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Alinghi - Source: ONE Sport -
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Quite how this Louis Vuitton Pacific Series has managed to fly is a mystery most economists would struggle to unravel because it really defies common sense.
In the middle of the biggest global financial melt-down in half a century, ten teams from around the world are competing in four of the world's top racing yachts in what is essentially a fun regatta.
For two weeks Auckland's Waitemata Harbour and the Hauraki Gulf are the playgrounds for the very best yachties, aided and abetted by a flotilla of umpire boats, mark boats, support boats and spectator craft.
So far the conditions have been quite superb, a blissful combination of sunshine and strong breezes that have seen the first half of the regatta run on schedule.
Out on the sparkling water it is sometimes so perfect you have to pinch yourself and constantly remember how incredibly lucky we are in that it shouldn't be happening and especially in a recession.
Imagine the conversation
I mean, imagine the conversation:
Man with head in hands: "The markets are collapsing, the dollar's
in free-fall, jobs are disappearing. It's a catastrophe. What are
we going to do?"
Man with dreamy look in eyes: " I know. Let's get half a dozen America's Cup teams to pony up with half a million bucks apiece and fly to the other side of the world so we can all go sailing together again."
It really doesn't make sense but then in many ways the America's Cup often doesn't.
Admittedly the plans were laid before the scale of the recession really hit, but how much easier would it have been for everyone to simply bail out, armed with the perfect excuse to put it in the too-hard basket?
Those with faith have certainly been vindicated because so far the regatta has been a huge success. In sporting terms (often an oxymoron in the America's Cup) it has been rare in Cup competition because the crews have been competing in boats configured to be as even as possible. That means the races are decided by the sailors skills rather the technology.
The playing field can only be so level though. Some teams have been together years, some a matter of weeks. Some not even that long. The highly experienced Kiwi sailor Gavin Brady was drafted in to help mould the Greek team and after having spent five years with Oracle trying to help develop a crew, he found himself with just five days to do the same job.
Greeks bounce back
Then within a matter of days of competition the Greeks showed
they could do more than just get round the track, pulling off their
first ever win in an America's Cup yacht.
And if the South Africans on Shosholoza were despondent at being
the losers, they rebounded brilliantly later to beat the Cup
holders Alinghi.
For a number of the younger teams, the regatta is a chance to grow, and in the more relaxed format of the competition some of the characters of the sailing world have emerged to talk with refreshing candour.
Vasco Vascatto heads up the newly-formed Damiani Italia Challenge and asked about the All-Italian philosophy behind the team he accepts that it does need to be allied to some Anglo-Saxon practices "like the sailors getting out of bed on time, and maybe doing a gybe on time!"
Mention of such national traits brought to mind the remarks of the famous French skipper Bertrand Pace who described a typical French America's Cup yacht as having sixteen skippers and one crew.
Yet although so far there's been plenty of the friendly banter you'd expect of a friendly regatta, attitudes are sure to harden as the competition gravitates towards the business end.
While all the sailors hate the legal dispute between billionaires Ernesto Bertarelli from Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing's Larry Ellison which has seen the America's Cup mired in the New York courts, they also all hate losing.
All acknowledge that the notion of a "friendly" regatta
disappears when the start gun goes, and as the competitive juices
flow so the sparks will fly.
