America’s Cup

Hulls for Oracle Racing’s two AC72s, the second of which will launch next February, are being built in San Francisco. Wings for both are coming out of Core Builders Composites in New Zealand, where the team plans to move its first AC72 for winter training. T

Oracle’s Jimmy Spithill has won both the fleet portion of the racing at the Newport America’s Cup World Series regatta and the overall title for the 2011-12 America’s Cup World Series. But teammate and Oracle CEO Russell Coutts denied him all the glory by winning the match racing portion of the Newport regatta.

Our Crew for a Day contest is over, but the fun is about to start! Meet our Guest Racer, and follow him through stories, video and photos throughout his experience racing in Newport, Rhode Island, on an AC45.

Oracle Team USA practiced on AC45s last week, screaming through the water-and the air–on hydrofoils. The training session in San Francisco gave team members practice on the L-shaped dagger boards.

We’re pleased to announce that the winner of our America’s Cup Crew for a Day contest is Rob Rich from Round Rock, Texas! Crew for a Day accepted entries through Facebook, posing the question: “What was your most memorable sailing experience?”

When the advance guard of America’s Cup 34 descends on Newport, Rhode Island, this month for the AC World Series regatta, you can forget the game that left town in 1983. In those days it was controversial (honest!) that top people were paid (under the table) to sail ocean races, and that these same people would show up expecting to compete for the Cup.

With the 2012 America’s Cup World Series kicking off April 7 in Naples, Italy, and with construction of an America’s Cup village underway on San Francisco’s Embarcadero, why is it that America’s Cup 34 is still so controversial.

Artemis Racing sailed with the team’s first AC72 wing today, after an incredible amount of man power from the team. Artemis Racing set out to build a full size wing, and did just that, while other Challengers for the 34th America’s Cup, including the Defender, chose to train for the AC72 catamarans using smaller boats

What’s not new in the otherwise “all new” America’s Cup is backroom intrigue. Only a true Cup junkie would follow the jury rulings posted on the Cup’s official website, but a picture is emerging of a stark divide. On the one hand, we have the Emirates Team New Zealand/Luna Rossa partnership, in which the two campaigns plan to design and test their boats in tandem.

Somewhere out there, America’s Cup 2013 is being won right now. During the recess before AC45 World Series racing resumes in April in Naples, Italy, design and engineering teams are racing to complete the first generation of AC72 catamarans eligible to race in America’s Cup 34.