Best spots to take photographs of the America’s cup world series (ACWS) in San Francisco

The second round of America’s cup World Series was held in San Francisco from October 2nd to October 7th 2012. This is not the official America’s cup (or even the Louis Vuitton’s cup) but a new way for sailors to get trained while they wait for their boats to be built.

This was the round 2 of the series, with an impressive win in both categories (match racing and fleet racing) by Jimmy Spithill on Oracle Team USA Spithill. It’s true his crew trains all the time on the bay, but Ben Ainslie (on JP Morgan Team), who was new to the AC45, showed that it was possible to beat Oracle Team USA in San Francisco as his crew won one of the fleet races.

I tried several locations to get shots of the races. On Tuesday, I was using a helicopter and that’s by far the best images I got but it’s expensive and very hard to schedule (weather is a huge issue).

Different possible photographic spots for the America’s cup

At the end of the pier, near the Golden Gate Yacht club (Spot 1), is my favorite spot on land. The first marker is usually right in front of you, making it possible to capture
the fleet first turn and any capsize as it often happens during the first turn. The finish line is also in your line of sight so you can get very close-up shots. The problem with Spot 1 is that it’s very hard to know by looking at the images that the race is taking place in the San Francisco Bay. The background has no landmarks specific to the area.

Artemis Racing Red (spot 1).

AC 45 Fleet racing: The first gate is the most challenging one. (spot 1)

Spot 2 is not bad when the boats stay close to the shore and have to tack right in front of you. You can have Alcatraz in the background which makes the images more localized (i.e. it’s in the San Francisco Bay not somewhere else).
Spot 3 was closed off to the public (I don’t know why) but you can get to it, if you are motivated enough. Once at the end of the pier, they seem to leave you alone then.
Spot 4 is clearly one of the best to capture the city skyline but it’s hard to get the boat facing you and you will have to shoot from a moving boat which is more challenging.

Jimmy Spithill won the fleet race on Thursday Oct 4th 2012. (spot 1)

In terms of lenses, I had a 70-200mm with a 2X extender. I was not completely happy with the image quality with the 2X (even with the new version III), so next time I will get
a 400mm/F2.8 II to get better shots. I think a fast glass makes a world of difference here, the boats are moving quite fast and you need to freeze the action. My shutter speed was 1/1000 and sometimes higher (when in the helicopter).
The wide angle shots were shot with a 24-70mm.

Ben Ainslie winning the fleet race on October 4th. (spot 4)

Artemis Racing Red and the Trans-america Tower (spot4)