How do our Aussie friends feel about this? Any preference for your countrymen to support NZ vs US, or defender vs challenger?

Also, how well is that paper respected? That article seemed to be as much self-promoting of the paper as the event and sailors...

Mike

It would be funny to see an AC final with Aussies steering both boats while no Aussie teams are present. Although there are rumours of an Aussie team in the making. My only concern is that Gashby might not be available to make my sails.

I don't think there is any issue here at all. The last AC winning team was hardly a US team in the sailing/tactical and coaching areas. It was an international effort dominated by NZL, AUS and NED. This would be a natural progression for Glenn to further his sailing career. A more "hands on" sailing role would be very attractive to him - he is a racer. It's much closer for travel - a 2 hour plane trip. That's a normal commute for many here. He has a young family now and being regularly on the other side of the world would be hard. Besides, as Scarcrow said, we want him making sails and building boats here! I'll ask him what he thinks after Chrismas when he sails the A Nats with us at my local club.
We also have a great sporting rivalry with NZL in sports such as cricket, rugby league, rugby union, netball, horse racing etc. Sailing is also a major sport there, unlike AUS and USA. Not that we don't have many links with USA, but we tend to share wars and not sports!
The newspaper article was simply a small regional paper getting very excited about finally having some water for sailing and getting a local boy made good to return to wave the flag. They had no water for sailing due to drought for a number of years and it has finally rained.

Cheers

Gashby is a Bendigo boy and would imagine would have been very forthcoming with info for them.