Falling asleep here - a day on the water to watch the "Little America's Cup" for a class of boat known as C Class.....very lightweight catamarans, 28 feet long, only weigh about 150kg and two crew - and Sugar hot in the water, going up onto hydrofoils and amazing acceleration - can attain about 45 mph across water.
The French were leading coming in today, the weather very marginal with 25mph gusting 35 (nearly what I played golf in when in North Berwick). The day dissolved into a complete farce and indicative of the confusion that still pervades the world of sailing. Rather than the whole fleet (8 international teams) going out, they decided to pitch a match between the top two, French versus the Swiss, four matches of three laps around a short triangular course of about 3 miles.
The Swiss were on the water, the French back in their tent. It takes about an hour to put the rig up.....The match umpire calls the start in 15 minutes, leaving the French high and dry for the 1st match. Off go the Swiss and on the second windward leg, they have a pitch-roll (one of the worse) and over they go, 5 rigs damaged in the sail. They limp 1.5 more laps and out come the French, all guns blazing, and, at one point, we wondered if they could catch them. They didn't, the French resigning.
Plenty of discussion, the Swiss wanting to replace their rig, if not the boat. We didn't even get the 2nd race as the Umpire announces that he would switch the racing to a fleet one - many of the teams having started their packing....
We headed into Mylor for a coffee and bacon bap - and then as no team could be on the water before 2pm and ready for a start, some weird condition that they couldn't race after a 2pm start, the whole thing was cancelled. And, if the French raised a protest, the Swiss would be disqualified as they had assistance in righting the boat.
All a bloody farce, chaos and if they think that they can hold an America's Cup here, well.............the public on the water (like us) and the beach well cheated.
However, we did get a glimpse of what these tubs can do, even if it wasn't head to head. Plenty of fresh air and no puking, despite the considerable swell.