America's Cup - On Match Point

America's Cup - On Match Point

Greetings from Valencia, late at night, after the conclusion of the first race of the 33rd America's Cup.

As we left the dock this morning, Sir Michael Fay, made the observation that 'Tonight, someone will be on Match Point. Isn't that great? Isn't that the way it should be?' And he was right.

After 31 months of bitter legal wrangling and general acrimony, plus two lost race days, all was wiped clean today, with a fantastic race, between two of the highest technology sailing yachts ever built.

To be on the water today was an absolute privilege, and a day that will never be forgotten.

The sight of those two magnificent yachts, their incredible crews and awesome sailing technology was a sight that few could have imagined, let alone have the good fortune to have witnessed.

It is very hard to describe the awesome sight of these two yachts, and really there is nothing to which they can be compared, except to say that if you think the images look spectacular, seeing them in real life is 100 times more impressive.

Today's was a race of which no-one would predict the outcome beforehand with any degree of certainty. Sure we all had our favorites, and thoughts, but no-one knew.

Maybe the prestart penalty score by USA-17's match racing ace, was not unexpected. Alinghi's skipper winning the start by a massive 646 metre margin certainly was a surprise, and maybe Bertarelli's multihull racing experience proved to be more than a worthy foil for Spithill's match racing prowess.

It was a race that, by rights, should have been over at the start, but like pretty well everything to do with the America's Cup - expect the unexpected. And that's exactly what happened.

Flying high, on Leg 1, Race 1, 33rd America's Cup Guido Trombetta/Team Alinghi

The sight of USA-17 setting off in hot pursuit of Alinghi 5, two minutes and almost 650 metres in arrears, and then passing the Defender, to windward, 15 minutes later was simply jaw-dropping.

Alinghi's Brad Butterworth summed it up at the Media Conference very simply saying 'that is Speed - with a capital 'S!''

The general consensus is that the wingsail is a technology risk which has paid off handsomely for BMW Oracle Racing.

However, as we all know, the America's Cup is a game best taken one day at a time.

Race 2 is scheduled for Sunday, Valencia time, and most of weather guru's seemed to agree that there is a good chance of racing. We could have a winner, we could be back to deuce - with everything hanging on the third race.

In this issue we cover the racing as best we can, with plenty of images and reports from the teams - and Bob Fisher provides his overview of the day. We've covered over 100nm on the water today, mostly at 30kts plus, arriving back in Valencia very cold, and sore, right on sunset - and we were one of the first back!

And yes, we did wear our Red Socks in memory of few people who couldn't be there.

Make sure you enter Sail-World's PredictWind competition - where you have the chance to win one of ten professional subscriptions of the package developed by members of the Alinghi weather team and used by them to help win the last two America's Cups. Enter on the icon at the top of the www.Sail-World.com website or off the banner and story in this newsletter.

ENDS

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