One reason to cheer for ETNZ

If you are American (or any other nationality but British), you might start cheering for the Emirates Team New Zealand’s America’s Cup challenge, as their success can have Olympic implications. Britain still considers their strongest Finn sailor to be Ben Ainslie, but he is busy right now helming the reserve boat for ETNZ. Looking at the schedule of the America’s Cup and the Finn Worlds, Ainslie’s participation in the Olympics may require the Royal Yachting Association to bend their qualification rules in order to get him to Beijing. If ETNZ goes all the way to the finals, they can conceivably be sailing through to the first week of July. As for the Finn Worlds, they are folded this year into the ISAF Sailing World Championship where measurement for the Finn begins July 2 and racing starts July 5. Unfortunately, if Ainslie is shut out from the Olympics, the British back-up plan is still pretty good, as Ed Wright is presently ranked third in the ISAF standings.

* The ying and yang of this is one of America’s top Star sailors, Mark Mendelblatt, is also on the ETNZ crew.