..sAILINGKASBAH!!

..quanto ci vuole a vincere il
Campionato del Mondo
F18??

..i signori di fianco hanno la risposta..

..e la risposta è..

..un solo punto!!






..una cosa che potrebbe essere utile imparare a fare..

..in generale
non necessariamente per questioni
regatantistiche..

intanto FIAT ha vinto il JJ Giltian..
..potenza della Bravo??













..quello di sinistra è di 80 piedi ed ha 22 anni
e ha appena messo il record nella Del Rey Yacht Club's 19th International Yacht Race to Puerto Vallarta..
..quello di destra se la stava giocando (77 piedi Reichel/Pugh) quando in poppa con una ventina di nodi gli ha mollato il paterazzo
l'esito del "failure" si intuisce piuttosto bene nella foto..

intanto viene fuori che la Coppa America sia un affare largamente italiano.. e che l'acqua sia anche riscaldabile..

(pic and via sailinganarchy.com)

The Italian's Cup?
In Newport the joke went, "You know how you can tell which team is Italian? When the skipper yells 'prepare to tack' they flick their cigarettes over the side."

In Valencia the Italians are no longer the butts of such jokes because half of the 12 teams ARE Ital. huh?

Today AC insiders joke that there is not just three teams of Italy in this edition of the Cup, but a total of five:- two race for other countries but are conducted by Italians.

The "real" Italian teams in order of least ineptitude:- Luna Rossa, Mascalzone Capitalia and +39. The other Italian teams, or so the joke goes, is Salvatore Sarno's Shosholoza of South Africa, and Alinghi of the Ernesto Bertarelli clan.

Capitano Sarno is a popular Copa America figure for his good-natured pluck. He was an Italian ship captain who now runs the African division of the Mediterranean Shipping Company. The MSC is one of the main guarantors of Shosholoza out of South Africa. What a coincidence! MSC also is a proud sponsor of Alinghi.

Bertarelli's Italian mother and the father fled Italy years ago for serene and safe Switzerland, when the Vatican revealed that one of drugs marketed by Bertarelli's family pharm was made from the urine of virgins. Specifically, nuns in a nunnery.

Not long ago it was America who had three, four even six teams entered in the competition. Now it's Italia with five teams of rich Italian heritage. But wait! There's one more.

Over the weekend newspapers in New Zealand revealed a sixth Italian team:- Emirates Team New Zealand. And you thought it was an Arab team?

News reports say the middle-eastern Emirates Airlines has less to do with the TNZ than a rich Monaco-based Italian playboy to the name of Matteo de Nora. Read more here.

Best line from that news story:- "Syndicate boss Grant Dalton said of the network of millionaire backers: 'Without them, we would not have a challenge - it's as simple as that.'"

The NZ government thought they owned the team, and the starchy Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, at least on paper, do own the team. The PM and Commodore must be having a cow - make that a sheep - over the news. Undoubtedly it will stir the black hearts of more than a few Team NZ backers from former times.

Italia is Cup crazy, but who knew they control half of the 32nd AC teams including TNZ?

If Team NZ does win, we can't wait to hear NZ broadcaster Peter Montcommentary shouting into his micro, "The America's Cup is no longer Switzerland's Cup. Yes! It's the Arab's, no, make that the Italian's Cup!!" Comment in our new AC Forum, brought to you by Seahorse Magazine.