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America's Cup sailing


eleeski
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How cool were those races? Boat speeds of 50mph! Lots of lead changes. Interesting strategy. Excellent TV coverage. Wild boats. Unbelievable comeback. We got our billions worth. The poor Kiwis are extracting their revenge - spring is starting for them.

 

Looking at those boats foils make me think. (Insert evil laugh). Mastercraft experiment part two?

 

Eric

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Congrats to the US team Oracle in keeping the America's Cup on this side of the pond. The technology is awesome & even if it is somebody'e billions being spent for fun, at least it employs several people diligently working on very cool boats!
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America's Cup has never been about nationality. It's always involved super-rich folks earning some bragging rights. The race started as a contest centered on pushing the boats and sailors to the limits. Big wild fast boats.

 

There are several citizenship-level based one-design races. This is not one, nor should it be.

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Oh well us Kiwis (New Zealanders) are still proud of our Team NZ despite the result! Funny thing is .......... who designed the Oracle boat - Kiwis, who built the Oracle boat - Kiwis, who wrote the software that flew the Oracle boat on the foils - a Kiwi, Who did Larry fly to in from Down Under a couple of weeks ago to redesign the foils on Oracle - Several Kiwis. Worst part of the whole loss is the skipper was an Aussie (Australian) as we are fierce sports competitors!

 

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That is what I was doing as a part of my 30 year "vacation" from Water Skiing...

The America's Cup is named for the Yacht America. It has been more about pushing the technology envelope than anything else. That is how we won the original Isle of Wright Race Trophy from the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1851 - superior hull form...

Interestingly one of the Yachts built for the first defense of the Cup, the Wanderer, was one of America's last successful slavers in 1858 because she could do 20 knots!

I was responsible for one of the '87 U.S. Challenges after D.C. lost the Cup in '83 largely because his design chief didn't read the rules. Ben Lexan did and thought outside of the box - voila - the winged keel which created a boat that would sail higher (closer to the wind) and faster than a conventional Twelve Meter.

The fundamental problem is with raising money for the enterprise most sailors seem to think that since the wind is free, everything else ought to be, too... So thank God for guys like Larry Ellison - Those evil billionaires create a lot of Hi-tech jobs & materials in their quest for barroom bragging rights.

dbski - I agree - I had a DN - BIG FUN. Try a Melges 24 on soft water in a blow - also Big Fun.

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The last race was sweet. The way Oracle took the turn around the third marker up on foil at full tilt was crazy.

 

America's Cup boats have always driven technology down to the masses. Like the winged keel on the 92 aussie boat that is on a lot of consumer sailboats today. I would expect we'll start seeing the wing sail on consumer boats before long.

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I guess the real win goes to Boeing for the foil management computer that helped Oracle win the last 8 races.

 

Apparently there will be a lawsuit... Is using a computer to stay foiling cool? Yes and no. Particularly not to the Challengers. However, pretty cool to have a little device that can actually do that stuff. And why didn't Team Emirates do the same thing? The measurement committee approved the change...

 

Kiwis sailing? Excellent all-around. But for helm I would take Ainslie or Spithill anyway. Barker did not impress me.

 

Boat building? NZ is a good spot. We had a refit down there and it was nearly half the cost of the US.

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@ejj no lawsuit - NZ is taking it on the chin (don't think they have the patience or the money). The lawsuit would have been about Oracle's use of stored energy to power it which is a no no. ETNZ didn't install the computer because they didn't have the time for testing is my understanding.
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@doonez -hopefully the next cup can take the good from this one and ditch the drama. I know people want it to be cheaper with smaller boats, but those 72s were cool to watch. I'd like to see more challengers and another defender or two.
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Forgot to mention this earlier but in the initial stages of hull design on the ETNZ boat they needed something to pull a scale model (still very big I would imagine) through the water at a very consistent speed and in a straight line. They did a bit of research and figured that the boats that three event waterskiers use can do this. Anyway they phoned up the only NZ dealer and asked for a boat. They were loaned a 2008 SN 196 with ZO. Apparently it worked really well for them and they did all the testing in the dead of night so that nobody could see what they were up to! Anyway we were in the market for a boat and ended up getting this one! Nice to know that you own a piece of (even if its tiny) America's Cup history. And yes it's red and black! (ETNZ colours)
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