34th America's Cup: multihulls!

Time Out

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Obviously, you live in paradise-geez-what a view! And all this time I thought I did.....And the AC news??(Ha!)

 

Apparantly there are two of these Orma 60s down here now, but I haven't seen the other one. Hope we are going to see some exciting racing soon.

 

sadly team vodafone ORMA60 resides in Auckland they just paid Australia a (hull flying visit?). Its good to see banque populaire here though.

 

That's a shame. They would have made a great unofficial multihull division in the Sydney-Hobart race.

 

34th AC

Oracle training in San Fran: http://www.americascup.com/en/Teams...ng-begins-San-Francisco-Bay-training-session/

 

34th AC

From Scuttlebutt tonight:

DEAN BARKER: "WE'RE ABOUT WINNING THE AMERICA'S CUP"

Thirty-eight year old skipper Dean Barker and his team Emirates Team New
Zealand (ETNZ) currently sit at the top of the leader board of the
America's Cup World Series Championship with 38 points (19 scored in match
racing, 19 in fleet racing), just four points ahead of Oracle Racing
Spithill.

With the third and final World Series event for 2011 just around the corner
in San Diego, Barker updated Sailblast on ETNZs training progress.as well
as shared some thoughts on the new AC game. Here are some excerpts:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* What was one thing that you took away from racing AC45s in the recent
events in Cascais & Plymouth?

DEAN BARKER: The biggest eye opener is the maneuverability and how the
racecourse and boundaries operate. It makes the racing just so much tighter
and more emphasis on crew work and boat handling than ever before.

* Emirates Team NZ (ETNZ) did extremely well - what do you attribute your
strength to this early in the game?

DEAN BARKER: We were really happy with our performance. We know we can sail
a hell of a lot better but I'm sure like all the teams you make a lot of
mistakes around the course but it's a challenge with these boats in tough
conditions and close quarters with other teams. It's going to be hard to
sail at a high level.

We've put a lot of effort into our crew work and boat handling and that's
paid dividends. I think during the period in Auckland we're a bit off the
pace. At our first crack at the soft sails, they were good but not good
enough so we've developed our sails - we're into our second generation and
that's been a big improvement in our speed. We feel like we're a lot more
competitive now against Oracle who in Auckland who had quite a big jump it
felt over the rest of us. We've made some good gains there. But we've
worked really hard on things like getting around the corners and being able
to react in all different situations around the course. That's been a big
strength.

* If Oracle was so committed to keeping costs down for AC34, how could they
then go buy four AC45s while the other teams have only one? What's ETNZ's
position on this?

DEAN BARKER: There's no way Oracle is committed to keeping costs down. It's
a complete fallacy that they're trying to keep costs down. It's absolute
********. The whole idea of this next America's Cup was to try to make it
more affordable for the teams. I can tell you right now that the budget for
doing this campaign is at least what we spent last time and you can do it
for less but you just don't have a chance to perform. It's a complete joke
if they can sit back and say it costs less money, it's not. It's way more
expensive. But that's the game we're in. If you want a crack at winning the
America's Cup you have to play by the rules and these rules are more
expensive.

* Do you think a nationality rule would help the AC grow as a fan sport?

DEAN BARKER: I think it helps countries identify with their teams. We've
got other nationalities involved in our team but it's still pretty much all
NZ, which certainly helps our fan base within NZ and the support we get as
opposed to some of the other teams. Even though they may represent the US,
Sweden and so on, they're not true national teams to the degree we are.

Complete interview: http://sailblast.blogspot.com/2011/10/dean-barker.html

 

34th AC----Prada is back

From Scuttlebutt Europe today:

Prada's Back

Italian Fashion house Prada is poised to re-enter the America's Cup fray after chief executive Patrizio Bertelli announced that he has the backing of his board for a €40m challenge in 2013.

He has switched the base of his challenge from Punta Ala, on Italy's Mediterranean coast, to the Circolo della Vela Siciliana in Palermo. Bertelli challenged in 2000 and 2003, when the cup was held by New Zealand and was the ultimate challenger in 2000 and then the challenger of record in 2003.

After the noisiest, most stylish but ultimately disappointing challenge in Valencia in 2007, Bertelli had originally said he would not contest the 2013 America's Cup, to be staged in San Francisco. Larry Ellison's Oracle Racing first mounted a determined and hugely expensive legal assault on the holder, Switzerland's Ernesto Bertarelli and his Alinghi team, through the New York courts, and then won easily on the water in a giant trimaran in 2010.

The switch to wing-powered 72-foot multihulls has been retained by Ellison and his four-times cup winner and CEO, Russell Coutts. Bertelli was thought originally to be against that move but may have been persuaded by the commercial opportunities associated with cup participation.

His entry is a significant endorsement of the event and may encourage others to join the party. Until now, only Sweden's Artemis, headed by Torbjorn Tornqvist, and Team New Zealand, which is part-government funded, were considered certain challengers.

Prada is listed on the Hong Kong Stock exchange and it was notification of the board decision that led to this week's announcement. The Far East, and particularly Chinese, market is very important to Prada, as it is to the sponsor of the challenger series, Louis Vuitton. There is also a potential challenger from China. -- Stuart Alexander in The Independent, www.independent.co.uk/sport/

 

AC cat racing

Now that they have got exciting boats its time to get exciting courses; upwind/downwind are demanding and worthwhile but more beam reaches with a chicane or two thrown in would float my boat.

 

34th AC

Its almost time for more racing:
SAN DIEGO: The America's Cup World Series moves to America
where San Diego will host the third event on November 12-20. While there
will be open viewing areas surrounding the bay, it is hard to beat the VIP
experience if you can afford it. Both corporate and individual packages
include excellent viewing plus parking, booze, food, and a photo op with
the America's Cup Trophy. Prices range from $850 for a couple on the final
race day to $10,950 for a corporate table of ten for the week. Details
here: http://tinyurl.com/ACWS-SD-091211

MORE SAN DIEGO: Australian double Olympic silver medalist Darren Bundock
will be given the helm of ORACLE Racing Coutts in the ACWS San Diego (Nov.
12-20). Russell Coutts will stay onboard. Driving the decision is the
chance to start rotating members of the sailing team so that more
experience AC45 racing and because Coutts is sure Bundock will sail the
boat faster. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/ACUP-091211

The AC youtube channel-watch racing here: http://www.youtube.com/user/AmericasCup

The San Diego course: http://www.americascup.com/en/Latest/News/2011/8/Countdown-to-Americas-Cup-World-Series-San-Diego/

 

Teams:

1. Emirates Team NZ
2. Oracle Racing Coutts
3. Artemis Racing
4. Oracle Racing Spithill
5. China Team
6. Team Korea
7. Energy Team
8. Aleph
9. Green Comm Racing

 

34th AC--Oracle tests curved foils on AC 45

If anybody knows any more about this please post what you know. This is something I thought they should have done on day one.(see "from this site below..") What I don't get is that I thought these boats were one designs? Can't be 100% one-design because some of the boats have square top jibs and some don't. I guess we'll know pretty soon if they're going to use them in racing.....
UPDATE: the AC 72 design in this video shows curved lifting foils-watch the whole thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QErrDYvHGWg&feature=player_embedded#!

UPDATE: great AC site- http://www.cupinfo.com/index.htm

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From Lat 38: http://www.latitude38.com/features/ac34.html

What are the specs on the AC 45s?

The five-man AC 45s are 45-foot long catamarans and have solid wings that are about 70 feet tall, in addition to a jib and gennaker. All trimming is done with top-handle-ground winches, and the boats have straight daggerboards that do not articulate (although teams are welcome to test lifting foils on their boats). The entire boat is demountable, and the wing is in sections, which allow both to be packed up into shipping containers on a dedicated ship for transport between the America's Cup World Series events.

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From this site: http://voilemulticoques.wordpress.com/

babeltranslation:

"Oracle Racing, which has four AC 45 took again the bay drives of San Francisco (the two other AC45 used on the ACWS arrived by cargo liner at San Diego), with an innovation, one of the two catamarans seems equipped with foils curved, in the place of the two right drifts used usually on the monotype, as one can see it on this photograph(below)".

click on image-boat to windward using curved foils:

picture by Van Gellen 2011

 

UPDATE on race coverage:

Racing in San Diego begins with the Port Cities Challenge on Saturday and Sunday (November 12-13). Representatives from the member cities will be aboard the race boats on Sunday. The event culminates with a public prize-giving ceremony at the AC Village following racing.

The championship portion of the America's Cup World Series - San Diego runs from Wednesday November 16 through Sunday November 20, and includes fleet and match racing, as well as AC500 Speed Trial drag races. The teams earn points from their final ranking in both the fleet and match racing events towards the 2011-2012 America's Cup World Series.

Live, streaming video coverage of the racing runs from November 16-20 on the America's Cup YouTube channel. And for the first time, there will also be live streaming to mobile devices through the America's Cup YouTube channel.

Racing at the America's Cup World Series - San Diego is scheduled to start with a warning signal at 1:05 pm each race day.

www.americascup.com

 

34th AC

From Scuttlebutt tonight:

WHAT TO EXPECT

The America's Cup circus is now in San Diego for the third event of the
America's Cup World Series. Cranes and containers, support boats and
stages, and tents...lots of tents, have filled the downtown region for this
high profile entertainment event.

Nine teams will be competing, with some of the established teams looking to
fine tune their program while newer teams seek significant advancement to
ensure their survival. Here is a guide of what to expect from each team:
---------------------------------------------
The favorites...

Team: Artemis Racing (SWE)
This well-funded challenger has rapidly risen to the top of the fleet, but
with new crew onboard in Plymouth, they failed to close out during the late
rounds. This team needs a win, and recent training will insure they are
better prepared for San Diego. If the typically steady winds of San Diego
occur, look for the venue to be a good fit for this hall of fame cast.

Team: Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL)
The Kiwis return to the site of their America's Cup win in 1995. After two
ACWS events, they lead the overall standings in both fleet and match
racing, but the team stumbled hard in two training events since Plymouth.
Can they find their mojo again in San Diego?

Team: Oracle Racing Coutts (USA)
Four-time America's Cup winner Russel Coutts is stepping off the boat in
San Diego, turning over the helm to double Olympic medalist Darren Bundock
(AUS). Also onboard for his first event is 2010 World Sailor of the Year
Tom Slingsby (AUS) as tactician. Recent AC 45 training in San Francisco
should help this team gel, but they will be tested in San Diego to find
steady performance.

Team: Oracle Racing Spithill (USA)
This event marks a return to where Oracle Racing trained for nearly 13
months in advance of winning the 33rd America's Cup. With significant
experience from that campaign, this team was expected to dominate this
season. They haven't, but with their consistent crew and recent AC45
training in San Francisco, they could have an edge for this homecoming.

Team: Team Korea (KOR)
As the only country with no previous America's Cup experience, Team Korea
has been the absolute spoiler of the season. Led by the youngest skipper in
the field, Chris Draper has pushed aside the seasoned teams with his
refreshing candor on land and his quick study on the race course.
---------------------------------------------
The underdogs...

Team: Aleph - Equipe de France (FRA)
Aleph is among the newer teams, and their veteran leadership has helped
them remain competitive during the first two events. But the field is
improving fast, and San Diego will be vital to show they are progressing
too, particularly in the match racing segment. New team members Pierre
Pennec, Christophe Espagnon, and Thierry Fouchier of Group Edmond de
Rothschild, who are second overall in the Extreme Sailing Series, are
joining Aleph in San Diego.

Team: China Team (CHN)
After replacing their skipper following the first event, they come to San
Diego with more stability but without any training since Plymouth. As long
as the wind is not too strong, this team can be push the leaders but may
struggle with consistency. Newly added Kiwis Phil Robertson and Garth
Ellingham of Waka Racing, who as a team is now ranked 9th in the world for
match racing, are joining China Team for San Diego.

Team: Energy Team (FRA)
This new team has shown marked improvement this season, but they arrive
without their veteran skipper Loick Peyron. Alternate helm Yann Guichard
has only one day of competition with the team, but his recent domination of
a training regatta in Spain may allow for 'plug 'n play' success in San
Diego.

Team: Green Comm Racing (ESP)
Green Comm Racing is long on proven champions but short on catamaran course
racing. This was exemplified in Plymouth when they caused a multi-boat
collision in the strong winds. Look for more bedlam if it's windy, but this
team should scare the favorites if the winds stay steady and moderate.

Here are tips for spectating: http://tinyurl.com/ACWS-SD-tips

 

one more sleep ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hXVUrZVkOg&feature=youtu.be

 

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Dirteater-thanks for that-I didn't know it was pouring rain in San Diego!
The cam is as good as it gets until Wednesday, I guess. You can actually see boats now....