Yachting: Glum party-goers see future coming

One of the planet's best sailors, Rod Davis has chased victory in the America's Cup for three decades. It's tantalisingly close.

Our spies in San Francisco tell us that it was rather a glum night on Friday at the Golden Gate Yacht Club - home of the America's Cup in 2013 (but for how much longer?).

It was the GGYC gala dinner, planned to celebrate the defence of the America's Cup. Only with the score at 6 to -1, there wasn't much celebrating. Or much defending, really...

It was a black-tie, eagerly anticipated, affair with many of San Francisco's notables and yachting stalwarts. The timing was perfect for a script that had Oracle Team USA retaining the Cup.

But the timing was not perfect for a script that had Emirates Team New Zealand in an almost impregnable position. However, the organisers found they could not change the date as too many things were in place and people involved.

One attendee told the Herald on Sunday: "It was like being in Paris at the last party before the Germans over-ran the city in World War II.

"They had seen the future coming and they didn't like it."

The commodore of the GGYC, Norbert Bajurin, even told the guests that this might be the last time they would see the Cup so they were permitted to come up and touch it.

Even if there wasn't a lot of celebrating going on, there were definitely a lot of sorrows being drowned, according to our correspondent.