Oracle Team USA has accomplished the impossible.
No, not winning the America’s Cup. We all knew Larry Ellison’s space age catamaran and bionic crew could do that. What’s stunning is that they managed to turn themselves into come-from-behind underdogs — trailing New Zealand 8-1 at one point — and forced Americans to actually root for them, packing the San Francisco piers in a cheering frenzy Wednesday despite themselves.
With his monster house, personal jet and general reputation for, oh, being Larry, Ellison is no warm and fuzzy guy. But he has his moments, and now he has given the Bay Area an incredibly exciting and memorable America’s Cup. Two of them, we hope, assuming he brings the next Cup defense back here — a bonus that will substantially increase the city’s return on the investments it made to prepare for the events of the past few months, which didn’t prove as lucrative as Ellison suggested.
At least in the Bay Area, the race has awakened a whole new genre of sports fan — people who once yawned at the idea of sailing as a serious athletic event. The boats New Zealand and Oracle raced for the Cup bear as much resemblance to the average sloop as the NFL does to Pop Warner, but the combination of physical strength and ability to outwit forces of nature — the wind, the currents — needed to sail the open water differs only by degree. People will watch the boats on the Bay on sunny weekends with different eyes from now on.
The tragic death in May of a British sailor with the Sweden-based Artemis Racing team cast a pall over the Cup, a reminder that even for the most fit and best prepared, water can be unforgiving. The New Zealand team attracted many fans along the way, captivated by the indomitable spirit typical of the island nation, whose entire population is less than the Bay Area’s.
But you have to hand it to Team USA. Those guys totally rocked.
Thanks, Larry. Really.
