34th America's Cup: multihulls!

Discussion in 'Multihulls' started by Doug Lord, Sep 13, 2010.

  1. CutOnce

    CutOnce Previous Member

    Part of me wants to agree, but I've been losing an hour or two a day in the afternoon when I'm supposed to be working. Guess we'll find out today.

    Regardless of the next AC, Pandora's box has been opened and new expectations set for top end performance racing. I don't think they will be able to close this Pandora's box back up.

    If The America's Cup winner doesn't continue down this road, I would not be surprised if some of these players just abandoned the America's Cup pretence and just created a whole new series. Why bother funding an America's Cup challenge if the whole concept has been rendered an anachronism by a new series?

    To a great degree the original nation-based AC has been gutted, the seaworthy monohull match racing thing has been gutted and the audience expectations have been gutted. Why bother trying to make the series fit the infrequent AC contest anyways? A monohull keelboat AC now at 12 knots just won't have the same gravitas, and sponsors won't bother. Who wants to fund a boat when everyone watching including the announcers will not stop talking about this contest.

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    CutOnce
     
  2. michael pierzga
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    michael pierzga Senior Member

    Well said.
     
  3. tom28571
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    tom28571 Senior Member

    That has not been explained, probably because the announcers do not understand it either. It was apparent several times in the later races and especially so when NZ attempted to lee bow Oracle only to have Oracle sail a bit low and power over them. Oracle seemed to have a wider range of course bearings than NZ with little change in VMG. This opened some new tactical advantages.
     
  4. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

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    Steve, don't beat up on Barker too much-he may yet win the America's Cup and become a hero. He and TNZ are great sailors and sportsmen(penalties excepted) and they may yet win AC 34.
    I wish them a no-breakdown, safe finish but I'm 100% behind Team Oracle like I have been for a couple of years:

    Go Team USA!!!!--give 'em hell, boys!
     
  5. PAR
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    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    I haven't been this excited since the Evander Holyfield vs. Mike Tyson heavyweight fight I watched on "Pay-per-Chew" . . .
     
  6. CutOnce

    CutOnce Previous Member

    It was Marvellous Marvin Hagler and Thomas "The Hitman" Hearns for me.

    Found Tyson "ear"-illy disgusting. He's the only fighter where I would not be surprised if he "won by a nose". I don't think I'm going to get any useful work done today. Anyone got suggestions on how I keep the wife occupied while the race is on? She just got back from a business trip and decided to stay home today.

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    CutOnce
     
  7. PAR
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    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    Beer fetcher? :)
     
  8. powerabout
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    powerabout Senior Member

    maybe this time oracle out the lead in Kiwi pencil(boat)?
     
  9. waynemarlow
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    waynemarlow Senior Member

    TNZ needs to just bear away by just a degree or two to get a bit of speed up on the upwind legs to really get the boat on its foils properly. Just look at the last race where the boat is up and down in the water like a butterfly swimmer. As Ashby would tell his skipper or he should have, on cats speed is king.

    Sorry to say this, but there was some pretty basic multihull sailing mistakes made last night and it just goes to back up my theory that both skippers haven't yet fully converted to the faster pace of the multis.
     
  10. SteveMellet
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    SteveMellet Senior Member

    Doug, I'm not beating up on Barker - I'm just very surprised that he can state that they only figured out Oracle have a huge boatspeed advantage upwind, on being interviewed after yesterday's 2nd race. For me, it was apparent this was the case once Oracle had won 2 in a row. I think I mentioned this many posts ago, the words I used were something to the effect that Oracle has 'ridiculous boatspeed on them upwind'.
    Perhaps NZ have been working really hard behind the scenes to improve their boat, but haven't said much about it, and seem to have relied on the 7 race match-point too much, to the point where they have now found themselves at sudden death.
    Oracle only rolled over them upwind yesterday because their lee-bow attempt was made too many boatlengths to leeward, and couldn't climb up enough to affect Oracle's wind. I'm sure it is not easy to know exactly when to pull off this successfully when your bow is 72ft away from you. I think if NZ had crossed and tacked above Oracle the race might still have been on - NZ gave that place away.
     
  11. powerabout
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    powerabout Senior Member

    well oracle clearly like lead....so they must be missing keel boats
     
  12. Gary Baigent
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    Gary Baigent Senior Member

    Well, I smell a stinky dead rodent; Oracle are proven cheaters and were extremely lucky that they weren't tossed from the event by the International Jury - and once a cheat, always a cheat.
    Highly suspicious is their radical improvement when they left the shed after being crushed by the Kiwis earlier in the finals - they went from erratic, flopping, bow down, also rans to level flight and controlled speed.
    We know the Measuring Committee has an incompetent reputation regarding the AC45 debacle so I for one, am very suspicious of what these turkeys are doing now ... regarding the so called manual hydraulic system suddenly installed on the cheater boat. Oracle has done a radical about turn in performance .... and I call BS. Especially with James Spithill's waffling, sliding away answers when asked in the presser about the reason why.
     
  13. andybrnr
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    andybrnr Junior Member

    Wow, giving up already, Gary? If I'd found massive performance (and thought the other team could replicate the technique), I sure as hell wouldn't disclose it, either...
     
  14. Gary Baigent
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    Gary Baigent Senior Member

    Not totally; there is still a flimsy chance that the cheaters will screw up in the race today - but their string of wins makes that appear very unlikely.
     

  15. powerabout
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    powerabout Senior Member

    they got the Coutts factor...
     
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