America's cup is coming home

[pscot]

Source: Washington Post

VALENCIA, SPAIN, FEB. 14 -- The America's Cup is America's again. It's Larry Ellison's and the Golden Gate Yacht Club's and 30-year-old BMW Oracle helmsman James Spithill's. Beyond these happy history-makers celebrating tonight, the America's Cup belongs to a graying, grinning, crooked-fingered sailor who is hoisting sailing's grandest prize for the fourth time.

This one belongs to Russell Coutts, 47, who hasn't lost a Cup race in 15 years. Coutts wasn't aboard today when the incredible, wing-sailed trimaran he conjured and perfected humbled Swiss Cupholder Alinghi in the second straight race to win the 33rd Cup's final by over a mile.

But he didn't need to be. The work of the most successful sailor in Cup history was done. The power of his towering wing sail, 223-feet high against a misty Mediterranean sky, scotched any hope of an Alinghi rally. Ahead by a scant 28 seconds at the first turning mark of a 39-mile Cup course, BMW Oracle took off like a cheetah and left Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli's catamaran wallowing in the suds. An hour later, with a 5 1/2 -minute victory in hand, Coutts finally hopped aboard for high fives all around.

Bertarelli should have seen it coming. The Swiss sailor hired Coutts from Team New Zealand 10 years ago after two straight Kiwi Cup wins, to run his fledgling Alinghi. Coutts promptly snatched the Cup from his ex-mates, winning the finals for Alinghi 5-0 in 2003. When Bertarelli and Coutts had a falling out, the Kiwi wizard moved to a bigger billionaire. Ellison, the San Francisco-based founder of Oracle software, is the fourth-richest man in the world, with assets around $27 billion.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/14/AR2010021401703.html

[cbayer]

1. Beautiful!

:toast:

[timeforpeace]

2. Two incredible boats. The wings have been proven. Quite a remarkable development in mainsail design.

[Downwinder]

4. Wonder what happens in heavy air.

[timeforpeace]

13. You mean high winds, 30+ knots? Those boats would disintegrate in the swells. Barring that,the wings

may not be advantageous given that a traditional mainsail will perform optimally with that kind of blow.

[Downwinder]

3. Ellison finally moves into a class with Ted Turner.

[pscot]

5. Nevah

:hi:

[pscot]

6. I guess the mods don't want no trash sports

cluttering up the sacred precincts of LBN.

[The River]

7. Highlights from Race 1

Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3OjQz0yGgU

nice looking boats.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

8. Amazing craft. n/t

[Captain Hilts]

9. I think catamarans should compete in a different category. I just think 'single hull'.

Yeah, I'm an old crank...

[cloudbase]

15. Me, too.

My father in law used to design 12 meter yachts when he was with Sparkman & Stephens.

[Sisaruus]

10. I've been saying the Cup is coming back because....

...home would be Newport. Those were the days. Although we lived in CT, my family kept our boat on Narragansett Bay. We were always one of those spectator boats. I was 29 years old before I realized one could drive to Newport (when a date suggested we go to Newport one February and it wasn't making any sense since all the boats I knew were dry-docked).

I'm elated even if it is the other coast.

[Bonhomme Richard]

11. Whoo Hooo n/t

[Monk06]

12. Max speed 40 knots vs Bluenose 16 knots. And stunningly graceful to boot. Excellent

[Blue_Tires]

14. congrats

i haven't kept up with it since 'America ^3' won....