Didn’t Russel whats his name and that other guy from New Zealand win it again? Honest?
the kiwis lost the cup because they went too far to fast with the tchknowlogy. they did test it. proof one. that stupid fingertip boom. that cost them the first race. proof 2, they did not use the american rigging. and went with there own. hmmmmm could that be a mistake, i think race 4 proved that. alghini was tested and that boat did break. but then they fixed it. you can take techknowlogy to far and too fast. dean barker did not make a mistake. the whole team did
cougar
Well - boatspeed turned out to be an issue too. I think a few of the challengers could have beaten NZL-81, Oracle for sure!
That HULA set them back about 5 years. Look at what they have to work with for 2007! 81 needs a major re-work. If they cross the 50% line on mods it gets a new sail number…yikes!
i was on a site where they compared boat speed at all sections of the races. it was intresting that the fastest boat was not there at the end. stars and stripes was the fastest. the one the sank. but ken reid was not able to turn it fast enough. i dont think NZL-81 is that far back. but they do need to go back to the drwaing board and fix the damm boat. there was not a huge diffenece in boat speed. look at the races nzl-81 was there with alhigni all the way.
cougar
Check out Greg’s Sailing Cafe for lots-o-stats:
Greg is a partner at CupInfo too (our Paris desk 
)
the other guy was brad butterworth. but remember cris dickson was on board oracle
cougar
I think NZL’s boats are throwaways. With how dramatically the hull would need to be changed, i bet we never see them again.
-Dan
dan
i dont know if they are throw aways. nzl 81 was pretty fast and without the breakage. it would have made a better series. I know i will get critized for what i am about to say , but , i think new zealand lost the cup. the swiss didnot win it. it was given to them. any one of the last 5 iacc boats could have beaten nzl 81. prada, star and stripes , one world, and oracle
cougar