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How did I miss this? America wins back the America's Cup in Valentia in just TWO races in a TRIMARAN

What happened to the multigazillion dollar monohull yachts and all the races leading up to the final two yachts racing a best of seven

Three years ago (was that three years ago?) there was tremendous publicity leading up to these races - - - this year I never even heard about it anywhere til it was over

Was it on TV The cup will be displayed at the Golden Gate Yacht Club for all you NOCALs. I would think it's a "must see".

TRIMARAN

Rick Less

PS Next time they'll be racing 65' MacGregors

I gave up on the Americas cup after Ted Turner lost to electronic controled boats.
Ted Turner and others Sailed their boats tru knowledge and experance without electronics and thats the way it should be.
It's all about Designers raceing now and the crew has to keep up.
Dave

pokerrick1 wrote:How did I miss this? America wins back the America's Cup in Valentia in just TWO races in a TRIMARAN

What happened to the multigazillion dollar monohull yachts and all the races leading up to the final two yachts racing a best of seven

Three years ago (was that three years ago?) there was tremendous publicity leading up to these races - - - this year I never even heard about it anywhere til it was over

Was it on TV The cup will be displayed at the Golden Gate Yacht Club for all you NOCALs. I would think it's a "must see".

TRIMARAN

Rick Less

PS Next time they'll be racing 65' MacGregors

America's Cup Link

http://www.americascup.com/en/index.html

I can never get that to work

!	kmclemore:
	Fixed link. You need to format it as below for it to work.

You didn't miss much. I caught the first race on TV and it was more interesting to watch the graphics than the boats. This is an event that has gone the same way as F1 with more interest in what happens in the law courts than on the racecourse. I don't think that 165 years of history is any good reason to perpetuate this unless major changes are made there are many far more exciting sailing events than the Americas Cup.

I agree that the courts need to be out of the picture. But, let's not forget the The America had vastly upgraded technology compared to the other yachts it ran against. The trophy was renamed to honor the boat, not the captain and crew. The America's Cup is about the new ideas and materials, not a gentleman's race. If we want a match race to prove a captain and crew then the boats should be production hulls and assigned by lottery. All of sailing benefits from a race between advancing boats, the winged keel comes to mind, or even The America's hollow mast. Let's hope the next challenge brings a whole new kind of boat, I can't wait to see what amazing ideas the most creative designers can come up with.

I used to wait in anticipation for the AC every 4 years but
Since NZ put the cat in some years ago it has gone down hill it is not worth watching ever since
In Oz there was nothing on it until this week
Bring back the old days I say

Allan

It was interesting to watch just to see the technology they were using.

It wasn't a normal regatta as in the past. BMW/Oracle from Golden Gate Yacht club basically forced a 'Deed of Gift' challenge through their lawyers in court. Alinghi the Swiss defender was forced by the court to hold the match. It was a best 2 out of 3 series with just the two boats, no challenger series with many boats as usual.

Because it was a 'Deed Of Gift' challenge, there were very little rules on the boat designs, the only real constraint was a 90' water line length. BMW/Oracle built a very light Trimaran that was 90' long on the waterline and had a 90' beam. It carried a 223' high hard wing main sail, the biggest wing sail ever built, far bigger than the wings on a A380 plane. Alinghi answered with a Catamaran also 90' long on the waterline and 90' on the beam. It carried a 180' high mast with soft sails.

The deciding factor in both races was clearly the wing sail on BMW/Oracle, it was just plain faster on all points of sail. Alinghi also suffered from some bone head helmsman mistakes in both starts that left them with a penalty turn each time. However in both races by the time they reached the finish line and did their turn they were so far behind it didn't matter.

BMW/Oracle made mistakes as well. In the first race, after they forced a penalty on Alinghi for failing to keep clear, they sat in a 'dial up' for a few minutes and lost control. BMW/Oracle ended up stalled in irons and it took forever for them to get going. By then Alinghi had started and was way ahead. With the wing sail however BMW/Oracle was so fast up wind that they caught and passed Alinghi and had a big lead of their own by the windward mark. Unlike the usual AC courses race 1 was a single upwind and downwind leg each 20 Nm long.

What is amazing to watch is these monsters sailing. Both could easily fly their hulls in only 2-3 knots of wind. Their normal speeds were over 3 times the true wind speed. The boats were regularly sailing 18-20 knots upwind and were in the mid twenties down wind. On the reaches they were pushing 30 knots. All this in wind that average 6-10 knots. At one point during practice BMW/Oracle was clocked at 22 knot in only 2 knots of true wind speed. They create so much of their own apparent wind that even going down wind the head sail is sheeted in tight and the main is still on the center line.

While it may have been a strange match, it really showed what is possible when the designers are given a blank slate without a bunch of artificial constraints.

You should be able to watch replays at http://www.espn360.com with Gary Jobsen doing the commentary.
More info here http://www.cupinfo.com/ and here http://www.americascup.com/en/index.html

By the way, NZ never used a cat. Back in the 90's NZ also forced a 'Deed Of Gift' challenge in the courts and brought over a huge monohull. Dennis Conner met that challenge for the US with a cat with a hard wing sail although it was much smaller than these boats. The cat ran circles around the mono hull.

Big cats are amazing how they can cheat the wind in reaches and when pointing up. But did I understand that these ships were making mid-twenties downwind in 6-10 knots true? That's basically sailing into 15-knot apparent wind directly off the bow. Not possible - unless you're much closer to a beam reach.

They say that sailing is loosing new sailers, If recreational boat manufacters actually watched what kind of boats raced these races and built boats like them but smaller more folks would become sailers for the excitement. Our next boat will be a catamaran with daggerboards ( we already found one model ). Monohulls have become so 20'th century only going at hull speed , my old 1971 Hobie Cat 16 could do better and is responsiable for me to want to still sail.

Hello,
I suppose that would be true if speed is the only reason to sail.

Sucked for me.

I always watched the Louis Vuitton. The prelims were half the fun.

Ii think they should standardize the rules and lock them in so some B**lsh*t court decision doesn't muddy the works. As much as I like the tech leaps this was no fun. The cup was won in court. Not on the water.

Don T wrote:Hello,
I suppose that would be true if speed is the only reason to sail.

Couldn't agree more- - - - when I used to sail out of Marina Del Rey in the Santa Monica Bay; I went out every day just TO CHILL OUT for a few hours - - - somestimes I was sailing at 1 MPH and sometimes at 6 MPH - - - it really didn't matter which

Sometimes I took down the sails and listened to a baseball game - - - and sometimes I took down the sails and went below and took a two hour nap while just drifting - - - those were the good old days!

Rick Less

I agree with hanging out and drifting as part of sailing. I am guessing there are some lawyers who have there money tied up in the race boats and think the courts are the way to win sailboat races, lawyers first sailers second.

The faster boat won,

The true test of sportsmanship will be in about a year when they publish the hosting and rules for the next cup.

Larry is no dummy, and knows how to market things.

Allinghi specifying only 3 races and on that venue was a concession up front that bertarelli knew his boat was not faster, and he knew that a full 7 race series was coming out of his pocket.

when that race hits the americas again, there will be lots of racing, and many countries competing.
The simple reason is......... more money changes hands for a full series.