The America’s Cup belongs to the winning team, not necessarily the American team, but Larry brought the cup to the US & has to be congratulated for this. Jeremy Irons is a wonderful narrator and weaves a lovely yarn during this documentary.
25:00 Innovation has always been as important to the America’s Cup as sailing skill. 51:30 Being part of a team that doesn’t give up and eventually prevails, is one of the best feelings you can have in life.
The cup is not longer about nations and competing with national pride. It is now about the gunslingers, who go to the highest bidder and nobody cares that a Australian sailed an American boat or a Kiwi sailed on a Japanese boat. The money makes for faster boats all around as the designers come up with the features and innovations that have brought the sport to where it is. Its too bad that everyone cant get along and look at it as it is...a beautiful sport and great competition among very talented sailors.
Absolutely right, see fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_17 : out of the sailing team of 11, only 2 are Americans. and the boat, and the wing, is almost 100% French in conception and build. So the Americans did not win the AC, but an American did, congrats to him. Anyway I always feel uncomfortable when someone says (an feels!) "WE are the champions" for the victory of his town/state/country team...
both of those guys had to hire new zealanders to win the americas cup. new zealanders made ther bout and sailed them and as soon as they got someone else to sail the bouts they lost it .new zealanders are the best bout makers and sailers in the world
I'm not a hater but maybe, just MAYbe, guys who fly big wings all around the planet for a living can do AC on foils better than guys who think data and info and gigaplops inside a theoretical bubble. Well done New Zealand, bring back mono hulls and we all be happy./
I'm a kiwi and I don't hate Ellison. He's a self made man and if he has the money, why not spend it? The tycoons involved in this sport just add to the cups history and allure.
You do know that children read these comments and not all people are as crude as you people in New Z land are. You really need to grow up before commenting in the company of men. Every time I see something from one of you third world people I like you less and I know why more.
Im glad Oracle won this 'deed of gift' bcos no other syndicate would have probably had no chance to win given the rules Barterelli wanted to implement for the next regatta,,money and resources that no other challengers could compete with.
personally I would never have competed in those conditions, given the legal disputes it was more fair that it was a New Yorker judge to say who was the champion
I would take a middle ground and say that his entire story is very unfortunate, but that ultimately things ended up being mutually beneficial because Team New Zealand were able to win again after 14 years (with a team that was almost entirely different than 2013, I think Ashby was the only vet) while Barker helped the Japanese program restart after two decades dormant with a very strong showing. Hopefully in 2021 he can contribute again as part of either program... but all of this is getting way off-topic for a film only about 2010.
I wanted to like this, but then I wasn't sure I wasn't watching a spoof documentary on some egomaniacal Silicon Valley CEO on that HBO show Silicon Valley. Source material galore here if they want it, but I didn't last 5 minutes.
Ha ha, a bit of a self aggrandizing "documentary". I should've known when it stated "a challenge to reclaim the cup", it failed to mention that the cup hadn't been held by the US for 3 regattas after losing it to NZ in 1995. Having said that Larry Ellison is by no means the worst thing to happen to the Americas Cup. That would be Ernesto Bertarelli, a spoiled brat who inherited all his money, then bought a team & proceeded to change all the rules to turn the AC into a total farce. We have Larry Ellison to thank for his tenacity in reigning in what was essentially Bertarelli's cheating, having changed the rules so there could only be one challenger. He also bought Russel Coutts - & that does seem to be the key to winning the Americas Cup............watch this space AC35 Bermuda............
its funny to see the USA supporters come out with the same arguments that the Swiss and most of EU come out with but in Bertarelli's favour! Each side has obviousy been biased. This programme puts down Ernesto Bertarelli and glorifies Larry Ellison. Larry is a VERY shrewd businessman. Businesses don't grow to the size of his without secrets best left unknown. This said, Bertrelli is no better. They are both in the same boat... Bertarelli didn't pay Coutts because the man defected from his team and broke his contract with Bertarelli. All Coutts was interested in was the money that Larry offered him to defect. Prime example of how the story is related by Larry and how he lives his life: 16:40: Larry Ellisson "We broke one of our winches" (sounds good on TV). 16:57: James Spithill the skipper: ..... "us getting stuck" - He would have mentioned the broken winch if that were the truth and reason for his mistake.
They should do it old school, instead of building a multi-million dollar boat. It should have a cap, say $100k the boat should be a 40 ft wooden hull, like the old j craft sailboats of the the early 1930's. The captain & all other men on deck should volunteer. Larry Ellison bought most of the island of Lanai. The only part he couldn't buy is Lanai City because it belongs to the city & county. To be quite honest the Hawaiian islands where stolen by rich white men, just like the lands of north & south America. I asked Larry if he had any work on Lanai & he blocked me on FB. He may be a self made billionaire, but he's joined all their clubs high ranking freemasin ect, or he would have never become a billionaire.
Sadly, it's likely that the Americas Cup which has made sailing so unpopular in the US since the 1980s. While the boats built for this cup we're truly amazing, this competition continues to be viewed as a race for the 1%. This particular Americas Cup was also poorly timed as it was 2 years after the 2008 Financial Crisis. Self made billionaire or not, the Americas Cup does not resonate with the average American, and few can relate to the sport and fewer want to be associated with the negative stigma of being privileged or coming from money. Despite a heroic effort to make The Cup into a spectacle, interest in the event remains incredibly low in the US.
38:12 "They sail from Sydney, the CAPITAL of Australia due south..." Oops. Better stick to sailing and not a career in geography mate. Canberra's the capital of Oz.
