KEY POINTS:
It should be good to be a New Zealander at Valencia over the next few weeks, whatever happens. I went there two years ago when the designated America's Cup harbour was just a wide expanse of water surrounded by clean concrete and Alinghi's pavilion stood alone apart from a public information cabin.
The only sign of Team New Zealand was a lonely tender in its livery at a nondescript pier. But once you entered the information centre we were everywhere.
A wall of portraits celebrated the great names of the cup's heritage and most of the modern faces were ours. Audio-visual displays that came alive as you walked into their sensory field carried familiar footage and stories we knew.
When the Government rushed to revive Team NZ after the ignominy in 2003, I thought it was pointless. We'd had the America's Cup and I didn't sense that we desperately wanted it back.
We still don't, I suspect, not in the way we wanted it before. But the politicians' instincts were right. We have too much going for us in this gilt-edged event to give it up. We have produced more than our share of the best sailors, plus reputable yacht designers and builders and suppliers. We have to stay on this wave.
And we have. Grant Dalton says his team at Valencia are there to reclaim the America's Cup and anything less they will regard, and expect us to regard, as failure. The sailors barely raised a smile when they crossed the line on Thursday to qualify for the challengers' final. They probably won't celebrate if they win it. This, evidently, is how our sportsmen have to do it.
But for me at least, Emirates Team NZ has already done enough, and not just because I've paid for a ticket to Valencia next week. They have buried the debacle of 2003, proved their resilience and confirmed this country's place in the top flight. If the Italians surprise them next week, as they surprised Chris Dickson's crew last week, I will not be distraught.
This sort of sentiment is heresy in New Zealand sporting circles, tantamount to suggesting we do not really need to win the Rugby World Cup - which we don't. Our yachtsmen, like our rugby fraternity, dominate their game. They should not need to flog themselves to perfection for the sake of our reassurance.
Looking at the leadership and crews of all the entries for the America's Cup, and the performance of the flag carrier, a New Zealander on the quay at Valencia should be as proud as an Australian at a cricket match, a Brazilian in a football stadium or a Spanish tennis fan at the French Open next week.
Spain produces most of the best players on clay and that will not change if Rafael Nadal loses in Paris. Spanish fans might secretly agree it would be good for that game if Roger Federer was to take the clay court major. It has been 46 years since anyone gave us a true grand slam, the four major titles in the same year.
Likewise, it might be good for the America's Cup if Luna Rossa prevails this time. New Zealanders on the quay will have a soft spot for the other finalist. The Italians were sparkling company in front of the big screen at the Viaduct for our first defence and the Prada team have been dedicated to the contest since. It would be interesting to see what they would do with the cup.
I love the culture of the America's Cup, the grand, shameless indulgence that is about the only element that has not changed in 150 years. I love the flexibility of the specifications so that it is a contest of design as well as seamanship and the fact that the format can be changed by each outfit that holds it.
Team NZ did away with a defenders' series and kept its secrets until it went to the starting line. That worked well in the first defence, disastrously in the second. Alinghi has introduced a travelling series of preparatory regattas, ostensibly to widen interest but which have given the defender chances to test itself against the challengers.
The races have been shortened this time too. The course is now too tight, I think. It leaves these big elegant vessels chopping and churning about like restrained stallions. And they are too close to shore.
I'd like to see the America's Cup raced again on a long course in ocean mists. I want to imagine even bigger boats stretching out and stalking each other on real sea. We could follow them by satellite links to computer screens these days.
Whatever happens the cup, we will be there. Our sailors have made this magnificent contest their own and at Valencia we can make the most of that, whatever happens.
- This column will return on June 23.
