The Americas Cup

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The gap between the two was such that when the Queen asked her attendant which boat was second after America, the answer was, "Your Majesty, there is no second." This phrase has become the "mantra" that still accompanies the competition today, for in America's Cup, the only thing that counts is to win.

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Background

The Americas Cup is a sailing competition that is the oldest sporting competition in the world having been established back in 1851. The competition came about when the cocky English thought they would start a competition they thought they could win nd with Queen Victoria's blessing the first race was in 1851. The American schooner from New York Yacht Club aptly named America won the race and has been called the America's cup ever since.

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Sailing is not a sport I thought I would ever get interested in, but these races are different with boats full of high tech achieving high speeds of up to 53 knots or 100km/h. What I enjoy about this competition is the defending champion calls the shots selecting what boats will be used in the racing. The event is held every 3-4 years at different venues around the world with countries paying big money to be the hosts.

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Team Emirates New Zealand's Toyota hydrogen foil chase boat. The only emissions are water and during 6 hours of testing if they had been using twin outboards they would have used over 800 liters of fuel

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New Zealand wanted to host this years race being defending champions, but the offer of $50 million was rejected and Barcelona won out fighting off Jeddah, Cork and Malaga. Barcelona came up with $125 million but the event could cost upwards of $600 million to host the event.

The Americas Cup is currently being fought over off the coast of Barcelona 22nd September - 27th October with the challenger series. The defending champion Emirates New Zealand is not involved and it is up to the 5 other teams to earn the right to compete for the Americas Cup. What is interesting with this and makes this event unique is once the cup has been won the first team to challenge the winner becomes the official challenger. The other teams have to compete against the challenger first before moving on for the right to race against the defending champion.

Prada Luna Rossi - Italy
Ineos Britannia - Great Britain
Alinghi Red Bull Racing - Switzerland
Orient Express - France
American Magic - U.S.A

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Ineos Brittania has the Mercedes Formula One Team helping them in the design and aero dynamics. These boats literally fly above the water using legs that are used to change direction plus keeping them in contact with the water.

Human power and wind power these boats.

These human workhorses use their strength and endurance to generate the hydraulic power needed to trim the sails and rotate the masts of their super-fast boats during the 20-minute-plus races. If the cyclors' legs tire, the multimillion yachts can be left flailing as a rival cruises away.

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The boats being used are AC75's and are seriously fast costing very big money with each team having invested northwards of $100 million. The costs have escalated over the last 10 years with the Oracle team USA bot costing only $6 million back in 2016. Teams have to be made up of passport holders from the race entry yacht club of the boat. Crew members from other countries can compete with other countries boats, but they have to spend 18 months in that country prior to racing. Crew work s important as each boat has 8 crew members being 4 sailors and 4 cyclors/cyclists who create wattage through pedal power enabling the hydraulics to work.

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