PRACTICE MAKES ...

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Today’s ‘practice day’ was a day of chaos, and the skippers arrived on stage for their ‘meet the public’ stage show still weary and wearing their PFDs beneath their team shirts. What a pity: these buff sailor boys looking all pudgy and Pillsbury Doughboy-like

I was impressed (and consoled) by their admittance of how challenging the boats and venues are; having felt the new AC has left the rest of us sailors behind. Today’s quotes are very telling:

Terry Hutchinson:         “Every day of match racing is sudden death.”
 Yann Guichard:           “It’s my first time racing in San Francisco – a really challenging place. The conditions were really tweaky.”

Dean Barker:               “We had a little incident” (they flipped) “It’s part of the game now: you make a mistake, and you pay for it.”           

Ben Ainslie:                  “This was a great initiation to the AC45s … I would have enjoyed a gentler introduction.”

“Maxx” Sirena:             (when asked about their ‘spectacular capsize’ last week) “Maybe it was spectacular to you, but not us … obviously we chose the San Francisco venue to do that the first time. And the conditions are tough, it could happen again.”

Russell Coutts:             “It’s a challenging venue.”

Nathan Outteridge:    “We had a bit of a swim the other day … still working out where the limits are.”

Phil Robertson:            (late for the press conference: ‘picking seaweed out of his teeth’) “We went down pretty hard. It was like the first hill of a rollercoaster: I just held on and closed my eyes.”

J.R. Hildebrand – AKA “Captain America” Indy 500 Race Car star and Rookie of the Year – who went on a ride along on one of the boats.

“You don’t have to be going 200 miles an hour to feel like you’re hauling ass … I was very impressed to see how sensitive the boats are, the teamwork, how streamlined (the interactions) are … My job was to stay out of the way and hold on!”

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Marina Green was amok with the noises and commotion of set-up. Fork lifts unloading (and sometimes dropping) crates from trucks, quads of burly men (one trailing a dog on a leash, which worries me he’ll trip) carting and positioning panels and displays; cables being laid; tents set up; banners unfurled … for someone (me) who has termed the America’s Cup “over-privileged adults enjoying a costly recess…” I defer to the building excitement. 

Several boats slide by the waterfront park, their mainsails towering visibly over the detritus. Fast. “Did you see that?!” Sharon asked as one zipped closely by. But I had turned my head for just a second, and missed it completely: they were that fast. And they weren’t even trying … yet.

Today is the official practice race. We leave the hotel in an hour to walk to the green for the official media meet-and-greet-the-skippers. Later Sharon will head out on a photo boat, where she’ll be positioned to shoot the AC45s as they approach the windward mark; while I head back to the hotel -- to finish up some work so I’m freed up to watch the races the rest of the week (and potentially shoot: both Sharon and Leslie want crowd & color scenes; our M.O. being that they pre-set the buttons on the cameras, tape them over, then I can just snap – LOL).

The fog horns have been bellowing all night – a promise of wind on the race course. Getting a bit excited … 

San Francisco, CA 21 Aug 2012

PHOTO: Sharon & AC book cohorts (L-R) John Owen, co-publisher; Bob Fisher, co-author; Insight Editions Director Michael Madden