35th Americas Cup: Foiling Multihulls!

Discussion in 'Multihulls' started by Doug Lord, Sep 26, 2013.

  1. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 349, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    AC trainer?

    ========================

    Phil, I don't know what you saw but it doesn't sound like it was this:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZT1k0W4ZJg



    OR THIS:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeSljXIaxBc
     
  2. brian eiland
    Joined: Jun 2002
    Posts: 5,067
    Likes: 216, Points: 73, Legacy Rep: 1903
    Location: St Augustine Fl, Thailand

    brian eiland Senior Member

  3. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 349, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    35th America's Cup on Foils! Team France

    Thanks, Brian!
     
  4. CT249
    Joined: May 2003
    Posts: 1,449
    Likes: 191, Points: 63, Legacy Rep: 215
    Location: Sydney Australia

    CT249 Senior Member

    Doug, are you assuming that catsketcher doesn't know what the Glide Free foiling Laser looks like? One of the partners in the Glide Free foiler you pictured is a Laser sailor in the same area as catsketcher - why would it have been some other foiling Laser?

    He's correct in his point, anyway. The foiling Laser feels surprisingly small and fast when it's flying, but despite the brilliant minds involved it's not that easy to fly in typical conditions (edited vids taken in unusually good winds can mislead) and the extra foil area and the fact that you need a small rig, heavily flattened both mean that it feels very sluggish when not on the foils. You can't flick it around like a normal Laser. It's a bit like a radical sinker windsurfer or a heavy dual suspension downhill MTB - fun in ideal conditions but not something for the average user in the average place at the average time. Like foiling itself, in fact.
     
  5. catsketcher
    Joined: Mar 2006
    Posts: 1,315
    Likes: 165, Points: 63, Legacy Rep: 790
    Location: Australia

    catsketcher Senior Member

    Yeah Doug - surprising but this was the exact set up that slugged around at Port Stephens during the Masters regatta. It was REALLY slow because it couldn't fly and I could have kicked its bum with a half rigged Laser. No- one I saw could get the thing foiling in the pretty good breeze. (My kegs knew the breeze was good because I was in pain from the racing).

    During the racing we were fanging around and then the foiler couldn't get going. It was very illuminating for me to see how it struggled.

    cheers

    Phil
     
  6. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 349, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Well, I'm surprised at your report , Phil. But it's obvious that some sailors in some places can make the little foiler perform.
     
  7. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 349, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    35th America's Cup on Foils!

    =====================
    They're new boats coming out all the time that have a major focus on being easy to fly for the average sailor in the average place at the average time-like the Quant 23. Part of the future of foiling will be new boats designed specifically to be easy to fly and that fly in very light air starting around 5 knots.
    And I'm hoping the powers behind the ACWS and Americas Cup will see the wisdom in having the AC45's and 50 fly throughout the legal windrange which is 6-25 knots of breeze.
     
  8. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 349, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

  9. CT249
    Joined: May 2003
    Posts: 1,449
    Likes: 191, Points: 63, Legacy Rep: 215
    Location: Sydney Australia

    CT249 Senior Member

  10. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 349, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    35th America's Cup on Foils! UK

    I wonder if the turnout was affected by low expectations beforehand of actually seeing any foiling? The only foiling happened on Sunday.
    Even so, 130,000 people watching sailing is tremendous.
     
  11. brian eiland
    Joined: Jun 2002
    Posts: 5,067
    Likes: 216, Points: 73, Legacy Rep: 1903
    Location: St Augustine Fl, Thailand

    brian eiland Senior Member

    That is quite a number :!:,...for a sailing event.

    I'd compare that with the GREAT crowds that turned out in France to watch the start-up of the Formulae 40 racing, & subsequent events,...carnival atmosphere with tents and giant TV monitors.
     
  12. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 349, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

  13. CT249
    Joined: May 2003
    Posts: 1,449
    Likes: 191, Points: 63, Legacy Rep: 215
    Location: Sydney Australia

    CT249 Senior Member

    Yep, Brian, the F40 events may have had some great crowds (I can't find details) but what happened to it? People have been trying the "stadium sailing" concept for 30 year and arguably it's worked precisely once (the ESS).

    Portsmouth had a good crowd - but when people have spent well over one hundred million bucks racing for and promoting recent ACs it bloody well better be! By the way, the windsurfers at Sylt claimed 200,000........

    Doug, about the weather - at the pre-race press conference the skippers and commentators were sounding optimistic about the sea breeze arriving and getting two days of racing. So for your claim to be true, about 100,000 potential spectators would have had to have;

    1- Looked at a precise forecast;
    2- Somehow calculated that the convergence was going to drive the sea breeze away from the exact area of the course (as it did) when the skippers couldn't do;
    3- Decided that the boats therefore would not foil;
    4- Decided that because the boats were not going to foil, they would cancel their provisional plans and NOT go to the ACWS, despite the fact that it was forecast to be one of the warmest and sunniest days in the British summer,

    So - anyone want to come up with any evidence that over 100,000 people made those decisions? Because that's the sort of thinking that is required if they all stayed away because of the non-foiling factor.

    By the way, before the event the America's Cup official site spoke of the "fantastic weather forecast for the day ahead", so they were certainly upbeat. It was 26 degrees on the Friday and the Saturday; about the seventh warmest days of the summer, which makes it ideal conditions to be out in open by many standards. The ACWS itself seems to have reckoned the weather was a bonus; they wrote "with the British weather on our side, an incredible 130,000+ fans came out".

    I see the GC32s were cancelled yesterday as well, because the winds were too strong! This is the sort of basic issue that "stadium sailing" has never been really able to deal with.

    Incidentally, around the same time as the ACWS, the Brits held their biggest sailing race. Multihull numbers were down by one third from last year, and the proportion of the fleet that are multis is down to 2% - less than half of what it was in 1966! Yep, the new AC has been really good for multis.........
     
  14. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 349, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    35th Americas Cup: Foiling Multihulls! (No, No, No, No,No!)

    Ct, as usual your analysis omits major factors such as the effect of recent terrorist activity and the effect of Brexit and its after-effects on the people.
    But no matter because we all know where you're coming from and you're entitled to your (wrong) opinion!
    I'm optimistic that things will continue to work out and that thanks to the AC and the GC32 tour and Extreme Sailing foiling tour and others that the interest in foiling will grow and grow. Especially with the new easy to fly foilers that are available now and/or under development.
    It's a bright outlook for foiling growth despite a lone voice or two crying in the wilderness:"No, No,No, No, No!"
     

  15. CT249
    Joined: May 2003
    Posts: 1,449
    Likes: 191, Points: 63, Legacy Rep: 215
    Location: Sydney Australia

    CT249 Senior Member

    Ok, so a couple of posts ago it was the weather, now it's Brexit and terrorists? Well then, let's look at some other events around the same time;

    RideLondon - got bigger, once again ("https://www.prudentialridelondon.co.uk/news-media/latest-news/stand-by-for-britains-biggest-ever-sportive/")

    F1 - same crowd size as last year

    Wimbledon - up 10,000 (http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/atoz/faq_and_facts_and_figures.html)

    So overall attendance for the other major events around the same time was UP, therefore any claim that terrorism and Brexit caused the massive dive in ACWS attendance numbers is just clutching at straws....non existent straws at that. For the sake of the sport and of multis, it's time to look at the simple numbers, see the clear proof that the current way of promoting the sport isn't achieving what it was claimed it would, and look for a new path and vision.
     
Forum posts represent the experience, opinion, and view of individual users. Boat Design Net does not necessarily endorse nor share the view of each individual post.
When making potentially dangerous or financial decisions, always employ and consult appropriate professionals. Your circumstances or experience may be different.