SAN DIEGO -- Always eager for a challenge, two-time Americas Cup champion skipper Jimmy Spithill and his crew of five on a high-performance, 46-foot catamaran hooked into a strong breeze off New York and headed toward Bermuda, hoping to ride above the waves on hydrofoils for all 662 nautical miles.The weather turned nasty about halfway there, forcing them at one point to drop their sails and switch from performance mode to survival mode.Team Falcon made it to Bermuda in one piece, leaving Spithill excited about the future of offshore foiling while respecting Mother Nature.It got pretty bad, the Australian said in a phone interview from Japan, where hell lead Oracle Team USA in the final stop of the Americas Cup World Series this weekend. The first 24 hours were awesome. We put down some awesome miles and got to the Gulf Stream pretty quickly. Then it started to turn for the worse.Waves that had been 6 1/2 feet grew as big as 20 to 25 feet as the wind rose from 20 knots up to 40 to 45 knots.Anytime you have to go offshore, you have to be prepared for the worst, Spithill said. Its like mountain climbing. Anyone who goes up Everest or any other decent mountain, you have to be prepared for the weather to change and you have to have a plan. We were always prepared for the worst. In that situation you usually learn something about yourself and the team around you. It was impressive to see how everyone responded and got through it.The boat sailed at more than 30 knots a few times during the 66-hour trip, Spithill said.Down to bare poles at one point in strong wind, the cat was still going 20 knots down waves. We had a hard time slowing the boat up, Spithill said. Thats what youve got to be able to face when youre on the ocean, especially the Gulf Stream, which can be pretty notorious water. It was pretty crazy.It was some of the best sailing Ive done of my life offshore. It proves this is the next step in the offshore world, Spithill said.The trip was the idea of Shannon Falcone of Antigua, a former Oracle Team USA crewmember, and backed by Red Bull, which sponsors both OTUSA and the Red Bull Youth Americas Cup. The F4, built in the Netherlands, is the first foiling catamaran specifically built for the open ocean.Foiling has become the rage in sailing. While the concept has been around for years, it went mainstream during the 2013 Americas Cup on San Francisco Bay in a duel between 72-foot catamarans. Its continued to develop leading up to the 2017 Americas Cup, which will be contested in 50-foot foiling cats in Bermuda.When the Americas Cup catamarans reach a certain speed, they rise up on foils, lifting the hulls out of the water and allowing faster speeds.Its just pure performance, said Spithill, who steered Oracles giant trimaran to victory in the 2010 Americas Cup and then helped rally the American-backed team to victory over Emirates Team New Zealand in 2013. Once you can sort of get that drag gone and get that boat out of the water, its like a turbo boost.One challenge of offshore foiling will be at night. Spithill said foiling requires the crew to anticipate and look around, and the crew had to rely only on instruments during three moonless nights.While Spithill said he got a real test, physically and mentally, from the trip, the worst offshore conditions hed been in were in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart race, when six sailors died and five yachts sank during a fierce storm.Spithill also was at the wheel of Oracles 72-foot catamaran when it capsized in rough conditions on San Francisco Bay in October 2012.Joining Spithill and Falcone on Team Falcon were Oracle Team USAs Rome Kirby of Newport, Rhode Island; Tommy Loughborough of Singapore; Olympic sailor Cy Thompson of the Virgin Islands and Emily Nagel, a member of Team Bermuda in the Red Bull Youth Americas Cup.Matt Knighton, who won the Onboard Reporter Award for the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race, was the onboard cameraman, even using a drone to capture video footage during daylight hours.The voyage proved that foiling is the next step in offshore performance, Spithill said.But theres a limit. No matter what, Mother Nature will decide at what level you will operate. And Mother Nature made that decision for us.---Follow Bernie Wilson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/berniewilson Jordan Scarpe Sconti . 4 Villanova with a 96-68 drubbing on Monday. Wragge hit 9-of-14 from behind the arc, matching Kyle Korvers school record for 3-pointers in a game set in 2003, as Creighton (16-3, 6-1 Big East broke a conference record with 21 treys in the rout. Scarpe Jordan Ingrosso . Luis Suarezs double powered Liverpool to a 4-0 victory over Fulham, and Southampton easily overcame Hull 4-1 to continue the south coast clubs impressive start to the season. Liverpool and Southampton sent Chelsea down to fourth place as the west London club was held to 2-2 at home. http://www.airjordanscontate.it/ . -- The goal posts lying flat on the field, Arizonas fans lingered on the field, congregating around the locker room entrance nearly 30 minutes after rushing out of the stands. Air Jordan Scarpe Saldi . LOUIS -- Alexander Steen scored a power-play goal with 59. Scarpe Jordan Uomo Scontate . Traditional contenders Brazil, Greece and Turkey drew the other three spots to complete the 24-team field for this summers tournament in Spain, basketball governing body FIBA announced Saturday at its meeting in Barcelona. LONDON -- The Washington Redskins and Cincinnati Bengals played to a 27-27 draw Sunday in London as the NFL got its second tied game in a season for the first time since 1997.The sold-out crowd of 84,488 at Wembley Stadium left deflated and even puzzled as the regulation-time shootout between Kirk Cousins and Andy Dalton turned into an overtime comedy of errors.It definitely feels more like a loss than a win, because we moved the ball so well and had so many opportunities to win, Cousins said.Washington (4-3-1) appeared to have the game won with 2:13 left in overtime, but Dustin Hopkins hooked his 34-yard field goal attempt wide left.Hopkins, whose first overtime attempt sailed smoothly through the uprights but was negated by a last-second Bengals timeout, appeared calm and unruffled in the locker room.It was slick out there, but that didnt have an effect on any of my kicks, said Hopkins, who also was badly short on a 55-yard attempt at the end of the first half.The Redskins got the ball back with 1:11 remaining when Dalton fumbled at the Bengals 47 on a quarterback sneak. Cousins couldnt connect downfield and tossed his final desperate pass tamely into the sideline to preserve the draw. Cincinnati is 3-4-1.The unlikely result came one week after the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals tied 6-6 .Obviously not winning the game is disappointing, Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. We had opportunities on both sides of the ball to win it.Cousins finished with 38 completions for a season-high 458 yards on a team-record 56 attempts, with touchdowns to Jordan Reed and Jamison Crowder. He also threw an inconsequential interception on a deep ball.Dalton completed 27 of 42 for 284 yards and a touchdown to Tyler Eifert, who saw his first significant game action following offseason back surgery. Eifert made nine catches for 102 yards, while A.J. Green generated 121 yards on nine catches. Dalton also tossed a costly interception early in the fourth quarter with the Bengals driving deep into Washington territory.THE 1997 TIES: Oddly, the last time the NFL had two ties in a season also happened in back-to-back weeks. In Weeks 12 and 13 of the 1997 season, Baltimore and Philadelphia tied 10-10, followed seven days later by Washington and the New York Giants 7-7 draw.QQUICK START: At first, it looked as if both teams might have forgotten to pack their defenses.ddddddddddddWashington took its opening possession 80 yards on a 15-play drive capped by Robert Kelleys juking 4-yard run. It was the first NFL rushing touchdown for Kelley, an undrafted rookie from Tulane starting in place of an injured Matt Jones.Cincinnati immediately responded with a 66-yard kickoff return by Alex Erickson up the right sideline. Giovani Bernard took a draw 8 yards to the end zone to tie the score 7-7 with about four minutes still left in the opening quarter.KICKING WOES: It wasnt only Hopkins ruing his errors. The Bengals Mike Nugent had a chance to tie at 10, but his low-trajectory 51-yarder spun wide left. Nugent has often struggled from long range throughout his 12-year career. He has yet to convert a field goal beyond 47 yards this year, and fell to 0-for-3 from 50 yards or more.Nugent then missed his first extra point of the season, wide left following the Bengals go-ahead drive of the second half.We missed a PAT, we missed a field goal, and those things eventually came back to hurt us, Lewis said.WATCH THOSE HANDS: Redskins star cornerback Josh Norman was called four times for illegal use of hands. Its a shame for Washington that those hands werent as sticky to the ball.Norman dropped two great interception opportunities while jumping routes on short sideline throws to A.J. Green. The first hit him squarely in both hands on the Bengals 39 near the end of the first half, the second was in Redskins territory during the Bengals opening drive of the second half. A pick then would have stopped the Bengals from seizing the lead barely a minute later.SEEING YELLOW: The game was marred by penalties, particularly by the Redskins. Washington was flagged 15 times for 106 yards, leading to eight Bengals first downs and damaging Washingtons overtime drives into Bengals turf. Cincinnati had seven penalties for 85 yards.UP NEXT: Both teams have byes.(Fixes Gordon to Norman in WATCH THOSE HANDS.)---Associated Press reporter Zac Boyer contributed to this story.---AP NFL websites: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL Wholesale Hoodies NFL Shirts Outlet Jerseys NFL Wholesale Cheap NFL Jerseys Free Shipping Wholesale Jerseys Cheap Cheap NFL Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys ' ' '