AMERICA'S CUP - TRAGEDY

 15 February 2026: February is half over and the snow is melting. Yea!!! Iceboating on local rivers is no longer safe - but we are sure that among the ice sailors, hope springs eternal that another deep freeze will descend upon Northeast and let them get out on the rivers once more before we all shift to "soft water" boats! 

This post offers something that we rarely, if ever, put on the blog: a straight opinion piece. This one is written by someone who knows whereof he speaks, and happens to align perfectly with the thinking of your scribe. We have not been silent on the subject, offering a similar opinion at any opportunity. The following says it well. From Sailingscuttlebutt.com.

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The America’s Cup is not merely a sport in decline. It is operating outside the Deed of Gift that governs its existence.

Since the demise of the International America’s Cup Class (IACC) at the 2007 Valencia regatta, the Cup has careened into a high-speed, foiling spectacle. Some celebrate it.[ed:NASCAR on the water!] Most sailors do not. But aesthetics and nostalgia are not the real problem.

 

The real problem is legal: the current holder of the America’s Cup is running the event in material violation of the Deed of Gift, and the New York courts — the only courts with jurisdiction — have a duty to intervene.

THE DEED OF GIFT IS NOT OPTIONAL
The America’s Cup is not owned by a federation, a commercial rights holder, or a media company. It is governed by a trust instrument — the Deed of Gift — enforced for more than 170 years by the New York courts.

It has been modified before. But it has never been abandoned.

Among its core requirements are:
• Racing in yachts that comply with specified waterline limits
• Racing without stored power or engines
• Racing on a windward–leeward or triangular course
• Racing on an arm of the sea within a defined distance of the winning club’s location
• Yachts propelled solely by sailors

Today’s foiling craft fail these requirements on multiple levels.

I will not disclose every element of my legal action here. But one fact is undeniable: foiling yachts do not comply with the minimum racing waterline requirements as clarified by New York courts, nor do they comply with the Deed’s prohibition on stored and assisted power.

Flying above the water is not “sailing” as contemplated by the trust.

I am not a casual critic.

I trimmed the main on America True and Oracle BMW Racing. I later funded my own campaign — the Sausalito Challenge — for the 2007 cycle, which ultimately evolved into Shosholoza. From 1999 to 2007, my partner Tina and I purchased and restored four IACC yachts and ran a vintage challenge series out of the Sausalito Yacht Club.

That series attracted serious teams. Larry Ellison joined with USA-61 and USA-76. The momentum ended when Alinghi and Oracle shifted focus to the commercial Moët Cup concept.

I have spent my life inside the America’s Cup ecosystem — as a sailor, a syndicate founder, and a steward of its history.

This is not theory. It is lived experience.

WHAT THE CUP WAS MEANT TO BE
The original America’s Cup envisioned large, demanding monohulls — closer in spirit to the J-Class than to aircraft. Yachts sailed by crews of 25–30. No engines. No batteries. No flight control systems.

Just sailors.

Racing was meant to be grueling. Tactical. Human. Conducted on recognizable courses that rewarded seamanship and endurance.

Today, the Cup is sailed by pilots managing systems — not crews sailing boats.

Speed alone is not the violation. Structure is.

THE LEGAL LINE THAT WAS CROSSED
The most direct violation — and the one that brings the event squarely back under New York jurisdiction — concerns racing waterline length.

Foiling yachts circumvent waterline limits by removing displacement from the equation entirely. The New York courts have already spoken on minimum waterline standards in prior Deed litigation.

Foiling did not amend those rulings.
Marketing did not amend the trust.
Commercial success does not supersede law.

Additionally:
• Races are not held on Deed-compliant courses
• Stored energy systems assist control and propulsion
• The competition is effectively sold and re-written by the defender

That is not how trusts work.

THE SOLUTION: A MODERN DEED-COMPLIANT CLASS
My petition will not merely challenge. It will propose.

I will ask the court to enforce a 90-foot maximum waterline monohull class, sailed by approximately 30 crew, with:
• No engines
• No stored power
• No assisted control systems
• Deed-compliant courses
• Racing held within a 50-mile radius of the winning club

Not retro. Not nostalgic. Modern — but lawful.

A class that blends the majesty of J-Class with the discipline of IACC. Aluminum or alloy behemoths. Brutal. Punishing. Spectacular in a way that sailing is meant to be.

“TEAM NEW ZEALAND DOESN’T WANT THAT”
That argument fails historically.

In 2007, I was the chosen Challenger of Record contingent upon Team New Zealand winning the Cup. My lawyer and I were present to execute the agreement. Together, we developed a 90-foot waterline concept — precisely the hybrid class now being ignored.

What changed wasn’t feasibility.
It was commercialization.

A FINAL WORD
New York Yacht Club has a responsibility here. Silence is acquiescence.

The America’s Cup does not belong to flying machines, sponsors, or television formats. It belongs to sailors — and to the law that created it.

Someone has to enforce that law.

[ed: and finally, the current entrants for the July 2027 event in Naples Italy: 

• Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) – Defender
• Athena Racing (GBR) – Challenger of Record
• Luna Rossa (ITA) – Challenger
• Tudor Team Alinghi (SUI) – Challenger
• K-Challenge (FRA) – Challenge]

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 As the above mentions, America's Cup has long been a sport for sailors, competing in SAIL boats, not in drag racing, foiling rockets. The courses are simplistic and do not challenge the sailing skills of the crews. Further, the concept of national entries (as called for in the Deed Of Gift) - boats designed and built in the represented countries, along with [unpaid] crews and equipment the same, have all be cast aside in the interest of the almighty dollar (or Euro, pound, or whatever currency you wish). We truly hope the course of this historic sporting event gets corrected rather sooner than later, though there appears little hope of that happening. And for my American readers, please note upcoming competition is the FIRST ITERATION OF THE EVENT WITH NO AMERICAN REPRESENTATION. How bloody sad!

Until next time, stay safe.

                        Fair Winds, 

                              Old Salt 

JULES VERNE RACE DRAMA

 31 January 2026: 

End of January; 1/12 of 2026 gone we on the East Coast of the United States are feeling the full might of Mother Nature's winter! In fact, for the first time in many years, my friends in New Jersey and New York are iceboating in local waters- a real treat for them.[ed: your scribe was for many years an iceboat sailor, but as of now, there are no frozen lakes here in the Southwest of Florida.] But fond memories abound of sixty, seventy MPH producing ice chips bouncing of your face shield and your helmet as we screamed around our rivers. And speaking of racing, the Jules Verne around the world race is finishing (it has by now) and two contestants battling for line honors suffered the worst offered by the Bay of Biscay. From Yachting World.

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Damage for Sodebo and The Famous Project in final miles of Jules Verne record bids

The two teams making Jules Verne Trophy attempts have both faced damage to their trimarans in their final approaches to the finish line off Ushant, northern France. Sodebo has suffered damage to their seaboard rudder sleeve in ferocious seas, while The two teams making Jules Verne Trophy attempts have both faced damage to their trimarans in their final approaches to the finish line off Ushant, northern France.

Thomas Coville’s Sodebo is this afternoon, Saturday 24 January, just 400 miles from the finish line and more than 470 miles ahead of the record pace set by Francis Joyon on Idec Sport in 2017. They are expected to finish around 0700 tomorrow, Sunday 25 January, and are currently on course to break the around the world non-stop record.

However, it will truly go to the wire and the record is likely to be broken by hours, rather than below the 40-day barrier.

The Famous Project has almost completely lost the use of their mainsail

Yesterday the Ultim Sodebo sailed through winds of 40-knots while tracking around Storm Ingrid, sailing under J3 and a reefed mainsail, intentionally making slow progress to the north rather than sailing at a reaching angle – around 90° becomes a ‘no go zone’ in these conditions for the Ultim trimarans.

 

Despite nursing the boat in atrocious sea states, the team sent photos of the starboard rudder sleeve ripping off, the carbon shredding under force.

In the team update they explain that, although dramatic, the damage should luckily have little impact.

“This incident could have affected the rudder and steering system, but fortunately the robustness of the systems allowed the steering system to remain intact. Only the rudder trim tab is lost.

“In the evening, the sleeve detached from the boat, seemingly without causing any further complications.”

Skipper Thomas Coville added: “We had a hell of an encounter with Ingrid, with gusts of over 50 knots and 8 to 10-meter swells.

“The last 36 hours have been the most difficult and longest of this attempt: we’ve damaged more things than during the entire round-the-world voyage.

“A breaking wave ripped off a support that allowed us to raise and lower the rudder, and we’re lucky because it’s still operational. Naturally, this adds extra tension and stress on board.

“Were working hard to find the physical, technical, and mental resources. This is what the crew is doing perfectly, just like the shore team that prepared the boat.”

This afternoon the boat was back up to 30-knot speeds.

Follow at https://sodebo-ultim3.sodebo.com where there will be live updates as the team approaches the finish tomorrow, with a live video broadcast of their arrival.

Famous Project loses mainsail

Meanwhile the all-female team The Famous Project are continuing on their non-stop around the world voyage despite having completely lost the use of their mainsail.

The Famous Project, skippered by Alexia Barrier together with Dee Caffari, is not in the running for an all-out circumnavigation record, but have committed to setting a benchmark time as the first all-female crew to complete the non-stop around the world lap.

The Famous Project is currently around 800 miles from the finish, mostly sailing under bare wingmast and headsail alone. The mainsail of their giant trimaran initially tore at the second reef — a setback, but manageable given the strong wind conditions they faced in Biscay. However, the mainsail then ripped from luff to leech, leaving it unable to be hoisted, and the crew were reliant on the power generated by the giant wingmast, together with a headsail.

 “We are sailing with just the headboard of the mainsail plugged in and the mast (the rotational mast is 30 square metres on its own,” Caffari explained on Facebook.

 

After some reconfigurations, she then updated today: “The final stretch is getting smaller. We survived the storm conditions and now enjoy a slight respite for a few hours.

“In this time we have looked at how we can make best use of the sails we have available. We now have the head of the mainsail hoisted as a reef it never knew it had and the J2. This is giving us some better and more consistent boat speeds. This afternoon we will see an increase in wind but with the right angle we can make use of this with our limited sail area.

“Tomorrow will test us once more with wind and waves but we have handled it once, we will not be beaten by it now!”

The trimaran, which was formerly Idec Sport, has also lost the use of its starboard daggerboard and both autopilots have ceased functioning. Follow their progress at https://thefamousproject.io/

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Scary stuff for sure and these intrepid sailors don't quit - they fight on! Well done and congratulations on finishing - whether you got the record or not!  See below:

UPDATE: 

 When Alexia Barrier's giant trimaran, The Famous Project crossed the Ushant finishing line off the Brittany coast after 57 days at sea, she and her crew entered the record books. The eight strong crew were now the first all female crew to complete a non-stop circumnavigation. Their initial target was to make an assault on the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest fully crewed lap of the planet in the trimaran that had set the record that has only just fallen back in 2017. And while they knew this target was ambitious, they were also aiming to set a new reference time for an all female crew. And that is now done. The only previous all female campaign was by Tracy Edwards aboard Royal & Sun Alliance back in 1998 which ended in the Southern Ocean after the cat was dismasted. And when you look at the overall stats for the race it's easy to see what a challenge this has been for anyone that has taken it on. Until 2025 there had been 30 Jules Verne attempts in total and only 14 had successfully circumnavigated the globe. Of these, only 9 had achieved a record. So, as The Famous Project became the 16th to complete the course they entered the record book too.

AND:

 Thomas Coville and his team on Sodebo Ultim 3 has smashed the Jules Verne Trophy Record set by Francis Joyon and his team on IDEC Sport. The record was held for a day under nine years. After navigating their way through Storm Ingrid to cross the Bay of Biscay, the team finished in the darkness on the morning of Sunday 25th January. IDEC Sport's time in 2016/17 was 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds. Sodebo Ultim 3's in 2025/26 was 40 days, 10 hours, 45 minutes and 50 seconds. [ed: while not exactly "smashing" the record, they did set a new one!]

Until next time, stay safe (and warm)!

                                             Fair winds

                                                        Old Salt 

 

 

UNEXPECTED ARTIFACTS

 16 January 2026: 

Two weeks into the new year and it seems like little has changed or improved! Not sure what we expected, but I guess "hope springs eternal!" So on we go. Now, at the risk of offering more "shipwreck" information, (we have been accused of being nothing but a shipwreck site in the past) we bring you from Fox News an interesting piece on the unusual artifacts found in some of the wrecks - possibly some of the ones we have written about in these pages. 

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 When thinking about items on a shipwreck, one might imagine a treasure chest full of coins, stacks of gold bars, ship cargo or passengers' personal belongings. But inside some wrecks lie even rarer artifacts.

These objects are unique, priceless and once-in-a-lifetime discoveries which have caused some shipwrecks to become legendary.

From 200-year-old beer to rare emeralds, here are five of the most unique items found on a shipwreck:

 17th-Century Cheese

Coming in first on the list is 17th-century cheese. A group of divers came across a tin can of cheese while exploring a 300-year-old shipwreck, the Kronan.

When the divers brought the can up to the surface, they were able to get a whiff of the stinky cheese.

 

Some divers told local news outlets that the cheese smelt like a mixture of yeast and Roquefort. They also didn’t recommend tasting it.

The Kronan was a battleship that sank in 1676 off the coast of Sweden after a battle against a Danish-Dutch Fleet. Since its discovery in 1980, archeologists have found more than 30,000 artifacts.

 A Now-Endangered Fish 

Second on the list is a now-endangered fish. In the late 90s, a group of marine archeologists found a barrel that contained nearly a whole fish on the Gribshunden.

This ship sank in 1495 after it caught on fire in the Baltic Sea. But before its demise, the Danish King Hans set sail on this ship from Copenhagen to Kalmar, Sweden.

Hoping to claim the Swedish throne, the king brought a 6-foot sturgeon with him to dazzle the Swedish royal court. This fish was known to be a luxurious item in the 15th century.

 

One night when the King wasn’t onboard the ship, the Gribshunden caught on fire and sank to the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

The Atocha Emeralds 

Lost at sea for over 360 years, the Atocha emeralds were found in 1985 by a team of treasure hunters. [Mel Fisher's group]

The treasure hunters found about 70 pounds of emeralds and several tons of silver. One of the emeralds that were found weighed more than 25.87 carats.

The Atocha emeralds are worth more than $400 million.

 

 

The emeralds were found on the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, which was part of a fleet of Spanish ships. The fleet of ships sank off the coast of the Florida Keys in 1622 from a hurricane. 

 200-Year-Old Beer

It was discovered in the early 1990s off the coast of Sydney, Australia, when a team of marine archeologists found sealed glass bottles of beer inside the wrecked merchant ship, the Sydney Cove.

The ship was transporting goods from India to Port Jackson when the vessel encountered bad weather and was heavily damaged in 1797.

The vessel laid undisturbed for over 170 years until it was rediscovered in 1977.

When the team found the 18th-century booze, they uncovered that there was a rare yeast hybrid strain still inside the bottles.

This rare strain was no longer used by modern brewers until 2018, when an Australian brewery worked with a group of scientists to turn the rare yeast into porter-style beer that can be bought at local stores.

  

The Antikythera Mechanism 

Last on the list is the Antikythera Mechanism. This mechanism was found in 1901 on a Roman ship that sank near the Greek island of Antikythera in the first century BCE. 

 

When divers first found the object, no one could figure out what it was. But decades later, scientists found out that the Antikythera Mechanism was used to predict celestial events. 

The device was programmed with calculations which caused it to forecast eclipses, phases of the moon and other astronomical cycles. 

Some call the Antikythera Mechanism the world's oldest analog computer.

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 So, some pretty unusual items we think! Of course the chests of coins and precious stones were there too, but these things were/are unique! 

Stay safe this week, stay warm (if you are in winter weather!) and enjoy your life!

Until next time,

                                         Fair Winds,

                                             Old Salt