Random Play by Graham Reid

I well remember the day [...] my attention kept being drawn to some massive tickertape parade being played out on the overhead televisions.

So do I. My girlfriend and I were walking down Queen st. shortly afterwards. We put on German accents and talked loudly about how filthy the street was and that we'd been led to believe that New Zealand was a clean country, much to apparent horror of many bystanders.

That's a nice point - the public works deadline - I think I'd rather see taxpayers money going their, than keeping the team in gortex & hookers for the next 4 years.

"there" - how does that happen anyway?

I guess the lack of posts signifies a certain ennui about the whole thing.

Something I noticed when I moved to NZ was the lack of sailing that goes on (at least compared to the amount of available sea).

I grew up sailing in the Solent area of Southern England, and there, on a typical summer weekend, there will be thousands of sailing boats out. The stream of boats returning to the Hamble on a Sunday evening resembles the Southern Motorway. Cowes Week has, I would guess, 5,000 people packed into town, the majority of whom are there to sail as well as party - nothing like that here.

Of course NZ is a lot less populous, but I do get the feeling that while there are a lot of people with boats, mostly for fishing, actual sailing is very much a minority interest.

I made the mistake of dipping into their Herald's feedback on teh idea that Butterworth (he's the one working for the Swiss, right?) is one of New Zealand's finest sportsmen. I wish I hadn't. It's one of those "I am embarrassed to share a country with these idiots" moments.

My girlfriend and I were walking down Queen st. shortly afterwards. We put on German accents and talked loudly about how filthy the street was and that we'd been led to believe that New Zealand was a clean country, much to apparent horror of many bystanders.

I love you and your girlfriend.

Something I noticed when I moved to NZ was the lack of sailing that goes on (at least compared to the amount of available sea).

I've always felt a certain 'bah humbug' about the whole Auckland, City of Sails thing. I've never been on a yacht in my 45 years living in Auckland, despite working for two years at the RNZYS, and only two of my friends and colleagues are sailors. There may be a lot of yachts down at Westhaven and the other marinas, but is there really a disproportionately high number of yachts per capita?

Who hasn't looked at the chose sport of recreation of others and thought- "Why?"
Riding horses, shooting ducks, scragging the first-five: maybe I don't have the talent, the knack; maybe you just didn't get hooked at that right time of life. We just gotta accept it, take what we can enjoy.
We do have a maritime history (fast disappearing in the international market for lowest-wage mariners) and many of us still enjoy mucking about in boats.
Are we a "nation of great sailors"? It's like "are we a nation of great rugby-players"? Most of us don't sail or play rugby. But some of us do both as well as they are done competitatively. And many more of us enjoy watching them!
PS- Butterworth IS one of the great kiwi sportsmen, and it would seem he prefers golf. (Mind you, it might just be relaxation he's after- put him on the PGA for a year and he'd be longing for a relaxing sail...)

I'm sorry we lost too. The feeling is at a similar level to hearing we've lost at any obscure sport though. Riiight so we didn't win the underwater hockey, o-kaaay.

You've bummed me out more by pointing out that I'm going to be surrounded by an iron ring of roadworks for another 4 years! Aaaarse!

A moments silence please... to remember those that now have health problems as a result of building boat out of chemicals.

Pretty hard to build one *not* out of chemicals. I assume you mean synthetic ones like epoxy, as opposed to natural ones like cellulose.

It's perfectly possible to work with synthetic materials without exposing yourself to hazard - you just need to follow the safety rules.

I love you and your girlfriend.

Stephen, this really isn't that sort of website.

Then flush all those nasties back into the sea again...

not to be TOO pedantic hopefully but referring to sports teams of any sort (and especially the All Blacks) as "we" or "us" is, well, wrong...

to state the obvious, I'm not an All Black nor am I a Team NZ sailor and neither are you (probably!) - and empathising so closely with a sports team's results can get very ugly. I hated it on Saturday when the Wallabies kept NZ scoreless and then came back to win - but heck, it's only a game... quite different to when my own football teams lose (I play in four different ones), I take that very hard. but then, I'm actually involved.

with the NZ rugby team this sort of casual semantic link between them and ourselves ended very ignominiously in 1999, with morons who over-identified with the team involved embarrassing the whole country with their rabid over-reaction to the defeat to the French - and it's the same with Team NZ, who are patently NOT representing New Zealand.

sure it's just a one-syllable distinction between "us" and "we" and "them" but I think it's an important one to remember when discussing sport. and a very telling one at times....

you're serious aren't you? thought you were joking. . . good on you though.

One of the reasons we build boats here for the rest of the world is because you're not allowed to build them at home, California being one place. The surfing industry has the same problem, hence, surfboard manufacturing plants in China.
On the environmental destruction through dirty industry front, we suck.

Watching the commentary on TV this morning, and the discussion about how the challenge could happen in two rather than four years.... someone said that Team NZ will now have to go away and design and build a new boat - WHY?? for focks sake!

They've already got a perfectly good, usable boat that cost squillions.... wasn't the loss caused by a variety of 'external' factors. i.e wind speed and conditions, sailsmanship (??), and the loss of that sail??

I've always felt a certain 'bah humbug' about the whole Auckland, City of Sails thing.

Seems like you only have to have a bit of water to claim that. I was in Liverpool in 05 & noticed some of their tourist blurb describing the place as a "City of Sails".

Life goes on. Not like if we fail to win the RWC!

(Trust me, I'd use an emoticon to show that I'm kidding, were they allowed!)

Who was it who said "Football's not a matter of life & death, it's more important than that"?

Oh, and by the way. Graham, I downloaded the Greencards CD from eMusic (don't tell Marbecks) on your Elsewhere review. Love it, so cheers!

"Football is not just a matter of life and death: it's much more important than that" -- Bill Shankly

The thing that is missing from the Government’s “investment” of $10m (and counting) in the next AC campaign is if the purpose is to increase NZ’s profile amongst yachting fans in Europe or if it’s in an attempt to host the Cup again.

If it is for the former (and Mallard did seem very proud of the fact he’s been “networking” with rich people on the radio yesterday) he should say so.

But if it’s in an attempt to actually win the thing, then the money should be spent on rehiring NZ’s best sailors. As a taxpayer I couldn’t really care about any personal jealousies between Dalton, RNZYC, and Coutts / Butterworth.

What I really don't like about the $34 million 'we' just spent, and the next however many million we're about to follow it up with, is the fact that it's very one-off, non-competitive funding.

I could understand if there was a contestible fund for these sorts of things. And if Team NZ was competing for government money with Rugby World Cup with Netball Champs with under 20 soccer world cup with cricket world cup, commonwealth games, asia-pacific winter games etc. A 'major events' fund. It wouldn't need to be limited to sports either.

All of these things would have major benefits economically for the country, and they should all be able to apply to dip into the pot.

But this seems like yachting is flavour of the day, so cabinet is throwing money at it. And they've buddied up with Mallard and smoozed him appropriately, so they get another $10 million before they've even lost this time around. It's very ad-hoc and non-transparent.

Mallard to boat wag: Gotta another beer?
Boat wag: Yeah, but it'll cost ya 10 million.

-- yachting is not big in China, you know --

Yeah, it's not big anywhere, despite what Mallard and Team NZ PR would have us believe. This really is the stuff of 'bread & circuses' - the Govt are only supporting this because there is no public appetite for them not to. Mallard says that of the $34million given by the Govt they've got most of it back in taxes (GST etc). This is such BS! The same could have been said if Mallard gave $34million to provide breakfasts to schoolchildren!

Mallard says he has a crack team of Trade & Enterprisers working out the net benefit of NZ's investment in the current (failed) campaign; and that will determine how much they contribute for the next campaign. OMIMFGOD! Does anyone think it won't come out in glorious support? AC is the ultimate junket and it's unlikely T&E are going to suggest downsizing their presence at Valencia for the next round. It's all about networking y'know, a great opportunity to forge relationships, build up 'Brand NZ', blah blah blah.

As for the claim that kiwi sailors who sail for other teams are traitors -- when Hillary 'knocked off' Everest he was climbing as part of a British team!!

Thanks for that Graham - I didn't realise that you had interviewed my Dad. That was an article that I hadn't seen yet. Dad loved his yachting, yes he did, and I spent alot of time with him on boats at various times, and in boat building sheds (the smell of epoxy resin still evokes powerful memories of when Buccaneer was being built). I was really pleased to see that they had finally scattered his ashes in Valencia. He would be really sad that the Cup remained in the clutches of those "Swiss" peoples. Still, at least he wasn't here to see it......