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#Post#: 487--------------------------------------------------
America's Cup: 162 years of evolution
By: mr nad Date: September 26, 2013, 11:02 am
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As challengers Team New Zealand and holders Oracle Team USA
contest the 34th America's Cup in radical high-speed 72ft
catamarans on San Francisco Bay, BBC Sport takes a look at how
the boats have evolved over the 162-year history of the oldest
trophy in sport. [1 of 18]
1851: US yacht America wins the first trophy, later renamed the
America's Cup, in a race around the Isle of Wight of England's
south coast. [2 of 18]
1887: By the eighth edition of the America's Cup, the boats
have changed significantly. American sloop Volunteer (left)
beats Britain's Thistle (right) in New York. [3 of 18]
1934: Sir Thomas Sopwith's Endeavour, seen here in 2001, is a
40m J-Class yacht with a steel hull and mast and a more modern
mainsail and jib configuration. She loses narrowly to US yacht
Rainbow in New York. [4 of 18]
1983: Fast forward through 132 years of American domination and
Alan Bond's 12-metre Australia II, with its controversial
winged keel, beats Liberty in Newport, Rhode Island, to take
the America's Cup Down Under for the first time. [5 of 18]
1983: Australia II's radical new winged keel is kept under
wraps through the competition, fuelling the intrigue, aura and
infamous bickering of the America's Cup. [6 of 18]
1987: Australian 12-metre Kookaburra III wins the defender's
trials after last-minute keel modifications but loses out to
Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes in the America's Cup in
Fremantle. [7 of 18]
1995: Young America unveil the lead bulb on their keel ahead of
the US's America's Cup defence against Sir Peter Blake's Team
New Zealand. [8 of 18]
1995: But the Kiwis onboard the carbon fibre NZL 32, named
'Black Magic', are too strong and win 5-0 to take the Cup to
New Zealand for the first time. [9 of 18]
2007: Team New Zealand defend at home in 2003 but lose to Swiss
team Alinghi back in Auckland in 2003. Four years later
Alinghi (right) beat the Kiwis again in Valencia, Spain. [10
of 18]
2010: US team Oracle, bankrolled by software billionaire Larry
Ellison, challenge holders Alinghi, and after extensive
courtroom wrangling take to the waters off Valencia with a
giant trimaran. [11 of 18]
2010: Oracle's USA 17 is a 90ft, three-hulled giant with a
solid wing sail. Alinghi answer with a 90ft catamaran with a
bowsprit that takes it to 120ft overall but it is no match for
the American monster which wins 2-0. [12 of 18]
2013: As holders, Oracle Team USA have the right to determine
the boats and format for the next America's Cup and devise a
new class of boat, a 72ft catamaran (called the AC72) with a
solid 'wing' sail, capable of speeds up to 45 knots (50mph).
[13 of 18]
2013: Developments to the original AC72 designs have seen
hydrofoils added to allow the hulls to rise out of the water to
reduce friction and further increase speed. [14 of 18]
2013: Last October, Oracle capsize their new AC72 in San
Francisco Bay and though no-one is hurt it fuels concerns that
the boats are too powerful and difficult to control in certain
situations. [15 of 18]
May 2013: British Olympian Andrew Simpson is killed when he is
trapped under the upturned hill of his Artemis yacht when it
capsizes and breaks up in a training accident in San Francisco
on 9 May. [16 of 18]
August 2013: The competition is in jeopardy after Simpson's
death, but a raft of safety measures are implemented and Team
New Zealand win the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series 7-1
against Italy's Luna Rossa to earn the right to face Oracle
Team USA in the America's Cup. [17 of 18]
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