Oracle 1 and Oracle 2 - Which is which?

by Chuck Lantz on 20 Aug 2013 When the fog comes in, or the wind's too high, or expensive bits fail to do the job they were intended to do in this edition of the Louis Vuitton and America's cup, one of the pastimes of the spectators is to try and guess which is which when both of the defending team's Oracle AC72 boats are on the water.

For reasons known only to the inner sanctum at Team Oracle, they have gone to great lengths to make telling one boat from the other as difficult as possible for the casual viewer, especially at any distance. While it could be argued that confusing the competition is the goal, the competition is not made up of dummies. By now, they can tell at a glance which boat is Oracle #1 and which is Oracle #2.

To begin with, calling them #1 and #2 can be confusing in itself, since the first boat built by Oracle would logically be called 'boat #1', and the second one built would be 'boat #2'. Except in this case, since the second boat built is most likely the boat that will race the winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup in the America's Cup finals, it is often referred to as 'boat one.' Confused? Welcome to the club.

To makes things even more confusing, both boats have identical markings, paint and sponsor logos. During the early stages, when both boats were out testing and practicing against each other, one boat had a slightly thicker black stringer just above a logo on the wing sail. But after one media outlet mentioned that this was a simple way to tell the two boats apart, the thicker stringer vanished literally overnight, replaced with one identical to its sister AC72.

So, to help identify one Oracle boat from the other, Sail-World has put together this photo essay, shot by Chuck Lantz, to help ease the confusion.