America's Cup Sailing Adventure

This is the third in my San Diego Adventures Series:

"If you live a life of make-believe, your life isn't worth anything until you do something that does challenge your reality.  And to me, sailing the open ocean is a real challenge,  because it's life or death."

Morgan Freeman

Abracadabra passes close in front of Stars & Stripes while racing on San Diego bay

On Wednesday, July 11th, my husband and I took a sail on the Stars & Stripes sailing ship which is an America's Cup Yacht.  This is the third and last adventure that my husband purchased for me as a Christmas present.  I had told him that I didn't want anymore "stuff" for Christmas.  We have too much "stuff" as it is.  I wanted to do somethings that I wouldn't necessaritly do on a normal basis.  He gave me three adventures, which I have spread out over the first half of the year.  The first was a kayak trip out of La Jolla to see the migrating whales.  A girlfriend came along on that trip.  The second was a bi-plane trip over Del Mar and down the coast.  My husband and daughter went along to watch, but they didn't go up, it was just me and the pilot.  I wrote about both of these experiences when I did them and you can read about them, if you are interested, by clicking on the link at the bottom of this posting.

Pulling away from the doc on the Stars & Stripes

On this trip my husband came with me.  We boarded the yacht at the embarcadero area in downtown San Diego.  Our 2.5 hour sailing adventure was done mostly within San Diego harbor.   We sailed slightly out of the harbor into the open seas, just briefly, before turning around and heading back.  We had San Diego's beautiful skyline and all the military ships as views as we passed by.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  As far as I am concerned, any day on the open water is a good day.  They actually let me take the wheel and sail the ship for a short time.

Sails being raised

The Stars & Stripes is an 80 foot International America's Cup racing yacht.  The Abracadabera is also an America's Cup yacht.  Both can be booked to go sailing on, and when both ships are filled, they actually compete in races in the harbor, with passengers onboard. Also available for whale watching trips is the 139 foot yacht "America" which is a replica of the yacht that started the America's Cup racing tradition back in 1851.

George and I sailing away

Stars & Stripes / USA 34 was designed by David Pedrick and built in 1994 by Goetz Boat Works for Team Dennis Conner’s single-boat campaign during the 1995 America’s Cup in San Diego. Stars & Stripes / USA 34 rose to notoriety by winning the Citizen Cup in 1995, earning the right to defend the Cup on behalf of the San Diego Yacht Club. But in one of the most bizarre twists in the history of America’s Cup racing, Conner chose to defend the Cup, not aboard his Stars & Stripes / USA 34, but rather using Young America / USA 36, which he had just defeated in the finals of the Citizen Cup. Team New Zealand’s Black Magic proved to be much faster, defeating Team Dennis Conner in four straight races.

Me at the wheel of the Stars & Stripes Yacht
in San Diego Bay

There is no place other than San Diego that novice sailors can participate in a hands-on authentic America’s Cup match race. These 2 yachts are possibly the last generation America’s Cup yachts that any public guests will ever get to sail. Why is that? Well the current racing for the ‘cup’ is being conducted in 45 Ft high speed twin hull catamarans. They are light weight, very fast and technologically advanced with revolutionary ‘wing’ sails compared to a traditional sail plan. These are not made to carry any more than 5 very professional sailing crew, fine tuned athletes whose fitness level has to be at their very best to scamper around continuously on these ‘adrenaline junkie’ machines. So….the chances of them ever carrying passengers is ‘zero’, and if the future of the America’s Cup is to stay with these vessels then the public will be waiting a long time to get on anything newer than the last generation “International America’s Cup Class” vessels that are here in San Diego. These yachts “Stars & Stripes” and “Abracadabra” are the “only pair” of these vessels in the USA.

We passed some sea lions
sunning themselves

Quite often people live in a city and don't really know that there are so many fun things to do right here at home. You can take a mini-vacation in your own city. I was told when we boarded that they seldom get people who live here on board, that almost everyone that comes to sail with them are from other places. They were quite surprised that we lived here, and it was true that everyone else on board that day were from other parts of the USA. That is too bad, we should spend time having fun where we live too.

My husband actually booked all of my adventure trips through a company called Xperience - www.XperienceDays.com .  They book all kinds of adventures, for cities all over America.  If you are interested in doing something fun and different, either in your home city, or somewhere you are going to be visiting, they have been a good company to deal with, and I would recommend them.  Their prices are reasonable, and they have been very reliable.

Heading back into San Diego harbor

Our Crew, Jared and Michael,
 lowering the sails

You can also book the America's Cup Sailing trip directly with the company that sails.  Also, if you wish to read about the history of America's Cup Sailing or about Dennis Connor, they have a lot of information on their website:  http://www.nextlevelsailing.com/yachts/stars-and-stripes
To read about my sea-kayaking trip to see the whales, click on this link:
http://www.havelistwilltravel.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-sea-kayaking-adventure.html
To read about my bi-plane adventure, click on this link
http://www.havelistwilltravel.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-bi-plane-adventure.htm

San Diego Harbor