The Super 12S Are Coming
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Super 12s Are Coming During the past 10 years, Tom Ehman has been a regular speaker at the California Yacht Club, bringing us up to date on the latest America’s Cup activities. But Ehman is on a new mission now – he is totally focused and enormously committed to bringing top level, international, 12 Metre racing to the San Francisco Bay. His vision is for a new, San Francisco Yacht Racing Challenge that will become an annual championship that brings together the world’s best yachtsmen and yachtswomen racing for their own countries - and for a half million dollars of prize money. The regatta has been structured to bring style, stability and dignity back to international racing. The boats will all be “Super 12s” –classic 12 Metre yachts above the waterline but modern race boats below the waterline. They will retain all of the classic grace and elegance of the original 12s, but their design advances will make them significantly faster than the classic yachts that raced in the America’s Cup regattas during the glory years of yachting. The Super 12s will all be identical, brand new 65-footers designed by Farr Yacht Design. Each year beginning in July 2017, the Super 12s will race for two weeks on what has been described as the “world's best natural sailing amphitheater.” Each Super 12 will have a national crew of just 12 people that will include at least two women, two men, two crew members age 22 or under, plus one senior citizen age 62 or older. Additionally each boat will also carry a non-participating VIP passenger plus a video photographer. Although the first regatta is still a year and a half away, the event’s Notice of Race has been posted, Farr Yacht Design has completed the initial drawings and a plethora of syndicates are being formed around the world. The project is definitely full speed ahead and the public is invited to hear Ehman explain how the annual San Francisco Yacht Racing Challenge is about to become the “Wimbledon” of yacht racing. San Francisco Yacht Racing Challenge Tom Ehman California Yacht Club 7:30 p.m. - Wednesday, February 3 Free – The public is invited .