idontwan2know

Ding ding ding, we have a winner! The best parts of Alinghi are wearing Oracle colors these days.

The whole "sponsors are concerned we might get eliminated before getting to the main venue" thing seems vastly overblown. Teams have almost always been eliminated after the Rounds Robin, and sponsor exposure up to that point has always been underwhelming. The fact that the racing which will take the place of the Rounds Robin will now happen at a different location doesn't suddenly make it a less attractive prospect for a potential sponsor. It seems to me that holding that portion of the event at a different location, with the participant of the defender and cup match points on the line all make it much more interesting and might bring greater value to sponsors. Nothing has changed...if you suck and get eliminated early, your sponsors will not get their money's worth.

Newey expressed interest in AC design back in AC32. Doubt his participation will be meaningful, but it's certainly a heavyweight name that will help with credibility with sponsors.

I don't think it's a tall order at all to expect AR to be faster at times...they're in a much more recent vintage boat. Whether they can get the most out of the boat is a different question.

France appears to be lacking in the category most essential for modern AC campaigns: A billionaire willing to light tens of millions on fire in the pursuit of an ugly silver teapot.

Sure is easy to come to conclusions when you regard all your asinine unfounded assumptions as facts.

No where did I say anything about his skills as a team manager, which are certainly laudable. As far as being in good position to bring the cup home, let's wait until there are actual races in the boats that will contest the match first, eh? Last time I saw this much kiwi confidence was before Race 1 in 2007. Or was it 2003?

I don't think Dalts does hisself any favours with all the trash talking. I happen to agree with most of his points, but I think he needs to dial it back a bit. For this reason, people get their backs up against him. However, they fail to separate their dislike of his public persona from his clearly significant s I don't think Dalts does hisself any favours with all the trash talking. I happen to agree with most of his points, but I think he needs to dial it back a bit. For this reason, people get their backs up against him. However, they fail to separate their dislike of his public persona from his clearly significant skills. Dalts' shit talking plays well at home, which is the only audience that matters to him. Plenty of kiwis are convinced that the random crap that he spews is actually hiding some genius agenda to confound his opponents. The simplest explanation, that he's just a crotchety old man who lacks a fully developed brain-mouth filter, is something they'd rather not contemplate.

Some of the kiwis around here crack me up. Dalts could shit in a box, call it gold and they'd make jewelry out of it.

Certainly seems like Scott and Clean have let their personal feelings towards PC affect their response. Maybe there's some other reason for it, but there has been a lot of "Ready, fire, aim!" going on.

I'm not gonna drag out the discussion of a hypothetical situation that we all agree isn't going to happen. Suffice it to say that challenging things under the DoG is not as easy as people seem to think.

The whole DoG issue is moot because the competitors would never agree to a change at this point. My point was that if the teams wanted to do it, the DoG would not be a significant roadblock. All you'd have to do is put enough weight on the boats in measurement trim to get them to measure 44'. Amend the protocol such that the winch handles being built in country satisfies the constructed-in-country requirement. Done and done. You are going under the assumption that all the competitors would agree and that there would not be a legal challenge from say any of the YAC teams or any other yacht club with potential standing. Your premise is legally indefensible. You clearly didn't read my post. "if the teams wanted to do it" And no, Joe Blow yacht club who is not a competitor would not have standing to challenge it. Obviously I read your post. And, once you start lowering the bar of what it takes to win the America's Cup both cost and design, you open the door for a legal challenge by any yacht club that could meet that standard. "Had GGYC not set such unachievable standards for the Cup they would have challenged". You are tossing out hail marys without really understanding the history of the Cup and how far people will go to win it. You must be new around here. The cost of competition has fuck all to do with who has standing to challenge anything about the cup in court. There are two entities that matter when it comes to the Deed: The defending yacht club and the challenging yacht club. That's it. The other teams could conceivably lodge a challenge under the protocol, but random yacht clubs off the street have no standing whatsoever. You think yacht clubs that aren't competitors can challenge the mutual consent choices of the defender and challengers but claim I'm throwing hail marys <sic>? Riiiiiight...

With two teams likely to have spent a combined $100-mil+ already, how likely is this, though? Hardly would be my guess. Not likely at all, no.

The whole DoG issue is moot because the competitors would never agree to a change at this point. My point was that if the teams wanted to do it, the DoG would not be a significant roadblock. All you'd have to do is put enough weight on the boats in measurement trim to get them to measure 44'. Amend the protocol such that the winch handles being built in country satisfies the constructed-in-country requirement. Done and done. You are going under the assumption that all the competitors would agree and that there would not be a legal challenge from say any of the YAC teams or any other yacht club with potential standing. Your premise is legally indefensible. You clearly didn't read my post. "if the teams wanted to do it" And no, Joe Blow yacht club who is not a competitor would not have standing to challenge it.

The 12m refers to the sum of the measurements in the rule - not the length!!! Most 12s were 65-75ft long. http://www.australian12m.com/about/the-12-metre-rule/ (I stayed away from SA for 5 days, to avoid the ambulance chasing, rumour spreading, and fact-less speculation. I simply cannot fathom the depths of crap that has been posted in that time - astonishing. Might be time for another site which attracts a more 'balanced' membership and works on a basis of respect and carefully researched and thought out hypothesis, rather than the venom and vitriol that oozes from the walls here...) I'm well aware of how the 12m and other International rule measurements work. The Deed of Gift was altered to change the minimum LWL from 65' to 44' in order to race in 12s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deed_of_Gift_of_the_America's_Cup