Tuesday, September 24, 2013

America's Cup: unbelievable

Tuesday September 24, 2013

[From Craig] We arrived in our favorite Sacramento Mobile home park, hooked up and settled down to watch the America's Cup racing today.  Oracle Team USA made its comeback complete with two victories over Emirates Team New Zealand.  "Comeback complete" means that the two teams are now equal in the scoring, including the two-race penalty that a sports court imposed on Oracle for something involving a small amount of weight added somewhere about two years ago.  We rode on a streetcar in SF two weeks ago with several Kiwis who were carrying on about how Russell Coutts (GM of Oracle) should be banned from all future sailing because of his role in this weight-shifting.  Which amazed us because Coutts is himself a Kiwi.

That's not important anymore.  However much weight was added where and when, and who should be banned from sailing, are for the moment blown away by the amazing comeback of Oracle USA.  We think they were down by 8-1 (8-3 in races) before they have gone on what may be the greatest comeback in sports history.  120 years of US baseball history can provide some comparable comebacks, but baseball has had 240 or so seasons to do it, compared to 34 America's Cups.

Please try to watch tomorrow's head-to-head race for the Cup.  It will happen about 1:15 PM Pacific Daylight Time, and will be broadcast live on NBC Sports (previously known as Versus), on youtube.com live outside the USA, and on youtube.com in the USA after an hour or two delay.

Try to watch!  Trust us, it's as good a sporting event as we may see in the rest of our lives.



From Merikay:   took this picture on Monday.  The distance between ORACLE and Fly Emirates as they passed by us was such that it was almost impossible to get them both into the same picture!  :`)

As someone who is not a sports fan, this series of races has been quite fun, and not just because it has been the USA that has come from behind.  Both teams have sailed spectacularly, and the boats are both things of beauty and engineering achievement.

May the best team win.  Whatever the outcome, it will be memorable.

FINAL Race for the cup is on Wednesday afternoon!  We will be watching.

9 comments:

  1. That is an amazing comeback. After your other post I figured there was no way they could come back from that kind of deficit.

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  2. Beautiful pictures. I really like your header shot. Very colorful, and it just jumps out at the viewer! Thanks for sharing this.

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  3. That header shot is a beauty. It really tells a story, with so much to look at.

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  4. What park in Sacramento do you stay. We have no luck in that area.
    Thanks

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  5. I'm cheering NZ on as I'm not a huge fan of Oracle, having worked with their database product for decades ;-)

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  6. On the highway: Imperial Manor on Auburn Blvd is mostly a Mobile Home park, you know, the kind that never move.

    Laura: about the time the score got to 8-1, one of the Oracle people announced that they had found a problem in the software that had been making their boat go slower. I thought "it really is an Oracle boat!"

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  7. The Oracle thing makes me laugh. It's the reason my wife has stayed on with her company to this point. They went onto Oracle and it's created no end of problems! There's a light at the end of the tunnel, but it sure ain't a big one at this point. (just a glimmer)

    I love match racing such as this. I have to try and get to see it. Just have to put a post-it note on my forehead or something.

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  8. Oh, what gorgeous photos! How cool to be there!

    Kris

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  9. What a great header, bridge, helicopter, two sailboats.

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