I like the America's Cup, it's awesome, pitting a bunch of giant sailing Yachts against each other in a tournament every few years.  Apparently I was completely wrong.  The idea is that a nation/yacht club has the cup, and another nation/yacht club challenges them to win it.  Since 1970 they have been doing a tournament to select who is the official challenger, which is what I remember.  No longer.  This year, it's just the USA vs Switzerland.

In fact, I'd be hard pressed to even call it sailing, since the BMW Oracle Trimaran shown above (yes, TRIMARAN!) is using hydraulics to control the sails (well, one of them is actually a wing).  The Swiss boat is using an engine of some kind to do the same thing.  Apparently winches aren't precise enough.  I just don't think you should be able to use anything not wind powered in a sailboat race, but hey, I guess that's just me.

The rules have been a HUGE controversy, apparently:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33rd_America's_Cup#Regarding_the_rules_of_the_match

I just don't understand how I didn't hear about all this until now.

Anyway, the US boat is apparently crazy fast, so, yeah, lets get this baby back to the USA.  The races are in a bit over a week, and I have no idea what channel they will be on yet...

Also, if trimarans with wingsails are in... when will we see 90ft hydrofoils? THAT would be cool.

More info:

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-01/winged-victory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America's_Cup