NZ TEAM

I find it very, very interesting that Dalton (head of the NZ team) has stated "Russell Coutts is a non issue for the team NZ because of the tension of leaving NZ with ALINGHI the way he did and that bringing him back could prove to be difficult". NZ should only dream that he would ever become available to skipper their boat!

ENTER SWISS BANK (STAGE LEFT)

Mr. Ernesto Bertarelli loans team NZ 10 million euros!!! To race against Alinghi without Russell Coutts as the skipper? Is this a payoff ----just in case Russell breaks the contract with Bertarelli and Alinghi? And Russell may actually have a chance to race for team NZ again? He is locked out in the new (ACM) AC rules that were changed to prevent crew from changing boats and now NZ is bribed by the Billion-dollar machine from Switzerland to keep their loyalty (with whom)?

LOYAL NZ (STAGE RIGHT)

What is loyal about NZ when it comes to a 10 million euro loan? The same NZ trust that told Russell that he "may get paid some money... only if he wins the AC" And he has to put up front cash to enter the NZ AC race as a skipper? After winning the cup twice for NZ ------ this was the deal? Now the LOYAL NZ syndicate is borrowing money from Mr. Bertarelli for a challenge for the 2007 AC?

CRAP

NZ needs 10 million from Alinghi to sail in a Middle Eastern boat (United Emirates). And the country of NZ is not backing their own sailing with hundreds of millions in tourism revenues from LORD OF THE RINGS alone! Now if it were NZ rugby...that's different... Rugby is a real Kiwi sport!

COUTTS asked for a decent fee (I am sure) to sail for the 3rd time for NZ and they basically kicked him off the boat and replaced him with Dean Barker (a very good sailor). The amount of money that NZ lost when Russell took the Cup to Switzerland was...in the hundreds of millions euros…more?

DO THE MATH AND REALLY BAD NZ LOYALTY

Russell Coutts is the most inexpensive PR machine that NZ had and lost! And now the Arabs and Swiss own team NZ for two cents on the dollar! For a small country (NZ) it’s not easy to come up with 160 Million euro to sail a boat race and we understand this issue (very well). NZ and Australia could do a team together (OK maybe this is too radical)!

MOUNT GAY RUM (remember that stuff) with tonic and lime

We should all rethink the AC as a venue and go back to drinking and sailing for fun and sport (Yacht Couragous with Ted Turner days) Keep the team and skippers ONLY from their own country of birth and make it a race between country and country (tech and design) like the good old days with newer faster boats a lot less expensive and lots of booze and girls!!! (can’t be married with kids) might be better more exciting and fun!
In the days of Newport RI (1980's) the teams use to party all night at the Black Pearl & Candy Store (Boom Boom room) get laid by a few Swedish girls and go to bed a 6:00 in the morning...wake up at 7:00 (with what)? Then get their pants on (where are my pants!!...get too.... the boat (correct boat) and win the AC races (what was her name..again... for God and Country!!!
Now that's sailing and fun - - the way it should be again today! Real men could drink all night and sail the next morning....this was a big part of the sport (stamina of the team) that has been lost with too much money and stuff. Sometimes the race was won before the guy's even left the dock!

NEW VENUE NEW BOAT TV LAND

When TV viewers have to stay up to watch some of these races (early in the morning in USA for next AC), you don’t want a race cancelled or delayed for 10 days (4th race last AC) with boats that are too slow and fragile for any type of dynamic entertainment for any water sport! If, the wind is 5 knots or 30 knots…you get your ass to the start line and go! (The fans and viewers expect this to happen or they will change the TV channel to another rerun of the TV show FRIENDS or simply fall asleep).

The AC was a lot of fun before Austrailia beat the US, it was taken over by the corporate world and bad design, slow very expensive boats with crazy multi million euro programs for the venue and teams (too serious and too much mula).

I saw Russell Coutss (in Dubai) having his eyes changed (Chinese) like 007 did in one of those old Sean Connery Bond movies!

Think this means anything?

Cheers,
Newport RI (sailor) 1983 (group)