KEY POINTS:
He was a portly Spanish man. Small, balding but with a big fishing pole. He was hauling in the little fish that swim about the harbours of all ports.
He cared nothing for the chaos about him. Honking horns, giant America's Cup class yachts, champagne popping, fireworks, the
winning of the 32nd America's Cup by one second by Alinghi in one of the most exhilarating finishes ever seen in a cup match. He ignored it all.
Thousands of people around the Foredeck Club cheered home their Alinghi heroes. Kiwis lined the canal as usual, going hoarse egging on Team New Zealand.
The Spanish man didn't look up. Bait the hook, drop it in the water. Wait for the line to bob. Another fish. Always the fish.
He didn't even look up as the superyacht Triton went past with its showy cargo including a helicopter, trail bikes and the obligatory tender.
We couldn't bridge the language gap, so we don't know if he considered such displays of wealth meaningless irrelevances.
But you have to say this for Ernesto Bertarelli's America's Cup in Valencia: It worked and it interested more and more people the longer it went on.
Bertarelli is by no means without critics for his approach, and his mantra of taking the cup to the "next level up" became a little tiresome. But you have to admit that he probably did take it up a notch.
For we mere spectators, the result was some thrilling racing - culminating in that desperate last-ditch, almost-dead-heat finish in the seventh race, with Alinghi winning by one second to clinch a 5-2 victory.
This was a bit of an accident in that Bertarelli had chosen Valencia allegedly because of consistent winds. They were consistently missing.
In Brad Butterworth, Alinghi had the single best sailor at this regatta. His form was questioned a couple of times early in the regatta but, when the pressure came on, he was found unflappably making the right decision, his gaze directed at a wind shift here, a quirk in the water there, squinting at what the Kiwis were doing, processing all the available information and almost infallibly making the best call.
The best sailor in the world, Bertarelli called him after the race, conveniently forgetting, perhaps, about that other Kiwi fella - what was his name? Oh yes, Russell Coutts.
Team New Zealand also helped make this regatta what it was - a class sporting event full of drama. They have also resumed a keen rivalry with Alinghi. There is a great deal of public respect between the two teams but there is less love for Alinghi's onshore administrators, America's Cup Management (ACM), 100 per cent owned by Bertarelli.
Their often heavy-handed stewardship of the regatta and their attitude to Kiwis has resulted in some bad feeling.
This was seen with ACM's handling of the final day of racing and the cup presentation.
Only the winner's boat could dock at the podium. The Kiwis were shuffled off somewhere else, anywhere else. They shook hands with the Alinghi team but mostly out of sight.
They chose to move slowly down the canal and salute the fans who have so heavily backed them.
After that, ACM organised a winner's press conference and a loser's press conference. We all thought this had been wiped in favour of a joint press conference - which is what it should be - but no.
Team New Zealand declined to attend. They felt this was a slight and that an America's Cup regatta should end in a way that has more to do with sportsmen and the way they salute each other after doing battle than a corporate positioning exercise. It is hard to disagree.
All this will add spice to the next encounter. Bertarelli is expected to announce Valencia 2009 as the next cup venue and date this week.
It could be another beauty. We don't yet know if Butterworth will be there or if he will be with Alinghi. We don't know what Coutts will be doing.
But that bloke with the fishing pole will probably still be there.