Editorial- A square and bleary-eyed Kiwi nation

by nzeditor@sail-world.com on 5 Jun 2007 Welcome to the Monday edition of Sail-World.Com/NZ’s newsletter – late out due to Monday being Queens Birthday Weekend in New Zealand and a public holiday.

The three day weekend was a great excuse for Kiwi sailing fans to stay up late at night watching the racing in Valencia, with plenty of time to sleep in or have an afternoon nap to prepare for the next race.

No such luck for the next two races, during the working week, and if NZL-92’s form continues, the Finals will be over by Thursday morning (NZT).

To be honest the outcome is not a surprise to us, and we indicated as much in our pre-Final Review. We feel the same way about Alinghi, but obviously there is not a lot of data to work from. Luna Rossa’s main strength lay in playing the soft and shifting Valencia breezes of some of the Round Robin racing, however these seem to have stabilised since the start of the Semi-Finals.

This is confirmed to some extent by the telling statistic that of the 64 legs sailed since the start of the Semi-Finals, on only one has there been a lead change. And, the passing lanes that were a feature of the Round Robins have gone. Firstly as a result of the more stable breeze, and secondly because of the improvement in the standard of the tactics as crews come to grips with the Valencian conditions.

As to whether Emirates Team New Zealand can win the America’s Cup, it would seem to be a matter of how hard the Mushroom Crew in NZL-84 can push NZL-92 in the time between the Louis Vuitton Finals and the America’s Cup.

Full marks to Desafio Espanol – they have been clearly the best opposition that Emirates Team New Zealand have faced, and on form, are unfortunate not to have made the Louis Vuitton Cup Final. They would seem to be the second fastest boat in the sharp end of the regatta.

In this issue we have featured stories from the Finn Europeans which are getting underway in Hungary. The Finn and OK Classes are fortunate to have Robert Deaves covering their regattas for the online media, and we have two reports from Robert.

The Finns are also fortunate to have coach and competitor Gus Miller amongst their number. One of the great enthusiasts of the class and sailing, Gus is at the Europeans doing what he does best – getting new sailors established and tending the crop he has planted in previous years.

At the end of this week, the NZ Optimist Association will be holding their annual fundraising dinner at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, and there is a lot of memorabilia from the 32nd America’s Cup going under the hammer and is sure to attract international as well as local interest.

Over the years this class has done a great job of getting teams away to a variety of international, world and regional regattas – with no sailor doing more than one event. And gaining this international experience at a young age is a great way to both keep people in sailing and building the next generation of America’s Cup sailors.

So dig deep please, people.


Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor