34th America's Cup: multihulls!

Yeah, let's go back to the good old days of Americans winning the Cup, like Charlie Barr!

...
Oh, right.

I just finished reading the Lawson History of the America's Cup. It was deja vu all over again.

 

Ac

Wasn't there a nationality rule during the period of the AC 12m?

 

yes and sailors got passports very quickly so they thought about a minimum qualifying period but not sure that ever happened.

 

Ac

Seems to me that I remember that one of the concerns was that small countries-like New Zealand- wouldn't be able to find the money. Thats not a concern anymore I don't expect.

 

years ago is was more interesting when you had to use your own technology.
That had to go when the US had the patents on all the sail laminates

 

Doug why not? Surely only 4 competitors is an indication that the cost is too extreme?

Sponsorship depends on who wants to advertise on your high profile billboard/wing and how sexy they think the country/team is. NZ is a sporting, yachting, clean, plucky and honest country. Not as hard to get sponsorship as it would be for many larger countries that a sponsor wouldn't want to associate it's marketing with.

I thought it was obvious to everyone including the race organisers that the cost bar is so high that it's squeezed just about everyone out. Although one challenger pulled out because they said the type of craft was too dangerous to operate in SF bay.

 

and the NZ sponsor of the NZ boat is who?

 

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Even countries borrow from, or invest in, other countries without sacrificing their "nationality"?

 

so the Kiwi boat is actually partly UAE and partly Swiss?

 

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Refresh my memory-which one was that, Mike? I think there is a lot going on with the Cup but most especially the uncertain world economic situation has had a huge effect. Also,the fact that this is mostly new technology that some teams felt gave the advantage to Oracle.
I think in better times these extraordinary new boats would be welcomed by everybody who loves the Cup. As it is, even though they're are fewer boats than would be ideal what they represent is state of the art in fast sailboat design, construction and sailing-the essence of what an America's Cup boat should be, in my opinion.

 

I think that Mike is referring to the German Red Bull Youth America's Cup team that was going to compete in the AC45's. The team are still keen to compete but their sponsor withdrew support after the Artemis accident citing safety concerns from what I understand.

The French Energy Team wanted to compete in the America's Cup but the cost of a campaign was too great for them to secure the necessary sponsorship.

 

Ac 34

TNZ vs Luna Rosa-by JNavas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlWaMVheYrQ&feature=player_embedded

 

Check out the pictures on the wall, found this in a video on Shannon Falcone's facebook page, shows the boat designs before they went into fully foiling designs, pretty interesting.

 

Nice video. If you ever wanted to illustrate to someone the concept of sailboat's leeway, just show him the 2:25 of the video.

It is also interesting to note, at points 1:00 and 3:35, apparently very different foil-lowering and locking mechanisms used by the two teams. I would be curious to see how it works for Oracle, but the ETNZ's system appears to release faster than LR's. At 1:00 it is very well visible how it works. Looks like a telescopic-arm system for foil lowering on ETNZ, made of 3 arms - a fixed guide, a travelling arm and a foil (which is a trolley in the cinematic system). Very clever, very compact and allows fast hoisting of the foil.

The ETNZ boat also seem to be better balanced at low speeds than LR. On several occasions the LR suddenly points the nose up when approaching the buoy, slows down and exits the flying mode. It is apparently not happening to ETNZ boat.

Since ETNZ seems to be the only one so far (judging by the videos) who is able to perform flying gybes (though not always), I suspect that their design team has found the best aero-hydrodynamic balance for the boat at different speeds, which allows the crew to maintain control and flight altitude during gybes. The different foil-lowering system might play a role too. I think that fly-gybing will be a game-decider in this AC.

Cheers

 

Read a rumor in January that ETNZ would also be able to trim the fairings on the main and rear beams, but haven't heard more about that since.