Swiss Alighni Team Wins America’s Cup

This was the incredible finish. Alighni is at the bottom.


Does the America’s Cup have to be over? Yesterday’s race was absolutely amazing. The New Zealander’s were leading on the second upwind leg but they had a bad position to leeward of the Alighni boat. Just before the marker for the last windward leg they crowded the Swiss boat and received a penalty. Alighni passed the marker first and both boats raced towards the finish with spinnakers flying. Not only were the New Zealanders down by 11 seconds at the marker, but they would also have to perform a penalty turn-around at some point before the finish. It seemed completely hopeless. Then they got a huge advantage in wind and pulled way ahead of the Swiss boat and were doing their penalty maneuver just before the committee boat at the finish line. Alighni sailed past and beat them by one second and defended their America’s Cup title by beating New Zealand 5-2. This means that the next Cup will also probably be in Valencia.

Instead of waiting four more years, can’t we just have another America’s Cup next week? Valencia is all set up for it already and all of the boats are here. Why wait? The weather is perfect and there are plenty of spectators, we just need someone to make the call and start racing again.

I have made it down to the port for all of the America’s Cup races and most of the preliminary Louis Viutton Cup matches as well. On race days I did a bike ride along the beaches to the south of town and finished up at the port. I would usually stop and get a beer before I got there because the beer lines at the port were too long. I will miss all of the excitement and the beautiful boats.