Sad State of Affairs

It's not often that sailing in any form makes front page news. It's especially sad that when it does, it's about the current America's Cup debacle. In today's NY Times in an article entitled "Billionaires' Yacht Rivalry Spills Into  Coutroom" the worst excesses of our sport laid bare.

"Of course, the America’s Cup has long attracted those with outsize egos, competitive streaks and fortunes big enough to splurge on expensive toys"

This does sailing no favors at all. Sailing already has an image of being a white, upper midde class sport for the privileged. This stupidity is making it worse. How does spendng $10 million on a boat that may not even race help our sport? Lets suspend belief for a second. What if the US Olympic Sailing Team was called Oracle Team USA like Britain's is Skandia Team GB? Ellison is already a big donor to US Sailing so I not knocking the guy, but what if US Sailing could put together a proposal that could inspire someone like him to invest in supporting the US Team?