In between regattas, the back-biting and peculiar rules of the America's Cup, allowing the holder to stack the cards in its favour for the next defence, causes just about everyone to lose interest. Emirates Team NZ will have found it more difficult to retain private sponsorship too. The defender, Oracle Team USA, turned out to have developed winching equipment that gave them an edge. This America's Cup could look quite different from the last. But the trend has been in this direction ever since Russell Coutts took charge of the America's Cup with Alinghi.

Source: New Zealand Herald May 19, 2017 16:52 UTC