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Speaker 1: Full credit to Tom Slingsby and the Aussies on their

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Speaker 1: victory over the weekend. Obviously didn't hurt that the Black

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Speaker 1: Foils and Burling and the French for that matter, crashed out,

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Speaker 1: which was brutal to watch. I had the pleasure of

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Speaker 1: being there on Saturday in the grandstand and you get

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Speaker 1: a sense of how fast these boats are going and

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Speaker 1: how close to one another they are. It is frightening,

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Speaker 1: but that's what makes it such a thrill, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: You're not meant to say that, but everybody there on

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Speaker 1: Saturday was pretty much as hyped about the near missus

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Speaker 1: and the close calls as they were about the results

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Speaker 1: in the actual racing. And I think that's just human nature.

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Speaker 1: You can't look away from a car crash, can you.

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Speaker 1: It's the same reason UFC is nipping at the heels

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Speaker 1: of boxing and we've got run it straight. You know,

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Speaker 1: they're actually making money. People have been paid now to

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Speaker 1: run into each other for sport. We like the excitement

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Speaker 1: of somebody possibly getting hurt or injured. I know it's sick,

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Speaker 1: but it's true, isn't it. Throw on the fact that

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Speaker 1: athletes take the risks, hopefully calculated ones and come out

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Speaker 1: victorious when you have yourself an afternoon of entertainment. There's

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Speaker 1: skill and talent and technology involved, no doubt about it.

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Speaker 1: But you wouldn't turn up to watch a sale GP

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Speaker 1: boat race itself, would you. The question is where the

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Speaker 1: people would still be thrilled by this split fleet format

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Speaker 1: with fewer boats justing for position, which is a move

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Speaker 1: that apparently was on the cards anyway. And if this

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Speaker 1: is the first of many safety improvements, how different would

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Speaker 1: the competition look and feel. Look at what happened to

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Speaker 1: Rugby Union when safety overtook entertainment. If you don't give

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Speaker 1: people action, they just go find it elsewhere. Now, don't

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Speaker 1: get me wrong, I'm not saying I want crashes galore

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Speaker 1: and let's throw caution to the wind and create the

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Speaker 1: equivalent of bumper cars on water. But it must surely

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Speaker 1: be something that the organizers will be thinking about and

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Speaker 1: toying with. And as for Burling, on the day, people

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Speaker 1: were saying, oh, did he push it too far? If

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Speaker 1: he executed the exact same race in one without crashing,

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Speaker 1: nobody'd be complaining, would they. But that's the thing about

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Speaker 1: this competition. It's fractions of technology, weather, conditions that make

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Speaker 1: a difference. There's talk that has Rudder failed him. Was

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Speaker 1: that driver induced failure or just bad luck. No one

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Speaker 1: wins playing safe and people don't watch sport for safety features.

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Speaker 1: But at the same time, to win a race, you've

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Speaker 1: got to finish it, and that lesson more than any

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Speaker 1: change to the rules might be what slows drivers like

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Speaker 1: burling down a touch in the future. For more from

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Speaker 1: Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to news talks.

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Speaker 1: It'd be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio.