Congestion and Action Yesterday at the Upwind Mark

[rardiH36]

These photos shot from our vantage point on "Wildaire" as Team New Zealand Team and Team Oracle approached and rounded the upwind mark during race #2 of yesterday's (Sept 12) America's Cup. The camera's 8X's zoom of course compresses the relative distances between the AC72's and the spectator boats ... affording a pretty cool illusion. The photos were much crisper before SBO's "attach photo" byte reduction. But hope they still are entertaining. I and my guests sure had an entertaining afternoon -- even though Oracle got absolutely creamed again by New Zealand.

 

[jviss]

Nice! Thanks for sharing. How is it sailing over and finding a place to watch? Did you anchor? Any trouble or pressure from authorities?

Thanks,

jv

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Did you beat Oracle going upwind too?

 

[rardiH36]

Did you beat Oracle going upwind too?

Don:

Looking at the picture and description of your boat (and presumably your sailing skills as well) , probably you could have given the hapless Oracle boat a run for its money. But not the case for me and my good old Cherubini Hunter.

 

[rardiH36]

Nice! Thanks for sharing. How is it sailing over and finding a place to watch? Did you anchor? Any trouble or pressure from authorities?

Thanks,

jv

jv:

Depth is too deep for convenient anchoring. We sailed back and forth just west of the mark about 1/2 mile inside the Golden Gate Bridge. Winds were in the 10-15 kt range. And yes the boundary boats are constantly intercepting spectator boats instructing to back off. Also seems that the boundary was changing depending on wind and tide.

 

[jviss]

Thanks, I was wondering.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Don:

Looking at the picture and description of your boat (and presumably your sailing skills as well) , probably you could have given the hapless Oracle boat a run for its money. But not the case for me and my good old Cherubini Hunter.

My boat sails like a barn door unless the wind is above 20 k so I'm sure you'd have a better chance. Maybe not in boat speed but in tacking.

I made the mistake of trying to ghost race an older 12meter boat in Newport once and was depressed for the next 2 weeks.

 

[rardiH36]

I made the mistake of trying to ghost race an older 12meter boat in Newport once and was depressed for the next 2 weeks.

Been there so many times I no longer get bummed about it. Not that I still don't try to get the most I can out of my boat.

 

[jibes138]

On TV it looks like the wing on Oracle is markedly smaller in chord length than the new Zealand boat? Does it look like that live? The jibs are significantly different as well. That was one aspect of monohull racing that is lost in this series, the ability to change sails for varying wind conditions mid-race. A lot of those Newport races were in such light winds that they had trouble finishing in five hours. These boats have a commercial break in the middle of the race and you miss a whole leg.
They make a big deal about how tough it is on the grinders but I don't see them working any harder than in a tacking duel on the 12 meters or the ACC boats. Remember them having upwards of 25 tacks on a leg trying to force a mistake?