Off course

A Snippet in Wednesday's Off course about The Warehouse's Loyal flags being made in China prompted a testy response from CEO Greg Muir.

"The Warehouse only received permission to sell the flags in January - approximately five weeks from the start of the cup.

"The Warehouse was told that the NZ-based manufacturer who was making the flags for Team New Zealand's own use did not have any spare manufacturing capacity.

"The only option available to The Warehouse was to get them made offshore and airfreighted to NZ. 4000 flags were made - and they sold out in a couple of days.

"Faced with a choice of trying to find a NZ manufacturer who might have been able to put together a few hundred flags in such a short time frame but in the process disappointing 4000 NZ families and sourcing the flags from offshore the choice was easy."

Thank you, Mr Muir, for explaining why Loyal flags are made in China.

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The race delays have forced the Boating Industry Association to move the Boating New Zealand On-the-Water Boat Show at the Viaduct Harbour back two weeks to March 20-24.

Association president Bob Tait said the weather delays to the racing programme meant the regatta could still have been running on the scheduled show dates of March 6-10.

"If the weather stays the way it has been, our exhibitors could have been moving into the Viaduct Harbour while Team New Zealand was playing catch-up out in the gulf," he said.

"My organising committee decided we could best support Team New Zealand by taking the decision now to postpone the show and thus eliminate any uncertainty."

Team New Zealand executive director Tony Thomas said the gesture of support from the industry was appreciated.

"I realise there will be some problems for the exhibitors, but the end result will be an even greater finale to the America's Cup regatta."

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Headline writers around the world are running out of metaphors as this America's Cup drags on and on and on with race after race cancelled.

The News Interactive website decided that despite the high winds that made sailing impossible this week, it would tell its readers "America's Cup marooned".

To the Sports Network, though, the America's Cup was "stalled".

Others - more correctly - resorted to descriptions of stormy weather. "Storm rules out the Cup," said one.

USA Today perhaps took it a tad far in these days of cyanide scares: "America's Cup dead in the water."

Let's just hope racing starts soon to relieve the writers.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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