Americas Cup - what’s it all about?
Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: General
Forum Name: Banter
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URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4085
Printed Date: 17 Aug 25 at 9:31am
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Topic: Americas Cup - what’s it all about?
Posted By: ellistine
Subject: Americas Cup - what’s it all about?
Date Posted: 26 Mar 08 at 1:52pm
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Sailing is all very new to me at the moment. I've been doing a lot of browsing of various websites and forums in an effort to catch up a bit. There's obvisously a lot of controversy regarding the Americas cup at the moment. Has anybody got the time to explain what's been happening in terms that a newbie will understand?
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Replies:
Posted By: JimC
Date Posted: 26 Mar 08 at 2:12pm
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The Americas Cup (an event almost irrelevant to sailing) is competed for by very rich men who spend an extraordinary amount of money building boats and hiring sailors. The one who hires the best New Zealanders wins.
About every twenty years or so they relieve the bordeom by hiring lawyers as well as sailors. That's really about it... |
Posted By: Stefan Lloyd
Date Posted: 26 Mar 08 at 2:48pm
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If you think it's so irrelevant, how come you hang around the SA AC forum? However the remainder of your summary is pretty accurate.
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Posted By: Laser 173312
Date Posted: 26 Mar 08 at 4:02pm
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ellistine On a more positive note, the America's Cup is the oldest trophy in international sport. It was first won in 1851 by the yacht ‘America’ and cost 100 guineas. So the cup is named after the yacht that first won it, not the country that won it. The owners of ‘America’ laid down in a Deed of Gift (DoG as it is often shortened to) that the cup should become a challenge cup between yacht clubs. The first defenders were the New York Yacht Club where the owners were members and the DoG comes under New York judiciary. Any recognised club can challenge and the defending club must meet the challenge or forfeit the cup. Once a challenge has been accepted other challengers can join the party and they often have an elimination series amongst themselves to determine the final challenger. The current holders are the Geneva Yacht club and they sponsor Team Alinghi to sail for them. In 2007 Alinghi ran the 32nd cup in Valencia in response to a challenge from the Golden Gate YC in San Francisco (they sponsor BMW Oracle Racing to sail for them). Alinghi won that regatta (from Team New Zealand who won the challenger series) and then accepted a challenge from a club that they themselves had created. The crux of the matter is that this club is not a properly recognised club under the Deed of Gift. Oracle and the Golden Gate have taken Geneva/Alinghi to the New York court and deposed the sham club as the Challenger of Record. This gives Oracle more say in how the regatta is run and funded. It now seems the 33rd cup will be just Oracle v Alinghi and then we will have a more normal cup with lots of challengers for the 34th. As a side issue the current CEO of BMW Oracle is Russell Coutts who won the cup for Alinghi in 2003 and was then sacked by Enresto Bertarelli the owner of Alinghi. There is little love lost between the two. I’ve visited the last 2 cups in Auckland and Valencia and the atmosphere both times was fantastic. The boats are enormous and are set to get even bigger. Hope that helps Hugh
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Posted By: ellistine
Date Posted: 26 Mar 08 at 4:14pm
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Thanks Hugh, just what I was looking for and thanks also to JimC
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Posted By: Strangler
Date Posted: 02 Apr 08 at 1:44pm
Nice summary Hugh, but whats that box on the back of your Laser! ------------- |
Posted By: Laser 173312
Date Posted: 02 Apr 08 at 3:56pm
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That's a Bar-Be-Que, but it's not on my laser. It's on a motor catamaran based in Auckland called Cool Running. I was on it on 22nd Feb 2003, hence the TNZ t-shirt.
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Posted By: rogerd
Date Posted: 02 Apr 08 at 6:16pm
| As well as being the oldest sporting trophy sponsered by the hideously rich. The AC has produced some of the most beautiful yachts ever built. |
Posted By: alstorer
Date Posted: 02 Apr 08 at 8:31pm
| and some horrifically ugly ones- not a fan of what AC32 produced. |
Posted By: Contender 541
Date Posted: 02 Apr 08 at 9:49pm
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Amongst which were the J class - Has a yacht ever been more beautiful?
------------- When you find a big kettle of crazy it's probably best not to stir it - Pointy Haired Boss Crew on 505 8780 |
Posted By: alstorer
Date Posted: 02 Apr 08 at 10:59pm
NO. As far as looks go, they remain the pinnacle. |
Posted By: Laser 173312
Date Posted: 03 Apr 08 at 8:45am
Absolutely perfect IMHO |
Posted By: redback
Date Posted: 26 Aug 08 at 12:02am
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I'm horrified to find they are going to race multihulls. That's a completely different ball game and will not be as interesting as the last event. I thought the last boats were pefect for that sort of competition. No matter what the wind strength was they did 9 Knots and so produced close tactical racing. I hope they get back to them sometime. |
Posted By: Stefan Lloyd
Date Posted: 26 Aug 08 at 7:41am
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Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. It's still in the courts. Meanwhile, DogZilla has been launched. Hm.....was going to include a photo but it appears in "edit" but not when the post is saved. Strange. Anyway, loads of photos on http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=77512&st=0&start=0 - http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=77512&a mp;st=0&start=0 |