This Is Not a Cruiser

[theonecalledtom]

YouTube - Alinghi 5 - First sail - 20 July 2009

But one day a descendant will be.

[shadow]

Great find!! that was fun to watch and I was reading in one of my sailing mags that they are trying to petition the entry of cats in the america's cup. Or something to that effect.

[roger.waite]

So, it finally looks like we have found the 200 mile day boat.

So long as the wind is never above 30 knots or so ...
... then you may do 500 or you may break up within 50!

[imagine2frolic]

This cup will be interesting, and I haven't watched for several......i2f

[Pelagic]

I think a multihull AC will have a tremendous impact on the value of new cats.

In day racing mode at F1 level, those babes are going to have catastrophic failures and flip.

The poor guy who has just convinced his missus on buying into a multi-hulled floating apartment is going to have to do some serious damage control or he will be left still mowing the lawn……sincerely TNC…..

[sneuman]

i would have liked to have seen it tack.

[imagine2frolic]

Everybody knows multis can't tack, or go to windward....hahahahahahaha.....i2f

[sneuman]

i wasn't suggesting they don't tack, i was only suggesting that when they do, it's a good time to take a lunch break.

to me, the tacking duels are what's always been interesting about AC racing.

[imagine2frolic]

Come on sneuman it was typed in jest. We are suppose to have a wee bit of fun aren't we. That's what the hahahahaha was for......i2f

[gonesail]

it looks like the first time she ships water over the bows (the way they slope down like a submarine) its gonna take a long time to come back up not to mention it looks pretty dumb IMHO.

[Tellie]

A different view.
Hey, is that a sea anchor on her?

YouTube - Alinghi 5 geht in die Luft

[cal40john]

Originally Posted by gonesail

it looks like the first time she ships water over the bows (the way they slope down like a submarine) its gonna take a long time to come back up not to mention it looks pretty dumb IMHO.

You're behind the times, wave piercing bows are all the rage. The bow is supposed to go through the waves rather than force the boat to pitch up and down and therefore slow down. In reality in the A-cat class this has proven to be faster, but only in the the right wave conditions. Much of the time the traditional bowed boats were of equal speed.

John


Sailing World - Nacra A2: Already A Champ

Wave-Piercing, Pitching damping or marketing? - Boat Design Forums


when the flag drops

[David M]

If they can get the race out of the courts and out on the water then I think it will be a spectacular success, regardless of who wins.

As far as the tacking goes, racing cats being sailed by racers who know how to fast tack a catamaran, tack much faster than cruising catamarans or newbies in beach catamarans who have never raced their boat. There will be tacking duals and they will be fun to watch. When tacking a lightweight cat (high sail area to displacement ratio) you cannot push the rudder down real hard, like you can with a monohull, without killing the hull speed, as I have seen lots of people do. There is a real technique to it in order to keep your hull speed. It also helps to backwind the jib for 10 or 20 degrees after passing through the wind if you are close to a stall.

[cal40john]

Originally Posted by David M

If they can get the race out of the courts and out on the water then I think it will be a spectacular success, regardless of who wins.

As far as the tacking goes, racing cats being sailed by racers who know how to fast tack a catamaran, tack much faster than cruising catamarans or newbies in beach catamarans who have never raced their boat. There will be tacking duals and they will be fun to watch. When tacking a lightweight cat you cannot jam the rudder hard over without killing the speed, as I have seen lots of newbies do. There is a real technique to it in order to keep your hull speed. It also helps to backwind the jib just a little bit.

I'll be watching the race because I want to see the boats. As far as the race itself, I predict it will be very boring, as these designs are so new and different from each other one will have a distinct speed advantage and the series will be over as far as suspense by half way down the second leg. I was going to say first leg, then decided the other might have a distinct off wind advantage.


I know the A cup is televised because it has the money and history to get it on TV. What I think is really silly is that much of the other sailing that has made it to TV is also match racing, presumeably because A cup is match racing. If one boat gets an advantage, the rest of the race is hardly worth watching. Look at something like Nascar, if it were two cars nobody would watch, there is almost always someone in the lead that can't be beat (other than crash, breakdown, out of gas). So what do the cameras do? They focus on a battle, where ever someone's trading places. If they televised more fleet regattas, they could do the same.

John

[David M]

John,
I have to respectfully disagree. For someone who understands sailing, yes, if the race is over by the first or second leg, then it is boring. The general public though likes speed. Watching monohulls go to weather at 9 knots is dull, dull, dull...for the uninitiated. Watching ultralight cats scream around a race course is going to be much more fun for the general public. Its the difference between going down to Malibu Speedway and watching kids drive glorified go-karts versus watching a Formula One race.

I agree with your point that the match racing should be eliminated. How much more fun would it be to see all the competitors on the start line at the same time? How much more fun would it be to see four boats all headed for the same mark at roughly the same time? I realize that match racing is tradition for the America's Cup, but then so were wood hulls. Match racing is dull for the uninitiated observer, and I hope they figure this out.

I think its important for the Americas Cup to start attracting a much broader based audience than people who already know how to sail. In my experience, those are the only people who watch the Cup...and that's not exactly a very large audience. Also, a little more blue collar would help to reduce sailings image by some as something that is done by wealthy snobs. We know its not true, but try convincing the general public of that.