The Race that wasn't got sailed on Sunday in the Louis Vuitton Cup
by Richard Gladwell on 9 Jul 2013
ETNZ passes a newly designed mark. The original marks were manned powerboats. - America’s Cup Chuck Lantz
http://www.ChuckLantz.com
America´s Cup 2013 - The race that wasn't, got sailed on Sunday in the Louis Vuitton Cup.
An inauspicious start - but harking back to the same occasion in 2007, we had to wait for six days to get the first race away, due to light winds. This was in Valencia where we were promised plenty of wind every day - after Auckland copped it for the same transgression in 2003.
Yes the wind turned up in San Francisco, but the Italians didn't - keeping their principles uncompromised ahead of the International Jury Hearing today and tomorrow.
Emirates Team New Zealand turned on a sailing show blitzing around the seven leg course in just over 40 minutes for the quickest race in an America's Cup ever. And on the final short leg to the finish the team hit speeds in excess of 40kts - believed to be a speed faster than an America’s Cup yacht has ever sailed - in training or a race - and that includes Oracle BMW Racings 120ft trimaran of the 2010 America's Cup fame.
While the race lacked an opponent it didn't lack for spectacle, and being able to see an AC72 sailing at full speed for 40 minutes from a variety of camera angles including a helicopter, was not to be missed.
Technically it was fascinating. Overlaid with a race, the coverage will go up another level again - and then there is audio and more camera angles on and off the boats, to come.
In our latest this edition of Sail-World newsletters we have a multitude of stories, images and video as we gear up our America's Cup coverage.
The doyen of sailing correspondents, Bob Fisher leads the coverage with his take on the days events. For sure there could have been ways around the Luna Rossa impasse - by changing the race schedule to use one of the Artemis Racing no-show days - and delaying this race until after the Jury Hearing.
Today the focus shifts to the Jury Room, where the applications by Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa will be held. If these were Optimists, it would be a very short hearing, in our view. But Optimists it ain't, and there are the usual plays and posturing behinds the scenes as to the consequences of various outcomes.
But as anyone who has ever sat on a Jury will know, considering consequences of a decision is a very fraught business, and the only way to handle the Hearing, is to consider the case on its merits, find the facts, apply the rules and the Decision is clear and something to be proud of.
What everyone looks forward to is the Louis Vuitton Cup being what it always has been - a keenly fought competition. And with Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand we have the sight of the two most experienced teams in the Challenger ranks in the history of the Louis Vuitton Cup, going head to head in the fastest boats ever sailed in the event.
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