Best America's Cup series EVER!

[colemj]

Originally Posted by sardinebreath

After finally conceding that their boat was not competitive, USA took a time out to tweak things in order to get back in it. Why, after it was clear beyond any doubt that the USA boat had become vastly superior, did NZ not do the same thing? Did anyone have any doubt that USA would power by NZ on the upwind leg in the last race after having done exactly that the previous day? The boats were essentially in different classes going upwind. I felt zero excitement about the final race because the result was clearly a foregone conclusion.

Money. TNZ were broke by the final race. Besides, the purported system is said to have existed on Oracle since the beginning - they simply got it working finally. There would have been no time between races to actually install one of those systems, let alone calibrate and tweak it from fresh.

Purported system and purported usage. The only thing we can do right now is speculate - nothing has been shown yet.

Cheer up - one zero excitement race out of 17 races is a better proportion than most previous AC events!

Mark

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by chris07732

I'm looking for a link that describes changes to Oracle's boat to explain the dramatic increase in speed. Anyone??

Latitude 38 - 'Lectronic Latitude

[delmarrey]

What a great race!


.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

Latitude 38 - 'Lectronic Latitude

That link is pure speculation referencing a letter by some unknown "Kiwi technology bloke," and spread around by Alan Wiltshire of Takapuna Beach, New Zealand.

Note that the person writing the "letter" is unnamed and the person spreading and publishing the "letter" is simply some property development realtor in NZ.

Again, nobody yet knows anything definitive and everything right now is speculation. Many publications are actually referencing the same couple of blog posts where the bloggers simply pulled speculation out of their rears.

Doesn't mean they are not correct, though - just that none of it is confirmed in any way.

Mark

[chris07732]

Originally Posted by colemj

That link is pure speculation referencing a letter by some unknown "Kiwi technology bloke," and spread around by Alan Wiltshire of Takapuna Beach, New Zealand.

Note that the person writing the "letter" is unnamed and the person spreading and publishing the "letter" is simply some property development realtor in NZ.

Again, nobody yet knows anything definitive and everything right now is speculation. Many publications are actually referencing the same couple of blog posts where the bloggers simply pulled speculation out of their rears.

Doesn't mean they are not correct, though - just that none of it is confirmed in any way.

Mark

Still a great read. Thanks for posting it, Stu

[delmarrey]

Here is some good info on the technology.

Videos on Americas Cup Technology | Boating Safety Tips, Tricks & Thoughts from Captnmike

[Stonefloat]

My wife and myself arrived in San Francisco with the score 8-1 not knowing if we would see any racing.......well miracle of miracles they did not lose another race. The Kiwis were a class act as was the City, even spent some time in the enemy camp ! lol.

[neelie]

All this speculation about the installation of a secret go fast weapon seems to have overlooked the arrival of Ben Ainslie and their subsequent winning streak. Carrying two tacticians who gelled and made them all sail a team was in my view one of the main reasons for the turnaround. They started sailing the boat better and better with each race. As Spithill says in every interview - its the team that made him look good and without them he would be nothing.

[Albro359]

Intrigued by the use of "we" by Oracle supporters...there was only one American on that boat !! So much for Team USA ... Ellison has so much money he just buys what he wants....and what will happen with the next Americas Cup ? Ellison will win by default 'cos he has the most money....hollow victory surely

[davefromoregon]

So, how many competitors are there typically? This has always been a sport for the very rich. Is this time all that different?

[colemj]

Originally Posted by davefromoregon

So, how many competitors are there typically? This has always been a sport for the very rich. Is this time all that different?

No. We hashed that out over on the "Twenty Knots" thread. Yes, the absolute dollars may be more this year (I don't know how it compared to the J-boat era in relative dollars), but the fact remains that this has always been a sport for the rich, and the highest technology/fastest boat has almost always won the event.

Past series included the likes of Vanderbilt, Sopwith, Lipton, Bond, Bich, Packer, and the list goes on. All of them some of the richest people in the world. A couple of them THE richest person in the world at the time.

While not a single person, the New York Yacht Club combined to put unbelievable wealth into their boat. They also took full advantage of having the cup by putting in place rules that were specifically meant to make it very difficult for a challenger to even get a boat to the race, let alone win it. It took a very rich Australian with some new technology to finally wrest it away from the NYYC and begin changing the boats and the rules to be more world-friendly.

Number of competitors ranges from 2 to a lot. The J-boat days were so rich that only 2 or 3 boats ever showed up for the challenger series. That is less than this year's event.

So, nothing is really any different than the past, but some people have had problems with the boats being catamarans and the fact that Larry Ellison is involved.

Mark

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by sardinebreath

After finally conceding that their boat was not competitive, USA took a time out to tweak things in order to get back in it. Why, after it was clear beyond any doubt that the USA boat had become vastly superior, did NZ not do the same thing? Did anyone have any doubt that USA would power by NZ on the upwind leg in the last race after having done exactly that the previous day? The boats were essentially in different classes going upwind. I felt zero excitement about the final race because the result was clearly a foregone conclusion.

Yep, pretty much the only chance I saw for ETNZ was maybe playing their card for a lighter wind day.

The final race was only exciting because Dean Barker had an excellent start and was able to control Oracle on the first downwind leg. (Plus Oracle plowed in at the mark) Not a big deal, but good for TV.

In a normal catamaran race, that type thing happens all the time. In the old days, they would have pitchpoled, but with the newer, narrow, rounded hulls in the bow section that we've had since the late '90s todays catamarans pop right back up.

Speaking of todays catamarans, they are changing fast. This is the new NACRA F-17. It is so different from the one I raced 2002 - 2006. My bows were straight/ vertical as were the daggerboards. (but we could hit 25 knots on the old model) These newer boats have the wave piercing hulls/bow sections and the curved daggerboards like we saw on the AC72's. I'm sure the A Class Catamarans even have more similarities:

Sweden Racing Nacra 17 Flight Control - YouTube

[s/v 'Faith']

I suppose some in this thread do not like the Olympics either? I guess it is just WWF and NASCAR that are really "American" enough?

[neelie]

Originally Posted by Albro359

Intrigued by the use of "we" by Oracle supporters...there was only one American on that boat !! So much for Team USA ... Ellison has so much money he just buys what he wants....and what will happen with the next Americas Cup ? Ellison will win by default 'cos he has the most money....hollow victory surely

Come on.. don't be bitter. In this modern era of globalization and professional racing sailors, does it really matter about the nationality of the crews?

It was a GREAT SPECTACLE. A match between two excellent teams comprising of arguably the best match racing sailors in the world today.

This excellent AC series was made possible only because of Ellison's money. Like him or loathe him, this event has been the huge success because of him.

The real winner is yacht racing.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by neelie

Come on.. don't be bitter. In this modern era of globalization and professional racing sailors, does it really matter about the nationality of the crews?

It was a GREAT SPECTACLE. A match between two excellent teams comprising of arguably the best match racing sailors in the world today.

This excellent AC series was made possible only because of Ellison's money. Like him or loathe him, this event has been the huge success because of him.

The real winner is yacht racing.

Well how many other countries are prepared to put in $30 million dollars of public money! . The next AC will have Ellison racing against himself , unless the rules get changed.

Dave