This That and the Other Thing: 9.9.13

A few house keeping items to start the week…

1. My SPX chart is killing it, I just do not believe it…:-(  This market will not go down.

2. FIO…thank you Western Dig for buying Virident!  Let the consolidation begin.

3. The America’ Cup:

This is a non-work related post.  The week before VMWorld, I had my family in SF for an end of summer vacation and we were lucky to be invited to the St. Francis with friends to watch the Louis Vuitton finals.  In the sailing community, the Kiwi boat was all the talk

The Kiwi boat was fast and all the racing they had done in the Challenger series had honed the skills of the team as they demonstrated exceptional boat handling skills.  I was very interested to see how Oracle USA would stand up against the Kiwis.  I have been critical of this race format.  I think it could work, but they need to double or triple the length of the race.  I left my daughter on the porch of the St. Francis watching one of the LV races and by the time I got back from the bar the race was over.  If the AC organizers want to make sailing exciting with this format, they need to go visit Bristol for racing under the lights.

The first two races were hugely disappointing, unless you were rooting for the team from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.  The format of the AC is one in which the defender does not face competition until the final.  The question going into Saturday’s race 1 was how fast was the US boat?  After the two races on Saturday, hugely disappointing was the answer.  The Kiwis were so fast one could not be critiqued for thinking it was better to go home and wait for the next race in four years in New Zealand.  The Kiwis have already stated they will go back to off shore racing if the win.   Yesterday, the US boat won race #4.  Is there a chance that this is going to be competitive going forward?  Here are some stats:

After the first two races on Saturday, the Kiwi boat was 1+ knot faster through the course and if that remained constant, it was a fatal complet.  After the two races yesterday, the US boat reversed the deficit.  Is there a chance?  I think the two races on Tuesday are going to confirm which race day (1/2 or 3/4) are the true measure of the boats.  Maybe the US boat fares better in stronger winds, but they do seem to have gotten more speed out of their boat.

/wrk