- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> A little late night insomnia last night, so watched the ESPN coverage of
> the America's Cup 2000. The event is going on NOW! 13 miles off of
> Auckland, New Zealand. And let me tell you, its *exciting*.
yes, i watched it to. very cool. This isn't the actual cup, AFAIK, but its
the series to determine who gets to go for it.
> These boats are amazing. They are long and sleek, with 16 person crews.
> And very high masts. There has been some "carnage" as they call it.
> Yesterday I watched in amazement as the carbon fiber mast of the Italian
> boat "Prada" snapped in 1/2 in the middle of a race run.
Prada was an early favorite too, very well financed.
> Another highlight showed a huge spinnaker that ripped horizontally in 1/2
> under stress. It was amazing. Winds were running about 12-15 knts with 1
> foot seas--realatively calm. Still another, the Italians (or was it the
> french) rammed into the stern of the USA's "Stars and Stripes" during a
> race as they approaced the turning buoy. They put sticky back fabric over
> the rip crack to patch it in race while underway.
I want some of that stuff! i wonder what exactly it was? A tube of that
under a quarterberth would be handy in an emergency.
> One thing I haven't figured out is how they get these boats to the race
> course from around the world. do they ship them there (theyre very long,
> and with 15 foot deep keels) do they manufacture them there, tow them
> there? Fly them in in parts and assemble them there???
I presume they ship 'em on container ships or something like that. I can't
imagine they'd risk towing 'em.
> Stars and Stripes is based in NYC yacht club. San Francisco has two USA
> entries "America One" and "America True" with the St. Francis yacht club.
> Japan "Nippon", France, and Italy "Prada" have formidible entries. Also
> does Australia.
I was a little surprised (and thrilled) to see Dennis Connor's single-boat
program "Stars and stripes" kicking everyone's butt, while most other teams
are two-boat programs. Sure would be cool if he won the cup a fourth time.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jan 31 2000 - 03:27:05 PST