The planet's most costly pissing contest...

Take the oldest sporting trophy in the world. Add two multi-millionaires, each with an axe to grind and you end up with the costliest pissing contest the planet has ever hosted.

Early budget estimates put Alinghi's expenses in the region of $47m. Ellison stated in an interview that the BMW Oracle budget was in the vicinity of $200m. Whether these figures are anywhere near what was actually spent, we will more than likely never know.

Now, I don't know about you, but I could think of quite a few things that this sort of money could have been spent on that would have accomplished a lot more than totally destroying the image of the America's Cup.

To put the waste of good money into perspective, a Formula-1 team will spend about $270m in an entire season that lasts for most of the year. This budget includes all their racing expenses for 19 races, all practice sessions before the season starts as well as research and development.

Neither of the two contenders was prepared to back down and agree on a civil, sportsmanlike event. Instead, they decided to start what can only be dubbed a pissing contest and dragged the event through one court of law to another. The actual competition ended up being a non-event. This is not surprising given the huge differences in money wasted on this farce.

What, I would like to know, happens to these two monster multi-hulls now that it is all over? Who would want to buy something that can only be sailed in a puff of wind? They cannot be used for anything that resembles leisure sailing. Maybe they should be converted into a monument paying homage to stupidity!

All we can do now however is to wait and see how the next version of the America's Cup pans out. Hopefully sanity will prevail for the 34th edition and we will see a decent event sailed on proper boats with more than just two eccentric participants...