America’s Cup in San Francisco?

The BMW Oracle Racing Team, with their revolutionary wing sail powered trimaran, has won the 33rd America’s Cup off Valencia Spain by beating out the Swiss defending team, Alinghi.  The Swiss team, who first won the cup in New Zealand in 2000 and then successfully defended it against Emirates Team New Zealand in 2007, was beaten in race 2 by a margin of 5 minutes and 26 seconds.  This is the first time in 15 years that the trophy has been in the US and will make the Golden Gate Yacht Club the 28th american defender of the cup.  The sponsoring club, the Golden Gate Yacht Club, traditionally would host the trophy and next race.  However, with the local politics and logistics, the race could end up in San Diego or even Rhode Island.

Logistically, the question would be where could a sailing village be setup for competitors to stage their racing operations.  This village would also have to be somewhere that competiting teams could get to despite the traffic in the bay.  The event could bring in a lot of revenue for the city of San Francisco.  Discussions between Ellison and Mayor Newsom have begun.  Now the policitcs and special intrests will all come to the table should they decide to draw up initial plans and do a feasibility study.

As one who has sailed on the bay, I think this would be an excellent location to hold such a race…lets just hope that the various interests and politics don’t get in th way.