As the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series approaches the quarter finals, New Zealand is up in arms at the offhand treatment meted out to it by the Italian Alinghi team, already hardly the yacht racing world's favourite AC squad.
 
The UK's Bob Fisher – one of the most respected yachting journalists in the world – penned a scathing article after Alinghi refused to race against Emirates New Zealand (ETNZ) team on Sunday 8 February.

Talking of the New Zealanders as a nation, Mr Fisher explained: 'What they (New Zealanders) cannot comprehend, or tolerate, is bad sportsmanship. They may be fiercely patriotic to their teams and while they can accept defeat with a shrug of the shoulders, they simply hate to be cheated. On the third day of the second round robin of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series they were definitely cheated.'

The race between the two pro(an?)tagonists drew crowds of locals to Auckland’s North Head to watch what had been billed as the 'Match of the Day', said Mr Fisher, in the face-off between the local boys in ETNZ against their rivals in the last two America’s Cups, Alinghi.

Entire families, said Mr Fisher, from great-grandmothers to small children, gathered with their picnics to watch this great re-match, eager to see Dean Barker work his particular brand of magic over Brad Butterworth, the one-time Kiwi who left home to increase his bank balance.

'But those sports fans were cheated,' thundered Mr Fisher. Alinghi failed to show.

ETNZ was left to sail the course alone and helmsman – the normally urbane Mr Barker - declared in a television interview that he was 'pissed off' and that it was 'disgusting'. He went further by saying that Alinghi's action was 'insulting and disrespectful'.

Alinghi's reason for the no-show is simple. As the host country for the LVPS, ETNZ has a bye to the final. As a result of this, no points are awarded in races with ETNZ, except as a penalty for a hard contact.

Alinghi, realising it could lose points, opted to sit the race out, causing great disappointment and anguish to the fiercely partisan New Zealand spectators.

Team Origin, meanwhile, has been doing very nicely with Olympic multi-medallist Ben Ainslie at he helm, aided and abetted by Star gold medallist Iain Percy advising him on tactics.

One small unforced error against Damiani Italia when Ainslie was over the line at the start means Team Origin faces a sudden-death race today (Tuesday) against France’s seventh-seeded Pataugas K-Challenge to see which boat faces Damiani Italia in the quarter finals.

Luna Rossa will race against sixth-seeded China Team for the right to race against BMW Oracle Racing in the other quarter final.

Alinghi and ETNZ are already through to the final, which begins next Saturday, 14 February.

Image: © Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/LVPS 2009