10th September 2011 - America's Cup World Series - Plymouth.

The America's Cup comes to Plymouth.

Candid images from the America's Cup World Series in Plymouth.

Representing the New York Yacht Club the sailing yacht America sailed across the Atlantic in August 1851 to challenge the Royal Yacht Squadron.
They won the 100 Guinea Cup, which back in New York was renamed the America's Cup and it was over 100 years before another nation won this cup.

Plenty of Banners and Flags fly everywhere.

Out in the sound are advertising floats.

The current holders of the America's Cup are the Golden Gate Yacht Club, San Francisco represented by Larry Ellison's Oracle Racing.
During 2011 and 2012 teams will compete in the America's Cup World Series racing ac45 catamarans. In 2013 the teams move up to ac72 catamarans and compete in the Louis Vuitton Cup for the right to challenge Oracle racing in the final for the America's Cup.

Plymouth Hoe if famous for Sir Francis Drake playing bowls as the Spanish Armada arrived in the English channel. The bowling green is still there with the Plymouth Eye behing.

The Plymouth Wheel dominats the skyline on the Hoe.

Crowds line the Hoe.

Out in Plymouth Sound a flotilla of support craft.

There are six umpires, two on-shore watching the tv feeds, two on the umpires boat and two on jet skis floowing the fleet.

The Orange motor boats are used as course marks and gates.

Penalties are immediate with the craft ordered to slow down for any infringement or straying outside the course boundaries.

Sofisticated GPS transceivers relay information back to the real time tracking displays, broadcast on the big screen and internet feeds.

On the hoe is the base - a big screen, stage, merchandising and media center.

There is a break between the fleet raceing as Brittany Ferries Pont Aven arrives into Millbay docks.

Helicopters are used to beam down live images of the races.

The Race village, Clyde Quay, Millbay.

All images © Ian Foster / fozimage