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Congratulations BMW ORACLE RACING for bringing home the America's Cup!
Congratulations to BMW ORACLE RACING for successfully returning the America’s Cup to American shores! Using an ultramodern 90 foot by 90 foot trimaran, a 200 foot tall composite wing mast, and millions of dollars in investment, the US Team beat the Swiss Alinghi, in Valencia Spain, and brought the cup home for the first time since 1995.
The America’s Cup, affectionately known as the Auld Mug, is the oldest trophy in international sports and dates back to 1851 when the schooner America from New York Yacht Club beat 17 of Britain’s fastest yachts in a race around the Isle of Wight, giving its name to the trophy. NYYC successfully defended the Cup against challengers over 150 years until it was lost in 1983 to an Australian yacht club. The losing American skipper, and SDSU Alum, Dennis Conner, was determined to bring the Cup home and did so in dramatic fashion four years later with a team from San Diego Yacht Club, where he was able to defend it until 1995.
Recently, the America’s Cup has been defended twice by a Swiss team, Alinghi, owned by billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli. The Cup was challenged for the 33rd race by American software billionaire Larry Ellison’s BMW/Oracle Racing from San Francisco’s Golden Gate Yacht Club. After two and a half years of legal battles the two teams were set to race a best of three series that would not only challenge their sailing but would push technology and engineering to the edge. Alinghi defended in a 90ft long by 90ft wide catamaran and BMW/Oracle challenged in a 90ft by 90ft trimaran with a 200ft tall “wing” mast. The wing mast is best described as an airplane wing coming up out of the boat. This allowed the crew to fine-tune the air foil for maximum power. You might have seen the BMWO trimaran training in San Diego for the last 18 months! To see more photos of the BMWO Trimaran visit http://www.bmor-photo.com/.
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Both these yachts were specifically designed to excel in light winds and that’s just what they did. When racing began in Spain the breeze was under 10 knots but both boats were able to sail at boat speeds of well over twice that speed. In fact, when one of these giant multi-hulls gets their sails in trim they can easy cut across the water at 3-4 times the wind speed with one or two of their hulls flying out of the water! However, after the first race it became clear that technology had triumphed and BMW/Oracle’s wing mast was superior. On Valentine’s Day they had won the second race y over 1o minutes, bringing the coveted America’s cup home once again.
Luckily, being a billionaire isn’t a prerequisite to learning to sail and enjoying a day on the water. Despite the years of legal battles and billionaires of dollars spent on space aged super-yachts, the America’s Cup is still a sail boat race, and the basic concepts of sailing still apply. Anyone can race for their own America’s Cup on any type of sailboat. The principles and physics of sailing a billion dollar trimaran are no different than the principles behind the sabot, our most basic beginner sailboat. In fact, in a recent Basic Keelboating class, our instructors were able to use the footage to teach students how the racers were still using tell-tales to sail upwind, the same way the class had done the day before, and how the basic sailboat right of way rules they had just learned were utilized in racing.
You can apply the basic concepts of sailing to whatever boat you’re on and you can get just as much excitement! To celebrate the return of the America’s Cup, we are offering a 10% discount on all sailing class packages purchased in March! Take advantage of this deal and feel the thrill of sailing for yourself.
