America's Cup Boats In The News
Time running out for America's Cup challengers
The prospect of an America's Cup with just three challengers is growing stronger as the runway to build a monster multihull for the 2013 regatta gets shorter.
Only four teams have begun building the new 72-foot wing-sail catamarans that will duel for sport's oldest trophy in San Francisco in September next year. Emirates Team New Zealand is among those now building the new design, as is the Auld Mug defender, Oracle Racing. Read more »
America's Cup: Racing to the Future
There is no clause covering air rights in the rules of ocean racing, but they may have to rewrite the rule book.
If the America’s Cup has not yet seen one yacht deliberately fly a hull over another, that’s only because until recently America’s Cup racers were monohull yachts loaded down with lead ballast. That all changed when Larry Ellison and Swiss pharmaceuticals heir Ernesto Bertarelli fought out the last America’s Cup in giant multihulls off the coast of Valencia, Spain in February 2010. Ellison won that match, 2–0, and the Cup—the boats—will never be the same. Read more »
Wings, the Next Generation
Wanna have some fun? Set Paul Cayard loose on the subject of America's Cup 34, some re-imagined and surprising wing-control mechanisms, and the terrors of San Francisco Bay in full cry. The custom AC72 catamarans of 2013, he says, will be 30 percent more powerful but 'much less stable' than the AC45s that sailed three events this year on the America's Cup World Series circuit.
And occasionally failed to maintain verticality. Read more »
Sayonara - Ellison's 80' Maxi - Headed for Permanent Home on San Francisco's Pier 80
Having been holed up in Holland Michigan since the 2000 Chicago Mackinac Race, Sayonara, Larry Ellison’s 80’ Maxi is headed home. Her destination, Pier 80 in San Francisco which is currently HQ for Oracle Racing and ground zero for all things Americas Cup on SF Bay until the construction of the new piers on the City Front are complete. Sayonara was the launching pad for Larry Ellison into the yacht Racing World, his 1st foray into serious competition. In a conversation with his neighbor, one David Thomson back in 1994, the subject of sailing to Hawaii was brought up after listening to Thomson’s tales of the Transpacific Yacht Race, Larry was intrigued. David suggested building a Maxi, the largest legally allowed for the race, and without much debate Larry agreed, so long as it was designed to win. Read more »
The Reaching Start
When the AC45 wingsailed catamarans were unveiled as the weapon of choice for the America's Cup World Series, it was clear that the boat would be just one of many innovations in the racing.
From making the races much shorter, to bringing the courses alongside the shore to make for 'stadium sailing', to changing the course configuration, everything was on the table as a possible refinement, including how the races start. Read more »
