Peter Delaney
GT40s Supporter
Absolutely, definitely a fixed keel - just a different shape & all within the rules !
Americas Cup
- Thread starter brianstewart
- Start date
How can anybody be interested in a worldwide competition that apparently only has two competitors? It's just Team USA (sic) and New Zealand, racing against each other over and over and over, endlessly.
The Americas Cup was once like the Olympics (with more money), with teams from all over the place competing against one another. This year, it's a joke. I do recall hearing 'race' results on the news where only one boat entered the race!
Oh, please!
I must say I'm impressed at the boats themselves, but they need more competitors and fewer races, I say!
BTW the New Zealand entry was featured on an episode of Top Gear recently. Hilarious...and not the way I would want to cruise around an island! :laugh:
The Americas Cup was once like the Olympics (with more money), with teams from all over the place competing against one another. This year, it's a joke. I do recall hearing 'race' results on the news where only one boat entered the race!
Oh, please!
I must say I'm impressed at the boats themselves, but they need more competitors and fewer races, I say!
BTW the New Zealand entry was featured on an episode of Top Gear recently. Hilarious...and not the way I would want to cruise around an island! :laugh:
Jim Craik
Lifetime Supporter
Say Mike,
For well over the first 100 years, the Americas Cup was always just the Defender and one challenger.
The New York Yacht Club would accept a challenge from one boat. There often were defender trials, but only one challenger.
Starting some time in the 1970s, the started allowing several countries to challenge and they had Challenger trials, later becoming the Loui Vitton. There have been anywhere from two to eight challengers, this year there were three.
But that said, the Americas Cup races have ALWAYS BEEN BETWEEN ONLY TWO BOATS!
The challender and the defender period!
It's called match racing, which I find much more interesting than fleet racing.
For well over the first 100 years, the Americas Cup was always just the Defender and one challenger.
The New York Yacht Club would accept a challenge from one boat. There often were defender trials, but only one challenger.
Starting some time in the 1970s, the started allowing several countries to challenge and they had Challenger trials, later becoming the Loui Vitton. There have been anywhere from two to eight challengers, this year there were three.
But that said, the Americas Cup races have ALWAYS BEEN BETWEEN ONLY TWO BOATS!
The challender and the defender period!
It's called match racing, which I find much more interesting than fleet racing.
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Thanks Jim, clearly I didn't know any of that. It certainly puts things in a different light.
I think a series of eliminations between multiple challengers leading to a single, epic battle between two boats would be quite something. But these guys have been racing for months. I saw them on the bay way back in April.
What does it take to win, best 151 out of 300 races? :laugh:
I think a series of eliminations between multiple challengers leading to a single, epic battle between two boats would be quite something. But these guys have been racing for months. I saw them on the bay way back in April.
What does it take to win, best 151 out of 300 races? :laugh:
Jim Craik
Lifetime Supporter
Mike,
For virtually the entire history of the AC, it has been the best of seven races. The first team to win four, takes the cup.
As the mono-hull boat were considerably slower, races took hours. In 1974 I drove across country to watch Couragous V Southern Cross off Newport. It was an all day sucker, we left Newport in the dark watched the races in Marthas Vinyard (kind of like watching the grass grow) and returned in the evening. Couragous was a fast 12 Meter and won 4-0.
With the Cats being so incredably fast, they are able to get in two quick races in a day, they have now made it the first team to win 9.
For virtually the entire history of the AC, it has been the best of seven races. The first team to win four, takes the cup.
As the mono-hull boat were considerably slower, races took hours. In 1974 I drove across country to watch Couragous V Southern Cross off Newport. It was an all day sucker, we left Newport in the dark watched the races in Marthas Vinyard (kind of like watching the grass grow) and returned in the evening. Couragous was a fast 12 Meter and won 4-0.
With the Cats being so incredably fast, they are able to get in two quick races in a day, they have now made it the first team to win 9.
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Jim Rosenthal
Supporter
My point was not that it ought to become fleet racing. Not at all. But more entrants would have made more racing and a longer series, and more excitement. And more countries to root for their teams. I agree that the final ought to be a match race; it always has been. One winner, one loser.
Jim Craik
Lifetime Supporter
Jim
There is no question that more Challengers and even more Defenders would have been better. I know Larry and San Francisco would have loved more boats, but in the end.......
I think with the unknowns of the new 72 foot cat class of boat, many of the possible competitors chose to sit this one out.
There is no question that more Challengers and even more Defenders would have been better. I know Larry and San Francisco would have loved more boats, but in the end.......
I think with the unknowns of the new 72 foot cat class of boat, many of the possible competitors chose to sit this one out.
Jim Rosenthal
Supporter
A fellow at Annapolis Performance Sailing told me today that even Larry Ellison feels that the boats are way too expensive. I don't think he's the world's richest man, but he's got to be up in the top twenty, and if he thinks they cost too much, then they probably do. I hope the next America's Cup series will involve cheaper and smaller boats. I don't think that after the visual thrill of watching sailing yachts race at 45 knots they will ever go back to monohulls. In my dreams.
I can't imagine what a thirteen-story lightweight wing sail costs, but I suspect it's more than all the houses in my neighborhood put together.
I can't imagine what a thirteen-story lightweight wing sail costs, but I suspect it's more than all the houses in my neighborhood put together.
Some pretty impressive bits on those boats Jim. Amazing to see over six tons of sailboat at 45 knots supported on just one foil. Mind you, that foil is $400,000 worth of carbon fibre... All-up costs are estimated at around $10 million per boat. You could buy a really nice original GT40 with impeccable racing provenance for that....
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Not much in the way of a boat in the water. I suppose the crew are more like pilots than sailors.
Bob
Bob
Jim Craik
Lifetime Supporter
Bob, that photo is of the Oricle trimaran, from the last Cup races off Spain. The current boats are larger catamarans with fully winged masts and they ride on "foils".
***************
My college room mate who lives in Long Beach and is a big time sailor (several Trans-Pacs) came up to visit and we spent yesterday in the "City" watching the races.
I have to say that was great fun and incredable specticle! As he is a former YC Commodor, we were able to get into the Saint Francis and the Golden Gate Yacht Clubs. The fairly small Golden Gate YC is the current holder of the cup.
There were two races, we watched the first race from the St Francis YC, very near the start and the first mark is right off shore. The US boat won the start and led at the first mark!
During the run to the leeward mark the lead changed hands four times, with Oracle leading at the leeward mark by 4+ seconds. After that things went down hill fast.
The New Zeland boat is just plain faster up wind, they quickly passes Oracle and pulled away, carefully covering for the rest of the race and winning by a large margin.
For the second race we traveled down to the Americas Cup Village, down near the Ferry Building and right at the finish. This race we watched on the Jumbo-tron, with several hundred fans, then at the end, everyone moved over to the end of the pier to catch the finish, with the finish line right there, a few feet away!
I'll tell you, having one of there things pass by, reaching on foils just a few feet away is something I'll never forget!
***************
My college room mate who lives in Long Beach and is a big time sailor (several Trans-Pacs) came up to visit and we spent yesterday in the "City" watching the races.
I have to say that was great fun and incredable specticle! As he is a former YC Commodor, we were able to get into the Saint Francis and the Golden Gate Yacht Clubs. The fairly small Golden Gate YC is the current holder of the cup.
There were two races, we watched the first race from the St Francis YC, very near the start and the first mark is right off shore. The US boat won the start and led at the first mark!
During the run to the leeward mark the lead changed hands four times, with Oracle leading at the leeward mark by 4+ seconds. After that things went down hill fast.
The New Zeland boat is just plain faster up wind, they quickly passes Oracle and pulled away, carefully covering for the rest of the race and winning by a large margin.
For the second race we traveled down to the Americas Cup Village, down near the Ferry Building and right at the finish. This race we watched on the Jumbo-tron, with several hundred fans, then at the end, everyone moved over to the end of the pier to catch the finish, with the finish line right there, a few feet away!
I'll tell you, having one of there things pass by, reaching on foils just a few feet away is something I'll never forget!
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Wow. That is a thing of beauty, still not much boat in the water though. That also true of most powerboat stuff these days. My brother in law Dave is a director of Peters and May the boat movers and they sponsor the Hydrogadgetspunklejetgizmo thing that just grabbed a speed record at lake Coniston. We had the the whole crew "just pop in to say hello" while in the uk. The pilot JW is not wired up right, how anyone so laid back could pilot something like that beggars belief.
P1 Superstock: Peters & May Roars into the Record Books at Coniston
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9AuWq14Zo88#t=11
Bob
P1 Superstock: Peters & May Roars into the Record Books at Coniston
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9AuWq14Zo88#t=11
Bob
Jim Rosenthal
Supporter
If you break your boat, does the other team win, since you don't have anything to race anymore?
