BMW Oracle America's Cup Winner February 14, 2010 (Photo by Jose Jordan/America's Cup)
BMW Ocacle has fufilled a dream James Spithill, Larry Ellison, Russell Coutts , The BMW Oracle Racing Team and America as they win back the America’s Cup. For the first time in a Deed Of Gift race the challenger wins.. The one hundred and fifty nine year old cup has found her way back to America.
BMW Oracle wins by 5 minutes and 26 seconds.
Alinghi cross the finish line 5 minutes and 26 seconds after USA. The Swiss team were 24 seconds behind off the start line, 28 seconds behind at WW 1 mark, 2mins 44 secs behind at the gybe mark, Mark 2.
US challenger Oracle giant trimaran (R) and Swiss defender Alinghi huge catamaran sail at the start of the second race of the 33rd America's Cup on February 14, 2010 off Valencia's coast. Alinghi are in a must win situation after their catamaran suffered a heavy loss in the opener -- a 40-nautical-mile windward-leeward course -- of the best-of-three series against Oracle's wing-sailed trimaran. (Photo by Jaime Reina)
BMW ORACLE Racing, the American challenger, representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club, won the 33rd America’s Cup Match on Sunday in Valencia, sweeping past the Swiss defender, Alinghi, to a 2-0 victory.
This was an historic race for the oldest trophy in international sport, featuring two of the most innovative boats on the planet. BMW ORACLE Racing’s trimaran, USA, powered by the largest wing sail ever built, proved to be the faster of the two multihulls, overpowering Alinghi’s catamaran in both races.
Today marks the culmination of the San Francisco team’s 10-year quest for the America’s Cup, sailing’s pinnacle event. Founded by Larry Ellison (USA), the team is led by CEO Russell Coutts (NZL), now a four time Cup winner, and James Spithill (AUS), the skipper and helmsman of USA.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Spithill. “The amount of work the whole team has put into this boat and now to go two races without any issues – you just have to hand it to the shore guys, the boatbuilders and all of the support team and designers.
They gave us an awesome tool.”“It’s absolutely an awesome feeling,” added Larry Ellison. “I’m really proud to be part of this team. I couldn’t be more proud.”
Alinghi and BMW Oracle In Race 2 (Photo by Gilles Martin-Raget/BMW Oracle Racing)
After a long postponement on Sunday afternoon, racing started at 16:25 in 7-8 knots of wind.
There was an unusual start to the race, with Alinghi entering the start box very late. In fact, they were on the wrong side of the start box at the 5-minute gun, forcing the Umpires to assess a penalty. BMW ORACLE Racing started with more speed, but Alinghi held held the right hand side of the race course and prospered early when the wind shifted to the right. At one point, the advantage line was as big as 600-meters to the Swiss. But before the top mark, the BMW ORACLE Racing crew made a perfect layline call. After tacking on the line to the mark, BMW ORACLE Racing saw Alinghi cross ahead, but cede the inside position at the mark to USA, and that was all the advantage the challenger would need to lead around the mark by 28 seconds. From then onwards, the powerful USA boat extended its lead, to cross the finishing line ahead by 5.26.
“It was an awesome race. It was touch and go,” Spithill said. “We didn’t see that shift going as far right as it did and that made it pretty exciting early on.”
At one point, Alinghi was flying a red protest flag, but the team quickly confirmed after finishing there would be no protest.
With the win, BMW ORACLE Racing becomes the first U.S. challenger to win the Match since Dennis Conner hoisted the Cup with his Stars & Stripes team in Fremantle, Australia in 1987. Today also marks the first win for an American team since 1992 when Bill Koch’s America3 successfully defended the Cup in San Diego.
BMW ORACLE Racing crew list for Race Two of the 33rd America’s Cup:
Brad Webb (NZL) – Bowman – 1st America’s Cup win
Simone de Mari (ITA) – Pitman – 1st America’s Cup win
Ross Halcrow (NZL) – Jib Trimmer – 2nd America’s Cup win (1995, 2010)
Dirk de Ridder (NED) – Wing Sail Trimmer – 1st America’s Cup win
Joey Newton (AUS) – Wing Sail Caddy – 1st America’s Cup win
John Kostecki (USA) – Tactician – 1st America’s Cup win
James Spithill (AUS) – Skipper/Helmsman – 1st America’s Cup win
Matteo Plazzi (ITA) – Navigator – 1st America’s Cup win
Thierry Fouchier (FRA) – Aft Pit – 1st America’s Cup win
Matthew Mason (NZL) – Mast – 3rd America’s Cup win (1995, 2000, 2010)
Larry Ellison (USA) – Afterguard – 1st America’s Cup win
Alinghi 5 Racing crew list for Race Two of the 33rd America’s Cup:
Crew List
Bow 1: Piet van Nieuwenhuijzen (NED)
Bow 2: Curtis Blewett (CAN)
Bow 3: Jan Dekker (RSA/FRA)
Pitman: Rodney Ardern (NZL)
Trimmer upwind: Simon Daubney (NZL)
Trimmer downwind: Nils Frei (SUI)
Mainsail trimmer: Warwick Fleury (NZL)
Traveller: Pierre-Yves Jorand (SUI)
Helmsman: Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI)
Tactician: Brad Butterworth (NZL)
Strategist: Murray Jones (NZL)
Navigator: Juan Vila (ESP)
Floater: Loïck Peyron (FRA)
Pre-start: Peter Evans (NZL
BMW Oracle and Alinghi 5 (Photo by Gilles Martin-Raget/BMW Oracle)
Brief History of the America’s Cup
The America’s Cup is the world’s oldest continually contested trophy in any sport. In 1851 the New York Yacht Club sailboat America beat 15 British boats from the Royal Yacht Squadron, thus beginning the America’s Cup race history. The British challenged in 1870, but the Cup remained at the victorious New York Yacht Club. For roughly the next hundred years, every challenger was beaten in Cup races held every three to five years, first in New York, then in Newport.
In 1983 the Americans lost to the Australian team, and the Cup left the United States for the first time. In 1987 the American team under Dennis Connor brought the Cup back home, where it remained until New Zealand took it in 1995. In 2003 the Swiss team took it from New Zealand, kept it through the challenge in 2007, and is now being challenged by the American team BMW ORACLE.
BMW Oracle and Alinghi 5 Battle for the America's Cup (Photo by Gilles Martin-Raget/BMW Oracle)
Through almost 160 years of racing, the America’s Cup boats have undergone various design changes, and legal challenges have been waged over design elements as controlled by the original and amended Deed of Gift, the document that governs the race. Almost all races, however, have involved monohull sailboats of equivalent size and general design—with two highly notable exceptions. In 1988 the San Diego team of Dennis Connor defended with a catamaran, which easily beat New Zealand’s monohull, leading to a number of court battles and appeals concerning the legality of a catamaran, finally ending with the Americans keeping the Cup. The next five races involved more traditional matched monohulls, in the design often now called the “America’s Cup Class boats.” The 2010 race will again involve multihulls, a trimaran challenging a catamaran—the first race of its kind in the long history of the Cup. Despite the poor publicity the race received throughout 2009 because of repeated court battles, the race in February 2010 promises to be fast and dramatic and, Cup supporters hope, to restore the international prestige of this historic competition.
US challenger Oracle giant trimaran (R) and Swiss defender Alinghi huge catamaran (L) sail at the start of the opening race of the 33rd America's Cup off Valencia (Photo by Jose Jordan/AFP Photo)
American challenger BMW Oracle Racing recovered from a mistake in the dramatic first few minutes and literally flew to a lead of 3 minutes, 21 seconds over defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland after the first leg of Race 1 of the America’s Cup.
The 90-foot boats, the trimaran USA with its radical wing sail and the catamaran Alinghi 5, provided a thrilling start Friday to a regatta that had been stalled by a bitter, 2 1/2-year court fight between two of the world’s richest men.
A USA BMW Oracle Fan (Photo by Eduardo Ripoll/33rd America's Cup)
After Race 1 was delayed on Monday and Wednesday, USA and Alinghi sped south across the Mediterranean Sea on a course paralleling the Spanish coast on a clear, cold day. The fastest, most technologically advanced boats in the 159-year history of the America’s Cup, they hit approximately 22 knots in just 6 or 7 knots of wind.
When skipper Jimmy Spithill of Australia got the triple-hulled monster USA cranked up, the windward hull flew some 20 feet out of the water.
BMW Oracle Takes Off (Photo by Jose Jordán/AFP/33rd America's Cup)
Owned by Silicon Valley maverick Larry Ellison, USA rebounded from a deficit of 660 meters at the start and overhauled the Swiss sailing upwind, building a lead of about 1,200 meters approaching the end of the 20-mile first leg.
There was a light swell, with waves of about half a metre that rolled upwind which sailing experts said would be easier on both boats on the upwind leg.
The two boats — the biggest and fastest entries in the 159-year history of the Cup, sailing’s most prestigious trophy — are capable of sailing at three times the speed of the wind, meaning the race could last between two and four hours.
Wind speeds can be dramatically different at the top of the gaint boats from that at sea level.
Stronger winds higher up would give Oracle, which is three storeys higher than Alinghi, an edge.
The US side has an innovative solid vertical wingspan of 68 metres is more than twice the length of the wing of a Boeing 747.
The race starting signal had originally been set for 10 am but organisers delayed it in the hope that weather conditions for the race would improve.
Alinghi's President Swiss Ernesto Bertarelli waits for the start of the opening race of the 33rd America's Cup (Photo by Jamie Reina/ AFP Photo/America's Cup)
The 33rd America’s Cup opener was originally set for Monday but was called off due to weak winds which frequently shifted direction.
The America’s Cup has traditionally been run in monohulls but this year for the first time both sides will sail multihulls in a rare head-to-head duel after the two sides failed to agree on the rules for a conventional regatta involving several teams.
It is also the first time that the competition is being held in a Northern Hemisphere winter, another one of the outcomes of the convoluted legal battle between Oracle and Alinghi.
Alinghi became the first European winner of the America’s Cup in 2003 in what was its first attempt and then succeeded in defending it in Valencia in July 2007, when summertime breezes are stronger and more consistent.
BMW Oracle Returns To Base After Day 1 Racing Cancelled (Photo by Gareth Evans)
by Gareth Evans
Race day 1 started light, but the forecast promised winds would increase. Bryan Willis, the British representative on the America’s Cup International Jury, was confident that racing would go ahead. Matt Sheahan of Yachting World magazine, a renowned expert on Valencia weather, was forecasting 8 knots, with possibly 14 knots during squally showers. Unfortunately the weather failed to cooperate.
Racing was officially cancelled at 1350 Valencia time.
Within the America’s Cup village, the area in front of the large screen was packed with standing room only. The lucky few that arrived early had managed to find seats. The crowds were entertained with music & acrobats, and videos of the America’s Cup final from 2007 shown on the screen. Large groups of school children were brought along to enjoy the America’s Cup experience.
BMW Oracle Returns to Base (Photo by Gareth Evans)
Following racing I was very kindly granted access to the BMW Oracle Racing base, hidden deep within the Port away from prying eyes. Shortly after arriving at the base, USA-17 emerged from the rain. A number of ribs went out to meet her, and brought her onto her mooring buoy. The wing is left standing during normal weather conditions, so she sits on a swinging mooring allowing her to move with the wind. The wing is breathtaking, and even more impressive in real life.
BMW Oracle Rib Lifting Sails (Photo by Gareth Evans)
The BMW Oracle genoas weigh about 200kg each – that is why they use a lifting beam. The main sail – before the wing went up – was about 600kg.
The race crew were still on board, and assisted with the de-rigging of the boat. A RIB brought Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts ashore. Ellison immediately boarded another tender which took him to his private yacht, anchored in the distance just outside the port. He has a view of USA-17 at all times from his yacht. When asked how the days sailing was, Russell Coutts replied “Good for us”, implying the suspected dominance of Alinghi in lighter airs.
Whilst at the BMW Oracle base I was afforded a close look at the Racers Edge wind measurement binoculars. They were sitting on a sofa in a large protective case, with Racers Edge emblazoned on the lid. They work in two modes. The first measures wind at 400m, 700m and 1000m distances from your location. The second mode measures wind speed vertically through a 40 degree arc at a distance of 400m from the boat. They communicate with the yacht’s on board computer system via Bluetooth, allowing a 3-dimensional image of wind speed to be calculated. At $150,000 a pair I did not ask if I could hold them!
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