America's Cup Boat Race

FocusZing

The boats are pretty impressive. Hydrofoils, close to 50mph speed and sail faster than the wind.

nicklouse

so different to a few years back when they were still mono hulls.

cooldad

I lived in NZ when the NZ boat's mast snapped in the final in 2003. Mass doom and gloom.
To add insult all the masts were made by one of my clients. It got interesting.

Daz555

nicklouse wrote:

so different to a few years back when they were still mono hulls.

Friend of mine (former round the world racer) feels they should go back to mono hull or that at the very least the whole show could deal with a huge dollop of stringent rules and regs around stength, stability and overall safety.

The sport today has become too dangerous apparently. That the sailors often wear breathing aparatus as a matter of course tells us they've gone too far in the search for speed perhaps - they expect disaster.

jairaj

FocusZing wrote:

...and sail faster than the wind.

Hey!? :? How does a boat travel faster than the wind pushing it?

cooldad

Very common, most yachts (etc) can.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_fa ... n_the_wind

russyh

Allot of dinghy's can as well, normally asymmetric or foiling boats. It's all to do with the apparent wind.

For me I believe the AC should go back to mono hulls, but I am a lifelong dinghy racer so I appreciate it's not as exciting as watching a 72 full foiling and as such why it's better for people outside of the sailing world to watch. However it has been the most exciting AC for ages, even if the whole thing is just a big circus!

Daz555

jairaj wrote:

FocusZing wrote:

...and sail faster than the wind.

Hey!? :? How does a boat travel faster than the wind pushing it?

You cannot sail faster than the wind when travelling straight downwind with a simple sail.

However when sailing at and angle to the wind in a downward direction. Actually I'll stop there. Wiki is our friend:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_fa ... n_the_wind

russyh

Search apparent wind on wiki for a detailed description. But simply put, the boat sails at an angle to the wind which is the most effiecent (fastest boat speed wise) as the boat moves faster and faster it starts to generate its own wind (think about when you ride your bike in a tail wind. One your speed is faster then the tail wind you then start to generate a headwind.

To be honest its not as simple as that but you get the idea.

lostboysaint

cooldad wrote:

Very common, most yachts (etc) can.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_fa ... n_the_wind

No it's not. The majority of yachts are displacement (non-planing) designs so don't sail anything like as fast as the wind speed. It's planing boats that, as has been suggested below, are able to. This is, again as has been explained, because they create apparent wind which is faster and of an angle to allow them to go faster and so on and so on.

Picking up on another point. The requirement to wear oxygen came about after the death of Andrew Simpson on the Swedish boat Artemis during the Louis Vuitton qualifying series to compete for the AC.

cooldad

OK my apologies. I spent most of my time on small racing dinghies, I forgot about the big pudding jobbies.

russyh

Small racing dinghies can use the apparent wind. International mots as an example are fully foiling an only 12ft long but use apparent wind and are capable if speeds over 30knts. I sail a 15ft asymmetric dinghy which again benefits from apparent wind sailing (of sorts)

FocusZing

Incredible comeback for the Aussie and British Oracles to beat the New Zealand team.





The boats need to be made a lot cheaper though to make it more open and competitive. I half wanted New Zealand to win so they could recoup the money invested as a result of hosting the event. The Larry Ellison boat project cost in the region of 100 million dollars.

lostboysaint

Russyh wrote:

Small racing dinghies can use the apparent wind. International mots as an example are fully foiling an only 12ft long but use apparent wind and are capable if speeds over 30knts. I sail a 15ft asymmetric dinghy which again benefits from apparent wind sailing (of sorts)

Yeah, us windsurfers* hear that from all the Moth sailors but then when they get spanked there's all kinds of reasons why it wasn't quite right for them It was interesting to see the Moth get spanked by an Open 60 and a board in somewhat less than perfect conditions for either vessel at Cowes Week as well.


*I race boats as well And one of my best mates is an IM sailor at Stokes Bay. I have to say I am impressed by them and when they are sailed well they are very, very fast. Always interesting watching the novice trying to foil gybe though

russyh

Is that spanked by a board aroun a course or just on a straight reaching line? I won't profess to know much about windsurfing or even much about big boat stuff. I am just a dinghy racer

lostboysaint

Both. They're quick and their VMG is ok, but they can't compete with a board.

lostboysaint

FocusZing wrote:

Incredible comeback for the Aussie and British Oracles to beat the New Zealand team.





The boats need to be made a lot cheaper though to make it more open and competitive. I half wanted New Zealand to win so they could recoup the money invested as a result of hosting the event. The Larry Ellison boat project cost in the region of 100 million dollars.

No they don't. It's always been a top-end, rich man's plaything and it needs to stay that way. There are already smaller, cheaper AC45s which run a series if you want to see more of them playing. The AC is all about boat on boat match racing and the best sailors and technology - that costs money.

And don't fall into the trap that most have of assuming that ETNZ didn't spend that sort of cash. They had Emirates money and government cash as well as their long term project sponsors cash. It's being portrayed as David lost to Goliath but it's actually Goliath lost to Goliath.

thekickingmule

lostboysaint wrote:

And don't fall into the trap that ...

I feel you've fallen in the trap called 'FocusZing'...

cooldad

Boat wins America's Cup

A MASSIVE boat with an enormous sail has beaten a bunch of other boats to win the America’s Cup, the world’s top boaty prize.

The boat apparently won by spending most of its time barely touching in the water, leading observers to wonder if it may actually be a plane.

Oracle, as the boat is called, said: “I’m very proud to have won and am glad no credit is being given to the idiots on my back.

“I now plan to relax, stop being a boat and spend my winnings on opening a whiskey bar in Tokyo.”

(Nicked from The Daily Mash without remorse)

arran77

FocusZing wrote:

That's like a boat version of a TT bike