Americas Cup at Cascais: 1st class sailing show & broadcast

by Editor · Published August 8, 2011 · Updated May 24, 2019

Photo CopyRight: Cascais Day 1: Christophe Launay www.sealaunay.com
Amazing pics by Christophe, check more in next post.
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It was for sure better than being there. Incredible advance technology and live broadcasting. The performance of the first day with 2-4knots was quite good too, imagine the past tractors (as Juan K refers to past AC classes) on that wind…
And today was a blast.

Some comments on SA about China Team and their performance… well, I told you so, this is just the beggining but watch out for Mitch Booth at SF Bay: catsailingnews.blogspot.com/2011/04/ac-34-technology-vs-talent.html

I wrote there that some teams are not getting the big picture. The best sailors in the world like Hutchinson, Barker, Spithill, Coutts have shown they can adapt quickly to any boat and multihull racing, even more having some of the best Multihull sailors training and racing with them (Glenn Ashby trained Oracle team and Spithill for AC 33, now Glenn is racing with Barker and Santi Lange is training with Hutchinson)
It will quite hard for teams like GC and their excellent talented and winning sailors in dinghies and other monohull classes to adapt two times: learn how to sail cats and then how to sail the wing overpowered crafts.

Experienced multi sailors are no guarantee on winning but for sure they will help the teams with their knowhow.
Darren Bundock , Mischa Heemskerk, Backes (although he has been contacted), de Koning, Brewer and many others are all available, get them a call… some teams will need them.
In fact let Carrie Howe skipper GC AC45 in some races!

The broadcast was excellent, next time if you have some unstable footage just change the resolution from 480 to 360 in Youtube bar. Smooth and high quality.
The fleet racing was interesting, first official trials and the Cup will be decided on Match Racing, but nice preview with several MR moments at the top on some races.

I feel privileged to be seeing history in the making, there is no turning back for the AC.