For those who have not been following the America’s Cup activities over the past few months, it’s time to begin a refocus. The Cup Challenge Series (America's Cup World Series) is coming to San Diego! The AC 45’s, the America’s Cup Challenger multihulls will begin racing in San Diego Harbor on November 12.
The races will be held over nine days (through November 20th), and will feature some of the top sailors in the world competing in three distinctly different race formats. The formats include Match Races, held in a round-robin series, where each boat will sail against every other boat in the competition. There are also fleet Races, where all boats will sail in a “normal” group race format around the buoys in the Bay. Finally, there are the Speed Trials, where each boat has a chance to sail as fast as possible over a straight course, much like hot rods do at a drag strip; the difference is that there is only one boat sailing at a time.
The 34th America’s Cup has nine teams competing. Seven teams are part of the Challenge, sailing to determine the right to sail against the Defender. Defending is the US group, Oracle. Oracle has two boats involved in the competition, each trying to garner the right to compete at the end of the challenge Series.
The teams are, by necessity, sponsored by large corporations. Included are teams from America, Europe, Asia, and New Zealand.
The competition list includes:
Oracle Racing/USA (The Defender) with boats skippered by Jimmy Spithill and Russell Coutts
Artemis Racing/Sweden (The Challenger of Record) skippered by Terry Hutchinson
Aleph/France skipper Bertrand Pace
China Team, skipper Charlie Ogletree
Emirates New Zealand, skipper Dean Barker
Energy Team, France, skipper Loick Peyron
Green Comm Racing, skipper Vasilij Zbogar
Team Korea, skipper Chris Draper
The San Diego event is the third in the Challenge Series leading up to the final competitions. The finals will be held in 2013 in blustery San Francisco Bay. Prior to that will be the remainder of events in 2011 (San Diego) and next, a full series of Challenge events in 2012. These are currently scheduled in Naples, Italy, Venice, Italy and Newport, Rhode Island.
The San Diego event will have great viewing areas, with spectators close enough to easily see the crews working the boats as the vessels approach 25 knots of speed or more.
It’s worth going to San Diego to see the boats, crews and races. Plan for it and have a great time.
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Go boating, be safe, and have fun!
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