I’ve never been a sailor, other than an occasional rental, but I’ve always thought it a beautiful sport.  While I normally don’t follow racing at all, I somehow became hooked on the America’s Cup competition about 35 years ago.  I don’t remember why – maybe because I had dear friends in New Zealand and we “trash talked” each other every four years as New Zealand tried to claim the Cup.

When Oracle Team USA won in 2009 and changed the design rules from large mono-hulls to catamarans that seem to fly on their foils, I first objected to such a radical departure from 160 years of tradition.  But after watching the incredible final series in San Francisco on TV in 2013, I changed my mind.  Debra and I decided we had to go to see some of the 2017 races which were to be held Bermuda.

We stayed with good friends and went to the finals of the Louis Vuitton challenger series between Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) and Artemis Team Sweden.  The winner (best of 9) would go on to face Oracle USA in the finals.  We, for a number of reasons, were pulling for ETNZ to go all the way.  But just before we arrived in Bermuda, NZ “pitchpoled” spectacularly the start of a semifinal race.  No one was hurt, but considerable damage was done to the Kiwi boat.  Here’s some news footage on the accident: 

Our friends in New Zealand managed to get us an invitation to the Team NZ compound on their first race day.  The work the team had done to get the boat back in condition for the challenger finals was impressive. We got to see the team and their operations up close and were even invited on the Kiwi spectator boat. 

With The Cup

Sailboat racing is one of those sports that is better watched on television since it’s hard to tell who’s in the lead – but we enjoyed the entire week of excitement.  And we were especially thrilled that ETNZ went on to upset Oracle and win the Cup in convincing fashion.  After one of the race days, Debra caught Peter Burling (the now-famous young helmsman) walking by and had him pose for a photo. 

With Peter Burling

The great Grant Dalton

I happened to video the ending of the most exciting race of the entire series.  New Zealand was well in the lead, but 100 meters from the finish, made a bad gybe and lost all speed.  Sweden came on strong and seemed to have the race won, but had to make one final gybe to miss hitting the finish mark.  ETNZ won by a whisker!