Cup Watch

Our Crew for a Day contest is over, but the fun is about to start! Meet our Guest Racer, and follow him through stories, video and photos throughout his experience racing in Newport, Rhode Island, on an AC45.
Oracle Team USA practiced on AC45s last week, screaming through the water-and the air--on hydrofoils. The training session in San Francisco gave team members practice on the L-shaped dagger boards.
Day Four of the Extreme Sailing Series' Istanbul stopover proved to be exactly that: extreme. In roughly 19 knots of breeze, with 11 boats gearing up for the start, Alinghi and Team Extreme suffered a classic port-starboard collision when Alinghi tried to duck below, but simply did not have enough room.Attendees reported hearing the crash from as much as 500
It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. First the Kiwis and then the three other America’s Cup teams have all hit the water with daggerboards we might as well call hydrofoils, which lift their boats’ hulls clean out of the water on downwind legs, dramatically lowering resistance and increasing speed. But the AC72 rule was specifically intended to prevent that. Read my lips: No trimmable winglets.   
America’s Cup is welcoming the next generation of racing with open arms. For the first time ever, the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup will be held on San Francisco Bay September 1-4, 2013.
Oracle Team USA is now double ready for the 34th America’s Cup after launching its second AC72 on April 23.
According to Emirates Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton, April is the month for ETNZ and training partner Luna Rossa to pack up “cats, chase boats, base structures, workshops, offices, gym, kitchens and stores for the move to San Francisco.”
Never before has the red-hot favored team to win the next America’s Cup been in such a dicey predicament. Some claim that Emirates Team New Zealand has already won the Cup in the design department, but even if that proves true, it makes the team no less vulnerable to the fortunes of war.  

Oracle: Stop the Madness

by Adam Cort, Posted February 20, 2013
Call it sour grapes, but I for one am getting sick and tired of the way many sailors—pros in particular—feel it necessary to spray champagne all over the place after winning a regatta.
There was a time when getting your hands on the wheel of a U.S. America’s Cup boat was almost the same as saying, yes, I’ve won a Star Class world championship. Think Bill “Ficker Is Quicker” Ficker, Dennis Conner, Tom Blackaller, Buddy Melges. 
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