The America's Cup and You

Who's Got Wind and Water?

San Francisco Bay, that's who.

Sept. 25th, 2013:

It's over and it was historic in a way that wasn't anticipated. Oracle USA won and the cup stays in the USA. Whether it stays in SF is a different story. If you are willing to participate in an effort to keep the Cup in SF, on the Bay that we love, then, as MeetUp says:

"Join the conversation".

Personally, one of our members txt'd me this morning and said: Let's go sailing.

My response was:

"I'd rather watch it on TV . . . ah . . . umm . . . the DVR works . . . so I'll go if you want."

He wanted to, so I set the DVR and got my sailing gear and we got in the boat and went out, along with several other members of Got Wind and Water.

I did not turn it into an 'Event', but if it wasn't for the group, I'd have never had the opportunity to do it, and experience the historical moment in the manner we did . . . among friends on the Bay.

John

Sept. 20th, 2013:

I've sailed (and raced) on San Francisco Bay for most of my life. It's a shame that:

1. It's not much to look at when you are actually on the water. The boats are so fast and you can't sail like they can, so you just stay in one spot and watch them sail by you 2 or 3 times during a race. You learn who's in the lead, but you don't know why . . .

2. unless you have an iPhone or iPad and are watching it while you sail.

3. the racing is made for TV (so the TV experience is great)

4. The TV commentators aren't from San Francisco Bay, so they get about 20% of it wrong.*

• September on The Bay is a mixed bag. There are high wind days and low wind days. The dynamics of the AC 72's are such that the normal rules of yacht racing (I don't mean the Racing Rules of Sailing, but the interaction of wind and tide and course) are altered. We have a fixed course, so on a day like Friday the 13th, the wind is not exactly upwind/downwind between Crissy Field and Blossom Rock. And it shifts back and forth. The absolutely fantastic 'on the water' graphics on TV and YouTube do a fantastic job of showing what is happening on the water as far as wind and currents go.

When we as sailors are 'on the water' we don't have the ability to look at these graphics, we have to read the water, which is hard to do and takes years of experience to learn.

All in all, we have an incredible vantage point, whether we are on the water or on the couch watching live on TV (or our iPads or iPhones).

It's a shame we couldn't host a bunch of events on the water during this Cup Match, but then again, the viewer experience is actually better on TV.

. . . now back to our regularly scheduled programing . . . LOL.

________________________________________

August, 2013 . . .

Here is an update, seeing that the LV cup is now over and it will be New Zealand against Oracle for the right to host the next America's Cup.

I've been out on the water to watch both the AC 45's and the AC 72's. I've done it from both sailboats and power boats, both during practices and during races, and I've watched the YouTube videos. The boats are impressive, but the experience of watching them from miles away (which is what happens most of the time) is less than exciting. It's also less than exciting to watch the YouTube Videos when the competitors are miles away from each other.

When they are a couple of boat lengths from you, they are awesome. But that only lasts for about 30 seconds.

Still, the America's Cup is very important. Both from a historic sense and from a technology sense. If Oracle successfully defends the cup, it will also be very important for the sport of sailing on San Francisco Bay. Lessons will be learned from this year's effort, and those lessons will be applied to the next Cup. Hopefully the play by play will improve.

We'll find out if the racing will be more exciting on Sept. 7th.

Watching the nose dive that New Zealand did during one of the LV cup races, it's clear that anything can happen.

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Here is the original post (with links)

This in not an event, it's a NOTICE.

I put it up here so that we could gather together some interesting America's Cup Links. The first of which is to a past event were Aaron Kennedy hosted Got Wind and Water for an opportunity to watch the AC45s practice on the bay. (http://www.gotwaw.com/events/22848441/)

We had a lot of cameras, and Tracy entered a picture in OCSC's photo contest, wining a $100 credit she used to offset the cost of chartering a J105 and doing a really sweet 10 mile spinnaker romp under the full moon . . . but that's another story http://img1.meetupstatic.com/614102232183174521616/img/smileys/wink.gif

Here is Tracy O'Neil's winning shot:

http://photos2.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/3/f/2/b/event_34096171.jpeg

Since we are sailors and this is our back yard, we've got a special relationship with what is about to go down here in our own sandbox.

I'm inviting our membership to comment here about this. The leadership team will update this non-event / notice board with links to various videos that are sure to get our adrenaline pumping and I'm sure wet our appetites for getting out there and sharing what we love to do with each other.

Check out these links:

State of Play (http://blueplanettimes.com/?p=7493)

It may not be familiar, but it could happen (http://youtu.be/R6sTPgnJ-Do)

Episode 1 - kind of makes you want to RSVP, don't it? (http://www.americascup.com/en/Latest/Gallery/2011/7/Americas-Cup-Uncovered---Episode-1/)

The Physics of Sailing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqwb4HIrORM)

If you are a member, feel free to comment.

If you are on our leadership team, feel free to edit this event.

______________________

I wrote the above a long time ago, and now we've had the 1st AC45 race week on our bay. I watched online, and I watched the NBC broadcast. A lot of our members went out and watched on the water (I'll be doing that in Oct.).

What do people think, now that we've seen the format used last week?