MULTI-CULTI II Sep 19, 16:13
The Challenger Commission Blog has a post from yesterday entitled Costa What? that some of you may find interesting.
In response to that post, Valencia Sailing's Pierre Orphanidis emailed this afternoon with an explanation of how Costa del Azahar, the coastal region either side of Valencia, got it's name. Pierre's answer reminded me of our Multi-Culti post at the beginning of Act 6. He writes:
It is the name, in Castellano, of the flower of the orange tree. Its origin is the arab words "al-azahar" meaning “white flower”. In Valenciano it’s called Costa dels Tarongers. It starts north at the border with Catalonia and goes south to Javea. Obviously the region got its name from the abundance of orange trees -- that is before the real estate boom that transformed it into a coastal Hong Kong!!
So there you have it: a race for a British Cup; named after an American yacht; with Swiss organizers and a French title sponsor; based in a Spanish city whose coast has an Arab name and looks more and more like Hong Kong; with first-ever entries from China, Germany and South Africa, and multiple entries from Italy; several teams using the same towing tank in Canada, [23 Sep update] and one team testing in Bulgaria; race committee boats imported from New Zealand (to say nothing of a herd of Kiwi sailors); a Polish skipper for the "local" entry; an Australian gravity-checker; and all involved having fond memories of a recent regatta in Sweden.
Talk about multi-culti. Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
In response to that post, Valencia Sailing's Pierre Orphanidis emailed this afternoon with an explanation of how Costa del Azahar, the coastal region either side of Valencia, got it's name. Pierre's answer reminded me of our Multi-Culti post at the beginning of Act 6. He writes:
It is the name, in Castellano, of the flower of the orange tree. Its origin is the arab words "al-azahar" meaning “white flower”. In Valenciano it’s called Costa dels Tarongers. It starts north at the border with Catalonia and goes south to Javea. Obviously the region got its name from the abundance of orange trees -- that is before the real estate boom that transformed it into a coastal Hong Kong!!
So there you have it: a race for a British Cup; named after an American yacht; with Swiss organizers and a French title sponsor; based in a Spanish city whose coast has an Arab name and looks more and more like Hong Kong; with first-ever entries from China, Germany and South Africa, and multiple entries from Italy; several teams using the same towing tank in Canada, [23 Sep update] and one team testing in Bulgaria; race committee boats imported from New Zealand (to say nothing of a herd of Kiwi sailors); a Polish skipper for the "local" entry; an Australian gravity-checker; and all involved having fond memories of a recent regatta in Sweden.
Talk about multi-culti. Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
Commentary | by TFE
