Gather ’round and let’s review:
Rule 237B.2 You never want the mast to go but once you realize it’s going you want it gone baby gone.
Rule 237B.3 When you drive in to a regata in México and you’re passing Federale trucks with mounted machine guns, El Presidente, Felipe Calderón, really did show this time.
Rule 237B.4 [...]
Bora in the air. Photo by Amory Ross
So Bora Gulari answers his mobile and he doesn’t mind that I called, but he says, “Can I call you back in five? I’ve got this bondo that’s ready to kick.”
The man is the ace in the hottest development class going. What do you expect?
On Friday [...]
I was relieved to come away from visiting Plastiki with the sense that, yeah, this can come out OK. It might even be important.
Photo by Kimball Livingston
Most people have heard something of Plastiki by now. Being heir to a name like Rothschild confers an automatic celebrity and resources, and it’s not just any old [...]
What just happened in Valencia wasn’t an America’s Cup as we used to know it, or want to see it again. It was a rescue mission, something of a raid. A successful raid. Leading to this happy moment at City Hall, San Francisco.
Reception at City Hall. Photo by Gilles Martin-Raget/BOR
Having registered with the [...]
I see Ernesto Bertarelli, ex-Defender of America’s Cup, quoted as saying that he might challenge again, “if the rules are fair,” which might be the tone-deaf statement of the year. Does the man not realize what just happened?
Meanwhile, I’m off to Sausalito to have a close-up gander at David Rothschild’s Plastiki. On my way out [...]
What does it mean to have an Italian Challenger of Record for America’s Cup 34? Let’s start with spirit, enthusiasm, gusto, sport pursued con brio. Vincenzo Onorato’s Mascalzone Latino team was one of four (yes, four) Italian entries in the 2007 Cup, and the game was more fun while the Italians were in it.
Expect [...]
Photo by Guilain Grenier/BOR
The struggling Defender crossed the finish line flying a protest flag—5 minutes 26 seconds in arrears in a graying twilight, temperatures dropping (what, you forgot gloves?) —but the second and final race of the 33rd America’s Cup match will be remembered as a second drubbing by the high-tech challenger of a team [...]
It wouldn’t be fair to say the mood was gloomy as Alinghi 5 docked out on Sunday morning to face match point in America’s Cup 33. It would, however, be fair to say that the crowd was thin. The resolve of the team and the cheers of family did not match the restrained ebullience in [...]
You know it’s early in Race 1 if Alinghi is ahead © Gilles Martin-Raget/BOR
It’s cold in Valencia the day after Race One, threatening rain, windy and gray and gloomy. Time to go sailing. No, not the crew of the catamaran Alinghi 5, seen here, where “re-mode” would be the theme, perhaps with a tinge [...]
USA steaming along © KL
The advantage shifted twice in the prestart, then the Defender got away first by more than a minute, which in these boats is a huge distance. But. USA passed Alinghi 5 less than 15 minutes into the first race of America’s Cup 33, and from there the challenger never looked [...]