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Emirates Team New Zealand and Artemis (SWE) leg two of their Round Robin one match of the Louis Vuitton Trophy, Day 5, Nice, - Source: Photosport -
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Louis Vuitton Race Day 9
Ever since the phrase become a film title, "Lost in Translation" has become a multi-purpose quip and it could be beautifully applied to last night's dinner venue.
The occasion was a media colleague's 40th birthday celebration and as the international yachting hacks generally join together at a curry house during a regatta the two events were combined.
Hence I ended up parking my pushbike outside "The Delhi Belly" - lost in translation indeed. In fact the food wasn't too bad and certainly didn't cause anything along the lines of the restaurant's glorious name.
The whole translation topic is an interesting issue here. Part of our job is to prepare an international news feed and where possible we interview skippers in whatever languages they can command.
Sebastien Col from "All4One" is comfortable in French and English. His tactician Jochen Schumann does English and German while Azzurra's skipper Francesco Bruni can respond in English and Italian.
American Paul Cayard from Artemis can also converse in Spanish, French and Italian, but probably the most versatile is Synergy skipper Karol Jablonski who is fluent in English, Spanish and German and of course his native Polish. He can also get by in Russian which is just as well given his Synergy team js Russian, although he tends to leave interviews in that language to his boss.
Jablonski is engaging company. A seven times world champion in ice yachting he can describe the sport with witty eloquence, a description that could also be applied to the lecture he gave me on the relative merits of Russian and Polish vodka. After listening to alarming scenarios of its consumption and consequences I'm even more convinced that beer is best.
My next challenge is to learn enough German to be able to ask Jablonski the interview questions in German. He's given me until the Louis Vuitton series in Auckland next March to get fluent.
It will certainly amuse him to watch me struggle but he is a man who laughs a lot anyway. And he had good reason to today after pulling off two good wins. First up the Russians beat Artemis and followed up by taking the substantial scalp of Britain' Team Origin.
By contrast the formerly high flying Italians on Azzurra lost twice, while Emirates Team New Zealand notched up two wins against BMW Oracle Racing and then French Spirit.
The Kiwis still to the table comfortably with nine wins out of ten races and they've earned a day off tomorrow as the sharp end of the regatta approaches.
