From a report on the 2007AC Forums from regular contributor Cheryl, who monitors the media in New Zealand for that top AC discussion site:

"In an interview with TVNZ's Martin Tasker, Dean Barker said the choice of USA-87 was driven by the desire to get more performance data on USA-87. ETNZ is still finalising the design of their second boat and believed they could learn more from racing against USA-87 than against Luna Rossa or Alinghi. The choice was not based on who they thought was easiest to beat."

Below is another brilliant photo by our team photog Gilles Martin-Raget. Yesterday he was aloft in a heli to snap the action, thanks to an agreement among all teams to allow legit team photogs to capture non-spy images from helicopters during Act 12. The Protocol has a provision that otherwise prohibits team members from going aloft in aircraft over other Competitors, or using satellites, to observe or capture images of other teams.


Stay tuned -- after a day off today, racing resumes on Friday with head-
to-head racing between ETNZ and ourselves in the semi-finals. We won
the toss of the coin and will have starboard entry for match one, and
match three if necessary (it's "first to win two matches").