While much of the yacht racing world has had its eyes glued to the Volvo Ocean Race these eight past months, the behemoth that is the America’s Cup has also been slowly but surely lurching into motion, following the publication of the official AC75 class rule in late March.Here ...read more
.Four months after first presenting their concept for the AC75 class yacht to be used in the 36th America’s Cup, The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and challenger-of-record Circolo della Vela Sicilia, together with their respective teams, Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna ...read more
testWith much fanfare and the best computer graphics money can buy, Emirates Team New Zealand has now released its plans for the new full-foiling America’s Cup 75 class monohull to be used for the 36th America’s Cup in 2021.Unfortunately, while I know I’m supposed to be excited ...read more
Traditionalists rejoice. Nearly 15 years after it walked away from the America’s Cup, the gang that started it all—namely the New York Yacht Club—is getting back into the game for the 36th Cup, to be held in New Zealand in early 2021.Representing the New York YC will be a team ...read more
Perhaps the most “cutting-edge” sailboat I ever met was in a marina in southern Spain in the early 1990s, not long after the Soviet Union fell apart. It was a Russian boat, a quintamaran, a five-hulled monster with a central main hull and four amas that looked something like a ...read more
It seems nothing can be simple when it comes to the America’s Cup, not even the way you announce the kind of boats you’re going to use. This is especially the case if you happen to have the almost obsessively secretive Kiwis once again in charge of the game.Ever since Emirates ...read more
After a decade and a half away from America’s Cup competition, the New York Yacht Club , represented by Bella Mente Quantum Racing Association, is getting back into the game for the 36th Cup, to be held in New Zealand in early 2021.The New York Yacht Club held the “Auld Mug,” as ...read more
What to make of the 35th America’s Cup? After all the hype, it was darn close to a sweep. Not only that, but the fact we were witnessing a rout in the making seemed pretty obvious after just the first couple of races.If the wind had ever figured out a way to climb out of the low ...read more
If the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco represented a cataclysmic moment for a new form of sailing, the 35th Cup not only took “foiling” to a ridiculously refined level of performance, it created an entirely new archetype of professional sailor: high-performance Olympians like ...read more
Despite the late arrival of a decent sailing breeze on the first official day of racing, organizers, fans and the sailors themselves had nothing but good things to say about the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series Chicago regatta, which took place this past June.Indeed, the ...read more
It’s long been said that the fastest boat is the one that wins the America’s Cup, and the 35th regatta for the Auld Mug was no exception. From the outset two weekends ago when Emirates Team New Zealand handily won four straight races in the first-to-seven series, it was evident ...read more
For a brief shining moment on Saturday, Cup fans had a glimpse of a hard-fought close battle for the America’s Cup, when the Defender Oracle Team USA finally managed to pull out a win. But then came Sunday.At the close of the first two days of America’s Cup racing the previous ...read more
I’ll admit it, I was a skeptic, or at best ambivalent, about the whole America’s Cup thing. Then last Thursday Jimmy Spithill flew the Oracle boat at full foiling speed 10ft off our beam in 15 knots of breeze in Great Sound Bermuda. All we heard was the whoosh of foils boiling ...read more
Following the first two days of racing in the America’s Cup finals—the actual “America’s Cup,” as it were—Oracle Team USA skipper Jimmy Spithill all but admitted that challenger-of-record, Emirates Team New Zealand, has his number saying, “The next five days are the most ...read more
On a light-wind day that saw Race 1 thrown out when neither team made it to the finish within the 25-minute time limit, Emirates Team New Zealand fulfilled pre-regatta expectations by becoming the official challenger for the America’s Cup.The 5 – 2 win over Sweden’s Artemis ...read more
For a brief moment on Sunday, Artemis had it tied up 2 – 2 with Emirates Team New Zealand on the second day of the America’s Cup challenger playoffs finals after the team took the first race of the day. By the end of racing, though, ETNZ had jumped ahead to a commanding 4 – 1 ...read more
The America’s Cup village looked forlorn on Wednesday, Day 3 of the challenger semi-finals. The 30-knot gusts that had forced racing to be canceled had the few visitors—most of them from the massive cruise ship docked alongside—chasing their hats across the asphalt and blew the ...read more
That’s why they make ‘em run the races. Up until the middle of yesterday afternoon, Emirates Team New Zealand looked unstoppable after beating Land Rover BAR in the first race of the day to go up 3 to 0. Then, just moments after the start of Race 2, Kiwi helmsman Peter Burling ...read more
Bermuda’s 75-degree water makes sailing foiling catamarans pretty fantastic. Let’s be frank, San Francisco is a cold place to sail. And the fact that you’re on a boat being hosed with spray and 50 knots of apparent wind as normal operating conditions doesn’t make things any ...read more
The 35th America’s Cup, set to take place on Bermuda’s Great Sound, officially kicks off May 26 with the start of the Louis Vuitton Qualifiers, comprised of a pair of elimination rounds that conclude June 12. The winner then takes on the Defender, Oracle Team USA, in a best of 13 ...read more
Over the weekend the 35th America’s Cup marked a pair of major milestones, with the French being eliminated and the Defender bowing out until the finals two weeks from now after winning the first qualifying round.The high point of the weekend was Saturday’s first race between ...read more
¬© ACEA 2017 / Photo Gilles Martin-RagetWell, somehow they did it: America’s Cup Race Management managed to pull off all four scheduled races on Thursday, despite light winds that rarely climbed much above the 6-knot minimum as stipulated by race rules. It wasn’t pretty, hardly ...read more
