OPINION: I hate the America's Cup. I hate it because when there's no racing it's the antithesis of what sport should be; confusing and outdated rules, legal battles, and rich, egomaniacs engaging in pissing contests.
But this week, I got a reminder of why, deep down, I bloody love the America's Cup.
A broken rudder and a love tap. It doesn't sound like much, but it was enough to whet the appetite for the 35th America's Cup that I think we should just call "Survivor: Bermuda".
This regatta may not be won by the team that has the best sailors, the best crew, or the best technology, but by the last team standing: the team that can push their boat to the limit, hold their nerve and keep it all together.
Equipment failure has brought us some of the most enduring images in America's Cup history from One Australia sinking in San Diego in 1995, to Team New Zealand's snapped mast in Auckland in 2003.
A broken rudder wasn't a catastrophe for Team New Zealand this week, but it just goes to show that for all the millions that go into building these boats and funding these campaigns, anything can happen on the water, and it so often does.
The nature of the racing and the boats we'll see tearing up the water in Bermuda means this incident was surely just a taste of what's to come for the syndicates taking part.
Then we had Sir Ben Ainslie's Land Rover BAR team crash into Team New Zealand. Congratulations Ben! You, rightly or wrongly, are now our newest America's Cup villain, kind of ironic for a guy who used to be on our boat.
But it's the rivalries that make America's Cup racing what it is. Sir Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth versus Dirty Dennis Connor and Paul Cayard. Dean Barker versus Coutts. Barker versus Jimmy Spithill.
Now we're set for another chapter: some of the rivals remain, and with old allies like Ainslie and Barker now foes of the new guard, the niggle and banter will be on another level. It's building already.
This will be a regatta like no other. And it's one that I think will see us fall in love with the America's Cup again, and capture a new audience as well.
While some of us yearn for a return to the days of Black Magic, red socks and ticker tape, there's a whole generation who don't know what it feels like to see a kiwi - representing New Zealand - holding the America's Cup aloft.
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are our next generation, our golden boys. But I reckon I'd happily trade their Olympic medals to see them smoke past Jimmy Spithill and Oracle to reclaim the cup. Can they be the next Coutts and Butterworth?
Local heroes in boats built for speed. The racing will be balls-to-the-wall, with no margin for error. Now that the boats are on the water in Bermuda, I'm in love with the Auld Mug again.
I'm willing to wager that in a month's time I'll care about this America's Cup as much - if not more - than any regatta I've witnessed before.
Stop pretending you don't care, because you know you do.
Andrew Gourdie is a Newshub sports reporter
