Alameda Waterfront

I created AlamedaWaterfront.com in the spring of 2010 following BMW-Oracle's victory in the 33rd America's Cup. While I knew very little about yacht racing, I was just watching what Larry Ellison was saying about transforming the America's Cup and growing it's audience via technology and television. I knew it had to be in San Francisco and some of my local sailing friends hinted that Alameda Point would be a perfect place for an America's Cup village. I had been learning a lot about Alameda Point from another volunteer project... Read more about Alameda Waterfront

What's going on with the America's Cup?

Submitted by Jack on Tue, 09/20/2011 - 18:04

example of tv graphics from plymouth world series

America's Cup 34 has already started. Remember those two zippy Oracle catamarans cruising the bay this summer? Teams Spithill and Coutts (my kids love to say koootz) have already raced at World Series events in Cascais, Portugal and Plymouth, England - which just concluded. Next up is San Diego in early November.

We've been watching Live From Europe with our morning oatmeal via youtube.com/americascup. Once you start to "get" it... it really gets entertaining. It's all about teamwork and technology! They are working very hard to appeal to a wider tv audience that knows little about sailing with the assistance of precision GPS, onboard cameras, helicopters, and computer graphics by Stan Honey, the same guy who brought us the 10 yard line in football, the hockey halo, NASCAR's RACEf/x, and baseball's PITCHf/x, among other triumphs.

We watched fleet races, where all 9 teams compete at the same time, and match races where they face off in duals to win the bracket. So far in the total standings, Emirates Team New Zealand is in 1st place followed by Oracle-Spithill (Spithill is the captain), Oracle-Coutts (koootz!) in 3rd, Sweden's Artemis Racing, and Team Korea in 5th. Watching Team Korea blossom in the final days of Plymouth was the biggest thrill at our house. Maybe we are just real keen on the white tiger graphics, but it was huge fun watching them emerge. Read more about What's going on with the America's Cup?