How To Watch America's Cup - News for Spectators
San Francisco America's Cup plan calls for transit boost
The so-called People Plan for the America's Cup calls for keeping as many cars as possible out of the city and, especially, away from the waterfront where most of the race activity will be situated. Read more »
James Spithill talks Made for TV sailing
Australia’s James Spithill, the winning helmsman from the 2010 America’s Cup in Valencia and now senior helmsman for the Oracle program, has been back ‘down under’ for the southern hemisphere summer.
Spithill headed to Perth 2011 to help coach his sister Katie’s Women’s Match Racing team and now he is at the John Cootes Furniture A Class Catamaran Australian Championships with three of his America’s Cup Oracle Team and a bunch of Aussie sailing mates. Read more »
Best places to watch America’s Cup becoming clear
We may not know how the legal wrangling surrounding the America’s Cup will end, but at least we know where to find a good seat for the race.
Organizers revealed a number of different course designs this past week – and things could still change pending review by the city, the National Park Service and the all-powerful TV folks, too – but the basic idea of how the races will be run is taking shape.
The 72-foot boats will start near the Golden Gate Bridge, crossing the start line somewhere near Crissy Field or the Marina Green and hugging the coastline for optimal public viewing. Read more »
LiveLine technology to keep tabs on America's Cup
In football, the yellow stripe that marks a first down on television isn't an official part of the game. And in baseball, it's the home plate umpire's judgment that matters, not the K-Zone box you see on TV.
But an advanced relative of those virtual-line technologies has become an official part of the America's Cup racing series that will culminate in San Francisco Bay in 2013.
Race umpires will use a system called LiveLine, an "augmented reality" technology that will not only show TV and Internet viewers real-time race information but also will be used by race umpires to enforce the rules of the sport.
The umps will employ LiveLine to settle protests between boats at key turns, which are always hotly contested in these competitive, world-class races.
"The objective is to make the stuff that's important to the event and happens a lot - but is hard to see - easy to see," said Stan Honey, the Palo Alto resident who is technology director for the America's Cup Event Authority, which is running the series of races up to and including America's Cup 34 in September 2013. Read more »
Park Service objects to some proposed uses of Alcatraz during America’s Cup sailing races
SAN FRANCISCO — The latest battle for control of Alcatraz Island is under way.
Many have laid claim to the wind-swept rock in the middle of the San Francisco Bay since the last prisoner left the federal land in 1963. American Indians occupied the island for 19 months ending in 1972. And politicians have floated the idea of building a casino or even a new San Francisco 49ers football stadium on Alcatraz.
Today, the National Park Service and organizers of the America’s Cup are tussling over Alcatraz’s role in the Super Bowl of yacht racing. The island will offer some of the best views of the most prestigious competition when multi-million dollar boats take to the San Francisco Bay in 2012 and 2013. Alcatraz sits almost directly in the middle of the proposed race course and offers 360-degree views of the bay.
But the island already receives 1.4 million visitors a year and is at capacity during the summer tourist season. Therein lies one of the main sources of tension over how to balance competing priorities that arose when San Francisco was selected to host the 34th America’s Cup contest. Read more »
