Twenty Knots

[Factor]

Link to day 1 racing here - really boring only 40 knots boat speed. -

America's Cup, Kiwis beating Auistralians (whoops sorry Team USA)

Loved Jimmy Spithills comment about, "once you race one of these" you can't go back.

[Stu Jackson]

Commercials in the middle of the race. Jerks! Then they get back on the air and have the nerve to say: "You just missed the best part of the race."

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

Commercials in the middle of the race. Jerks! Then they get back on the air and have the nerve to say: "You just missed the best part of the race."

Yes, but I'm thrilled to have any live network coverage at all. I will probably re-watch the whole thing tomorrow on YouTube.

[colemj]

Of the 4 races so far, 3 of them have had full-on tacking duels with clever tactics, amazing boat handling, leader changes and penalties. All in all, very close racing.

Haven't seen this much close racing and boat handling skills in an AC competition in a long time.

One thing is for sure, these races have been anything but "drag races on a go-cart course".

Of course, the rest of the series could always go pear-shaped.

Watched it on YouTube instead of NBC - much better (and complete) coverage.

BTW, did they finally kick Jobson out of commentary completely? He was AWOL today and they brought in Brad Butterball, who seemed equally uninformed and unenthusiastic on these boats and this style of racing. I think Chris Draper has been very good - great layman explanations of the tactics and technical, and he refuses to be cornered by the main guy into making silly predictions and statements.

Mark

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by colemj

BTW, did they finally kick Jobson out of commentary completely? He was AWOL today and they brought in Brad Butterball, who seemed equally uninformed and unenthusiastic on these boats and this style of racing. I think Chris Draper has been very good - great layman explanations of the tactics and technical, and he refuses to be cornered by the main guy into making silly predictions and statements.

Mark

Jobson was the on-the-water commentator for today's NBC broadcast. I noticed his absence on the YouTube coverage of Saturday's races.

I wish I weren't saying this, but I've been completely unimpressed by Jobson's commentary.

When there is a local broadcast (NBC here), the YouTube coverage is delayed until midnight or so. On the days with no broadcast or cable coverage (or that internet subscription ESPN3 thing), then YouTube is real-time.

[edit] - Wow! Today's races are already up on YouTube. Were they live?

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Paul Elliott

I don't know about that now. Today's race #2 (Sunday) had pretty strong winds, near the upper limit, and the boatspeeds were pretty well matched. In the previous races I think Oracle was sailing downwind deep/slow/direct, and NZ was higher/faster/further, and NZ had the better VMG. I don't know if Oracle was sailing faster or smarter today, but the stronger wind didn't seem to hurt them.

Today's races were really exciting. If we see more like these I think the predictions of boring no-tactics racing will have been proven false.

I'm thinking Team Oracle had a major breakthrough today. They have learned not to get in a slow paced tacking duel with a sharp team. Team Emirates New Zealand has been competing since July.

John Kostecki, who was also the tactician aboard Young America in 1995, won't make the mistakes he made today again

Catamaran racing is super fast, but Spithill/Kostecki have come up to speed fast. They now have a formula to beat NZ.

With Spithill's starting ability (see my earlier posts of how good he was with monohulls in the starts) he should be okay now.

But, if the formula for race 2 on Sunday does work, we may see the rest of the races as a repeat unless we have some light air days or days with shifty winds. In catamaran racing if you can nail the start or "up" your oppenent the way Spithill did on the first upwind leg of race one for the lead at the first mark, you should win barring any mistakes.

Why slow to 12-15 knots and tack?......if you can forecast the path ahead especially today. In 21-25 knots windspeed and 26-46 knots boat speed, who gives a crap about a knot or 2 of current when you have to slow down and tack to get to the favorable side.?

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Paul Elliott

Jobson was the on-the-water commentator for today's NBC broadcast. I noticed his absence on the YouTube coverage of Saturday's races.

I wish I weren't saying this, but I've been completely unimpressed by Jobson's commentary.

That explains it - I watched YouTube today.

Jobson's commentary in the first LV race was so bad and uninformed as to be embarrassing. He actually wondered out loud why they weren't flying spinnakers. His commentary got so off that one of the other announcers made the comment to him "This isn't anything like sailing Courageous, is it Gary?".

They moved him from the booth to the water after that day.

Jobson wasn't the original pick - they had Mitch Booth in that position until Jobson muscled his way in and got Mitch booted.

BIG mistake.

Mark

[colemj]

Originally Posted by thomm225

I'm thinking Team Oracle had a major breakthrough today. They have learned not to get in a slow paced tacking duel with a sharp team. Team Emirates New Zealand has been competing since July.

I think Spithill finally stopped trying to "lawyer" the race by forcing penalties and finally focused on sailing his boat fast. And the team is getting some racing chops under them now - it has been a long time since they raced.

Don't understand your not getting into a tacking duel comment - both races had a lot of very close upwind work.

Mark

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Paul Elliott

[edit] - Wow! Today's races are already up on YouTube. Were they live?

They were for us.

Mark

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by colemj

I think Spithill finally stopped trying to "lawyer" the race by forcing penalties and finally focused on sailing his boat fast. And the team is getting some racing chops under them now - it has been a long time since they raced.

Don't understand your not getting into a tacking duel comment - both races had a lot of very close upwind work.

Mark

Maybe I wasn't clear about the tacking. I'm saying Spithill should go for straight line speed as he did in race two today with a "loose" cover on Team New Zealand. (Tacking when he feels like it not necessarily when the Kiwi's do)

It may have appeared close, but it was like a 150 meters or so lead for Team Oracle. The announcers did the best they could to make it seem exciting, but the race was over at about just over halfway through.

Also, it appears Spithill can crank up the speed on his boat at will on the starts. He did it twice today by falling off some for speed then coming up harder on the wind. It also appears Spithill can sail his boat higher than Barker can. See 2nd upwind leg race two.

Looks like both teams (and the announcers) are still adjusting to the incredible speed of these machines. Check out the start of race 2. At about 1:13 on the video below. Spithill went for speed on the start by going low and due to that speed was able to come back UP and nail the first leg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNM7DSd4P2o

[DtM]

Comparing cruising boats with AC72's is just silly.

Watch the AC72's for what they are, the pinnacle of particular research and testing.

Fantastic to watch and anyone who cannot see that is just avoiding the reality.

[Liam Wald]

Forcing penalties and errors is simply gaming the system.
It may be cheap but it is legal and acceptable.
It is usually a tactic that is employed by players who are skillfully disadvantaged.
I don't know why it is that I would really like to see team Ellison get spanked... but I would.

[colemj]

I agree - nothing wrong with it - but it was detrimental to Oracle to do so in those races.

Ellison can use a good spanking, but I'm glad that he tossed the AC over a hurdle. Even if the AC goes back to mono's, the whole competition environment from boat technology to TV technology will owe Ellison a favor.

There are many good reasons to spit and cry about Ellison, but his quest to make the AC the technical pinnacle of the sport and to bring it all to the masses, not to mention possibly lifting the AC45 fleet racing to a continual event, is not one of them.

Mark

[Factor]

race 3&4 Australia finally beat the kiwis

3-4

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by Liam Wald

Forcing penalties and errors is simply gaming the system.
It may be cheap but it is legal and acceptable.
It is usually a tactic that is employed by players who are skillfully disadvantaged.
I don't know why it is that I would really like to see team Ellison get spanked... but I would.

That's what my wife was saying as we watched today's races. I kept trying to explain that it's as much a part of match racing as is sailing fast. And think what you like, but it takes skill to play that part of the game well.

She still didn't like it.