As a Kiwi I am of course hoping the New Zealand can hold on to the America's Cup! I was very surprised, however, at the apparent severity of the penalty levied by the Arbitration Panel gainst the One World syndicate earlier today, that is a one point deduction in the semi-finals, the finals, AND in the America's Cup races (should they advance that far), plus costs of $65,000. The effect is that One World must win 5 of 7 races each time to advance. From what I have read, the penalty was assessed based on One World's admission that a designer had in his "possesion" an old 486 computer that had some old Team New Zealand design information, and discovered a Zip disk with other old design info. The claim was that the information had never been used; the computer was stored in a garage and the disk was recently found in a desk drawer. We will never know the facts of what was actually discussed in the closed hearings, but it does seem very harsh. The politics of the America's Cup are alive and well, and in the capable hands of the New York Yacht Club (and Dennis Conner)! My own view is that the cup REALLY has now made a transition to big money. I am really disappointed by the mass exodus of the old Team New Zealand members to the big budget campaigns. I understand that the original deed was for "friendly competition between nations", and while the word "friendly" has been in doubt for many years, the "national" part of it seems to have gone out the window as well. I would like to see only citizens of the nations represented by the syndicates in the design team as well as the crew. New Zealanders form a very significant fraction of many of the syndicates this time around. Enough. Marge and I get on a plane on Thursday to fly to NZ. We get off the plane in Auckland on Saturday morning, and if the semi-finals are still going, we get on a boat for one or two days of race watching. Then down to Wellington for some sailing with my brother and Xmas with the family. Life is good... Derek