DickDastardly

Yep, aka Edake, Bin Rouge etc.

Nah, different one. This is the one Dr Daryl had in his early days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEDauGt2dHA From 17:00

It’s based in Cygnet.

she was light blue originally IIRC, red trim stripes

Is this still sailing? Brilliant all the same but it paints a good picture of how hard it would be for a new team to enter this game. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/how-we-help-clients/flying-across-the-sea-propelled-by-ai?cid=other-eml-alt-mip-mck&hdpid=e2ae8d87-aca4-4c44-a8ba-3ddf591149d7&hctky=1404493&hlkid=8f69ec3256044f61bad7df9f9794ffae#

Insightful view IMHO. I agree in no small part based on more recent evidence. The TNZ culture seems to do well when the rules are new and the design space allows a lot of innovation and good gains. But, look back to 2007 and TNZ came within a second in the last race of winning the Cup after the killer type-form had been in place in that class for maybe 15 years and around 100 IACC boats built - totally diminishing returns territory. And, in that and the 2003 iterations Oracle tanked, despite outspending the rest by multiples.

Good assessment. At one level it was frustrating to see the teams making big performance gains during both the challenger series and the cup - that says they had inadequate time and scope to refine their design concepts and how they sailed them. Partly COVID, but also partly the rules - time window restrictions, no two boat testing, for example. These restrictions proved pretty pointless if they were designed to promote more entries. AM started way early, assembled all the right campaign components and solid funding and followed a typical long, incremental, structured corporate-style p

Back in teh day all it took was a passport to be classed a "National" - and I'm sure these two would qualify for a Kiwi passport

Australia punches above its weight in many areas because it is a young country with a prematurely mature economy with an educated population built on a can-do culture with a big inferiority complex about the rest of the world. New Zealand punches way above its weight in many areas because it is a young country with a prematurely mature economy with an educated population built on a can-do culture with a big inferiority complex about the rest of the world and Australia.

I'm sure Glenn would be eligible for a NZ passport by now

Never say never. A syndicate involving some of those characters and the obvious sailors may well have the legs. The design side might be an issue - where to get the right talent. But, it's solvable, just hard.

Unlikely sadly - unless the arms race drops down a few tiers to something more affordable. There just hasn't been another rich dude with enough of an interest in the sport prepared to fund one since 1987, Oatley toyed with the idea a few years back but balked at the cost and I'd be surprised if that family would now pony up in Bob's wake. Marcus Blackmore could theoretically be a candidate but his passion to date has been as a top level owner-driver rather than as sugar daddy for a bunch of pros. Jim Cooney, Christian Beck maybe but I suspect it's out of their $ reach at present.

And not in a good way.

...and probably a bit more challenging than usual when the other end of the tape is 40 metres away. I guess you could ask the person at the other end to live stream video to show you where the other end of the tape is.