The 33rd America's Cup

 

Every four years or so, they race.  They’ve been doing this since 1851.  Typically, the teams sail almost traditional looking single hull racing yachts.  Each time, however, the winning team gets to make up the rules for the next competition.  This time, the competitors look radically different from previous generations of boats.  There will be a giant catamaran versus a giant trimaran capable of sporting a fixed vertical wing instead of a fabric sail; a wing that stands over 200 feet high (twice as big as the wing of a Boeing 747)!

 

http://www.americascup.com/en/lieu/valence-espagne/valencia-15-909

 

If you follow the links for “The Actors” and click on Alinghi or BMW Oracle, you get access to the teams and the boats and some spectacular photos:

 

http://www.americascup.com/en/acteurs/alinghi/presentation-55-43

 

http://www.americascup.com/en/acteurs/bmw-oracle/presentation-56-44

 

This America’s Cup is going to be totally different!

 

(It starts Monday and it’s only two or three races; the best two out of three.)  It’s going to be broadcast to the world, hundreds of millions of people, but I don’t know if they’ve settled on a U.S. television carrier yet.  It will at least be available live on the internet.