In 1851 a bunch of good old boys who liked to sail organized a regatta around the Isle of Wight off the coast of England. The race was won by a purpose-built racing schooner from the United States named America, and the prize that she took home to the U.S. was a big silver cup, renamed the America’s Cup in her honor.
This past Saturday, for the first time since that original contest, racing boats are again sailing the coastal English waters—this time near Portsmouth—for a chance to take home the “Auld Mug” as the cup has come to be known in racing circles. Our favorite car company is neck deep in this iteration of the America’s Cup event, which will culminate with the finals in 2017 in the waters off Bermuda.
BMW is the technology partner for Oracle Team USA, a group that BMW has sponsored before in 2003 and 2007, and with whom BMW partnered for the America’s Cup victory in 2010.
With individual team wins always contested and always in doubt until the final gun, BMW is also ensuring maximum exposure by signing on as a Global Partner with the America’s Cup Event Association. This means that the BMW logo will be on everything from course markers to every competitor’s boat, much the same as it was for the World Bobsledding Championships earlier this year.
While the racing boats were making their way around the course, BMW was taking care of VIPs on shore, shuttling them around with a fleet of BMW i3 electric vehicles, inviting them into the “BMW Yacht Club,” giving private showings of the all new BMW 7 Series, and offering the opportunity to have their photos taken with the America’s Cup itself next to a new BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports car. BMW customers were also invited into the BMW Owner’s Club, which has a large terrace and the best views of the racecourse.
The races at Portsmouth were a pretty big deal in Great Britain. More than 130,000 spectators were on hand, and the event even warranted a visit by His Royal Highness Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. The Royal couple spent time with each of the teams on Sunday and presented trophies and medals at the award ceremony.
Two-time America’s Cup-winning skipper James “Jimmy” Spithill of Oracle Team USA was understandably excited, saying, “The racing was great. We had some good sailing out there. Lots of lead changes, six competitive teams, the level is really, really high. There was some serious interest here—you look at the estimated spectator numbers on and off the water, it was as if the actual America's Cup was being raced in terms of crowd size, it was really comparable.” Oracle Team USA finished in third place in Saturday’s race, behind Ben Ainslie Racing and Emirates Team New Zealand.
After the Portsmouth races, the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series will move to Gothenburg, Sweden in August, and Hamilton, Bermuda in October. The America’s Cup finals will also be in Hamilton, Bermuda in 2017, where the BMW roundel will always be in view of the camera, and where BMW may even find itself on top of the winner’s podium.—Scott Blazey
[Photos courtesy of BMW AG.]
