Nice things come to he that waits!

If the Euro is too high for me to get the excitement of traveling to Europe, and gas is too high for me to travel in the States, all I had to do was wait a bit, and excitement came to me!

The BMWOracleRacing America's Cup boat that has been building in a tent in great secrecy here in our little town of Anacortes, Washington, got launched the other day. They stepped the mast and she is now moored just below our deck at a boatyard in the Guemes Channel. I'm only a bit over a hundred yards away.

I spend too much of my day watching the 130 man team swirl around the boat as they work her up. Here is a link to some pictures of her being launched. They don't do justice to her, now that her enormous mast has been stepped. I've heard it is 180 feet tall, and I can believe it, as it dwarfs her 90 foot length, and 90 foot beam.

http://www.sail-world.com/USA/Images...W-Oracle/48193

The team's website is
bmworacleracing.com for those sailors on the thread.

How exciting! My how America's Cup boats have changed! When you wrote "90' beam" I thought it must have been a typo. Now I see.

Just an update on the America's Cup boat; she went on her first shakedown sail this morning. What a stunning sight she makes.

The pictures have only shown her from the front or back, so far, but the most striking thing about her is the HUGE mast. The locals have dubbed her the "Smokestack on a Raft". The mast is so large that at least two crewmen were standing inside it the other day. It is open at the bottom, and presumably swivels, so the mast forms the leading edge of her really high aspect ration airfoil sail.

Wow! That is an amazing boat! Right place, right time!!

In 2005 the MFA had the America 3 and the Il Moro on the front lawn and a history (with models) of the America's Cup on exhibit. It was great. I saw it twice

Fabulous! I would not be able to leave home if I had this to watch all day.

Btw - do you know if they are going to be able to compete? There has been a nasty lawsuit.

Here is the link again to the website. They have just posted a picture of the boat with her sails up.
She had a second roller-furling headsail rigged when she left this morning, but that is not flying in the picture.

http://bmworacleracing.com/en/index.html?track.refer=

I was showing my DH pictures from the website yesterday nukesafe, (stumped my family over the weekend with your stats of 90' length and 90' beam ) and saw the new picture. It looks as if they have the mainsail reefed in that picture. The size of the mast is unbelievable...so impressive when you see the shots of crew next to it.

I'm not big into sailing, but if you have a chance to see the America's Cup boats, it's worth the effort.

I had the good fortune of being in Auckland, NZ a number of years ago when the race was held there. It's a prety amazing show.