On Saturday, Phill, his parents and I caught the train down to Portsmouth to watch the first (and, it turned out, only) day of racing for the first set of heats for the next Americas Cup race. The final will be in 2017 and there will be a few heats races before then to decide who gets to race against the defenders, the USA. Phill is a big sailing fan and when Ben Ainsley chose Portsmouth as his base, it was inevitable we'd be going to see some fun boats at some point!
First stop was at the Historic Dockyard where the teams were based. We were hoping to see the boats close up but they were already being taken out onto the water. Here is the USA boat dangling precariously from a crane and a very excited Phill!
We were meant to just have the orange wristbands for the Fanzone. Phill managed to find out on the floor for the grandstand.
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| Before the main event, these little Moth boats were buzzing about on their foils. |
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| HMS St Albans leading the boats out |
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| Red Bull Matadors! |
Amazing display. I have a video but I can't make it work on my blog :(
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| Here come the racing boats! This is Sweden's team. |
During the first race, the moment Ben Ainsley's tema overtook to take the lead - hoorah!
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| Coming up to the finish line. |
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| USA second and Sweden third! |
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| Winners!! |
The second aerobatic display of the day. Sadly I can't remember their name but they were amazing!
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