Emirates Team New Zealand en route to the starting box
The rules of the America's Cup (www.americascup.com) dictate that the winner of the competition chooses the type of boat used the next time it is held. When Oracle Team USA won in 2010, they designed the extraordinary AC72, a wing-sailed catamaran capable of reaching speeds of more than 40 knots, some 50mph, and a long way from the elegant schooners that originally challenged for the Cup. The sail is no longer a sail, but a stiff wing towering 130ft above the 72ft hull, and the whole is capable of 'foiling', literally flying above the water. The boats only keep contact with the sea via the rudders and foils, narrow keels that can be lowered in a similar fashion to their distant cousin, the centreboard familiar to dinghy sailors. The 11-man crew, clad in shiny helmets and futuristic suits, dash across the mesh connecting the two hulls, winching and trimming for all they're worth. It must be unbelievably exhilarating to dash downwind from the Golden Gate Bridge, flashing past smaller yachts, with support motorboats going flat out to keep up. My experience of sailing comes principally from Swallows and Amazons books and meandering about the Camel Estuary in Cornwall in a Mirror dinghy, yet I can still remember the excitement I felt on a rare trip aboard a Hobie Cat from Rock sailing club, the closest most hobby sailors will come to experiencing one of these formidable catamarans. The America's Cup is as far from a relaxing cruise as a Formula 1 is from pootling about the lanes in a vintage Morgan, but that is the point. This is the pinnacle of sailing, the fastest men have ever been without the assistance of an engine, and it is thrilling to watch.
Emirates Team New Zealand flying above the waves
Luna Rossa Challenge gets up on its foils
The old meets the new: the replica of America, the original
America's Cup boat, sails inland past the new AC72s
However, such technical brilliance has a major drawback - it comes at a very expensive price. From the original 12 challengers to Oracle's crown, only three remain. Emirates Team New Zealand, Luna Rossa Challenge of Italy and Sweden's Artemis Racing are, in theory, currently racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup, the competition to choose who will race against the US boat in the America's Cup in September, but even that small group is in turmoil. Tragedy struck in May, when the Artemis boat capsized and broke up, killing British sailor and Olympic medallist Andrew 'Bart' Simpson. The death of this enormously popular and respected man has cast a pall over the whole competition, and the subsequent debates on safety and rule changes are still causing delays two months after the accident. It is too complicated to go into in detail, but suffice to say that Luna Rossa's protests over the rule changes meant that they refused to sail until the adjudicators had ruled. Coupled to the fact that Artemis is still rebuilding their boat after the May disaster, the result was that the first three 'races' saw only one team on the course. Emirates gamely sailed round the course alone on the first two days, and Luna Rossa deigned to sail on the third day after their challenge was upheld, unopposed by Artemis (who may now object to the new rules not being enforced). Confused yet? All this followed an opening-day 'parade' that was reduced to a San Francisco fire boat, the replica of the original Cup boat America, one or two other previous Cup challengers and a bunch of motorized support boats because it was too windy for the AC72s to join in. It is almost as if humans can't keep up with the machines they have designed. Unfortunately, the best way of describing the whole America's Cup circus so far is 'damp squib'.
The San Francisco fire boat leads the 'parade' past Alcatraz
America, followed by another previous America's Cup competitor
The rest of the parade - motorized support boats
Until, that is, Saturday, July 13th. The sun shone, the winds kept below the requisite 20 knot limit (just), and two boats lined up at the start. Sadly for those of us wanting to see the spectacle of these boats jostling for a turn at high speed, however, the race itself was somewhat onesided, with the Emirates boat tearing off ahead and finishing an enormous 5 minutes 23 seconds before the Luna Rossa crew. Technically, apparently, that means the Italian team didn't even finish, because they were too far behind. The rules of this competition would give a NASA physicist a headache.
After boxing Luna Rossa in at the start, Emirates swoops away
Support boats race to keep up with the AC72s
Whizzing past Alcatraz, with a significant gap opening up on the first leg
But to concentrate on the positives - this truly is the most wonderful setting imaginable for a sailing race. From my position on the breakwater near the Golden Gate Yacht Club, I could see almost the whole course, with the Golden Gate Bridge to my left and Alcatraz to my right. Only the finish line itself is hidden from view, and the competitors swoop by only a couple of hundred yards away. There are two official America's Cup venues, a 'village' at the Marina and a 'park' at Piers 27/29, with shops (shot glass for $10, anyone?), big screens and entertainment, but the views afforded all along the San Francisco waterfront beat them hollow. There was a fairly decent crowd, not quite the 'hordes' that an over-zealous policeman thought would sweep us into the sea if we persisted in sitting comfortably on the rocks ('elf-n-safety' strikes again), but at least enough to look as if some people were interested. It was a gloriously sunny day, breezy but not cold, and San Francisco looked like the world-class backdrop it is.
Not a bad spot to watch the racing from
Luna Rossa races towards us before jibing away towards the Golden Gate
Luna Rossa beginning the last leg, back towards the finish from the Golden Gate
The great danger of all the shenanigans is that the audiences will fall away and the city will suffer financially. Its waterfront was once one of the busiest in the world, but it has suffered with the lessening of sea traffic and endured an ignoble period when it was blocked off from the city by an elevated freeway that was thankfully demolished after the 1989 earthquake. Since then, various projects have tried to revive the area, but the stretch between the Giants' AT&T baseball stadium south of the Bay Bridge and the tourist trap of Fisherman's Wharf is still blighted by empty warehouses and building sites. In the spring, the magnificent new Exploratorium (www.exploratorium.edu) opened at Pier 15/17, and it is to be hoped that similarly successful ventures will follow, but an ignominious international sailing competition could damage the chances of the hoped-for redevelopment. There are rumours of sponsorship being withdrawn and the city has already been publicly embarrassed by the lack of water-based spectacle.
I watched the race with two charming New Zealanders, who had delayed their departure in order to see their team take on someone, anyone, after watching three walkovers since their arrival on Monday. They were lucky to see an actual race, but there must be many more visitors angry at the poor show so far. The America's Cup website does a good job of trumpeting the speeds and the slickness of the crews in its continual news reports, but the fact is that, however fast it is, one boat does not a race make. Everyone in the city has their fingers crossed that the America's Cup can shrug off this early turmoil and concentrate on the action on the water, because if we do get to see these enormous machines flying close together towards a turning buoy at 40-plus knots and generating excitement among audiences around the world, it may actually have been worth it.
I watched the race with two charming New Zealanders, who had delayed their departure in order to see their team take on someone, anyone, after watching three walkovers since their arrival on Monday. They were lucky to see an actual race, but there must be many more visitors angry at the poor show so far. The America's Cup website does a good job of trumpeting the speeds and the slickness of the crews in its continual news reports, but the fact is that, however fast it is, one boat does not a race make. Everyone in the city has their fingers crossed that the America's Cup can shrug off this early turmoil and concentrate on the action on the water, because if we do get to see these enormous machines flying close together towards a turning buoy at 40-plus knots and generating excitement among audiences around the world, it may actually have been worth it.
Emirates flying eastwards, with Luna Rossa still on the previous tack
The two boats practising after the race. Hopefully, we'll get to see the boats
actually racing as close as this at some point this summer!
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