Twin hulled America's Cup

Nine teams from seven nations lined up at Cascais in Portugal this week to give fans of the world’s oldest sporting contest a taste of what sailing as a spectator sport, rather than a participant sport, will look like.

Larry Ellison, the US computer billionaire who holds the trophy for San Francisco's Golden Gate Yacht Club, wants his "new America's Cup" to rival F1 car racing as a sport. He hopes the 2013 America's Cup regatta on San Francisco's famous bay will be beamed live to millions of people watching around the world on everything from their iPods and mobile telephones to giant outdoor television screens.

The actual AmCup will be sailed in 72-foot catamarans with solid wing sails but, as yet, none of these monsters has actually been built. The nine boats competing in Cascais are AC45s -- scaled down versions of the ultimate AmCup boats that 'only' cost about $1 million each.

Ellison's Oracle team has two boats competing in Portugal, one skippered by Sydney's Jimmy Spithill and the other by New Zealand's Russell Coutts. Spithill was at the helm of Ellison's giant trimaran when it beat the Swiss catamaran Alinghi to win the AmCup two years ago and Coutts has won the Cup for New Zealand, Switzerland and America.

Any thought of the America's Cup now being sailed as "friendly competition between nations" -- with citizens of those nations aboard their country’s yachts -- are long gone in this new era of totally professional sailing. Only the two French teams now even make a token effort to have their countrymen aboard.

But this is the new America's Cup and Cascais is seeing the first in what will probably be six "world series" regattas sailed this year and next in the smaller AC45s. While they are only half the size of the final AmCup boats, the AC45s are no slouches. They can hit speeds of more than 30 knots (60km/h) and they are physically demanding to sail.

The Cascais races kicked off at the weekend in less than ideal conditions and without the live international television coverage that had been promised. The races are being streamed live on the web and interested electronic spectators can watch on the official America's Cup website. Highlights are on YouTube within hours of each day's racing finishing.

What was immediately obvious in Cascais was that the much-vaunted spectator-friendly "stadium sailing course" was still too far away for anyone to watch with the naked eye from land. The occupants of the hundreds of spectator boats that surrounded the course didn't get a much better view. Clearly the electronic coverage is the way to go.

Each of the boats has a number of cameras aboard and all the sailors are wired for sound. There are also helicopters overhead and on-screen graphics to explain to non-sailors just what the skippers are trying to do. The races are short and quick; none of the four-hour marathons conducted by the old 12-metre yachts off Newport, Rhode Island, for decades. As well as being quicker and shorter, the race courses are narrower so boats must sail in close proximity to each other so spectators can have a better idea of who is ahead.

In the first race, Jimmy Spithill was disqualified when he sailed outside the limited starting area and failed to make a penalty turn after the race started.

There is no doubt that the on-board cameras and sound give a vastly-improved coverage but the live-feed does stall too often and the commentary team haven’t hit their stride. Picking who’s who aboard is all but impossible as everyone is wearing sunnies, crash helmets, life jackets and those “rashie” shirts often seen on surfers. No doubt we will soon see the crew members’ names emblazoned across their chests and backs.

The slow take-up by YouTube spectators must also be worrying for the event organisers. Despite all the publicity the event has generated, only a few thousand people had watched the highlights packages of the first two days of racing by Tuesday afternoon.

But the America’s Cup is 160 years old. It was first sailed for before the rules of cricket and tennis were finalised and decades before football and golf became international sports. With a history like that (and the billions of dollars spent by some of the world’s richest men over a century and a half to win the battered old silver ewer), the America’s Cup is sure to grow back into international favour.

By September 2013, San Francisco is expected to be bursting at the seams as people stream in to watch the final showdown between Ellison’s Oracle team and whichever of the seven challenging teams wins the Louis Vuitton Cup and the right to be the 34th America’s Cup challenger.