Cup Watch

The Inevitable

by Sail Staff, Posted March 27, 2008

On Wednesday, March 26, 2008 Tom Ehman and Russell Coutts from BMW Oracle Racing traveled to Geneva to meet with Alinghi’s lead council Lucien Masmejan and Societe Nautique Geneve's (SNG) Vice Commodore Fred Meyer, with the intention of settling some unresolved details regarding the 33rd America’s Cup, including the “when”. The timeline for when the first starting gun will fire in

Learning to Fly

by Sail Staff, Posted April 11, 2008

Sailing a multihull is just like sailing a monohull, right? Wrong. If that was the case, there is simply no way that Alinghi would have flipped Foncia, the high-octane ORMA 60 that the team had been using as a training platform for the 33rd America’s Cup, which will be a Deed of Gift Challenge between Golden Gate Yacht Club’s BMW Oracle Racing (BOR) and Societe Nautique

Legal Headaches

by Sail Staff, Posted April 15, 2008

Am I the only one who gets a headache when I hear the words “America’s Cup” coupled with the word “court”? I highly doubt it, especially given the massive success that was the 32nd Cup, and the resounding flop that has thus far been the experience of the 33rd Cup’s pre-dance ritual. Today’s head banger is compliments of the Socit Nautique de Genve (SNG) and Alinghi, who proposed

SHOCKER DECISION IN NY COURT

by Sail Staff, Posted July 29, 2008

The New York State Supreme Court's Appellate Division ruled 3-2 on Tuesday that Club Nautico Espanol de Vela is the legitimate challenger of record for America's Cup 33. This decision according power to an entity that was gathering dust (did they even bother to pretend to hold an annual regatta this year?) reinstates CNEV's right to negotiate terms of the next competition with the current Cup

BMW Oracle Appeals Court Ruling

by Sail Staff, Posted August 3, 2008

A terse statement from BMW Oracle Racing announces the expected appeal of last week's court ruling:Valencia, Spain, 1 August 2008: The Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) said today it has lodged an appeal against this week’s decision of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court.“We believe the Challenger of Record has to be a real yacht club. It cannot be something

Every Card a Wild Card

by Sail Staff, Posted September 10, 2008

By Kimball LivingstonLarry Ellison's would-be America's Cup challenger has been launched, and it's a monster—90 feet long and 90 feet wide and rocket-fast as a giant racing trimaran should be—leaving one question, which only a New York court can answer: Is this a bridge to nowhere? Impressive, regardless, and probably a bit scary at times. We

ACC Racing — in Valencia?

by David Schmidt, Posted November 4, 2008

Is the America’s Cup saved? No. Sadly, the battle of the ego-heavy billionaires continues, with neither side showing any signs of backing down, even though the Socit Nautique de Genve/Alinghi has won an important victory by having Desafo Espaol, Club Nutico Espaol de Vela reinstated as the official challenger of record (BMX/Oracle of course claims that Desafo Espaol, Club Nutico Espaol

AC World Series: High Stakes Game in Cascais

by Kimball Livingston, Posted August 1, 2011

Beyond aerodynamic efficiency, wings bring one special, not so obvious quality to multihull sailing — flotation. The forward element and each of three flaps in the aft element on an AC 45 are airtight and buoyant. As long as the wing stays in place, the boat will not turn turtle.I'm figuring the rest of America's Cup 34 floats, too, but that's not for lack of doomsayers on the

AC45s Take on Cascais

by Sarah Eberspacher, Posted August 9, 2011

The opening two days of the first-ever World Series racing in the 34th America's Cup gave spectators in Cascais, Portugal, plenty of brilliant views of the lightning-quick AC45s. Here, SAIL brings the racing (and some of the shots) to you. The weekend offered racing at both ends of the spectrum: Saturday dawned grim and cloudy, with conditions that normally would

Television Worth Watching

by MacDuff Perkins, Posted September 15, 2011

In one of the more brilliant moves in modern sailing, the America’s Cup has opted to make live-streaming coverage of AC45 World Series events free and available to anyone with a computer. Broadcasting straight from Plymouth, England, World Series coverage began on Monday, September 12, featuring fleet racing in both 40 and 18-minute races. GPS trackers onboard the boats tracked everything