Kiwis on the Cusp of Defending America’s Cup
The first weekend of the 37th Louis Vuitton America’s Cup has produced very few surprises as Emirates Team New Zealand put the first three races against INEOS Britannia in the bag in dominant fashion. That said, Barcelona will certainly set records for fan attendance in the multiple Mixed Zones in the city, as the Catalonian capital makes a strong case to return as the host venue for the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron if their team defends the America’s Cup.
In Catalan: Dit això, Barcelona segurament establirà rècords d’assistència d’aficionats a les múltiples Zones Mixtes de la ciutat, ja que la capital catalana argumenta amb força per tornar com a seu del Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron si el seu equip ho defensa Copa Amèricana.
So far there is no chink in the Kiwis’ armor to suggest that after the results of the first three races anything will change in the near future. As surprising as the British performance was against the Italians, there is little evidence so far to suggest that Sir Ben Ainslie and team have anything in their toolbox to challenge ETNZ at this point.
A collision seemed imminent in the pre-start box at the start of Race 3, as the extended foil blades for each of the AC75s appeared perilously close to slicing off chunks of metal. The British copped the penalty, which put them on their back foot again.
“That was a tough call; we felt like we were keeping clear but obviously the umpires didn’t see it that way,” said INEOS Britannia team principal and skipper Sir Ben Ainslie. “We knew there was no point dwelling on it; we took it on the chin and focused on the rest of the race. I don’t think we’ve sailed at our highest level yet, but I have no doubt in our team. We have the resilience and the determination to find that performance and come back stronger. We’ve already shown we can do that across this competition and we will continue pushing hard.”
“Yes, we tried it yesterday and he just got past us. It was a little bit uncomfortable, to be honest, with how close the boats got,” said ETNZ co-helm Peter Burling. “It will be interesting to see how the umpires ruled. We were pretty clear there, so great to get a penalty, and [we] controlled the race from there.”
As impressive as Taihoro has been upwind, the Brits seem to have pace down.
It was a bit prickly between Kiwi America’s Cup commentator Stephen McIvor and Ainslie in the post-race interview.
“Still believe you’re as close when it comes to performance? Because I get that feeling coming off your boat.” quizzed McIvor.
“Maybe that’s the Kiwi commentator in you, mate,” chuckled Sir Ben.
“OK, I’ll take that one on the chin,” said McIvor.
The timing of some of McIvor’s exchanges can be a bit daft, but Ainslie, in one of those live-mic moments, uttered, “F#%ing wanker,” as he was stepping out of the cockpit.
Ainslie was later asked if he’d known the comment was audible on the international race broadcast.
“Possibly,” said Ainslie. “I just thought it was a bit of a stupid comment from the Kiwi commentator, but I think it’s good for our team, you know.
“It’s good motivation.”
McIvor was sharing the commentary booth with British sailor Shirley Robertson, who won Olympic gold at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004.
It is “As the Cup Turns” in Barsa!!
In the Puig Women’s America’s Cup, the Italians joined their male counterparts who had captured the Unicredit Youth America’s Cup, bringing home the hardware as well. If the results in Barcelona are any indication, the Italians are going to be formidable on the water in these events for some time to come!
Annapolis Sailboat Show Rocks the Docks
The Annapolis Sailboat Show rocked this year, with five sunny, temperate days of gentle breezes, lots of boats and lots of sailors. Our annual pilgrimage to this sailboat mecca is always inspiring and rewarding. It’s the largest, and to the best of our knowledge, only all-sailboat show in the world. It never disappoints. The sailing world has evolved over our past 30 years of attending, but the energy and culture of sailing remain at the core the show.
We did have a moment to visit with circumnavigating phenom Cole Brauer in the Mustang booth. Amazingly, she told us she connected with her first offshore race, the Pacific Cup, in 2018, when her then-boyfriend showed her a letter in Latitude 38 from a boat looking for crew. That started her connections to crewing, and she ended up racing to Hawaii aboard Jack Tibbetts’ Schock 41 Defiance. It’s been a stunning rise to fame and success from there.
She exudes the positive energy she exhibited to her 500-thousand-plus fans on Instagram as she demonstrated the power of a determined woman to succeed in the rarefied universe of singlehanded sailors. Her perseverance earned her a second-place finish in the Global Solo Challenge, once again breaking the mold of the perceptions of women in sailing.
Sailors and boat manufacturers come from all over the world to check out the boats and to connect with sailing, often late into the evening. The show is in the heart of historic downtown Annapolis, which would be a fun visit even without the show, but it’s only made better by the presence of even more sailors and sailboats.
We walked into the Belize Sailing Vacations booth only to find Cliff Wilson, who grew up sailing at RYC, with his wife Rachael plus the Bay Area’s Norman Davant and Teri Moore. Cliff and Rachael were there for the first time, exhibiting for their Belize charter company, while Norman and Teri had joined many boats in the Chesapeake this time of year waiting for hurricane season to end before returning to cruising the Bahamas aboard their Seawind Crazy Love. Norman has sailed with the Wilsons for many years in Belize and highly recommends it.
Once again, Annapolis is a great place to reconnect with sailing friends roaming the world.
One trend that continues to stand out as you roam the docks of Annapolis is the scale of the boats. Over the past 30 years they’ve only gotten bigger, better equipped and more expensive. This has been great at helping manufacturers grow revenue, but we’re not sure it grows participation in sailing.
Plus, you’ve heard this before: There are far more catamarans. The booms on the two biggest cats looked as if they were about 20 feet over the water. The monohulls are far larger, and the average price of the boats at the show has to be well over $500,000. The boats are stunning and innovative, and demonstrate ongoing creative innovation to make sure no one has to sail in discomfort. They say you can’t take it with you, but these boats do their best at making it possible.
The Chesapeake and the mooring field off the show are packed with cruisers waiting for hurricane season to end so their insurance companies will allow them to head south again. While they wait, many of them join the temporary workforce that’s needed to run the back-to-back Annapolis Power and Sailboat shows.
Numerous other cruisers are cruising the docks and tents to upgrade their boats or solve issues before they continue on. The tents are filled with numerous vendors of hardware, electronics and furling gear, and experts from the national and international marine industry who can answer just about any question you can throw at them. If you’re looking for it, it can be found at the Annapolis Boat Show.
KKMI Gets To the Bottom of Your Boating Needs
Hurricane Milton and the Saildrone View
The recent hurricane activity in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico has displaced and distressed thousands of people. Many have even lost their lives. Unfortunately, the official hurricane season is with us for another six weeks or so, and while there are no active hurricanes for the moment, we’re still on alert. We imagine everyone has seen photos and footage of the carnage left in the wake of hurricanes Milton and Helene; we won’t add to that media storm. However, we do want to share the story about the Bay Area company, Saildrone, and the footage of one of its uncrewed vessels in the ocean prior to Milton’s making landfall in Florida.
Saildrone has deployed 50 or so uncrewed surface vessels to oceans around the world. Another 12 drones are based in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico to monitor weather systems and hurricane conditions. SD-1083 was in the Gulf of Mexico on October 9 and captured the footage below of surface conditions during Hurricane Milton’s progress toward Florida.
According to NOAA Atlantic Lab, the Saildrone vessel reported a maximum wave height of 28.12 feet (8.57m), and wind gusts up to 75.95 mph (66 kts), 40 miles from the center of the storm.
Saildrones are equipped to enter the weather systems and collect date including temperature, pressure, wind speed, and wave height. These observations are then used to forecast expected conditions when the storm makes landfall.
The current data on hurricanes is both interesting and a little frightening. And while Saildrone’s contribution won’t stop the hurricanes, it can help us be better informed and forewarned about approaching weather systems. Hopefully, in the long run, this will also help us reconsider how our actions affect the planet, and ultimately ourselves.
For anyone wanting to know more about hurricanes, we found NOAA’s FAQ page quite interesting and helpful.
Sailagram: A Snapshot of September Sailing
Welcome to our latest Sailagram. We hope you enjoy this month’s gallery of sailors doing what sailors love!
Rolex Big Boat Series — Building Thrills
Rather the opposite of last year’s edition, the conditions at the 2024 Rolex Big Boat Series ramped up each of the four days of racing, September 12–15. Thursday was the sunniest day and made for pretty pictures. Saturday was the grayest day — the fog never did lift — and freezing cold. And Sunday was full-on madness with big winds and waves. Crew on the Express 37 Pazzo Express (a maiden RBBS team) noted a gust of 38 knots.
The seven divisions raced out of two starting areas, trading back and forth between the North Course and the Treasure Island Course. The race committee set a mark at Point Diablo, allowing for jaunts out west of the Golden Gate Bridge. All divisions except the Classics got in two races on Thursday–Saturday, with one Bay Tour course on Sunday ahead of the awards ceremony. The Classics started off the clubhouse race deck and sailed one race each day.
Host St. Francis Yacht Club was celebrating this 60th edition, and was pleased with the turnout of 70 boats. In 1962, the first year of the regatta, the boats were big but the fleet was a small nine entries.
Classics Division
Classic Cup Perpetual Trophy
Among the biggest boats this year were three classic woodies: Mayan, Hurrica V and Brigadoon. Ocean Queen V had been signed up, but couldn’t make it out of the boatyard in time. Brigadoon suffered gear failure and found wear to the hull (she did turn 100 this year), and thus was unable to complete the series. Scoring a perfect four bullets in four races was the 1947 60-ft Alden schooner Mayan, which essentially match-raced the 100-year-old Hurrica V, a 71-ft Nicholson ketch.
Mayan’s skipper, Beau Vrolyk, tells the tale: “Saturday was the first time we just had two of us on the line. Adam Gamble, the vice commodore, was driving Hurrica V. He’s a good friend of mine, so as soon as I saw him try to hook around behind me, we immediately went into circles. It was like the 1960s in 12-Meters, going round and round at a very slow rate, chasing each other. In the middle of that, our navigator, Chris Lewis, pointed out that we could just break off and hit the starting line. We did, and it was a tremendous amount of fun.”
