2013 America's Cup Backblaze Company Sailing Trip
(9/10/2013)
2013 America's Cup Backblaze Company Sailing Trip(9/10/2013)
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On Tuesday, September 10th, 2013 most of Backblaze took the day off to go sailing in San Francisco bay and watch the 2013 America's Cup. Below are a few pictures, click on any picture for the highest quality "original".
Below is where we met at Pier 40 in San Francisco.
Here are some of the Backblaze employees milling about waiting for the boat to arrive to take us out sailing.
Our boat is a Lagoon 450 catamaran called "L'Obsession", below is a picture of it arriving.
We board "L'Obsession" and hang out on the front of the catamaran.
This catamaran is very spacious, there are staterooms in the "pontoons" of the catamaran, here is a picture standing about mid-ship facing the bedroom. The stairs on the right lead up to the main salon.
Facing the other way you see one of the three bathrooms this catamaran has. This is the largest bathroom, with a toilet, shower, and sink.
This is the main salon (between the two pontoons). Very spacious.
Cecilia Luu in blue top, Katherine Chung in white pants reclining on the aft deck.
Yev Pusin looking dashing.
The "fly bridge" steering wheel.
A panorama of the front of the boat with lots of Backblaze employees plus a few friends and spouses.
In the blue shirt is "Don" giving us a short safety lecture, and on Don's left is Zoe Wadkins who comes with the boat as a hostess.
Backblaze employees listening to the safety lecture.
And we get underway! Here we sail under the Bay Bridge.
Our sailboat under way, with the San Francisco skyline in the background.
One of the two boats racing today is the New Zealand Team sponsored by Emirates.
Katherine Chung in front of the San Francisco Golden gate bridge.
Wind blown hair and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.
Hanging out, waiting for the race to start.
America's Cup boat.
A close up of the America's cup boat. These sailboats are pretty amazing, they go 50+ miles per hour on hydrofoils.
Another close up.
An "officials" boat pulls up next to us to warn us to stay in a certain location during the race.
A few Backblaze employees and friends on the aft deck.
Hanging out on the bow of the catamaran waiting for some race action.
Here is the USA America's Cup boat sponsored by Oracle. Below you can see it is lifting up onto the hydrofoil.
Below the America's cup boat has lifted all the way up onto both hydrofoils and is running along probably at 40mph or faster.
Below is the New Zealand America's cup boat sponsored by the Emirates up on hydrofoil.
More America's cup sailboats.
Two America's cup sailboats one passing the other.
The finish line and two America's cup boats.
The Emirates America's Cup Boat on hydrofoils. Notice the left hydrofoil has left the water entirely.
From left to right that's Gleb Budman (holding bottle), Tim Nufire, Ali Nufire, Don, and captain Bruce Bruvig driving. The Golden Gate Bridge is in the background
Left to right that is Don, Bruce, Adam.
The two competitor teams today.
More America's Cup Boat pictures:
Another America's Cup Boat picture, zoomed in:
As they pass by.
Another picture of the hydrofoil.
And another picture:
Close to shore, this America's cup boat is hydrofoiling.
Another hydrofoil picture:
Shooting along through the water at 50+ mph.
At the end of the race, this boat dragged the finish line around.
Don driving the catamaran, Monika Gorkani on the bridge.
At the end of the day, we flew a sail so we could claim we had been "sailing", here is Don doing all the work:
After the race, the Oracle America's Cup boat sailed around a little, I think it was to get shots like this in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.
A close up:
The Oracle America's Cup Sailboat with the Golden Gate Bridge behind it.
You can just see the bottom of the Golden Gate Bridge in this picture below:
We were going about 10 mph home, when the Oracle boat came up on us doing maybe 40 mph. They had to turn to miss us. (They weren't racing, just goofing around in the bay at this point.)
An even closer up view of the port pontoon of the Oracle America's cup sailboat hydrofoiling.
Pictures of an America's Cup boat:
More of the same:
Cecilia Luu getting ready to take a picture.
This Sealegs Amphibious boat came by while we were waiting around.
A 1983 Aerospatiale helicopter (French made helicopter) with tail number N450CC was flying around filming the event.
A close up of the sailors on the Oracle boat.
Another close up.
Yet another:
At the end of the day, we watched the New Zealand team disassemble their boat (see the "sail" has been lifted off by the crane in the picture below) and put the boat and sail into the warehouse for safe keeping.
That's it!