Time to add some women?

[Guest]

Hi David,

Not sure how you'll feel about this but forwarding an excerpt in event you want to publish...

 

THE “LETTER TO THE EDITOR” THAT NZ HERALD REFUSES TO PRINT

 

Dear NZHERALD Editor:

 

If public discussion is underway on the spending of money for another America’s Cup bid, then we want women at the table. Any new challenge needs to be more inclusive and we want funding to recruit and train a female yacht racer for Team New Zealand. Harbour and coastal racing in New Zealand invariably involves a good proportion of mixed gender crews and that hard fought circumstance needs to be represented in the face we present to the sailing world… Women’s Yacht Racing New Zealand, a charitable entity, offers to spearhead the campaign to find a capable woman sailor for the next Team New Zealand America’s Cup challenge.

 

Lisa Lewis, Chief Trustee

WYRNZ

 

 

Lisa A. Lewis, Chief Trustee

Women's Yacht Racing New Zealand,

a charitable trust

[Clipper 343]

I'm sure if women were up to the task, they would be included.

 

But you show me a woman who can grind like rob waddell?

[banaari 27]

I sure as hell would not want to be the individual *PERCEIVED* (irrespective of actual ability) to be on board because of their gender.

[Guest]

Well who would you prefer to grind with

[Clipper 343]

nice!

[banaari 27]

How _DID_ TeamNZ select their sailing team?

I'm guessing a fairly autocratic cherry picking based on demonstrated ability and existing relationships?

[SloopJohnB 322]

Well who would you prefer to grind with

 

What about this one?

[Adrianp 120]

I think she'd be a better fit with the Oracle Team culture

[tuffyluffy 76]

If the writer is this Lisa Lewis, then i suggest she revisits her footwear choices.

 

 

[Absolution 7]

Maury Leyland was part of the design team and the sailing team in 1995. Selected because she's got a brain the size of a planet not because she is a woman:

 

http://www.globalwomen.org.nz/Our+Membe ... yland.html

[banaari 27]

Maury Leyland was part of the design team and the sailing team in 1995. Selected because she's got a brain the size of a planet not because she is a woman:

 

http://www.globalwomen.org.nz/Our+Membe ... yland.html

Brilliant! A ruthless meritocracy demonstrating that it will select qualified female team members on merit. And we won. Everybody happy.

Which just leaves the obvious question hanging, where was she this time around??!!!!

[wal 27]

....and Maori, goddammit we need more Maori. They invented multis for god's sake.. we'd be a shoe in.

 

Also we need more little skinny old grey haired men. They're definately under represented. What sort of a half arsed mob doesn't have them? They know EVERYTHING. Just ask them

[Bender 0]

Which just leaves the obvious question hanging, where was she this time around??!!!!

 

 

Maury Leyland is a tad busy being the Group General Manager - Strategy, for Fonterra. That's a pretty serious sort of job.

[banaari 27]

In all seriousness it would be great to see some female and Maori faces on the boat... but the correct way to achieve that is sort out the grassroots involvement and let the upper echelon stuff take care of itself. There's no shortcut. Be interesting to see where Aleh & Powrie et al are at in a couple of years.

[Guest]

....and Maori, goddammit we need more Maori. They invented multis for god's sake.. we'd be a shoe in.

But then we also need some Polynesian peoples as they have been making 30kt multis for decades if knot longer. And all made using just a coconut tree or 2 and the inner thigh of their Aunty and her mates.

[philstar 61]

don't forget about representing the gay and lesbian group. we need to represent gays and lesbians.

[Atom Ant 0]

What about dwarfs? They should be included too.

[philstar 61]

seriously though AC isn't about representing women or maori or gays or NZ infact. It about billionaire vs billionaire. We only started in in because millionaire Michael fay decided he wanted to have a go at winning it.

 

I applaud the chap on Campbell live trying raise a mill to keep etnz running, but come on that might keep them going for a month - 2 months.

Surely they can find 10 rich listers in nz to put in 100k each to keep the team going.

This isn't like Ceramco where they guys were keen unpaid amateurs. This is a seriously professional team and unfortunately they lost.

Its not representative of nz and they must stand or fall on their merit.

 

where the hell is kim dotcoms millions or was that just another publicity stunt?

 

I have kids to feed, bills to pay and a boat to paint, I won't be contributing to etnz.

[Guest]

If the next AC is in the same boats it seems you need 3 sailors and 8 human shaped pumping devices. It's knot like that have to do anything like change sails, pop kites, unwrap busted poles from around the mast or bail to stop it sinking so as long as the human looking pump can pump why can't they be 3ft tall with non pasty well tanned boobies and whose hero is Camp Mother?

[Bimini Babe 0]

Affirmative action for women? Sorry, but I don't think I can get on board with that. If there are any professional female sailors out there who believe they could have performed at the same level as the guys on that boat in SF, but they were excluded from selection purely on the basis of gender, then I'll quite happily get behind that campaign. Until then.... Darwinism rules.