GC 32 super cat

GC32 super cat

GC32 Tour Promo: youtube.com/watch?v=xdySCVcfsGw

 

GC32 super cat

The Spindrift and Gitana programs are joining the 2015 GC32 tour:
Spindrift: http://www.spindrift-racing.com/201...f-world-sailing-on-the-gc32-racing-tour-2015/
Gitana: https://twitter.com/GitanaTeam

From www.catsailingnews.com:

The GC32 Tour has seen changes lately but as we predicted, we are seeing now a shift from the X40s to the GC32.
The highlight of the 2014 tour was the great show & performance provided by the 4 boat fleet at last 2014 Austria Cup with two AC teams included.
Gitana Team / Edmond de Rostchild & Spindrift have confirmed their participation.

THE GC32 RACING TOUR 2015 SCHEDULE :
23-26 April Warm-Up, Marseille / France / Official Practice
27-31 May Austria Cup / AUSTRIA / Lake Traunsee
24-27 June Cowes Cup / ENGLAND / Cowes
30 July-2 August Sailing Cup Kiel / GERMANY / Kiel
27-30 August Trofeo di Roma / ITALY / Rome Fiumicino
30 Sept-3 October Marseille One Design / FRANCE / Marseille

 

GC32 super cat

New sponsor for the GC32 European Tour: http://www.kusi.com/story/28268673/bullitt-group-backs-race-circuit-for-gravity-defying-yachts

 

GC32 super cat

From Scuttlebutt today:

Ernesto Bertarelli has done it with keels, he has done it on multihulls, and now he is ready to do it on foils as his Alinghi team enters the 2015 Bullitt
GC32 Racing Tour.

From www.catsailingnews the Alinghi press release and boat renders: http://www.gc32racing.com/alinghi-joins-the-bullitt-gc32-racing-tour/

click-

 

Marseille Test Event: http://www.gc32racing.com/limbering-up-at-the-marseille-test-event/

With new teams, new sailors, new race management and officials joining in the 2015 Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour, those involved will be taking part in a Test Event in Marseille, France over 20th-26th April.
Next week’s Test Event is hosted by Sirius Events, organisers of Marseille One Design, the last event of the 2014 season and which will again be the grand finale of the 2015 Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour. The city of Marseille generously hosts the GC32s as part of its build-up to being European Capital of Sport in 2017.
At present competitors on the Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour have varying experience from old hands such as GC32 Founder Laurent Lenne and his Team SPAX Solution along with Flavio Marazzi’s ARMIN STROM Sailing Team – who have both been racing their GC32s since 2013 – to brand new teams to the class like two time America’s Cup winner Ernesto Bertarelli’s Alinghi and his sister Dona and Yann Guichard’s Spindrift racing.
To level the playing field, the Test Event, held out of Marseille’s Roucas Blanc Marina, will provide crews with much needed training time. The schedule includes four days (23rd-26th April) when teams will carry out practice starts, speed testing as well as some full blown racing. It will also be a test for the Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour race management team including PROs Anne Mallédant-Vadré and David Campbell-James and Chief Umpire Miguel Allen.

 

GC32 super cat

Great GC32 video here, post 6 : http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/multihulls/offshore-foiling-revolution-gitana-53061.html

 

The crew using trapezes in the Gitana GC32 video. First time I've seen that on the GC32. Looks like righting moment is king.

 

GC32 super cat

Hey thanks-I didn't pick up on that-pretty cool. Wonder if they're class legal?

 

From Scuttlebutt tonight- "Foiling: Sailings Greatest Revolution"! GC32 Team Bullitt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQWQ1KPSj6w

 

So if foiling is "the only option" (as claimed in the video) what will happen to the huge numbers of sailors who can't foil because they can't afford a foiler, or because they don't sail where it's practical to foil, or because they don't have the sailing skills to sail a foiler, or don't have the extra time to rig one?

Hype like this seems to make it clear - some foiler proponents either want most current sailors to stop sailing, or they have no idea of the practical issues for non-pros.

Foiling is fun, but it's not for everyone. No form of sailing is, so why do they pretend so? It's interesting to see how small the number of foilers really is, as demonstrated by the SA thread and its numbers on A Class foilers.

 

I think the point is that foiling is the cutting edge. Which it is, Perth has a very active H28 fleet, they are sailed for very different reasons, tradition, aesthetic etc and always will be, and of course there are many shades in between, I will never own a foiler, but I love what people are doing with them and all power to them.

 

I get the point, but still feel that it's not a good thing if every other area of sailing is being dismissed as not being part of "the future" or "the only option".

What is the message that is being delivered to people like the young Flying Ant or Radial sailors on the Swan? The fact is that only a very small minority can afford a foiling cat and not that many more can afford a competitive foiling Moth, so every kid who sees these videos is being told that the future does not include them. Is that a good message to deliver?

Are there other large and diverse sports in which one area of very expensive and inaccessible development is being hyped as "the future" or "the only option" as if there's only one future?

Of course the irony is that it looks like kites may be a lot quicker than foiling cats, so if pure speed is "the future" then this hype is wrongly aimed. Similarly a while back, when windsurfers were the fastest small craft, pure speed was largely ignored by those sailing the craft that have now moved to foiling. Being the fastest thing under sail is one of those things that is seen as vital when your craft is the fastest, and unimportant when your craft is overtaken by developments.

Are those of us who object to the hype being too sensitive? Perhaps, but if the foilistas are going to throw around hyperbole and hype when it suits them, then they cannot complain if others go over the top too.

 

Ahh, come on CT, stop being so preciously sensible. Everyone knows that foiling is the future and leading edge of sail racing. Sure traditional old school boats will survive. But your argument that kiters are faster is also incorrect; the worlds speed record holder is an asymmetric inclined rig foiler driven by that Aussie bloke you should well know about. Kites (unless they become foiler kites maybe) will never get close to Vestas Sail Rocket. Tough ... but that's the reality.

 

Sailings Greatest Revolution

=================
Well the masses are soon to have more access to the "Future of Sailing" with AMAC's Peoples Foiler. And his won't be the only one. It's not a given that foilers need to be priced beyond the reach of most people-thats just false, negative hype.

 

Not wanting to be a pedant but SailRocket is not a foiler, as the vertical support is provided by planing surfaces and the rig, not the foil, which provides only down and side force components. At speed the down force component is adjusted so that the rear planing surface is airborn, but the foil is not generating vertical lift, this comes from the vertical component of sail force.

Only mentioning this as I've seen it stated elsewhere that Sailrocket is a foiler.