America's Cup--food for thought.

As I talked about in my previous blog post, the America's Cup has been going on this week. The America's Cup is the best of 3 races, and all 3 races were supposed to take place this week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday). On Monday, there was not enough wind. On Wednesday, the teams debated over whether or not it was good sailing conditions--USA said yes---Swiss said no. I heard a sailing expert say it was good conditions--but they ended up not racing. On Friday, there was enough wind, and they raced for the first time. The US team was victorious--beating the Swiss team by over 10 minutes! I watched a little bit of it on tv, but then it switched back to news. They will continue races next week on Monday and Wednesday, if necessary. It's a very interesting sport, a sport with a lot of money in it. Now here's a little food for thought. Below are the crew lists from yesterday's race for the Swiss and US teams.

Alinghi 5 Crew List (Swiss team...)

Piet van Nieuwenhuijzen (NED), Bow 1
Curtis Blewett (CAN), Bow 2
Jan Dekker (RSA/FRA), Bow 3
Rodney Ardern (NZL),Pitman
Simon Daubney (NZL), Trimmer upwind
Nils Frei (SUI), Trimmer downwind
Warwick Fleury (NZL), Mainsail trimmer
Pierre-Yves Jorand (SUI), Traveller
Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), Helmsman
Brad Butterworth (NZL), Tactician
Murray Jones (NZL), Strategist
Juan Vila (ESP), Navigator
Loïck Peyron (FRA), Floater
Peter Evans (NZL), Pre-start

BMW ORACLE Racing Team Crew List (USA team)

Brad Webb (NZL), Bowman
Simone de Mari (ITA), Pitman
Ross Halcrow (NZL), Jib Trimmer
Dirk de Ridder (NED), Wing Sail Trimmer
Joey Newton (AUS), Wing Sail Caddy
John Kostecki (USA), Tactician
James Spithill (AUS), Skipper/Helmsman
Matteo Plazzi (ITA), Navigator
Thierry Fouchier (FRA), Aft Pit
Matthew Mason (NZL), Mast

To me, it is a bit strange that there are only 2 Swiss men on the Swiss crew and only 1 American on the US team. The teams have the US and Swiss designations, because the owners of the teams are from those countries. When you have money, you can pick the best of the best to be on your team, and most of the time, that means picking people from outside your country. I just found the crew lists to be interesting, so I thought I'd share that with all of you. Below is the link to the America's Cup site--you can check out photos, read about the sport, the races, etc ,etc....so check it out!


http://www.americascup.com/en/regate/programme-resultats/programme-49-814