This past Saturday was an amazing day to be in New York City. We were among the lucky ones to be on board a spectator boat at SailGP New York.
It was a beautiful day for sailing with a breeze of up to 20 knots in the puffs.
We arrived at Brookfield Place in the vicinity of the World Trade Center at about 4 pm. The spectator boat was waiting for us. Oh, it was actually an « adrenaline lounge hospitality boat. »
Service was impeccable and the DJ was great. Despite the booze on board, adrenaline was clearly in the air.
I did not pay much attention to what the MC was saying in the beginning, as I was busy chatting and taking some shots of Manhattan and spectators on the boardwalk.
I also took some pictures and videos of the F50s preparing for the first race, and it was pretty amazing as in several instances they came pretty close – say, 10 or 20 meters to our boat.
The 6 F50s were present, as the Great Britain boat, that capsized the day before prior to the racing, was repaired overnight.
A bit unexpectedly, the SailGP boats didn’t look particularly big when compared to the New York skyline. Yet, when they were getting close to the spectator boat, they really looked impressive.
I started realizing the experience was going to be special when a few minutes before the first race of the day, the music was cranked up.
Start Me Up by the Stones was the perfectly chosen song to set the stage for the day’s racing. It’s then that Andy Green, the Master of Ceremony, who was mingling with the guests on the spectator boat, got into real action, and he did a fabulous job.
Read on …
