Speaking of 2013, I found myself in SF for most of the final. With low friends in high places I was in the Oracle shed the day they won the chocolates. Crazy, crazy day. Below is a screengrab of a certain syndicate owner giving the congrats speech to the team. It was a great place to be for the rest of the day meeting all the players, Larry E owns a brewery so...
I actually got my hands on one of the jackets only to leave it in a cab a few weeks later. Lots of great stories from that series to tell the grand kids in years to come.
Alinghi gone despite a herculean effort, GB into the LV finale 4-2. AM on fire with two wins on the day and live to fight again. Luna Rossa are 4-3 but have a broken main sheet track by the look of it, overnight fix required. Probably 10t+ of load letting go at 35knts... boom! What a days racing, breathing is slowing now.
After yesterday's shenanigans, today was straight forward. Puffy shifts and relatively flat sea state. American Magic going down 5-3 with Luna Rossa back to their clinical, ruthless best. LV Cup final starts Sep 26.
Select to expand quoteBrent in Qld said..
Speaking of 2013, I found myself in SF for most of the final. With low friends in high places I was in the Oracle shed the day they won the chocolates. Crazy, crazy day. Below is a screengrab of a certain syndicate owner giving the congrats speech to the team. It was a great place to be for the rest of the day meeting all the players, Larry E owns a brewery so...
I actually got my hands on one of the jackets only to leave it in a cab a few weeks later. Lots of great stories from that series to tell the grand kids in years to come.
That must have been an awesome experience 
Select to expand quoteBrent in Qld said..
After yesterday's shenanigans, today was straight forward. Puffy shifts and relatively flat sea state. American Magic going down 5-3 with Luna Rossa back to their clinical, ruthless best. LV Cup final starts Sep 26.
Have to say that was a great semifinal series between these two teams and for AM to come back from 4-0 and to be close with a lot of lead changes in most races. Luna Rossa are match racing hardened!
It was great to see the Swiss get 2 wins and INEOS are a fast boat and were looking really dialed on their transitions but not on the last day, of course more swell on the course!
Have enjoyed watching the youth AC40s. Cool boats to do the fleet racing in and you can see the joy and inspiration the kids get being around the big dogs.
I saw some footage with other classes of yachts that are in town doing their thing. Seems like the event is becoming a celebration of sailing, nice! As much as I loved the 12m class back in the day, sh!T they are unbelievably slow. I'd guess the slowest design since the ark!
Louis Vuitton Cup Cup Final Race 1 | Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli vs INEOS Britannia | Full Replay (youtube.com)
The first race replay is worth a look. The boats are designed for 8 to 12 knots but they go pretty well in 20 ( backing off to 17 at race end). 52 knots in the bear away! Great coverage. The Italians have a good looking boat.
Race2 was nicely executed by the Brits. Think LR didn't take them serious enough in the start. Solid match racing skills by GB, better start then kept LR in the pocket. Britannia looks damn strong down wind but touchy in the gybes, only really an issue in the light stuff.
A win a piece, nothing in it.
Nice one Morts, 12m had a long stand and are still a great connection to the heritage of sailing. Here's a photo of the construction crew with KZ7 still on the plug in the background. Dogs, a few blokes with some skills in a time long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away...
Select to expand quoteBrent in Qld said..
Nice one Morts, 12m had a long stand and are still a great connection to the heritage of sailing. Here's a photo of the construction crew with KZ7 still on the plug in the background. Dogs, a few blokes with some skills in a time long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away...
Wow, back row I see a windsurfer Tony, raced Raceboards mid late 80s 
Yeah day 1 was great racing and good conditions
Hate the low wind racing only to be timed out!
Select to expand quote515 said..Brent in Qld said..
Nice one Morts, 12m had a long stand and are still a great connection to the heritage of sailing. Here's a photo of the construction crew with KZ7 still on the plug in the background. Dogs, a few blokes with some skills in a time long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away...
Wow, back row I see a windsurfer Tony, raced Raceboards mid late 80s
Yeah day 1 was great racing and good conditions
Hate the low wind racing only to be timed out!
Tony was lead composites guy when I was an apprentice, we built Olympic dinghies, his Dalbeth boards, Dalton's Fisher&Pykel etc... top bloke.
How was race 4! 55knt bare away by LR, reckon they paid the race committee to not get penalized at some point. Still, really tight and astounding skill with these AC75 beasts.
Select to expand quoteBrent in Qld said..
How was race 4! 55knt bare away by LR, reckon they paid the race committee to not get penalized at some point. Still, really tight and astounding skill with these AC75 beasts.
Sensational is the answer. I am obvi way too old for this, my heart rate is way up just watching. I need someone to explain to me please how LR didn't pinged with a penalty in the prestart as it seemed a pretty dodgy move to me.
And if that wasn't enough, Alinghi are still in town banging around figuring sh;t out and capsized in the stronger breeze. Not a good time for them in Barcelona.
And we're still locked up at 4-4. Well over 20knts. Easy in race 7 for GB LR with a deck blowout for LR but WOW, they taped up the deck & still manage a win in race 8. Costly pre-start for Ben and his merry men.
Best match racing I've seen in a long time.
Select to expand quoteD3 said..
Not a good day for Luna Rossa, so far.
Select to expand quoteBrent in Qld said..
And we're still locked up at 4-4. Well over 20knts. Easy in race 7 for GB LR with a deck blowout for LR but WOW, they taped up the deck & still manage a win in race 8. Costly pre-start for Ben and his merry men.
Best match racing I've seen in a long time.
Skidding the boat out of bounds... I am a bit ancient on the sailing tech stuff, but surely the skippers have a some sort of telemetry to let them know in real time where they are in relation to the course boundaries?
Select to expand quotefangman said..Brent in Qld said..
And we're still locked up at 4-4. Well over 20knts. Easy in race 7 for GB LR with a deck blowout for LR but WOW, they taped up the deck & still manage a win in race 8. Costly pre-start for Ben and his merry men.
Best match racing I've seen in a long time.
Skidding the boat out of bounds... I am a bit ancient on the sailing tech stuff, but surely the skippers have a some sort of telemetry to let them know in real time where they are in relation to the course boundaries?
They do, my take was there was a bit of indecision about whether to tack or gybe, combine that with doing 42 knots & then sliding out in the tack itself put them over.
Was a very impressive muppet sized dent by LR in the earlier race!
Ball firmly in GBs court now, 6-4 up after a couple of near perfect races. GB peaking at the right time.
Excellent timing for the day off for Luna Rossa. We know if there's one bloke in the pack that can launch a comeback it's Jimmy.
It's been exciting racing with the drama of broken batterns and I was hoping INEOS would lose their rudder in the swell again to keep it even 
Agree Jimmy is the comeback man 
Select to expand quote
A very bold call by the race commitee. Even ignoring whats wrong with changing the rule, theres a few issues with saying they didnt foul ineos with that manoeuvre. Im not a fan of Ben Ainslie, but i do think it should've been a penalty for Prada there.
Meet two cyclors from American Magic up a mountain in Austria! Chatted for ages and got lots of gossip on the cup, jeez it's a small world.
And just like that it's GB for the first time in 60yrs challenging for the Auld Mug. They look sharp, ETNZ had better have done their homework over the last few weeks. Sat 12 Oct for the start of proceedings.
Day one. 2-0 ETNZ clinical. Plenty of hope for GB, just need to get ahead on the starts into a position to control.
Great for us Kiwis to get 2 wins
Agree starts, more pressure and getting the shifts is so key
Looking forward to the next two races
2-0 is a fairly normal start to the America's Cup. However INEOS still holds the speed record of 55.5 knots., Did the commentator mention the foils were 1.4 square metres.? For 7.5 tonnes! That's 75 lots of 100kg. Or 1.4 X 10,000 cm2 / 75 per 100 kg. = 546 cm2 per 100kg (For the windfoilers out there.) And they get going in 7 knots. No foil swapping allowed.
The grip on the cup gets tighter, 3-0.
The Brits seem out of sorts with another pre-start blunder, dare I say they seem intimidated by the occassion/opposition. Certainly looked like they weren't expecting ETNZ to play hardball. They should know better, with Nathan Outerage on board he will aim for the kill at every opportunity and it paid off.
Looks like they are going to try and make up race 4 on Monday.
Aggressive prestart move with foils getting close!
Ben's not happy with losing another race.
www.facebook.com/share/v/U6K6dE4TxDeEU5ae/
Called the kiwi commentator a "****en wanker" 
