A Look Back at the 2010 America's Cup

Looking back at these highlights of the best of three race series, BMW/Oracle was so much faster than Alinghi.  At about the 2:45 minute mark on the top video, you will notice the B/O has taken down their jib and is under main alone.  When I watched it live in February of 2010,  the announcers were gong nuts.  Oracle was slowly gaining on Alinghi when Oracle begins to furl the giant jib.  As soon as they did this, Oracle took off and never looked back.  The winds on both days were 6-8 knots if I remember correctly and the boat speeds were 20-24!!  Unreal!  The other interesting note was that Alinghi was penalized twice, once in each race.  The penalty was a full 360 somewhere on the course.  They were being beaten so badly that it was a non issue.  There is also a part 3 on Youtube if you are interested.  One last comment, the Oracle boat is a trimaran.  In the 2013 race, they are using similar hard wing technology for the main, but the boats will be catamarans, and "only" 72' in length (they expect top speeds at 35-40 knots and lots of wipeouts).  The 2010 Oracle boat was an immense 90' x 90' with a mast height of 230 or so feet.  So tall, it wouldn't even fit under the Golden Gate Bridge at low tide.  Looking forward to 2013!  Racing begins on July 4th.