Auction for a great cause ends today

By the numbers for New Zealand

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Great article
Russell Coutts on cutting costs, losing the lawyers and the future of the America’s Cup

"It’s, in many ways, an archaic process that the America’s Cup has been putting itself through over many, many years. I think we’ve got to move towards a mechanism other sports use where they, for example, have a commissioner that has the commercial interests of the sport in line, as well as the competitive interests of the teams and can balance that."

"We can’t take a step backwards. The racing was so spectacular that we’ve got to keep the same concept. If you look at the America’s Cup brand, that is where the brand needs to be in the future"

More on Oracle's Java Technology

Stephen Barclay: And the Winner is… San Francisco!

The last line in that story makes it seem as if Barclay is throwing the gauntlet down to SF.

Step one for picking any sailing venue is, find some WIND!

SFO Bay is one of the few places on the planet where you can just about guarantee great wind every day. They only had what, one day of light air in about three months of racing there?

That plus the great waterfront viewing venue was a huge plus. If it were up to me, they would always race the AC there, no matter who was the Cup Holder. I just wish we had such a windy place on the east coast, especially in Florida!

I just suffered through a two day drifter up at Lake Eustis, and last Tradewinds we never even got out on the wire, in three days of 'racing' (drifting). Thank God the beer was cold and the people were great to party with! That's what makes all the drifting worth the trip.

While no one wants to drift (especially on fast boats), a key part of sailing (and determining a champion) is the ability to sail well in all conditions.

In the US, we seem to have lots of venues that give us low and medium air, but not enough that can consistently deliver heavy air.

Mike

what about locations in the tradewind belts?

Seems like every time I've been into San Juan, it's been blowing pretty well. Not, 20+, but 10-15, which is perfect. The 20+ they were getting daily in SFO for the AC was great too! If the wind limit was 25 instead of 23, I think Team NZ would have won it all, early on, before Oracle figured out how to go upwind. And if the time limit was 50 minutes instead of 45, they would have won it all in that drifter too.

Coulda woulda shoulda...

fact is that they sailed fairly under a set of rules that they agreed to.

Sick of hearing this ****.

Dude, chill.

I wasn't saying TNZ should have won it. I'm happy with the results in that the next AC will (most likely) also be held in the same location, SFO BAY.

I was talking about finding a good site, with consistently good wind. I remember watching the boring, slow, 12 meters racing in Newport, and the drifter in San Diego too, in 1988, but the way DC's 60 foot cat walked away from Fay's huge (90'?) light monohull, turned me into a cat fan.

OTUSA got lucky!

"OTUSA got lucky!"

And better

psst.. ding's stirring the pot again

Must be nice to have that kind of free time. Wait, we resemble that remark...

This interview covers it all: Ballastgate, SAS, what changes Oracle actually made to improve upwind, Jk to Ben, location, boats.

Oracle Grant Simmer shares his insight (2 pages)

SF's Chances Of Hosting AC 35?

Would be great to see it back there on cats in that sort of wind, depends on how much they pissed off the bloke with the money

Look for an "innerview" with Spot hill on sailing anarchy today sometime. Clean posted a clip to preview and it looks like he's more open with his answers than any previous interview.