Leaks in boats are generally not considered a good thing, even if the recent case of a patriotic Ukrainian crewman trying to sink his Russian arms-manufacturing oligarch employer's superyacht in Mallorca as a protest against the Putin invasion drew widespread approval, particularly when the crewman then returned to Ukraine to join the
defence army, despite being a longtime sailor some 55 years old with no military experience.
However, carefully-positioned information communication leaks in politics, both national and international, are part of the negotiating process. So when geo-politics and sailing get intermixed, the sailors find themselves having to accept something they would normally consider unseamanlike at the very least.
The America's Cup New Zealand supremo Grant Dalton has shown that he can be a tough street fighter, right up with the most ruthless of them when it comes to judicious use of leaks in working towards a conclusion. With the March 31st deadline for the announcement of the 2024 America's Cup venue coming up on the horizon, he had a letter to the authorities in Valencia in Spain recently leaked in such a way that attention now re-focuses intensely on other potential venues.
These still include Cork, despite a very mixed reception when the idea was first floated last year, while a rapidly deteriorating international political and economic situation must now make America's Cup promotion a surefire vote-loser at grassroots level.
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