Stunning

What America’s Cup racing now looks like.

A BMWOracle Racing USA crewmember,
astride the right ama.

All of us were stunned.

Quite probably everyone on the planet was stunned.

At the sheer power of the America’s Cup challenger BMWOracle’s amazing USA.

At its performance over Swiss defender Alinghi 5, even in lighter winds.

Upwind, both faster, and pointing higher.

Downwind, surprisingly fast.

In Race One of America’s Cup 33, the boat’s extraordinary ‘wing’ – substituting a soft mainsail with a high-tech aerofoil – not only dazzled veteran sailors, but set what is likely to be a new benchmark for the evaluation of high-performance racing multihulls.

Astonishingly, the wing even improved USA’s performance when it drove the boat solo.

Nobody more was more nonplussed than Alinghi 5 skipper and tactician Brad Butterworth (NZL). “Were you there?” Brad asked a reporter with his trademark honesty and candor. He then put into words what everyone was thinking:

“When they sail right up to you, then go around you, that’s speed.”

Winning a protest in the pre-start dial-up – then stalling before it crossed the line – USA devoured the Swiss boat’s 600-meter lead in what seemed like just a few minutes.

On the downwind leg, USA17 opened up a long-distance lead that topped 4.5 kilometers.

Those who felt the downhill could be the wing’s weakness were, well, silenced.

It’s only one race.

But what a race.

What a boat.

An ocean water course on the sea

It’s meant be an ocean race.

Nobody can possibly be in any doubt about the prescription of the Deed of Gift, the venerable document governing this one-on-one challenge for America’s Cup 33.

Nobody can possibly have any misunderstanding over the intentions of deed author George L. Schuyler of the New York Yacht Club or the clarity of court decisions that have validated the Deed of Gift, time after time after time.

Yesterday, the waters off Valencia behaved like an ocean course in February in the Northern Hemisphere. Waters were at first OK over the first few miles of the 20-mile leg, then got nasty, and nastier still, apparently.

Just like the ocean.

Unfortunately, the two vessels competing for AC33 – the Swiss defender’s Alinghi 5 and the U.S. challenger BMWOracle Racing’s USA – do not appear to be designed for ocean courses.

Unfazed by stiff breezes over the race course America’s Cup Race Officer Harold Bennett (NZL) clearly got the wind up over something.

The boats? Well, Mr. Bennett doesn’t seem to know much about them. “These are different boats from what we have been used to,” he told interviewers. “And the understanding of them is still a learning curve. Conditions like today? That is interesting. I am not sure they would have done too well with it.”

Not sure? Maybe it was the wind after all. “I would have not had a problem with the wind conditions. We were looking at 17-18 knots, I wouldn’t have had a problem with that.”

Wouldn’t have had? Wouldn’t have had what? A very curious use of tense by Mr. Bennett.

So, if it wasn’t the wind, maybe it was the swell, observed by one of the racing teams at around four feet? In Mr. Bennett’s view, it was “pretty rugged.”

We respect any decision made to protect sailors, absolutely. Everyone does.

But what else are we protecting here?

Boats that aren’t designed and built for the course they must sail over?

One boat in particular that can’t handle ocean conditions?

One team in particular that is afraid of any ocean state over three feet?

If design parameters for one – or both – these vessels are preventing them from competing on an ocean course that behaves like an ocean course, maybe this isn’t the America’s Cup.

Maybe it’s lake racing.

Like they have on Lake Geneva.

More sleep

News today from Valencia says that the start of the new first race in America's Cup 33 won't be decided before 12:00 noon Valencia time, Wednesday. That's 6:00 a.m., U.S. Eastern time, Wednesday, February 10, 2010.

We mention this because we made a reference to start times yesterday.

For accurate information, always consult the official website for AC33.

We also check ESPN360's programming schedule here.

America's Cup Online

There was no America’s Cup View today, as in view.

No race at all, thanks to no wind off Valencia this morning, and no desire on the part of the defender, Team Alinghi (SUI) to convert to an afternoon schedule, when winds typically are better this time of year.

Thousands of U.S. fans staggered out of bed at 3:30 a.m. this morning – after the biggest U.S. television night of the year for sports fans – the American football Superbowl XLIV (New Orleans Saints 31, Indianapolis Colts 17).

After the first race of AC33 was postponed, most of them went to work, or back to bed, grumpy or crabby, depending on where you went to school.

For the next first race of America’s Cup 33, the opportunity is – yet again – boot up your computer at 3:45 a.m. (EST) on Wednesday, February 10.

If you plan to get up early, watch online, and create an exciting multi-media AC33 experience that you control, here are your best choices:

ESPN360.com

This is ESPN’s streaming online sports feed, offering a diverse mix of live and recorded U.S. events, including America’s Cup live. AC33 coverage is hosted by veteran AC sailor and commentator, Gary Jobson (USA), one of a handful of classic America’s Cup commentators. Connect>

Sailing Anarchy’s Layline 33rd America’s Cup

This is for grown-ups. The reason is that critics believe members of this highly informed and highly opinionated discussion forum are, well, children. We disagree. They are adults who should know better.

Nevertheless, you won’t find better informed sailors, better able to express themselves, anywhere else online. Yet viewer discretion is advised. Commentary is spontaneous, unedited, and at times, profane. That’s not necessarily standard operating procedure for discussion forums, but it is for this one.

Sailing Anarchy – a free site – is working hard to make AC33 fun for their community. Alan Block, a lawyer and sailor known to the community as Mr. Clean (his language is anything but) is on the water in Valencia, interviewing participants, looking for opportunities, and struggling to connect online from his boat offshore, following the action.

This morning, he ‘borrowed’ an online connection from the crew of Larry Ellison’s amazing and extraordinarily beautiful yacht Rising Sun, designed by the late Australian naval architect, John Bannenberg, seen here in 2007 during the Louis Vuitton series, off Valencia:

Connect here > to be part of SA’s Layline 33rd America’s Cup forum and scroll down for the links to content. SA is picking up BMWOracle Racing’s video feed, which you can watch on the site. You can also log into SA’s discussion forum (use the lo-res option offered at the bottom of the forum page) to follow comments by members.

If you have the nerve, become a Sailing Anarchist member, join the discussion, and enjoy the perspectives and perceptions of sailors who both know – and don’t know – what they are talking about. Don’t tell your mother.

BMWOracle Racing

The America’s Cup 33 Challenger racing team has its own video link (already co-opted by Sailing Anarchy) providing info-streams on the BMWOracle team, special interviews by respected America’s Cup commentators like Martin Tasker (UK) and Peter Lester (NZL), and once racing starts, the so-called World feed live from the water and from the air. Same video as Sailing Anarchy, but no forums, no discussion online, and no profanity. Connect >

MarineTraffic.com

This is an amazing website. It collects and presents AIS data (maritime collision avoidance data) from merchant vessels all over the world, as well as from private vessels who elect to participate in the system – essentially, data that identifies the vessel, its port of origin, heading, speed, and other factors, and then pictorially displays the data on a searchable website that refreshes every 90 seconds.

This morning, we watched vessels around the start line off Valencia, including Vava, Ernesto Bertarelli’s private yacht. We also noted Rising Sun, farther offshore, probably at the buoy mark, probably also ‘anchored’ by its GPS positioning system – no pick, no chain. Connect >

These four sites are more than enough to make your AC33 real.

Just sleep first.

At last.

BMWOracle Racing’s USA (top) and Alinghi’s Alinghi 5
training off Valencia

Finally, we are here.

Finally, the competition is on the water.

In just a few hours, two of the most exciting vessels ever designed and built for an America’s Cup race will meet the gun, in the waters off Valencia, Spain, for Race One of America’s Cup 33.

As the 40-mile race evolves – with windward and leeward legs of 20 miles each – we will finally see how these boats perform against each other, and against the sailing conditions.

After all the words that have been piled against AC33 defender and Alinghi chief Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), head of Team Alinghi, and his challenger Larry Ellison (USA) of BMWOracle Racing, now those words mean nothing. That’s history.

What is real is what happens Monday, February 8, 2010, around 10:00 a.m. Central European Time, off Valencia.

We wish Ernesto well, and in the same breath, wish the same for Larry. After all, they have paid the ticket price for AC33. Now they can enjoy the show. We get to watch.

And for every sailor, every crew member, every player on the support teams – and their families – we pray for an exciting, exhilarating, thrilling – and safe – event.

Arise, Sir Russell

Sir Russell Coutts (NZL) from

the BMWOracle Racing file

The extraordinary thing about Sir Russell Coutts (NZL) is how low key he has been throughout the entire debacle of America’s Cup 33.

Literally.

Dismissed as Alinghi CEO by Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI) prior to AC32, Sir Russell was ultimately hired by Larry Ellison (USA), and helped rebuild BMWOracle after the team’s AC32 disappointments under Kiwi CEO and Skipper Chris Dickson (NZL).

Sir Russell skirted controversy, avoided controversy, and every time controversy emerged, moved on to other topics, other issues, other events, other races. Deftly. Very deftly.

Which is what you expect from chief executives who know how to use their power.

Sir Russell certainly has power, has influence, and is a major factor for BMWOracle. Now he is leading the offense.

Despite his corporate coolness, Sir Russell’s ambitions must be focused not just on winning, but on destroying – in the nicest possible way.

If he has a statement to make about AC33, it must be that. For a lot of reasons.

But that’s not the defining reality of this amazing sailor.

Given the opportunity to helm his way into the record books in America’s Cup 30, he made a decidedly different decision. On that last race in 2000, he handed the helm to his junior, Dean Barker (NZL), who brought the boat home a winner.

Russell Coutts has proved it isn’t about him. It’s about his mission, as he sees it.

Next week, he has an extraordinary mission.

We wish him every kindness for success in AC33, and our best wishes.

Go win, Russell.

Go Brad!

Alinghi’s Flickr picture shows true Kiwi Brad Butterworth in classic style: thoughtful, candid, and as always, sincere

Maybe you have to be a Kiwi to love Bradley William Butterworth (NZL), skipper of Alinghi (SUI).

He is not the picture-perfect-portrait of the America’s Cup skipper, make no mistake. Whatever that means.

He is from Te Awamutu in the Waikato, for goodness sake. He is himself. He is BB.

What he says is what he thinks, and what he says, he believes.

‘Media management’ means nothing to Brad. He shows up. He speaks his mind. Typically, he does it with candor and respect.

But he can sail, and he has an uncanny ability to read and process a lot of things, in nano-second increments, and make decisions that win big races. Like America’s Cup.

One of the big factors in his life is his friendship with Russell Coutts (NZL), skipper of BMWOracle (USA).

Soon that friendship will be tested in huge raptor-like vessels currently rehearsing in the waters off Valencia, Spain.

Will Brad be aboard Alinghi’s amazing catamaran?

We would love to see him there. But frankly, he’s an older, tender, more gentlemanly mass. Perhaps the strategy has other ideas.

Nevertheless.

Brad Butterworth influences his team, their ethos, their competitive spirit, and their will to win.

We wish him the best in America’s Cup 33.

E hoa, ka whawhai tonu ahau ki a koe, ake ake!