America’s Cup

Define slow news day:”Paul Cayard walking around the media center with a EuroSport microphone interviewing journalists.”Define buzz:”Media Center staff walking through at noon with the surprise words, ‘We’re racing. We’re racing’.”Define letdown:”When three minutes later you see this screen.”So much for Wednesday. This time it was about too much seaway

The first race of the 33rd America’s Cup Match has been postponed yet again, this time until Friday. Today’s attempt to commence the best-of-three Deed of Gift Match between Defender Alinghi and Challenger BMW Oracle Racing was postponed due to rough sea conditions on the Mediterranean outside Valencia.“The waves were the biggest problem. I think they were about 1.3m average size in the

Racing has been abandoned yet again, this time due to the strength of the wind. We’ll have a further update from Kimball Livingston soon, but until then be sure to check out our CupWatch page’s streaming coverage, straight from

Watch all the latest race day events brought to you straight from Valencia

My second Valencia assignment for SAIL Magazine is as different from the first as I expected. Winter versus summer. Compressed versus extended. Fractious rather than (much of the time) upbeat. Already, with just one race day lost, there are conversations around me about who will have to leave, and when, before a best-of-three match ends.Camp

You’ve probably heard that we have here at the America’s Cup the two fastest, most technologically advanced large yachts ever built. And you’ve probably heard that it takes but a breath of wind to drive them at speeds most people have never experienced under sail. Sadly, there was no such breath of wind on the Med today, or none sufficient for building a racecourse. We are left remembering why

Both boats left the dock early on Sunday. At dawn.I said a few columns back that I knew the race was on when I saw a TV schedule. There would be no moving the date now, and here we are counting down by hours instead of days and suddenly the room is jumping and there are TV people walking around the media center sticking microphones into reporters’ faces—if you can’t talk to a sailor, cover

I have a theory, soon to be tested, that the 33rd defense of America’s Cup launched and lived as an exercise in wishful thinking.That you could farm-raise a pet challenger. (Sorry, CNEV)That Larry Ellison’s hostile alternative challenge would blow away. (Not yet)That you could turn down a compromise offer and no one would remember. (October 2007)That you wouldn’t have

Will Alinghi’s catamaran, A5, or BMW/Oracle’s trimaran, BOR 90, be the faster boat in the 33rd America’s Cup Deed of Gift match? There are strong opinions on both sides.Despite the secrecy that is part of every America’s Cup, we used data collected on both boats by SAIL and then applied it to the Wolfson Unit’s velocity prediction programs (VPP), in particular the

Ah, Valencia, city of Calatrava.City of Festivals.Birthplace of paella.Home to America’s Cup 33.The announced plans for Saturday included an Owner’s Press Conference conference with the two major players in the same room—Ernesto Bertarelli the Defender and Larry Ellison the Challenger—which sounded like a photo op for a wide lens. Better make that a