RC 44 Photo Gallery
March 8, 2018
The RC 44 fleet raced inside San Diego Bay in March 2011.
11 Photos
San Diego California is a vacationer’s paradise
9 Photos
Extreme Sailing Photos
March 6, 2018
Extreme Sailing Series
June 13, 2017
Extreme Sailing Series
Be part of this exciting, extravagant, Sailing Event in San Diego!
The Extreme Sailing Series™ is in its eleventh season, with this year’s eight event tour traveling through Middle East, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Witness this international competition in what US News ranks one of the “Best Places to Visit in the USA.”
The Extreme Sailing Series will be foiling on San Diego Bay October 19-22, 2017 and you won’t want to miss the excitement of watching these GC32s screaming down the waterfront at record speeds at the Harbor Island Race Village.
Admission is Free. All spectators are encouraged to reserve a Free General Admission ticket. Travel and Ticket Information is a click away using the Tickets button below.
Upgrade to a VIP!
Enjoy three levels of VIP Hospitality: The Extreme Club (be a Guest Sailor on a boat), Private Chalets and The Foiling Club. Limited VIP Tickets are available and are based on a first come first serve basis. An early sellout is predicted. Click the link to learn more.
PC: Lloyd Images
Baptism of Fire at Extreme Sailing Series
September 29, 2016
Women’s Team Launched for Extreme Sailing Series Lisbon
2017 America’s Cup would have been great fit
December 9, 2014
By U-T San Diego Editorial Board
Our accomplished, distinguished local sailing community got the bad news last week: Bermuda had been chosen over San Diego to host the 2017 America’s Cup.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison — the Silicon Valley-based owner of the yacht that won last year’s competition in San Francisco — hasn’t explained his decision. Money seems to be the prime factor. Bermuda couldn’t offer a better venue for sailing or viewing than San Diego, but Bermudan officials offered fewer taxes and more subsidies. So now we’ll have the unprecedented spectacle of an American team choosing not to defend its America’s Cup title in America — instead selecting a British territory 650 miles off the Carolina coast.
And so America’s Finest City won’t get a fourth chance to host the world’s premier sailing event. Too bad. It would have been a great fit.
We appreciate those who tried to bring the 2017 America’s Cup here and hope they pursue the event again in coming years. That list starts with Sailing Events Association San Diego board member Troy Sears. We also thank officials with the Unified Port of San Diego and the San Diego Yacht Club as well as Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Ed Plant of Harborside Refrigerated Services.
America’s Cup San Diego — Perfect Stadium Sailing
November 14, 2014
Watch to see why San Diego should be the next venue for the 35th America’s Cup. (updated 11-14-2014)
STATUS AND TIMELINE:
- San Diego is currently in the bidding process to host the 35th America’s Cup on San Diego Bay in Summer 2017.
- In early 2014, the Port of San Diego responded to the organizers’ Request for Information (deadline to respond was March 24, 2014).
- In April 2014, San Diego was informed that we made a shortlist of venues being considered by the America’s Cup Event Authority. The other venues were not officially named.
- On June 10, 2014, the organizers narrowed the shortlist to San Diego, Bermuda and Chicago.
- On July 8, 2014, the organizers further narrowed the shortlist to San Diego and Bermuda.
Learn more… - The Port of San Diego is currently in confidential negotiations with the America’s Cup Event Authority governed by a Non-Disclosure Agreement.
Foiling into the Future
October 28, 2014
Should San Diego win its bid to host the next America’s Cup, two of the sport’s key sailors, one a superstar and the other on the rise, would be competing in their own backyards.
BY ERIN CHAMBERS SMITH
Published: 2014.10.23 03:13 PM
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACQUELINE CAMPBELL
Next time you’re walking the dog along the footpath at Kellogg’s Beach, or grabbing a beer in North Park, you might be rubbing elbows with two of the best professional sailors in the world. Both America’s Cup skipper Jimmy Spithill (right, above) and his new crewmember Andrew Campbell now live and train in San Diego. And both do so largely under the radar. “I love it here,” Spithill says. Campbell, who moved back to San Diego after sailing in college at Georgetown, adds, “There’s a huge lifestyle advantage to living here, being able to be outside all of the time.”
San Diego is one of a few home bases for Spithill and his SD-native wife, Jennifer. Spithill originally hails from New Zealand, and the couple lived in San Francisco with their two boys before the 2013 America’s Cup. San Diego is one of two finalists in contention to host the next America’s Cup in 2017 (Bermuda is the other). And while the city has a history of defending the Cup here, it isn’t Dennis Conner’s race anymore. Far from it. The multimillion-dollar hydrofoiling catamarans reach speeds of 40 knots and are outfitted with the most advanced technology the sport has ever seen. Oracle Team USA has an active social media presence and, perhaps most appealing, a youthful star power in Spithill and his crew of fresh talent like Campbell. “There are no big egos,” contends Spithill. “There’s no room for that. Everybody works hard.”
Hard work during the last America’s Cup led Oracle Team USA back from an 0–2 deficit, winning eight straight races to beat Emirates New Zealand. Some say it was the greatest comeback in the history of sports. As the skipper, Spithill appeared everywhere from the Today Show to Sports Illustrated to The Colbert Report, where Stephen Colbert was unabashedly a fan. “I invited him to come out sailing, and I think we’ll get him out here,” says Spithill, who noted that hanging out with Tom Hanks in the green room before the show was a highlight of his post-win media tour.
Factoring in the team’s historic comeback, new hydrofoiling boats that are a tad smaller and cheaper, plus an easygoing, handsome star in Spithill, the Cup has a chance to overcome some of the flak it took in San Francisco. The city ladled out pots of money to host the races without attracting the number of challengers and spectators it had hoped for. “The future is foiling,” the skipper explains. “The speed is incredible and that’s the way to get the kids excited.”
For his part, Campbell’s new to the crew. A young American who grew up in the junior program at San Diego Yacht Club (and whose dad, Bill Campbell, sailed in three previous America’s Cups), he’s enjoyed a successful college and Olympic career. He and his Washington, D.C.-native wife, Jacqueline, settled in North Park earlier this year. Its walkable, bikeable streets and hip restaurant scene eased the transition from a big East Coast city back to San Diego. “It’s cool when we have people over for dinner,” he says. “We can just walk down to Thorn Street Brewery and fill up a growler.”
So, does the fact that these two world-class sailors live here help San Diego’s chances for getting the Cup? “Those conversations happen at much higher levels,” Campbell says. “I’m just here to compete and sail.” Spithill won’t comment, either. “They’re both really great venues,” he says, tactfully. “Fans will get a great show in either bay.”
Oracle Team USA will announce the prevailing venue next month.
America’s Cup headed back to San Diego?
October 6, 2014
Sometime soon, San Diego will learn whether it’s been selected over Bermuda as the venue for the next America’s Cup, competitive sailing’s top prize and the oldest trophy in international sport.
The contest was last held here in 1995. The city has changed a lot since then. So has the cup.
At the most recent championship, last summer in San Francisco, the races were moved for the first time in the 162-year history of the event away from the open ocean and closer to shore. That made it more watchable than ever, both in person and on TV, and what people saw was seven-ton, 72-foot-long, 130-foot-tall catamarans flying across the water on hydrofoils at close to 50 mph.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/oct/04/americas-cup-san-diego-bermuda-2017/
America’s Cup Momentum …
September 26, 2014
Bermuda shorts, or fish tacos and margaritas? What will the flavour of the next America’s Cup be?
One year after one of the biggest comebacks in sport, regatta officials are still sorting out details for the 2017 event.
They haven’t picked a venue, although it’ll be either Bermuda or San Diego. They’ve yet to announce a major sponsor or TV deal, or the schedule for warmup regattas for the next two years.
Many in sailing feel the America’s Cup has frittered away all the momentum it gained in the mainstream sports world when the once-stodgy sport zoomed fully into the 21st century on space-age catamarans that skimmed across San Francisco Bay on hydrofoils in September, 2013.
Oracle Team USA rallied to win eight straight races to stun Team New Zealand and keep the Auld Mug in the United States.
So what does America’s Cup czar Russell Coutts say to the critics?
”You’re wrong,” Coutts said during a recent visit to San Diego to meet with government officials and potential sponsors.
Coutts was then headed to Los Angeles to meet with television executives as he continues to try to sell his vision of stadium sailing that’s accessible to TV viewers as well as spectators lining the shore.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/10548836/Americas-Cup-momentum-sails-into-sunset
