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U.S. BMW Oracle Wins Back Americas Cup

playerpress.com Written by playerpress.com, Monday February 15 2010
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BMW Oracle won back the America's Cup for the United States by routing two-time defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland in a two-race sweep.

 

Larry Ellison, the 65-year-old software tycoon was onboard his incredibly fast craft Sunday, after sitting out Race 1 due to a weight limit. His victory sends the oldest trophy in international sports to San Francisco's Golden Gate Yacht Club which sits on a public jetty in the heart of San Francisco's city front. This victory ends perhaps the bitterest chapter in the event's 159-year history.

 

The two billionaires have been locked in a tumultuous legal fight for 2 1/2 years, and it looked for a while like the result of this race was going to be contested off the water.

 

The America's Cup has been away from U.S. shores for 15 years, the longest drought since America won the silver trophy by beating a fleet of British ships around the Isle of Wight in 1851.

 

The BMW Oracle, with its black-and-white trimaran and its 223-foot wing sail, powered the craft at three times the speed of the wind. When the yacht caught a breeze, it seemed as if someone put the pedal to the medal and slammed down an accelerator.

 

Ellison, a self-made billionaire, joins Harold Vanderbilt, Ted Turner and Bill Koch among the tycoons who've hoisted the silver trophy.


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