From James Leopold

Many of us are aware that there are very few American’s who are members of the Oracle Team representing the U.S. in the 34th edition of the America’s Cup. And there are other countries in the competition that have few or no nationals on their teams.

But when I read the short news brief in ‘Butt # 3690 under Sailing Shorts (which I thought were something one wears sailing) about the Luna Rossa Challenge 2013 team launching their AC72 catamaran on October 26 in Auckland, New Zealand, I realized that the AC Deed of Gift has been all but abandoned.

Whatever happened to a friendly competition between nations?

How does an American team represent the U.S. of A. with a crew with only one or two Americans? And how is it that a boat built in New Zealand can and will represent an Italian team? This is too confusing to me to have any allegiance to an American team…Nice job Russell and Larry!