America's Cup-37 Class Rule

The AC was NOT sailed in "the fastest and most extreme course-racing boats that exist" 170 years ago. America wasn't the fastest thing that existed - she was much slower than Maria. When America's owners wrote the Deed of Gift, they banned Maria, which was the fastest and most extreme big boat of her day. When they instituted the requirement that boats be sailed to the venue, they effectively banned extreme boats.

The early AC boats were just normal big boats. Cambria was a typical big schooner of her day. Livonia was a noted slow boat. Galatea was a live-aboard cruiser for many years. Many of the defenders ended up as trading boats, like America herself was.

Even moving into the L x SA era, the AC boats were not theoretically the fastest boats - Satanita rated faster than Valkyrie II, for example, and several other boats of the time (Navahoe, Britannia, Meteor, Ailsa, Satanita, Aurora, Calluna) that had nothing to do with the AC were just about as big and fast as Valkyrie II , the Js, etc.

The AC boats were not the most extreme of their time. The smaller Raters were more extreme. Cartoon, Outlook, Glencairn etc were all more extreme in design than any AC boat ever built in their time. The Js were definitely not extreme and as their designers often said, they lagged behind smaller boats in development. The 12s were never the biggest and fastest course-racing boats of their day; the Ms (which still existed as a small class) were always bigger and faster and for much of the 12 Metre era and the IACC era, the maxis and offshore multis were faster and bigger and more extreme.

Historically, the AC boats have normally been big, fast versions of "mainstream" design. They haven't been extreme. Any belief that the Cup has traditionally been sailed in the most extreme designs is utterly wrong.

 

Thanks for informing me CT249. I was thinking about yachts like Reliance, that sailed the Americas cup some 110 or 120 years ago. And I am very aware that the 12-meters have never been the fastest sailboats.
But I still think it is a good thing that they sail the cup in very fast and extreme boats, although I am sure they can improve the boats according to the discussion we had 3 years ago.

 

I remember that, during the time of the 12s, the AC was much more spoken about in ordinary conversations, even by those who weren't really into sailing.

Now, in order to even find out what's going on, I have to look for it on YouTube. Perhaps this would have happened anyway, after the US first lost the cup.

But even during the 90's, I remember it being mentioned on the news at least a few times, during the final seven races.

Now, it seems that very few people care. I, for one, have not paid much attention. Maybe I'm getting old and grouchy. Or maybe the boats are so radically different from what I would ever use or own that they just don't seem relavent.

These are pure speed machines that have no other use than simply going faster than anything else. I doubt we will ever see a marina full of foiling sailboats, outside of a few moths and other dinghy classes.

 

That may be a result of geography.I heard more people talking about the event than any of the previous versions,but then we had a British boat doing much better than has usually been the case.The near real time coverage on youtube was very welcome s the time difference made it unlikely that too many people would both pay a broadcaster's fee and sit up all night to watch the racing.I suspect the lack of American coverage and enthusiasm may have more to do with a challenger that was eliminated at quite an early stage.

As for a marina full of foiling boats,these are from one marina admittedly on different days.

 

Although the America's cup has not always been sailed in the fastest boats, it has always been sailed in boats that are far too big and expensive for most of us to own. Building a yacht like Reliance from 1903 or even a 12-metre or AC-50 would be far out of my budget at least.
But I think the America's cup boats can be made a little closer something affordable for ordinary sailors and still being extremely fast foiling boats.

 

I am shocked at the lack of interest.
I watched for free, near-real-time, on YouTube.
Zero advertising, I could skip ahead, graphics were great,
quality unmatched, commentary good.
For me it was a 9/10.