The America's Cup in Barcelona

 

I haven't posted for a long time, but it's blog anniversary day and I've recently been in Barcelona where managed to see the America's Cup, so thought I'd post some photos.

It was the first America's Cup which Britain has competed in for 60 years and the first which it won a race for 90 years. Of course, the result was a shame but all credit to the New Zealand team: a fast boat, well sailed - in particular, in reading the wind shifts.

Great fun to watch, amazing to see them lift up onto their foils and fly.

America's Cup and New Zealand

So alas the Brits aka Team Multinational Chemicals Company won't be competing in the America's Cup.

Bother!

However, to be honest, the Italian team aka fashion company did look more impressive.  But why?

These AC75s are incredibly advanced, including features that aren't on any yacht I've sailed, of which the foil is only the most visible. It can be hard to work out what is actually going on, where each team has an advantage, so I've been relying on those with more knowledge, in particular the Mozzy Sails YouTube channel.

Great analysis - thanks!

I'm looking forward to the America's Cup races starting - whenever. It was due to be next weekend but apparently its been delayed due to Covid.

Of course due to the time zones I won't be able to watch it live, which is a shame, though that is a double edged sword. During a telecon I was on last week I heard this plaintive comments from the New Zealand delegate: "Madam Chair, it is currently 3:40 in the morning here in New Zealand".

Ooch!

I'm ok with streaming it on YouTube: I can watch it over my morning coffee. 

The America's Cup is boring brilliant!

After the America's Cup World Series (ACWS) I had that familiar feeling of any sailor from the UK following the oldest sailing competition: disappointment. Yet again our entry was slow, losing every single race.

But recently things have changed and the score in the Prada Cup is currently:

I have been waking up and checking the interwebs for news and twice now been mind-blown by seeing the results. Then I stream the America's Cup YouTube videos of the races while waking up over a cup or two of coffee.

But I also remember this is just the beginning, and the other teams are also working equally hard to improve their performance. So don't get excited yet but enjoy the screenshots above.

BTW, for the commentators, a tip and plea: please remember that England is not the UK or Britain and not to confuse these terms! This is a rather sensitive point at the moment given that Brexit has put up trade barriers between Britain (which is England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland (which together with Britain makes the United Kingdom) and that the Nats in Scotland are always looking for excuses to feel angry with those south of the border.

Update: Today definitely wasn't boring. Hope American Magic are soon back in the water:

Did someone give Buff the microphone?

Must admit I've just said "Oh bother"!

Or words along those lines

Watching the America's Cup much?

If you weren't watching the America's Cup yesterday one has to ask: why not?

Gripping stuff and very, very wet.

Sailing Uncovered and Mark Covell at the London Boat Show

I've mentioned before that for me the high point of the London Boat Show is almost always the people you meet or hear from and this one was no exception.

The organisers seemed to be recognising this with a series of talks across the 9 or so days that the show is open.

The one I went to was hosted by Sailing Uncovered's Alec Wilkinson (above left) and first up was Mark Covell (above right).

Mark Covell won a silver at the Sydney Olympics in the Star class along with Ian Walker. The photo above is of their sail back to the beach knowing they'd won a medal. The Union Jack is actually upside down but the waves were so bad that Ian Walker refused to return to the foredeck to flip it over.

Since then Mark has gone on to build a career in sailing on and off the water. He was part of an America's Cup team (as grinder), was a on-board reporter on the Volvo Ocean race, managed the Boat Project (blogged here) and commented at races such as the America's Cup and Olympics.

He was full of interesting stories from those many years including how he ended up towing a Volvo Ocean Race yacht the hard way across the equator:

Up next was Olympic Gold Medal winner Saskia Clark...

Videos from Land Rover BAR and Alex Thomson

Its a a good time of year to be an armchair sailor, when its cold and grey outside, to keep in the warm making shopping lists doing their sailing via the interweb thing.

First up there's the video above from Land Rover BAR showing lots of lovely clips of their America's Cup foiling cats zooming across the Solent. What fun!

Santa - how about a ride on one of those for Christmas?

Then there was a cool video of Alex Thomson waving the flag while neck and neck with Armel Le Cléac'h somewhere way down south in the Vendee Globe:


Oh la la!! C'est superb!!

Two years of Land Rover BAR

Fab!

Sailors brighten Blighty's November skies

Its been a grim couple of weeks.

Outside it's been grey and wet while inside when you switch on the TV you see climate change deniers and hear that polar ice levels are dropping crazy amounts.

But Blighty's sailors are doing their bit to bring back hope (remember that?)

Ben Ainslie and co of Land Rover BAR just went off and did it!! They won the America's Cup World Series (above), racing against seriously the best of the best. So its not all doom and gloom (well for us here in the old UK anyhow).

Then in the Vendee Globe Alex Thomson is still leading the way south, despite having broken one of his foils.

Fab!

Finally I've been baking and what is better on a cold November day than a nice cuppa with chocolate brownie or slice of ginger cake:

RIB blasting earworm music

Last weekend I joined Solent RIB Charter for a spot of America's Cup World Series watching.

They're based in Lymington so to get over to Portsmouth there was a woosh down the Solent at a fab 38 knots.

It was an absolute blast but needed a rocking sound track. But thanks to Earworm Radio (TM) I was able to tune into the track The City by The 1975 (above).

der der der.... "in the city" der der der dum

Or something like that.

The return to Lymington was meant to be a wet wind against tide affair but Bruce and Hannah from Solent RIB Charter were good enough to drop me off at Gunwharf Quay along with a host of other ACWS boats for the fast train back to London.

Sassi celeb watches at the ACWS!!!

Hi Guys!

OMG, is JP like totally USELESS!! Take this America's Cup race thing last weekend. I mean, first up he didn't bring ANY Pimms or bubbly! Huh!

Then he kept taking pictures of totally the wrong thing! Like above - ok, there was this Spithill fella but look whats behind!! Top tip - what are the TV camera's focusing on guys?

Yes, it was her highness herself, Kate, with Will too!! O.M.G!! But what do I see in JP's stack of photos but just a couple of pics of the back of her head:

Of course we're not just talking Kate and Wills, there was also, get this, JODIE KIDD:

Holy cow I love that woman!

What a day!

Luv ya!

Sassi

America's Cup World Series: at the start

When watching racing out on the water one key question is where to hang around. There's always the problem that whatever position you chose you'll only see part of the race close up and the rest of time the boats will be zooming away some distance off.

We spent the whole of the ACWS on Sunday at the start, which was probably the best choice, but not necessarily because of the racing.

Yes, we could see the start well (above) but the best bit was the boats were really close for quite some time and at least partly when not racing the crew could be seen interacting, maybe talking through what was going right or wrong:

Pre-race they didn't have to keep to the course so really came quite close, with AC45s going either side of our RIB.

As the clock counted down to the next start, focus returned and they headed away towards the next race:

America's Cup World Series: the Competition

So how did the competitors in America's Cup World Series (ACWS) compare since its last visit to Portsmouth?

Last year it was Team New Zealand that impressed, but this time it felt more like a two-boat race between Jimmy Spithill (above) and Ben Ainslie (see yesterday's post).

Dean Barker's SoftBank had improved while Team New Zealand slipped back. After racing, TNZ was one of the first to head back to base rather than doing a few more celebratory sail-bys, as were Oracle and BAR:

At the back there tended to be Groupama and Artemis:

In each race the first to the first mark also won the race, with no changes in the leader and the second place boat always playing catch-up.

Conditions were good, with enough breeze to get all teams up on their foils.

America's Cup World Series Portsmouth

In the pre-race warm up period it was clear who was the crowd's favourite, as could be heard from the cheers that followed every sail-by from Ben Ainslie Racing.

Sir Ben himself seemed pensive, unless he'd been kept awake by the cries of his new born daughter:

But he totally nailed the first race start, streaking on a broad-reach towards the first mark:

The first race must have been the crowd's favourite, with Sir Ben heading back down from the upwind mark as the others continued to tack up to it:

The first win went his way, but there were two more race to come, and on Super Sunday there were double points up on offer.

The next two starts were won convincingly by Oracle, but Sir Ben was able to keep in touch, grabbing second place both times.

It was enough to win the Portsmouth event and put Ben Ainslie Racing on top!

Hurrrah!! Time to open that champagne!!

Great fun day out on the water.... more to come.

Blighty's Booming Boating!

"Ben's bloody brilliant!" booms Buff.

Ok, enough alliteration, but it is good news for boating as it appears that its not just cycling thats had a boost in the last few years.

According to the Telegraph "between 2010 and 2014 the number of people who took part in boating activities went up from 2.75 to 3.5 million."

In addition, the "number of craft, including yachts, canoes, dinghys and windsurfers, owned in Britain has also gone up, from 1.1m in 2011 to 1.2m in 2014" (thanks to Chris we can now add at least one to those numbers).

Is it the post-Olympics glow or is it Ben Ainslie's America's Cup challenge or new cool ways of getting out on the water (such as the foiling Moth, above, from the ACWS, or of course the RS Aero) or warmer weather or ...

Jolly good news any way you look at it.

More ACWS Portsmouth photos

More ACWS photos from Saturday. The eagle eyed will spot that some had already been posted but have been clipped tighter.

Ben Ainslie Racing wins the 1st Portsmouth America's Cup World Series!

It was the first America's Cup race in British waters for 164 years, and the thousands thronging the Portsmouth and Southsea shore waited expectantly.

There were not disappointed, as our Ben fought his way from the back of the fleet to cross the line at its front (above).

The sun shone and the AC45s flew, with just enough wind to get them up on their foils.

To quote Queen Victoria: who was second? Well in the first race it was Oracle just ahead of Team New Zealand:

However in the second race Team NZ just pipped Ben Ainslie to the line, and over the day showed good form, gaining second overall. Here they can be seen passing one of the forts that will be familiar to anyone who has sailed the Solent.

The gusty conditions meant the day wasn't without its "interesting" moments, but all boats and crew were to return safely:

Portsmouth ACWS Organisation Disappoints

Two good results for Ben Ainslie Racing but there's still the double points Sunday to come so lets hold off judgement and instead focus on the organisation of the America's Cup World Series in Portsmouth today.

Lets start with the queues, which were long. There were lots of orange volunteers doing nothing while a long queue snaked slowly in. Half an hour each was the general rule and there were lots of them.

Then directions, or rather the lack of. Take the queue above, which I spent a long time in. Turned out there was no point as it wasn't for the "fan zone", yet the marshals said it was the right queue for those with that ticket.

Inside the "fan zone" the facilities were insufficient. The rule was no food allowed to be brought in but the catering queues were another half an hour wasted. Maybe the VIPs got their canapés and champagne quicker.

Another requirement are the "facilities" which in this case had broken doors, no locks and had run out of water in at least two trailers. So I ended up wandering around with soupy hands trying to find some water to wash & rinse them off. I saw one man use his water bottle.

There was lots of glitz by the sponsors, such as BMW and this bubbly:

But what would be more in the budget of most of those there were t-shirts, and there wasn't a single AC or BAR clothing stand there. Not one, zero, zilch. There was, however, room for this fancy car:

To get merchandise you had to leave the "fan zone" and enter the festival area, which should have been easy as they were next to each other. Except of course it wasn't, as that was considered "no entry" so one had to walk around the fenced off block.

Then the small Team BAR half-stall was as packed as Oxford Street on Christmas Eve and had as little stock. There were many sailing enthusiasts with questions about when they'd get some more and whether there was any other place selling (say) AC clothing, to which the staff knew nothing.

They weren't alone. I asked a policeman if he knew if there was a way out by the stage and he had no idea. His fellow officer didn't either but she had a map so we three had a look and found out that yes there was another exit.

But given that the police would be responsible in an emergency to direct the public this lack of information was a bit disturbing.

Maybe we were spoiled by the wonderful Olympics.

There was plenty of time in the queues to talk to neighbours and the contrast in organisation between the two was a conversation topic that came up again and again.

The only resource that seemed over supplied and hence empty were the bars:

Hmmm..... did the organisers make the mistake of giving Buff a job?

The ACWS at Portsmouth

It even looks like the rain might stop for the day - cool!

The Westeros Cup: The Hall of Memories

"And this is the Hall of Memories" said Sam, candle in hand.

Gilly looked around, intrigued.

"All these books" she said.

"And drawings" said Sam. "Records of the greatest ever yachts to enter the Westeros Cup. Each tells a story."

Gilly looked at the first, a gaff rigged cutter. "So what happ'n to 'em?"

"They won" said Sam. "But then the crew were kissed with poisonous lipstick and they all died."

"Oh."

She moved onto the next, an elegant catamaran in what looked like tropical waters.

"And this?"

"It would have won, but was attacked by a dragon and burnt to the water-line, along with the crew".

She made a face, but then cheered up at sight of a lovingly drawn picture of a young girl sailing a tiny dinghy.

"Oh, she's so sweet! Not dragon fire I hope?"

Sam made a face. "No, not a dragon" and steered her onwards.

The next was a noble yacht, schooner rig with a giant stag on its sail.

"So what happened here?" she asked.

"On the final leg of the deciding race they turned the windward mark first and thought they had it in the bag. Then the other yacht rammed into them, boarded, and slew all of them."

It was Gilly's turn to make a face.

"Every race, they seem to end the same."

"Not the same, this wasn't dragon fire. Swords, daggers and lances...." his voice trailed off.

There was one drawing left, of a yacht with darkened timbers and the sign of the Night's Watch.

"Oooh, did you sail this one?" asked Gilly.

"Was that baby Sam?" asked Sam.

"I didn't hear anything."

"You better go and check."

She left, leaving Sam alone, staring at the yacht with darkened timbers. Outside the light was fading.

The silence was broken by the craw of a crow.

"Never more" it cried and the candle flickered and went out.

Sam was alone in the cold with his thoughts as dark as night.

Winter is coming.



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