“For Larry Ellison, the only thing better than winning the America’s Cup is winning it against all odds,” Noel Randewich reports for Reuters. “Ellison’s Oracle Team USA was within an inch of losing the world’s oldest international sporting trophy to Emirates Team New Zealand just a week ago, only to come back on Thursday with the eighth straight race it needed to retain the Cup.”
“The epic battle over the past few days has been a major vindication of the Silicon Valley entrepreneur’s much-maligned vision of how to modernize the competition,” Randewich reports. “For months ahead of September’s 34th America’s Cup finals, Ellison, known for his brash personality and aggressive business tactics, weathered near-constant criticism over the cost, complexity and potential dangers of the 72-foot catamarans he chose for the event.”
Randewich reports, “Emirates Team New Zealand spent about $100 million on its failed America’s Cup campaign, and while Ellison refused to comment on suggestions he spent much more than that, he agreed that costs must be brought down in order to attract more challengers to future regattas.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Crazy Larry strikes again!
Here’s to the crazy ones…!😎
Reminiscent of Australia coming back from 3-1 down to break the Americans’ 132-year winning streak exactly 30 years ago. And there was an Aussie at the centre of it this time too.
… actually 7 Aussies in thecteam, including the helmsman. Also 7 NZers. Only 2 Americans in the team. Oh, and American money. Money tends to win most times…
American money but not much else – with Oracle being skippered by an Aussie guided by a Brit tactician.
(OzBC) there were seven Australians on the winning Oracle team, along with seven New Zealanders, and another born in New Zealand who calls Perth home.
Canada, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Antigua were all represented. In fact, there were just two Americans on the team and one of those was replaced late by [tactician] Brit Sir Ben Ainslie.
On top of that, a New Zealand firm played a leading role in the design and construction of the Oracle boat.
Though I have no expertise in sailing, it has always seemed that the technological race has overshadowed the race itself. Will Team A’s super secret shark wing win against Team B’s hyper-sail.
I say make ’em all sail the exact same boat, then let skill win the day. Isn’t that what the race should be about?
They have fleet racing in classes already, no need to replicate what is already out there.
The America’s Cup history has never been about sailing the same boats. It’s been about national bragging rights, and an exhibition of technology right from the beginning.
Very true though as the contributions above show the national bragging is somewhat confused these days. Just loved those yachts though and the coverage with its computer graphics brought it alive. Just want to see Sirs Ben and Jony in a pic together now, 2 self effacing greats in their own fields together.
You don’t understand The America’s Cup; it’s never been about sailing the exact same equipment!
Think of it more like F1, which pushes automobile technology more than any other auto sport. The teams agree to an “envelope” within which to work and then it becomes a game of design, engineering, physics, tactics, strength, seamanship, and yes, money.
Anyway, the point is, just like anti-lock breaks, and other tech trickled out of F1 to your Chrysler maybe one day an articulated wing & foils will trickle down to my bay cruiser…from this, the pinnacle of sailboat racing.
It’s all about pushing the boundary of technology. Each iterations of the AC has shown that. Today R&D, super-computer time and fabrication cost millions which eliminated all but the richest syndicates. Unlike the Olympics, at this level teams and sponsorships are like “hired guns”
That said, do I wish there were more participants in the the round robin Louis Vuitton Cup to determine who raced against team USA. YES! It was nice to see 15 AC45’s in San Francisco Bay! But only 4 teams with AC72’s could afford to compete for the Americas Cup. Those mast-wings are 13 stories high and cost $$$$$$$$$$$
I’ve been to F1 races, last year Olympics but this year Americas Cup was the most exciting sporting event I’ve ever been to. Even when we were behind 8-1 just watching those 7.5 ton catamarans lift out of the water with closing speeds of 80+mph was breathtaking.
Sorry for the stream of continuousness ramblings.
PS congratulations Team USA ! 😉
American ingenuity bitches!
If you said “American money” you’d have been correct.
Yup, truth is there was only 1 “American” on that boat when it crossed the finish line. American money drove that team but it was mostly an international team…mostly Australian.
Actually 7 aussies, 7 kiwis, not to mention the boat was designed and built by kiwis.
It’s a bit not fair how they sail the boat. NZ boat is all control by hand(human being). Orical boat is actually control by computer. That’s how they can copy how Kiwi control the boat at the second half of the competition. The software actually copy how kiwi control their foil during sailing. And don’t forget he actually fly(import) additional boat designer from NZ to improve his boat halfway through the race as well. More than 50. Money do have the power in this world.
With those facts listed, can we call victory for the America’s cup?. It seems not fair, isn’t it?.
Utter tripe. If Oracle’s software copied how the Kiwis controlled their boat, what explains how the boat took a nose dive before rounding the first mark in the last race? If the software copied how the kiwis “foil”, then how come Oracle was so much faster upwind? And, it’s already been disproven that Oracle flew boat designers from NZ to improve the boat. He flew in about 4, not 50, to replace the ones that were already there. They were rotating.
One thing Kiwis are noted for in sailing is their sportsmanship, and with your whinging, you clearly are not a Kiwi.
So you call the computer automated foiling system on the Oracle’s boat is a sailing skill and it’s fair to use it against other. That’s why they were loosing at the beginning, only started to win after they manage to twit their software to simulate how team NZ was doing by skilful human.
Pure babble! You can be sure there are computers involved; reading and analyzing countless sensors on THEIR boat, NOT the competitor’s!
So you call the computer automated foiling system on the Oracle’s boat a sailing skill and it’s fair to use it against other.
One of the reasons he won because of money. Of course he had an excellent crew but America’s Cup Racing is a joke. It’s all about $$$ and should be back in Newport,Rhode Island.These boats do not represent sailing this is more like Formula1 on the water. Again congratulations to the great crew that pulled this off. Well deserved.
As we all know the team that spends the most doesn’t always win; however, if the team that does spend the most does win, then everyone will cite money as the first reason.
Why should the race be back in Newport? Why not back in Sandy Hook? As for what these boats represent, they’ve always been called F1 on water, whether they’ve sailed at 40knots or 14knots. They certainly do represent sailing.
Is this the same Larry Ellison that ruined everything great about the Solaris operating system, and brought out Solaris “in name only” 11? I hate to sound like a nostalgic old fogie, but Solaris was better when Sun Microsystems was around. It was a great system to use back when I worked at a pottery shop in the late 90s. Screw you, Oracle!
Spithill and Ainslie
Suck on that road warrior!
Yes, it is F1 on the water. Yes, it is more flying than sailing. But it is also tremendously exiting, and bringing in many spectators who thought sailing was boring.
You have to feel gutted for Team NZ – they did a tremendous job but they ran out of money and didn’t have the resources to modify their boat like Team US did. And lets not forget that ridiculous 40 min time limit which cost them victory!
So kudos to Team US but I still won’t support them – I don’t support cheaters, even successful ones. See http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/nevius/article/Oracle-s-cheating-won-t-attract-Cup-fans-4733421.php and http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11124005
The big question now is: what exactly did Team US do to make their boat that much faster in such a short time?
P.S. Samsung might have won the market share race (at the moment) but I didn’t buy a Samsung SyncMaster because they are cheaters too.
Right, my hope would be if there is a flag on the sail that the crew is of that nation, then it truly is a national effort and can be as ounce of national pride and not a rich mans ego trip. One thing that was quite a disappointment after newzealands second Americas cup was the wholesale looting of team newzealands crew, buying crew from past winning teams.. It literally dismantled the teams, Raiding team New Zealand was a shame. Kiwis on a kiwi ship Americans on an American ship and Italians on theirs. And with equal technology and the same ships.
1. Larry Ellison did not win it personally. He financed it and organized some aspects.
2. Against all odds ? Please, replace the headline.
3. What does this have to do with Apple. Its good to post side stories of interest. But not in the main group of Apple stories.
4. The comments below the story are thousands of times more informative than this rah-rah story.
Um…there was 1 american on that team(technically 2 but he didn’t sail) manning the ship when they won. The rest were australians and new zealand citizens on the american ship. PLEASE WITH THE AMERICAN STUFF!!! LOL
“Against All Odds”
… just another useless phrase that means absolutely nothing. The English language is littered with trite little phrases like this that defy all logic. … and you can “take that to the bank”.
Larry Ellison won? Seriously? His team had an open invitation to a Kiwi ass-kicking, losing 8-1, until they brought in British Olympic multiple gold-medal winner Sir Ben Ainsley as tactician. At which point the team won eight races on the trot.
It was Sir Ben who won the cup, for America, and sod-all to do with Ellison, other than his decision to try to avert a complete disaster on his watch, by recruiting Sir Ben.
Wrong! Ainslie did NOT win this cup; not even a decider. He WAS better than the local #SF tactician! But this race was won at night, by the shore crew.
ETNZ ran out of money; NZ’s public $36M was exhausted and the private funds on Emirates, etc, had little incentive past 8 wins to push in more. In fact, you could argue that it was MORE beneficial for Emirates to NOT improve their boat after winning 8 races; (think about it…130′ “Fly Emirates” flag for X more days…)
OTUSA had endless (Larry) pockets and a different motivation. “USA” won this at night. They went from not being able to compete to not being beatable w/in a week or so…
How much Ellison paid for Sir. Ben?. Don’t mind if I asked?.
From the very beginning, America’s Cup racing has been about technology. That tradition continues.
Team Oracle was down eight races to one, picked themselves up off the mat, made a few improvements to the boat, shuffled tacticians and the rest is history.
Congratulations to Team Oracle.
Oracle didn’t win because they were crazy, they won because they had more money to spend on better technology. They also had a very good team, a great skipper and a talented tactician and a faster boat.
We gave it everything we had but that wasn’t enough.
If Ellison’s team had not been caught cheating in warm up regattas in 2012 — when they were found to have added extra weight to their boat — the moment of victory might have come sooner for Oracle Team USA. Because an international jury slapped the U.S. team with a two-point penalty, they were forced to win 11 races rather than the nine that would have given Emirates Team New Zealand the cup.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/oracle-team-usa-completes-historic-america-cup-comeback-article-1.1467496#ixzz2g2LnhIh3
So Larry! How about putting that much effort and innovation into making JAVA SAFE AGAIN?!
But did he sail the boat?