When Photographing AC Boats was Exciting

Peter Gilmore (Nippon, right) and John Cutler (America True) circling in challenging conditions, Louis Vuitton Series, 1999


Back in 1999 & 2000 when I was shooting the Louis Vuitton series as part of my America's Cup assignment we had a few really windy and grey days. The Haraki Gulf got plenty rough on some of those days, but the racing went on.

(The challengers didn't dare call it off, because Team New Zealand was always out with two boats, racing against each other, and always looking very controlled and casual, part of the plan I guessed)

I went out every day myself in the photo boats, on the fastest one I could get on, often that was the Kauwau Cat; it was a rugged, fast, metal, 45 foot open rib; great for charging around the race course in rough water. I had a lot of fun riding the waves in that boat, trying to hang onto my Nikon and the boat so we didn't fly off. You could tell when the boat got airborne because the jet drive would cavitate wildly. It did this with regularity. It was best if you stood up on days like that, sitting was hard on the back and butt.

The AC Boats were a handfull on a windy day, more so if the water was rough. I loved watching them and got a lot of great shots.

What surprised me was that most of the pro-photographers, and these were some of the top sailing photographers in the world, hated it. "The light was bad." they said. "The photo boat is too rough!"

Well, I wasn't trying for post card sailing shots, and I hoped for more of those kind of days.

I shot about 7000 photographs, and most of them have never seen the light of day. If you want to see more of these, let me know (comment or email) and if there is some demand for it I'll post some.