Commodore’s Newsletter – April 2022

Volume 3-April 2022

Greetings all,

Here’s the latest:

Sail GP in San Francisco

I find it fascinating and gratifying to observe and witness human achievement at the highest level. In
golf, Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. Baseball, the Major Leagues, football, the NFL. In music, seeing a
concert by the Vienna Philharmonic or the Rolling Stones. For our sport of catamaran racing, that
pinnacle of achievement is no doubt represented by Sail GP, the global professional racing circuit
featuring the foiling AC50 catamarans used in the 2017 America’s Cup races. I had the privilege of being
in San Francisco the last weekend in March to attend the Mubadala US Sail GP event, which served as the
Grand Championship Finale for season 2.

It was a memorable experience, being able to observe in person the greatest practitioners of our sport
sailing the fastest, most complex racing boats on the planet, zipping around San Francisco Bay at speeds
of up to over 50 knots. What a thrill to see up close and in person sailors I have long admired from afar
for their skill and daring: Nathan Outeridge, Tom Slingsby, Ben Ainslee, Jimmy Spithill, Peter
Burling-world champions, Olympic medalists, and Americas Cup winners. Eight national teams
completed five fleet races to determine the event champion-Great Britain, Denmark, Japan, New Zealand
and Australia won those races, with Australia emerging as the event champion. Then, the Grand
Championship finale: the three boats with most accrued season points (defending champion Australia,
Japan, and the USA) sailed one race for the season championship, with one million dollars at stake. In the
end, it was only fitting that Australia Sail GP trounced Japan and the USA in the final race to win the
season championship for the second consecutive time. The Aussies had dominated season two, winning
five of eight events, and can now arguably lay claim to being the best sailors on the planet.

Pictures and videos from this remarkable weekend are available here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1By_FDGE8GIw1UxYCNJLRQNkVnvRj3_cP

Race committee training

A reminder for those of you living in or near Madison, MYC will be hosting a race committee training
seminar this Saturday, April 9, from 9 AM-2:30 PM in the North Chart Room at the UW Memorial
Union.

All for now.

Philip, your friendly CRAW commodore