Tag: regatta

When I arrived in San Francisco on Monday I saw signs welcoming the America’s Cup World Series races that were taking place here… this week!  Unfortunately my hotel and meetings were across the bay in Emeryville, so I had no chance of getting a glimpse of the heats and qualifying races that started every day at 2pm and went until about 4pm.  I would have LOVED to see them race, but was going to have to settle for getting a picture of the boats.

We did drive over to the city on Wednesday night, but didn’t make it to the Golden Gate Yacht Club, the home marina of the America’s Cup holder Oracle Racing, where the boats were moored.

So today I had a tiny window of time between meetings and the drive to the airport.  I was determined to make it to the waterfront.  So I braved morning traffic and made it to Marina Green and was able to walk up and down the boardwalk about 50 yards from all the boats.

The shot above is a bit into the sun, but it shows all the boats moored in San Francisco Bay.  Alcatraz is in the background.  The boats above are the AC45 (45′ class) boats.   The mainsails are “wing sails”  and they are catamarans.  These World Series races are practice for the America’s Cup Finals racing next summer with even bigger boats.  In February they will introduce the 72′ (AC72) catamarans that will be raced in the Challenger races of the America’s Cup.  If you think these boats are fast, just wait until next year.  The final America’s Cup will be in September 2013 in San Francisco.   If you want to see them in action, NBC will be carrying this Sunday’s final races live on national TV @ 11:30 AM Pacific.  And, you can follow the standings of this week’s races here.

The shot below is a closer picture of the Oracle Racing boats.

And, a trip to San Francisco would not be complete without the obligatory shot of the Golden Gate Bridge: 🙂