1988 Am. Cup Catamaran

In 1988, the America's Cup was won by that controversial catamaran. Someone gave me an old sailing magazine that had a picture of that beautiful cat. Is that cat still around somewhere ??? It would be interesting to know the history of it, after the race and up to this day.

Yep, there are actually two I think. One is down in Mexico giving tour rides without the ridged sail it originally raced with.

The other one, which I believe is the actual race boat is somewhere on the west coast but I can't be sure.

I am sure there is someone on here who knows exactly where it is.

from wiki

Team Dennis Conner (Team DC) chose to use a catamaran design, because the surprise challenge by Sir Michael Fay left limited time to design a J-class boat to compete on equal terms. As the challenge used the original deed of gift as its basis, there were no explicit design requirements so the San Diego Yacht Club and Dennis Conner's syndicate chose the assuredly faster multi-hull design. Two Stars and Stripes cats were built, one with a conventional soft sail (Stars and Stripes S1), and the second with a hard sail (Stars and Stripes H3) built by Scaled. The hard sail proved faster and was used in defense.

After the 32nd America's Cup, the hard sail yacht was bought by Mexican yachtsman Victor Tapia and sails in Mexico. The soft sail yacht was bought by Steve Fossett and used to set speed records in various yacht races.

and as i kiwi i can "we wuz robbed!"

click on the pic at

http://www.americascup.com/es/acclopaedia/circlinggalaxy/bateau.php?idContent=4926&idRubr=74

and the big softie

http://www.morrellimelvin.com/sailboats/racing/060-StarsStr02.html

ok last 1

http://www.americascup.com/en/acclopaedia/boatdestiny/index.php?idIndex=0&idContent=5171

I'm pretty sure that the one in Mexico is rotting away - I saw some pictures of it a year or so ago and it still had the wing sail up and several panels were missing.

As far as the other, soft sail, boat, it was owned by Steve Fossett at one point but is now on the west coast of florida and actively raced.

It is now owned by the Liebel brothers and lives on a lift in the Manatee River in Bradenton, Fl.

Still racing, this was a few weeks ago.

Is it in Bradenton? How do we score a ride on that thing? Maybe we could charter it for a fleet ride/party or something.

and the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZUTvnqzw7Y