US Win's America's Cup

[SirSaxa]

BMW Oracle Wins the America’s Cup

First off, why would ANYONE schedule the America's Cup - which can be scheduled pretty much ANYTIME -- in direct conflict with the WINTER OLYMPICS!?!?!?

Did anyone actually see or read any coverage of this event?

First time since 1995 that the US wins back the CUP.

The boats, by the way, are incredibly technically sophisticated. Really quite startling.

Congrats to Larry Ellison and the US team for winning back the Cup. The new home for the Cup is the Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Francisco.

Also, the rumor is the Cup will return to single hull yachts next time. We shall see.

[EasyEd]

Who cares?

[SFHoya99]

I actually care.

Unfortunately, the Swiss kajillionaire tried to kill the America's Cup. He basically tried to change the rules by taking over the rules of both the Challengers and the Defenders -- meaning that as the Defender he could cripple the challengers and make it hard for the winner to take the Cup.

Ellison sued but also used the annoying clause in the by-laws to directly challenge the defenders. The courts held that up but eventually said "Settle it on the water."

Ellison whooped the Swiss boat and now has control (though who knows what lawsuits will occur now).

I'm not sure what Ellison is going to do. Sailors and spectators would love SF Bay, but there's issues with the currents and shipping lanes. Off the coast of SF is too rough. San Diego is an option. Rhode Island is an option. Ellison didn't rule out an Olympic style bidding system, either.

On the boats, everyone assumes monohulls, but the sailors have really taken to the multi-hulls and it is so spectator friendly -- these races were actually pretty interesting -- that they may stay with the really fast boats.

[SirSaxa]

More on BMW Oracle

EXCERPT
Coutts, who's now won the America's Cup four times, said BMW Oracle Racing wants to get consensus from the rest of the competitors before deciding issues such as the class of boat that will be sailed.

Coutts said he felt strongly a few months ago that the Cup should return to being sailed in sloops, but admitted he was intrigued with the concept of sailing it in multihulls after the 90-by-90-foot American trimaran dueled an equally immense Swiss catamaran. Again, he said that's a decision still to be made.

Seems to support your comments SFHoya99

[hoyaalf]

The original U.S, venue for the Cup was off Sandy Hook.

It worked then.

Let's get the race back in the appropriate season in the appropriate hemisphere first.

I want J-Boats.

[hoyarooter]

This speaks volumes about the current level of A-Cup coverage. I did not even know that the races were taking place at this time. And this is a topic that has received at least a fair amount of coverage in the LA Times and on line in recent years, yet I saw nothing on it anywhere.

Congrats to Larry Ellison. Although I must say, there are few things less compelling than watching a sailboat race on television.

[CTHoya08]

I only knew it was happening because I saw the results on the ESPN ticker. I remember staying up late too watch it the last time around (or maybe it was two challenges ago) but it's not that thrilling on TV. It might be more fun to watch if there was a whole fleet of boats in one race, like the first race around the Isle of Wight, but they haven't done that for a long time.

I like the idea of the cutting edge boats, but it seems like the result is largely predicated on design and not sailing--wasn't the previous Cup which pitted a catamaran against a monohull completely one-sided? I'm also not crazy about the mechanized winches.

Glad that the Cup is back in the US. I like the idea of holding the next challenge in Newport if SF Bay won't work, but somewhere else on the West Coast probably makes the most sense. If we were going to hold the races in Newport, the NYYC shouldn't have lost the damn thing in the first place.

[thebin]

As a former resident of both San Diego and Newport, RI (perhaps the best places to live on either coast BTW) I'm probably more of a ACUP fan than 99% of the US public....and I didn't know it was on till it was over either. It has been so rapid a collapse as a semi-popular sport as to make boxing and horse racing's demise look glacial by comparison. I think a major problem with the Cup is that there is way too much wiggle room for the current Cup holder to basically make the sport totally un-recognizable to the casual fans through litigation, wide open scheduling, etc.

I hope the Cup returns to Newport- where the town will standstill for it, and attempts to institute some permanent reforms with an eye toward normalcy if possible. It's almost like a brand new event is created every 4 years.

[SFHoya99]

I'd be opposed to Newport merely because the winds, while challenging, aren't nearly as heavy as San Francisco would be, or Perth was.

Perth was the height of America's Cup popularity, mostly because we had just lost the Cup and Dennis Conner was the right personality for the event.

But the sailing was awesome as well, and hooked me on it.

I would love to see institutionalized a bit more, but I don't mind moving venues as long as format is institutionalized.

And while the cup has always been as much about boat design as seamanship, there needs to be a bit tighter controls. I'd also love to see it become more nationalistic with real rules -- when Alinghi won the first time they had American designers and New Zealand sailors, I believe. It's not as much fun a spectator sport when everyone's a hired gun.

[thebin]

I know squat about sailing...but I thought I read that the winds off Frisco Bay were too rough to be ideal?

[SFHoya99]

Feb 18, 2010 12:22:04 GMT -5 thebin said:

I know squat about sailing...but I thought I read that the winds off Frisco Bay were too rough to be ideal?

The winds in the Bay would be phenomenal. The winds off the coast are apparently too strong.

The issue with the Bay is shipping lanes and currents.

[thebin]

Feb 18, 2010 12:45:53 GMT -5 SFHoya99 said:

Feb 18, 2010 12:22:04 GMT -5 thebin said:

I know squat about sailing...but I thought I read that the winds off Frisco Bay were too rough to be ideal?

The winds in the Bay would be phenomenal. The winds off the coast are apparently too strong.

The issue with the Bay is shipping lanes and currents.

It seems to me the natural ampitheatre effect you could get with this Marin Co hills, the bridges, the Rock, etc would make for breathtaking HD television, especially if super gusty.

[SFHoya99]

Yeah. Plus, Larry Ellison could give all of Oracle the week off to come up and cheer.

[MassHoya]

It will be intriguing to see the type of boats to be used in the AC from here on in. It would be nice to see a return to sloops, be it the AC class, or some other, but Oracle was so innovative, particularly the foil, that it really was a breakthrough in racing. Ellison is a high tech guy so he may want to stay with this type.

Having seen the excitement the AC brings to Newport, it really would be great for the racing to return there. Newport was the home for many, many years. The area still uses the AC image as part of its marketing/tourism, even after a 27 year absence.