AC36: Will GGYC continue as a challenger?

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – On a beautiful warm, breezy Monday evening your Ed. stopped by Golden Gate YC to pay his respects, but alas the club was closed as it normally is on Mondays. It had been open for a special race day brunch Monday morning, but only about ten members were present plus three television trucks – covering the end of the Club's AC era that began in 2001 as a challenger, and ended as the Defender in 2017. Or will it continue as a challenger again? The Club's special AC flag (designed by Larry Ellison and displayed on the topsides of OTUSA's yacht) was still flying beneath GGYC's official burgee. Should we read anything into that?

And hour late the sun was setting over the Golden Gate Bridge, and what had been the iconically beautiful and reliably windy venue for the AC34....