Americas Cup

[Statler]

[Monsterlover]

[Statler]

BMW ORACLE Racing: Munich BMW Technology Workshop Trailer


latest round of appelas in Court done.   Valencia in February it is.

Trimaran left onboard big container ship from SD.

Going to be sweet.

[Statler]

BMW ORACLE Racing: Making of BOR 90


good vid.   getting excited about next month.

[Monster Dave]

We just took part in an America's Cup race in Cabo. It was amazing. The yachts were 2 that were raced in 2003 from New Zealand. 

I'll try to get some pictures up soon. It was AWESOME to be the working crew in a race like that!

[Kopfjäger]

good vid.   getting excited about next month.

Great vid.  Will there be any TV coverage of the race next month?

[Statler]

Great vid.  Will there be any TV coverage of the race next month?

nothing set yet.   If anyone finds anything first please post up.

Dave, yeah, there are quite a few ex-cup boats doing daysail "match races" out there.   It's a lot of fun and absolutely worth doing.

Nothing like a fast racing monohull dipping the rail....but these monsters this year are going to make them look like dinosaurs.

[Kopfjäger]

Found this.

http://www.sail-world.com/USA/index.cfm?SEID=2&Nid=64724&SRCID=0&ntid=0&tickeruid=0&tickerCID=0

[Monster Dave]

...but these monsters this year are going to make them look like dinosaurs.

The thing is though, these new ones sacrifice agility for speed. The monohull racers turn on a dime and obviously having more contact surface with the water will create more drag and effect handling. I wonder how that will change the race on a big scale?

[Statler]

the dialup will be different, if there is one.

And if the boats are close in speed (not a sure thing at all) any tacking duels are going to be initiated by USA.  The tri tacks much faster than the cat.

tacking and gybing speed is about momentum and pivot points.   My tri pivots around its daggerboard and tacks as quickly as a monohull.   It slows forward speed down more during the maeuver because it has so much less momentum, but then it accelerates on the new tack faster too.   I'll outsail any racing monohull under about 33 feet and cruisers under 45 or so.     The USA tri does not use any foils in the main hull, so it's clearly a different animal, but it's been shown to tack quite rapidly.   Against even the most nimble mono it would just clear off and there's no way ther mono could use it's maneuverability to its advantage.  Hell, that was shown in 1988....Stars and stripes even pointed as high as its competitor but people still say multihulls can't point well to windward.  ha.

[Statler]

might as well give the Swiss some air time (boo hiss)   check out the view of this beast right at the end.

Alinghi 5 continue l'entrainement à Ras Al Khaimah

[Statler]

This one's actually a little better in terms of seeing her all at once.

Alinghi 5 continues sailing


no vids of her tacking.   That's a big question.    USA looked surprisingly quick in San Diego at changing direction and accelerating.

I hope the racing is close and not a blowout.   There are more legal issues floating around so even after racing starts on day one it's not all over.

[Statler]

race one tonight (monday morning) at 4am eastern time.   no tv.   espn360 will stream the feed.   My alarm set.

[superjohn]

race one tonight (monday morning) at 4am eastern time.   no tv.   espn360 will stream the feed.   My alarm set.

It's a little sad that such an old and distinguished sporting event has zero coverage at all. Not even a tape delay? Versus couldn't even broadcast it?

[Statler]

VS took a bath with the last one.   we may see rebroadcast stuff later but no announcements yet.  nobody was sure this thing would go on time anyway since the pre-match stuff has been so acrymonious.   And now after race one it'll compete with the olympics.