Some of you may know that I am a HUGE sailing fan. I think it stems from my childhood when we had a 11'6" Snark Wildflower and used to strap it on top of our VW bus, drive down to 15th Street in Balboa, drop it in the water, and sail it around Balboa Bay. Snark Wildflowers were made completely out of foam with a thin Corlite covering (ours was black), so they were virtually unsinkable. The wide hull shape also made them almost untippable (Gene even tried to get it to tip, with Carol in the boat!). It had a gigantic aluminum spar for a boat that little and a wood and aluminum tiller. The daggerboard was solid mahogany with an aluminum plate to keep it from slipping all the way through the boat and it felt heavier than the hull itself when you picked it up. Plus, being made out of foam, we kids could hand launch it with my dad no problem. I'll always remember sitting on that dock in the evening, waiting for my turn, and watching the So Cal sunset into the ocean. Those were the days.
Because I like to test the limits of the internet sometimes, here are some pictures of a Snark Wildflower that is just like our old boat (except ours was black). They should bring back some vivid memories to my older sisters and dad, as well as billions of mosquitos that were born in the hull while it sat in our yard.
Now I am absolutely obsessed with a few different yachting events, but none more intensely than the America's Cup. If you don't know about the America's Cup, you should really make an effort to learn. Not only is it the oldest trophy in the sporting world, but it has the richest history of any competition in sports. It began with a challenge to our young country from the Royal Yacht Squadron to a race around the Isle of Wight in conjunction with the Great London Exhibition of 1851. As a prize, the RYS offered what was then known as the "100 Guinea Cup." The Exhibition was meant to be a display of technology, and one way that England thought it could show it's technical superiority was to include sailing--something that England had dominated throughout the world for centuries. The U.S. accepted the challenge and the newly formed New York Yacht Club built a 90-foot schooner and named it America. When they sailed her across the ocean for the race, they immediately set a new TransAtlantic record. The race itself wasn't even close and America beat 14 other English boats to win the 'Auld Mug.' Part of the reason this was so significant was that we were a fledgling country with our own serious internal issues in 1851 and we beat the Brits at one of their biggest strengths. And this wasn't just for yachties and bragging rights. Having the best sailing technology spoke directly to the strength and potential of your economy, since that is how goods/armies/people were shipped around the world back then. This also gave rise to the anectodal story of Queen Victoria who, when told that America had won the race, asked who came second, and was famously told "Your Majesty, there was no second." The cup was renamed the America's Cup after the winning ship. Isn't she beautiful?
The winning syndicate deeded the Cup to the NYYC as a "Perpetual Challenge Cup to promote friendly competition between foreign countries." It was stipulated that the NYYC had to defend the cup against any challenge, which it successfully did for 132 years, the longest winning streak in any sport, by a mile. During that period there were great stories of drama and intrigue, huge personalities (Lipton, Sopwith, Vanderbilt) that sought and defended the cup, and some truly amazing boats, culminating with the completely dominant and gigantic Reliance in 1903.
The streak finally came to an end in 1983, when the Australian syndicate with it's famous winged keel beat Dennis Connor's Liberty. History has been rewritten to say that it was the Australian's keel innovation that lost the Cup (along with an implied loss of American technical superiority). But those revisionists conveniently forget to talk about the details of the regatta, where Liberty had a 3-1 lead in a best of seven format, and went on to lose the final three races. And not only that, but the seventh and deciding race came down to the final run. Liberty had a commanding lead of over a minute (usually game over), Australia II tacked away to gain a split (always a desperate move--especially on the run), and caught a lucky windshift (ridiculous) to squeak across the line 25 seconds ahead. So that's how the longest streak in sports was ended--on a lucky wind shift. The winged keel was a dramatic innovation that made a significant difference, and we still barely lost! Imagine if we had similar technology--it would have been a rout like so many times before. No, I'm not bitter after all these years. Did I mention I was 11 at the time?
Of course, American innovation and technology being what it is, we marched right down to Perth in 1987 for the first true international America's Cup regatta to get our Cup back. There were 13 challengers who all sailed against each other to see who would challenge the Australians for the Cup. Dennis Connor's Stars & Stripes destroyed all the challengers and then smoked the Aussies 4-0 in the Cup. The Kiwis were especially upset, since they had lost in the challenger finals, so they decided to twist and bend the Deed of Gift (at this point, over 130 years old) to get the Cup unfairly. They secretly built the fastest monohull in the world--a gigantic 90 foot boat with wings on the side where the crew would sit for ballast. Since the Deed technically said that the Cup had to be defended against any challenge, New Zealand thought they could challenge by themselves and not have to worry about beating all the challengers then revealed their aircraft carrier of a boat and challenged us to a race. The fact that the America's Cup had become a quadrennial regatta among nations and that everyone had been racing 12-meters since the 1930's under the same format didn't really phase them. Well, since we had to defend it, and they were technically right that the Deed didn't specify the type of boat, we built a super fast and technologically amazing catamaran with a sail like an airplane wing, and sailed circles around them in the race. Of course, they cried and howled and sued, saying that it wasn't a fair race (but I guess if they had won with a similar margin sailing their big boat against a standard IACC 12-meter it would have been fair. Whatever). Luckily the Kiwis put some real men in charge, like the great, late Sir Peter Blake, and finally won it fair and square (and completely dominated) in 1995. New Zealand also became the first country to successfully defend the Cup in 1999 but lost it in spectacular fashion in 2003 to those denizens of the sea, the Swiss (actually, just a Swiss billionaire who hired away New Zealand's legendary skipper and tactician).
The races began last Monday and the challengers (11 in all) are fighting it out to see who will sail against the Swiss in June for the Cup itself. The challenger series is called the Louis Vuitton Cup and is being contested in Valencia, Spain (the Deed of Gift says that the races have to be in the ocean, not a lake, so the Swiss can't host it at home). The big problem has been lack of wind--there have only been 1 1/2 race days out of seven due to lower than average temperatures in Spain short-circuiting the famed Valencian sea breeze (where is global warming when you need it?). My team is BMWOracle, the sole American syndicate, because, well, that's just where the Cup belongs. Plus, they are sailing under the burgee of the Golden Gate Yacht Club and intend to defend the cup on San Francisco Bay if they win it, which would be incredible. The Cup is once again rife with drama and intrigue and personalities (it wouldn't be the America's Cup if it weren't). Some are saying that the defenders chose Valencia over Marseilles, Lisbon, and Naples because the breeze isn't as consistent in April/May, thus giving the challengers fits and compressing the schedule. A compressed schedule ultimately means that the challenger will not have the time required to make necessary tweaks to their boats after the LV cup to make them faster, giving the Swiss an advantage. BMWOracle has a brand new boat that it never raced before until the LV cup started, so the potential difference could be huge. There has also been speculation that has built to a fevered pitch that the Swiss have a canting keel, which is totally against the rules, but everyone is paranoid that they have found a way to legally do it. If so, it's the kind of breakthrough that would render the race uncompetitive (which is why it's against the rules).
The Cup has evolved into an amazing spectacle with boats that are so close in speed, that crew, tactics, and program have just as much importance as the boat you're in, and that's good for the event. On the right you'll see the rss feed from the BMWOracle blog and here is the main website of the regatta. Give it a look, pray to Aeolus for some wind, and root on USA 98!
