34th Americas Cup Course: 1/6/11 (www.SocketSite.com)
A plugged-in tipster delivers the proposed race course scoop for the 34th America’s Cup in San Francisco’s bay. Races will be held July through mid-September in both 2012 and 2013 with up to three races each day beginning at 1:00pm and ending by 6:00pm.
As proposed, the race course will be viewable across the San Francisco Waterfront north of the Bay Bridge and broadcast live on big screens throughout the city.
Organized viewing areas will stretch from Treasure to Angel to Alcatraz Islands and include Crissy Field while high points (Financial District office buildings, Telegraph and Russian Hills, Pacific Heights, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Marin Headlands) will offer views as well.
We’ll keep you plugged-in.
And The 2013 America’s Cup Will Be Held In…San Francisco! [SocketSite]

40 thoughts on “The Proposed 34th America’s Cup Course For San Francisco’s Bay”
  1. Sweet. They should make it more interesting by going through Racoon Strait too. No love for the Corinthian yacht club, I guess.
    The real fun will be all the small-boat collisions along the course border. Better than when the Blue Angels are in town 🙂

  2. I admit to not being well educated on this whole topic. But I’ve never understood why this has been sold as such a huge spectator sport (both from the land and on tv). I’ve never noticed any significant press coverage of sailing (in this country anyway) and so the economics of this baffle me.
    I DO understand that having the race crews in town for an extended period of time is in itself an economic boost, but I will be (happily) surprised if there are legions of fans lining the waterfront to see these races.

  3. ^^^ Yeah, I agree sailing is an awful spectator sport, and I do a (very) little sailing/racing.
    Worse than golf — with golf a novice at least knows what they are trying to do. With racing, it’s like “why does that boat (ahem) ‘turn’ every time the boat behind it does?”
    I’m not sure this race will look better from land than a fleet of J/24’s do almost any weekend in the summer, but as I said, the border dynamics will be interesting. If you can get close without doing a lot of property damage, the boats will be spectacular 🙂

  4. I think Toronado with a pair of pints will be the place to be.
    Some questions :
    Which direction around the loop will the race run ? If it is counterclockwise then the Marina will have some exciting high speed action.
    What do the color coded spaces designate ? I see the pink spots marked as “live” which I guess means where the cameras will be located for the broadcast. But what about blue, green, and yellow.

  5. I think it will look beautiful having these boats racing around the bay in beautiful SF.
    it will garner many more pictures and postcards.
    I am flabbergasted that this event is a bigger economic powerhouse than other sporting events… didn’t others opine that it’s the third biggest or something like that?
    and yet I don’t know that I’ve ever met anybody who has ever seen an America’s Cup game (or match or whatever you call it).
    hopefully this works out economically for the city of SF, and it’s not yet another giveaway of public land for private players, like most Football Stadiums.

  6. ^You’ll note that none of the other cities who have ever hosted this event even bothered to bid. That’s what kind of economic powerhouse it turned out to be for them.
    In other words, if this even had a benefit of $100M, cities all over would be bidding on it, but of course, it doesn’t, so they didn’t bother. The only one who did was a city that has had no experience with it, allowing the consultants to make up any number they pleased.
    That speaks volumes. The phony consultants who wrote those reports were of course paid to write them that way.

  7. I have less than zero experience or exposure to competitive sailing, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that this event brings all or most of the benefits to San Francisco that it promised. It’s just hard to know one way or another given all the contradictory opinions out there. . .

  8. What does “Organized viewing area” mean? If this implies interfering with regular waterfront users’ access then we’re going to see some piracy action during the heats. It’s bad enough to have the waterfront fenced off a few days each new year’s eve.

  9. Tipster et al.
    There are only a few venues that would be of serious interest
    to the race organizers. The winner of the last race has the
    choice of where to place the event. Larry Ellison is the decision
    maker. Therefore, he is pre-disposed to SF. Newport has
    long tradition as the host and Ellison also purchased an estate
    there. That’s why it was seriously in the running.
    There are economic benefits aside from the crowds –
    and yes, crowds are drawn from around the world to cheer
    their national-organized boats – but also from the PR.
    The worldwide coverage of the event is like a multimedia
    ad for San Francisco. That can have huge long term
    benefits and I am sure that those are hard to quantify.
    I also think that, once the event starts, people will become
    more educated about the race strategies. It’s really
    exciting, if you know what is happening.
    The America’s Cup is a real coup for SF.

  10. Correction: I didn’t mean “national-organized boats”
    as in the governments sponsor the teams. But there
    are teams that are based and crewed in other countries.
    For instance, the Alinghi team is based in Genoa.
    Therefore, they have fans in that country that root
    for them and will travel to see them.

  11. What about Port of Oakland operations during those times (not to mention all the other shipping going in and out of the gate)? I don’t know much about port operations, but I do see container and oil vessels coming and going all day everyday. Can they easily move all that to non-race times?

  12. Most likely the ferries will pad their schedules to account for an occasional wait to give priority to the race. So that’s another expense of the race : slower ferry service.

  13. While I’m not opposed to the race being in SF, I’m extremely dubious of the purported vast economic benefits and legions of spectators this event will draw. The average Joe isn’t going to become interested in yacht racing just because of this event, which as everyone has mentioned is not a spectator-friendly event and very few people participate in, understand, or could ever hope to engage in. I don’t care if you put up a big screen — it’s still just a couple boats sailing along the water. Pleasant and even exhilirating and challenging for those on board, a yawner as an event. Except for maybe the final race, I predict extremely lackluster interest and few crowds. I do predict a high-level of annoyance by the general public for the nuisance created by giving priority to this event in public spaces and the water itself, if such actions are taken by authorities.

  14. What idiot planned the sailing months during our coldest, foggiest months? If they need to plan for three months each year, it should have been Sept, Oct and Nov. Haven’t they ever heard the quote, NOT by Mark Twain, “The coldest winter I ever spent was that one summer in San Francisco.”

  15. This is going to be EPIC. lol@people discounting the impact. Look how great the Blue Angels show is and how many people come out to watch, and that’s just two days. I can’t wait to have watch parties and enjoy this from my balcony.
    I agree though Sep, Oct, Nov would have been better weather.

  16. “What idiot planned the sailing months during our coldest, foggiest months?”
    You need wind for a yacht race. The best way to kill the TV audience is to have postponements because of weather (or lack thereof).
    The 2012 races will be part of the “America’s Cup World Series” portion of the event, whereas 2013 could have World Series races, but will definitely have challenger selection, defender selection (if they do it), and the main race.

  17. ^You’ll note that none of the other cities who have ever hosted this event even bothered to bid. That’s what kind of economic powerhouse it turned out to be for them.
    didn’t newport big – maybe not, don;t follow this so closely but thought so,..

  18. This is one of the standard race courses for the SF Bay, in the prime sailing season: it will be blowing like stink! I really didn’t think Ellison was brave enough to throw high-strung racers (even cats) into the biggest winds of the bay.
    For those who are worried about affecting ferry service: relax. There are hundreds of boats racing every weekend in the summer, and the ferries (and freighters and barges) manage. Find a nice vantage point, bring binoculars (and whatever keeps you warm) and enjoy the races.

  19. Tipster does not know what he’s talking about. Newport had hosted for most of the 20th century and wanted it again. San Diego passed as the city is in debt due to public employee unions and really where else in the US can host a yacht race like this?
    Americas cup is more complicated economically than most people like Tipster could understand. But it is good for SF short term and long term.

  20. Car racing is one of the biggest sports in the country (Indy, NASCAR, etc.) and it is tough to watch as the cars go wizzing by yet 100,000+ people crowd into a stadium. America’s cup will be similar but people will be able to be all over the bay aera watching and cheering. This will bring TONS of tourists, media coverage, and will certainly benefit our city.
    As others have noted, the months were choosen to give the max wind. Also, the boats will go around tankers, ferrys, etc. so there will be no real disruption to every day life.
    Also, the course shown is the general area. There will be variations of this route depending on the wind and the course the race committee decides upon

  21. ^^^ you could follow Dude’s lead and change your name to “legacy eddy”.
    … also I hear that sleepiguy is up for grabs but that’s going to cause some confusion 🙂

  22. I sort of like the alter-Eddy. The impostor has a little edge that I lack. I suppose it could also be another person with the name “Eddy” as I don’t have the market cornered. Ah well.

  23. sleepiguy is now Denis.
    Perhaps we should create the definitive thread on former posters / where are they now…
    “Prime”
    “Paco”
    “sachtel”/”LMRiM”

  24. For those that think this will be boring to watch then you need to watch a large size catamaran in this case 72 footers in match racing it will be a blast to watch and economically it will be huge

  25. Just another example of the San Francisco sailing
    elite keeping it all for the City and overlooking
    the benefits of having a race that could be seen in Sausalito and Tiburon

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