A match race is a race between two competitors, going head-to-head.
Alinghi, or Alinghi Red Bull Racing because of the sports marketing branding by Red Bull, is the syndicate set up by Ernesto Bertarelli, racing under the colors of the Société Nautique de Genève, to challenge for the America's Cup, as well as other competitions. Bertarelli had raced several smaller yachts named Alinghi previously, but 2003 was his first attempt at the America's Cup. Alinghi challenged for and won the 2003 America's Cup in Auckland New Zealand and successfully defended it at the 2007 America's Cup in Valencia, Spain. Alinghi lost the America's Cup to the Golden Gate Yacht Club and their team BMW Oracle Racing in a Deed of Gift match in Valencia, Spain in February 2010.
Dinghy sailing is the activity of sailing small boats by using five essential controls:
Dinghy racing is a competitive sport using dinghies, which are small boats which may be rowboats, have an outboard motor, or be sailing dinghies. Dinghy racing has affected aspects of the modern sailing dinghy, including hull design, sail materials and sailplan, and techniques such as planing and trapezing.
Tacking or coming about is a sailing maneuver by which a sailing craft, whose next destination is into the wind, turns its bow toward and through the wind so that the direction from which the wind blows changes from one side of the boat to the other, allowing progress in the desired direction. Sailing vessels are unable to sail higher than a certain angle towards the wind, so "beating to windward" in a zig-zag fashion with a series of tacking maneuvers, allows a vessel to sail towards a destination that is closer to the wind that the vessel can sail directly.
In sailing, hiking is the action of moving the crew's body weight as far to windward (upwind) as possible, in order to decrease the extent the boat heels. By moving the crew's weight to windward, the moment of that force around the boat's center of buoyancy is increased. This opposes the heeling movement of the wind pushing sideways against the boat's sails. It is usually done by leaning over the edge of the boat as it heels. Some boats are fitted with equipment such as hiking straps and trapezes to make hiking more effective.
The 12 Metre class is a rating class for racing sailboats that are designed to the International rule. It enables fair competition between boats that rate in the class whilst retaining the freedom to experiment with the details of their designs. The designation "12 Metre" does not refer to any single measurement on the boat, and is not referencing the vessels overall length, rather, measures the sum of the components directed by the formula which governs design and construction parameters. Typically 12 Metre class boats range from 65 to 75 feet in length overall; they are most often sloop-rigged, with masts roughly 85 feet tall.
Virtual Sailor, created by Ilan Papini and published by Quality Simulations and Hangsim, is a shareware program which allows users to operate a wide variety of vessels in world-wide locations. Both the graphics and boat dynamics have been designed to be as realistic as possible, and the software also features multi-player capabilities. Users can create add-ons including boats, sceneries and marine animals to share with other players.
Team New Zealand or TNZ is a sailing team based in Auckland, New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
The 2007 America's Cup was the thirty-second challenge for the America's Cup and was won by Alinghi in the 7th race. The Cup is the most famous and most prestigious regatta and Match Race in the sport of sailing.
A sailing hydrofoil, hydrofoil sailboat, or hydrosail is a sailboat with wing-like foils mounted under the hull. As the craft increases its speed the hydrofoils lift the hull up and out of the water, greatly reducing wetted area, resulting in decreased drag and increased speed. A sailing hydrofoil can achieve speeds exceeding double and in some cases triple the wind speed.
The 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup held in Valencia, Spain, from April 16 to June 6 was the event used to select the challenger for the 2007 America's Cup. Eleven potential challengers competed in the competition which consisted of two round robins, two semi-finals and a final. The winner was Emirates Team New Zealand, who challenged the defender Alinghi in June 2007 for the America's Cup.
The 1983 America's Cup was a 12-metre class yacht racing series which pitted the defending New York Yacht Club's Liberty against the Royal Perth Yacht Club's challenger, Australia II. The September 1983 series of match races was won by Australia II, with four race wins to three, in the first successful challenge of the New York Yacht Club's 132-year defense of the Cup. The Australian syndicate's boat, skippered by John Bertrand, fought back from a 3–1 deficit to best the Dennis Conner-helmed defender, ending both the longest winning streak in sporting history and U.S. domination of the racing series.
The 33rd America's Cup between Société Nautique de Genève defending with team Alinghi against Golden Gate Yacht Club, and their racing team BMW Oracle Racing was the subject of extensive court action and litigation, surpassing in acrimony even the controversial 1988 America's Cup. Since the two parties were unable to agree otherwise, the match took place as a one-on-one deed of gift match in gigantic, specialized multi-hull racing yachts with no other clubs or teams participating. The Golden Gate Yacht Club swept the two races as their yacht USA 17 powered by a rigid wing-sail proved to be significantly faster than Société Nautique de Genève's yacht Alinghi 5. The litigation leading up to the match included which club would be the challenger, the dates and venue for the regattas, certain rules governing the regattas, and the construction of the boats.
The 34th annual America's Cup was a series of yacht races held in San Francisco Bay in September 2013. The series was contested between the defender Oracle Team USA team representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club, and the challenger Emirates Team New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. The format was changed radically to a best of 17, and Oracle Team USA defended the America's Cup by a score of 9 to 8 after Team New Zealand had built an 8 to 1 lead. Team New Zealand won the right to challenge for the Cup by previously winning the 2013 Louis Vuitton Cup. The 34th America's Cup's race schedule was the longest ever, in terms of number of days and number of races, and the first since the 25th America's Cup to feature both teams in a match point situation.
The sport of sailing involves a variety of competitive sailing formats that are sanctioned through various sailing federations and yacht clubs. Racing disciplines include matches within a fleet of sailing craft, between a pair thereof or among teams. Additionally, there are specialized competitions that include setting speed records. Racing formats include both closed courses and point-to-point contests; they may be in sheltered waters, coast-wise or on the open ocean. Most competitions are held within defined classes or ratings that either entail one type of sailing craft to ensure a contest primarily of skill or rating the sailing craft to create classifications or handicaps.
Peter Gilmour is an Australian sailing skipper. He is an America's Cup veteran and was named Western Australian Sportsman of the Year in 1987. He is also the only 4 time World Match racing Tour Champion. He currently resides in Perth, Western Australia.
VPLP design is a French-based naval architectural firm founded by Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot-Prévost, responsible for designing some of the world's most innovative racing boats. Their designs presently hold many of the World Speed Sailing records.
Virtual Regatta is an online web browser sailing race simulator, though the development of a mobile app version of the game has seen a significant number of users shift to this platform in recent years.
Handicap forms for sailing vessels in sailing races have varied throughout history, and they also vary by country, and by sailing organisation. Sailing handicap standards exist internationally, nationally, and within individual sailing clubs.
