America’s Cup Catamarans Offer Thrills and Spills Upon First Visit to the Bay Area

Sailors around the world know San Francisco Bay as a great sailing venue. The strong winds make the sailing intensely physical, while swift tides make for challenging tactical racing.

The Bay regularly hosts world championship regattas for classes of all sizes, but nothing will showcase this natural venue like the America’s Cup World Series regattas in 2012 and the Louis Vuitton Cup, America’s Cup Challenger Selection Series, and America’s Cup Finals in 2013.

Last month, many locals and visitors took note when the next-generation AC45 catamarans—45-foot state-of-the-art vessels that are the precursors to the 72-foot boats competing in 2013—reveled in Bay winds between 15 and 25 knots. ORACLE Racing began sailing on San Francisco Bay in a series of test runs to help America’s Cup Race Management advance its digital systems and refine the configuration of the racecourse.

Bay Crossings and other members of the press, along with Mayor Ed Lee, were treated to an up-close look at the high speed catamarans in action on the Bay. We sailed on a replica of the famous yacht America, a 139-foot schooner that won the first America’s Cup in 1851. On several occasions the AC45s ran within feet of the press boat, displaying their raw power and surprising maneuverability.

The opening press conference at the Golden Gate Yacht Club began with team video of a near capsize that occurred on the first day of testing on the Bay. That put the audience on the edge of their seats and led master of ceremonies Jonny Moseley, the 1988 free-ski Olympic gold medalist, to say, Spectacular San Francisco Bay and extreme boats is the kind of cool sailing I’m interested in.

ORACLE Racing’s representatives James Spithill, Russell Coutts, John Kostecki, Kurt Jordan and Dirk Kramers all agreed. These are the most physical boats we’ve ever raced, said Spithill. There is a huge reward for sailing these boats well. We think these are the perfect boats for taking this sport to another level.

We’ll have a lot more maneuvers, which will be very different than past America’s Cups, said Kostecki. But it was Coutts who, unwittingly at the time, summed it all up best. You have to find the edge but not go over it, said Coutts. The closer you design a boat to the edge the faster it will go.

Later that afternoon, Coutts and Spithill engaged in demonstration races to illustrate why San Francisco Bay will be the perfect venue for the Cup. America’s Cup Principal Race Officer John Craig set up a trial racecourse that featured reaching, running and beating. It was in the second pre-start, however, when Coutts demonstrated where the edge really lies with a dramatic capsize that sent him and crewman Shannon Falcone into the water.

We got caught in the pre-start at the wrong angle and paid the price, said Coutts, who fell approximately 20 feet through the lower part of the front element of the wing and into the water. The boats are spectacular, hard to sail. They’re gonna test the best sailors in the world. Luckily I had the crash helmet on.

Falcone fell a shorter distance, but injured his ribs. It was all in slow motion, he said. I didn’t think it was going to go all the way over. Falcone walked under his own power to an ambulance waiting shoreside and drove himself home after a check-up and x-ray. He had sore ribs, but no broken bones.

The week-long media event orchestrated by ORACLE Racing and the America’s Cup Event Authority drew to a close on Friday with a very grateful guest, Mickey Hart, the Grateful Dead’s legendary former drummer, taking a guest ride with Russell Coutts on ORACLE Racing’s No. 5 boat.

Hart enjoys celebrity status wherever he goes, probably due to his mix of global experience and self-deprecating humor. He was especially enthused for his guest ride after watching the capsize video, and brought a bit of levity to the end of the week when he showed up wearing a mask and snorkel and carrying a set of diving fins. I am ready, he proclaimed. You can never over-prepare for an America’s Cup experience.

Speaking of the capsize video, it has racked up over 220,000 views on ORACLE Racing’s and ACEA’s YouTube channels. Globally, they figure the video is viral, meaning more than one million views. Safe to say, it’s impossible to visit a sailing site without seeing it.

Additionally, the video has been broadcast on news programs around the world, including NBC’s Nightly News and Today in the U.S. and the BBC’s Breakfast show in the U.K. The capsize was also a front-page story in the Sydney Morning Herald and the San Francisco Chronicle (as well as this month’s Bay Crossings).

Bringing these boats here to San Francisco Bay, it couldn’t get any better, said design team member Jordan. Once the decision was made to design and build these boats there was a big push, and finally they’re here. It’s pretty exciting.

We here at Bay Crossings couldn’t agree more!