America’s Cup

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.

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.

Russell Coutts was over the moon. The first America’s Cup World Series had just wrapped up on San Francisco Bay, right where the 34th America’s Cup match will be contested in 2013.

On October 16, Oracle Team USA experienced something they surely hoped they never would–the capsize of their AC72 at 3pm during training in San Francisco Bay.

You’re not going to win America’s Cup 34 without sexy foils to keep the leeward bow floating, or flying, high. This is an area of development just as important as wings for the next generation of Cup-hopeful catamarans.

The AC72s are here! Well, sort of… Challenger of Record Artemis and Defender Oracle Team USA have now both splashed their respective 72-foot cats on San Francisco Bay.

Loïck Peyron is sitting on the windward hull, tiller in one hand, a cigarette of undetermined brand in the other. Though I can’t see what he’s looking at through his dark and closely raked sunglasses, it’s obvious he’s studying something very closely.

We’ve now wrapped up the 2011-12 America’s Cup World Series, and the AC45 fleet is headed into the 2012-13 series with the first regattas set to take place on San Francisco Bay. So what have we learned so far?

Emirates Team New Zealand unveiled and launched their AC72 on Saturday night in front of a crowd of more than 6,000 cold spectators (remember, its winter down there).