DUH,

I'm guessing your are JC.

No I did not intent to blame anyone personally, but rather the general drift that had developed over time where E. and A. were almost described invariably as the devil incarnate. Now I respect team BMWO more then E. and A. for their ability to remain respectful of the other team during the event and providing coverage of A. via their own promo channels.

Neither am I refering to any specific article or report. I did indeed withnessed both the official AC feed as the SA version. I do not pretent to have seen all articles or to be completely on a par with all the developments over the last 2.5 years. Maybe E. is truly a swine I don't know, but I doubt whether whether everyone in team A. is and these other person deserve some credit and positive coverage. All I'm saying is that I became disinterested in the BMWO - fan base coverage (during the event and before) because it practically came down to "look what an **** E. is" and "see what the bastard child team A. has done now"

I think telling it like it is does not necessarily mean doing character assasination on both the leader and a whole team.

Point in case; I thought the claim by BMWO that RAK was in danger of being invaded by the Iranians to be completely unhinged as well. Additionally, I thought the claim that A. couldn't use the 3D sails because the basic components were made in USA to be an inherently unfair stance unworthy of the spirit of a fair race.

As a defense, you seem to paint me squarely in the corner of E. and team A. Apparently, the concept of "with us or against us" has founds its way to the sport of sailing and the AC as well. I've kept the choice of my favourite team of the airwaves; but I can say that I don't recognize myself in your assumption.




Indeed, in this case you sound just like E. in the final press conference. I didn't like it when E. did and neither do I now that you (or SA) does it.

Note, that doesn't mean that I'm an enemy of either now !

I feel you can dislike a part of someone and still respect another part of the same person (organisation). Life is a painted with a palet of greyscales afterall and I'm sure you guys feel the same about my person.

Coming to that point (as you introduce this into the discussion). Maybe I do symphatize (spelling ?) with E. because I too was subject to a similar vitrol at one time. Neither I did have concrete plans to "conquer and rule the world" like some evil mastermind from a James Bond movie. Some things are fun in movies but not in real life. I can accept that E. or I did things that warranted a sound rebuke but I don't think either of us deserved the full "evil empire" treatment. In case of E. he stepped up to the plate, defending the cup, when based from obviously a disadvantaged position. Hell, they had to helikopter out their boat to open water by virtue of the DOG rule that it had to be build in the home nation of the team. Who is not to say that this necessasity alone limited the A5 design in profound ways ? They used the largest Soviet era helikopter for the job.

I think E. could be alot more open and well mannered but that doesn't take away that A5 is a great boat and an inspiring design; JUST AS MUCH AS USA-17 IS.

I feel 2 races was to short to see the best performance out of A5 ; I would have loved a 7 race format and see team A. getting dialed in as much as team BMWO appeared to be. Sure BMWO is the better design, I think that much is clear, but I think the more conventional (soft sail) A5 did show great potential indeed. 5 min lead over what, a 140 min race, is not that large a difference. Like I said it wouldn't be the first time that the slower design won the race.

I think everybody has got to respect the fact that Team A. succesfully completed their AC multihull project. It didn't break, it was in the same ball park performancewise to BMWO (although obviously disadvantaged) and they didn't cheat on BMWO on the water. Maybe that is less what L. and BMWO did, but it is not nothing either. We've got to respect that. We also got to respect the way the whole coverage comes across on the larger (not well informed) public (like myself ?) ; the eternal dissing of A. (deserved or not deserved) grew stale and turned me off. Again, I"m not in any way saying you did this; I'm just refering to the large fan base behind BMWO who seemed to have condensated around a site like SA.

Actually, all this reminds me of some valued American saying :

Don't wrestle with E. ehhh pigs; you both get dirty and pigs like it.



You conclude your post by the following unrelated (To the AC33) statement




This is a form of character assassination that has absolutely no valuable content what so ever. If cat sailing people never heard of me in NL then that says more about them then me. Am I a great cat racer ? No, and I never said I was. Am I a person that everybody loves from the get go ? Not likely. Am I the founder and initial main force behind the only NEW international catamaran class to have achieved success in the last 15 years ? A class that shows that some of the more mainstream products to be overpriced, "under state of the art" or overly selfcongratulory about their own performance ? Hell yes. Now if any self respecting cat sailor is unaware of that then I don't know about his or her personal credentials in this field.

I can assure everyone here that the (commercial) boys that matter in this field of small beach cats know who I am. They don't understand me or whatever happened in this 16 foot range in general, that is true. Many even do not respect the situation or me personally, but they sure as hell know about the F16's and that some wildcats out of nowhere stood them up and successfully implemented a superior product on a "shoe string" budget. Despite much redicule in the early years; I might add. Remember the midgets ?

If they are smart then they should consider what these wildcats could have achieved if they had the possession and support of a large established builder. They just might discover some valuable lessons here.


But indeed, this isn't about you or me personally, but rather about the AC33.

Personally, I'm thrilled to look at the solutions A5 implemented to make a basic cat design this big. I respect their work. I deeply respect the choice to go with the wing on BMWO and the way this team handled herself both on and off the water (despite some court choices). I was never before really interested in the AC; this time I truly was.

Other then that I personally respect you JC and my earlier post was definately NOT a hidden personal attack on you.

Regards,

Wouter