Friday 19 February 2010

33rd America’s Cup - greatest yachts in history


I have just returned from watching the greatest yacht race of our generation; the 33rd America’s Cup ‘Deed-of-Gift’ race in Valencia, Spain. USA is once again the defender of the America’s Cup! This was an amazing piece of history; the two most technologically advanced racing yachts ever built went head-to-head in a best-of-three series to decide who would defend the 34th America’s Cup. There are simply no words to describe... the BMW Oracle Racing trimaran was incredible – I was one of the fortunate few to have been invited onboard and was totally blown away with the engineering; the wing sail and the hydraulics control system were seriously impressive! The Alinghi catamaran was also an engineering masterpiece (although I only got to see it from the dock).
But the real talent was my good mate Jimmy Spithill; he steered the BOR ‘beast’ with perfection. Jimmy has got to be by far the World’s best match racing helmsman, in fact I have said many times before, he could have been a top pro athlete in almost any sport had he chosen!
Well done to Russell Coutts and all the BOR team for an amazing effort. Regardless of all the personalities, egos, legal battles and side shows, one has got to feel sympathy for Brad Butterworth, my good friend Jan Dekker and the Alinghi crew; it’s a hard way to lose the Cup!
I can only hope that the 34th America’s Cup is going to be the biggest and best America’s Cup ever, and of course, I will be ready. I’m feeling good!

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