34th America's Cup: multihulls!

[NorCal]

Yachting: Only three challengers means rethink of America's Cup
By Dana Johannsen

The underwhelming number of entries for the 34th America's Cup has forced organisers to re-think the format of next year's regatta.

Just three challengers - Emirates Team New Zealand, Luna Rossa and Artemis - have paid the US$100,000 ($121,000) entry fee for the 2013 event. With those teams already well-advanced in the design and build process of their AC72s, America's Cup regatta director Iain Murray admits it is looking increasingly unlikely that another syndicate will enter at this late stage.

"We're hopeful of having more teams outside of the teams that are already building, but the reality is the runway is going to run out in the not too distant future as to when they can start building and get to the startline, so it is going to become clear pretty quickly as to who the Louis Vuitton Cup competitors are going to be," said Murray, who was in Auckland yesterday for a competitor's forum.

The number of entries are well down on what organisers had been predicting, with the proposed format of the Louis Vuitton challenger series allowing for eight challengers and scheduled to run for two months from July 4-September 1 next year.

...

Read more at Yachting: Only three challengers means rethink of America's Cup

[brian eiland]

Originally Posted by Doug Lord

From Chris Cameron, ETNZ, a picture of the new wing extension for the AC 45's:

The early testing of the AC45 wing extension by Emirates Team New Zealand has been successful. The purpose of the extension is to help lift the weather hull in lighter winds, and for it to be easily removable when stronger winds are forecasted. The nice surprise so far is the ability tocarry the wing higher in the wind range than originally anticipated.

[redreuben]

Guess that's what happens when it turns into a spending contest, the richest team has no one to play with.
Which is why we have defined classes and box rules etc.
Just thinking aloud.
RR

[Doug Lord]

Great insight into USA-17 by Tom Speer-probably the best I've read:

Originally Posted by tspeer

I never sailed on USA 17, although I did spend a number of late nights aboard her at anchor in Valencia, serving as unskilled labor on a project. I went out on the chase boats in San Diego quite a bit, starting with the second sail with the wing. It was a big relief to see the telltales laying flat and only lifting where they were predicted to lift! I was able to watch both races from the Oracle Racing VIP boat.

The tradition of limited use boats to win the AC goes way back. Reliance, the largest boat ever to race for the America's Cup (144 ft LOA), was broken up for scrap within months after her successful defense in 1903.

It required something like 40 people to get USA 17 sailing, when you include the sailors, shore team, performance (instrumentation) team, etc. Many of the people with specialized knowledge of her systems are no longer with the team; some are on the other AC teams. I don't know the status of her systems - some of her equipment may have been cannibalized. She reached her maximum design loads in 5 kt of wind, and the load alarms were going off almost continuously around the race course. In fact, the first time she sailed the entire 40 nm AC race course without breaking something or having to stop for other reasons, was Race 1. She's just too fragile and high-strung to use for casual sailing, and it would be a big effort to reconstitute a team that could sail her.

[old dog]

Look what Lock was doing in the early 70's.

[Doug Lord]

Originally Posted by old dog

Look what Lock was doing in the early 70's.

-----
Can't read your file---wish I could.

[idkfa]

Here we go,

[Doug Lord]

Commentary from Steve Clark on SA:

I was at a presentation by Ian Burns early on when the initial plan was announced.
The gist of it was "Yes, the programs will have higher budgets, but these budgets will be sustainable because the America's Cup World Tour will be valuable and so sponsorships will be more available."

I have heard versions of this line of crap so many times you wouldn't believe it.

Unfortunately the marketing value of the America's Cup World Series was and still is unproven. There is no history of yachting being successfully packaged as sustainably profitable entertainment package. This is a risky proposition even with the America's Cup marque. So prudent marketers are reluctant to invest significant dollars with limited prospects of success. This is how marketing people lose their high paying jobs at big companies, so "No, thanks" is the likely conclusion of any sponsorship discussion.

What we know is that it was going to cost a whole lot. Early adopters are asked to share in the cost of creating the value of the circuit, but there is little incentive to be one of those early adopters. The only motivation is that you are passionate for the America's Cup, and because of the increased costs associated with this cycle, one needs to have two extra extra zeros at the end of one's personal financial statement.
The more prudent course is to sit out this cycle. It will cost less to buy in in 2 years and you will have surrendered nothing.
From an business standpoint, AC34 makes no sense.
On the other hand, just because so much is at risk, it's potentially really exciting, and I wish there was enough money out there to pay more than 3 design teams.SHC

[old dog]

Originally Posted by Doug Lord

Commentary from Steve Clark on SA:

I was at a presentation by Ian Burns early on when the initial plan was announced.
The gist of it was "Yes, the programs will have higher budgets, but these budgets will be sustainable because the America's Cup World Tour will be valuable and so sponsorships will be more available."

I have heard versions of this line of crap so many times you wouldn't believe it.

Unfortunately the marketing value of the America's Cup World Series was and still is unproven. There is no history of yachting being successfully packaged as sustainably profitable entertainment package. This is a risky proposition even with the America's Cup marque. So prudent marketers are reluctant to invest significant dollars with limited prospects of success. This is how marketing people lose their high paying jobs at big companies, so "No, thanks" is the likely conclusion of any sponsorship discussion.

What we know is that it was going to cost a whole lot. Early adopters are asked to share in the cost of creating the value of the circuit, but there is little incentive to be one of those early adopters. The only motivation is that you are passionate for the America's Cup, and because of the increased costs associated with this cycle, one needs to have two extra extra zeros at the end of one's personal financial statement.
The more prudent course is to sit out this cycle. It will cost less to buy in in 2 years and you will have surrendered nothing.
From an business standpoint, AC34 makes no sense.
On the other hand, just because so much is at risk, it's potentially really exciting, and I wish there was enough money out there to pay more than 3 design teams.SHC

The original cup was fought out in tea clippers. Wouldn't it be great to see the format change to something more relevant like sail assisted oil tankers.

[brian eiland]

This should be great for the spectator.

http://www.americascup.com/en/Latest...urse-revealed/

[Doug Lord]

Check out the lifting foil in this picture of an AC 45(which AC 45?) : http://www.xssailing.com/

UPDATE: Oracle boats-see: http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/ind...&#entry3599779

click on image for better detail-

[Doug Lord]

Another real interesting design development: the boat with the "L" foils also has the daggerboard trunk in front of the forward cross beam:

Left picture by Ellen Hoke.com(on SA), Right pix uncredited: look closely and you'll see that the boat with the foil(left) has the daggerboard trunk in front of the beam
click on image-

[Gary Baigent]

If the dagger foils were in the conventional and theoretically correct position the boat would be a tip truck, that is a tip truck rocking forward (and backwards too) - a guaranteed pitch-poler. Now the interesting thing will be to hear about helm balance - do they have savage weather helm with the centre of lateral resistance moved forward? My guess is they can't tell the difference, maybe a fraction more weight and that is all.

[Doug Lord]

Originally Posted by Gary Baigent

If the dagger foils were in the conventional and theoretically correct position the boat would be a tip truck, that is a tip truck rocking forward (and backwards too) - a guaranteed pitch-poler. Now the interesting thing will be to hear about helm balance - do they have savage weather helm with the centre of lateral resistance moved forward? My guess is they can't tell the difference, maybe a fraction more weight and that is all.

=================
I think you're 100% right-not only that but they could correct any balance problem with slightly larger rudders a la Bill Roberts Arc 21 "shared lift" concept. The thing is that in the old position the boat had a great propensity to pitch pole! Look at any of the windy video.. This could help a lot in addition to reducing wetted surface.

[Doug Lord]

Pictures here: http://www.vsail.info/2012/03/15/art...ll-scale-ac72/

UPDATE: This is not an AC 72-it is an AC 72 wing

click on images-1) from SA front page by Sander Van Der Borch, 2) from V-Sail site above by Sander Van Der Borch- Note AC 45 in foreground of picture #1 for size comparison: