This is the start of a fleet race made up of 11 competitors. Here you see both Oracle boats vying for the lead as they round the starting line. Notable is how BOTH began to bury the bow and lift the leeward hull.
The following 2 pictures are not mine:
As you can see, a split second difference could have meant a disaster like this and flipped them both right in front of the other nine catamarands who would have been too close to react. It would have been a spectacular pileup!
Here is a replica of the original America that was the winner of the 1851 "100 Guinea Cup". I've even sailed on her down in San Diego a few years back. As head of the Oracle Team, Larry Ellison presently posseses the Cup and was holding court aboard her.
After winning the 100 Guineas Cup through speed, luck and some political storms, being patriots we naturally renamed it to the America's Cup and promptly bolted it to the floor of the New York Yacht club with an ominous: " Whoever loses this cup shall have his head put there to replace it. We kept control of it for 132 years before Dennis Connors lost it in a highly contested battle of designs. He was summarily dismissed from the club in 1983. Fortunatelly however he did not have to trade in his head and even refused reinstatement to the NYYC as his new syndcate regained steam. He eventually won it back for the San Diego Yacht Club in 1987 in Stars and Stripes.This is a boat I've ALSO CREWED on in St. Maarten as the starboard backstay grinder.
Watch closely as he clumsily trips over the tiller and falls overboard.
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