Winner of the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco, USA 17 has become a permanent exhibit at Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia. She will be the highlight of an America’s Cup exhibition, “Speed and Innovation,” which will open in May 2017. I got the chance to climb over and inside USA 17 during my recent meetings at the museum in my role as “guest curator” of the upcoming exhibit.
America’s Cup Geek Warning!
If you read on, I’ll take you deep in the weeds with details only America’s Cup geeks like me enjoy. Proceed at your own risk.
In the previous photo, did you notice those two circles on the centerline? The forward one is the mast step. The aft one was not used, but was prepared when the designers considered moving the wing aft to counter the lee helm problem. I wrote about this in my book “Turning the Tide” – so it was very cool to see it.
Here’s a video that will show how important the button was. This is from Race 4, at Gate 2, the end of the first downwind leg. Ouch! In spite of the error, Oracle won this race, their first win. The error shows that early in the America’s Cup Match, they had still not mastered how to sail the boat. But by the finish of Race 8, their second win, they had improved dramatically, and were on their way to winning, even though at that point the score was 6-0 for the Kiwis.
Grinder Simeon Tienpont was called “Hydro” because he ran a lot of the hydraulic controls on the boat. Some of his controls are shown in the next two photos. Not shown are the controls to switch the flow of oil between hulls and the controls for daggerboard cant. A lot of hardware was stripped out of the hulls long before USA 17 was donated to the Mariners’ Museum.
Some Interesting America’s Cup Artefacts
The next three photos show polar info that was left in the hulls.
Great pics and info thanks for putting this out there !
Hi Randy, thanks for writing! Glad you liked the photos of USA 17. It was a lot of fun clambering all over the boat to take the photos.
Any idea why Oracle stripped all the gear? Was in moved over to a development boat?
Hello Hugh – had Oracle left the gear in the boat it likely would have “decayed” and required ongoing expensive maintenance. They knew the boat would never sail again, so it made sense to strip everything out and re-use whatever they could.
Good info and great to see how almost “crude” and yet complicated the boat really was…….didn’t have a clue until this posting
Thanks Jack…..enjoy
Hi Tim, Yes, it is amazing to see a high performance machine up close. “Raw” or “functional” might be a more complimentary word than “crude” but “crude” certainly applies! Seeing USA 17 up close (and Alinghi 5 in 2010) was a bit like years ago when I visited my brother Dan many years ago – he was an F-15 pilot. He took me to the hangar and let me climb up and look into the cockpit. Military planes are crude and complicated, too. It was not shiny the way I expected from watching movies.
Why remove so much equipment from “17” when it is the miracle come-back boat? Greatest come from behind in sports history!
Hi Joel, USA 17 was never going to sail again, so it made sense to remove all the gear. Some could be reused. Other bits might have required ongoing expensive maintenance – think of leaking hydraulic oil, for example.
Anyone who gets to see her at the Mariners’ Museum is sure to be impressed!
I guess that makes sense until years go by and the historical importance of the boat increases with time. Seams like the boat best represents the revolution in AC racing. Like going from B.C to A.D. ! Thanks for all your insights.
So is this the boat that Larry Ellison had put in the pond at the Oracle Building or the other one?? My husband said there were 2.
Hello Martine,
Larry put USA in the pond. That is the 90 foot-on-the-waterline trimaran that won the Cup from Alinghi in the grudge match in Valencia in 2010.
Oracle did build 2 boats for the 2013 AC. The one in Mariners’ Museum is the boat that raced and won. I don’t know what has become of the other boat – also an AC72. But I will find out. 🙂
Regards,
Jack
Thanks Jack.
I would love to know also 🙂
Regards,
Martine
Great article Jack, love your blog.
If this SA Forum is correct, the Wing for this boat is currently being offered at scrap value on Craig’s List!
Surely the Museum could suspend it from the roof trusses above the hull, or similar..(if they don’t have a wing already)
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/art/6030755012.html
Actually Andrew… The wing span is 130 feet. The boat length is 72 feet, so no, the wing would not fit in the same hall!
Jack,
From a land locked state in the West, thank you very much for the in depth into the weeds blog with pictures about USA 17. I knew this boat was big but your pictures help to put into perspective just how BIG is. For America’s Cup 34 I recorded and watched the races as Oracle made their tremendous come back. For the last and final race I took told my boss I was taking an extended lunch that coincided with the broadcast. That is a day I will not forget. This is right up with with the ‘Miracle on Ice’ victory.
Hello Scott, Thanks for your note. Yes, USA 17 is *big*. I watched the Miracle on Ice live and was amazed during the whole match. The 1989 Tour de France may be my favorite comeback story – Greg Lemond impossibly made up 1 minute 06 seconds in the final stage time trial into Paris to beat Laurent Fignon by 8 seconds overall. Fignon was getting splits through his headset the whole way. Lemond knew that hearing splits wouldn’t help him. He didn’t wear a headset, he just put his head down and pedalled.
Great copy, Jack. I’ve been a vol at The Mariners’ Museum for 25 years and this is the biggest story I’ve seen! Every visitor to whom I allow a “sneak peek” (gallery opens May 27) says “It’s HUGE! I didn’t know it was so big!” Sort of makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Following the gallery development day by day is also exciting; the crew who assembled the six parts of the platform had some borrowed help from CA (you) but it was still an amazingly complex puzzle to put together!
Hi Ron, The Mariners’ Museum will now be a “must see” destination for America’s Cup fans. It has been an honor to be the guest curator for the exhibit. Before the yacht was lifted up on its display stands I got a chance to climb all over it. It looks even bigger from on board.