Doubt a huge number of people care much about ego contests between billionaires, but this one was pretty special......
Yacht racing is a very, very complex sport that is almost impossible for people who don't participate to understand. Here is a really basic summary of what occured today:
The America's Cup is a perpetual trophy, controlled by a trust established in the state of New York, USA to foster healthy competition between nations on the sea.
The trust was founded in the late 1800's and established two kinds of events for the cup: a mutual challenge and a so-called Deed of Gift challenge. In the former, all of the parties get together and decide the rules, which for the past 50 years or so (with one exception) have been a tourney type format with playoffs and a final round. In the Deed match format, there are only two players; the Defender and the Challenger, both of which must be yacht clubs.
Over the past 7 years, the Swiss have held the cup, and held it tight. Larry Ellsion, founder of Oracle Corp is a keen sailor, and thru the New York courts, forced the Swiss team into a deed match. A deed match has very few rules, mainly that the boats can't be longer than 90 feet on the water.
Larry Ellison and the Swiss team Alingi then built two of the most expensive, most ill, largest, and fastest yachts ever seen, and today, the Americans prevailed after winning two races in a row, sometimes going almost 40 miles per hour on the water in a 10MPH breeze. They did it with the largest single wing ever built: land, air, or sea, and it was a stirring sight indeed.
Today @ 2PM EST, the Cup will be awarded to Larry Ellison, the first time a challenger has ever won a Deed match. Congrats to him and his team, and to the extraordinary technology they deployed.
A bit of pride for America for a change--