Editorial- Another World Champion for New Zealand

by Richard Gladwell, nzeditor@sail-world.com on 9 Oct 2007 Welcome to Sail-World.Com/NZ’s (late) Monday newsletter.

Despite the Cardiff Catastrophe, there was some good news over the weekend from Roses, Spain where Nick Page won the Apprentice Laser Radial Masters world championship. Page was part of a 16 strong Kiwi team at the event – well shy of the 50 New Zealand sailors who have already entered the next World Championships to be held in Australia in 2008.

We have reports on the final day of racing and there are links to the daily diary maintained by Mike Pasco.

Over the weekend there was more action on the America’s Cup legal scene with a letter released by Mascalzone Latino, saying that they were still interested in being a competitor in 33rd America’s Cup, but not while the current protocol remained in place.

Two further documents were filed in the New York Supreme Court by Golden Gate YC, the first being a Challenger list for all the previous America’s Cups, designed to show that there has never been a 'paper yacht club' accepted as a Challenger of Record.

The second is a Memorandum of Law, presented by GGYC’s legal team, which is quite amusing in some of its analogies – we have featured an analysis and extracts from some of the points raised in the latter document – which runs to 23 pages. There is also a link for the full Monty, if required.

To somewhat balance the equation, Scuttlebutt has published another in the series by Cory E. Friedman, a New York sailor and lawyer, reporting on his audience with Ernesto Bertarelli, as the Alingho owner and some key members of his team travel the USA, with the America's Cup and explaining their position to the US media. As always, Friedman draws a refreshing perspective.

History was made at the Yachting New Zealand Annual General Meeting on Saturday at Nelson, with the election of Jan Dawson as President. A ranked match racer and CEO of KPMG in New Zealand, she is the first woman to hold the position. Three Directors were also elected.

Last weekend was also the Opening Day for many yacht clubs in New Zealand, and Nelson Yacht Club was no different staging three races in lovely warm conditions, while the snowcapped Southern Alps looked on. We have an image gallery from the day.

In The NZ Embassy in France, it has been announced that Wellington will be the host city for the single stopover in the SolOceans Race – which will be the first ever singlehanded race to be sailed in one design boats, the first of which is under construction in France.

And back to the Cardiff Catastrophe, if anyone ever doubted the power of the web, the NZ Herald has apparently received a massive 229 pages of email comments on the shock All Black loss to France, as grief turns to anguish and then recrimination.

Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor