Preparing for America's Cup 2017

Bermuda is going to be the host of the America's Cup in June 2017 and this is a really big deal.   Tourism on the island has been in the toilet since the 1990's as cruise ships and cheaper islands took much of the lime light off of Bermuda.   I still say that if you want a very romantic getaway to a very non-North American destination, this is the place to go.   Ignore the prices and enjoy all that Bermuda has to offer.  But if you want all-inclusive, all you can eat, sitting on a resort and stuff like that, Bermuda is not the place for you.   This is a place to be explored and restaurants to be sampled.

Anyhow, the amount of TV coverage the island is going to get is going to be big for tourism when people see how beautiful Bermuda is.  The sailing crowd is already taking advantage with various sailing races being planned in the coming years.  

Currently there are at least 3 teams on the island preparing for the races.  Oracle (USA), SoftBank (Japan) and Artemis (Sweden).   Oracle has done amazing work promoting Bermuda and the upcoming race and my hat is off to all the work they have done.  If your on the island watch for the teams to be "playing" out in the great sound with the AC35 boats.    These are very similar to the boats that will be raced next year but they are not allowed to run the new boats until after xmas when the AC45's will be launched.

A couple of days after the hurricane a friend gave me a shout and asked if I'd like to take a run in a boat for a few hours.  His son wanted to run his boat after the hurricane to ensure all was good.   I jumped at the chance and as luck would have it, SoftBank and Oracle were out planing.   The lighting was terrible and them seemed to stay as far from us as they could, apparently they avoid cameras at all cost?!?   But with some heavy cropping and playing I managed to get a few decent shots.  But I know I need a bigger lens before June next year :-)

Nope, not the AC boats but love seeing these little rigs.