"Mark Lipton" asked of His Lordship......

> Milud,
> While we've got your attention (and while we're engaging in a bit of
> jingoistic teasing) might I ask: WTF is going on in the America's Cup
> competition? It's not entirely surprising that US can win one once in a
> while, but really... Switzerland, a landlocked country? And where are the
> Kiwis in all this?
>
> Just askin'

Long story - I am not totally surprised that you (and 99.9% of Americans)
have absolutely no idea what is going on!

Holder (Alinghi of Switzerland) - crewed by mainly NZers, lured by Swiss
billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli's million Euro pay cheques (checks to you
:-))) - attempted to change the 160year old rules of the contest.

Larry Ellison (software magnate squillionaire) took the case to the NY
Supreme Court (final arbiter as set down in the original Deed of Gift)

After spending something like $50M each on legal bitching, a regatta was
ordered (by the aforementioned NY Supreme Court) - comprising two only
competitors, sailing on racing multihulls - each costing in the order of
another $50M - to the exclusion of all other challengers.

So, Larry Ellison's BMW Oracle (with NZer Russell Coutts as CEO) won the
race(s) 2 - 0 - as sailed in Valencia, Spain - and the America's Cup is on
it's way to San Francisco.

Hopefully, Mr Ellison will now let a true, multi-challenger regatta to
commence - probably in 3 - 4 years.

Sorry about the long convoluted explanation - but this has been a case of
two ultra-rich kids, each wanting to "own" sports oldest trophy - where
*sport* never entered the equation.

So, champagne flowed for the Oracle crew - sour grapes for the Swiss (ex)
holder - and flat beer for all other wanna-be racers.

Went sailing myself last weekend - air temp 30degrC - water temp 23degrC -
was thinking about you guys up to your "you-know-whats" in snow.

Cheers

A B