Americas Cup

[Statler]

for those who haven't been following the drama, the race in February (maybe) is going to be interesting.   Here's the defender being launched today:




and here's the challenger:




the racing may not be close, but these giant beasts will be faaaaast.

[herm]

hahaha......i remember watching the cup races waaaaay back in the mid 80's, when the sailboats still looked like sailboats.

last race i saw (live) was the year of the winged keel. its been an engineers/inventors sport ever since.

[Kopfjäger]

Those things are fast. 

[cyrus buelton]

wow, they don't look like sailboats anymore, do they?


I grew up sailing with my dad on a little holder 14 and a butterfly, so naturally after a day on the lake we'd watch sailing.

I remember watching Dennis Connor in the America's Cup when he piloted Stars and Stripes.

currently that boat is based in Hilton Head Island, SC as a sunset cruise type of business venture.

Just thinking of what that boat looks like verse that damned oracle boat above (note: not knocking the boat, just the sponsor....can you tell I am a happy oracle user?).


How fast will that sucker cruise at? How many crew members?

[Porsche Monkey]

When did they start putting training wheels on cup boats?  

[NAKID]

Dude, those things are HUGE!!!!

[Kopfjäger]

America's Cup 2009: Open Semi Final - Patrick Sheridan vs Mike Tillman 1st half part 1

[superjohn]

When I was a kid I remember spending hours looking over the cut-away of Connor's "Stars & Stripes" that Popular Mechanics had in one of their issues. I thought it was really cool how everything was laid out. I'm not sure I like these new boats as well aesthetically, but they are fascinating machines. Even 25 years later, I bet I could spend quite a bit of time looking at, and comparing the 2 cut-aways.

[erkishhorde]

America's Cup 2009: Open Semi Final - Patrick Sheridan vs Mike Tillman 1st half part 1

What the heck kinda "sport" is that?

for those who haven't been following the drama, the race in February (maybe) is going to be interesting.   Here's the defender being launched today:




and here's the challenger:




the racing may not be close, but these giant beasts will be faaaaast.

Where do the people sit... 

[Kopfjäger]

Where do the people sit... 

[cyrus buelton]

That looks safe.


Not much of a trampoline like on the old hobie cats

[Speeddog]

Interesting daggerboards on that BMW-Oracle boat.

Any reasoning given for the inverted bows on the hulls? 

[Kopfjäger]

That looks safe.


Not much of a trampoline like on the old hobie cats

I'm not sure you're seeing that right? 

[cyrus buelton]

For some reason, only the first picture showed up and I couldn't tell.

Then I clicked back in here and saw the second picture and you can clearly see the netting.


Makes a hell of a lot more sense now.

[Kopfjäger]