Americas Cup: whats next?

Discussion in 'Sailboats' started by Doug Lord, Feb 14, 2010.

  1. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    AC 34 on Foils!

    For those that think matchracing cats ain't exciting this may help. The video can be found with the links in the 34th Americas Cup thread in "multihulls". I didn't think this was the most exciting of the Match Races I watched but it was very exciting. This is the race in words from americascupinfo.com :

    Match Race Championship Final:
    One race for the match, race start 11:45 am, race duration 15 minutes.

    Oracle Team USA Spithill vs. Oracle Team USA Coutts

    Complete: Coutts boxes Spithill out below the pin at the start. 4 second lead for Coutts at Mark 1. Boats head to shore, gybe together, Spithill gains with better boathandling and pulls ahead. Spithill takes the left at the gate, Coutts turns right. Spithill will use the offshore current while Coutts heads again for shore. Coutts is getting much better wind, pulls ahead and crosses ahead. 15 second lead for Coutts at Mark 3, the first upwind, as the boats turn onto Leg 4 of 7. At the second downwind gate, Coutts turns right again, and Spithill decides late to take the left for another try at the offshore side of the course, 26 seconds behind. Spithill cuts it to 6 seconds at Mark 6, but picks up a boundary penalty trying to stay offshore while Coutts heads in again. The lost distance means Spithill is right behind Coutts as they round the last mark, and coming in fast tries to shoot between Coutts and the Mark Boat and head for the finish. Spithill gets ahead, but there is contact, and a penalty to Spithill on this last short leg. Spithill has to take the penalty and can't quite catch Coutts as the boats finish officially one second apart. Oracle Team USA Coutts wins the Match Race Final!
     

    Attached Files:

  2. Paul B

    Paul B Previous Member

    You obviously did not watch the race. Just like you weren't watching the fleet race when Coutts hit the RC boat.

    Coutts was far out in front for more than half the race. The boats were rarely ever in the same part of the ocean.

    At the end he sandbagged his 100m+ lead to make the finish look "exciting". Everyone I know who actually races laughed about that finish. It was soooo obvious.

    In all the other match races during the week, how many had someone lose a big lead down the last run? No one, because no one else had a reason to...

    Regardless, the ratings were terrible and it sounds like NBC isn't too happy. Maybe they should have had a big collision, get them NASCAR boys interested.
     
  3. powerabout
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    powerabout Senior Member

    only problem is the AC is not about match racing
     
  4. motorbike
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    motorbike Senior Member

    Paul, I agree with you about the match racing, as in F1 or any closely contested sport its the tactics and strategy combined with knowledge of the rivalries of the competitors,subtle technical advancements and many factors that followers of the sport appreciate. Those who want to bring the general multi/mono debate into this are on the wrong tack as most sailors understand and appreciate the differences and have personal preferences but so what? There is also no doubt that the tech advances are incredibly interesting and high speed with foils has a fascination and novelty, but the question will come down to "is the match racing any good" On the face of it for the reasons you mention, the cats are unlikely to provide the close racing that monos can, but perhaps a format change may alter that. There have been a few whitewashes with the monos, and apart from backing the winner, its not much fun to watch.

    Politically its an interesting development, RC and those behind the cats would be well aware of the challenges the ac72's would present to match racing competition. Is there a bigger picture that we are not seeing here?
     
  5. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    ================
    You definitely have not watched the racing! This is simply wrong and very, very uninformed.
     
  6. motorbike
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    motorbike Senior Member

    Doug can you post link(s) to an ac 45 match race. Of course there is close racing amongst cats, but how does that translate to 2 boats slugging it out?
     
  7. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    ----------------
    Go to "Multihulls", and to the AC 34 thread and go back a few pages to the last races and click on a link and watch a few races.
     
  8. Paul B

    Paul B Previous Member

    You can find them on youtube. Take a look at the number of views. Pretty unimpressive for a professional sporting event. Seems even with these radical rocketships no one really cares anymore than they did when the sailing was in lead mines.

    The race he mentions actually looked like this:

    Coutts easily making the first cross on the first upwind leg, then extending to about a 100m lead.

    On the next leg (downwind) Coutts extended his lead to over 200m.

    The next beat saw Coutts up by about 150m until the last tack to the mark, where he stalled it. Hmmmm...

    The final downwind saw him up by 175m when the other boat made their final gybe to the mark and caught a penalty. Somehow, after 2/3s of the leg was over Coutts managed to "spend" that 175m by the time his opponent reached the final mark.

    Hmmmm...

    At no time did Coutts attempt to sail in the same water as his opponent, and vice-versa. They chose opposite sides of the course at every opportunity after the first, short downwind.

    I guess they thought the NBC folks would be impressed by the "exhilarating" finish they provided.


    There was never anything like a lee bow to be seen. In fact, since DL claims there is lee bowing in the AC45s maybe he will be able to point us to a video of one of the match races where this happened.

    I'll bet not.
     
  9. Paul B

    Paul B Previous Member

    Well, every AC match since 1871 has been match racing.

    The original race around Wight, then the first defence, were fleet races.

    Every other race in every match since has been a match race between two boats.

    So maybe match racing is a bit of a component of the AC?
     
  10. oldsailor7
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    oldsailor7 Senior Member

    I'ts not about match racing.
    It' not about Multi versus Mono.
    It's not even about Cat versus Tri.
    It's simply about not going backwards. :rolleyes:
     
  11. Paul B

    Paul B Previous Member

    Sometimes in a good match race pre-start boats do go backward.

    If next year the Indy 500 was run in Funny Cars, and the next time around people realized they had chosen the wrong tool for the job and went back to the open wheelers, would that be considered "going backwards"?
     
  12. Corley
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    Corley epoxy coated

    This seems to be the same argument that leads to one design or extremely tight and inflexible design rules. If you extend it out to it's ultimate conclusion then one design is the only option for a true "match" race. It provides a platform that is exactly the same for everyone and places the focus entirely onto crew skills, tactics and strategy. No AC has been one design so there must be a design component as part of the event to a greater or lesser extent.
     
  13. powerabout
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    powerabout Senior Member

    yes match racing is a component but if it was a match race then the boats would be the same
    It is was a technology race between countries with a few box rules but that didnt prevent a cat and mono meeting the rules and racing.
    The rules change after ever AC event and they have their own rules of racing as well
     
  14. oldsailor7
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    oldsailor7 Senior Member

    "If next year the Indy 500 was run in Funny Cars, and the next time around people realized they had chosen the wrong tool for the job and went back to the open wheelers, would that be considered "going backwards"?


    Yes, I guess it would. :eek: ----- If the "Funny Cars" proved less popular.
     

  15. powerabout
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    powerabout Senior Member

    Your not confusing 2 boats racing = match racing are you?
     
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