AC Races 14 and 15

[Photoboy]

The weather gods finally were shining on San Francisco today. After delays from too much wind, too little wind, wind in the wrong direction, the only threat to todays event was visibility. And a whale.




A whale spotted Saturday on the race course made officials a bit weary in planning for today's events. But the low lying fog covering the western edge of the course was probably a bigger concern. 72' feet of flying carbon doing 30-48 knots in zero visibility
can lead to some crazy situations. But the fog FINALLY relented and the 10-12 knot westerly filled in on time to provide decent conditions, and wall to wall sun. Interestingly enough, the western course marshall spotted a dead sea lion floating in the area of the South Tower and drifting towards the race course.






The pre race "Dock In Show" was crowded, and it appeared with sunshine and a sunny day, combined with the the home team on a bit of a roll, meant more shouts of "USA-USA" than in days past...









While the races were close at times, other times Oracle scooted away, riding puffs and getting shifts in their favor, while on the other side of the equation, Dean Barker and company could only shake their heads as their valiant attempts to reel in the the locals was consistently denied. With 4 races won in a row, jimmy Spithill's declaration last week that "This could be the greatest come back in modern sport" seemed to gaining some momentum.





If there was one clear winner today, it was the City of San Francisco which saw it's biggest surge of Cup Fans rush into the Embarcadero, North Beach and the Marina, packing every available nook and cranny. Hotel rooms near Fisherman's Wharf reported
selling rooms at 4x's their normal price and visiting Kiwi Fans and out of town journalist's
finding themselves priced out of accommodations.



The Cup officially ran out of time today, and official's are officially now using permit extensions to continue the event, now the longest in Cup history!



But the racing is compelling. Nail biting even and with new found drama, it has found new level of mystique. Will the Kiwi's find that last win they need to take the Cup Down Under? Or will Oracle continue to run the table and win 4 more in a row and create an unimaginable story of comeback unrivaled in the history of sailing and perhaps of all sport?

Stay Tuned!


More Pics HERE

[Rainier]

Fuk yeah, that was some great racing. Today was that tough stuff where you gotta let the other guy go and attack the puffs. Not easy in match racing!

[Sanity Check]

I feel quite justified in saying that one hundred monkees with one hundred 16.7 megapixel cameras on one hundred really fast boats* in one hundred years of trying could not have come up with so nice a photo spread.

*Speaking of really fast boats, does the 'Snapper have JATO brackets installed now?

[familysailor]

Why does the Emirates Stewardess follow Deana around?
Emergency cocktail deployment?

Why is the announcer always declaring that Oracle must "win out" the next start, race or races?
A new turbo version of winning?

[Photoboy]

I feel quite justified in saying that one hundred monkees with one hundred 16.7 megapixel cameras on one hundred really fast boats* in one hundred years of trying could not have come up with so nice a photo spread.

*Speaking of really fast boats, does the 'Snapper have JATO brackets installed now?

Thanks...JATO brackets? not sure what those are...

Why does the Emirates Stewardess follow Deana around?
Emergency cocktail deployment?

Why is the announcer always declaring that Oracle must "win out" the next start, race or races?
A new turbo version of winning?

I don't know the purpose. She's never offered me any peanuts or mini drink bottles..

The announcers are there to repeat mundane things over and over...Tucker Thompson was MIA yesterday,
maybe even he got tired of hearing himself yapping?

[Buzz Light Beer]

Tucker tuckered out Tucker?

[Sanity Check]

Thanks...JATO brackets? not sure what those are...

JATO -- Jet Assisted Take Off. Might get you past that bumpy patch off the Bayshore Fwy quicker too.

[Alan H]

I've been pooh-poo'ing the whole damned thing for almost a year now, and honestly, from what little I saw of the LV Cup, that was justified. All the bad things that I hate are still true...the ridiculously over-expensive boats, the way the City of SF got screwed out of tens of millions of dollars...on and on.

But I have to say that yesterdays racing was pretty kickass.

Mrs. Alans birthday was yesterday, and she wanted to go to Greens restaurant at Fort Mason and then walk across the bridge. We finished lunch about quarter to one and walked up the hill behind For Mason and watched most of the first race. Wow....instead of there being two-minute differences in elapsed times, and half a mile between boats at the finish, it was twenty seconds, and this is with some godawful thing going wrong on TNZ way out near the layline on leg 3.. That gybe was the slowest of the slow, it must have taken them 20-25 seconds to get up on foils again. Hey, this looks like an effin' BOAT race....just that the boats are insane.

After that we started walking along Marina Green and stopped at the village to watch a lot of race #2...again, kickass racing. So as long as the teams are well matched, this stuff is pretty incredible.

[familysailor]

As of now Oracle needs to "win out" three more races to retain the Cup.

[Photoboy]

Not positive, but didn't I see these guys in Dustin Hoffman movie filmed in New York back in the late 60's?

[Photoboy]

Shots of the day...With Oracle World starting and America's Cup in full swing, Ellison's arch rival, Hasso Plattner, owner of SAP takes a few liberties with a clear sky as his canvas...