34th America's Cup: multihulls!

Sorry Phil no stored energy in cycling, stop pedalling and you stop the output. Unless you mean that the bike is still travelling (Kinetic energy)? But in the case of the pedal grinder no motion no power. The cyclist does not store energy by ankling. Egg gears don't work. By the way, ankling is an adaptive style learnt to minimise the inertial bumps as you cycle. The feet and lower leg are more like a 2 cycle engine. The "pistons" stop at the bottom and top unless you learn to pedal smoothly. Swash plates are very inefficent but have flexible output. The system would be designed to acheive max power for the grinders. Cheers Peter s

 

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Ben Ainslie has an upbeat piece in the Telegraph this morning.

It would have been interesting to know how they go about changing the 'choreography' he mentions, in what detail each of the 11 crew develop a set pattern onboard with every economy of movement. It is more finely studied than any stage performance I'd say - and the stage is flying, pitching and rolling through the air!

 

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The first time I ever heard about the internet was I think back in '92, in San Francisco. I was staying in Berkeley for a couple of weeks, and a girl I knew who worked at a think tank had a lot to tell me about The Well.

What she described was highly interesting, but afterwards I never looked into it and more than ten years would pass before the internet became a necessity; If I'd had any idea of the amount of time we all, my kids for example, would be spending on the internet today, then I'd no doubt have gone to The Well straight away!

... and wasted even more time, over the years. lol

Today I tried to log on there, thinking that if it had many San Franciscan members they might have something interesting to say about the Cup. But, I found it is a paying-members only site.

Anybody know if they are paying attention to the Cup at all?

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If the next races are anything like the last one, some of these blasé artsy-fartsy San Francisco natives may gradually realize they've been incredibly stupid, trying to outdo each other with their criticisms of Ellison and the event?

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Something from an article two days ago in the the San José Mercury News:

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This, addressed to Dean Barker, from Kimball Livingston's BluePlanetTimes:

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A couple of items here, tagged on the end of the most recent AC34 article on Latitude 38

 

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Christopher Clarey at the New York Times has another article, this time focusing on what the next Cup might look like:

 

FWIW, there seems to have been more (Google search) interest this series than in 2010,
but well below 2007.
http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=America's Cup#q=America's Cup&cmpt=q

 

^^^

Can you get volume numbers with those stats, and see for example how the 2010 Winter Olympics compared?

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Hot off the presses.

Some good reading!

A long, up-to-date feature article from hardworking Katie Baker,
spiced with America's Cup lore and focused on Larry's AC34:

 

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Here's a free lecture aimed at keeping the AC lawyers off the streets this Friday.

I'll make the print small, in order to pique their interest!

 

I'm not sure how to get them. They are just rough relative trends.
My guess is that there has been little new interest in the AC. It's a hit with
the choir but it is not making many new converts. (Like the falling trend
in multihull racing and sailing in general, I suppose).

 

^^^

As far as multihull racing goes, there's some areas in decline, but there's a hell of a lot of newly organized multihull racing going on which is more 'mainstream' sailing compared to the 70's through 90's, when the Hobie Way of Life was the main event.

The America's Cup 72's, and even more so the AC45's, together with the F18s and X40s and new Olympic multihull have all driven a stake through the heart of the longstanding distaste in sailing clubs around the world, their assumptions that multihull programs wouldn't be of interest for their kids.

 

I'm sure there are regions where it is on the increase, and others where it is
declining.

Wind-surfing would have taken a lot of potential sailors. As interest in that
form wanes, sailing and multihulls might be beneficiaries.
OTOH, the first million dollar prizes have been given in video games, so kids
have new high reward "sports" to aspire to.

 

Multihull for kids is a problem, what boat and then they grow out of it very quickly and need to sell it, not the same as a dinghy which covers a much larger age group/size

 

The overwhelming response from those that have made an effort to get new eyes to watch is that this format is an opinion changer. They start with Dennis in white zinc sunblock and a sweater with arms tied over his shoulders to Wow this is cool! and the most important question...

Will they keep these boats for next time?

Also as a data point in a vacuum, the largest cruiser's fun regatta on the west coast has seen an increase in multihull participation.

When you are starting from more fans of the away team coming to SF to watch the 49er's play football than come to see the AC any gain in interest is a larger percentage.

The event has changed opinions of the traditional faithful and accomplished the goal of displaying a new face of sailing to new people.

There is much that has not gone as planned to be sure, but the takeaway will be that the racing was some of the best ever.

One of those failures is talking about the Facebook Generation then *not* using social media and the internet as the primary viewing outlet.

Sailing is a niche sport. Making access easy for the people that are paying communication companies for 24hour online access is a valid way to drive interest for mass media coverage of the event. Letting NBC block the youtube feed in the US was mega stupid.

Looks like racing every day from now on!

 

I'd say Multihull racing is very much on the increase, factoring in that the declining/disappeared fleets are ones that have become geriatric and not had new recruits.

I'll remember to tell my kids about the million dollar prizes. Could come in handy! lol

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The AC34 racing got entirely called off for today a little while ago, so again we are afflicted with the ARTEMIS CURSE.

Ken Read commenting on the YouTube show had a very reasonable-sounding new argument in favor of the wind limits that I'd not heard before; to paraphrase him he said the limits were there "to save the sailors from themselves, because they would go out and sail in anything".

I'm sorry Ken, but we have to install a 35mph governor on your Porche, to "save you from yourself".

lol

 

This problem is not so large. Clubs should have junior programs. In Optis when a sailor ages out they sell the boat to younger kids in the program. The club owns some boats for learn to sail and scholarship sailors.

There is a demand for a path to pursue after Optis, for single handers it is a $10k Laser, a sailboard, or a partnership in a 420. Their is no multihull path that I am aware of. A club might subsidize a couple of ISAF youth multi's to seed a program modeled after the Opti's.

None of the dinghies raced in youth programs fit the larger age/size group until you get to Lightnings. Classes raced in the Olympics or Pan Americans are the ones that seem to make up and sustain junior programs. For the Pan-Ams it is the Hobie 16, I forget what replaced the Tornado for Olympics.

The only thing lacking in developing youth sailors in multi's is the will to do so.

This is just my view from sailing west coast North America. The situation may well be different in other locations.

 

the other problem is a beach cat has become way too expensive.
A guy on another thread compared his tow vehicle from 30 years ago and a hobie. He has had many cats till today ( F 18) and many cars.
He is now in the situation where a beach cat can cost more than his new tow vehicle.
You can buy a new boat, trailer with a sterndrive less then a beach cat..something wrong with that picture