On winning the America’s Cup

52 comments on “On winning the America’s Cup ”

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1. Puddleglum 1

   27 June 2017 at 8:47 am

   Agree. Circuses get hyped more and more as a substitute for enjoyable, ordinary lives and as a vicarious shot of the feeling of power for the powerless.

   The extent of this Americas Cup reporting is just getting silly – and it’s only the first morning. A worrying lack of national maturity and ‘inner confidence’ on display, witnessed by the desperation with which this sporting victory is being pounced upon.
2. billmurray 2

   27 June 2017 at 8:48 am

   A wonderful and well earned victory.
   Persistence has paid off.
   Ffs lets not be negative.
   $64000 question.
   Where the cup will be defended?.
   • dv 2.1

     27 June 2017 at 8:53 am

     Cook Strait in a good southerly.
     • Sanctuary 2.1.1

       27 June 2017 at 11:41 am

       Using clippers ships!
     • mac1 2.1.2

       27 June 2017 at 12:29 pm

       Where will the cup be defended?

       Talked about this this morning- sail the contest in Polynesian waka. If they can power a boat using grinders and cyclors, why not using paddlors as well as sail?

       The race would be held in a triangle, of course, with marks to be rounded in Hawaii, Rakiura and Rekohu.

       With the final leg, a quick dash from Rekohu/Wharekauri to Tamaki Makaurau, via Foveaux and Cook Straits and a whip round North Cape.
       • Ad 2.1.2.1

         27 June 2017 at 12:43 pm

         Auckland, 2021.
         • mac1 2.1.2.1.1

           27 June 2017 at 12:52 pm

           Ah well…….. The Polynesian Triangle in 2025 then.
           • Alwyn 2.1.2.1.1.1

             27 June 2017 at 6:30 pm

             “The Polynesian Triangle”.
             Yes please. This sounds much more fun than spending an hour or so each race on Auckland Harbour.
             I used to like the idea of an ultimate Ironman.
             Run from Cape Reinga to Auckland. Cycle to Taupo. Swim the length of Lake Taupo. Run again to Wellington. Swim Cook Strait. Cycle to Bluff and finish by swimming Foveaux Strait.
             Let’s see Richie McCaw manage that
         • Red 2.1.2.1.2

           27 June 2017 at 12:54 pm

           Panmure Basin
3. Red 3

   27 June 2017 at 8:58 am

   Baaa humbug, live for the moment stop wallowing in self induced mental misery We won the Americas cup, we will win the lions series, national will win the election, all is good in gods own
   • billmurray 3.1

     27 June 2017 at 9:06 am

     Red,
     Well said.
   • Cinny 3.2

     27 June 2017 at 9:12 am

     Yes, yes and no.
   • garibaldi 3.3

     27 June 2017 at 12:04 pm

     It’s not self induced mental misery. It is National induced misery for half a million NZers.
4. ianmac 4

   27 June 2017 at 9:15 am

   A weird clip of Bill behaving weirdly re the America’s Cup. Authentic response?
   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11882419
   • Stunned Mullet 4.1

     27 June 2017 at 9:32 am

     On the positive side at least he is not as weird as Colin Craig.
   • Anne 4.2

     27 June 2017 at 9:47 am

     No. If it was authentic he would still be in his pyjamas and dressing gown. It was a PR exercise.
     • dukeofurl 4.2.1

       27 June 2017 at 10:57 am

       Pre recorded the night before ? Maybe a different version if they didnt win

       That would be in keeping with English having many versions of the truth
   • mary_a 4.3

     27 June 2017 at 10:13 am

     @ ianmac (4) … Bilious having an orgasm over winning the cup. What a joke. We will be saying yes, yes and the rest, when he and his bunch of crims, including Key are accommodated in the Serco suites!
   • AB 4.4

     27 June 2017 at 12:20 pm

     Does he know for certain that the Americas cup actually exists? It might not after all and he can’t recall who told him it does?
5. Philj 5

   27 June 2017 at 9:43 am

   Can’t wait for the ticker tape in Auckland and Bill English shaking everyone’s hand. Am Cup and rugby are minority sports all around the world. Just so as all Kiwi’s know. Otherwise you may not know. We are a very small country in need of constant reassurance that we count. Let’s get that straight.
   • Alan 5.1

     27 June 2017 at 11:28 am

     sad sack
   • Alwyn 5.2

     27 June 2017 at 6:42 pm

     Well, anything would have to better than the spectacle of a former PM talking about her enormous interest in yachting and how she would text Dalton with her tactical advice during the races.
     It stopped instantly when a brilliant column by Joe Bennet in the Dom-Post did a parody portrayng her as a love-struck teenager.
     We never heard another word about it.
     Whatever did happen to that lady?
6. swordfish 6

   27 June 2017 at 9:49 am

   The United Kingdom’s kicking Churchill out after World War 2 and rationing; “Fuck This Shit”, and got the National Health Service and stuff.

   Wasn’t it Churchill himself who – forced out of his role as First Lord of the Admiralty following the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign during WWI – angrily wrote to wife Clemie
   “Jesus there are too many God-Damn Mother-Fuckers fucking with my Shit !”

   Or was that Queen Mary of Teck ?.
   • Ad 6.1

     27 June 2017 at 9:59 am

     I think it was the Turks who responded: “Shit is fucked up man!”
   • grumpystilskin 6.2

     27 June 2017 at 10:17 am
     • swordfish 6.2.1

       27 June 2017 at 11:23 am

       Well … yes … But they were just one of many artistic influences informing my highly-regarded intervention here.

       An eclectic fusion of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Pushkin, the Bronte Sisters, Dostoyevsky, WWI Poet Wilfred Owen, post-War Dada artist Max Ernst, Partick Thistle Football Club, 1960s TV series The Ghost & Mrs. Muir and Flight of the Conchords all played an equally vital role in crafting my now legendary comment.

       Hope you’re not insinuating I just unceremoniously nicked the idea from Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement like some sort of cheap two-bit hustler on 7th Avenue ?.
   • Gabby 6.3

     27 June 2017 at 1:13 pm

     Rationing ended in like 1953.
     • swordfish 6.3.1

       27 June 2017 at 2:08 pm

       Yeah, I know … Ration-fatigue was one of the key dynamics underpinning Clem “the Gem” Attlee’s loss in 51 (and near-loss in 50).

       Don’t tell me – tell Ad. , His quote.
7. patricia bremner 7

   27 June 2017 at 9:59 am

   Bill’s celebration looked a tad contrived and lonely.
   Loved the RED socks though.
   Love the symbolism of the “little guy” winning. Ha Ha.
8. John G 8

   27 June 2017 at 10:18 am

   This is also the government that wouldn’t fund them because they were thought it would be bad PR. Bit rich to now try and bask in the reflected glory.
   Another short sighted decision by this govt. If they had funded it they would have some control over what happens with it.
   • dukeofurl 8.1

     27 June 2017 at 10:58 am

     The funding from national was all Joyces work, English would have been the one opposing it.
9. sweetie9 9

   27 June 2017 at 10:49 am

   I wish we had lost. This could mean the country goes into the election on a high and people on a high are less likely to vote Labour.
   • dukeofurl 9.1

     27 June 2017 at 11:01 am

     What high ? In the national party rural heartland they will be thinking WTF ? Of course the Auckland Rich pricks will be loving it but they are all national anyway
     • Enough is Enough 9.1.1

       27 June 2017 at 11:32 am

       Speak for yourself.

       In the rural heartland of Waikato, where I am, there has not been much else talked about in the last couple of days.
     • Matthew Whitehead 9.1.2

       27 June 2017 at 1:40 pm

       I’m gonna assume you’re specifically discounting the affluent parts of Auckland, but even that is really dangerous talk from a political strategy perspective. Auckland can tilt the entire election on its own, so every party needs to be talking to a wide variety of Aucklanders, even ones that they think might be hostile. You never know who you’re going to convince until you try.
       • Ad 9.1.2.1

         27 June 2017 at 2:04 pm

         It’s pronounced effluent.
10. Cemetery Jones 10

    27 June 2017 at 11:17 am

    “The U.K. is getting close to Fuck This Shit trigger level”

    Brexit let off enough steam that it probably won’t go off again for a while. If Corbyn wants to harness that, he needs to stop listening to the pro-EU Pfizer lobbyists in his caucus and harness the next wave of anger, when working class Brits realise that politicians are starting to put critical parts of the process in the too hard basket.
    • Draco T Bastard 10.1

      27 June 2017 at 12:12 pm

      Brexit let off enough steam that it probably won’t go off again for a while.

      I don’t think it has. Poverty is still increasing and more and more of the ‘middle class’ are finding that they’re not as well off as they thought.
11. mac1 11

    27 June 2017 at 12:50 pm

    Any comment from Trump yet about their loss?

    My doctor is American and he says that most Americans have never heard of the America’s Cup.

    My wife says that Trump will be saying things like, “To make America great again, our America’s Cup team will be entirely crewed by Americans, using American technology and American know-how”!
    • Andre 11.1

      27 June 2017 at 1:07 pm

      Wind power, no good. Who wants to watch a bunch of losers get pushed around by wind power? SAD! Power those boats with coal to MAGA!
      • bwaghorn 11.1.1

        27 June 2017 at 2:09 pm

        no oars and slaves , we could import them because our slaves are pretty hopless really
        • mac1 11.1.1.1

          27 June 2017 at 2:25 pm

          And the slaves are mostly American volunteers anyway, here it seems only to steal wine.
12. RedLogix 12

    27 June 2017 at 1:02 pm

    I stayed up and enjoyed it a lot. Amazingly almost none of the Aussies at work today seem to know what the America’s Cup even is. How peculiar?

    Politically it’s a neutral; it can work for the establishment if we let them get away with it. But equally it works for the left as well. TNZ had a dream and they never, ever gave up on it.

    All us ordinary people have dreams to. And this is why we should never, ever give up on them.
    • Ad 12.1

      27 June 2017 at 2:03 pm

      Neutral?

      OMG Joyce is going to be all over it, along with most of the government.
      It’s parades and fireworks. In Auckland they are starting tonight.

      Remember how the mood of New Zealand deflated so fast after the All Blacks were ousted from the 1999 World Cup in the quarter finals? It’s not causal, but it’s measurable.
      • RedLogix 12.1.1

        27 June 2017 at 2:42 pm

        It’s a political tool lying on the table. Of course the govt will be first in line to grab it; but like all tools it can kickback if used wrong.

        The risk for the govt here is the transparently self-serving optics; coat-tailing on ETNZ’s success when they’ve contributed little.

        A kiwi Corbyn could paint this victory as a parable; a narrative about having a dream and not giving up on it. And then asking if dreams are only for the well-off and rich; bidding us to claim them for ourselves, each in our own way.
13. Skinny 13

    27 June 2017 at 1:15 pm

    Dare I say a great occasion to join the parade with a protest against the rich elite tax dodgers coming here buying up our prime coastal property to use as a bolt hole.

    Stop this Governments sell off of our land to foreigners.

    Yeah I think that will work nicely.
    • bwaghorn 13.1

      27 June 2017 at 2:11 pm

      be a real good way to get the left hated , pissing on the parade would be electoral suicide
14. Blade 14

    27 June 2017 at 1:31 pm

    I read the headline article. Then thought- thank god for rich pricks and their money. I’m fascinated by the convoluted arguments posted above in response to us winning a boat race. Yep, reality is a bitch to explain away. The best you can do is try and ‘spin’ the story.

    To that, the majority of people who have a balanced perspective on life, would say “Fuck that Shit.” Get a life.
15. gsays 15

    27 June 2017 at 3:54 pm

    Both the yachting and rugby buzz will have worn off well before the election.
    • Ad 15.1

      27 June 2017 at 4:29 pm

      Maybe.
      But gets them through July on secondary stories.
16. Incognito 16

    27 June 2017 at 9:53 pm

    We love to think/say that “New Zealand is punching above its weight” and this says a lot about us, doesn’t it?

    I don’t think the problem is that we’re winning too much but rather the fact that we tend to get “high” so often on small and insignificant wins because we’re convinced that we’re world-famous in New Zealand.

    The collective high/ hype is further fuelled by our ‘media’ who just give us exactly what we want, don’t they? They are our ‘drug suppliers’ in a ‘market’ that’s experiencing ever-increasing demand.

    As with any (drug) addiction, waiting till things hit crisis point – the “Fuck This Shit trigger level” – is often too late …
17. adam 17

    28 June 2017 at 1:07 am

    Sheesh Ad, you almost sounded like a socialist there for a minute…

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