60 Minutes Sports Looks at the new America’s Cup High-Tech Boats

The high speed catamarans that will be used in this year’s America’s Cup in San Francisco made news last month when a crewmember on board Team Sweden died when it capsized in San Francisco Bay.

60 Minutes Sports will air a feature on the new boats, how they became to fruition and go inside the engineering with Team Oracle which is representing the USA in the America’s Cup. Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi will take a ride on one of the boats as they can reach speeds of up to 50 mph.

That’s one of the stories that will be seen on 60 Minutes Sports when it premieres this Wednesday on Showtime.

60 Minutes SportsARE RISKIER, HIGH-SPEED, HIGH TECH BOATS THE FUTURE OF AMERICA’S CUP?

The Next Edition of “60 MINUTES SPORTS” Premieres Wednesday, June 5 at 9 p.m. ET/PT On SHOWTIME®
U.S. Team Oracle set out to Transform a Venerable Race but Rival Team New Zealand President Doesn’t Think the Controversial Yachts Have a Future in America’s Cup

60 MINUTES SPORTS goes inside the U.S. Team Oracle operation to take a close look at the technology behind the controversial America’s Cup yachts that can streak across the water at almost 50 mph.  Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi gets strapped in for the ride of her life on one of the giant, high-tech catamarans, the same type in which one sailor died a few weeks ago when Team Sweden’s boat capsized. Team Oracle chose the new design in an effort to attract a new audience seeking the kind of speed and risk associated with car races. It’s been called “NASCAR on the water.” But Grant Dalton, the managing director of rival Team New Zealand, tells Alfonsi that the boats will never be raced again.  See Alfonsi’s story, featuring Dalton, U.S. Team Oracle members and spectacular footage shot onboard the speedy yachts on the next edition of 60 MINUTES SPORTS premiering Wednesday, June 5 at 9:00 PM ET/PT (delayed on the west coast) on SHOWTIME®.

“One imagines, like the Concorde, you’ll never see these boats again,” says Dalton, of the 72-ft. catamaran design picked by U.S. Team Oracle. They won the privilege of choosing when they took the cup in 2010, deciding to modernize the venerable race with the modern high-tech boats. Driven by a huge carbon-fiber wing, in place of a main sail, they are three times faster than those raced just 10 years ago. And the boats don’t just cut through the water; the twin hulls can fly above it, perched on foils that skim the surface. Asked if this makes them unstable, U.S. Team Oracle skipper, Jimmy Spithill, 33, says, “You’re on the edge.”

Oracle’s idea was to make the race for one of the world’s oldest international trophies into a television event, attracting a whole new audience. Spithill says the high speed and the increased risk it brings is part of the attraction.  When asked if the sailboat race has gotten too risky, he compares it to some modern, emerging sports. “Are the X-games too risky? Is…getting on a skateboard on a skateboard ramp, is that too risky? There’s risk there. But that’s the attraction,” Spithill tells Alfonsi.

Dalton, 55, says Oracle tried to change too much, too quickly.   “This is yachting. This is not Formula One…this does not have to stop 20 million people on a Saturday afternoon to watch,” he says.

Early in May, the Swedish Team Artemis lost crewman Andrew Simpson when its catamaran capsized during practice in the San Francisco Bay, where the 2013 America’s Cup will be held.  Simpson, from Britain, was 36.

“It’s been a terrible tragedy, for whatever reason and I think there’s been so much negative press of the boats, some of it justified, a lot of it not…that I don’t think you’ll see them again,” says Dalton.    “But, for no other reason,  is they’re too damn expensive.”

U.S. Team Oracle, owned by billionaire Larry Ellison, has invested over $100 million dollars on the program, which includes the team and the boat, which they had to design and build from scratch. Their original boat, on which Alfonsi and cameras sailed in March, had capsized in practice back in October and was destroyed by the strong waves.

After the fatal accident in May, Spithill told Alfonsi, “There’s always going to be risk…in our sport, no matter what boat we sail…I don’t think the America’s Cup is about the crash and burn. I think it’s about… the athletes going head to head against another team… pulling it off as a team, not just as sailors, but the entire team, pulling that off.”

That is all.

About Ken Fang

Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013. He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television. Fang celebrates the three Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.

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