As advertised, on Friday we went to Venice to see the America's Cup World Series. This is a warm-up series for the actual America's Cup that will be contested in San Francisco in 2013. The AC World Series held regattas in San Diego, Plymouth UK, and Portugal in the fall of 2011. This spring and summer they are racing in Naples and Venice Italy before going on to two rounds in San Francisco. The boats they are using are the AC45 catamarans with a crew of five. In the 2013 America's Cup regatta the teams will be racing on 72 ft. catamarans.
We left Capannori at about 8 am on Friday. In spite of rain being forecast the day was mostly sunny and warm. It did get a little overcast in Venice and the wind sitting on the Riva was nippy but for the most part it was perfect weather.
We arrived at Tronchetto (the big Venice parking garage) at about 11:30 and promptly caught the vaporetto (water bus) to Piazza San Marco. There was a bit of sticker shock as the price of a one-way ride has gone up to Euros 7. Yikes! However, it would have taken us a good hour to hoof it so we paid to play.
The ride up the Grand Canal was actually very nice. Dom and I managed window seats inside so we had a good view of the palazzi as we trundled along.
Even before we got to Piazza San Marco we knew the America's Cup was quite a draw. There were a number of people on the vaporetto heading for the venue. It was obvious as we got disembarked that we were in the right place.
Ninety percent of the people who visit Venice do so as day trippers. There were a LOT of them on Friday in Piazza San Marco!
The headquarters for the Venice regatta is the Arsenale--the old Venetian ship building yards that were later property of the Italian Navy. Most recently parts of it have been used for the Venice Biennale Arts Festival. For as long as we have been coming to Venice the public has not had much access inside the Arsenale complex. I was looking forward to that as much as the sailboat racing.
The complex is actually a good walk from Piazza San Marco but the vaporetti were not running that far because the race course was right out front. We weaved our way through the tourists (we have met the enemy and he is us!) and scoped out the race course at the same time. Amazingly they were racing right up to the pavement at the water's edge. Even an hour or two before the racing was set to begin, people were sitting on the edge of the pavement waiting.
Once inside the Arsenale we made our way to the darsena nuova, the big basin inside the complex. This is where the AC45 boats were anchored. The boats are all one design with the same equipment on each so the teams cannot do much to them. Thus, although there were "team bases" apparently not much went on at them.
Here is Dom standing in front of the darsena nuova and the Red Bull boat we never saw out racing.
Here is the Swedish boat and both US/Oracle boats. All the team flags are part of the wing so it is easy to identify who is who.
After we walked around the complex the boats started heading out for the start of racing at about 2:15 pm. This is one of the two Oracle boats being towed out.
There were a lot of interesting things inside the Arsenale besides the America's Cup boats. This sub seams to have ended up high and dry!
Back out on the Riva the crowds were gathering. Dom and I bought a couple of panini and water and found a spot where it was not too crowded. This shot is of one of the more crowded sections.
There are a lot of boats out on the water in addition to the catamarans. There were chase boats for each team, medical boats, rescue boats, officials and a couple of local police jets ski boats. They reminded me of the Seattle Police Department jet skis out on Lake Union in the summer.
At every kind of racing we have ever attended almost immediately you start talking to the people around you. We met a couple from Chicago and their friend from New Zealand. Apparently red socks on one's hands is a customary good luck gesture for the NZ boat.
The start line was actually out of sight from where we were, around to the left in this photos. Soon after the start the boats came charging towards us.
They rapidly got closer and closer, tacking their way up the canal.
The only time I have been closer to boats racing was when I was actually on a yacht in the regatta!
There were two Italy/Prada boats--Barracuda and Piranha. Not sure which this is but each of them won one of the two races we watched.
Eventually the boats reached the line between San Giorgio Maggiore and Piazza San Marco where they turned and went back. They raced five legs total and the races took no more than about half an hour each.
Here is a closer look at one of the US/Oracle boats. They did not do very well on Friday. Each of the two came in almost dead last in the races we watched. Nonetheless, I looked at the overall regatta standings and the Oracle boats are 1 and 2 while the Italy/Prada boats are last through yesterday's races.
I like this photo with the boats in front of San Giorgio Maggiore and the helicopter hovering in the upper left hand corner. There were three helicopters covering the racing.
The two Oracle boats and the two Prada boats! Just beyond them you can see the small spectator boats. They did a good job of designating the far side of the course. Beyond them were anchored larger boats--mostly sailing yachts.
Here we have one boat going upwind while the Prada boat is going downwind. In both races we watched the Italy/Prada boats sailed away from the rest of the fleet. The boat going upwind is probably the China boat that came in last in both races.
Here is one of the Prada boats getting ready to cross the finish line. The Campanile and the Palazzo Ducale can be seen on the right side of the photo. The races were a great juxtaposition of the ultra-modern racing catamarans with the palaces and churches financed by the trade wealth of one of the sailing superpowers of the Renaissance.
Here is the chase boat for the Oracle teams. There were some pretty ritzy inflatables out on the water.
Just to prove I was really there I had Dom take my picture!
Here is a short video of the boats in action.
Here are a couple of pictures of old buildings in Venice just because I liked them.
Lately, Dom has had a thing about laundry hanging outside. You do not see as much of it outside here in Capannori. This is a good example of what he expects to see.
Early this morning there was a big earthquake north of us in the Emilia Romagna region. We drove right through that area on Friday. The quake registered 6.0 and even though we are at least 100 miles from the epicenter it still woke us up at 4:04 am. Up here on the sixth floor things wiggled around quite a bit! Our thoughts are with the people who have lost lives, homes, businesses, jobs, churches and historic buildings to quake damage.
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