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February 15, 2010 at 12:23 PM
· Tagged with ac34, america's-cup
After BMW Oracle Racing’s victory in the 33th America’s Cup, we are already looking forward to the 34th America’s Cup. Three years ago, quite a few teams expressed their interest in participating in the Cup, but it needs to be seen how much of those teams can find the funds needed to mount a multi-year campaign.
It’s now up to BWM Oracle Racing and Mascalzone Latino - Audi team to agree on the location, date and format of the next America’s Cup. One thing I would like to assure everyone about the 34th America’s Cup is that there will be a completely independent jury and completely independent umpires,” said Larry Ellison. “It will be an independent company that manages the next America’s Cup and it will be a level playing field for all competitors.”
Newport, Rhode Island is named as possible venue of the 34th America’s Cup. Newport was the home of the Amercia’s Cup for all matches between 1930 and 1983, when the Cup left the USA for the first time since it’s inception and moved to Freemantle.
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February 12, 2010 at 05:05 PM
· Tagged with alinghi, america's-cup, bwmoracle
After months and years of legal battle and 2 postponed races on monday and wednesday, the 33th America’s Cup finally started today on 14:35. The breeze was rather light (5 to 8 knots), but the boats had no problem racing at 20 to 25 knots around the 20 mile race course in front of Valencia.
It was a very interesting race where both boats showed that they truly are the best multihuls ever built. Lots of people seriously doubted if a deed of gift match (the first in over 20 years) would be an interesting match race or if one of the boats would be really superior to the other one, as was the case in 1988. Twenty years ago Dennis Conner’s giant catamaran “Stars and Stripes” then won 2-0 with a delta of more than 18 minutes on both matches.
The Swiss Alinghi team took the lead at the start after BMW Oracle missed theirs, but lost terrain quickly. BMW Oracle’s wing proved very powerful both up- and downwind and contributed to their win. In the end they had more than 3500 meter lead over the Swiss Alinghi team. The next race is scheduled for sunday, February 14th 2010.
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February 08, 2010 at 04:27 PM
· Tagged with america's-cup
Today was the first day of the real battle of the 33th America’s Cup, one of the biggest and most anticipated sailing events ever. I am not going to write about the legal battles that preceded this day, not writing about the use of engines or wings, about the strange fact that we have a “winter” race in the northern hemisphere. I hope I don’t have to write about the final decision that the court of New York still has to make about the use of 3DL technology by the swiss team…
Because of all the legal battles, we have a strange America’s Cup ahead of us. One without strict rules. In fact, the only rule concerning the yachts is that the length-over-water should not exceed 90 feet. Both teams chose a multihull with a huge mast, but the comparison stops there. Alinghi chose a catamaran with “traditional” (although high-tech) sails, while team Oracle went for the extreme: their trimaran is powered by a huge rigid wing.
The first of thee matches had to take place today, but was postponed to Wednesday Feb 10th, due to a lack of stable wind.
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February 04, 2010 at 02:49 PM
· Tagged with fire, tiketitan, wally
The magnificent and iconic Wally 88 Tiketitan was destroyed by a fire in a shipyard in Palma de Mallorca yesterday. Tiketitan (called Il Sovereign these days) was designed ten years ago by German Frers and built by Green Marine. She is one of the original fast and easily-handled Wally superyachts, and the first Wally with a canting keel.
It’s said to see a beautiful boat end like this, but at least she went like she came: spectacular.
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