t minus six
The six-day mark sees little improvement in the TV prospects for North Americans, Alinghi’s busted cunningham ending their training session, and Spithill showing off with some serious air as USA’s windward hull rises higher than the masthead of a typical dinghy. The International Jury hears 6 hours of testimony on BMW’s rules issues, and Malvarossa Beach was once again out reporting on both Alinghi and BMW/Oracle while getting beaten by short chop and plenty of breeze, but his photography is getting better and he needed a tan anyway. Don’t forget to check out MB’s SportNautica for a great yacht brokerage and all sorts of cool boats to charter for your America’s Cup-watching pleasure.
For our part, we’re almost packed up for Valencia, and we can finally let some fun news leak out about Sailing Anarchy’s coverage of this glorious mess. Much is still up in the air, but we can promise that SA will be Cup Central – everything you want to know will be found right on these pages. And read on for some surprises.
But first, the pimpin. While lesser websites literally beg for money to send crusty old legal writers to Valencia, we are proud to have the financial and moral support of an old friend as the Title Sponsor of the Layline.Com America’s Cup Anarchy Special Report. Southeast US-based equipment and apparel retailer Layline knew that the SA community would appreciate their support of some in-depth coverage of the Match, and that SA’s Cup coverage would be the perfect way to announce their new ownership and the launch of their brand new website. Layline is a familiar name to the highest performance racers as well as one-design enthusiasts everywhere, and the new owner is committed to bring back the excellence in services that Layline was always known for – and the folks that made it that way. They’ve also brought in Gill, N.A. to highlight their sexy new RC (Race Collection) line of foul weather gear, shorts, tops, hats, and soft shells. Our coverage team – five people strong – will be putting it to the test at 50 knots, and we are anything but easy on gear.
We’re also extremely grateful to our Gold Coast, Oz friends at Internet For Boats, who’ve supplied us with an amazingly simple broadbad solution that will revolutionize coastal racer and cruiser web use because of its affordability. We’ll show you a battery of tests and just what this thing can do, and trust us – you’ll love it. And we’re also stoked to hang with our long-time reader Vincenzo Onorato and the Mascalzone Latino boys, who are supporting us with a boat fast enough to keep up with the DoGs, and will hopefully give us some exciting news about the upcoming Louis Vuitton World Series coming up in Auckland and then Onorato’s home club in Maddalena, Italy. We’ll have more announcements very soon on some other cool sponsors that are aboard the SA ferry to Spain.
The Program is… While we still can’t tell you exactly how much of our coverage will work or just what ACM have planned with their live feeds, we know the elements that we love to create. OTW video of the event – both live and post-race HD highlights, live chat room, live daily talk shows, interviews with the interesting and not-so-interesting, beautiful on-the-spot photography, and more inside news and first-time information than anywhere on Earth.
Our first OTW Anarchy "Cocktail Hour" will start at 7 PM local/1 PM EDT/10 AM PDT on Sunday the 7th, and it will bring together the world’s leading AC journalists to share a drink and some analysis on the action of the next morning. And our biggest surprise of all is my co-host for the week: Current reigning US Women’s Match Race Champion, Morning Light alum, and all-around badass sailor chick Genny Tulloch. If I were smart, I’d shut up and let her do the talking – but I’m not that smart.
More announcements here tomorrow. Clock is a tickin’.
