things are hotting up..........

Well - there are some BIG marquees assembling on the Hoe! There are two AC 45's swinging at their moorings in Millbay Docks. There was a party in full swing in one of the team tents with reggae music drifting out across the water.......very mellow I must say.  And there is still a week to go!

this could be the world's longest marquee

casual party in full swing

America's Cup fever is beginning to take hold in Plymouth. It seems every street light has flags off it advertising the event. I spent some time watching some guys assembling an array of aerials on some of the team tents on the Hoe.

everything is self contained

140 shipping crates offloaded, each with a specific purpose

terrific planning!

 I'm told that this America's Cup will be fundamentally different to anything that has gone before. The electronic wizardry that will accompany state of the art TV coverage is pretty impressive. Continuous positioning of the boats to an accuracy of two centimetres...yes two centimetres! And that is 50 times a second!

There will be umpires in booths ashore to monitor positions of each boat and this will be radioed to umpires on the water who will be attached to each boat - chasing them on 350 hp jet skis. I read somewhere that TV graphics will show precisely in real time the buoys and the three boat lengths zones around each one.  Apparently, all the crews are experiencing AC 45's for the first time and crews say they are faster, fun to sail, and need instant decision making on the part of crews.

Of course, I'm thinking of entering the next America's Cup. They are looking for dinghy sailors!!!!!  The move from slower keel boats to rocket like multi hulls requires some of the skills demonstrated by the very best dinghy sailors (Oh I wish!!!).  The sheer physical effort needed to sail these catamarans from a crew of five, calls for very fit and agile sailors.  

 Each race lasts 30 minutes and someone told me that the heart rate of each crew member is over 150 bpm, peaking to 175 bpm for the entire 30 minutes. Each boat has a 'coach boat' which brings them high energy drinks and bars etc at end of each race.

Gosh, I've just realised.....I'm a real lazy sailor in Arwen!!  Except in times of close proximity to rocks, rather large waves and malfunctioning outboards, I don't think my heart rate whilst aboard Arwen gets much above comatose!

Roll on next weekend!!

Steve