34th America's Cup: multihulls!

I don't think that comparing the TV ratings of the AC to the Superbowl is fair.
Comparing it to curling or lawn bowls would be valid.

IM is Australian.
Team Oracle is essentially an Australian helmsman with some token Northern
Hemispheroids grinding for him.

 

Who is Weird.

They can. As has been said by another poster the boat speed at the time before the race committee pulled pin was that they where achieving 16-17knots with genn's.

ETNZ could have asked for the lower wind limit to be lowered even further when they decided to lower the upper limit. Dalton should have argued strongly for the window to be opened giving a wider rage of wind variations, but he didn't. Dalton has the mind set that oracle built a lighter boat and September was chosen because of light wind conditions and with Prada accused oracle stacking the race dates hoping the challengers would damage their boats before the Final races in the challengers series. He is on record stating this. Is that not also bringing the cup into disrepute with such a accusation.

The question is why was the wind so light in the first race and increased in the second race?

Every one is praising Spithill and the Australian nation But who is the gold medallist 4-5 times over as the tactician?

People are posting the THE only American at the Americas cup are the commentators. I thought I read that two Americans where on board and John only to increase the numbers in American blood crew. With John replaced what happened to the other American crew member. At least the boat is 100 % financed with American dollars with the major Sponsor owner being American. Is he not on board mind and soul.

On the other hand ETNZ is a Muslim financed boat - Camper [Camper who]- Nespresso coffee [ you can't buy Nespresso coffee in NZ. The NZ govt only gave 32m dollars towards the boat yet most NZ's are saying we are winning and getting excited as though they contributed towards the boat. A lot of posters bagged Dalton on forums because he had not won anything substantial let alone dean barker. Now with some wins the main page news in just about every nz news paper for the last 7 days are saying aren't we bloody marvellous and even saying yes we can do it. We being the editor. How much did the newspapers media in NZ contribute towards the boat? Ziulch. Look at the red wing sail. Who's flag is there? The Emirates FLAG or what? If it is supposed to be the NZ red ensign then - well defaced.. mutilated.. Disrespectful... Abortion flag... Least you can recognise which nation oracle is from visually by its national flag.


ETNZ don't even respect their own national Special flag what used to be only flown by the NAVY representing her majesty the Queen ELIZABETH the 2nd. The red ensign is supposed to be special and they have ........................



Don't you think that is weird also.

I wonder what the Prince and the Emirates people think who's boat it is and the disrespect to the UNITED ARAB EMIRATES being shown associated with devil fire water.

I wonder what the QUEEN thinks about her Flags treatment if she gets to see it [ETNZ boat fully dressed] With SKYY VODKA Dripping all over it, with no head and the Governor general if someone suggests a knight hood ?

flag ETIQUETTE


http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~philclarke/flag ETIQUETTE.htm

OC

 

The whole problem is that no-one in TV land can understand the Aussie/Kiwi accents.

This is the best Kiwi V Aussie competition since the underarm bowling, no wonder the Kiwis are so intense.


PS - all this non-nautical talk, "a hook" = overlap in my day, all this left and right instead of Port/Starboard is the more accurate way, especially when the commentator is looking up the course.

 

Cryptic condition

"(*If necessary. Note: By order of the International Jury and pursuant to Protocol Article 15.4(d)(iv), ORACLE TEAM USA shall be penalized one point for each of the first two races of the Match in which they would otherwise score a point.)"

at

http://www.americascup.com/en/schedules/races

what does that mean ?

 

It means their first two wins don't count, i.e. they effectively start at -2
when the winner of the cup is the first to get to 9 wins. To win the cup they
will need to win 11 races; NZ need to win 9 races.

There will forever be an asterisk next to this America's Cup in Wikipedia to
indicate that Oracle were dirty rotten cheats who brought the name of
the race into disrepute.
And all crew members will have to wear paper bags over their heads
whenever they appear in public.

 

I notice some strong nationalistic flavour creeping into the latest comments... Imagine what will happen if/when the 8 - 5 will become 8 - 10 .

 

To come back to the time limit: I agree on the point of "TV friendliness", but the actual limit was calculated in a way, that racing below 1o knots of wind is a mission impossible. And this with boats sailing unbelievable speeds (as compared to monos) in this conditions.
Considering the enormous effort of the sailors (sounds much harder than in strong winds) it's pure cruelty to let the race start when conditions make finishing within the limit almost impossible.
No, IMHO someone calculated the wind/time limits terribly wrong!
As for the TV: 30 minutes longer coverage are easier to sell to the viewers than a lengthy explanation for the reasons that 40 minutes of great sailing and physical efforts by the guys on screen come to nothing.

 

Those wind and time limits are plain stupid... And always have been!
I did not understand them during the mono era and don't see the point of them nowadays either...
In light winds the race just takes longer - that's sailing...
If you face strong winds, reef your sails and go for it - that's also sailing... Tricky with those wings, isn't it?
If one is interested in offshore sailing, where you go as fast as you dare no matter the conditions, such a comic event as this cup looks ridiculously stupid...

 

I agree.

To think that in much earlier cup races, the boats had to sail from their country of origin to the race venue, to prove their seaworthiness.

This is the Hollywood spectacular version of a sailing event.

To think all this money for boats that may never see competition again in their lifetimes

 

If 8-5 becomes 8-10 then the Australian helmsman of Oracle will be declared
to be the greatest sailor since Ulysses.
(Some New Zealanders will not agree)

 

what else to do in Wales?

 

You can go diving:
http://www.redbullcliffdiving.com/en_GB/event/wales

You can walking/hiking:
http://www.visitsnowdonia.info/

Or you can listen to great jazz:
http://breconjazz.com/

For starters...

 

Before the Artemis failure there was little chance of the 40 minute limit having any effect. They had committed to and marketed a 2 races in 2 hours format. Agreed to by all the teams that are in this for the money.

The procedure was to use mark boats under the control of the RO to adjust the course length in case a race was running too fast or too slow. There were safety concerns about the race boats hitting the mark boats so the boats were replaced by fixed marks. Agreed to by all the teams that are in this for the money.

They neglected to increase the lower wind speed limit to make completing a race possible. They overlooked a detail. It is not the end of sailing.

Of the people that are outraged, how many are outraged because they think a race was stolen from NZ by a rule that NZ agreed to?

How many were outraged until they realized that the RO had no option to do anything else due to rules agreed to by all the teams that are in this for the money?

If you think that the AC would be better if it were more popular, you are seeing the first focused effort to create a package that mass media will buy. Prior to the changes made after the Artemis failure it was very unlikely that any races except one would have been abandoned or postponed.

If you think the races should have no wind limits you can watch the VOR or one of the countless other distance races where the fleet is expected to handle anything the ocean has to offer. The last time the AC saw boats like that was the 1920's.

Wind limits for inshore racing is hardly new and armchair sailors have been bitching about them since at least 1925.

 

Thanks for the considered response, Randy.
Trying to shoehorn the races into 2 hours reminds me a little of the attempt
to change World Cup soccer games so that they could fit into US
programming schedules and to allow more ads.

Personally, I don't think the AC will succeed as a mass media event.
A boatful of blokes bouncing on a trampoline while dressed in rubber turtle
suits sounds more like one of those WTF Japanese game shows.
http://www.wtfjapanseriously.com/

 

I'm sure the involved teams have agreed about the rules! I don't say the teams are the victims of a stupid race committee (maybe the sailors are, not sure)... IMHO this AC is just Hollywood: Great actors, great special effects, great scenery - only the stage director can't play it right.
Nice to watch, but better not think about it in terms of real world sailing.
I just criticise that with the progressive switch to multihulls there was much more potential in it to give a wider public a glimpse of the potential of modern sailing (in contrast to "the most expensive way to get slow from A to B").
Now it's "the most expensive way to get fast from A to B, but just when the conditions are ideal".