America's Cup, Part 2
This past weekend was the first for the Prada Cup - the challengers’ series that will determine who gets the honor of competing against Team New Zealand for the America’s Cup. There are four round robins leading up to a semi-final and final round. Two round robin circuits are held on each of two weekends. The next set will run from February 22-24. The semi-finals are held on the 29-2 and the finals are held on the 13th-22nd.
There was a lot of excitement leading up to this weekend, we couldn’t wait to see how the Italians and American’s would do. We didn’t have much hope for the Brits to show well after their lackluster appearance in the Christmas Cup. On Friday I didn’t intend to watch much because it was INEOS racing twice, but I’m glad I did because holy smokes, the British team destroyed the other two boats!
But Saturday was the day I was really looking forward to because the Americans were scheduled to race twice. We decided to be a part of the spectator fleet and watch from the water. We loaded up our gear, headed to the boat, and made our way to the edge of the race course with about thirty minutes to spare. The race coordinators were very particular about where everyone was dropping anchor. One boat just next to us had to move four times before the race committee was satisfied that they were on the proper side of the line. This, fortunately, worked in our favor as they started off blocking our view. By the time they found their proper spot, we had front row seats! I put together a short vlog of our adventure here:
We were surrounded by hundreds of boats. On one side of us was boat my husband races against. When we raised all of our flags and burgees, we got quite a bit of heckling from them for having an obnoxiously large American flag at the top of our mast. On our other side, we had what I can only describe as a frat-boy boat. There was a lot of music, beer, and peeing off the stern. While it was a little annoying, it was also fun to have a party right next door.
Alas, the American Magic team couldn’t quite pull it together, and it was disappointing that the US struggled so much and didn’t win either of the races. At first I was generally sad, but then I saw the press for the day, and any sense of pride I had in being an American at the America’s Cup was gone: the picture on the front of the news stories was of a power boat decked out with American flags and bunting and a guy dressed up in horns and brown pants à la the Qanon shaman nut job. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since Doug DeVos is partial owner of the team, but I had naively thought that maybe this sporting event could transcend American politics.
Sunday was the most exciting day of all, however. First, the newspapers tracked down the shaman wannabe and NAMED him. I won’t do it here because I don’t want to give him any more publicity, but I would recommend checking on the history of any real estate agent before working with them.
Second, the third day racing was fast, unlike Saturday when the winds were light and puffy. In the first race, INEOS once again proved they had overcome their Christmas Cup problems and dominated in the race against the Italians. The second race, Italy vs. the US, was the crazy one. The US was ahead as they approached the gate on the fifth leg, when a tricky manouveur combined with a huge gust picked the boat out of the air, followed by the boat capsizing. And nearly sinking. This is as high-drama as it gets in sailboat racing. I found a quick video that shows the whole thing plus some of the difficulty the boat faced afterwards:
The Americans are out of the race next week, but they say they are hoping to be able to race in the semi-finals to have a shot at winning the cup. We will all wait anxiously to see if that happens. Part of me thinks this is karmic retribution for the Qanon guy prancing about the day before…
