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Old 06-05-2014, 06:37 PM   #23
Nsail
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City: Benicia CA
Join Date: Mar 2012
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter B View Post
Wxx3 said,
"The coupe de grace was lowering the wind speed they could race at. That killed the what suspense was left."


That's about your only statement I agree with, I afraid - that and the introducing of an arbitrary maximum time limit in low winds Otherwise Team NZ would have been the winner hands down, having been way ahead in one race when the wind went ½ a kn over the max allowed so called off. Then, in another was entering the final leg, way ahead, when it was abandoned because it exceeded the time limit…interesting that..and they all were NZers - might have been one non-Kiwi..? Can't remember now.
There was nothing arbitrary about the 40 minute time limit at all. It was done for TV purposes. They had 2 hours - enough for two 40 minute races, a 32 minute interval between races, a short pre-game show, and maybe a little left over for a re-cap.

The actual problem was not having set a low-end wind speed limit to begin with. It should have been set at least to 10 knots and this never would have happened. But, don't feel sorry for the Kiwi team as everybody knew the rules, except the TVNZ announcers, Martin Tasker and Peter Lester. Feel sorry for the Kiwi fans watching on TV. They thought the race was won and when the counter started at about the 38 minute mark, the announcers had no idea what it meant. Gary Jobson of the U.S. broadcast brought it up within 2 minutes of the start and kept mentioning it throughout the race. Now, the Kiwi's listening on the radio were fine, as the announcer there, P.J. Montgomery, was also very aware of what was about to happen.

No, not all Kiwi's on the Kiwi boat. Glenn Ashby and Adam Beashel are Australians.
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