America's Cup

[Cynthia H]

Report from America's Cup, Newport

We arrived in Newport mid-afternoon yesterday, dropped our bags at Hotel Houston (Cynthia's brothers) and caught the water shuttle for America’s Cup Village at historical Fort Adams.  Reached the venue just as all boats were called in and mooring in preparation of opening ceremonies.  Absolutely amazing to be in person watching them powerfully take the water.

No racing Wednesday, but we were able to view the race course, closely examine a couple of the boats, and watch the teams and their support staff in the midst of boat maintenance.

One of the two South Korean AC-45s was hauled from the water for repair right in front of us, which provided quite a show in itself.  The vertical dockside crane lifted the whole boat straight out of the water!  It slowly transferred the boat onto a dolly on the quay, and just as smoothly dropped the mast and wing assembly next to the boat.  The crew worked like clockwork to position and secure the boat. 

A couple things caught our attention:

The race course is revolutionary!  It’s short and tight in the narrow entrance to Narragansett Bay , and brings the boats right in front of the spectators.  Course is only a little wider than the Potomac at RN6.  We’re much closer to the action than observers at Founders Park are to DISC races.   And there’s wind!  Probably 20 knots yesterday.  (As an aside we saw a Weta blasting through the water at breakneck speed!)

The boats are so the next generation.  Of course they’re not the graceful 12 meter or J boats of long ago.  But they also have little resemblance to the fragile light air machine that Ellison won the Cup with last time. Their simplicity is elegant, hulls almost bare.  Only a minimum of control lines.  Two tillers on right and left at stern.   Three winches and a couple of clutches each.  Three flap segments on the leech of the wing – not seven or eight like last Cup.  And they look rugged, like they are up for taking a beating. Everything but the wing is carbon fiber.  The US boats are black – very beautiful.  The carbon fiber is perfectly laid and the fabric pattern shows through.

The crews – or teams – look remarkably young...looking 20s with some crew a bit older.  Athletic looking, but no longer the big power lifter types, and they were engaged in a lot of hands-on work.  There’s no pit nor no huge coffee grinders any more.  Appears to be a dramatic over-representation of Down Unders; the foreign language on the South Korean boat was kiwi.   Everyone’s donned in crash helmuts.

2011-12 America’s Cup World Series Overall Standings (26 June)

    Team (Country) Match – Fleet — Total Points
1. ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL (USA) 38 – 46 — 84
2. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) 36 – 44 — 80
3. Artemis Racing (SWE) 43 – 28 — 71
4. Energy Team (FRA) 32 – 33 — 65
5. Team Korea (KOR) 30 – 26 — 56
6. ORACLE TEAM USA COUTTS (USA) 29 – 24 — 53
7. Luna Rossa Piranha 18 – 16 — 34
8. China Team (CHN) 13 – 15 — 28
9. Green Comm Racing (ESP) 11 – 12 — 23
10. Luna Rossa Swordfish 11 – 10 — 21
(After five of six scheduled events)

An amazing experience thus far; can’t wait for the actual racing we’ll see tomorrow!  Will send out another update and photos.

Bill Hallam/Cynthia Houston