05-22-2020, 12:28 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-22-2020, 01:43 AM by TheOldPresbyope.
Edit Reason: the city isn't named for the bird
)
And now for something totally unrelated to moOde.
In a recent private exchange, @philrandal mentioned he is a transplant from Wellington, NZ.
For some reason this reminded me of a memento of my first trip to NZ and AU in 1995 and I had to dig it out of its hiding place deep in a closet (it looks appropriately fusty).
This was the year of the great match-up of Australia One vs Team New Zealand vying to be that year's America's Cup challenger. I bought this hat in Auckland City while on a several-day layover after an exhausting flight from SFO before pressing on to a meeting with folks in Wellington. Through my CAD standards work, I knew some shipbuilders who were peripherally involved in the design of Conner's Young America yacht and I thought they'd be impressed by my hat. Not seen is the back side, embroidered with the Kiwi boat's name, Black Beast.
![[Image: vupOgut.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/vupOgut.jpg)
As it happened I was standing in the visitor centre in Auckland proudly wearing this hat and watching an overhead monitor with approximately a gazillion others as Team New Zealand was battling Australia One in a match race off San Diego CA when suddenly the Aussie's boat broke in half and promptly sank. The last thing I saw was the Sun Microsystems logo on the bow as it went under. The crowd was awed but someone near kept repeating "they broke their boat; they broke their boat." [If you're interested, https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2019/...australia/ is a good description of why the boat broke and sank.]
The Black Beast went on to sweep our American entry five races to nil. Ah, the ignominy!
I then went on to Sydney AU for more meetings and more good memories. Oddly, my colleagues there didn't seem interested in talking about Australia One. For some reason they kept changing the subject to this strange game I think they called rugger.
Regards,
Kent
In a recent private exchange, @philrandal mentioned he is a transplant from Wellington, NZ.
For some reason this reminded me of a memento of my first trip to NZ and AU in 1995 and I had to dig it out of its hiding place deep in a closet (it looks appropriately fusty).
This was the year of the great match-up of Australia One vs Team New Zealand vying to be that year's America's Cup challenger. I bought this hat in Auckland City while on a several-day layover after an exhausting flight from SFO before pressing on to a meeting with folks in Wellington. Through my CAD standards work, I knew some shipbuilders who were peripherally involved in the design of Conner's Young America yacht and I thought they'd be impressed by my hat. Not seen is the back side, embroidered with the Kiwi boat's name, Black Beast.
As it happened I was standing in the visitor centre in Auckland proudly wearing this hat and watching an overhead monitor with approximately a gazillion others as Team New Zealand was battling Australia One in a match race off San Diego CA when suddenly the Aussie's boat broke in half and promptly sank. The last thing I saw was the Sun Microsystems logo on the bow as it went under. The crowd was awed but someone near kept repeating "they broke their boat; they broke their boat." [If you're interested, https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2019/...australia/ is a good description of why the boat broke and sank.]
The Black Beast went on to sweep our American entry five races to nil. Ah, the ignominy!
I then went on to Sydney AU for more meetings and more good memories. Oddly, my colleagues there didn't seem interested in talking about Australia One. For some reason they kept changing the subject to this strange game I think they called rugger.
Regards,
Kent
