Americas Cup

[speedbird591]

There was a thread on these AC 72 Catamarans back in May just after the training accident that killed Andrew Simpson. The Americas Cup final has been underway for a few days now and I wonder if anybody else has been following it as it's absolutely gripping stuff.

Two of these awesome machines have been battling it out in San Francisco Bay for the past few days and it looked like a whitewash with New Zealand leading USA by 8 wins to 1. Since then the drama has been cranked right up with New Zealand throwing away race after race and the USA (under the tactical guidance of Sir Ben Ainslie) has practised and perfected and won every race since.

It's all decided in the last race tonight. They are 8-8 and first over the line wins everything. 4 million Kiwis will be planning what to do with their skipper depending on whether he throws away or saves what looked like a certain win!

So if you're looking for a bit of excitement tonight, it's on BBC, Sky Sports and the Americas Cup YouTube channel.

Here's a taster: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/sailing/24235963

EDIT: Sky Sports 2HD at 2100 BST

Ian

[airboatr]

It's a good thing sometimes I don't get BBC here. I don't think I could stand to watch them win again.

The humanity of it all. I mean.

[Herkpilot]

Not to gloat, but the cup stays in the USA. The greatest comeback in the history of sport!

Seriously, the technology of these boats is just amazing. I don't even sail and I'm impressed. The boats can sail at over 50 kts downwind and close to 30 kts upwind. The referees and umpires have a hard time keeping up in power boats.

If you haven't seen any of the racing, search it out on YouTube. The scenery is breathtaking and the head to head racing is the best ever in the history of the cup. By the way, most of the crew on Team USA is from the Empire, pretty much the Aussies vs the Kiwis, probably why they sailed so hard. The US team is funded by the man behind Oracle software and the Kiwis seem to be working for Emirates AL.