America's Cup, Part 1
** I apologize in advance for all of the upcoming America’s Cup posts. We’re not sports people: we don’t watch football, rugby, basketball, baseball, cricket, soccer, or anything else. But we sail, and my husband loves to race, so this is like the Super Bowl, Wimbledon, and the Soccer World Cup rolled into one. Even better, if the wind is just right and the racing officials pick the right course, we can see the races right out of our window. So to say that there’s a mild America’s Cup obsession right now would be appropriate. Plus, Auckland isn’t called the City of Sails for no reason. There is a huge sailing culture here, and we find that to be part of the appeal of the city. **
This past Thursday through Sunday was the beginning of the America’s Cup boats showing off their racing skills. To clarify, this was not the actual race for the America’s Cup which starts on March 6, 20201, but the World Series (Thursday through Saturday) and the Christmas Cup (Sunday, sort of). Even if you are not a sailor, the America’s Cup is a VERY BIG DEAL and it is helpful to have some background knowledge if you’re interested in life and culture in New Zealand.
First, a little history. The inaugural match for the America’s Cup was in 1851, making it the oldest international sports trophy. Contrary to what you might think, is not named for America the country, but America, a 101 foot schooner built by a conglomerate from the New York Yachting Club. At the time, the cup was named the R.Y.S. £100 Cup, but after the owners of America donated the cup to NYYC to be a perpetual challenge trophy, it was renamed. And TBH, America’s Cup is much easier to say. For 132 years the trophy stayed in New York until the Australians won in 1983 with a first-ever winged keel monohull, Australia II.
The rules surrounding the boats used and races have changed over the years. It’s a bit long and complicated with hefty legal fees and even heftier boat building costs, but here’s the Cliff’s Notes version of where everything stands now:
The event happens about every four years. It all depends on who is defending the Cup and who becomes the Challenger of Record (COR).
Historically, defenders get a lot of advantages. Challengers used to have to sail to the race site (picked by the defender, naturally) under their own power, which meant they had to have heavier boats that could survive an ocean passage. This rule doesn’t apply anymore, but now defenders get to make decisions on new boat designs. For this America’s Cup, there are 62 pages of guidelines that must be followed with the boat design, but there is still a lot of leeway for engineers to get creative and push boat design further. This means that the America’s Cup is half an engineering challenge and half a sailing skill challenge.
This year, the boats are a new design and called AC75s that are foiling monohulls. That means there is one hull (as opposed to catamarans or trimarans which have two and three respectively) and they have foils that launch the boats out of the water and into the air. This is not sailing like you’d see on vacation. It is much faster and much more technical.
There are four boats competing:
Emirates Team New Zealand (the defender) - New Zealand won the last America’s Cup in 2013 against Oracle’s Team USA. Unlike many of the other teams, this one doesn’t have a primary wealthy backer and has many corporate sponsors, like Emirates, Omega, The Market, McDonald’s, etc. The same helmsman as the 2017 race, Peter Burling, will be back in his position to defend the cup.
Luna Rosa (Challenger of Record) - This Italian challenger is primarily funded by Patrizio Bertelli, the CEO of the Prada group. Pirelli, the tire company, is also a named sponsor. The Australian skipper, three time America’s Cup participant and two time winner, Jimmy Spitthill, is at the helm.
American Magic (USA) - This team is funded by Roger Penske, of race car fame, and Doug DeVos, owner of Quantum sails, former CEO of Amway and brother-in-law to a certain Betsy DeVos who doesn’t quite understand how public education in America works. The American boat is helmed by a Kiwi, Dean Barker, who was at the helm when New Zealand unsuccessfully challenged Team Oracle in 2013 for the Cup. In 2015, Barker turned down a shore role on Team New Zealand when the Kiwis wanted to bring in a new helmsman (Burling). This story surely needs to be made into some sort of soap-opera-y movie.
Ineos Team UK - The British team is backed by Jim Ratcliffe, the UK’s richest man and founder of the petrochemical manufacturer INEOS. Sir Ben Ainslie is at the helm, and he is the world’s most decorated Olympic sailor.
The fleet of challengers must first battle each other in the Prada Cup Challenger Series, aka the World Series. This will take place in January and February of 20201. The winner of this series will go on to race against the defender, New Zealand, in a best-of-nine battle for the America’s Cup.
So what happened this weekend? Thursday through Saturday the teams all raced each other multiple times in the World Series. These were demonstration races and don’t hold any weight when it comes to winning the Cup. The World Series is an opportunity for the crews to practice racing, learn more about how their boats work, and give spectators a good show. Unfortunately, many of the expected spectators can’t travel to New Zealand now because of covid, but the local crowd was very excited to watch everything.
There are lots of ways to watch the races. In Auckland, there is a huge America’s Cup Village that has two giant screens down by the viaduct. If you have a boat (or better yet - a friend with a boat) you can be part of the spectator fleet and anchor outside of the day’s racing course. The day’s course is announced before 10:30 in the morning, so there is plenty of time to get a good spot before the afternoon races. Depending on the chosen course, there may be a fabulous viewing spot on shore. There were lots of people at Kennedy Park on the North Shore watching course A on Saturday and Sunday. If you’re not interested or able to watch in person, it is simple to watch the livestream on YouTube. TBH, even when we could see the races from our house, we also had the livestream on because the commentary was great and the extra graphics that showed distances and boat movement were excellent.
By the end of the first day, I think most people had the impression that Team New Zealand was clearly the team to beat, but would be challenged by the American boat. In third, the Italians, and in fourth, the Brits. Ineos nearly didn’t race because of boat issues, but they ended up giving it a shot… And failing pretty miserably. The first impression held, and by the end of the World Series the results were:
On Sunday the boats were supposed to participate in a Christmas Cup race, but the wind died and the boats in the first race (New Zealand and Ineos) couldn’t finish in the 45 minute time limit. After multiple delays, the Christmas Cup was canceled and won’t be reschedule. That means that the Kiwi team goes into the new year as the favorites to keep the Cup, and some of us are pretty excited about that!
