Feedback: Americas Cup Myth

6 feedback items found, listing newest first

Appologies for my fellow antipodeans who quite obviously have no sense of irony. Strange, we're normally not bad at it. Very amusing article.

[ http://www.greatbibleteaching.com ]

Hi Peter. That was a very clever piece of writing. Clearly a couple of those above did not understand what you were getting at. Having used www.greatbibleteaching.com material to study the issue of text transmission, this was a beauty. Dr. Bill Mounce deals with many of the alleged contradictions in the Bible in his intro series and Dr. Robert Stein deals with a lot more in his Intro to New Testament series. Perhaps you should email it to the Jesus Seminar liberals!

[ http://www.tmbamall.com/hermitware ]

I am delighted to read such an insightful and scholarly treatment of this popular myth. Obviously, Australia II, if there ever was such a boat, would not have been able to win such a prestigious and well-defended event as the America's Cup. It is distressing to see such myths find their way into general acceptance, leading to misunderstanding and misbelief amongst the uneducated common folk. Such urban legends can in time find almost religious faith in the lower classes, and develop into harmful cults, as an uneducated acceptance of biblical texts has.

I trust your work will serve as an encouragement to those scholars who labour in the examination and exposure of other fervently-believed myths, such as the "christian" faith.

Obviously, if there were a God, he would never care enough about humanity as to himself become a man, to live a life of teaching and doing good, and to suffer a sacrificial death in order to atone for the sins of men, that they might find forgiveness and be set free from a coming judgement on sin.

you are a complete fool, this article is a complete load of rubbish you know nothing about the americas cup, yacht design, time zones, history, doing proper research.

pictures of the winged keel.... http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/04/1983acup/

the austrailians watched the event the day after because of the different time zones of Australia and the USA

not one point you made is valid, who are you to peddle this rubbish?>>>

just admit that the bible is a load of rubbish too, go on i dare you

or are you just to scared to admit that you know f*ck all about anything.

email is shown below if you dare defend yourself

muckypuffin@hotmail.com

I have just read your piece on the so-called myths regards to recording the America's Cup and I am surprised that you dare put your name to such a load of crap. You clearly are an idiot by trying to knock Biblical refrences to Jesus, but then you make sure there is no doubt of the fact in any reader's mind by saying your ridiculous comments about the America's Cup. Of course Australians watched it on 27th Sept when it occurred on 26th? Haven't you heard of the international dateline, which makes Australia a day ahead of the US? or doesn't your intelligence stretch that far? They you say was his name Bond or Bondy? What sort of idiots do you take us for to think that is anything but the words of an idiot? Haven't you heard of nicknames? And as for the 12metre/18metre comment. It's a race with rules that govern boats must be a minimum length of 12 metres so what's so contradictory about a competitors having an 18 metrex boat? Get your self a brain and use it before amking such a fool of yourself as you have done here. Try and learn a bit about the subject you want to talk about first before you sprout off in ignorance like you've done hear. Get to know Jesus on a personal level first before passing opinion about someone you obviouisly have n't met and know nothing about.

[ Site editor's response… ]

It is interesting to note that the America's Cup myth has been perpetuated again, surprisingly in Switzerland, which could not be further away from Australia or New Zealand. Just as the New Zealand culture embellished and adopted the Australian myth for its own, the Swiss have adopted their own version of events, recycled largely from the New Zealand myth.

Again, the myth also entails winning the America's Cup, and bears a strong and uncanny resemblance to the New Zealand myth. In the New Zealand myth, the skipper and tactician of Black Magic are Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth and of course, Black Magic's superiority to oneAustralia is confirmed when that boat breaks apart and sinks.

In the Swiss myth, the skipper and tactician of the yacht Alinghi are also Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth! Similarly, just as the Kiwis also demonstrated their superiority to Australia II/oneAustralia by inferring that the Australian boat actually sank, so the Swiss claim the superiority of Alinghi by inferring that Black Magic (like Australia II/oneAustralia) also suffers from breakages and gear failures.

It is very clear yet again that the Swiss 'victory' is clearly an extension of the America's Cup myth which started with Australia II, and that it could not possibly have ever happened. For a start, Switzerland is a landlocked country with no ocean and no navy - how could it possibly have the sailing expertise and technology to win the America's Cup? Even if it did win the Cup, where could it possibly hold the defence? Secondly, the Swiss myth infers that the skipper and tactician of Alinghi are Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth. Are we supposed to believe that this is the same Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth of Black Magic? Even if it were true that these men had won the America's Cup for New Zealand, it is unthinkable that the New Zealanders would ever have allowed them to take the Cup away from their homeland in the name of Switzerland!

However, what underpins our belief that the Alinghi victory is myth is the mention of one Grant Simmer, purportedly Alinghi's design co-ordinator, and Tom Schnackenberg, purportedly Black Magic's design co-ordinator in the Australia II myth. Both Simmer and Schnackenberg are also mentioned in the Black Magic myth, in the role of vanquished and victor respectively. Clearly, the fact that these men are also players in the Swiss myth is further testimony that in fact there was no Swiss victory - it is merely a recycled account of the earlier Australian and New Zealand myths which claims key players from those myths as its own heroes.

Yet again, it is clear again that the Swiss myth is the same myth being retold in yet another setting. There is no need to believe that Australia II, Black Magic or Alinghi ever won the America's Cup, let alone the naive suggestion that all three stories are historical and describe three actual events.

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