Is it really possible that I haven’t written at all yet about the America’s Cup fiasco unfolding in San Francisco? Okay (deep breath), in short: Noted California rich guy Larry Ellison won the America’s Cup last time, which gives him the right to decide where and how the next one would be held, and he picked San Francisco Bay this summer, for which the city of San Francisco gave up more than $20 million in cash plus a bunch of free waterfront land because Ellison said it would create jobs, and then a New Zealand Swedish boat capsized and a sailor died and there were calls for safer rudder elevators (which I’m guessing is a boat term for something that, um, elevates the rudder?) and the New Zealand team protested that that would give Ellison’s boat an unfair advantage, and now a five-member international jury has ruled in favor of the New Zealand team which means the race may have to be delayed or even cancelled if it can’t get a new safety permit from the Coast Guard, and there are already only four teams racing instead of the expected 15, and, and…
Anyway, this gives me the opportunity to post one of the pictures I took during my California vacation last week, when I happened to be on a cross-Bay ferry when one of the America’s Cup boats sailed by. Lookit the pretty boat! Don’t you feel better now?
It wasn’t a New Zealand boat that capsized, it was the Swedish boat Artemis that capsized and British sailor Andrew Simpson was killed. Not hard to find, it’s all over the internet.
Yup, my bad for relying on the Times story, which mentioned about a billion different nations but never Sweden once.
As I understand it, the cup defender (in this case, Ellison) gets to decide on the boats in the next series, and he chose the AC72 formula. These boats meet the standard definition of a boat: A hole in the water into which you pour money.
However, the AC72 is a far larger hole than the AC45. These are incredibly expensive boats.
http://www.cupinfo.com/en/americas-cup-2013-boats-ac72-ac45.php
So in a way, Ellison’s decision made the economic success of this series even less likely.
Having done some sailing in Northern California myself, the AC72 strikes me as being much too large for the bay. Just that one basic decision has been criticized repeatedly. It does have a real “Let them eat cake” feel to it.
America’s Cup is sport for lawyers. Every competition is mired in lawsuits. It is kind of humorous actually.
One more thing for this fine event- LV has asked for a refund of their sponsorship dollars since there are less than 8 boats racing- what a mess for SF to waste all those dollars and give away development rights- you can bet they didn’t protect themselves like LV did.
Yet another illustration of the typical goofy-ness that is typical of ‘Frisco an Mexi-Cali in general.
Glad i’m nowhere near there anymore.
“America’s Cup is sport for lawyers. Every competition is mired in lawsuits. It is kind of humorous actually.”
Ain’t that the truth, but also kinda sad. I remember the days when it was a bunch of old-school yachts, like it’s supposed to be. Mega-catamarans? The founders must be doing some of those proverbial grave gyrations.
So you can’t call people liers on this forum, but you can make racist comments. Thanks Neil!
What are you referring to, jjslug?
Neil I guess you have to be from CA to know that when someone refers to the state as “Mexi-Cali” and implying that one of the issues along with the Americas Cup disaster is also having to many Mexicans, is racist.
Earlier this year you laid down the law when people started calling other people liars. Just surprised that comments were allowed. This old hippe enjoys reading comments to the topic and not the rift raft you find on other forums.
Oh, yeah, that went right past me. And Googling “Mexi-Cali” actually calls up more positive references than negative ones, but I see why it could have racist overtones in some contexts.
Paul, if you want to explain otherwise, please do so. Or we could just move on and call this a valuable learning experience about ways to insult Californians.