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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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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*.
Its "late night" in Colorado when the racing is in effect down under on the
opposite side and hemisphere of the globe. Thank goodness for satellite
relay coverage. (it digitally "cubes" out a bit now and then)
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. Then the
announcers commented that $750,000 just evaporated. And the further shock
is they have a spare in port. Can you imagine!! And you complained about
having to pay the cost of replacing and shipping your potter mast for a few
hundred.
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.
Its exicing to watch these crews at work as the Gybe around, Pulling down a
spinnaker and hoisting a jib. or vice versa when they lower the the jib and
inflate those glorious spinnakers. The whisker poles alone are about the
thickness of my thigh--very large for my sailing reality.
The best part is especially since its winter here in colorado, where else
do you get a chance to see live sailing, with all that action and such.
Its a great fix for me.
There is more info on the web at:
www.stars-stripes.com and at www.americascup.org
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???
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.
Tune in!!!
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jan 31 2000 - 03:27:05 PST