Posted on 02/09/2010 10:35:24 PM PST by cabojoe
Outlook: Wednesday, Feb 10: Start time no earlier than 11:54 am (warning signal)
Race 1: 20 nautical miles to Windward and Return BMW Oracle (starboard tack), enters from right Alinghi (port tack) enters from the left
Preview: Preview? There's been 33 months of back and forth, asking a court to decide who is the rightful challenger of record, what boats may race, and where they can or can't race, and every permutation of rule has been twisted and examined. Sides have been chosen around the America's Cup world, and this may be the least friendly competition among nations for yachting's great prize to ever slide down the ways.
Offset by race boats that are as beautiful, high-tech and quite literally lethal as any ever built, the sailing portion of the match takes over today from the designing and building. And nobody has ever built boats like these for inshore racing. 79 miles of straight line racing, today's 20 nm to Windward and Return, plus Wednesday's 39 miles around the Triangular course, as the crow flies, and some issues could finally be settled.
Not the least of these issues is the Battle for the Soul of the America's Cup that has raged increasingly hot since July, 2007. The near future of the event, if not its entire future, may ride on the outcome.
There are some who think there is something wrong with a match between the two most advanced sailboats on the planet, two yachts indeed conjured into being just for these few races and cast into shape according to a spell written in 1887 by George Schuyler. The truth is that this is the closest the Cup has come in some time to what it was originally. This is not a pageant, this not a participation event to satisfy sponsors, it's not intended to be done on the cheap or for the thrill of competing, and there are no intentions of parity for the sake of entertainment.
This is about winning. It's about excellence and pushing the limits to get there, and this is what made the America's Cup big, brave, and famous in the first place. It is serious, serious, sport. It's taken imagination, some real guts, and cubic money to get to this point, nearly unlimited except by constraints of time. Win or Lose, this match could well be the last time we ever see the America's Cup unleashed to this degree. This is a match race in the original sense, the boats at mythic proportions, the competitors have real anger, the stakes beyond mere pride. The America's Cup sails into history today, and Cup fans everywhere should hope it comes out a winner.
Webcast and broadcast information and links.
The Amazing Race: Looking for Design Details article at SailingWorld.com
Images from Valencia - BMW Oracle Racing
Dennis Conner's Cat runs away from Sir Michael Fay's Dog in the 1988 America's Cup, aka the Coma off Point Loma.
Gilles Martin-Raget/www.America'sCup.com
America’s Cup Ping
Maybe I just don’t get it, but I’ve always considered the America’s Cup to be a yacht race. I don’t consider catamarans to be yachts...
Rather technical.
yitbos
please add me to your pings. Thanks!
I never used to consider anything a yacht unless it had an ice maker, a bar, and a diesel engine.
That’s how it works where i’m from.
A yacht is an expensive plaything. Others are either boats or ships.
Yachts have yachties on them.
We used to refer to ours as a black hole in the water that you threw endless money at.
And Hotties.
The Bird Yacht:
yitbos
yitbos
Does it have an ice box?
It does! Right in front of the center console.
yitbos
Close enough mate, a yacht it is then!
yitbos
I thought I had posted the delayed time, do you know what time it starts PST?
yitbos
I think there is too much wind and they are trying to wait for it to slow a bit. Thanks for the info.
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