The America's Cup

[bvcxzmn]

I'm not sure if anyone here is a sailor, but I was lucky enough to have the America's Cup right here in San Francisco, virtually in my back yard! The races ended today, with a very epic finish on the last race with team USA taking second place and securing first overall! After a horrible start, with multiple penalties, they were in 9th out of 11 boats. Over the course of the race, they manage to pass 8 of the boats crewed by the best sailors in the world! It was a truly epic race!

There were 2 events in this regatta: fleet racing and match racing. The fleet racing is what I described above, it is all the boats in the regatta competing at the same time in a race. It is most similar to the typical race. The match racing is 1 v 1. Each boat goes through the tournament bracket, and if they loose a single race, they are out. This ended with both team USA boats in the final competing against each other. The final results were USA #4 skippered by Spithill in 1st for the fleet racing, and USA #5 skippered by Coutts in 1st for the match racing. Go team USA!

I have some photos taken from the Saint Francis Yacht Club from Friday and Saturday when I went into the city to watch the races. For those who don't know, they sail in AC45s which are 45 foot catamarans that can get up to 30 MPH! They are the fastest sail boats in the world! Next year, they will be using the 72 foot version of the boat called the AC72. Next year will be the Louis Vuitton races which are the qualifiers for the actual America's Cup which is held that September. This year was kind of like a warmup for next year. I can't wait, it is going to be awesome!

Pictures: America's Cup photos from the StFYC

EDIT: Oh, and here's the link to the results: http://www.americascup.com/en/results-standings

[yottabyte]

As someone who took a sailing course when I was 11, I know some of these words.

Also, Swedish flags.

Also, San Francisco is a pretty cool town.