Stateside: America’s Cup at San Francisco
America’s Cup at San Francisco City
Hall
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The America’s Cup, reflecting the red carpet on the staircase down which the BMW Oracle team descended, in the Rotunda of San Francisco City Hall, Saturday, February 20, 2010.
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Tactician John Kostecki, a Bay Area local, and Skipper/CEO Russell Coutts (plus one of the Cup’s white-gloved handlers) at the ceremony welcoming the America’s Cup to San Francisco.
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Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, fields a question at the press conference following the welcoming ceremony.
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USA17’s Helmsman, Jimmy Spithill, SF Mayor Gavin Newsom, Larry Ellison, John Kostecki, and Russell Coutts.
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Halsey Herreshoff, four-time America’s Cup winner and founder of the America’s Cup Hall of Fame, at the press conference. He flew down from Vancouver, where he had been attending the Winter Olympics, especially to attend the event. Herreshoff expressed some concern about the types of boats that will be used in the future, to which Russell Coutts replied that there should be a 50-50 balance between technology and sailing skills, “but that doesn’t rule out having exciting boats.”
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The sparse crowd in the Rotunda at SF City Hall who came to see the Auld Mug after the welcoming ceremony. They’re watching part of a documentary filmed by Ellison’s son about the 33rd America’s Cup.
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After the welcoming ceremony, the Cup was moved from the staircase to the floor of the Rotunda so people could have their photograph taken with it. See more photos here.
ENDS