America's Cup - San Francisco 2013 - Pictures

Charlie and I will be putting in in Richmond and commuting by water all they way!
 
Richmond will work out great to beat the traffic. Your best bet from there may be to hang out around the North East corner of the restricted area for the first race then head around Alcatraz toward the Golden Gate to catch the beginning of the second race. For the first race you will see them round that mark a couple times and heading toward the finish line. The second race you can get a good view of the start.
 
^ or vice versa. If you have plenty of time before start of first race, just go to GG for 1st race. Winds may be higher for 2nd race and Alcatraz provides a little cover, so hanging out east of Alcatraz for 2nd race might be better
 
Great advise. Thanks! I hope Charlie is reading this. He's the skipper; I'm just crewing on this trip...... [:-angel]
 
Oracle Team docked 2 points in the Finals for cheating in the 45ft series last year. They have to win 11 races now while NZ only has to win 9

Edit: Trying to figure this out. They are still saying a "best out of 17 race series", so apparently no more races have been added. They also say Oracle has to win 11 races (9 points) to retain cup and NZ has to win 9 to win cup. What if Oracle wins 10 races (but starting with minus 2 points they only have 8 points) and NZ wins 7. That's 17 races with neither team getting to the winning number quoted.
Would Oracle win because they have most points?

Here's the news link and a quote from it

"To win the America’s Cup, a team must score nine points, the highest ever number in the competition’s 162 year-old history. The defender now starts with a deficit score of minus-2 and must win 11 races to retain the trophy. Emirates Team New Zealand, the challenger, is unaffected and must win 9 races as before."

http://www.americascup.com/en/news/...cisions-issued-on-oracle-team-usa-ac45-yachts
 
I was thinking of going to the west end to see the boats approach and cross the starting line.

From what I've seen, That's about the only close racing.

I was wondering how fast we would be allowed to go along the transition area and if we can cross the race course a little before the finish line. Also, will there be a VHF channel to monitor the start times and delays.
 
They are limiting the transit zone to commercial traffic for the most part during the racing and definitely no crossing the course during the event.

I believe they are broadcasting the racing on VHF channel 20. They also have the smart phone America's Cup App. With the app you can listen to the racing or watch it live. There you can see the count down timing for the race starts and where the boats are on the course during the racing.

As far as close racing, I am pretty sure we are all hoping that the sailing will determine the outcome of the races vs the boats themselves.

Whether is supposed to be really nice this weekend and they have increased the wind limits for the AC so I would guess all four races will go off as scheduled this weekend.

Have a great time out there.

Kris
 
they close the course down an hour before the race maybe more now that it is the finals and expecting more boats out there. Could probably go the transit route if you go before noon. If you have an iPad or Tablet you can stream the race live from the Americas Cup app (or go directly to the Americas Cup Channel in youtube)
you can request transit on Channel 23

I just looked at the marine forcast for the weekend. Only danger from a wind perspective is if there will be enough wind. Don't they have a min as well as a max?
 
kgd and getakey, thanks so much for of your help and suggestions! I'm sure Charlie and I will have a wonderful time in no small part to your collective input! I'm hoping to get some pictures, but my camera is just a "point and shoot" type, so I doubt they will be very dramatic!

I'm really grateful that Charlie has offered me this once in a lifetime opportunity. When I had first heard that the America's Cup was coming to SF four years ago, my first thought was "wouldn't it be great to see it from the water!"

One to check off of my bucket list!
 
Kudos to Charlie

hate to bring this up, but we need the wind forecast to improve. Current forecast for Saturday is 5kt max. I think the minimum to race is right around that

cross your fingers Liz!
 
Liz and I got out an hour early so we ran out to the ocean on the north side by Pt Bonita and came back in on the south side. We stayed inside the south tower to see the beginning of the first race and went to the east of Alcatraz for the second race.
 
I took a bunch of pictures with my "point n shoot" camera. I have to upload them and see if anything is useable. I'll post them in a day or two..... The water was rough---primarily from other boat wakes! There were hundreds of boats, all wanting to be in the same place. Crazy. They sure kept Charlie busy!!! But being the experienced skipper he is, he was nonplussed and kept us out of harms way. We saw all kinds of vessels from kayaks and waverunners to Just Enough and Lil Lola, tow of the larger VIP boats. You got to be crazy to be out there in a kayak or waverunner. They were very hard to see!

It was so nice to be on the water again, and I thank Charlie with all my heart for giving me this opportunity! I slept like a baby last night.....

It sure was
 
Awesome win!! Boats are quite fast and nimble. San Fran is the perfect venue for this race. These carbon fiber Cats are very different from the ones at Newport in the 80s with single hull. But remember the secret keel back then?
 
DIRECTV had the Sunday afternoon race. Fantastic speeds! Hull speeds averaged at least 4 times greter than the traditonal Cup Defenders. But I am begining to wonder if the public will be attracted to these new boats and their most modern design? Somehow the older days appeared to have a greater interest level from non-participants. But I suspect this is a typical comment from an old fart :-)
 
There were more boats out Saturday than today but both days were great! Weather was better yesterday but a race that was decide at the last mark was AWSOME! Today was also what SF in the summer is all about, fog, wind and then sun and then a really warm finish in McCovey Cove to catch the end of the Giants game. Oh, and don't forgot a 49ers win against the Packers! Who's got it better than us, NOBODY!!! I got some great pictures I will post up soon.

I hope race 4 is more of what we will see the rest of the series. USA was actually a knot fast on the top end and they looked pretty good from an execution standpoint. I am hopeful we will see some more close races. We in SF are so lucky to experience this racing.
 
quote:
Originally posted by saltysam

DIRECTV had the Sunday afternoon race. Fantastic speeds! Hull speeds averaged at least 4 times greter than the traditonal Cup Defenders. But I am begining to wonder if the public will be attracted to these new boats and their most modern design? Somehow the older days appeared to have a greater interest level from non-participants. But I suspect this is a typical comment from an old fart :-)

Click to expand...


I don't think the older days had greater interest. First time ever 50,000 people watched from the shore. I suspect TV viewing is higher as well.
Today's races were close. I think it gets better from here
 
I hope it's better. First leg of first race, NZ was down by Alcatraz and USA was nowhere to be seen. Finally USA came into view...about 400m behind. [:I]
 
The local crown is a function of the exceptional venue of this particular competition. Shucks! San Francisco Bay itself should assure a hundred thousand onlookers for a tiddlywink competition!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top