It is a race series for The America's Cup, but let's not fool ourselves; Team Oracle was everything but an "American effort"! It may have been funded by an very wealthy American Industrial Icon, but the boat was not an a "made in America" product, was skippered by an Aussie, and only had one American in the crew. The original concepts for these races specified the boats, components, and crew were to be from "the country of" the Defender and Challengers.

The race may be exciting to watch but has no relation to the original concept and the Deed of Gift which is why most sailors of traditional boats don't no longer get excited about it, and they used to be the strongest advocates of the race.

With technology overtaking the sailing, you could even make the case that it isn't truly sailing; it's not powered by a sail but by a flying wing on a hull that sometimes floats.

I have been an America's Cup fan since the early 50's and the Weatherly but just can't get excited by these boats. The race for speed has probably gone too far, but I could get interested again if they returned to real sailboats. Bring back the 12 meter boats and follow the intent of the original Deed of Gift!

This year's America's Cup, , had a truly international flavour.

The winning skipper is an Australian, his chief tactician is an Australian Olympic gold medallist and his helmsman a four-time gold medallist for Britain.

In all, there were seven Australians on the winning Oracle team, along with seven New Zealanders, and another born in New Zealand who calls Perth home.

Canada, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Antigua were all represented. In fact, there were just two Americans on the team and one of those was replaced late by Brit Sir Ben Ainslie.

On top of that, a New Zealand firm played a leading role in the design and construction of the Oracle boat