Maritimo 48

Oracle Team USA won. Emirates Team NZ also won, but Team USA won bigger.

Team USA is used to Big. Big Budgets, Big Team, Big Swagger & Big Bravado. They like all that in the US.

Emirates Team NZ must have had a vision, and a desire, and a motivation. I’m guessing that it was to do the KiwiNation proud. It’s clear it meant so much to all the Kiwi’s in KiwiLand.

Team NZ, a nation of 4 and a bit million versus the Billionaire. The odds were never good. Team NZ poured their heart and soul into that campaign. It was obvious what it meant to each and every one of them, to each and every KIWI.

The KiwiNation must be proud of what that team achieved and the way that they did it. Deano Barker did everything that he could, just like all in Emirates Team NZ. At the end of the day Oracle Team USA used their Big Budgets to keep tweaking the boat right up to the last day. They had an extra Boat and an extra Team and finally an extra gear and an extra turbo booster up wind.

Boat Speed. Boat Speed. Boat Speed. As they say on TV “Boat Speed makes a Tactician look Good”

Throughout the whole event and during all the “psyching” at Press Conferences etc, the Kiwi’s handled themselves with humility, professionalism and patriotic pride. They are all, each and every soul, on Emirates Team NZ, a credit to their nation.

To loose the cup after leading 8:1 is hard to take. It must be very raw.

But there are no losers on Team NZ. They have earn’t so much respect from people watching all over the world. They have done the KiwiNation proud.

I hope that every Kiwi in New Zealand give all of the Emirates Team NZ team a hero’s welcome when they reach home. They have done New Zealand proud. No more so than Dean Barker. They all deserve thanks and gratitude for competing right to the end and doing so in true Kiwi fashion. None more so than Dean.

Celebrate what you achieved.

Emirates Team NZ won in San Francisco. Oracle Team USA just won bigger. That’s what Big Budgets do for you.