With the impending America’s Cup sailing regatta here in Bermuda next fall, there have been (and will likely continue to be) many AC events until the main event is actually held! Today’s event was in Dockyard – called ‘Foil Fest‘ – and it was pretty cool.
There were lots of kiosks / vendors set up in the pedestrianized taxi drop off area, one of the more popular stops was the popsicle stand, which Ryley especially enjoyed!
A few of the teams already have bases set up in Dockyard; Oracle (USA) and Softbank (Japan) had their bases open to the public for everyone to check out their facilities and have a little meet-n-greet with the sailors. Josh is now the proud owner of an Oracle T-shirt adorned with most of the team’s autographs!
The main attraction of Foil Fest was the 3-race regatta between Oracle, Softbank, and Artemis (Sweden) – there were three races, all of which were basically a one-leg drag race between the three AC45 boats. While each race was barely 90 seconds long, it’s pretty exciting! We were happy to find some pretty good seats along the edge of the dock for the racing.
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon with winds just strong enough to allow the boats to get up on their daggerboards / foils!
There were lots of spectators out as well, both on the shore and on boats closer to the action!
Here’s looking forward to more racing!