There's a New Boat in Town

San Diego harbors an America’s Cup hopeful, making waves and catching eyes on and off the water

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Tucked in a berth behind the San Diego Convention Center, as inconspicuously as possible for a behemoth in plain view, the BMW Oracle Racing Machine lies in wait for the America’s Cup, sailing’s most celebrated international competition. An elegant trimaran known simply as the BOR 90, this yacht looks like a cross between a giant praying mantis and a sleek orca.

Her main hull is 90 feet long at the water line, and she is 90 feet across—the size of a baseball diamond. Her carbon-fiber mast is 160 feet tall—the height of a 16-story building. She could slide under the Coronado Bridge only in the center, and maybe only at low tide. “Slide” is the wrong word—she screams, streaks, races, slices and flies through the water. And she’ll do all those in pursuit of the Cup.

The America’s Cup is the oldest trophy in international sports. San Diegans have a special interest in the race; our own Dennis Conner won the Cup four times, in 1974, 1980, 1987 and 1988. Since then, the Cup has been inextricably linked to Conner in our minds. After he won in 1987 as a challenger, the race action moved to San Diego with the 1988 defense. Conner raised the America’s Cup competition to professional status. He also won a controversial legal decision to allow multihulls to compete. (Today, Conner is co-owner of Next Level Sailing with Troy Sears. They own Stars and Stripes and Abracadabra, both of which competed for the Cup, and America I, a replica of the original America’s Cup winner. All three yachts are available for charter.)

The catamaran controversy echoes today on San Diego Bay as the BMW trimaran— as different from Conner’s catamaran as the space shuttle is from a biplane—pushes the envelope of technology and the law, attempting to regain the America’s Cup for America. BMW Oracle Racing is an American sailboat racing syndicate, initially formed to compete in the 2003 America’s Cup under the name Oracle Racing. The team name was revised to reflect increased involvement from BMW. Syndicate CEO and skipper of the BOR 90, Russell Coutts, is a three-time America’s Cup winner who defeated Dennis Conner in 1995 off San Diego. Coutts won twice with Team New Zealand and once with Alinghi in 2003 before being abruptly terminated by Ernesto Bertarelli in 2004.

THE WIND is only about 7 knots as the BMW Oracle Racing Machine flies through the ocean at 20 to 25 knots. She can reach up to 45 knots in a good wind. How can that be? The wind does not push this boat; it sucks the boat forward at two to three times wind speed. The explanation has its roots in physics, which is easier to observe than understand.

Her mainsail is about 5,000

square feet (how big is your house?), and her gennaker adds another 7,000 square feet. Giving off a silver-gold sheen in the sun, her sails are constructed of thin sheets of Mylar, which sandwiches threads of carbon fiber and Kevlar. The BMW Oracle is estimated to have cost more than $10 million, and the figure is rising as parts are modified.

The trimaran has no engine, and so must be towed in and out of San Diego harbor. Under sail, she’s so fast she’d be a danger to other boats. Beyond Ballast Point, off the tip of Point Loma, her massive mainsail and a jib are raised to catch the wind, and her windward hull rises quickly some 15 feet above the water line. She flies swiftly toward the Coronado Islands.

Among several smaller boats that trail her is the tender, with radio telemetry that monitors and records every move aboard BOR 90. With engineering by BMW and passion and money by Oracle’s Larry Ellison, cameras and sensors scan every part of the boat. The data is analyzed in real time and again each evening to refine, correct and maximize the yacht’s performance.

The chase boat carries a diver and a medic; there is a realistic threat of danger to the team aboard BOR 90. As the wind increases, the boat seems barely under control. If the trimaran were to tip over or even “cartwheel” (not impossible, though it would be a disaster if it did), crew members on the upper hull would not only plummet 90 feet into the water but likely get tangled in rigging. Most team members wear helmets at all times. The chase boats run on three high-powered engines but are hard-pressed to keep up.

At times, BOR 90 is also trailed by a spy boat from the Alinghi team (who’ve also been seen hanging out with cameras at Joe’s Crab Shack, next to the BOR 90 berth). And then there are the locals out for a look, who usually cannot keep up.

On this day aboard the chase boat, an unexpected treat is the roaring visit by the Oracle stunt biplane, making smoking dives on the BOR 90 while photos are being shot from the following Oracle helicopter as they all race toward the Coronado Islands.

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