SAN DIEGO\u00e2\u20ac\u201dNo amount of jet lag could keep helmsman James Spithill from smiling about the prospect of getting back onboard one of the world’s fastest sailboats.<\/p>\n
Spithill and other sailors with America’s Cup challenger BMW Oracle Racing are waiting for the shore team to finish preparing their modified 90-foot trimaran to they can resume testing on the Pacific Ocean later this week.<\/p>\n
“Once you get a taste of this sort of a boat, you just sort of get addicted to it. We’re all pretty keen to get on with it,” Spithill said Tuesday, a day after arriving from a regatta in France.<\/p>\n
The monster trimaran, known as BOR 90, hasn’t sailed since March 3. Since then, San Francisco-based BMW Oracle Racing won its last-chance appeal in New York’s highest court and was declared the rightful Challenger of Record.<\/p>\n
The Americans will face bitter rival and two-time defending America’s Cup champion Alinghi of Switzerland in a best-of-3 series starting Feb. 8 for the oldest trophy in international sports.<\/p>\n