34th America's Cup: multihulls!

34th AC

Go GO GO Oracle WOW! Go for it guys-Oracle ahead with 1.5 legs left!!!
Who said multihulls can't match race! Fantastic !!!!!
What a great win for Team USA!!!!! Congrads to the Team-you proved you can do it! First defeat of TNZ so far except when they broke down.
Larry's vision has just arrived!

 

Leo,
They still race S&S 34's here at Freo, perhaps you should pop over and check out the "action" !

Lol Awesome racing, good to see Oracle get one back ! Can they do an Australia II and get four in a row ?
Somehow I doubt it, but bring it on !

 

I'm sure there is some terrific cat and foiler racing happening all over the world.
(My criticism was of some of the processions we have seen before today.)

I'd also love to see a Port Power vs Dockers Grand Final, but I'm not sure if
that's possible this year.

 

34th AC

After race press conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsltEYLIFv8

 

Those guys need some media training !
Deadpan is so boooooring !

Ok bit of credit to JS.

 

Kiwis maybe got a little complacent in race 4 - Oracle shook them up, well done ... but won't happen again.
Who gives a rat's flatulence about the boring, predictable presses?

 

As a Kiwi supporter I was disappointed with their standard in race 4. They did not split at the first bottom mark meaning they had to tack away very slowly after being lee bowed. Then the rest of the second upwind was scratchy at best. Couple that with a bad leave at the first mark when Oracle pulled away on foils in a gust whilst the Kiwis went bow down and slow and I think Oracle sailed well and the Kiwis badly (I only say badly in context of what they have done - they are fab compared to mortals). Still they only finished 8 seconds behind.

Good for the show but my heart may give out before this is over. No kidding I am sitting at the computer at 6 am with adrenalin kicking in and calling out "Go Kiwis!". Well Beasho and Ashby are Aussies (as are Spithill, Langford and Slingsby but I can't warm to the US team - Spithill is so aggressive it puts me off)

If you didn't like the races today I think you are made of stone or won't be happy with any sailing racing. Fab stuff - but I hope Doug gets disappointed some more.

cheers

Phil

 

Instead of worrying where some of the individuals hail from, just think of the race in terms of money.

Go NZ$!!!!!

 

34th AC

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After what I saw yesterday, I'm in heaven. So many preconceptions by so many people just plain trashed. No more questions like: "can a multihull match race?". Absolutely great for the America's Cup and foiler multies no matter who wins.
Now if Jimmy can pull it together to win-I'm not sure I can handle that level of excitement. These are great boats sailed by great sailors at the pinnacle of sailing! I'm so glad I'm here to see it and sad that my Dad and brother aren't......

 

You are making things up again, Doug. Nobody really meant that they couldn't
match race, but rather that we weren't seeing much of that style.
We forgive you because you are obviously still all giggly and giddy that the
cheats won a race.

 

I'm not sure the Kiwi's didn't let them ahead for an exciting race on network tv thinking of future sponsorship dollars and media coverage.....Oracle is pretty desperate and needs to sail in combat mode to win. Choosing the fights will be what helps the Kiwis, to win the series you have to finish the races but they can't just bank on better boatspeed to catch up. Oracle handled the breezier conditions of race 4 better than I expected.

 

I cannot accept that NZ$ would lose a race deliberately.
Maybe the conditions suited US$ perfectly and, having no sail problems like they did earlier, they
were far more competitive in this race.

 

Of course they wouldn't! It would have been funner for them to sweep the series. I should watch the humor, Ellison could read this and get more bad ideas. My apologies to the Kiwis, get out there and kick butt.

 

I'll admit I haven't paid much attention to the run up to this AC but I have watched the LV races and the first 3 of the AC. During the 4th race I kept thinking how erratic the foiling height looked on NZ. I hadn't noticed this in the previous races which got me wondering if they had some sort of problem in that race.
The camera coverage is pretty impressive but they sure seem to cut away at the most inopportune times. It seems like just when something interesting is happening on one of the boats they change cameras to something else. Would they do that on purpose?

 

All I know is, I can't wait for the next race day.
I'm torn between wanting NZ to hurry up and win the event, and wanting to see as many races as possible. I think I'll go with them swopping races, with OR winning the next two in a row, just to keep us all guessing.