America’s Cup: Rumors, Capsizes, and Youthful fun

The 35th American’s Cup will have six teams (5 challengers and 1 defender) begin competition in the new 15-meter AC Class on May 26, with a series of qualifiers that lead to the start of the America’s Cup Match on June 17, 2017 (see schedule). Here are some updates from Bermuda:

Rumor: When the New Zealand team revealed their grinders will be using bike pedals instead of hand cranks to generate the power needed to control the onboard systems, all the other teams remarked how they had considered the idea but did not believe it to be practical. But now the rumors say the USA team is testing a pedal system behind the helm station for tactician Tom Slingsby. Since the tactician is a grinder too, this help keep Slingsby’s head up to assist in decisions.

Not a rumor: The USA team scored their second capsize today, which is two more than any of the five other teams. Oracle Team USA capsized during a practice session focused on pre-start maneuvers, and the team reports how the boat was righted within three minutes and there were no injuries to the crew or damage to the boat. However, there is always damage to the boat in a capsize, but no word on whether the sailing team has to serve dinner to the shore crew who will be working a bit later on this night.

 
Everybody is doing it: Kind of like when we added sails to skateboards to mess around, now everyone is seeing what they can add foils to. As shown in this video, the O’pen BIC has proven to be a good enough platform to elevate.

 
Half-tine show: All thirty-two O’pen BIC entrants have been selected for the America’s Cup Finals and the AC Endeavour O’pen, in Bermuda on June 15-18. The final six spots were earned at the 38-boat O’pen BIC Bermuda Nationals on May 6-7. Representing Bermuda will be Sebastian Kempe, Gabrielle Brackstone, Aiden Lopes, Gen Lau, Christopher Raymond, and Jessie DeBrag.

The thirty-two sailors will be competing directly in front of the America’s Cup Grand Stands, June 15 and 16, and then will be the America’s Cup Half Time Show on the first day of the AC Finals, June 17. On Sunday, June 18, the O’pen BICs will also be putting on an exhibition of O’pen BIC foiling and freestyle, show casing a new age in junior sailing.