We need a shorthand to refer to the Cup teams that makes sense: something simple, easy to remember, fairly obvious to the uninitiated, and meaningful to those involved.

With the DaVinci Code all the rage at the moment (including, apparently, the UK judge even writing a code into his recent court decision regarding Dan Brown's wildly popular book; maybe we had better start checking the Cup jury decisions in case Bryan Willis's wry sense of humour gets the better of him!), it seems appropriate that we call our new shorthand the "DaSena Code":

CHN
ESP
FRA
GER
NZL
USA
ITA/39
ITA/LR
ITA/ML
RSA
SUI
SWE

To the uninitiated (at least in the USA and Downunder), perhaps the only ones not obvious are RSA (Republic of South Africa) and SUI (Switzerland)? Most of you will recognize these from the three-letter country (Olympic) codes the yachts have been carring on their mainsails, and differentiating for ITA which, of course, has three teams. Therefore:

CHN = China Team
ESP = Desafio Espanol
FRA = Areva Challenge
GER = United Internet Team Germany
NZL = Emirates Team New Zealand
USA = BMW ORACLE Racing
ITA/39 = +39
ITA/LR = Luna Rossa
ITA/ML = Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team
RSA = Shosholoza
SUI - Alinghi
SWE - Victory Challenge

Pending your comments (click on "add comment" below), going forward am thinking to use this "DaSena Code" when it is impractical to use a team's full name.

Dime. ¿Qué piensas?