Like a whirlwind of brilliance and carbon fiber, Russell Coutts leaves a path of devastation behind him. First in NZ, where to many he is still one of the biggest traitors in the island’s sporting history. Then to Switzerland, where his divorce from Alinghi was so nasty there was a rule written specifically to ban only him from AC32.
Then to the US, where after a brilliant comeback and a great event in San Francisco, he found ways to completely alienate the majority of the team’s American supporters for the recent Cup:
First by removing the competition from the country that won it; second by decisions that brought bad ratings and made it expensive (or downright impossible) for Americans to watch the majority of racing, and third by saddling San Fran with an unexpected, 8-figure bill – a move that ensured no US host cities bid for the event with even a fraction of what Bermuda came up with.
It appears that familiar old Coutts tornado has left another wrecked venue in its path now that results are in from the parliamentary election we reported about before the Cup that was held this week in Bermuda.
On Tuesday’s General Election, the mostly white, ruling One Bermuda Alliance party (the OBA – jokingly called Oracle Booster Association in online chatter) suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the mostly black Progressive Labor Party, many of whose members had been strongly critical of the money spent to bring the AC to the island.
The election was a true landslide in the tiny island nation, with the PLP receiving 20,059 votes, or nearly 59 percent, while the OBA secured 13,832, with resigning PM Michael Dunkley complaining that the biggest issue in the country is its “racial divide.”
While we are certain that there are much bigger, far reaching components to the OBA’s thumping than just the America’s Cup, it probably didn’t help the race problem to spend millions and millions of dollars on perhaps the least racially diverse sport on the planet?
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