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  The Question
 | | Tom Slingsby - Oracle Team USA Gothenburg - Americas Cup World Series AmplifyPhoto.com |
We asked the big question a while back in Red Circle Boutique. It was carried over to subsequent weeks, and your responses have been fantastic. Thank you. Please keep them coming, even if you don't want them ‘published' per se, because this ‘forum' that we set up is about having a voice, irrespective of whether you want to deliver it yourself or not.
Now AC 36 might seem like nothing to do with the main question, or any of the points raised therein, but is this really so? Can that be hoisted up its own carbon stick, as it were? I think not. Like everyone, we will have to actually wait for the Protocol to be released at the end of the month before anything can be claimed as fact, and some commentary around it all at the moment is the work of total fiction.
In this regard, the Kiwis have done a masterful job, but that too is no surprise given the mind games and subterfuge they have engaged in over the years. We of course should put the stones down immediately, for kaftan-esque blue skirts around graceful dinosaurs are not from the pre-historic era, just a long, long time ago. Back then, Aussie sailors with way too much hair on their heads in very questionable styles, and far too small a size in shorts around their mid sections, used to run through the opposition whilst out on their morning jog, and hearing this story first hand from the men involved still makes me smile...
 | | Tactician Tom Slingsby (left) and Grant Simmer - Oracle Team USA - Bermuda, September 2016 Sam Greenfield/Oracle Team USA |
So yes, we'll all find out soon enough what it really means, and when it is going to be run in the Eastern Harbour City. Of course, a more stringent country of origin clause will help us, given how many are circulating in the mix, and have been racing for others for years. Tom Slingsby is the figurehead. He needs no introduction to sailors, and is reasonably well known by the general public too. Olympic Gold, World Championships in the Laser and also Etchells, along with an AC win, and loss, are all part of the extensive résumé.
Tom has been a pro sailor since he was a tacker, when his Sisters used to pay him 20c to come along, and a further 20c to stay and be crew for the whole race! One would go on to become an Australian Laser champ, too. What it all means is that he has a very level head on those shoulders, and can spot wind shifts like no other. It also means that whilst it is easy to talk about meetings with the usual suspects, as it were, it is not necessarily, or completely, all about them.
 | | Challenge 12 - reputedly the fastest ever conventional 12m - seen her win later life St Tropez François Madic |
One could argue that we do not have brands in this country to utilise this platform effectively. Back in the day, Dick Pratt did use Challenge 12 as the thin edge of the wedge to get into the USA, but that was then, and this is now. There will be no Kraft, I mean Phillip Morris, with a full re-branding once the boat crosses an ocean. Alas, we need to look farther afield, and the usual suspects can certainly lay claim to having plenty of those things called connections. After all, a Middle Eastern airline is a long way off a couple of islands drifting around the Pacific.
Tom himself says of it all, “Obviously we would love to have an Australian team competing and we are having meetings to make this happen. That's all that is going on at the moment, meetings as to have our best chance. Sorry not much to report at the moment, hopefully soon we will have more of all goes well.” Our job is to get behind him, and that notion, for we can all remember what can happen when we do!
Well then, it has to be that time, and just as Tim Shaw said, “But wait! There's more.” Now you will have to go to the website for other news, for it has been yet another bumper week. Check out the links below as a sample of the articles, which include Maxi 72 (awesome pics), The Clipper, VOR, Finns, Kites, MC38, Nacra 17, 49er, Tornado, Magnetic Island concludes boat watching season, youth racing, A-Class, and much, much more.
 | | Can Proteus repeat her Corfu Challenge victory next week? – Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship © Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi |
Also, well done to all the associations and events for all the news you have been supplying. Keep it up. Readers await you! Please ensure you have your club or class do the same via the submit function, just up in the top right of the Sail-World home page. In the meantime, go for a wander to review the proverbial plethora of material for you to explore on the site, from all over the globe. Also, do keep a weather eye on Sail-World. We are here to bring you the whole story...
John Curnow, Editor, Sail-World AUS
Max Salminen maintains lead at Opel Finn Gold Cup on Day 4
Robert Deaves, 
Max Salminen, from Sweden, extended his lead at the Opel Finn Gold Cup to seven points after placing fifth in the only race possible on Day 4. Ed Wright, from Britain, remains in second, while Jonathan Lobert, from France moves up one place to third, on equal points with Wright. The race was won by the 2013 World Champion, Jorge Zarif, from Brazil.... [more]
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Nenad masters Balaton breeze on opening day of 2017 Opel Finn Gold Cup
Robert Deaves, 
Nenad Bugarin, from Croatia, is the early leader at the 2017 Opel Finn Gold Cup at Balatonföldvár, Hungary. Two very tricky races in shifty and patchy conditions left much of the fleet with at least one high score, but home favourite, Zsombor Berecz is second, with Piotr Kula, from Poland, in third. Ed Wright, from Britain, won the first race, while Bugarin won the second.... [more]
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