Wet and Wild - Sailing Photo of the Week

Not exactly a dry boat, the crew from the Extreme 40 iShares are trying to keep her bows up, and hanging on tight!  This shot was taken at Cowes Week this year at the iShares Cup races.  The iShares Cup Series concludes in Amsterdam starting tomorrow, the last racing in what has been an action-packed series this year.

The concept behind the iShares series is to make sailing a spectator sport.  To that end, the organizers have taken some of the top sailors in the world, chosen the exciting Extreme 40's as a one-design class, and placed the racing in venues where the boats can sail nearly within speaking distance of the shoreside.  Short races on a small course almost guarantee some sort of calamity, as do the boats themselves, which are often riding the razor's edge between flying and flipping.

The result?  Yes, it turns out that sailing can make one heck of a spectator sport!  A reported 50,000 plus people crowded the waterfront on the last day's sailing in Kiel a couple weeks back.  Imagine that:  motorsports-sized crowds at a wind-powered event.  All the excitement, all the action, and zero emissions. 

- B. Hampton exclusively for YachtPals.com

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