Tremors, east and west

The America's Cup world is abuzz about boat construction.

Not that this should concern anyone, normally. But at this curious point in time, it's serious.

Actually, it's very serious.

Rabid AC fans, whose fingers are continuously on the pulse, thanks in large part to an extraordinary online network, AC Anarchy, are detecting boat building and assembling energy in amazing places like Anacortes and Villeneuve. 

That's Anacortes, Washington, U.S.A., where Larry Ellison (USA)'s amazing raptor trimaran was put together. And Villeneuve, Lake Geneva, Switzerland, where nothing ever happened, except for tourists visiting the lake, sailors watching Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI)'s latest catamaran, and wealthy people staying in exclusive hotels and villas, along with folks like Bill and Melinda Gates.

Now, in both places, much is happening.

Boat parts are being delivered at midnight in Anacortes. An amazing structure is being erected in a parking lot in Villeneuve that suggests to experienced sailors and boat builders that a vessel curiously like an extremely lengthy catamaran is soon to be erected there.

So what's really under way?

A great deal of confusion, of course. This is the America's Cup 33.

And if it's AC33, you can always take your chances. 

For the record:

(1)  Dogzilla, the phenomenal 90-foot trimaran, supposedly developed by BMWOracle for an America's Cup Deed of Gift (DOG) race, has disappeared.

(2)  Amazing boat parts are being delivered, under the cover of darkness, to a boat building facility in Anacortes, original home of Dogzilla.

(3)  An old rail yard in Villeneuve, now a parking lot, has been converted into a curiously smooth tarmac platform with astonishingly accurate concrete footings under a soon-to-be-completed alloy and mylar canopy. Here, fans say, Ernesto will assemble the real Swiss Myth, a Swiss cat.

(4)  AC sailors, privately, are saying big cats turn and handle faster than big trimarans, and in the simple DOG races ordained by the Deed of Gift, some say, that's a measurable advantage.

Meanwhile, the titans themselves (Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI) and Larry Ellison (USA) and their clubs) are meeting, have met, or soon are about to meet.

What they decide, is what AC33 will be about.

Yet, even before their determinations are announced, you can be assured, much is being expressed in alloy, composites, and glass -- in structures, as well as boats.

AC33, in one form or another, is coming to reality.