This morning I talked to Darren and we have changed our plans a bit. Tomorrow I will take a rental car and drive down to Tauranga and take a look at the Assassin and its production. When the wind is right I will also go sailing, if not I get a second chance on Saturday as Darren will testsail the boat in Auckland. So hopefully I get two days out on the water before flying to Melbourne.
This new plan gave me the whole day today to do what ever I liked. To get ideas I went down to the harbour and looked at the maritime museum. They are currently expanding it to show the history of the America’s Cup in New Zealand. The new extension will be devoted to Sir Peter Blake, a true sailing hero that was killed by pirates on his last trip.
This boat below is right in the front of the museum:
This boat is called the big boat and was the contestant for the 1988 America’s cup. The Americans didn’t want to accept the challenge and refused to race against it. The a court ruled the Americans to defeat the Auld mug. As the Americans didn’t have the time to build a monohull as fast they used a loophole and build the Stars and Stripes, a catamaran. Needless to say the won all races against the Big Boat. Here is the whole story.
Looking at this boat and reading the history of it I realized that 2008/9 is just a repetition of 1988. Again the race is fought in Court and the one loosing it all is the sport, the sailors, the fans and the sponsors. On the other hand there is hope, if 1988 didn’t kill the Cup Larry Ellison (now owner of Sun Microsystems as well) and Ernesto Bertarelli cannot do it either.
After looking at all this nice boats I wanted to give it a shot myself. In Aukland sailNZ is letting you sail the victory boat of the 1994 Cup. Of course it was a tourist attraction but as I got along very well with the crew (we talked about the Cup and Moth sailing) I was allowed to do the Gennaker jibes on the foredeck, steer the boat a bit and do a lot of grinding. Here are some impressions 
Was ist das doch für ein Spass, Beruf und Hobby (segeln) miteinander und auf einer Weltreise verbinden zu können. Leute treffen, die in dieselbe Richtung denken, dasselbe Hobby frönen. Dein Bericht ist für mich wie eine Zeitreise so ca. ´95. Da habe ich in Auckland die Bull gesegelt, in Sydney ne 11m OD, die Bull dort war nicht segelklar und in San Diego AM Cup watching. Auf dem Weg nach “Süden” (AUS/NZ) in Kanaha/Maui noch 6 Tage windsurfen. Thanks for all this rememberdang. Don´forget to mention the gal´s you meet.
I love this place. I gotta return soon.