Category: america’s cup

AMERICA’S CUP IN VENICE

I cannot imagine a more spectacular setting for the kind of racing that is now the America’s Cup World Tour. Plymouth England must have been wonderful as from the Hoe one can look out with an unobstructed view. Fort Adams guarding the entrance to Narragansett Bay will provide a perfect stadium, but not much can compare to Venice.

I encourage you to click on the panorama which is a rather good view of the open water leading to the Grand Canal.

 

AMERICA’S CUP IN NEWPORT

There are days I am unsure of what to post and then there are days like today when I feel I must choose the most appropriate story. Mother’s day, but I gave it a story yesterday. Soldini’s attempt to set the transatlantic record is interesting, I am quite curious as to why they chose to set off now, knowing they would have to transit a ridge. College sailing semi finals took place in Annapolis.

The America’s Cup is now being advertised here and the AC web site now allows you to purchase tickets.

  • © GILLES MARTIN-RAGET / ACEA

AMERICA’S CUP RACING RETURNS TO NEWPORT

POSTED ON 11 MAY 2012

Inaugural America’s Cup World Series Champion to be determined
Tickets for Newport, R.I. event in June on sale now

America’s Cup racing returns to the United States next month when the AC World Series brings nine of the top sailing crews in the world to Newport, R.I. The American team, ORACLE TEAM USA, currently leads the AC World Series by one point and so the final stop on the 2011-12 AC World Series circuit will determine the overall winner of the first-ever season.

“The championship has been extremely close since the first event in Portugal last summer,” said Jimmy Spithill, skipper of ORACLE TEAM USA. “I won’t be surprised to see it come down to the final race, on the final day in Newport. And that’s the way it should be.”

Newport will host a festival of sailing from June 23 to July 1, culminating with the AC World Series running from Tuesday, June 26 through Sunday, July 1. The series will climax on the final Sunday, when both the event and season champion will be crowned. The final race day will air live, nationwide, on NBC.

The AC Village will be located at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, the shoreside hub of the event. Visitors will experience a unique view of the team bases – the ‘pit row’ – where the 45-foot catamarans with their 70-foot fixed wing-sails will be launched each day. The AC Village will offer a fantastic vantage point for spectators, with racing unfolding just yards offshore in the East Passage of Narragansett Bay.

Fans will enjoy a live race feed with commentary, as well as a Moët & Chandon champagne bar, Napa Valley Vintners wine lounge, multiple concessions featuring the best of the local Rhode Island food scene, the PUMA store, and the Teams Store. The Exploration Zone, with interactive exhibits from the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography and the America’s Cup Healthy Ocean Project partners, will give visitors an appreciation of the marine environment.

General admission tickets to the AC Village in Fort Adams State Park during race days (June 28 – July 1) are $10 per person per day, with children aged 12 and under free. No tickets are required from June 23 – 27. Tickets are available online at http://americascup.frontgatetickets.com and at the Newport Gateway Visitor’s Center. The AC Village opens at 11am each day, closing at 5pm (7pm on race days).

“Rhode Island has been working hard to prepare Fort Adams for high-performance sailing events and other acclaimed Newport attractions such as the Newport Folk and Jazz festivals,” said Governor Lincoln D. Chafee “Infrastructure improvements at Fort Adams State Park will showcase the spectacular natural assets of Narragansett Bay – assets that have made Newport one of the world’s most renowned sailing centers. Inside Fort Adams spectators can experience a number of activities including the Ocean Exploration Center, sailing education programs, and a racing center.”

To purchase tickets, go to: http://americascup.frontgatetickets.com

PALM SUNDAY/APRIL FOOL’S WEEKEND

Last night I listened to Tom Ehman speak about the “new” America’s Cup, a live video link with Kenny Read aboard Mar Monstro having rounded the Horn and now in the relatively calm South Atlantic.

For me, the selling of the America’s Cup is a little like when hollywood knows it has a bad movie it needs to advertise to try to boost the gate.

It was a moving moment to listen to Ken say the Southern Ocean had beaten him into submission. That he would not do this race again. Nature is relentless and without remorse.

Today is a lunch meeting of the New England Six meter class.

Palm Sunday and April Fool’s somehow don’t seem to go together.

AMERICA’S CUP WORLD SERIES

SAN FRANCISCO APPROVES AMERICA’S CUP RACE FOR SEPTEMBER 2013

POSTED ON 27 MARCH 2012

It’s full speed ahead for the 2013 America’s Cup race in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors today approved the agreement to host the America’s Cup in San Francisco September 7 to 22, 2013.

One of the most fiercely competitive and sought after trophies in all of sport, the America’s Cup, was first raced in 1851 around the Isle of Wight, 45 years before the modern Olympics. The U.S. yacht Americawon, giving the international sailing competition its name.

At the first race, Queen Victoria, who was watching at the finish line, asked who was second to America. The famous answer, “Your Majesty, there is no second.”

The 2013 race will be the first time the competition for the “Auld Mug” will be held in San Francisco, a perfect natural sailing arena where more than one million spectators will see the 34th edition of the America’s Cup.

The San Francisco agreement calls for teams to be based at Piers 30/32 and for the America’s Cup Village – the public Race Headquarters – at Piers 27/29.  The pier improvements will be funded by the Port.

“We have worked very hard to bring this historic race to San Francisco and we’re very happy to have finally reached an agreement,” said Stephen Barclay, interim CEO of the America’s Cup. “Now we are focused on making this the most spectacular race in America’s Cup history.”

“We are thrilled that, in addition to the Louis Vuitton Cup and the America’s Cup racing in 2013, that the America’s Cup World Series will also take place in San Francisco in 2012,” said Mayor Edwin M. Lee. “This will add even more visitors, jobs and economic development as part of hosting one of the world’s premier sporting events.”

The inclusion of Piers 30/32 as the “pit row” for the teams in close proximity to the America’s Cup Village at Piers 27/29 will make the event’s footprint more compact and will benefit the teams as well as the general public.  Racing will be visible from the shoreline – only minutes from downtown shopping and hotels, making this the most spectator-friendly event in the Cup’s 162-year history.

The dates for this year’s (2012) racing for the America’s Cup World Series, the global circuit of events leading up to the 2013 America’s Cup regatta in San Francisco, were also confirmed today:

  • AC World Series Naples, Italy – April 11-15, 2012
  • AC World Series Venice, Italy – May 15-20, 2012
  • AC World Series Newport, USA – June 26 – July 1, 2012
  • AC World Series San Francisco, USA – August 21-26, 2012
  • AC World Series San Francisco, USA – October 4-7, 2012

Each event will be a combination of practice and championship racing, with additional practice sailing on-site ahead of each event.

Racing for the Louis Vuitton Cup, the America’s Cup Challenger Series, will take place in July and August, 2013. The America’s Cup Match (finals), pitting the winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup against defending champion ORACLE Racing – Team USA, commences Saturday, Sept. 7, 2013 and is a first to win five-race series.

America’s Cup racing in 2012 and 2013 will be televised internationally, and for the first time in more than 20 years it will be broadcast free-to-air in the U.S. by the NBC network. It will also be broadcast internationally through our family of media partners, and will be streamed to the web on www.youtube.com/americascup.

This unprecedented broadcast coverage is a reflection of the exciting venue, the technologically-advanced yachts, the Emmy-nominated fan-friendly advances in the television production, and the sheer physical and tactical challenge presented to the world’s best sailors by the yachts, format and venue.

Before the end of 2013 the America’s Cup is expected to have generated more than $1 billion in economic benefits for San Francisco, and created several thousand jobs.

Major sponsors include some of the world’s top brands: Louis Vuitton, PUMA, Prada, Emirates Airline, TAG Heuer, and Oracle.

“EXPENSES SHOULD MATCH REVENUE”?

America’s Cup lays off 28 people, race officials say

Posted on March 23, 2012 at 2:29 pm by Stephanie M. Lee, John Coté in San Francisco

 

The business arm of the America’s Cup laid off a quarter of its staff Friday, the latest sign the premiere sailing competition has dramatically scaled back its presence — and budget — in San Francisco.

The America’s Cup Event Authority laid off 28 people, 14 of them in the San Francisco office and the other 14 in offices around the world, race officials said. They worked in the information technology, marketing and communications departments.

The shake-up stemmed from the pared-down deal between the America’s Cup and the city to host the event this year and in 2013.

“We’re having expenses match the revenues as much as we can,” said Stephen Barclay, who took over as interim CEO for the event authority this week in another sign of reorganization. “And a number of people will be leaving as a result.”

Originally, the Event Authority was going to invest $111 million in infrastructure work to repair deteriorating piers the city has sought for decades to fix. But race officials backed away from that agreement earlier this month.

The new deal, set to be considered by the Board of Supervisors Tuesday, calls for the port to invest nearly $22 million in pier repairs, including up to $8 million for team bases at Piers 30-32. A team of fundraisers, meanwhile, is responsible for raising $32 million to cover the city’s costs to put on the event, and have so far raised $12.5 million, according to a city audit released Friday.

Beyond the rollback of the development deal, the event authority is also scaling back event facilities, including no longer trying to have any at Crissy Field, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation area.

 

“IT’S A FOLLY”

Grant Dalton has become the “Ted Turner” of modern sailboat racing. We all anticipate his next words. He shocks, surprises, and has a fresh plain spoken approach, that no matter how outrageous his statements might be; there is always a nugget of something we can relate to.

It his latest statement he says that if it were up to him, there would be a change of boats for the America’s Cup and has supporting evidence for his statement.