When the America’s Cup events started, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to make it to the races but my sea-faring soul couldn’t stay away from the bay and on the final day, I spent the whole day in the heart of fort adams on the sidelines for the final races. Now I am qualified officer of the deck so I have an idea of rules of the road and how to maneuver. What I didn’t know much about is the rules of sailing, what you can and can’t do, and the penalties involved.
The best part about the day was the announcer. He explained everything so well and while the races were happening we were getting over head coverage from a helicopter on bridge to bridge. The announcer was telling us the layout of the race, where the start and finish was, what was happening and why people were getting penalties and what they had to do before continuing on in the course. He was so helpful that I actually was able to keep up with the race and it was very entertaining.
I was standing on the port (left) side of the track, right in the middle, which was very good since I was getting a lot of the action and I could see the start and finish. A few collisions with sail boats even happened right in front of me which was very exciting. I took a video of the final minutes of the last race, but I don’t have video uploading ability yet.
I did, however, get some very good shots of the sail boats during the race and will include them for your viewing pleasure. Overall I have to rate this day a 9.5 for the excitement, for the oysters which were o-so-delicious, and for the pure authenticity of the event. I had to take off .5 however, because it took me over an hour and a half to get out of Fort Adams and another 35 minutes to get back to the Marriott because of bad planning and bad weather.
FACT: If you are the largest sponsor for one of the teams then you get a chance at riding on the tail end of that sail boat during the race. To even the playing field you must be a certain weight or under and whatever the difference is, sand bags are added to even out the playing field from ship to ship. I could definitely get into this sport, even though it is definitely a high-class kind of thing.
Confessions of a Writer 