bermuda and thereby shut or shunt out the NZ entry.

There was another guy who said if we win the thing the defence of it would be held in Dubai because Emirates was the major sponsor.

NZ will host the next America's Cup here in three-four years time and presuming it will be staged in Auckland won't be because of infrastructure from previous Cup regattas is there as the base that was used is no longer available.

Australian Jimmy Spithill was party to cheating in San Francisco in 2013 but otherwise appears to be a dashing and poignant winner and magnanimous loser.

But if he wants to be part of the next America's Cup it may not be in representing the USA. I am sure that rule changes will mean that almost all the crews-etc must be nationals on the boats they sail on or are in the 'background" as team members. This will be to NZ's advantage and should have been put in place years ago by NZ when we had the chance to make the rules and we would not have lost so many topliners to other syndicates.

One of the more amusing comments I heard this morning was a guy who said NZ should host our defence of the Cup on Lake Taupo and insist that all competitors must first sail their boats from their respective countries to the Lake. Some trip that would be. However it is likely that most if not all the competing boats will be built in NZ.