2007 32nd America's Cup

The 32nd America's Cup will be held in Valencia, Spain. This is a very big event and therefore i will give the link to the official America's Cup website. The link i provide shows the breakdown of how everythng is scheduled to occur. The 'Programme' as they call it..http://www.americascup.com/en/americascup/program/index.php

Rossa vs Oracle

I was watching the second race of the Semifinal of the Louis Vitton Americas Cup this evening. That race was really heated between the Rossa and the Oracle. I still cannot beleive that Larry Ellison, the captain and the crew were able to come back and beat the Rossa of Itally, beautiful. Anyone watched this leg of the regatta?
Your thoughts?

Upsets On Valencian Waters

Some upsets in the third semifinal today 05/16/07. The Espanol beating the NZ team and the Luna Rossa beating the BMW Oracle. The Fly Emirates team of NZ were put in a penalty after nearly crashing into the Espanol while trying to execute a jive i think it was. So the standings are 2-1 on both sets of teams with the Italians taking the advantage over the Americans and host team the Spanish over the Kiwis.

Thanks for the correction Kevin, i'm now getting in the whole Americas cup thing for about the last year or two. So I'm still learning the terms but it is definitely exciting to watch, wish I could be there out on the water in Valencia and see it first hand. Those boats catch some speed when the wind is right.

LOL, well I watch it on a channel called Versus. I dunno if you know that channel. It is pretty nice with sports and stuff. Well the AC is on break untill Friday so I will have to find other stuff to do.

Obtaining the rights is the hard part, so how comes they can't do the easy part and show you some of the action? That just does not seem right. If i was up in Canada and on vacation I would be pretty furious if i could not see some of the AC. LOL, and to think i am now only getting into it.

RS!!!!!
BMW Oracle all the way!!!

Trim or Grim for the Oracle

Yet again the BMWO was beaten today 05/18/07, the fourth day of the Semis on the Med waters of Valencia. With the score at 3 wins for the LR and 1 to the BMWO, Mr. Dickson surely has alot of work to do or face potential grim. We all knows what that possibility could be. Is it a matter of poor starts, wrong tactics, or the plain boat speed? Well in the final mile, the LR had nearly 160m on the BMWO which is a pretty huge lead and despite constant Gybes manuevers by Captain Dickson they crossed the finishline 23 seconds behind the LR.

On the other hand, the other race on the course between Fly Emirates New Zealand and the Desafio Espanol ended victorious for the Kiwis, finishing some 40+ seconds on front the Spanish. Constant switching of the Spanish spinnaker from port to starboard could not stop the Kiwis from winning comprehensively. Tommorow starts the 5th race of the Semifinals. It is now a MUST WIN situation for the BMWO, even though they are going to 9, the first to 5 will have the distinct advantage of going into the LV final. So BMWO fans, keep your spinnakers out of the water and hope for the best!

Hey thanks man, the encouragement was appreciated.

Did Dickson Eat His Words?

In the interview prior to the 5th race of the Semifinals, Dickson said to the effect that he was going to win but the opposite occured. In the prerace, BMWO vered outside the port start marker gaining a penalty. Having to rush to return inside the channel before the timer hit 0:00 only to be pinned in by the LR. However, all hell broke loose when the Oracle is severely penaltied again for colliding into the LR. The Oracle was desperately trying to clear space for the perfect start but with Dickson's stern colliding with the midship/aft of the LR caused the flag to be raised.

You could not want a worse start than that. After leaving the start, the Oracle was switching sheets from port to starboard to gain boat speed to gain some ground because with the penalty they needed time to play with. Up to the first winward mark the delta was 25 seconds. Halfway in the downwind sail, the Oracle was 170+ M behind the LR, definitely not good.

At mark 2, the LR took the right gate having 53 seconds on the BMWO. Upwind now and the situation got no better with an iminent 4-1 deficit staring the BMWO team in the face. Taking the final marker and into the final leg the BMWO found themselves up to 260M behind the LR who was comfortably sailing at over 10 knots. Finally the inevitable happned and the LR crossed the finish line 1' 57''seconds ahead of the US 98 boat. Adding insult to injury, the US98 had to complete the penalty turn.

In the other semifinal on the course, the prestart was far less dramatic but tactics rulled. Desafio Espanol had a slight advantage entering the start 2 seconds after the horn blew. However D E lost the lead and started to trail by sine 50M. The DE was then 35 seconds behind the ETNZ at the first winward marker.

At mark 2, the Kiwis went further ahead on Delta with 55 seconds in advantage. ETNZ took the right gate, dropping their spinnaker flawlessly while the D E 55 seconds behind, got their big kite into the water.

At mark 3 it was all over for the Desafio Espanol has the Kiwis aboard the Fly Emirates New Zealand 92 boat sailed through the final and secured a 4-1 margin in this 5th day of the semi finals.

Do Or Die

LR94 VS BMWO98
Today was this kind of situation for both the Spanish as well as the Americans, a do or die situation. Today was the 6th day of the Louis Vitton Semi finals and the results were astonishing. However, long delays due to lack of appropriate winds halted the start to today's races but sure enough they did get under way.

Major changes came for the BMWO. Chris Dickson stepped down and stayed off the boat and made way for Gavin Brady to be Captain and Steven Mohr as helmsman. Mr. Ellison was onboard today as well.

The prestart did not go too badly for the BMWO despite leaving the start 3 seconds behind the LR. The LR took the left gate and the BMWO the right. The right hand side of the course was not as favourable as thought for BMWO and this found them dragging behind, they then tacked for left for better breeze. LR then got some 80M on the BMWO then increased that to over 140M before heading into mark 1.

Mark 1: The Luna Rossa cleanly went around the first marker with 32 seconds at Delta. The lead continued for the Italian number 94 boat untill they were soon barrelling down for the second mark.

Mark 2: The Italians continued their fine form with a clean kite drop and maintained the 32 second delta on the American boat BMWO. By this time the Americans were surely thinking that they lost it. By mark 3 the situation remained the same, that is, trailing by a tremendous margin.

After mark 3, and into the mid to final stages of the final leg the Oracle were up to 180M behind, an almost impossible feat to achieve to get themselves back into the race.

Well done, fried and steamed, the BMWO were cooked alive in the wake of the Italians. The Luna Rosa finished sine 33 seconds ahead of the defeated BMWO. This leaves the score at 5-1 and the end of the LV run for the Americans.

ETNZ92 VS DE97
In the other race on the water, the Spanish had to win inorder to race at least one more day in the LV semis. Clever tactics in the pre race saw the Desafio Espanol leaving the start some 2.5 seconds and ahead. With favourable winds, the lead shifted between boats untill mark 1 was in sight.

At mark 1 the Spanish were 12 seconds ahead, some 77M going at over 10knots. Mark 2 quickly came afterwards and the Spanish lead increased by 1 second.

Mark 2: 13 seconds ahead for the Spanish on delta. Desafio Espanol got off to a bit of a slow start after the 2nd mark but split to the right and maintained a 30 to 40 M lead then they tack to port to head for the Windward mark.

Mark 3: 8 seconds on delta for the DE97 as they gybed flawlessly on the final leg. On the other hand, while trying to execute the manuever, the ETNZ ran into slight trouble with their spinnaker knotting up. As a result, they lost ground in the process. Now some 70M behind in the final stages of the last leg. They tried a last ditch effort by trying to give the DE some dirty air to slow them down but the Spanish won in the end in a upset you might say, some 15 seconds ahead.

It looks as though as the 7th day of the semifinals has been cancelled due to too much wind and choppy sea state. It should happen tommorow if anything.