AC37 - The Americas Cup Match GB vs NZ

[jon711]

I caught up with the racing in the evening afterwork on YT. 5 seconds to the start it goes to a 30 second ad break, when it returns they are halfway up the fist beat!!!! arrrrgggghhhh

 

[dunedin]

Somebody not involved with the teams submitted a protest about the swear words from Ben caught on a live mike after the end of an interview, and the NZ skipper during sailing. Not being progressed.

 

[Chris 249]

Well, if not stopped in 1988, you talk as if the pre 1988 history is more important than the post 1988 history. As if the direction of the cup now is "wrong" because it has changed a bit.

Which simply by definition cannot be true, because at its very core the cup is something that is raced in mutually agreed boats between defender and challenger. If the defender and challenger of record say "this is what we're racing the cup in" then by very definition that IS the cup. Because the deed of gift makes it absolutely clear that if they cannot agree what the cup should be raced in the challenger has the right to say "OK, 90 foot on the waterline, see you in 7 months". Pretending that because you don't like it, because the current boats have deviated in this way, or that way, from what came before, because to you it's not the "real" cup that it somehow isn't the cup, or isn't "true" to you ideal of what the cup should be, isn't, I'm afraid, valid.

The fact that there was a practice for over a century of using an existing class is an interesting historical fact, for sure, but it has no bearing on what is raced in this cup, or the next cup, or the 2145 cup. It was more a product of its time, in the same way that flying boats are a product of this.

The basic truth is that to decide what the next cup will be sailed in you need to win this one. That has always been the case. These days even the challengers are pre-selected as people who will agree with the broad approach the new defender has for the next cup.

As I said earlier, people can agree to disagree on the extent to which a major existing event should change its format. However you have a tendency to claim I said what I have not said.

I did NOT say that because I do not like the current boats* that the current Cup "isn't the Cup". I was NOT referring to my ideal of what the Cup is. What I said was clear - the Cup's format in terms of boat style was not really changeable for most of its history. For most of its history, the Cup was sailed in the fastest existing class of inshore racing monohull. That was constant and therefore NOT really "changeable".

Yes, the challenger and defender can agree to change the Cup class, or the change can effectively be forced on one side by the other. However, that does NOT change the fact that there was a strong practice of using an existing class for over a century and therefore in that respect the Cup was not very "changeable".

As I have said before, one can disagree about the relevance of the history of the Cup - but that does not mean that one can change the historical facts.


* I don't actually dislike the current boats. I do feel that it is bad for the sport to have them in the premier event because successful participant sports normally use the same sort of rules and kit in the premier events as in the normal weekend events, and they haven't been good for the AC itself in terms of the number of entries and perhaps its overall sigificance.