Kia ora!
The Louis Vuitton America's Cup sailing race, happening right now in San Francisco Bay, is an event for billionaires and sports fans. There are few challengers to take on America's entry this year, the BMW Oracle: only Italy, Sweden, and New Zealand will vie to take on the Americans. It became America's Cup when the American vessel won a yachting race around the Isle of Wight against several British boats in 1851. This contest is the oldest trophy still active in international sport. (Information from several entries in Wikipedia.)
I live on a Minnesota lake in the summer but don't sail, in central Texas I am landlocked, but I'm a bit of a sucker for any kind of sporting contest. NZ TV One News is streaming the race live. Watch videos and live streaming of America's Cup here.
How is a tiny country like New Zealand so prominent over the years in this rather exclusive race? They made a successful challenge in 1995 and won the cup. This country is surrounded by water. No one got here, including those superb sailors the Maori, except by ship. The NZ entry for this race the Emirates Team New Zealand boat, is named New Zealand Aotearoa. As with the rest of the boats, there are multiple corporate sponsors.
The prelims have been happening for some time. The NZ boat has done very well, earning the right to skip any more prelims and go directly to the final. This gives them 3 weeks to work on increasing their speed while the Italians and Swedes battle to join the final.
These boats (America's Cup AC72 class) are built as wing sail catamarans; they lift up out of the water on hydrofoils. At full speed they look like boats sailing through the air with only poles stabilizing them in the water. They are unlike any sailing vessels before them and extremely expensive to build. Sailing them is not for the faint of heart; the Swedes lost one of their crew in a sailing accident on their boat in the build-up to the races. Rescue boats are on the water near the contenders each time they are racing.
There are some great still photos of the boats, but they are copyrighted photos on Flickr that I can't copy. But you can see them for yourself.
Keep sailing,
Kiwi Traveler
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment