Following nearly two years of legal battles and never ending court motions, the 33rd America's Cup finally got underway this past week in Valencia, Spain. Swiss defender Alinghi took on U.S. challenger BMW Oracle to contest for the oldest active trophy in international sport. This cup was unlike any the sailing community has ever seen, with each side building sailing machines that look like something out of star wars. With BMW Oracle building a massive wing driven trimaran and Alinghi constructing an equally impressive catamaran, I personally wrote off any interest in following the racing, convinced it was simply a senseless battle being two arch rival racing programs. What ever happened to the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series and the concept of involving more than two teams into this glorious event? However, you cannot deny the great level of innovation or publicity the Cup brings to the sport of sailing. I am more impressed with the likes of Open 70's and the Volvo Ocean Race, but damn are these new AC boats cool. Sailing 18+ knots in 8 knots of breeze? Unheard of. While I did not catch race 1 earlier in the week, this afternoon I got the live feed on the AC website for race 2 as BMW Oracle showed the Swiss how it's done. If only I could have actually planned to head down to Valencia for the weekend. In any case, USA 17 went on to win the race after a very tactical upwind beat, successfully defeating Alinghi 5 2-0 in the best of 3 series. Three years, millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of man hours... all down to two races off the coast of Spain. Certainly sounds a bit absurd to me but you cannot deny the level of performance and skill demonstrated by those on board and off. Now that the Cup is back in America hands (where it damn well belongs), I guess the real question is what turn this event will take next. Will we go back to the traditional monohulls that have so long been a staple, or will the future see the likes of the machines built for this edition of the Cup. Time will tell. In the mean time, cheers to BMW Oracle for bringing back the Cup. For a much more in depth race recap and tons of pictures and videos, check out the AC 33 website.
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