Frankie Mac wrote:
The boats may be cool, but yachting stopped being interesting when
KZ7 was put out to pasture. Then it was actually about sailing skills
and tactics. Now it is like modern formula 1, where the engineering is
amazing but there is a massive difference in what everyone is competing
with. The Emirates has a better boat so will win the majority of races -
where is the excitment in that?
[/quote]
Except that clashes with what everyone has been saying, Team NZ has said that if they sailed like they did against Luna Rossa that Oracle would be in front, Oracle has changed the way they sail the boats, learning from Team NZ's techniques while tacking up wind and have suddenly become competitive. Oracle replaced their helmsman and have suddenly become competitive. It seems like skills, tactics, and technique have everything to do with performance.
2ndBest wrote:
On Morning Report today a sailing commentator said that 70% of the cost of TNZ's budget was labour cost. No woner Dean Barker can afford a multimillion dollar house in Auckland.
That's the case for most businesses, labor is always the biggest expense... More than 100 employees working for 6 years... adds up.
[quote=Fitzy]
Yeah you're right, but my gripe is that it's a rich man's ego-stroke which is funded by taxpayer money.
Its been $35,000,000 over 6 years with the AC45 world series, the Volvo ocean race, the Luis Vuitton cup, and the Americas cup. Considering how the team have conducted themselves and also beaten the competition its a pretty good advertising campaign for something other than snow capped mountains and waterfalls.