Cup Watch

Wings, the Next Generation

by Kimball Livingston, Posted November 30, 2011

“If you’re making 25 knots upwind and 40 knots downwind, tacking on someone and gassing them just isn’t happening,” Cayard says. “In seriously-overpowered boats, the match will be about who can actually get the boat around the course and figure out how to avoid that extra gybe that costs you maybe 20 seconds, maybe 250 meters.”

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

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

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

America's Cup Teams Announced

by Sarah Eberspacher, Posted June 17, 2011

The 34th America’s Cup teams appeared together for the first time in San Francisco this week during a press conference to announce the line-up of competitors. Already down from the 15 teams that filed to compete by the April 1 deadline, eight arrived in the 2013 host city, with a ninth to be announced in Europe next week.New to the America’s Cup is the Republic of Korea, and

Coutts Capsizes AC45 in San Francisco

by MacDuff Perkins, Posted June 14, 2011

Winds in the mid-20s and a small craft advisory didn’t stop Jimmy Spithill and Russell Coutts from heading out to test sail their AC45s in San Francisco Bay on Monday, June 13th. Owned by Oracle Racing, both boats were preparing to head to Cascals, Portugal later this summer for the America’s Cup World Series. But in a dramatic explosion of wind, wave, and carbon fiber, Coutts’ buried

Alinghi and Team Extreme in Major Collision

by MacDuff Perkins, Posted May 27, 2011

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

A Perfect 45?

by Kimball Livingston, Posted March 23, 2011

Adopting wing-sailed catamarans, inventing a new tour called the America’s Cup World Series, launching a 45-foot one-design class as a training fleet: none of this could ever have been free of controversy. The 45s went from concept—a trainer for AC sailors and race committee alike—to reality in five months, with the first “batch” of four promised for delivery to challenging teams by April 1.

Katusha, Cayard Take RC44 Opener

by Adam Cort, Posted March 7, 2011

The RC44 class kicked off its 2011 season in style, with thousands of shore-side spectators on hand to see the Russian flagged Katusha, with Paul Cayard calling tactics and amateur helmsman Bob Little behind the wheel, win the opening regatta in San Diego.Finishing second in the 11-boat fleet was Oracle Racing, with Russell Coutts calling tactics and owner-driver Larry

What's Up with the Cup?

by Kimball Livingston, Posted December 3, 2010

Would-be America's Cup teams around the world are eyeing City Hall, San Francisco as Cup-in-SF proponents prepare to make their case before the Budget and Finance Subcommittee of the city's Board of Supervisors. That hearing will take place on Wednesday. Negotiations have been going on for months, and it's crunch time.On the opposite side of the globe, meanwhile, fabricators are working