America's Cup - Livestream

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Grudge match set to start - The America's Cup

"I don't like him" said Larry Ellison of Ernesto Bertarelli, his rival, in the best of three grudge match in Valencia that is the most litigated America's Cup match in the race's 160 year history. Ellison wasn't even on stage at the owners pre-race press conference. It wasn't like this when Sir Thomas Lipton, the original tea bagger, wanted to take it from Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railroad baron.


In those days the Fife boatyard in Glasgow labored against the Herreshoff yard in Bristol, RI.


This one will be over soon.  I hope that BMW/Oracle wins so that the next race will be in San Francisco where they have wind, and the Golden Gate Bridge.  And mono-hulls.  Match racing in giant multi-hulls is no fun - close maneuvering is what makes match-racing.  And you can't do it with 90X90 catamarans.

Law of the sea: America's Cup may run aground again

The America's Cup - named for the great Sandy Hook Pilot schooner that beat all comers 'round the isle of Wight, is sailing's biggest prize - for lawyers.  The Cup was won by a great sailor who has the misofrtune to be from Lake Geneva, which is not, as the Deed of Gift requires, an arm of the sea.  The latest snag is that Alinghi's sails were not made in Switzerland, surprising given its history as a reat maritime nation.  


Now Ernesto Bertarelli says he may forfeit the race to fellow billionaire Larry Ellison if he loses in court once more.  Good, as far I am concerned.  He wanted to race in Abu Dhabi, where the racers might have been wrecked by a falling skyscraper or something. Best case scenario: Ellison wins on the water and brings the race to San Francisco where we can have photogenic races in lots of wind that people can watch from the Golden Gate Bridge.

City Island Nautical Museum

A fire closed the doors of the City Island Nautical Museum on Fordham Street, down the block from City Island Diner, and just before Barron's Boatyard, where my North River 2 winters and is cared for.

But now the Museum has reopened.  In the old PS 17 are rooms of City Island memorabilia, mementoes of the days when the Rosenfelds of City Island made the iconic photographs that the Times website features, that decorate countless hotels, restaurants, and apartment walls.  The Rosenfeld Collection  - a million images - is at Mystic Seaport.

My City Island roots go back to our adoration for the Vim, the 12 meter that challenged for the right to defend the America's Cup in 1957.  Originally built for Vanderbilt by Harold Nevins on City Island, it was bought by Ed Matthews the owner of the stevedoring company my grandfather worked for on the Brooklyn docks.  Their manager Sven Pedersen was in charge of the boat. Vim was skippered by Bus Mosbacher - who went on take the helm of Ted Turner's Courageous (also built on City Island).

The Museum is open 1 -5 on Saturday and Sunday.

So here's the City Island Nautical Museum's website

Olin J. Stephens II, Yacht Designer, Dies at 100

VimOlin Stephens designed boats when boats were legends. His Dorade won the 1931 transatlantic race from Ambrose Light to Lizard Point and earned him a ticker-tape parade.

Our family bond with Stephens is Vim - the 12 meter sloop. Built for Vanderbilt in 1939 at Henry Nevins yard on City Island, she was a contender in the 1957 America's Cup revival. Its owner was John Mathews, for whose stevedoring company my grandfather Capt. George Washington Conk (U.S. Army, Ret.) worked on the Brooklyn waterfront. His friend Sven Petersen was charged with maintenance. Bus Mosbacher, later JFK's protocol chief, was the skipper.

Olin J. Stephens II, Renowned Yacht Designer, Dies at 100 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com