Heavyweights Stumble

The second day of racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup brought real drama to the contest with upset results in two matches overturning the form books. Pre-regatta favourites, Alinghi of Switzerland, fell to OneWorld Challenge in a cliffhanger and the defending champions, Prada, were handily beaten by Team Dennis Conner. [read more]

I will be posting on the America's Cup. The America's Cup doesn't start until February 15 of next year, but the racing for the challenger has begun. There are 9 boats competing for the Louis Vuitton Cup, which determines the challenger for the Kiwi boat. There will be two round robins, where each boat will race all the other boats in match races. Each round robin will have 9 days of racing. Then the top 8 boats will go into the quarter-finals, then four boats to the semi-finals, and two boats to the finals. (See the race schedule.) Each win in the round robins scores a point which determines placement in the quarter finals.

My interest is in OneWorld Challenge, which is a Seattle boat. If they should win this America's Cup, the next America's Cup would be sailed in my back yard. It would be either Admiralty Inlet, which borders on Whidbey Island (where I live), or the Strait of Juan de Fuca. There have been two days of racing and OneWorld has won both her races. (See the race results.) Go OneWorld!