America’s Cup

Anyone who follows the America’s Cup likely has a headache the size of Texas and more than a few empty bottles of Aspirin kicking around the floor. And given the legal shenanigans involved, who wouldn’t? The good news is that it finally looks as though the Cup is on track to be raced in February at a venue that both parties can agree upon.Astute Cup fans will baulk at this last sentence,

On November 8, BMW/Oracle released what could be the worst-kept secret of the 33rd America’s Cup, but also the coolest single development in months: a hard wing sail for their massive trimaran, which is slated to race against Alinghi in a Deed of Gift (DoG) challenge this coming February. But unlike the somewhat modest looking wing used on Dennis Conner’s Stars and Stripes 1988

For months, the sailing world has had a field day(s) with images of a Middle Eastern America’s Cup, as the defender, Ernesto Bertarelli’s charade YC, the Societe Nautique de Geneve (SNG), had hoped to hold the 33rd AC in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) nation of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK). Reportedly, the tiny nation, “conveniently” located precariously close to Iran, has spent hundreds

New York, Newport, Perth, San Diego, Auckland, Valencia, and…Ras al-Khaimah. What do these places have in common? Each has hosted or will host the America’s Cup, the old-running trophy in sports. You’ll quickly notice that one of these names is not like the others. Sailing in the Middle East is a fledgling sport, to put it kindly, but thanks to the battle of the egos otherwise known as the 33rd

On July 20, some 16 days after unveiling their beast of a defender for the upcoming Deed of Gift (DoG) that will be the next America’s Cup (February 2010), Alinghi today test-sailed their Alinghi 5 for the first time. While quantifiable results are not available yet (or rarely, if ever, on a project like this), the bottom line is that the boat, with its complicated

On July 8 Alinghi 5 arrived on on Lake Geneva via the world’s most powerful helicopter, the Russian-built Mil Mi-26, which airlifted the massive cat from its build hanger in Villeneuve, Switzerland to the fabled Swiss lake. The catamaran was unveiled earlier in the month, on July 4th, and will be transported, again by helicopter, to the Med later this month. On

When a final-arbiter court in April ruled 6-0 against Alinghi’s artificially inseminated Spanish challenger, the mantle of Challenger of Record for the next America’s Cup match passed to Larry Ellison’s American team, BMW Oracle Racing/Golden Gate Yacht Club. Thus passed two years of wrangling and climbing through the highest courts of New York, where the America’s Cup Deed of Gift was

I see that various pundits are ruminating upon a course of sagacity, wisdom and compromise for our America’s Cup antagonists, Misters Bertarelli and Ellison, urging them to come to terms and launch what both profess to be the goal, a match to match 2007.Well and good. I’ll believe it when I see it.All Bertarelli had to do, at the end of the 32nd match for the America’s

The Court of Appeals, New York state’s highest court, has found that the Spanish yacht club, Club Nautico Espanol de Vela, cannot be the challenger of record for the next America’s Cup match even though it had been given that distinction by Ernesto Bertarelli’s team who sailed for the Societe Nautique de Geneve yacht club of Switzerland, after it had won the last America’s Cup match held off

Is the America’s Cup saved? No. Sadly, the battle of the ego-heavy billionaires continues, with neither side showing any signs of backing down, even though the Socit Nautique de Genve/Alinghi has won an important victory by having Desafo Espaol, Club Nutico Espaol de Vela reinstated as the official challenger of record (BMX/Oracle of course claims that Desafo Espaol, Club Nutico Espaol