At this thrill-seeking stage of the America's Cup, foiling catamarans with helmeted crews of six will hit speeds approaching 50 knots (about 57 mph) while skimming across the powder-blue waters of Bermuda's Great Sound.
But the Cup, which is set to begin Saturday, one day later than planned because of high winds, is also more than ever a competition between visions of its future.
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Eight times Sydney to Hobart line honours winner Wild Oats XI receives a major modification to keep her ahead of the pack. Video: McConaghy Boats, Bow Caddy productions and Andrea Francolini
Winner-take-all has long been the leitmotif of this enduring and unusual event, which began in 1851 when sailboat speed was about commercial and military advantage, not just bragging rights over cocktails.
That format is the Cup's appeal to the rich who would like to be more famous and who like the idea of defending the trophy where, when and in what type of sailboat they please.
But the clear lines between the defender and the challengers are blurring, never more so than in this 35th America's Cup, where the defender, Oracle Team USA, will race in the first phase of the America's Cup qualifiers that will determine its eventual challenger.
It is an America's Cup first. Gone are the days when the defender would not meet its challenger until the opening day of the America's Cup match itself in a moment of pure suspense because not even the skippers truly knew how big the gap would be.
Now, although spying and surprises still exist, there is fraternising with the enemy on a regular basis as all the teams compete in the preliminary regattas in the years leading to the Cup. Having Oracle Team USA join the actual challenger series is the next step, one that not all the challengers embrace.
"That's a big shift," said Ben Ainslie, the skipper and chief principal of British challenger Land Rover BAR. "It certainly raised a few eyebrows, and I think for this cycle, I didn't necessarily like it that much, but when you look at where you're going in the future, it's what you had to create. Because you want to create racing where all the teams are involved. You want to create a circuit."
That is the goal of the majority for now. Russell Coutts, a New Zealander who has won the Cup five times and who is head of the America's Cup Event Authority organising this Cup, has long been a fan of Formula One.
The idea is to make the America's Cup a league more than a challenge cup, to make it as mainstream as possible while aligning budgets and revenues, which are very misaligned.
The majority would like to see the Cup contested more frequently: every two years instead of the now-customary three or four. The biennial timetable was part of a framework agreement signed in January by Oracle and four of this year's five challengers, one that integrates the defender and challengers even more.
The accord also committed to using this same new class of foiling catamarans, nearly 50 feet in length, for the next two America's Cups. Reaching such an agreement before determining the next defender is without precedent, and there are doubts about whether it could withstand a legal challenge.
There is also one vocal holdout among the challengers: Emirates Team New Zealand, which blew what should have been an insurmountable 8-1 lead in San Francisco to lose the last America's Cup match to Oracle in 2013.
Bad blood still simmers along with mistrust, which guarantees that this America's Cup will retain the traditional sharp edge.
Grant Dalton, Team New Zealand's chief executive, told me this year that his team wants to preserve the traditional challenger-defender divide stipulated by the regatta's founding document. He said his team sees itself as a "lone wolf."
I asked Oracle's Australian skipper, Jimmy Spithill, on Thursday if he sees the Kiwis that way, too. "I think Grant Dalton has shown he's a lone wolf," Spithill said, eyes flashing. "It's rare for me to agree with him, but I think he's correct."
Spithill maintains that the cooperative tack is the best way forward, but the rub of course in Bermuda is that the cooperative approach is also a likely boost to Oracle's chances of defending successfully.
Racing in the qualifiers means Oracle will be able to test its boat against the opposition before it really needs to sail its fastest (although there is a bonus point available to Oracle for the America's Cup match if it wins the qualifier round).
The arrangement also means Oracle will have downtime to fine-tune its boat for the America's Cup match while the challengers go through the semifinal and final rounds, which Oracle will sit out.
"It is a big advantage," Ainslie said of Oracle's taking part in the qualifiers.
Another big advantage for the defender is that, with the teams allowed to build only one AC Class catamaran, Oracle has been able to run what is essentially a two-boat program by sharing technology and information with its partner syndicate SoftBank Team Japan, which some in the Cup refer to snidely as "Oracle Team Japan."
Ainslie, who supports the framework agreement, points out that Oracle's advantages in this Cup were fairly negotiated with its initial challenger of record: an Australian team that eventually disbanded.
"You have to take your hat off to them," Ainslie said of Oracle. "That was actually pretty smart negotiating. There was nothing, you know, underhanded about that."
Spithill points out that Team New Zealand had a similar arrangement with the Italian Team Luna Rossa during the last Cup, although those two teams were both challengers.
"They were sharing," Spithill said. "I don't think they did that good a job of it because they weren't completely open and the Italians ended up with a slower boat, but in our situation Japan has got exactly the same boat."
At least for now it does. Much can change in a hurry in the boat sheds and in the water during the Cup, just as it did in San Francisco in 2013.
Much has changed since then, too, including the fact that Oracle and its Californian owner Larry Ellison are defending the oldest major trophy in sports outside of the United States.
More surprises undoubtedly are ahead. For now, and for just one more day, Bermuda's blue waters and its brand-new America's Cup village, built on a man-made island, await.
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