America's Cup

Only 9 days left for the beginning of sailing's most important event in the world. Alinghi is hanging in there, trying to defend the Cup they won by sweeping New Zealand 5-nil in Auckland.

In turn, New Zealand is on the count-back in order to take the Cup back down under, by winning the Luis Vuitton Cup earlier this month. LV finals were odd to watch, to say the least. Out of eleven syndicates, the top 4 advanced to the semifinals, those being Spain, USA, Italy and New Zealand. Other countries have representatives this year, with some very unusual new entries, those being South Africa, China and Germany. France and a second entry from Italy competed the 11 syndicates roster.

In the LV semis, the top ranked team got to choose its opponent for a best of 9 series. Not surprisingly, NZ chose Spain (the weakest of the top 4 - which goal for this cup was merely to reach the semis). Italy (Prada Luna Rossa) got to race the all mighty USA team (BMW-Oracle, a syndicate with some very deep pockets). The outcome was a surprise for everybody following the LV Cup: NZ beat Spain 5-2 (every body expected a 5-0 sweep, but Spain managed to win 2 races, and won them without question). Italy sent the favorites home by winning 5-1 (the sole race the US managed to win was a last second take over, after trailing the whole race).

In the NZ-Italy match - another best of nine series, which all assumed to be very close, resulted in a clean sweep for NZ. That was a surprise as well and more than a couple of eyebrows were raised afterwards, with some claiming NZ had sandbagged the whole LV Series (sandbagging is were a team does not race to it´s full potential, to hide it from the ulterior opponents.

How will the America's Cup develop now? No information is available on the Swiss speed and new boat. Frankly this series can go either way, but I favor the Alinghi team over NZ... Completely selfish reasons behind, schedules are nicer for a Europe event rather than down under (time difference is a killer). Besides, I'm tired of NZ' dominance in sailing, they need a humbling dose.

Why I write all this? you might ask your self. Who will read it anyway? I don't know, but I feel like writing about it. So back off. More information (if you care) here.