America’s Cup 36 was pure gold

While the America’s Cup is not everyone’s cup of tea, people have been drinking it since 1870 and there is no beverage better known in sailing. And as each edition digs further into technical topics, it is the UK-based Seahorse magazine that seeks to reveal them.

Seahorse editor Andrew Hurst offer his voice to the choir of AC commentators:

Seems most of the whining about this America’s Cup is coming from ’not Europe, Asia or Australasia’ (get it?). Bad TV access in the USA (oops), sour grapes, dreams of ‘if it was in 12 Metres we would win?’

Talk of a ’new class of 90-footers racing in a different event’. What drugs are you people taking? Who’s going to pay? You?

The AC75s have been bloody amazing. The standard of sailing has been bloody amazing. The technology has been beyond amazing. Watching Spithill and Bruni holding off a boat that was at times 4-knots (YES 4-KNOTS) faster, was more than bloody amazing. That at times these all-new boats have been so close in speed at the first iteration of the most radical class of sailboat OF ALL TIME – that too is beyond amazing.

The world’s best designers, engineers, shore crews, equipment suppliers, family, and other supporters and sailors have just raced the series of a lifetime. And thanks to YouTube we have been privileged to watch every moment. (And a great US-led!!!! commentary team, btw).

Get with it and appreciate what you have just seen. Not history, but the FUTURE of sailing being made in front of your eyes.

If nothing else, think of the kids. Do you seriously imagine they would have been glued to YouTube watching IACC boats (last used in 2007) splitting tacks at 8.5kt on a 4nm beat? The racing in 12s and IACCs was nothing like as close as you ‘remember’ it now. I too loved those boats, I loved sailing the 12s (too old for the IACCs but they looked even better). But that was then.

And I love all my ‘American cousins’ who support these sites. My few years living among the US sailing community, those were some of the best days ever and the support and hospitality you showed that baby sailor all those years ago was also ‘bloody amazing’. I will be forever grateful. It really did change my life.

But the America’s Cup is in a new era. It will be great for sailing. It is the best possible tonic our sport could have right now. Needs right now. In the UK, weeks after we were ‘excused from further participation’, there are still full page ads in broadsheet newspapers picturing AC75s flying at 40kt. That is serious sh*t for a non-TV sport.

I thank everyone involved in AC36 with all my heart – especially those Cup addicts who pay for it all. AC36 was pure gold.

More information:
• America’s Cup format, standings, and how to watch: click here.
• Complete America’s Cup coverage: click here
• Additional America’s Cup information: click here