10 AC Points

1. People who thought Chris Dickson would take BMW Oracle to the top were not paying attention. IN 1987, 1992, 1995, and 2003 Dickson made either the Luis Vuitton semi finals or finals, never the Cup match. That was a lot of past performance inertia to overcome.

2. With Dickson out and Barker still in you have a trivia question such as this: Who has sailed more America's Cup matches- Barker or Dickson? The answer is Barker: 1 in 2000 and 5 in 2003. Dickson has never sailed an actual cup match.

3. Each finalist will feature crew who were named College Sailing All Americans. The Mckee brothers for Luna Rossa, while ETNZ has a tachtician (Hutchinson) and Navigator who were fantastic college sailors. Johnathan Mckee Yale 1981,1982, 1983 Charlie Mckee Washington 1981, 1982 Honorable Mention 1985 All American Terry Hutchinson Old Dominion 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 Kevin Hall Brown 1989.

4. Although there was some water on board during today's race it's clear Alinghi will not face an inept opponent as they did with New Zealand in 2003.

5. ETNZ seems to like it close. They win or lose by not much. If they get ahead they don't seem to mind a narrow win. Luna Rossa at times has shown more tactical variation.

6. Could it come down to a coin flip? I assume starboard entry for the finals will be determined by a coin flip. If ETNZ wins they would get the starboard entry 5 times. Might this allow them enough chances to mitigate Spithill's start magic? Or is Barker being restrained by ETNZ's general conservatism?

7. Spithill and Barker have competed on the World Match racing Tour going back to 2000. Barker has 4 1sts and 3 2nds meaning in finals he has gone 4-3, in similar situations Spithill is 2-4.

8. Luna Ross is led by Francesco Deangelis who serves as skipper but not helsman. ETNZ's head man is Grant Dalton who sails as 'floater'. None of this CEO/SKipper/Helmsan egomania of Dicko.

9. As for meteo Luna Rossa has Hamish Wilcox a kiwi who has been with them but with One World in '03. ETNZ has Roger Badham a Kiwi who was with America One during their LV final against Luna Rossa in 2000.

10. Looks like ETNZ crew Jeremy Lomas was injured today. Nothing some 2 inch tape can't fix!